Few Humble Thoughts about the Economy by Ben Stein

**Special Note: Ben Stein’s commentary is a LKL Blog Exclusive.  Ben Stein will also be a guest on tonight’s “Larry King Live.”

Ben Stein is a New York Times columnist, economist, author and well known TV personality.

We are clearly in a serious slowdown. A slowdown this serious, fed by a credit shutdown, will not stop automatically or at least might not.

This is way beyond a normal recession. At this point it might become self reinforcing and become like a Depression in which we reach what economists call a state of equilibrium far below full employment.

This is what happened in the great depression and could happen this time. The main contributor to this unusual situation is a serious credit shortage, generated by fears fed by the collapse of Lehman and the problems at other lenders such as Wachovia and Washington Mutual and financial firms such as Merrill Lynch and Bear Stearns.

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