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Home › Politics

The Greatest Depression | 03/10/2009 2:00 pm

Majority of Americans See Next '30s-Era Depression

By The Staff at wowOwow.com
Dorothea Lange Image via Wikipedia

The majority of Americans don’t have much faith in the nation’s economic stability.

A whopping 53 percent of Americans say the current financial crisis is "at least somewhat likely" to expand into another depression similar to that experienced in the 1930s, according to Rasmussen Reports. That number’s up from 44 percent in 1944. Eighteen percent of people, meanwhile, think such a scenario is "very likely."

Not everyone’s so pessimistic, however: 39 percent say that such a depression’s "unlikely."

What do you think, readers? Will this recession expand to historic proportions?

Read more about: Barack Obama, Dorothea Lange, Economy, Great Depression, News, Poll

57 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Libra Lady

What is going on???

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday she is open to introducing a second stimulus bill, but it’s too early to determine the size of such a package and the timing on another major economic measure.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/19835.html

By Libra Lady on 03/10/2009 2:19 pm
Mary Quite-Contrary
LL, I fear that the stimulus; porkulus; bailouts; entitlements; financial recoveries, etc will now be id’d like Windows programs. What, we have TARP 2.0; will Pelosi’s “new” plan be Stimulus 2.O or Stimulus 1.1 (and 2010’s take the handle of 2.0)? Or will they name them like Operation Dessert Storm. Is the new one Operation March Madness? To be followed by Operation April Showers of Cash? Haven’t they already spent all the money that has yet to be printed…where does this next one come from?
By Mary Quite-Contrary on 03/10/2009 2:44 pm
Libra Lady
Mary….my question exactly…I appreciate your names you provided above…I’m afraid it is ringing true mighty fast….will they come out with a Manual for Dummies for all these programs?  I’m afraid I will need one!
By Libra Lady on 03/10/2009 2:48 pm
deber B

Libra, it is breathtaking that Pelosi, in light of everything that is going on in our country, is at the ready to issue stimulus package #2.   Americans need to revolt!!    This recession has already been tampered with and because of the first ridiculous stimulus package it will prolong the recession.   Add another?    Well, if they do, Obama should be impeached for putting our country in unneccessary peril.   This is what you get when you elect a president with absolutely no experience to draw on. 

Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton started this ridiculous fiasco of home lending demanding that everyone be given a house.  I posted below on this.   It was all about affirmative action.   Now we have the democrats in Congress once again and the special interest programs are pouring out of the White House.   Did they not learn anything from Carter and Clinton?   Apparently not!

I’m saving every dime I can.   I am not making any purchases.   I’m going to sit back and watch the "dog and pony" show in the White House and try to be entertained in some way to get me closer to 2012.   This is a nightmare in the making!

By deber B on 03/10/2009 3:02 pm
Diamond In The Rough
Hi deber……..You can bet if we have another stimulous package, you are going to see the biggest uprising in history! The American people can only take so much and I’m afraid this will send them over the edge. The American Dream is already lost for the future’s children and grandchildren. They will be paying off this debt for the rest of their lives. btw…Happy Birthday, girlfriend!!!!!
By Diamond In The Rough on 03/10/2009 3:37 pm
Catherine Kaiman
Surely Pres Bush, has done his share of damage to your economy as well deber B.
By Catherine Kaiman on 03/10/2009 4:35 pm
Catherine Kaiman

Oops hit submit to quick.  I was also going to add, that I understand your fear of another stimulous pkg at this point.  I think before stimulous pkg #2 is put into works, they should wait and see what if any benefit #1 has first.

I know here in Canada, we aren’t going into the same amount of debt as America, but it’s getting scary I must admit.

By Catherine Kaiman on 03/10/2009 4:38 pm
Patty E
The study should be tied into measuring several variables—like health emergencies that are sure to be exploding in the near future….a friend of mine, who just learned her husband MIGHT be layed off from the City Government he works for, who is on the edge trying to sell her house in the city she was transferred from…in order to HAVE a job, whose only solution now, in her mind, is to file bankruptcy—had a heart attack at work last Friday—-stress—-she is but 50 years old.  We already have tent cities, there are no jobs, food banks are running out of food now that we no longer have a middle class….personally, I think it will get worse before it gets better…….out of 4 of my best friends, only one has a job—-and I am not that one….
By Patty E on 03/10/2009 2:29 pm
Ms. Dee
I’ll be the first one to admit that I have no idea.  But at this point, I tend to doubt it.
By Ms. Dee on 03/10/2009 2:31 pm
EKA -

We will NOT get to the depths of the depression ! We have people in charge who are aware of history, who will not ignore what is going on, will not fall into the trap of tax cuts, who will do what ONLY government can do, create stimulus, move fast, and if it is not enough, do more.

We are in better shape than most countries, we will come out of this.

As I write this, the market is up 325. 

By EKA - on 03/10/2009 2:34 pm
Steve Douglass

Obviously we don’t have people who are aware of history. They are making exactly the same stupid mistakes that Roosevelt and his chief economist John Maynard Keynes made. Even Keynes later admitted that he was wrong and that his Keynesian Economics was actually meant for a socialist or communist type of government. Milton Friedman, who was also one of those who was in the Roosevelt administration who said they made the depression last longer than it should have. So, in essence, Nobama is recreating the disaster that caused the Great Depression with government spending on projects like the WPA or CCC that were just ‘make work’ programs and ended up doing nothing more than throwing money down a hole. And this president is wasting more than all other presidents combined in history. He’s going to go down as one of the worst presidents in US history, if not THE worst.

The market is up because Citibank actually showed a profit for the first 2 months of the year. However, the market will change within the next couple of days because lending has tightened more.

By Steve Douglass on 03/10/2009 2:48 pm
Mary Quite-Contrary
People who are not aware of history are destined to repeat it. World War II brought the US out of the Depression? How? By rewarding producers (war efforts) and encouraging investment. Where did Reagan get his blueprint? From post WWII boom times. What doesn’t work (as proven by Keynes failed policies) higher taxes and higher government spending. But not throwing money around doesn’t fulfill campaign rhetoric.
By Mary Quite-Contrary on 03/10/2009 3:08 pm
DeBúrca obj

Neocon Greenspan admitted HE was wrong, which he was.

FDR brought us out of the Depression, a depression caused by the same economics we have now, with the top few controlling most of the money. And the Republicans, along with a little help from Clinton when he signed the Gramm-Leach Biley Act, managed to bring us back to that by chipping away at everything FDR put in place to protect us from a Second Great Depression.

"White House Agenda; Anger Management"

by John McCarron, Chicago Tribune 

excerpt: "People need to keep their history straight…. In this version, the stock market and the economy continue in free-fall because investors have no confidence in President Barack Obama’s economic rescue plan; investors and employers are pulling back because of the prospect of paying higher marginal income tax rates; stocks of drug and insurance companies are falling because they’re up against "socialized medicine."

It’s all a crock, of course. I’m not sold on every White House idea for change (whose idea was it to limit the tax deductibility of charitable contributions, anyway?) but it’s vitally important that folks understand the economy’s swoon is being caused by a monumental screw-up by a lot of wealthy people who should have known better.

Having freed themselves of the "dead hand" of government regulation, Wall Street’s best and brightest went on a 10-year bender of incredibly irresponsible lending. Worse, it was predatory lending—usurious loans targeted at people who didn’t know better, loans doomed from the start, loans that now doom entire neighborhoods unless something is done to stem the foreclosure blight. 

That’s what happened … though you would not know it to hear radio host Rush Limbaugh, or that CNBC reporter at the futures exchange who ranted recently about the unfairness of government helping "irresponsible" borrowers. He might want to watch his own network’s fine "House of Cards" documentary to see who was truly irresponsible."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-oped0309mccarronmar09,0,4791047.story

 

By DeBúrca obj on 03/10/2009 5:14 pm
deber B
We will not go into a depression in SPITE of the people who are in the White House right now.   
By deber B on 03/10/2009 3:34 pm
DeBúrca obj
Bush/Hoover… both owned the 2 Republican Depressions. FDR pulled us out of the Hoover Depression, and hopefully inspite of the Obstructionist Republicans in Congress, Obama will be able to pull us out of the Bush Depression.
By DeBúrca obj on 03/10/2009 8:27 pm
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