that's a sick chart. surprising Great Recession was significantly worse peak to trough than COVID, but maybe that's because COVID happened so fast it felt like each day the sky was falling last March
I think there is a recency bias to these things where the last bad patch usually feels like the worst. Between just the dot-com bubble, financial crisis, and COVID crash, each of these things at the time were referred to as the worst thing since the Great Depression or once-in-a-lifetime events. In the beginning of COVID there was even a period of time where everyone was saying it was the start of a depression! It makes for a more appealing narrative to capture people’s attention that’s for sure.
Another factor is that each recession or pullback works differently and there can be particular aspects to each that truly is the “worst thing ever.” With COVID, it’s definitely the worst recession ever for restaurants and airlines. In 2008, the worst for banks. In 2000, the worst for tech companies. Holistically, these recessions don’t come close to the Great Depression but each one has an aspect that’s worse than anything before or in a long long time that can feed the narrative that the overall event is “the worst thing ever” even if it’s definitely not the case.
that's a sick chart. surprising Great Recession was significantly worse peak to trough than COVID, but maybe that's because COVID happened so fast it felt like each day the sky was falling last March
I think there is a recency bias to these things where the last bad patch usually feels like the worst. Between just the dot-com bubble, financial crisis, and COVID crash, each of these things at the time were referred to as the worst thing since the Great Depression or once-in-a-lifetime events. In the beginning of COVID there was even a period of time where everyone was saying it was the start of a depression! It makes for a more appealing narrative to capture people’s attention that’s for sure.
Another factor is that each recession or pullback works differently and there can be particular aspects to each that truly is the “worst thing ever.” With COVID, it’s definitely the worst recession ever for restaurants and airlines. In 2008, the worst for banks. In 2000, the worst for tech companies. Holistically, these recessions don’t come close to the Great Depression but each one has an aspect that’s worse than anything before or in a long long time that can feed the narrative that the overall event is “the worst thing ever” even if it’s definitely not the case.