Over at Americablog they've posted a translation, courtesy of AFP, of an interview with the IMF's top economist, Olivier Blanchard. Here's what he has to say:
...governments around the world should boost domestic demand in order
to avoid another Great Depression similar to the global downturn that
shook the world in the 1930s.
"Consumer and business confidence indexes have never fallen so far since they began. The coming months will be very bad," Blanchard said in an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde.
"It is imperative to stifle this loss of confidence, to restart household consumption, if we want to prevent this recession developing into a Great Depression," he added.
"Consumer and business confidence indexes have never fallen so far since they began. The coming months will be very bad," Blanchard said in an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde.
"It is imperative to stifle this loss of confidence, to restart household consumption, if we want to prevent this recession developing into a Great Depression," he added.
When the IMF starts using the D word, we are talking supremely serious shit.
I think we would already be in a Depression were it not for the safety net structures already put in place in the post-depression era like SS, food stamps, unemployment compensation and other forms of public assistance. I think the gov't is going to have to boost those to get people moneyed again so they can start spending.
Posted by: gay Power Living | December 24, 2008 at 04:39 PM