We May Already Be in Another Great Depression

Anyone who ever played Atari 2600 games as a kid knows that they are all about finding and exploiting simple patterns. Music is also essentially just structured sound that is composed of varying degrees of harmony and dissonance. Without these elements, it's just noise. That said, as someone who grew up playing shitty video games and who has been a musician for most of his life, I may be particularly good at noticing patterns like this... and when I look at the current global economy, I have to say, it all looks kind of familiar.

The Great Depression was a worldwide catastrophe. Despite common belief, it didn’t begin with the stock market crash of 1929, either. Farmers (which made up a much higher percentage of the population back then) had been feeling the effects of a depressed economy since the end of World War I. But that’s nothing compared to Germany, where they suffered inflation so high that their money was rendered virtually worthless. 

When you look at the current global recession — particularly in places like Brazil or Venezuela, where people are rioting for food, or China, where there are brand new cities that remain almost entirely vacant — the parallels between then and now are rather alarming. And the global economy is more connected today than it has ever been. Regardless of what arbitrary stock indices may indicate, poverty remains a worldwide epidemic, and the United States is by no means immune. In fact, go to just about any small town or inner-city in America and I doubt you'll see too many local businesses that appear to be thriving. It seems that only when it hits Wall Street do people call it a depression.