I find it grimly amusing that the posters here expressing variations on the "this is fine" position are making the exact arguments that market boosters were mak

I find it grimly amusing that the posters here expressing variations on the "this is fine" position are making the exact arguments that market boosters were making before/during the mortgage finance crisis in 2007/2008. The problem with those arguments is the fact that what turns a recession into a depression is demand strikes: when the people with cash lose faith in the integrity of the market, they just take their money off the table and go home. Arbitrage and market correction dynamics cease to function. The fact that depressions can be caused by collapses in demand as well as in supply was the key insight of Keynes et al. in the 1930's, which is why he argued that the government must have the power to regulate markets and the authority to step in and become the buyer of last resort in the face of an incipient depression. Keynes' insight was conveniently forgotten by the early 2000's, regulation was resisted, the shadow market grew out of bounds, bailouts and stimulus met political resistance, and the rest is history. How short the time span of memory is.