[Prince]

Question for the elder posters here. It is obvious to most of us that the economic problems we face today will be the worst we've seen since similar points of economic downturn we had back in the 70s and early 80s. Back then there wasn't the internet to get various points and opinions on how things are. Basically, you had your evening news and morning newspaper; that's just the way things worked back then.

It seems today, in spite of what reality is showing us, every news outlet and piece-of-shit economist is telling us how this is a minor bump in the road, and that things are on a pat to a quick recovery. Did this also happen in the 70s and 80s? When inflation was in the double-digits, was the US government, Federal Reserve, and MSM still pushing the agenda that everything was going great? How did the general population react back then? Even today, I think people are so exposed to infinite growth and prosperity that they refuse to acknowledge that things could be downright disastrous.

[Denny]

I'd say the public response was much more negative then then today. So, that was for sure reflected in the press. Remember, the 70's saw price and wage controls. That was a constant news item, and the appeals made for price relief by some companies, based on input costs, etc. The auto and steel industries were constantly "jawboned" by the federal government to hold down price increases, well prior to formal price controls. Obviously , that was a lot of administration showmanship as that feeling of keeping the bit biz types under control appealed to the many.

I also think the Dept. of Labor was more realistic in the price index than today. It represented much more of a constant "shopping basket". Today's publicized rate discounts food and energy. That is real joke, and a fair press would use a real index, even if the government did not make their life easy by providing it.

And, the auto industry news then (the tail end of 1973, right through early 1975) was equally depressing to today. I think half of the auto workers were on layoff at one point in 1974. Although the companies themselves had much more solid balance sheets than is the case today.

Then in the late 70's came staglflation and then peak commodity prices and then massive interest rates, and it was all headlines in the media.

[BigTex]

Yeah, the 1970s and early 1980s were periods of complete hopelessness. It didn't help things that the oil shocks and stagflation came on the heels of Vietnam and Watergate.

One of my earliest memories was of watching the 1976 Presidential debates between Ford and Carter, and it was like watching a Bleak-A-Thon. So depressing.

That was prior to the widespread use of anti-depressants. That's likely masking a part of the trouble that is brewing today.

So much of what is happening today reminds me of the late 1960s. If you think about 1968 and 2008, there are a LOT of parallels:

1. unpopular war in its 5th year

2. moderate Republican Presidential candidates (Nixon and McCain) and divided and uncertain Democratic party; Democratic candidates of "hope" (Robert Kennedy and Obama) and career hacks (Hubert Humphrey and Hillary Clinton)

3. inflation on the verge of breaking out

4. end stages of belief that foreign war and domestic prosperity can be maintained

5. incumbent Presidents with policies considered unsuccessful and disconnected from reality (the fact that both were from Texas was NOT a contributing factor)

The big difference is that the oil shortage in the 1970s was politically induced. The oil shortage that we are looking at in the future will not be something that can be mitigated by re-drawing some lines in the sand in the Middle East.

But there was a gloom in the 1970s that not even a bunch of disco records, cocaine and weed could chase away. That was some STUBBORN gloom. It took an inspiring heroic former B movie actor to rescue the country from the gloom.

I believe that this country will elect another such inspiring leader in 2012 (assuming the world doesn't end), and the choice will be an obvious and easy one:

Hail to the king baby!

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BigTex', '
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That was prior to the widespread use of anti-depressants. That's likely masking a part of the trouble that is brewing today.

[ColossalContrarian]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BigTex', '
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That was prior to the widespread use of anti-depressants. That's likely masking a part of the trouble that is brewing today.

[Denny]

Looks like around 10%. See this:


From Grandfather's Economics

It sure looks like an ugly trend! Not sustainable.

[Prince]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Denny', 'L')ooks like around 10%. See this:


From Grandfather's Economics

It sure looks like an ugly trend! Not sustainable.