So sing they, so speak they, so tell they the tale of the Boy King George...

[lsanderson]

Unemployment Hits 7.2%, 16-Year High
By LOUIS UCHITELLE
Published: January 9, 2009

With the recession in full swing, the nation’s employers shed 524,000 jobs in December, the government reported Friday, and a rapidly deteriorating economy promised more significant losses in the months ahead. December’s job losses brought the total for 2008 to 2.6 million, spanning a recession that started 12 months ago. More

Comments

[sethb.livejournal.com]

When did a 12-month recession cease being a depression?

[daedala.livejournal.com]

They don't want to call it that because it scares people, I think.

[sethb.livejournal.com]

For some of "they", anyway. It's clearly a political usage, "the recession" (as its own thing) vs. "Bush Depression" (assigning blame).

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

Also, I might suggest, it's assigning Responsibility -- albeit incorrectly, IMHO. A major cause of the current & progressing depression seems to me to have been the putting into effect of many Conservative Ideals since the beginning of the Reagan Administration (with only minimal or token brakes being applied during periods when the Democrats had some Power in one branch or another of The Government). Though "The Bush Depression" has some merit as a description -- because of the six-year period of the Congressional Majority & Administration being Republican -- I don't like such Demonization because what we're actually seeing is the manifestation of applied Republican/Conservative Ideology. And, it seems to me, the "unemployment" figures are an example of Cooking The Books -- by the rest of the world's (&, IIRC, our previous) standards of calculation, the percentage would be much higher, probably already into the double digits. Objectively, it doesn't seem to me that someone with as little as one hour per week of paid work can meaningfully be counted as being "employed".

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

Also, I might suggest, it's assigning Responsibility -- albeit incorrectly, IMHO.

Ok, ok, we won't call it the Bush Depression.

We'll call it the Reagan Republican Depression, instead.