The question of whether the nation is in a recession or a depression is starting to rise to the surface more frequently. In fact, that very question was asked Monday by Cincinnati conservative talk show host Brian Thomas of investment advisors Nathan Bachrach and Ed Finke. Bachrach and Fink host the Simply Money radio program. Their answer was very similar to the one that this Examiner received when she asked it of economist Robert Murphy back in April during a Tea Party event. It’s one of degrees. And there are some who would say we’ve been there since at least August.
Gluskin Sheff economist David Rosenberg would be one case in point. He told www.cnbc.comthat “current economic conditions” are "a depression, and not just some garden-variety recession." He added that just as any positive economic news during the 1929-33 depression brought on a “euphoric response,” a similar reaction has been going on since 2008 when the US’s economic turmoil began. He claims that we went from recession to depression in August of 2010.
The fact that the AP reported Monday that gas hit a 26 year high combined with a www.huffingtonpost.com report last week that the Obama Administration is planning to push for the abandonment of offshore drilling for the next 7 years suggests that the “degree” of the US’s financial struggle may have just been cranked up.
In addition, a www.cbslosangeles.comarticle on Mondayreported that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger “has declared a fiscal emergency and is asking lawmakers to meet in a special session to save the state $9.9 billion over the next two years.” There have been several economists who have made it known that California is actually worse off than Greece was, and there are other states in the US that have severe problems.
There is an interesting story in the Old Testament book of Genesis (chapter 41) about a Hebrew man named Joseph living in Egypt, which was a world power at the time. Both cultures believed that God could speak to people through dreams. As the story goes, Pharaoh, the leader of Egypt received a disturbing dream, but he was unsure of what it meant. Joseph was known to be someone who could interpret dreams, and upon hearing the details, Joseph told Pharaoh that Egypt (and all of the then known world) was going to experience 7 years of plenty and 7 years of severe famine. In today’s vernacular, we might say that Joseph was forecasting a global depression. Since Joseph understood the dream, Pharaoh decided to allow Joseph to head up the equivalent of a government committee to figure out what they would do to survive the coming depression. Joseph’s plan was quite simple, really. It involved storing up items in reserve during the years of plenty so that they could have it available during the years of famine. As a result, not only did Egypt survive, but so did many of the countries in the surrounding region because they knew that they could go to Egypt to buy what their countries needed.
While many would like to believe that the worst of the global economic difficulty has passed, there are others who are saying that it has not. And while some may call it an extreme, it has been suggested by some conservatives with a national voice that American citizens start storing up needed items now in preparation for a deepening of the crisis – and hope that those who said such measures are unnecessary and extreme are actually right. Time will tell.
