When depressions were great: The ominous offhand remark edition

Are we in a depression? Maybe so, if offhand remarks about the last one now require clarification. During Tim Pawlenty’s substitute-radio-host gig this afternoon on KKMS-AM, a Christian talk station, the governor asserted that religious institutions used to provide the nation’s social-service safety net but have abdicated that role to the government. He asked his guest, “redeemed Watergate figure” Chuck Colson, if he agreed. Colson started to hearken back to days of yore but then felt the need to be specific :

“I remember during the Depression — the Great Depression …”

Last fall in the run-up to the anniversary of Black Tuesday — and as our own clouds of economic doom seemed to be gathering — the Minnesota Independent carried a series of posts called “When Depressions Were Great” that took a look at what local newspapers were reporting before the crash of 1929. Iric Nathanson takes a similar but more detailed look back at a day during the depths of the Great Depression at MinnPost today — March 4, 1933, when banks in Minnesota took a state-ordered holiday to avert a run on their deposits.