If you believe the International Monetary Fund, the US is already in a depression. Political leaders won’t say this because instantly people think dust bowls and jalopies and soup lines. But as Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal pointed out in our daily meeting this morning, “not every depression is Great.”

By the most basic definition, a depression is just a long recession. Maybe we’re somewhere in the middle – a Repression, if you will. Kai will have more on this subject on this evening’s Marketplace.

Earlier today, I posted a chart from Barry Ritholtz’s blog, The Big Picture. It compared job losses in all post-WWII recessions, but as Kai and a reader pointed out, it didn’t take into account the growing workforce. So, it was pure numbers of jobs not a percentage. So, Barry posted a different chart and you can see it here.