Depression?

There's no doubt that the United States is in a recession fueled by rising energy costs, the ailing housing market, the credit crisis, and now financial institution turmoil. This recession has been building for a while and has become fodder for headlines and lead stories every day. Everyone is impacted in some way, shape or form by the tumultuous state of our economy. As the word recession becomes a dinnertime staple, a new buzz word is starting to pop up. Depression. Are we really in a Depression? Not yet.

We are so eager to slap "worst case scenario" on everything bad that comes along, but hold your horses folks. Compared to the 1930s we're not even close. Our unemployment levels, though up, do not rival the 25% unemployment rate of that decade. The bottom fell out of the stock market then. We still have a floor to stand on. Economically, we are less secure than we were a year ago.

What we're going through is an economic episode much longer and more significant than a standard-issue recession. It started with the stock market collapse of 2001-2002, was temporarily shoved aside by the housing bubble, but is now back and may stick around for a while. It's not a Depression. But it may be a depression.