Remember the good old days ?  By that we, US Democrazy, mean the good ole days of the Great Depression.  Well, not “great” for anyone (except shanty contractors and bindle factories), but you get the idea. 

So… how does this new-fangled economic turmoil stand up to the Big Bozo of Financial Fiascoes?

Poorly. But before y’all get up in arms about how bad it is now, let’s compare some numbers. 

Currently unemployment is around 8.1%.  If you add in people who are working part time but want to work full time you get about 14.8%. 

This seems bad until you compare it to the 29% unemployment rate in 1932.  Based on this factor alone the current hiccup does not seem so bad. 

BUT WAIT!  There are some nasty similarities between our financial crunch and the Greatest of all Depressions.  

Christina Romer, head of the White House Council of Economic Advisors, (who is also a Great Authority on the Great Depression) provided some valuable insights. 

In her words “the worldwide nature of the decline” today is similar to the Great Depression. 

But don’t panic;  Romer points out people during the Great Depression had “painfully few of the social safety nets that today help families.” Phew! But painfully few still sounds kind of painful.

So put a smile on!  With a little luck (okay… maybe a lot of luck) we won’t have any stories for our children about the good ole Great Depression of ’09.