The collapsed economy

The term recession is not just simply a small slump in the economy but rather, as said by Cisco Systems Inc., “A significant decline in activity spread across the economy, lasting longer than a few months. It is visible in industrial production, employment, real income, and wholesale-retail trade.” [1] This quote is very true, as we see people being laid off of work by the thousands now. A recession is a step away from a complete depression of the economy; that would signify that we had hit rock bottom. Our economy is said to be in its worst state of health since the 1930s when the Great Depression came around. It officially began on October 24th, 1929 with the "Black Thursday" stock market crash. At this time 12,830,000 people (or 25% of the working class in American) were unemployed. Much of it was blamed on former president Herbert Hoover.
Succeeding President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (terms of 1933-1945) was the man to help save our economy and pull us out of our first major economic depression. He did this by putting together a highly successful economic plan called the New Deal . His economic programs such as Social Security (SSS) and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) still remain today. A poignant point was once made by the affable yet strong FDR that “we must lay hold of the fact that economic laws are not made by nature. They are made by human beings.” [2] He relays to us that it was not God or nature’s turn-of-events that created the depression, nor did they make the rules for a crashed economy. It was our own faults, as human beings. He tells us through this quote, we put ourselves into this muddled situation so we can take ourselves out with a little patience and hard work. He was able to successfully do so near the end of his terms in office and America’s economic status was not nearly as unsteady as it was before.
It is very hard to tell whether president-elect Barack Obama, come January, will be able to start pulling us out of this economic chaos. FDR’s economic plan was completely unique to anything that anyone else had tried; he had even restored American citizens’ faith in the banks. Our economy has experienced very small false alarms every now and again ever since FDR was in office, but we’ve been able to pull ourselves out. In today’s economy it’s looking very much like what it had been a few years ago when FDR was in office. The sad part is that we have not hit the bottom yet, meaning we haven’t experienced the nadir of our economy so we don’t know how bad it will get. All in all, Obama’s plan theoretically has to work even just the slightest. Once our economy is at it’s lowest it can’t go any further can it? All we can do as citizens, is prepare for the worst (just incase) and hope for the best (that Obama’s plan will work out).
“That’s what recessions do. They come upon you all of a sudden... when you look back at history, you’re struck by how even-keel it is until the bottom just falls out.” [3] This statement in regards the economy having just been dubbed “in a recession”, was a statement I felt that most Americans have running through their heads. We all had an idea that the economy was in a recession before government called it that, but we didn’t really want to think about what would happen. So although it would have been good to have the warning a little earlier to prepare themselves for it (by saving money more, no excess expenditures, saving energy), it still scares us. The disadvantage of the economy actually being called a recession, is that it scares a lot of people. They don’t want to think about being laid off, business foreclosures, bankruptcy, or cutting back on their luxuries. It aids the country now so that Americans can prepare (although, like stated above, this warning would have been preferred earlier), but it negatively effects the personal lives and the stress levels that Americans deal with, by calling it a recession.
For president GWB now and the incoming president Barack Obama there are a few ideas I have that may not get them far but will logically be able to be utilized in a fashion that helps Obama to be able to “hit the ground running”. First, George W Bush, in his last month here should spend as little time as possible (I’m not saying absolutely none) with worldly affairs and should focus on what’s right inside America. The economy is the most important thing that the president should have to deal with. Without a good, stable economy there would be no country. Second, Bush and Obama should have a series of conferences with each other, one-on-one with each other about what should be done with the economy and only dealing with the economy. Thirdly, Obama should look back at the Cold War Era because it was seen as a time of good decision making. He should also reference what FDR did to pull America out of the Great Depression in the first place. Lastly, whatever Obama does, he should not bail out companies that do not deserve to be bailed out, or companies that would have the least affect on the economy if they went bankrupt. Obama should be very careful with where he puts government money.
Overall, the economy is very sick, hopefully not terminal, and it needs to be brought back to shape by someone (preferably the president-elect Obama) so things can return to what they once were and no one would have to worry about losing their jobs, money, homes, or businesses. No American should ever have to worry about such things.

[1] Cisco Systems, Inc. http://investor.cisco.com/glossary.cfm?FirstLetter=r. 1992-2008


[2] Brainy Media. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/f/franklin_d_roosevelt.html. 2008

[3] Isidore, Chris. CNN Senior Writer. http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/05/news/economy/recession/index.htm. February 5th 2008