So says James Rickards, here:
“We don’t have to worry about a recession — we are in a depression,” says James Rickards. “If you take the classic definition of a sustained, long-term downturn with economic growth below trend, then we are in the midst of a depression,” says the senior managing director of Tangent Capital and author of “Currency Wars.” Rickards doesn’t see Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke as having the solution to the economic malaise gripping the county.
Real GDP per capita through 1/1/11 bears this out (I think this gets updated through 1/1/12 this summer in the big annual GDP revision):
The peak to trough decline was 5.1% January 2007 to January 2009.
The metric remains 2.6% off peak.
