new great depression? depressed yet?

Um not exactly - The 1929 Stock Market was pretty unregulated, and dominated by speculation. Our market today is closely monitored by the SEC and our interest rates are controlled by the Fed - Our economy may fluctuate, our debt may be enormous and our president may be incompetent, but we won't be seeing any great depressions in the future.

Lots of other things besides the stock market could crash the economy. Like the, ahem, unregulated mortgage industry. Or the unregulated credit card industry. I wasn't suggesting that things are *exactly* what they were in the late 1920s. But big-picture attitudes about the squeezing out of the middle class while the superrich get even superricher with the tacit or even overt approval of the federal government are on a par with what they were the last time a similar house of cards came tumbling down.

Dear MaryAnn, I respect your views on the comical absurdity of the religious right and its comatose pupet George W. I hope you realize your prophesizing of another depression evokes the same visceral reaction from me that stories of creation do for you. Just like religious fanatics, you make your claims based on instinctual feelings rather than facts. Your a good writer whose opinions are valuable to the progressive cause, but when you make astrology-like predictions about the economy you only discredit yourself. The enlightenment was about logic and reason. The legacy of liberalism is a commitment to these principles, something you should adhere too.

I hope you realize your prophesizing of another depression

I'm not prophetizing -- lord knows I don't actually *want* these things to happen -- just wondering whether it seems likely that they *might* happen.

when you make astrology-like predictions about the economy you only discredit yourself.

I am not intending to make "astrology-like predictions." I AM looking at these things from a rational perspective. I may be wrong in the long run -- I hope I am -- but that doesn't necessarily mean I am approaching these things from an irrational perspective.