Posted on 01/22/2009 3:09:01 AM PST by expat_panama
You often hear that we are now living through the worst recession since the early 1980s, and the comparison is not wrong. But it’s ultimately unsatisfying, because it is a little too vague to be useful.
Is the economy only a little worse than it was in the last couple recessions, as some have said, and still a long way from the dark days of 1982? Or are we instead on our way toward something that may even approach the severity of the Great Depression?
[snip]
The ranks of unemployed and underemployed, controlling for the size of the population, were much larger in 1982 than today.
[snip]
The recession of the early 1980s doesn’t have a catchy name, and almost half of Americans are too young to have any real memory of it. But it was terrible — qualitatively different from the mild recessions of 1990-91 and 2001. The first big blow to the economy was the 1979 revolution in, which sent oil prices skyrocketing. The bigger blow was a series of sharp interest-rate increases by the Federal Reserve, meant to snap inflation. Home sales plummeted. At their worst, they were 30 percent lower than they are even now (again, adjusted for population size). The industrial Midwest was hardest hit, and the term “Rust Belt” became ubiquitous. Many families fled south and west, helping to create the modern Sun Belt.
Nationwide, the unemployment rate rose above 10 percent in 1982, compared with 7.2 percent last month. But that rate has a couple of basic flaws, as I’ve discussed in previous columns. It counts people who have been forced to work part time, even though they want to work full time, as fully employed.
[snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
fyi
Where's my coffee...
In 1982, there also wasn’t a socialist idiot in the White House.
I remember the job market of 1982 very well. I graduated from college in 1982 and there were no jobs. The jobs that were available were very low paying even in 1982 dollars. During college I worked part-time at a bank and remember helping people fill out applications for a 13% car loan. Things do need to be put into some perspective.
Don’t get me wrong, the job market right now is scary. But I think the NY Times painted a gloomier picture to get the One elected and slowly (maybe not so slowly) they’ll be reporting that things are suddenly better and The One is the reason.
--the idea being that we're still doomed? Not really; Mr. O may be bad but saying he'll destroy America is like saying SUV's will destroy the planet. Mrs. B.S. Roberts called right in post 5, by pointing out that "scary" isn't "doomed", and that when we leave the slump the O worship will stretch recovery talk all out of proportion.
I was real lucky. I was among the last persons to qualify for full Veterans Benefits under the old GI Bill. My company in Navy Basic Training was last in a group to get it. I used that to survive. I went back to school at a tuition free state Voc/Tech and worked on minimum wage contract for the VA at a National Cemetery mowing grass and digging graves with a pick and shovel.
But a jew hating socialist moron had just left...a big mess.
I was just sitting here thinking of posting something very, very different than what you just posted. I graduated high-school in ‘81 and got married and between us we worked 4 jobs to make ends meet. Within 5 years I was promoted through cashier, sales, assistant manager, manager, to district manager of 15 locations. Hubby ended up going to a technical school for drafting. We went from rent to a nice condo in a beautiful neighborhood. I recall hearing about a recession, but we never really felt it.
Wonder what shape the banks were in in 82, since they are only focusing on unemployment. As I understand it, in this situation, the unemployment is being caused by banks drying up.
The real difference will be the aftermath. With Reagan we worked our way out of it. With Obama’s policies we may never get out of it.
If a “big stimulus package” is the correct approach to a declining economy then logically it would iprove any economy and should be a permanent feature of government. The laws of economics are not a sometime thing. Either they are laws-true statements of how things work- or they are not. If the government can “fix” things by government action then there is no excuse for the government to permit any facet of the economy to function without careful planning and total control. If government direction is economically beneficial then we are bing foolish and immoral to permit any freedom in the market at all. But back in the real world, compare this economy with every command economy that has ever been.
I lived through the 80’s, it was not as bad, and no the banking system was not on the verge of collapse. Back then, there were regulations in place...the banks acted more responsibly.
Also, the banks were not leveraged 60 to 1.
“Wonder what shape the banks were in in 82, since they are only focusing on unemployment.”
They were in good shape, they didn’t loan to flakes.
My construction company had very good times in te early 80s.
Personally 81 was the highest income year I’ve ever had.
I remember this. I remember because “going for a drive” was a treat to be held in much esteem and memory. Also, EVERYONE rode the school bus. Parents didn’t want to use up their gas on driving the kids to school when the bus came right up the street.
Horseradish. After inflation, the S&L bailout of the '80's was bigger than the current one.
Bad memories are easy to forget.
You would think. In '92 Clinton/Gore ran against "The worst economy since the Great Depression" and evry siggestion by Bush that things weren't so bad was trumpted by the Main Stream Media as a sign that Bush was dangerously out of touch with reality.
Until after the election. By the first week of December, '92, the MSM was all over how the economy was rapidly improving, and had been for months. They tried to call it the "Clinton Recovery" -- even though he was six weeks from taking office, and the numbers pre-dated the election.
Frankly, I'm surprised we haven't seen more "Happy days are here again" stories from the MSM. I guess they got Rham Emmanuel's memo about not wanting to waste a crisis.
Like others here, I too remember the recession of the early 80s. Up here the money simply dried up but interest rates on business loans were 22%. Consumer loans were capped at 18%. We bartered for all sorts of things. Thursdays I would walk up and down the Main Street of our town seeing if clients could pay a little on their bills. I still thank God for the local banker and those 90 day notes he’d extend for me when I needed it. They were business loans, I suppose, but we’d secure them with an old Buick I owned so they could be called consumer loans and save on the interest. Unemployment was through the roof. My wife calls them our “water stew and chicken liver days”. But we never fell behind on bills, never missed a payment (thanks in great measure to that banker)and came out fine in the end. What I am seeing now looks a bit like back then, but thus far no where near as bad.
Hey, America will prevail, and Obama won't. OK, neither of us can say for sure what the future holds, but the fact is America is not nearly as helpless as everyone says it is and Obama is not nearly as powerful as he says he is.
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