When Do You Think the Recession Will End?

[Holdfast]

My major post recession concern is people not learning from this recession. They'll back to spending, the govt. will go back to deregulating and crossing their fingers that business will do that right thing, etc, and we'll set ourselves for this all over again in 10 or 20 years.

I actually worry about the same thing. We didn't learn from the 80s this time obviously.

I don't think it's possible for a capitalist economy to "learn" in the way you're suggesting. You can't break the cycle; it's intrinsic to how the economy works. You can dampen it, but it will always recur.

Trying to postpone it just tends to stoke up even more trouble (I'd say that there's a strong argument to suggest the reason the current recession is so problematic is because of decisions since the mid to late 1990s designed to postpone/nullify economic downturns).