The Great Desperation:

In October 1929, the US stock market crashed.The ensuing decade became known as the Great Depression because prices kept falling, i.e., prices were depressed. The unemployment rate was about 25% and poverty was widespread. There were huge camps known as Hoovervilles, where homeless people lived.

I'm wondering though, if it was called the Great Depression because of the falling prices or if because so many people were depressed emotionally at not being able to find work. That's the way I feel in the current economy, depressed and also desperate. Maybe the decade following the stock market crash of 2008 will become known as the Great Desperation.

I doubt it, though. Historians have no sense of humor. They'll just mark it down as the Second Great Depression.