Letters to the Editor
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Recessions
Recessions happen. They happen for varying reasons but there is no such thing as an economy that never slows down. After WWII they occur every 5-7 years.
That's not really true, though. We had a recession in 1980 and another in 1981, for example, then went pretty much the whole of the 1990's - from '91 thru 2001 - without experiencing a recession.
Recessions can happen for a variety of reasons, but I think it's pretty obvious the current recession can trace its origins to the real estate bubble, the decline of the dollar and the related rising price of energy. And you can certainly lay the blame for all of those things at the feet of the Republicans, who have overseen a massive rollback of the regulations this country put in place after the great crash of '29 to prevent just the kind of financial sector idiocy we're currently witness to.
The only real question I have is, how long before this recession turns into a full-fledged depression? Massive amounts of debt have been the only thing keeping consumer spending afloat post 9/11, and that party is over. It's so over we could lose a big bank in the coming year, the way the UK just did with Northern Rock. Energy prices are skyrocketing, the Japanese and Chinese can't prop the dollar up successfully anymore, consumer spending is slowing (especially on manufactured goods), jobs continue to be lost in what's left of our manufacturing sector, real estate is imploding . . . it's a pretty grim picture.
Nero has been fiddling the past 8 years while Rome slowly burned. Whoever wins this November is gonna have a hell of a mess on their hands.