The Panic of 2008
I had coffee with Barbara last week at the Starbucks on Navarro. It was getting dark, and the norther was feeling awfully pleasant as if it was coming with a gift in its breezy hands. A few people ask me what me and her talk about, with the age difference being the focus. I don't know. We just get along. And when we get together, we just talk randomness, and it's usually the most intelligent conversation I have had in days.
Last week, after she was telling me of her own little detective story -- a family mystery she helped solve, I ended up saying that I think we're going through a mini-depression. Nothing close of a recession, but a full-fledged depression that only lasts a year or two. She corrected me in saying that depressions aren't short-lived things. That she wishes she would never be around to see one. She implied that it's just going to be a hard recession.
But that got my mind working. I started thinking about the history books I've read, and there was a term for these mini-depressions. I couldn't put my finger on it, until I woke up this morning. "Panics!" I said, wiping drool from my mouth. "That's it!"
Now if Wikipedia is to be trusted, Panics are labeled as depressions, yet they're short (from one to six years). See the Panic of 1857: "Failure of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company burst a European speculative bubble in United States railroads and caused a loss of confidence in American banks. Over 5,000 businesses failed within the first year of the Panic, and unemployment was accompanied by protest meetings in urban areas." It lasted three years. ...
I wonder if you replace some of the words to read as if it were present day, how similar it might seem.
So, are we living through the Panic of 2008?
Or will we not know for years...?
Last week, after she was telling me of her own little detective story -- a family mystery she helped solve, I ended up saying that I think we're going through a mini-depression. Nothing close of a recession, but a full-fledged depression that only lasts a year or two. She corrected me in saying that depressions aren't short-lived things. That she wishes she would never be around to see one. She implied that it's just going to be a hard recession.
But that got my mind working. I started thinking about the history books I've read, and there was a term for these mini-depressions. I couldn't put my finger on it, until I woke up this morning. "Panics!" I said, wiping drool from my mouth. "That's it!"
Now if Wikipedia is to be trusted, Panics are labeled as depressions, yet they're short (from one to six years). See the Panic of 1857: "Failure of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company burst a European speculative bubble in United States railroads and caused a loss of confidence in American banks. Over 5,000 businesses failed within the first year of the Panic, and unemployment was accompanied by protest meetings in urban areas." It lasted three years. ...
I wonder if you replace some of the words to read as if it were present day, how similar it might seem.
So, are we living through the Panic of 2008?
Or will we not know for years...?