Depression 2.0: Looking back on history to catch a glimpse of the future?

One day, while a student at BYU, I went to the Harold B. Lee Library and read newspapers (WSJ, New York Times, etc.) on micro-fiche. I looked at papers from a few weeks before Black Tuesday (October 28, 1929) and a few weeks after.

It's been nearly 15-years, but I recall being surprised that even in the immediate aftermath, people (at least based on newspaper reporting) obviously hadn't seen the Great Depression really coming...

One has to wonder if we aren't on the brink of staring Depression 2.0 in the face now.

A half-dozen must read posts (out of hundreds I've read in the past week):

1. The Beginning of the "Big Game" (Bruce Henderson)
2. Timing the Entitlements Crash (Eric S. Raymond)
3. Notional vs Net: Complexity is our Enemy (Information Processing)
4. The Transformation of the USA into the USSRA (United Socialist State Republic of America) (Nouriel Roubini)
5. New Bailout Proposal Costs Estimated at $500 Billion to $1 Trillion (Naked Capitalism)
6. Why Paulson is Wrong (Luigi Zingales, U. of Chicago [via MR])

I'm increasingly pessimistic. Since the day of reckoning will eventually come, I'm beginning to think it would be better to swallow our medicine earlier rather than later.

—Michael A. Cleverly
Saturday, September 20, 2008 at 13:43