[alloysteel]

NOW is it officially a depression?

Only the artificial injection of “money” into the economy since the beginning of TARP and bank bailouts (”too big to fail”) have covered up the real dimensions of the disaster. This is Great Depression II, and we shall escape it only when the policies that were supposed to “fix” the problems are repealed, along with the great money holes that have been attached to the national economy, namely, Obamacare (just the biggest of them), and assorted other schemes that were supposed to “correct” the “inequities” of the market.

World War II managed to break the fever and malaise of the original Great Depression. Do we have to resort to huge numbers of men and materials directed at destroying the other side’s capabilities for making mischief, and in the process using up a vast number of resources at a most fearsome rate?

[2ndDivisionVet]

[Cboldt]

That's the way of the world. The leaders find an external enemy, of fabricate one, then turn "their" public to work at defeating the external enemy. Whip up some patriotic sentiment, expand the government (more), use the law against their political foes at home, etc.

They cry crocodile tears at the loss of life (which is one of the hidden agendas anyway), and pass the baton to their cronies or dynasties.