he did make a distinction and described an economic bear market, not a single event like a great depression/recession.
my assumption here, he was describing a long term cyclic bear market, but tried to use elaborate word smithing to highly and over empathises his view, (especially evident in such a long winded article).
u can see on charts of the late 20s-40s, and mid 60's-1982 for bear markets, and those b4 and in between, bull markets, vise vera for gold/precious metals.
inventions, no matter how good they are, like the light bulb, unfortunately don't put food on your table especially for the vast majority, (more likely benefitting the inventor or the new form of an industry like a electricity company that take it up). also great inventions are often born in times of great necessity.
like i said, his language is much to be desired, and some of his claims, i will look into further, but i did see the main point here.
