Is it the 1930s all over again? If that were true, it would be one very good reason to panic, sell everything, and put your money in a mattress. But it turns out that the comparisons between today and the Great Depression are (mostly) bunk.
You should know by now (if you’ve been reading the papers or the blogs) that the stock market crash of 1929 did not cause the Great Depression. Instead, the Depression came about because of a flawed economic response in Washington. As the economy cooled in the early 1930s, rising bank failures led to sharp contraction in credit. Congress balanced the budget and imposed trade tariffs. The result was a downward spiral in the economy and massive unemployment. The economic collapse led to the failure of the financial system—notably, a surge in bank failures and collapsing stock prices.