A silver lining to this economic cloud?

Just so we're not that gloomy, there's this:

It’s a perennial: nearly every recession leads pundits to proclaim that the job market is facing structural challenges, and that higher unemployment is here to stay. During the 1981-82 recession, now seen as a classic cyclical recession, the economist Barry Bluestone warned that, as a result of structural issues, there might not be “much recovery in terms of overall employment in the United States.” Yet, by 1984, unemployment was back to where it had been before recession hit. A 1964 survey of economists found that more than half believed structural issues were playing a significant role in limiting the number of jobs; three years later, unemployment was below four per cent. And, during the Great Depression, even F.D.R. thought that unemployment might well be stuck at a permanently higher level. Recessions are, among other things, crises of confidence, and one manifestation of lack of confidence is the conviction that this time we’re not going to be able to climb our way out.   --James Suroweicki, The New Yorker Magazine

  
So it may not be "the end of the world as we know it", folks.  Let's let calmer heads prevail.

Link to original post:  http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2011/01/03/110103ta_talk_surowiecki