Dr. Mike Walden, North Carolina Cooperative Extension economist in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State University, responds:

"The so-called Great Depression happened in the 1930s. It was really two back-to-back recessions separated by a very slow-growth period. There's controversy even today about what sparked it. Some say it was excessive borrowing during the 1920s. Some say it was trade restrictions. Others say it was inept Federal Reserve policy. But we can certainly say that the economic pain during the Great Depression was much, much greater than what we're seeing today. For example, the unemployment rate during the Great Depression was 25 percent. Today, we're a little over 6 percent. Now, many of the backstops, many of the institutions in the financial sector that we have today to prevent a great depression, were, indeed, created during the Great Depression, like federal deposit insurance at banks. And I think also the Federal Reserve, which did exist at that time, learned much of what it should be doing during these crises, and they're applying it today. Interestingly, the head of the Federal Reserve today, Ben Bernanke, has been an expert on the Great Depression as an academic."