# Who benefits from another Depression? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 29, 2011, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-benefits-from-another-depression/601199 "2011-10-29T16:44:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-benefits-from-another-depression/601199/21 "2011-10-31T17:24:57Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I can’t find the entire article online, and am not subscribed to the new republic. But I would guess it is just short sightedness on the part of politicians and the public who elect them. We ignore climate change for the same reason. > > Plus is there a unanimous consensus among economists that the concept of austerity will lead to more depression? Seeing how most didn’t seem to see the current depression coming (if there were alarm bells coming from economists before 2007, I don’t remember hearing them en masse), it makes them seem less credible. > > Plus there are serious risks to constantly spending and borrowing. Where is all the borrowed money going to come from (ie, can you continue to borrow trillions year after year? Eventually people will realize you won’t pay it back and raise interest rates). I am not an economist, but if the US is borrowing 1.6 trillion a year, Europe is running deficits of roughly 10% of GDP too. If a country gets too deep in debt that does have serious problems in and of itself. > > But who wins? Whoever has cash to buy resources that are being sold off cheap. Around now is probably a good time to invest in real estate. China used its cash reserves to buy up a lot of natural resources back in 2008 and 2009, since nations were desperate for money. I don’t remember the details, but they cut some pretty good deals with nations like Russia where in exchange for money now, China would get oil at a discount for decades. > > So the only people who win are those with liquid assets who want to invest and hold onto the investments for when the economy recovers. Very true. If you have cash, buy real estate (in extremely depressed amrkets). But be careful-there are lots of “Detroits” out there..where real estate will never come back. I figure that depressed RE markets like California (provided it is near a major city), and Florida, will come back nicely. Places like Buffalo NY, Detroit, Gary Indiana will continue to decline (ageing population, fleeing industries, inept local government) will never recover-at best, these places will stay even. Now if Detroit could magically reinvent itself (honest city government, low tax rates,low crime rate) it might have a future..but thats as likely as $50/barrel oil. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-benefits-from-another-depression/601199/22 "2011-10-31T17:53:37Z")
Well, I’ve got a shit-ton of signs that say “APPLES 5 CENTS,” so I stand to earn quite a bit in franchise fees… ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-benefits-from-another-depression/601199/23 "2011-10-31T18:02:11Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Flag on the play. Just a small one. > > While it’s true that the use of options, both puts and calls, can and is used by a wide variety of people and investors it would be at least a bit over the top to say anyone can do it. There are generally certain requirements to quality for a broker dealer certification on margin accounts. They are not terrible stringent but there are some. Even when such requirements are fulfilled, the game is stacked against the small player in certain ways. A notable and often overlooked example of this (though inapplicable in today’s low interest environment) is interest (“rebate”) on short sale proceeds. To clarify how this works, let me work a specific example: Suppose broker lends at 8% and pays interest of 4% on cash balances, or 3% on sequestered cash. Suppose Universal Widget pays 6% dividend. Suppose you borrow to buy Widget. You pay 8% interest, receive 6% dividend, so lose 2% net on the margined half of the stock if the stock price stays fixed, or gain 8% or lose 12% net if the price moves 10% during a year. Now suppose you borrow stock and sell it. This should be conceptually just the opposite of the margined buy – instead of borrowing money and trading it for stock, you’re borrowing stock and trading it for money. (It is important to understand that both the stock and the money paid when you sell it are real, even though it wasn’t your stock to start.) You should receive 3% interest on the cash proceeds, but must pay the 6% dividend, so you net a 7% gain or 13% loss if the price moves 10% during the year. Except you don’t if you’re a small investor, because no 3% “short rebate” is paid to you. The broker earns interest on your cash proceeds, but doesn’t pay it to you. Thus while the hedge fund needs the stock to drop 3% over the year for it to break even, you need the stock to drop 6% over the year just to break even. Yes, this is irrelevant with today’s interest rates, but in a normal interest environment this is enough to effectively make short sales irrational for the small investor. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-benefits-from-another-depression/601199/24 "2011-10-31T18:25:07Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Very true. If you have cash, buy real estate (in extremely depressed amrkets). But be careful-there are lots of “Detroits” out there..where real estate will never come back. > I figure that depressed RE markets like California (provided it is near a major city), and Florida, will come back nicely. > Places like Buffalo NY, Detroit, Gary Indiana will continue to decline (ageing population, fleeing industries, inept local government) will never recover-at best, these places will stay even. > Now if Detroit could magically reinvent itself (honest city government, low tax rates,low crime rate) it might have a future..but thats as likely as $50/barrel oil. Real estate might be a good investment if homes are at the bottom of the price drop and will go only up. I am not so sure that has been reached. If you buy a bunch of homes and they continue to go down , they will take you with them. Who will survive a depression well? The rich. They are insulated from the danger of the economy. They can even go abroad if things get too ugly here. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-benefits-from-another-depression/601199/25 "2011-10-31T18:27:44Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Well, I’ve got a shit-ton of signs that say “APPLES 5 CENTS,” so I stand to earn quite a bit in franchise fees… I’ll outsell you 10-to-1 with my “HANDGUNS 5 DOLLARS”. Not that we’re in direct competition.\* (Don’t ask me where I got handguns for less than $5 and I won’t look too close at your suspiciously-cheap apples.) \*But I win anyway, because I also invested in a sign-printing business. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-benefits-from-another-depression/601199/26 "2011-10-31T18:44:17Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > There is another saying in financial circles. “Past performance does not guarantee future results”. And in non-financial circles: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-benefits-from-another-depression/601199/27 "2011-10-31T18:54:46Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Plus is there a unanimous consensus among economists that the concept of austerity will lead to more depression? Seeing how most didn’t seem to see the current depression coming (if there were alarm bells coming from economists before 2007, I don’t remember hearing them en masse), it makes them seem less credible. You should have been reading Krugman. I’m not sure he specifically predicted the great recession, but he sure was sounding the alert about the impact of the eventual deflation of the housing bubble if the Fed didn’t do anything to ease it down slowly. Which is something Greenspan refused to do, since it would have probably thrown the economy into a mild recession, and because he was ideologically blind to what was going on. Krugman apologized for not seeing the full picture, but he was more correct than a lot of people. > [@](#): > > Plus there are serious risks to constantly spending and borrowing. Where is all the borrowed money going to come from (ie, can you continue to borrow trillions year after year? Eventually people will realize you won’t pay it back and raise interest rates). I am not an economist, but if the US is borrowing 1.6 trillion a year, Europe is running deficits of roughly 10% of GDP too. If a country gets too deep in debt that does have serious problems in and of itself. The continued low interest rates for Treasuries shows that the market does not agree. The only way to dig ourselves out of this mess is to have a growing economy that both naturally increases tax revenues and cuts spending on things like unemployment and welfare, and I hope allows us to raise taxes some without the usual suspects pitching a fit. In my local paper this morning they published information on job growth or non-growth in the Bay Area. The tech sector is hiring like crazy - which I can testify as being true. However other segments are not, which is holding down the recovery. The worst one - government, which had the biggest absolute job loss of anyone. During a period of low growth that is stupid. Government should be making things better, not worse. One reason the stimulus package didn’t perform as well as it should was that major cutbacks in state budgets meant it only added about 2% to GDP (based on a New Yorker column from a few weeks ago) which did not give the push it should have. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-benefits-from-another-depression/601199/28 "2011-10-31T21:29:18Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Look, is there really a subset of the PTB sitting in a boardroom somewhere saying, “A Depression would be good for **our** interests, how do we bring it about?” Well, yes; that’s pretty much what the “starve the beast” people have been pushing for for years. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-benefits-from-another-depression/601199/29 "2011-11-01T14:12:56Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Look, is there really a subset of the PTB sitting in a boardroom somewhere saying, “A Depression would be good for **our** interests, how do we bring it about?” No really- what does PTB mean? Whoever they are, I don’t think there is a cabal specifically bent on causing a Depression per se. More like they don’t care if a Depression is the effect of their quest for profits. I don’t know though- Romeny’s plan appears pretty stark with its massive cuts, a balanced budget amendment and obviously no tax increases. If he/They want a Depression that is a good start. And considering its seeming ignorance of both history and the current state of treasuries you gotta wonder. ---
**Author:** ![PBear42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PBear42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PBear42)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-benefits-from-another-depression/601199/30 "2011-11-02T05:54:54Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > No really- what does PTB mean? Powers That Be ---
**Author:** ![Trom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@Trom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trom)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-benefits-from-another-depression/601199/32 "2011-11-02T15:03:55Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Even when such requirements are fulfilled, the game is stacked against the small player in certain ways. > > A notable and often overlooked example of this (though inapplicable in today’s low interest environment) is interest (“rebate”) on short sale proceeds. To clarify how this works, let me work a specific example: > > Suppose broker lends at 8% and pays interest of 4% on cash balances, or 3% on sequestered cash. Suppose Universal Widget pays 6% dividend. Suppose you borrow to buy Widget. You pay 8% interest, receive 6% dividend, so lose 2% net on the margined half of the stock if the stock price stays fixed, or gain 8% or lose 12% net if the price moves 10% during a year. > > Now suppose you borrow stock and sell it. This should be conceptually just the opposite of the margined buy – instead of borrowing money and trading it for stock, you’re borrowing stock and trading it for money. (It is important to understand that both the stock and the money paid when you sell it are real, even though it wasn’t your stock to start.) You should receive 3% interest on the cash proceeds, but must pay the 6% dividend, so you net a 7% gain or 13% loss if the price moves 10% during the year. > > Except you don’t if you’re a small investor, because no 3% “short rebate” is paid to you. The broker earns interest on your cash proceeds, but doesn’t pay it to you. Thus while the hedge fund needs the stock to drop 3% over the year for it to break even, you need the stock to drop 6% over the year just to break even. Yes, this is irrelevant with today’s interest rates, but in a normal interest environment this is enough to effectively make short sales irrational for the small investor. There are certain brokerages that will offer retail accounts a portion of the interest from short sales, but usually only for large positions. Single stock futures, traded at [OneChicago](http://www.onechicago.com/), offer some unique [benefits](http://www.onechicago.com/?page_id=68)for both shorts and longs. ---
**Author:** ![yorick73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b5a626/32.png) [@yorick73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yorick73)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-benefits-from-another-depression/601199/33 "2011-11-02T16:53:28Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > My feeling is that top leaders who propose/apply austerity know where that will lead. Am I wrong in thinking that world leaders are familiar with economic history? > > If they know what they are doing and are purposefully leading us into another Depression, ITSM they must be motivated by that being of benefit to _somebody_. Who benefits from another Depression? Or are they simply unfazed by the prospect of another Depression? What explains their behavior? You assume that those in favor of austerity know that they are incorrect. Have you considered that they think they are correct? Have you even considered that they may be correct? FDR’s own Treasury Secretary did not believe government spending was working. > [@Henry Morgenthau Jr.](#): > > We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and now if I am wrong somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosper. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises. I say after eight years of this administration, we have just as much unemployment as when we started. And enormous debt to boot." ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-benefits-from-another-depression/601199/34 "2011-11-02T17:26:38Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > From [Rich People Create Jobs! and five other myths that must die for our economy to live](http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/10/charts-economic-myths-jobs-deficit-taxes): > That’s the Keynesian view. It appears Romney/The GOP would prevent such returns on taxpayers’ money since gains for the public don’t always translate to gains for the top. How do you know macroeconomists have a since of humor? They use decimal places. There have been many studies done to estimate the multiplier of new spending. 1.5 is generally the highest result ever found. Most estimates are between .5 and 1.5. If the multiplier is below one than all of this government spending is destroying the economy and you are also lowering tax revenue increasing the cost of the spending. The risk of non-action if the multiplier is higher than one is a slower economy for a few years, the risk of action if the multiplier is lower than one is Greece. Estimates from studies of multiplier generally make multipliers from tax cuts higher than from government spending. Christina Romer who was Chairman of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers did a study with her husband that found the multiplier for tax cuts was twice as high as for government spending. ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-benefits-from-another-depression/601199/35 "2011-11-02T17:36:22Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [From somewhere in here:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Hoover#Great_Depression) This is misleading in that it makes it appear as though Hoover’s belief in balanced budgets is incompatible with his being a big spender. This is not true he spend alot but he also believed in raising taxes to pay for that spending. In his first year the federal budget was 3 billion dollars. In his last year it was 4.5 billion dollars. Federal spending was increased by 50% during Hoover’s term. This was during a period of deflation so the actual increae in real terms was bigger. Hoover also raised top tax rates from 25% to 63%. We are lucky in that we have Hoover’s bad example to learn from. I mean now nobody would be dumb enough to propose large increases government spending and huge tax hikes in the middle of a recession right? ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-benefits-from-another-depression/601199/36 "2011-11-04T02:08:54Z")
> [@yorick73](#): > > You assume that those in favor of austerity know that they are incorrect. Have you considered that they think they are correct? Well, ultimately it comes down to ‘correct for whom’. Part of the point of asking who benefits from another Depression (is that word capitalized, in proper usage?) is to determine if people generally believe _anyone_ benefits from it. If all the great minds of the 'dope had come in here and demonstrated, “Why, not a single person benefits from a Depression”, it would pretty much blow the hypothesis that depressions are something that humans may/do cause. But the consensus seems to be that wealthy people benefit from a recession, if they are on-the-ball with their money. And wealthy people also happen to be the group in a position to make the kinds of decions that possibly could cause a depression. > [@](#): > > Have you even considered that they may be correct? Clearly. They may be correct in believing that another Depression would increase their power and profit in the long run. It’d screw all of us hoi polloi, but that they don’t really care is also part of they hypothesis. > [@](#): > > FDR’s own Treasury Secretary did not believe government spending was working. People in a free country like ours may believe pretty much anything. In some matters, thinking does _not_ make it so. I don’t think the reality of the effectiveness of the New Deal was altered by FDR’s Treasury Secretary’s beliefs. Herman Cain believes in 9-9-9. I believe Rick Perry promotes some kind of flat tax. But since we’re talking about Mitt Romney, note that he ostensibly believes Mormon Doctrine states that God established the Constitution of the United States in order to found the LDS religion[[sup]1[/sup]](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=14392442&postcount=757). What if it turns out Mormons benefit from another Depression? It is a potentially sound hypothesis. Mormons own a lot of gold. And in[Gold Faithful: Profiting from Paranoia with Precious Metals](http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2011/06/13/gold-crazy-as-dot-com-and-housing-argues-thomas-frank/): > [@](#): > > Mr. Frank argues that gold is currently in a bubble as crazy as dot-com stocks in the 1990s and houses in the 2000s, that a gold standard has historically crushed the same little guy who’s crying out for it today, and that the bubble is due to burst when it becomes clear that we are not about to collapse into a Mad Max-style apocalyptic hellscape. Maybe, if we get the tax code just ‘right’, that Mad Max-style apocalyptic hellscape (for the rest of us) isn’t that far out of reach. Yes, I’ve considered that they may be correct. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-benefits-from-another-depression/601199/37 "2011-11-04T02:13:08Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > The risk of non-action if the multiplier is higher than one is a slower economy for a few years, the risk of action if the multiplier is lower than one is Greece. We aren’t anywhere near the condition of Greece, and with treasuries so low we aren’t going to get there anytime soon. And insofar as the real-world multiplier number probably cannot be known until after the fact, the risk that it is less than 1 is also pretty low. > [@](#): > > Estimates from studies of multiplier generally make multipliers from tax cuts higher than from government spending. Christina Romer who was Chairman of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers did a study with her husband that found the multiplier for tax cuts was twice as high as for government spending. Is that tax cuts for the rich vs. any kind of government spending, or what? If you can prove it with a cite I’d be enriched. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-benefits-from-another-depression/601199/38 "2011-11-04T02:19:12Z")
GlaxoSmithKline?? -XT ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-benefits-from-another-depression/601199/39 "2011-11-04T02:22:06Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > But the consensus seems to be that wealthy people benefit from a recession, if they are on-the-ball with their money. Is that really the consensus? And if so, does it mean anything other than this board is populated with people with a blind hatred of the rich? Is there any evidence that the wealthy prosper from a recession/depression? Let’s take a look at the [Forbes 500 in 2009](http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/11/worlds-richest-people-billionaires-2009-billionaires-intro.html)when the most recent recession hit. > [@](#): > > The world has become a wealth wasteland. Like the rest of us, the richest people in the world have endured a financial disaster over the past year. Today there are 793 people on our list of the World’s Billionaires, a 30% decline from a year ago. > > Of the 1,125 billionaires who made last year’s ranking, 373 fell off the list–355 from declining fortunes and 18 who died. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-benefits-from-another-depression/601199/40 "2011-11-04T02:37:54Z")
We’re not talking about a snapshot, but long-term. In '09 you coulda bought Ford at $2 a share. Who cares if your overall fortune declined 30%, by now your investments would have multiplied sixfold. And everything else goes back up again during the recovery. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-benefits-from-another-depression/601199/41 "2011-11-04T10:39:09Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > We’re not talking about a snapshot, but long-term. In '09 you coulda bought Ford at $2 a share. Who cares if your overall fortune declined 30%, by now your investments would have multiplied sixfold. And everything else goes back up again during the recovery. Are you seriously suggesting that when the market falls 60%, then nearly 3 years later is still down 15% or so from its high, that rich people will do better than in non-recessionary times when the market averages an increase of 10% per year? Evidence please. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-benefits-from-another-depression/601199.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-benefits-from-another-depression/601199.md?page=3)