So what’s up with the economy? Or rather, what’s down with the economy?
Plenty of people pooh-pooh any notion that we are heading toward anything more than a little bump in one’s 401K. The truth is that retirement account losses are nearing $2 trillion. How many O00000000000sssssssssss is that?
A lot of people — intelligent people — are in denial about what can happen. Granted, what can happen is a different animal from what will happen. Could we possibly find ourselves in a depression? It’s happened before in our country. In fact, it’s happened five times more or less in U.S. history. The exact numbers might vary because its definitions of depression, to paraphrase Bill Clinton, depends on what “it” is.
But we are not there yet. Things can get better. That’s not to say they will but they can, just as they can get worse. Which will it be? I don’t know. I think it would be helpful to the U.S. electorate if our two presidential candidates could have an earnest discussion about these issues during their “debate” tonight. Of course, it would also be entertaining to see pigs fly.