Great Depression jobs parallel may not be far flung

Great Depression jobs parallel may not be far flung

uk.reuters.com

NEW YORK (Reuters) - When economists tell us the current U.S. slump could never turn into another Great Depression, they all point to one thing: one of four Americans was out of work in the 1930s.

But since the definition of joblessness has changed over the years, this expert assessment might be too rosy.

As many as 25 percent of Americans were unemployed during the days of bread lines that symbolized the Depression, but that figure is more than three times the current 6.7 percent unemployment rate, the economists say. Even the most pessimistic estimates only foresee the rate rising barely above 10 percent.

(visit the link for the full news article)

So there you go, all the nay sayers here on ATS stating that things aren't that bad and its nothing like the depression. Now its official, we have known for years that Governments have called unemployment many different names but the bottom line is that there as many people out of work as when the great depression was on.

So what happens next, ww2 got America out of the depression. Are we now going to see ww3 to get themselves out of the mess they are in now?

uk.reuters.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Unemployment was 25% during the Great Depression, this isn't even close. GDP has not declined 10%, official definition of a depression.

May I ask? Why are certain members of ATS so desperate to experience an economic depression, do you want to be in a bread line? The more pessimistic attitudes continue, the likelihood the economy will not recover for many years.


[edit on 9-1-2009 by infinite]

If anyone wants to make an accurate comparison of today's unemployment numbers vs. unemployment numbers in the 1930s, then they need to be using the U6 number and eliminate the bullcrap Birth-Death model.

U6 can be found right here and the Birth Death numbers can be manually subtracted from the raw numbers if one is so inclined.

We're not at 1933 levels. Comparative unemployment is at 13.5% unrevised as of this morning, not counting the Birth Death numbers.

The difference between then and now would be that we are at the start of this thing and have yet to see the commercial market real estate pop and other bubbles pop, also in terms of percentages our spending dwarfs anything else in the past, so we are in uncharted terrirtory possibly and nothing else can compare since we are in 2008. The thinking of 1933 was a world vastly different than the world of 2008.