I suggest we assign economic recessions male and female names like we do with hurricanes. It would make each recession more specific and memorable (a la "Hurricane Andrew", rather than "The big hurricane around 1992")

A recession is like a hurricane in many ways: It travels a deadly path from one financial sector to another, destroying all profits in its path and affecting the health and wealth of everyone remotely near to it financially. It leaves financial ruin and financial injury (poverty; layoffs) in its wake which take many years to recover from.

Making past recessions more memorable would encourage people to invest more prudently. Associating a name with the crash will spark people's minds as to how bad things really can and do happen. A lot of people would never choose to live in a place plagued by hurricanes, and yet those same people happily invest their money in a stock market that experiences recessions every 5 to 10 years.

Recessions could even be named after whoever's Secretary of the Treasury at the time - this would impose a strong incentive for the Secretary to try to prevent them, as no one wants his/her name attached to a bad historical event; yet it would not be a real financial stake.
-- phundug, Oct 09 2008

Also there is this http://www.whitehou...09/20080919-15.html
A press release by the administration [Cuit_au_Four, Oct 11 2008]

There was also a recession during the previous Bush administration. This one should be called George Jr. [+]
-- jaksplat, Oct 09 2008


Touché, [jaksplat].
-- wagster, Oct 09 2008


//Warren Buffett is cleaning up//

Capitalism only works if you have capital.

Wasn't the depression of the 1930s named after Alexander the Great?
-- baconbrain, Oct 09 2008


No I suspect that Reagan-bombics would be a superior description.
-- WcW, Oct 10 2008


Many of these clowns will retire wealthy beyond their years as a result of their actions, and couldn't care less what we hang on their names.
-- normzone, Oct 10 2008


+ Still a great idea. It would be nice to add something nasty after the name besides the word *recession*.
(what was so *great* about the Great Depression?)
-- xandram, Oct 10 2008


I think there is a specific definition of "recession" - e.g. produce drops by 20% or something, and it becomes a depression if this goes on for a specific number of years. So we could name them as they happen.
-- phundug, Oct 10 2008


//"possibly about to deviate from splendidness" //
Oh no, sell! Sell! SELLLLLLLLLLLL!
-- phundug, Oct 10 2008


//possibly about to deviate from splendidness//

Double plus ungood?

's funny, how repressing words correlates to control. One day I'm setting up shop in an unpopulatated area of Canada and shooting anyone that steps foot on my property.
-- MikeD, Oct 10 2008


That's 13 syllables; I don't see it becoming a jargon phrase anytime soon.
-- FlyingToaster, Oct 11 2008


This is like calling World War II the Hitler War.

However, I would call it the Congressional Recession, or the "Concession," because if you don't blame Congress for its inaction, that's what you are granting them.
-- Cuit_au_Four, Oct 11 2008


I was going to propose naming it "Thatcher" a few days ago, but held off as I feared devastating neocon economic flaming. But last night the TV agreed with me, so I'm feeling braver.

It's Thatcher's fault - name it after her.
-- Loris, Oct 13 2008


Not only Thatcher's; more Reagan's.
-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Oct 13 2008


Europe just put another trillion dollars into the system.

Name bail-outs after people. In this case, the great Socialist Sarkozy gets the credit of saving global capitalism's ass.

In any case [+].
-- django, Oct 13 2008


nope, Bush does not have the power to concieve and pass a budget without congressional approval.
-- Voice, Oct 14 2008


Thatcher Reagan recession - what about the general recessions of the early 80's, 90's and 2000's - who do they get named after, and how/why is there a 20+ year gap between a person being in charge, and having a recession named after them? - is it because there are *so* many people to blame that you just have to wait your turn?
-- zen_tom, Oct 16 2008


This is "Recession Alan Grenspan". The last Great Depression was "Recession Herbert Hoover".
-- quantum_flux, Oct 17 2008



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