Here are a few of the many consequential differences between all previous recessions and the current situation: 1. Households have never been so dependent on debt as a substitute for stagnating wages. 2. Real earnings (adjusted for inflation) have never been so stagnant for the bottom 90% for so long. 3. Corporations have never been so dependent on debt (selling bonds or taking on loans) to fund money-losing operations (see Netflix) or stock buybacks designed to saddle the company with debt service expenses to enrich insiders. 4. The stock market has never been so dependent on what amounts to fraud–stock buybacks–to push valuations higher. 5. The economy has never been so dependent on absurdly overvalued stock valuations to prop up pension funds and the spending of the top 10% who own 85% of all stocks, i.e. “the wealth effect.” 6. The economy and the...