Greatest Depression

A new Great Depression? It's different this time

The shadow of the '30s looms over every economic downturn or crisis. But unemployment reached 25% during the Depression; last month it was reported at 4.8%.

Fear is spreading with the financial system in disarray. But the global boom is ongoing, unemployment is low and the government has new tools to address the downturn.

By Michael A. Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 20, 2008

Dysfunctional capital markets, frantic central banks, stressed-out consumers, fear and uncertainty -- all are alarming echoes of the global economic cataclysm of the 1930s.

Which raises the inevitable question:

Could another Great Depression be lurking over the horizon?