Twenty-One Recessions

According to the National Bureau of Economic Research there have been, in the 20th century, twenty certifiable economic recessions. There were ten prior to 1945 and an equal number after. In addition, George Bush inherited the Clinton recession of 2001. Doing a background check, the duration of each recession has lasted from three to twenty four months. In my lifetime I have gone through eleven of these. In 1988 I left teaching for a new job that required me to move from Iowa to Ohio. At the time of our departure the four main industries in our area: John Deere, Caterpillar, J.I. Case and International Harvester were in the process of shutting their doors, moving out of the area or drastically cutting employees. I'll give you another example of the impact of economic suffering by our community. I taught in a private parochial high school. In 1978, when I began my teaching stint there were 1,400 grade 9-12 students. When I left in 1988 we had dropped down to 410. In 1982 we purchased a home for $83,000. Due to the area recession of '88 we took an offer of $57,000. Now, It's not like I had the fortitude of Mighty Mouse or the business acumen of Howard Hughes. It was devastating. Even so, my wife and I pulled stakes and spent the first hour of driving time looking for a nickel so we'd have two to rub together. There was no whining about a housing bailout. There was no talk of government intervention to come to our aid. We put gas in the car and drove east. The first time I had ever been to Ohio was when I left Richmond, Indiana behind us at the border. Thank the Lord my new company paid our moving expenses. This will knock your socks off. We not only survived but we thrived and we did it without Barney Frank, Christopher Dodd, Barack Obama or any one trillion dollar government welfare check. No one suggested such a thing. Hell, who would've thought of such a thing? Do some fact checking prior to this most recent attention to a quick fix for a 'crisis'. Exactly what was done by the government to make our lives better again? Except for tax reduction, nothing.