U.S. Economy Now In Depression, Claims The Economist
In formulating its dire assessment, The Economist based its conclusion on an analysis of past depressions. The Economist stated that the U.S. economy is manifesting the characteristics of a depression, taking into account the causes of the current economic crisis.
According to The Economist, the primary distinction between a recession and an economic depression is not linked to the decline in growth nor its duration, which are factors encountered in an economic recession. The magazine indicated that a depression is triggered by a bursting of the asset and credit bubble, a contraction in credit, and a decline in general price levels, all the indicators being experienced in the current Global Economic Crisis, especially in the United States.
The U.S GDP figures for the fourth quarter of 2008 declined by an estimated six- percent. Though less severe than during the Great Depression of the 1930s, The Economist maintains that the decline in American GDP is more closely aligned to an economic depression, given that it was facilitated by the bursting of the largest asset and credit bubbles in financial history. The findings by The Economist add substance to the growing consensus that the Global Economic Crisis will be a worldwide catastrophe of monumental proportions.