Recession or Depression Hits U.S. Economy Every 6 Years. Is US The Gold Standard for Capitalism?

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Immortalism.com–July 3, 2023–Washington has long claimed the American economy is the gold standard for Capitalism; the template for how a capitalist economy should be run. But is it really? Let’s look at the facts.

From the end of World War Two, the U.S. economy has been convulsed by 13 recessions or depressions. This means that since 1945 the American economy has suffered on average a recession or a depression approximately every 6 years.

Recession or Depression Every 6 Years

Of the 13 “recessions,” quite a few are actually depressions, since they lasted for more than two quarters (more than 8 months). Exhibit A: the “Great Recession” of 2007-2009 lasted 18 months (5 and a half quarters). It wreaked havoc on Wall Street, the U.S. stock market, banks, investment banks, the American car industry. It created high unemployment, and devastated the retirement investments and plans for millions of Americans. Yet Washington’s economists and its compliant media refused to call it a depression, but instead created a more palatable euphemism for it called the “Great Recession.”

  1. The Covid-19 Depression of 2020–US GDP plunged 31.2% in the second quarter of 2020; 20.5 million jobs lost; unemployment rate jumped to 14.7%; unprecedented $5 trillion-plus emergency bailout by Biden regime cut short what could otherwise have been a longer economic depression.
  2. The Depression of 2007-2009 (aka “The Great Recession”)–The longest and most disastrous economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Like an unwelcomed guest, it hang around for a year and a half.
  3. The Dot-Com Crash of 2001–“Irrational exuberance” spawned a U.S. stock market bubble around Internet startups during the late 1990s and which burst in the year 2000 and following; Nasdaq lost 75% of its value and millions of investors dreaming of getting rich quick and early retirements instead lost their shirts; from 2000 to 2002 S&P 500 lost 43 percent of its value. (The first U.S. Depression in the 21st century)
  4. 1990-1991 Recession: S&L Crisis and Gulf War
  5. 1981-1982 Double Dip Recession
  6. 1980 Recession–Second Energy Crisis and Inflation
  7. 1973-1975 Recession–Oil Embargo
  8. 1969-1970 Recession
  9. 1960-1961 Recession
  10. 1957-1958 Recession (Asian Flu Pandemic)
  11. 1953 -1954 Recession (Post-Korean War)
  12. 1948 – 1949 Recession: Post-WorldWarII Consumer spending slump
  13. 1945 Recession: End of WWII 

So we see that the American economy gets whacked by a Recession or a Depression on average once every six years or so. Is this the best of all possible capitalist economies? Is this as good as it gets for a capitalist economy?

The answer to this question is a definite NO. In the past few decades, China’s economy has exceeded the US in GDP growth by far, and without recessions or depressions too.

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