Douche

'Depression' is the word used to describe how the working classes get soaked. Austrian-born economist Joseph Schumpeter as quoted in Robert Heilbronner's "The Worldly Philosophers" regaled his Harvard students in the mid-1930s

Chentleman, you are vorried about the depression. You should not be. For capitalism, a depression is a good cold douche. [By which he meant shower.]

Scrooge put it even more bluntly:

"Are there no workhouses? Are there no prisons...then let them die and decrease the surplus population."—Scrooge

There have been fears that the US economy was perched to jump off into a 1930s-style depression. Thanks to Schumpeter, many have said that a recession or a depression may not be such a bad thing. That depends, of course, upon whether or not you have enough reserves to ride out a recession. It has been argued that the international 'banking establishment' manufactures recessions/depressions to give investors a chance to pick up bargain stocks or entire businesses. But --is this a good thing as Schumpeter implied?