Recession? Five More Years!

Krugman, Winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics and NY Times columnist, says at least five years before this recession is over. Five more years of low growth and high unemployment. It appears even the Fed concurs (to some extent).

As Krugman points out, economically speaking, short of a World War there doesn't appear to be any monetary or fiscal mechanisms available to bring us out of this recession. Sit back and enjoy it!? What else can you do, eh? Carry on...

The closest 19th-century parallel I can find to the current slump is the recession that followed the Panic of 1873. That recession did eventually end without any government intervention, but it lasted more than five years, and another prolonged recession followed just three years later.

You can see, then, why some Fed officials are so pessimistic.

(Via NY Times)