RE: RE: DEPRESSION ????Recession or depression - we all know we are in a severe economic downturn.
Prior to the 1930's all economic downturns were called depressions.
There is no absolute definition - universally agreed on by economists - but one generally accepted definition is that a depression means a real decline of over 10% in GDP.
The fact is that the current economic downturn - is what it is - and labels are purely emotive expressions that neither make the situation worse nor better than it is.
Indicators that help to label an economic downturn are generally lagging indicators - so the good news is you may be pulling out of a recession/depression BEFORE it is generally realised - just as you are in one for months before that is realised too.
A while back a top US official stated that the US likely started into the current severe economic downturn by late 2007. We could well be at - or just past the worst.
Since the market discounts 6-9 months ahead AND current SP's for most stocks already reflect (indeed exagerate) the worse case scenerio , - whatever label we put on the current economic downturn has little meaning.
The fact that 'newbies' on the board are posting gloom and doom encourages me to think we may indeed have past the worst