Call it what it is: a depression by Paul Krugman

[Hatchling]

It's time to start calling the current situation what it is: a depression. True, it's not a full replay of the Great Depression, but that's cold comfort. Unemployment in both America and Europe remains disastrously high. Leaders and institutions are increasingly discredited. And democratic values are under siege.

On that last point, I am not being alarmist. On the political as on the economic front it's important not to fall into the "not as bad as" trap. High unemployment isn't OK just because it hasn't hit 1933 levels; ominous political trends shouldn't be dismissed just because there's no Hitler in sight.

..snip

Right-wing populists are on the rise from Austria, where the Freedom Party (whose leader used to have neo-Nazi connections) runs neck-and-neck in the polls with established parties, to Finland, where the anti-immigrant True Finns party had a strong electoral showing last April. And these are rich countries whose economies have held up fairly well. Matters look even more ominous in the poorer nations of Central and Eastern Europe.


..snip

Taken together, all this amounts to the re-establishment of authoritarian rule, under a paper-thin veneer of democracy, in the heart of Europe. And it's a sample of what may happen much more widely if this depression continues.

I took four of the more interesting (terrifying?) paragraphs from the piece. It's not so much that a depression is here but that the depression is leading to the rise of authoritarian rule all over the world. And unlike the World War II era where the US and Britain balked against Fascism, the two countries are leading the move to a fascist rule.

Stolen elections.
Squashing unions
Militarizing the police.

It's a very bleak future.

[Huey P. Long]

1. It will be getting much worse. No doubt about it. We are on our own. -eom

[Hatchling]

2. I don't doubt it.

There are many that won't survive the austerity measures which may be a blessing in disguise. I don't see this ending well unless somehow the 99% get more power and the deck is stacked against us. Hell, we have to pay to use the deck!

[Huey P. Long]

3. OWS is a bull market for the forseeable future. The next wave...

then the next...its coming, or we all die.

I have been preparing, getting my house in order. The ones who wish it all away and ridicule the warnings will be sorry one day, but it will be too late. The collapse comes.

[Hatchling]

4. The old give me liberty or give me death?

Sounds so melodramatic, but then great passion always does.

Just scary is all.

[Huey P. Long]

5. Oh, no, not what I meant. I mean, we either we begin to fight back or 'they'

will crush us. Simple as that. I just hope more people wake up in time, or we're all fucked.

[Enthusiast]

6. This is how the Nazis did it before.

It is a tried and true formula.

I used to think poorly of the German people of the 1920s-30s. You know, for their lack of due diligence. Damn, I no longer feel that way. I could see it happening right here in the blink of an eye.

Just look at the U.S.A. right now, take a little snapshot. This nation outspends the entire combined world on its military. We have military bases or operations in hundreds of countries. The media will hardly make a peep about the out-sized military. Why don't people in the media question this? Why don't they say, "Why are we in all these countries?" Or, "How does our military presence in these other nations serve our interests?"

During Bush's Iraq folly there was suppression of free speech. There were even acts of violence by people laboring under a mistaken notion of patriotism. This should be a wake up call.

The people of this nation should be on high alert. We are in grave danger.

[TheKentuckian]

7. Amen

[pnorman]

8. One link here:

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-12-12/news/30507450_1_fidesz-hungary-unemployment

[Leftist Agitator]

9. Is there a link for this?

I could use the Google, but I just got done with exams, so I'm being deliberately lazy...