A recession is a natural element of the business cycle that occurs when the economy declines for two consecutive quarters. A depression, on the other hand, is a prolonged decline in economic activity that lasts years rather than months. This makes recessions far more common: in the United States, there have been 33 recessions and only one depression since 1854.
Is a recession or depression worse?
A recession is a negative trend in the business cycle marked by a reduction in production and employment. As a result of this downward trend in household income and spending, many businesses and people are deferring big investments or purchases.
A depression is a strong downswing in the business cycle (much more severe than a downward trend) marked by severely reduced industrial production, widespread unemployment, a considerable decline or suspension of construction growth, and significant cutbacks in international commerce and capital movements. Aside from the severity and impacts of each, another distinction between a recession and a depression is that recessions can be geographically confined (limited to a single country), but depressions (such as the Great Depression of the 1930s) can occur throughout numerous countries.
Now that the differences between a recession and a depression have been established, we can all return to our old habits of cracking awful jokes and blaming them on individuals who most likely never said them.
What’s worse than a downturn?
A recession is a long-term economic downturn that affects a large number of people. A depression is a longer-term, more severe slump.
Is America experiencing a downturn or depression?
The United States is officially in a downturn. With unemployment at levels not seen since the Great Depression the greatest economic slump in the history of the industrialized world some may be asking if the country will fall into a depression, and if so, what it will take to do so.
What occurs when you’re depressed?
Depression is a serious mental condition that can have a significant impact on a person’s life. It can lead to emotions of melancholy, hopelessness, and a loss of interest in activities that linger for a long time. It can also cause physical symptoms like as pain, a change in appetite, and sleep issues.
Is it possible for another Great Depression to occur?
The 12-year Great Depression in America began with a crash 72 years ago. On October 24, 1929, the stock market bottomed out, indicating the start of the country’s longest and severe economic downturn. Everyone wants to know if a crash may happen again given that we are in an economic downturn.
Many industries in Washington state were shaken on October 24, dubbed “Black Thursday.” Although the disaster did not have the same impact on Washington as it did on other states, the consequences of the downturn and various government actions hurt certain sectors substantially.
After the 1929 Federal Reserve-industry catastrophe, unemployment in the United States skyrocketed. In the 1930s, the government’s ballooning taxes and regulations left the country entrenched in economic hardship.
Wheat prices in Washington had decreased to.38 cents per bushel by 1932, from $1.83 in the early 1920s. By 1935, the value of Washington farmland and buildings had decreased from $920 million to $551 million, despite a 300 percent increase in county debt statewide and a 36 percent drop in payrolls.
The state’s lumber industry was particularly heavily damaged by the economic downturn. Between 1929 and 1932, per capita lumber consumption in the United States fell by two-thirds. Washington’s annual lumber production fell from 7.3 billion feet to 2.2 billion feet during the same time period. By the end of 1931, at least half of mill workers had lost their jobs.
The Roosevelt administration’s measures accomplished little to boost the lumber business. Individual industries were subjected to tight production limitations and price controls under the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) of 1933. Before the Act was declared unlawful in 1935, it barred the construction of new sawmills and limited individual operators to a set quota of production. More sawmills were erected as a result of failed federal monitoring, and total production per firm declined.
One part of the NIRA significantly increased big labor’s organizing strength and required managers to bargain with unions. Historians now consider the implementation of New Deal measures in the Pacific Northwest as a direct result of the solidification of Washington’s labor movement.
Is it possible for another Great Depression to occur? Perhaps, but it would require a recurrence of the bipartisan and disastrously dumb policies of the 1920s and 1930s.
Economists now know, for the most part, that the stock market did not trigger the 1929 crisis. It was a symptom of the country’s money supply’s extraordinarily unpredictable changes. The Federal Reserve System was the main culprit, having sparked a boom in the early 1920s with ultra-low interest rates and easy money. By 1929, the central bank had raised rates so high that the boom had been choked off, and the money supply had been reduced by one-third between 1929 and 1933.
A recession was turned into a Great Depression by Congress in 1930. It slashed tariffs to the point where imports and exports were effectively shut down. In 1932, it quadrupled income tax rates. Franklin D. Roosevelt, who ran on a platform of less government, gave America far more than he promised. His “New Deal” increased taxes (he once proposed a tax rate of 99.5 percent on incomes above $100,000), penalized investment, and suffocated business with regulations and red tape.
Washington, like all states, is subject to the whims of federal policymakers. And the recipe for economic depression remains the same: suffocating market freedom, crushing incentives with high tax rates, and overwhelming firms with suffocating regulations.
The 1929 stock market crash and the accompanying Great Depression are worth remembering not just because they caused so much suffering in Washington and abroad, but also because, as philosopher George Santayana warned, “Those who cannot recall history are destined to repeat it.”
Lawrence W. Reed is the director of Michigan’s Mackinac Center for Public Policy and an adjunct scholar at Seattle’s Washington Policy Center. Jason Smosna, a WPC researcher, contributed to this commentary.
Are we currently experiencing a depression?
According to new research from Boston University School of Public Health, the high rate of depression has continued into 2021, and has even deteriorated, rising to 32.8 percent and harming one in every three American citizens.
How might a depression appear?
Although depression manifests itself differently in each individual, there are certain similar indications and symptoms. It’s crucial to keep in mind that these symptoms are common throughout life’s low points. However, the more symptoms you experience, the more severe they are, and the longer they’ve been present, the more probable you are suffering from depression.
common depression symptoms
- Helplessness and a sense of hopelessness. A pessimistic outlooknothing will ever get better, and there’s nothing you can do to change things.
- Loss of interest in day-to-day tasks. Former hobbies, diversions, social activities, and sex are no longer important to you. You’ve lost your ability to experience pleasure and delight.
- Changes in appetite or weight. A change of more than 5% of body weight in a month is considered significant weight loss or increase.
- Sleep patterns shift. Oversleeping or sleeplessness, particularly waking in the early hours of the morning.
- Irritability or rage. Feeling restless, irritated, or even violent. You have a low tolerance level, a quick temper, and everything and everyone grates on your nerves.
- Energy depletion. I’m tired, sluggish, and physically exhausted. It’s possible that your entire body feels heavy, and even simple tasks become exhausting or take longer to perform.
- Self-loathing. Feelings of insignificance or remorse. You are critical of yourself for perceived flaws and errors.
- Unpredictable behavior. You indulge in escapist activities such as substance misuse, compulsive gambling, reckless driving, or dangerous sports as a means of escaping reality.
- Problems with concentration. Focusing, making decisions, and remembering things are all difficult for you.
- Aches and pains that don’t seem to be going away. Physical symptoms such as headaches, back discomfort, hurting muscles, and stomach pain have increased.
What is the best way to prepare for the Great Depression?
The Stock Market Crash of 1929 is sometimes misunderstood as the origin of the Great Depression. The stock market crash was the straw that broke the camel’s back, since it played a major role in the depression that left 15 million Americans unemployed and half of the country’s banks bankrupt.
Several events occurred before to the stock market crash that put the American economy on uncertain foundation. Before the Great Depression, there were several causes for economic concern:
When you factor in fluctuating oil and energy prices, it’s no surprise that experts forecast a new Great Depression. All the more reason to start preparing now for the coming Great Depression.
What happens to your brain when you’re depressed?
Even though clinical depression has a significant impact on how a person feels, it is more than just being sad. Most people experience sadness at some point in their lives. Clinically depressed people are plagued by feelings of hopelessness for lengthy periods of time. The influence each event has on the brain is one of the key distinctions between temporarily feeling down and serious depression.
Individuals dealing with life’s regular ups and downs may cry, become upset, and isolate themselves from friends and family for a period of time. They may even oversleep or stay awake all night. But, in the end, their capacity to function, complete tasks, and fulfill duties is unaffected. They recover from their melancholy and, for the most part, their brain remains undamaged.
Individuals suffering from clinical depression, on the other hand, do not recover as quickly from their emotions of hopelessness and melancholy. Symptoms can last weeks, months, or even years. They are unable to function as efficiently as they formerly did. Even modest chores and obligations can be tough to manage. This is due to the fact that clinical depression can alter the brain, the body’s command center.
The Brain Shrinks
According to studies, those who suffer from clinical depression exhibit shrinkage in some areas of the brain. Despite the fact that studies disagree about where parts of the brain are most impacted, data consistently shows a link between clinical depression and shrinkage in the following areas:
- The hippocampus is a part of the brain that is involved in learning and memory. In addition, the hippocampus aids in the regulation of emotions and stress chemicals. Neurons in the hippocampus diminish as depression affects the brain’s chemical balances, causing problems concentrating and memory loss. A shrinking hippocampus can also make it harder to complete routine tasks, leading to feelings of despondency, remorse, and worry.
- The prefrontal cortices are responsible for controlling impulses, adapting to obstacles, processing and regulating emotions, reasoning, and planning. Individuals can become impulsive and easily angered, agitated, and upset when certain parts of the brain decrease. Brain fog, difficulty thinking clearly, memory loss, and difficulty making judgments are all possible symptoms.
- The thalamus is in charge of regulating sleep, attentiveness, and awake. A thalamus that has shrunk is unable to maintain a good sleep pattern, which has a negative impact on an individual’s appetite and well-being.
The degree of shrinkage that happens is often determined by the severity and duration of a person’s depression.
Brain Inflammation
The brain can also become inflamed as a result of clinical depression. Experts aren’t clear whether inflammation causes depression or the other way around, but studies have found a link between the length of time someone has been depressed and the level of inflammation in their brain. The amygdala appears to be particularly inflamed in clinical depression.
The amygdala is an almond-shaped gland that controls whether or not people feel happy or sad. The amygdala becomes hyperactive and enlarged as a result of the high levels of cortisol generated during a depressed episode. Individuals may suffer sleep disturbances, social anxiety, restlessness, guilt, panic, and self-blame as a result of this. Inflammation of the brain can also result in the death of brain cells. Further brain shrinkage and impaired neurotransmitter function may result as a result of this. Inflammation of the brain can also make it less neuroplastic, or changeable. The formation of new brain cells comes to an end. Damaged and dying older brain cells accelerate the aging of the entire brain.
Inflammation of the brain also slows the transmission of information between neurons. The brain’s overall operation slows down. Individuals’ reasoning becomes sluggish and hazy. They are exhausted and cranky. Their energy levels drop, and they become sluggish. Cytokines, which are inflammatory immune cells, interfere with serotonin levels, impairing people’s ability to feel happy.
Reduced Oxygen Levels
Reduced oxygen levels in the body have also been related to clinical depression. Hypoxia is a medical term for this situation. Brain cells can perish if the brain does not receive enough oxygen to operate correctly. In fact, brain cells begin to die after only 5 minutes of oxygen deprivation. Individuals may initially experience:
The longer people go without enough oxygen, the more serious their symptoms can get. Hypoxia can cause severe symptoms such as: