Uneven Economy & The Hidden Depression

Are we in a depression?

The question seems absurd.

There has been GDP growth since 2009 and some mild inflation to go with it. In fact, this is the second longest economic expansion on record.

As Robert Shiller said over the weekend (though in the context of warning against complacency), “[i]f the economy manages to expand for 16 more months, the United States will have set a record.” Unemployment is the lowest in history, nothing like the 17% we had by a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimate a decade after the stock market crash in 1929 and the average of 18% in the 1930s. House prices have come screaming back across the nation. The stock market has increased by more than 15% annually beginning in 2009. And even middle-class wages have shown signs of picking up lately.

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