Worse than the Great Depression

[sammytray]

Originally Posted by Steve_A

Hi everybody on this thread,

Just to add a little fuel on the fire, GM posted record losses and is considered a 'bankrupt' company by German banks.

When the going gets tough....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081110...sautocompanygm

Best regards,

Steve

Just to add, GMAC will be/is dissolved.

[Steve_A]

Hi Everyone,

WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for "emergency and limited financial assistance" for the battered auto industry on Tuesday, to be completed within days in a postelection session of Congress.

Five days after dismal financial reports from General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., Pelosi backed legislation to make the automakers eligible for help under the $700 billion bailout measure that cleared Congress in October.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT

Best regards,

Steve

[ralok_j]

This causes some concern: Uncle Sam's Credit Line Running Out?

http://online.barrons.com/article/SB...rrons&ru=yahoo

The economic downturn about to experienced by the citizens of the United States, well, has not been experienced by them in-country for about 70 years. My only hope is that citizens of the U.S., myself included, will learn the lessons they did, and some they didn't.

Peace to you all.

[eugene_vn]

It's good to see scholars like Petrov highlighting the understatement that the media and public are frequently making in equating the current crisis with the Great Depression.

In reality, there _is_ a historical parallel to the crisis now being faced - it is the long bear market of 1720-1784. That bear market essentially consisted of two major depressions interrupted by two long recoveries in the 1730s-40s and again in the 1760s.

The experience of the eighteenth century suggests a couple of things for those preparing to get through the bear market that is unfolding now:

1) The crash will not likely unfold as a straight collapse downward. Instead, it will be punctuated by numerous (sometimes sharp) periods of hopefulness, apparent recovery in quantitative economic indicators, etc.

2) The post-crash recovery is probably going to be a long, drawn-out process spanning decades. Even if the first major economic bottom is reached in or around 2012, survivors of the crash will have to undertake a prolonged and arduous rebuilding process. Society may well not really get back on its feet until the second half of the century.