Diabullic,

Just respectfully curious, but what are the "safety nets" you are referring to that we have in place now that were not in place then?

According to my study of the Great Depression, it was the government's meddling with the free market system (that was trying to liquidate mal-investments) that caused what would have been a recession in 1929 to become a depression. Thus, I am skeptical of any safety nets, and indeed believe that they will cause the recession/depression to be worse than it otherwise would have been. We are doing the exact same thing today by propping up the mal-investments of the credit/real estate bubble.

When you add the fact that our currency is no longer based on gold, as it was during the Great Depression, and that government has free reign to print as many dollars as it wishes to fund these "safety nets", you have the correct ingredients to potentially cause a Hyperinflationary Depression.

From my study of the German Weimar hyperinflation, these tend to be much worse than a deflationary depression. I am not sure whether you agree we are headed for some form of hyperinflation, but all the signs to me point that we are.

Best regards,

Hysteria

"Fortunately, there are saftey nets in place now that were not then. So this recession will not have the same ramifications as did the depression, but it could be a worse recession in many ways. A worse recession but not as bad a depression."