Conclusion:
To summarise: the world is currently undergoing an economic shock every bit as big as the Great Depression shock of 1929-30. Looking just at the US leads one to overlook how alarming the current situation is even in comparison with 1929-30.
The good news, of course, is that the policy response is very different. The question now is whether that policy response will work. For the answer, stay tuned for our next column.
Click through for some real scary charts.
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It's more "alarmist" than "scary".... Thanks for spreading the fear
sometimes alarmism as a description is warranted.
Yeah. What I don't understand is this: we got into this ditch by buying stuff we don't need with money we don't have. And the way to get out of the ditch is to....buy stuff we don't need with money we don't have?
Can someone please explain the logic of this scheme to me? I don't understand it at all.
It's a clever plan Diana. We keep accumulating all of the stuff other countries make and in exchange they're getting what? An abstract construct (money) which is increasingly worth less and less.
In an entertaining, but probably tenuous, tie in to the Heinlein post, this is like the reverse of what happened in "For us, the living" where a bombing raid on Manhattan changed the world economy from credit based to umm equivalent exchange. Not to get all Full Metal Alchemist on the topic...
Time to retire my nerdiness for the night.