But I would argue, as Keynes did, that the boom, not the slump, is the time for austerity at the Treasury. To try to cut spending in a slump, as Osborne is doing, is to prolong the slump.

The Taiwanese dollar appreciated, causing Taiwanese exports to slump.

The Taiwanese dollar appreciated, causing Taiwanese exports to slump.

A freshly waxed car, the water molecules slump to about 90 degrees.

Today s particular economic circumstances provide a second reason for establishing a National Investment Bank. In slump or even semi slump conditions, a higher than normal proportion of private savings are held in cash or its nearest equivalent (short term treasury bills).

In order to become cheaper, a country s inflation rate must stay below that of its competitors, but that can be accomplished only through an economic slump. The more trade unions defend existing wage structures, and the lower productivity growth is, the longer the slump will be.

So, naturally, the only way out of the slump that I could think of was, I decided to call Oprah.

Yes, today the European economy is not doing badly. But how long is this likely to last with the US falling into a deep slump?

With everyone busy deleveraging, economies failed to recover. Much of the world, especially Europe, but also the slightly less sickly US, remains stuck in a semi slump.

Greece is in its fifth year of a slump. And eurozone unemployment is at record highs, with nearly one in two young people jobless in Spain and Greece.

Down, down, down!

A slump, after all, is defined by a deficiency in total spending. To try to cure it by spending less is like trying to cure a sick person by bleeding.

Meanwhile, established modes of production were disrupted, in twenty first century business school parlance, causing productivity to fall. But this slump in productivity was actually a harbinger of better times.

The fact that we were able practically to avert an economic slump during the collapse of the internal economic links of the former Soviet State also played an important role.

Down, down.

LONDON A specter is haunting the treasuries and central banks of the West the specter of secular stagnation. What if there is no sustainable recovery from the economic slump of 2008 2013?

The slump in construction activity in East Asia, together with the large currency depreciations of the major producers in the region, can be expected to increase timber supply for the export markets.

Down. Down. HONKING

Down, Lady, down!

Airplanes! Down! Down!

This slump may be inevitable, but it can be mitigated. Implementing policies to facilitate and reward long term investments will be key to exiting the current crisis and boosting the world s growth potential.

Hey, hey, hey, slow down, slow down, slow down.

Man down! Man down!

Sit down...sit down!

Sit down, sit down.

Calm down, calm down.

Get down, get down.

Sit down, sit down!

And one of the things that you see is that male line, the mortality is going down, down, down, down, down.

Globally, incomes grew briskly inflation abated and stock markets boomed. Moreover, the recovery from the last major slump, in the early 1980s, brought about a quarter century of unprecedentedly strong and stable macroeconomic performance.

But the ECB, whose only mandate is to maintain price stability, cannot pursue this policy without fundamental changes in legislation. Moreover, this scenario cannot take place before the slump has turned into a boom.

Sit down, ladies. Sit down.

Well, sit down, sit down!

Get down and stay down!

Sit down. Sit down quietly.

Colonel, get down! Get down!

Get down and stay down.

Lie down. Stay lying down.

Ah, but the glass has gone down and down and down.

But every downturn comes to an end. Success should not be measured by the fact that recovery eventually occurs, but by how quickly it takes hold and how extensive the damage caused by the slump.

About 10 million mortgages are estimated to be underwater (the house is worth less than the loan). And, in key markets around the US, four years into the housing slump, home prices continue to fall.

Come on, sit down! Sit down.

Down the street, down the street

All right, sit down, sit down.

Down with him! Down with him!