‘Wild’ Bill Jenkins, Washington D.C.

In light of the recent disastrous effects of the mortgage crisis on Wall Street, government economists are reconsidering how ‘Great’ the Great Depression really was.

Dr. Percy Stanwich of the government sponsored think tank, Center for Economic and Historic Policy, said that there is a possibility that the current economic downturn may eclipse the Great Depression. “If this current situation grows worse we are going to have to take a hard look at renaming the Great Depression” said Dr. Stanwich. “The best name that my colleagues and I have come up with so far is ‘The Pretty Good Depression’.” Dr. Stanwich went on to say” Of course we don’t mean ‘good’ in terms of assigning a positive value but hey, if this current situation continues heading south then ‘The Great Depression’ can’t really be termed ‘Great’ now can it”.

After speaking with other members of the Center for Economic and Historic Policy I learned that current economic indicators may be very dire when extrapolated out over the next few years. They estimate the possibility that the U.S. economy could shrink by as much as 15% on a sustained basis causing a depression which would, in their terms, be ‘Great’. “We would like to reclaim the term ‘Great’ in the event that the current downturn surpasses the 1929 to 1939 period known as the Great Depression” stated PhD Evan Gottersmith, who was former head of the economics department at Dartmouth University. “This may necessitate renaming that period as ‘The Pretty Good Depression” commented Dr. Gottersmith. “We have also entertained the names ‘The Excellent Depression’, ‘The Great Depression number 1’’, as well as ‘The Big Bad Depression’. Dr. Gottersmith continued “we settled however on the ‘Pretty Good Depression’ because as big a deal as it was, we would really like to reserve that type of nomenclature for something special”.

The members of the think tank are planning to suggest to the current congress and administration that history books be changed by next Tuesday.