The "Enormous Depression" is Blanchflower's new term for the 2008/2009 recession (the UK's exit from which is widely expected to be confirmed by new gross domestic product (GDP) data due next Tuesday). Inspired by NIESR's recent passing reference to the recession as "a depression" (external website), Blanchflower makes the following comparison between the Great Depression and the 2008/2009 recession:
This depression is worse in output terms, but not in relation to unemployment, than the Great Depression. For its sheer size and global reach, I now label it the Enormous Depression.
And as for the "Osborne Dip"? This is Blanchflower's term for what he sees as the potential impact on economic recovery of Shadow Chancellor George Osborne's planned cuts to public spending, to follow in the immediate wake of a Conservative victory in the 2010 general election.
Whether either phrase catches on remains to be seen, but Blanchflower has certainly made two thought-provoking contributions to the vocabulary of UK economic discussions in 2010.
- Many thanks to Mervyn Dinnen (external website) for alterting me to this article, via Twitter.
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Comments (2)
My main problem with titles like "Enormous Depression" is that they are just so depressing. What we need in sad times like these are uplifting labels which can help us out of our collective slump.
Why don't we go with something like "The Fairly Large Dip, but don't Worry You'll be Back on Your Feet in no Time".
Posted by DC Jobs | January 24, 2010 12:18 AM
Posted on January 24, 2010 00:18
Thank you very much for your comment, and for supplying a more upbeat perspective! It would of course be best for all concerned if the ultimate course of events meant the history books end up referring to recent events with a formulation closer to yours than to Blanchflower's. Only time will tell...
Kind regards
Michael
Posted by Michael Carty
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January 24, 2010 5:22 AM
Posted on January 24, 2010 05:22