Great Recession

I first saw the term “Great Recession” a few weeks ago in the Wall Street Journal.  Then, suddenly, it was everywhere.  Although people have apparently been saying it since around January of 2008, it really took off in mid-December, which is when Google News and Wall Street Journal searches start to pick it up.

The fact that the term suddenly appeared across the Internet recently could signal a general agreement among financial writers that the current crisis is finally far enough along that it can be named, put on a shelf, and treated as part of history in order to free up the more general phrase “the current financial crisis” for use when we hit the next one.

More importantly, though–and by “importantly” I mean worrisome–is if the financial community has decided that this one is over, then they’ve also decided that they survived.  And when people survive something epic, they tend to see it as a proof of their worth and invincibility.