![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/montaraventures.com\/blog\/wp-content\/2008\/03\/greatdepression.jpg\")
Photo Credit: Unknown<\/small><\/center>
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\nGiven that President Bush says “we’re not in a recession” and he’s wrong every time he opens his mouth, it makes me wonder if we’re in a depression. The basic facts of the situation are:<\/p>\n
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- Real Gross Domestic Product has stayed stable at $11T (2000 USD) Source: Data 360.org<\/a><\/li>\n
- The US imports more than it exports – $58.2B for January, 2008 Source: American Economy Alert<\/a><\/li>\n
- The US carries 80% of its real GDP on an annual basis in debt. The National Debt is now $9.4T. Source: Brillig.com<\/a><\/li>\n
- The US Dollar’s value has declined 40% against the Euro from January, 2001 to March, 2008. Source: x-rates.com<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
According to about.com, the definition of a depression is any economic downturn where real GDP declines by more than 10 percent.<\/i> Given this definition, we’re not in a depression. However, when the import\/export, debt, and declining dollar are factored into flat growth, I think we’re in real trouble. We may not be seeing a return to the soup line – yet – but if we don’t get our financial house in order quickly that’s where we’re going to end up.
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\nHow do we get well? Start by spending less than we earn by at least 10%, and preferrably 25%. Invest the surplus in reducing debt levels. Exit foreign entanglements and financial commitments. Rebuild the infrastructure of the country with a special emphasis on energy independence. Easy to say, hard to do. Let’s hope our next political leaders have the will and stomach to get this stuff done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo Credit: Unknown Given that President Bush says “we’re not in a recession” and he’s wrong every time he opens his mouth, it makes me wonder if we’re in a depression. The basic facts of the situation are: Real Gross Domestic Product has stayed stable at $11T (2000 USD) Source: Data 360.org The US imports […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montaraventures.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/977"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montaraventures.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montaraventures.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montaraventures.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montaraventures.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montaraventures.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/977\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montaraventures.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montaraventures.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montaraventures.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- The US imports more than it exports – $58.2B for January, 2008 Source: American Economy Alert<\/a><\/li>\n