[central_va]

Can you have a recession inside of a depression?

[Daralundy]

I, too, thought these last 7 or 8 years, we have been in a depression. It has been papered over with a lot of government money. Otherwise it would all have looked like the thirties. And of course the money won’t last forever.

[woofie]

Can you have a recession inside of a depression inside of another depression?

[pierrem15]

Sure-- we had one in 1937, while still trying to recover from the 1929 crash.

Production had largely recovered by 1937, but unemployment still remained very high, very similar to now.

[Tallguy]

I believe you can. There were years during the Great Depression where things improved.

[Darth Reardon]

Technically, there’s no difference between the two terms, economists simply changed from using the word depression to using the word recession.

But using the non-economist versions of the terms, sure. Happened at least once in the thirties as the economy was recovering but hadn’t fully recovered, then settled a setback.

Whether we could have one now depends on if you believe there has been a recovery.