Imagining Today’s Great Depression

With all the speculation about a new Great Depression, The Boston Globe tries to imagine exactly what it might look and feel like. Starvation is unlikely, so cross off long soup-lines. Instead, Americans are likely to move towards cheap calories, so "lean times could have the odd effect of making the population fatter, as more Americans eat like today's poor." Writes the Globe, "In general, much of a modern depression would unfold in the domestic sphere: people driving less, shopping less, and eating in their houses more. They would watch television at home; unemployed parents would watch over their own kids instead of taking them to day care. With online banking, it would even be possible to have a bank run in which no one leaves the comfort of their home."