, Columnist
How Bad Might It Get? Think the Great Depression
The coronavirus collapse has the ingredients to surpass the disaster of the 1930s.
We’ve been there before.
Photographer: Dorothea Lange/Hulton ArchiveThis article is for subscribers only.
As the economic carnage from the coronavirus pandemic continues, a long-forbidden word is starting to creep onto people’s lips: “depression.”
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, there was no commonly accepted word for a slowdown in the economy. “Panic” was the term typically used for financial crises, while long slumps were commonly called depressions. Presidents such as James Monroe and Calvin Coolidge used the d-word to describe downturns during their administrations. There was even a slump in the 1870s that many referred to as the Great Depression at the time.