I can recall what my parents told me about not having enough food on the table, eating flour soup (my father still shudders when one mentions it). Thats a depression.
If you are wondering if you should postpone the purchase of the next car, now thats a recession.
My dad was raised in the depression as well. Luckily, they were on a farm,
and had the ability to have a garden and the ability to snag venison for meat.
He often told me about the guys who would come round for meals. Grandma was
Irish from the old country, and new what it was like to go hungry, so she
always fed them what she could and they helped out with chores and such.
There wasn't much, but they made do.
You mentioned that your dad cringed at the mention of "flour" soup.
For my dad, it was "potato" soup.
Did a google search for U.S. job loss and found this report from
your Department of Labor
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION: FEBRUARY 2009
Nonfarm payroll employment continued to fall sharply in February (-651,000),
and the unemployment rate rose from 7.6 to 8.1 percent, the Bureau of Labor
Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Payroll employ-
ment has declined by 2.6 million in the past 4 months. In February, job
losses were large and widespread across nearly all major industry sectors.
Unemployment (Household Survey Data)
The number of unemployed persons increased by 851,000 to 12.5 million in
February, and the unemployment rate rose to 8.1 percent. Over the past 12
months, the number of unemployed persons has increased by about 5.0 million,
and the unemployment rate has risen by 3.3 percentage points.
Sad news, but it isn't just a U.S. problem though.
This same thing is happening all around the world.
And that is really scary because when the momentum starts to develop,
it will be very difficult to stop.
I really, really hope that I'm wrong and that it's only a bad recession,
but I'm preparing for the worst case scenario first.
the $3.95 ($0.02 adjusted for inflation, currency exchange and taxes) is
because I live in Canada. Everything is more expensive here... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
