Economist Kenneth Rogoff says we shouldn’t call what happened to
America in 2008 and 2009 a “Great Recession,” because it
understates the true nature of the crisis. Recessions are
frequent events from which we can quickly recover, but the
financial panic of 2008 has much more in common with the Crash
of 1929 than it does with any of the recessions we’ve
experienced in the years since the 1930s. By calling it a
recession, he argues, we have — at our own peril —
underestimated the severity of the crisis that befell us just
four years ago. For many reasons, including the coordinated
response of world governments and central banks, the effects of
the most recent financial crisis were not as severe as those
experienced during the Great Depression. But human suffering
around the country has been grave. A staggering 15% of the
American population is below the poverty line, up from 13.2%
before the recession began in December of 2007. In that same
period of time, food stamp use has increased to the point that
now one