Back to back recessions, or a silent depression? That is the only debate worth having now. If we can’t answer this question, we will never correct the markets. Pretending this is not happening isn’t helpful.
This screen shot is from November 14, 2022 on Google. Notice that the “Start date” is February 20, 2020. The “Date” is “February 2020-present.” That means Google recorded a recession from February 20, 2020 until at least November 14, 2022. That means over 2 1/2 years of economic recession, despite Wall Street claiming record gains for at least half that period of time. Google is of course wrong, also.
The “Great Lockdown” was not “caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.” That wasn’t declared until March 2020. In fact, the recession was beginning in Q4 of 2019. But that’s another story. This story is about a depression that nobody will admit has been going on. The Great Depression lasted 12 years. But a depression is simply an extended recession. We have no idea how long this one will last.
Leaders in our government, financial markets, and the private sector all believe that uttering the words “depression” or rhetorically explaining what is really happening – will cause collapse. These people convince others that staving off collapse is in the best interest of everybody. It never is. The whole economy eventually does come to a grinding halt. That’s just kind of how it works (or doesn’t).
The geniuses who tell people that we can’t have the system collapse are almost exclusively invested in that system and they don’t want it to break until they get their own assets out. That’s the dirty big secret at the center of most economic collapses in the last 100 years of American history. This time retail customers got a tip or two which signaled a change in the winds. That’s why markets are in turmoil.
