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"We're all goin' to be rooned."
Hanrahan aside, what is the definition of depression?
In the 19th century people used the word "panic", but after a while that was thought too alarmist, so they substituted "crisis". Then that was thought pretty alarming too, so to try to get people used to the idea of a temporary decline in the economic landscape they decided on the word "depression". That worked well up until 1932, when depression garnered the adjective "great" and resembled a sinkhole. "Recession" was meant to suggest a mere backwards step, and conventionally means two consecutive quarters of economic contraction (however measured). As far as I am aware, depression remains undefined and unmeasurable, which is just as well really, since when all is said and done it still remains the name for a state of mind. If some of us lose our jobs, then quite a few people are going to be in a pretty goddam depression. You can bank on it.
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