It's All In Your Head

Apparently you'll be glad to know this economic crisis is a mass illusion, and that if folks like you and me would stop believing it, it will go away.

If you think this recession is the worst since World War II, chances are you weren't born or working during the downturns of the 1970s and '80s, you're listening to President Obama too much or you're a white-collar worker in financial services.

If all three are true, you may even think we’re on the verge of another Great Depression.

At this point, the only thing that may be true is your age and employment status.

“The current situation has nothing in common with the Great Depression,” says economist Steve Hanke of the Cato Institute and Johns Hopkins University. “The sooner they [in Washington] stop spinning the bad news story and say nothing, the sooner we’ll be more confident.”

Hanke is not alone in dismissing what appears to be a potent cocktail of misinformation and doom and gloom, wherein the current recession—now in its 13th month—is already considered worse than the 16-month ones of 1973-1975 and 1980-1982.

“We were pretty scared in ’82; things looked horrible for awhile," says Bob Stovall of Wood Asset management and a 55-year veteran of the securities business. “I don’t think you can say it’s worse than then; its different. You have changed the landscape but you did that in the Midwest when you forced a lot of rust-belt companies to the wall."

“This time it's financial firms going out of business, instead of manufacturing ones, and the jobs are going with them," explains Stovall.

Recessions are like The Game, apparently. If you think about it, you've already lost.

I'm sure things will improve any time now, and it's not anything stupid like the Village happy face media blaming the American people. If the economy improves, it's proof that this is all a mental conspiracy launched by George Soros and Barack Obamuslim and he should be impeached, If the economy tanks, it's proof that this is all a mental conspiracy launched by George Soros and Barack Obamuslim and he should be impeached.

Gotta love right-wing logic.