A big, expensive cube to store cash and valuables might not seem high on a recessionary shopping list. But sellers of safes said that business was up as customers confront new fears, be they losing money in failing banks or being robbed by desperate fellow New Yorkers. And they could get busier with the news that the chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation warned banks this week that its fund could become insolvent this year if they continue to close or fail to pay their annual assessments.

As in the Great Depression, world trade is collapsing, wealth is evaporating and the banking system is broken. Deflation is a growing threat as companies slash production, pay and prices. And leaders worldwide are having difficulty making headway in halting the self-perpetuating decline.
“We are tracking 1929-1930,” says Barry Eichengreen, a professor of economics and political science at the University of California, Berkeley.

The result: This contraction may leave a lasting imprint on the economy and society, just as the Depression did. In the wake of the devastation of the 1930s, Americans swore off stocks, husbanded their own resources and looked to the government for help. Now, another generation might draw some of the same lessons from the deepest economic collapse of their lifetime.

“This is going to scar the collective psyche,” says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com in West Chester, Pennsylvania. “People will become much more conservative in borrowing, lending and investing.”

There’s no official definition of what qualifies as a depression. In the 1930s, the unemployment rate rose to 25 percent and the economy shrank by more than a quarter.

“It has fallen off a cliff,” said Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, in an interview that aired on CNBC’s Squawk Box early Monday. “Not only has the economy slowed down, people have changed their behavior like nothing I have ever seen.”

Originally posted by Ahabstar
reply to post by cindymars

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I would highly recommend reading the Survival Forum and make preparations. A packet of heirloom seeds is worth more than gold when you need it...lighter too. But if it is never needed, at least it did not cost as much as many other things like DVD's and CD's did that would be worthless should society breakdown.