A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE ON THE ECONOMY:

I’m sure they love calling it a Depression in Washington.

It’s sort of like my mother-in-law, who was a young single woman in New York City during World War II. While for many, World War II is remembered as a time of rationing, danger, death, or at least absent family members, my mother-in-law remembered it as a time when she had lots and lots of dates. (New York being full of young officers about to debark, or directing various war-related activities.) Really her golden era.

Likewise, though much of the country suffered during the Depression, for Washington, it was a time when complaints about taxes and regulation were discredited, other power centers were economically crippled, and legislators and executive officials ruled supreme. So I would expect that usage to thrive in Washington.

Related thoughts from Tim Noah.