Comments on: Isn't everyone feeling depressed these days?

By: malthus

malthus — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 03:48:36 +0000

Money is a social contract.–John M.

No, money is a medium of exchange.

That barbaric relic is just a distraction.–John M.

No, it is the main show, of which the present commodities market is just the preview. Get your ticket now before you have to pay scalper’s prices.

By: Linenoise

Linenoise — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:23:24 +0000

twist – careful. You start giving them ideas and the next thing you know, the gov’t will swap it around and blame people being depressed for the foreclosure rate. The only fix for that, obviously, is to completely redo the healthcare system and require everyone in country to take anti-depressants – funded by higher taxes, of course.

By: Yossarian

Yossarian — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:21:40 +0000

Oh yeah… one other thing. In Japan, Soviet Russia, and Argentina…. the populations dipped due to health issues related to their various economic blow-ups. Lots of suicides, lots of drinking.

By: Yossarian

Yossarian — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:20:02 +0000

Every serious economic downturn has health consequences. Years ago, a researcher from John Hopkins studied the 1973 US recession. He concluded that there were about 60,000 ‘excess deaths’ due to the downturn. A number of these deaths had to do with people postponing health care, suicide, depression, etc.
I remember he called the 60k number ‘about the size of a colonial war’.
The shrink in population leads to a lot of incorrect statistics. Many economists, when they construct their ‘population growth’ models, use ‘housing starts’ as one of their major indicators.
This has lead to some serious overshoots in construction of retail, schools, as well as housing.
Hardly any economist (especially at the state planning level) seems to take this contraction effect into account.

By: John M.

John M. — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:15:57 +0000

malthus -

Money is a social contract. We haven’t worked out the unwritten fine print in that contract is all.

Au is merely the royal road to As and CN- contamination in what you and our kids will be drinking next month. That barbaric relic is just a distraction.

By: arizonaslim

arizonaslim — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:13:35 +0000

Here’s an interesting article on the illusion of prosperity:

The Rise and Fall of Artificial Wealth

It offers a good statement of the problem, but I’m not sure I agree with the authors’ solution:

“In the short-term, Americans would have more ability to spend money if the Government would pass a bill that would give homeowners the opportunity to convert their current mortgages to interest-only for some duration of time, e.g. one, two, or three years. This could put several hundred dollars of disposable income back into the hands of consumers every month during the duration of the program. For example, for a $300,000 mortgage with a 5.5% interest rate, the total fully-amortized monthly payment would be $1,703 of which $328 is principal and $1,375 is interest in the first month. By allowing this borrower to pay interest only, the borrowers monthly payments would be reduced by $328 (or $3,396 per year) during the duration of the interest-only program. This would be a virtually no-cost government stimulus.”

After all, didn’t interest-only mortgages help get us into this mess?

By: malthus

malthus — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:05:19 +0000

I guess all that jubilation people experienced… had to take its toll when the bill came due.–L

False prosperity is eventually beaten down by the iron rod of economic law. The resultant disillusionment sows seeds of political unrest.
Politicians respond by ginning up the economy with hot money, which fuels another boom, but politically inspired credit expansion produces capital misallocation. This short circuits the boom and the false prosperity is once more beaten down by the iron rod of economic law.

The way out of this squirrel cage can only come about by a return to honest money. Hint: gold is your friend.

By: toysarefun

toysarefun — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:10:29 +0000

The depression med prescriptions are way up, I guess that Prozac makes you kind of zombie like, which probably means it’s working as it should.

Foreclosure can’t be all that depressing when you find out that you actually have money again, but not when the bankster garnishes your paycheck looking for some payback.

By: L

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:24:47 +0000

I think its more withdrawal from the credit addiction than depression. We will have a new disability as soon as the Government figures out what to call it. Then the drug companies can get to work finding a pill to relieve the stress…… Prozac for poverty?

By: DCBeacon

DCBeacon — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 09:14:52 +0000

I’m wondering if there may be a silver lining to a surge of clinical depression in the US. If the stages of grief are denial, anger, depression, exploration and acceptance…then depression is a necessary and constructive stage so long as people experiencing it have some relationships and other support to help them through.

As has been discussed in many ways on this blog, our entire culture has been in deep denial regarding the fundamental value of things versus the allure of fast money for doing nothing.

On the other side of this recovery cycle I continue to hope for housing affordability for the middle class. This is a good and not a bad thing, regardless of the pain we have to experience along the way to getting there.