Did you notice that the figures and percentages quoted above are not from PRIOR to the Crash of '29, they are from four years AFTERWARDS? The trickle-down effect isn't instantaneous, it takes a while for the excrement to hit the bottom of the hole under the outhouse. We aren't there yet.

"Unemployment figures" tend to count only the people who are currently drawing unemployment, not the ones for whom unemployment has run out, the young people who have moved back in with Mom and Dad, the people who have just filed for unemployment but aren't receiving it yet, or the people who are living under bridges or in holes in the ground covered with a ratty piece of plywood and a tarp. They're not counting the still-employed people who are only working three or four days a week instead of five. Some economists say the current unemployment rate is closer to 14%.

And I love "That's... not even a third of the peak in 1932 (25.2%)." They're saying that like what it is today is as bad as it's going to get. And I don't think we're close to hitting bottom yet. I don't think the unemployment will get better any time soon, nor the mortgage/banks situation.

I can't even believe that the banks and Wall Street crooks of the 1920/1930s were anywhere near the practiced thieves and manipulators of today.

The National Debt on 6/29/1929 was just under $17 billion.

The National Debt on 9/29/2000 was just over $5.5 TRILLION. In just eight years, it's jumped to over 9 TRILLION. Almost double in eight years! And now we're printing up another TRILLION dollars as fast as the presses can work.

Does anyone think this is the final bailout?

Does anyone think the unemployment is going to stop this week?

Does anyone think the gas prices are going to stablilze tomorrow?

Does anyone think the snakeoil salesmen on Wall Street and Washington DC are finished with their tricks, deceptions and frauds?

Not me.

Sue