The lingo never changes …
From a blog that it looking at each day in 1930 we have this beaut of a quote (ht Paul Krugman, and initially Scott Sumner):
Leading economists and market observers are looking for clues on how long the current trade depression will continue. Since 1873 there have been thirteen periods of business depression. Ten of these had an average length of 15 months. The remaining three were much longer, but there were exceptional circumstances in each case that it is clear don’t apply here. Credit is easy, inventories are not high, and the banking system was never sounder. Therefore the current depression should not last longer than 15 months. Since it began in July of 1929 in improvement is to be expected at the start of the fourth quarter.
So during the Great Depression people were saying it was more moderate than previous significant downturns. Interesting 😀
Interesting indeed 🙂 Guess what we’ll be saying about the current depression in 20 years? That it wasn’t too bad as it started a new world-wide financial system? Or that it showed the effects of too much government involvement (Bill Clinton – house law) or not enough (London City – regulation). We’ll see…