“Bernanke's been speaking live now for about an hour. Says that there is "no comparison" between this current "slowdown" and the Great Depression. Mentions 25% unemployment in the Depression, 1/3 of the banks failed, 1/3 of a drop in GDP, the stock market falling 90%, etc.”
1 hour ago
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Jeff P. Henderson, Atul Arora, Beth K and 3 other people liked this
Just give it a year. - Jason Kaneshiro
maybe he should ask Bush to ask Paulson to resign, start fresh with Geithner, and stop making excuses ;-) - Andy Sternberg
the interesting thing was how forcefully he addressed this stressing the "no comparison" part. I think he's deliberately trying to quell a lot of the talk in the media right now comparing these days to the Great Depression. Certainly all of the media comparisons would effect consumer confidence and sentiment. - Thomas Hawk
since the situation is being exacerbated by a big panic attack, anything leaders can do to restore confidence is a good thing... - Jeremy Toeman
In terms of timeline, we are on track for another great depression. The stock market doesn't often go down by 50%. In addition, the calculation of unemployment was changed in 1994 to not include "discouraged" workers. Since unemployment was calculated in a completely different way in the 1930s, it's comparing oranges and apples. Finally, we were actually the world's creditor and exporter before the 1929 crash. Now what are we? - Chris White
Paulson's talking now live. Giving an update on TARP. - Thomas Hawk
Paulson wins! Bernanke and Paulson had an inside bet over who could drive the market down below 500 points. Bernanke came up short, but Henry pushed it over the goal line. - Chris White
yep, market down over 500 points now after Paulson finished his speech. - Thomas Hawk
Nasdaq's down almost 8% now. - Thomas Hawk
