Economy: Rinse and Repeat

Those who know me know that I am a big fan of capitalism. One of the things that can be difficult about a free economy is the boom and bust cycle that takes place when markets must correct themselves. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail on that. I did, however, what to point something out. I keep hearing about how bad the economy is and people wondering if we will ever get back to prosperity. In fact, here are just a few headlines from the past year in Time magazine (including a case for saving GM and a picture of Mr. Change Obama and his "New New Deal"):

The reason I post these is because they remind me of another time. When I was just starting to study journalism in high school in 1992 (a quick shout out to Ms. Beck from Hillcrest High) we were also going through a rough economic time. I remember reading article after article wondering if/when we would ever get out of the tailspin we were in. Interestingly enough, many economists would argue that the '90s were as prosperous a decade as we have ever had. See if any of these 1992 Time covers look at all familiar (including an article about GM and a "Mandate for Change")

I'm not predicting how or when the economy is going to turn around. In fact, given our governments response, I've never been more worried for the state of our nation. However, I do think that a little perspective on how history tends to repeat itself is worth at least a glance.