When is a Depression not a depression? When it's called a Recession?

Phew! Thank goodness you put the second question mark in there. That, of course, means you weren't suggesting anything at all, but merely asking an honest question without implying any editorial opinion about it. What a marvelous device. Let me try it:

When is torture not torture? When it's called parental admonishment?

A depression is a prolonged period of recession, often involving large amount of inflation or currency devaluation, and also a huge increase in unemployment.

The US is not in a depression, but it is in a serious recession, as is the rest of the world. If the recession recovery was mismanaged by the government, or there were further serious losses in the stock market, then a depression might occur.

There is clear definition of a depression, but I don't see the current economic situation as being as serious as the one the occurred after the market crash in 1929, at least not yet.

And yet today all three major indexes {Dow, Nasdaq, S&P 500, all reached their lowest level in years.

So get out the anti-depression pills, guys and gals, and I'll meet you in Hooverville.

A recession is an economic term. It simply means two terms of negative growth in GDP. England, most of Europe, Japan and Hong Kong are at present in recession. The USA is not because last term it had a positive figure. Australia is not expected to enter a recession as its figures are also positive although lower than before.

There is no economic definition of a depression but it could be said to be a series of recessions that last for years.The important thing about both is not the technical definition but the amount of unemplyment. During the Great Depression unemployment in 1930-4 avearage in Germany 31.8, In Australia 23.4, Canada 20.7, United States 19.0 and United Kingdom 19.2. As I understand unemployment in the USA is not expected to grow much above 10% in Australia 6%.So there is a long way to go before we have a depression like 1930-4.

Indexes go up and down but in Australia they have not even falling to 1980 levels. The worst thing we can do is through fear stop spending and create more unemployment.

You, my dear, may have a tricky ticker, but you have the memory of an elephant--especially for non-essential trivia.

Aus, the last US unemployment figure I have is from Aug. 2008, when it was at 6.1% If you consider that it would take the creation of 100,000 jobs a month just to keep up with population, while 76,000 people per month have lost their jobs since the beginning of this year, that's a rather alarming situation. I'm aware of traditional definiitions of 'recession' and 'depression' and how they're measured by the GDP, but maybe it's time to look at other indicators. Our GDP can inch up a bit, but I'm also sure that many Americans will be faced with a dilemma this Christmas--"How can I 'do the American thing' and buy, when I don't have the money to spend?"

Yes there is that. Whatever the end result of this is, at the moment the stock market seems to be trying to swallow itself whole.

One wonders why that seems to be the case, Myrddin? Is it because the economy is fundamentally unsound at the moment or is there some other issue at work? Is it possible the continuing downturn is, at least in part, the result of a profound lack of confidence in the future course of events Obama's election makes possible? Is it possible the continued gloom and doom prognostications of the puppet media have further eroded consumer-investment confidence and impacted the markets beyond what was necessary to get Obama elected?

Who would be pulling the strings of a puppet media that doesn't know when to stop with the gloom and gloom? They must have read the papers and know Obama was elected.

Is it possible the over-extension of credit availablity has reached the saturation point and even though credit is available the market for it simply is not a good risk to those that would lend it?

Is it possible the election of a Democrat is not the true cause of the decline in the stock market? Is it possible the 'confidence' men have created a situation that requires them to pull out of the game and take what they can on the way out?