Our current "Great Recession" will not hit the "30's Great Depression" type losses only because policymakers learned form the 30's mess. Most of the current great Economists in power like the Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke are students of the Great Depression. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson remembers the mistakes made by Andrew Mellon the treasury secretary before and during the great depression.
The Great Depression resulted from the end of a housing bubble in 1926 and the end of a high-tech bubble in 1929. But the main reason it reached to such a bad level was from incredible neglect and incompetence/inexperience on the part of policymakers in power at the time. The #1 cause was the Fed's failure to act. It basically stood by as the banking system and the economy collapsed around it.
This time, in contrast, the Fed can hardly be criticized for inaction. Not only has it cut lending rates to all time lows, but it has also thrown a lot of money on the fire. We will be $trillions of dollars further into debt by the end of the 1st quarter of 2009 because of this crisis. This money has been spent to bail out banks, lending institution and large companies (like the big 3 auto companies). This current crisis could have very easily reached Great Depression levels if action was not taken.
Washington DC area is very wealthy and some what insulated from this mess as compared to other parts of the country.
Because you or I have not lost our jobs does not mean this is not a huge economic crisis. 1.9 Million people lost their jobs in 2008
November: Most jobs lost since 1974 - Dec. 5, 2008
I have several friends in Michigan and Ohio who lost their jobs, houses and have to move to another state to find work.
This economic crisis will continue at
least into the 1st half of 2009. According to reports, planned jobs cut announcements for January soared to 181,671, the second-highest total on record. This is far from over.