Quote from Ivanovich:
he world as we know it? Or is it something new? [/B]
I believe that the media can accelerate trends significantly. If people don't know there is a recession, they probably would not behave different and continue buying cars etc.
If I go out of my door at least here in Germany everything is the same as before, I cannot even see the recession if I go shopping somewhere.
But people have not had real problems since a long time, that explains why they desperatly seek for bad news with a religious appearing obsession.
I think you can compare the "Depression" hype with the climatic change hype that was here all over the media the last 2 years. You could not dicuss these matters with certain people because logic was denied.
This "end of the world" feeling seems to attract the same kind of people now. It seems to give them a warm and fuzzy feeling within their little house and 20 gold coins they have burried in their garden and the weapon they have bought against the coming riots (oh shit, I have also some gold at home...).
That said I am glad that we have this media hyped depression because it offers chances we may not see again in our lifetime.
But of course only to the very few of us who can stay open minded with all this bad news flow.