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It is concerning to me that an article like this could be written without much mention of the war--because the war is the primary culprit for our current economic woes, and our economy will not start to get better until we stop spending money on Iraq.
And the better comparison here is not to the Great Depression (prices fell then rather than rose, and the Fed deflated the currency rather than inflating it as is now being done), but to the post-Vietnam stagflation, which itself was the second worst economic period of the twentieth century.
Simply put, the Fed has been keeping rates artificially low, and the US government has been printing money and incurring record debt to finance a three trillion dollar war. Stop spending on Iraq, and rein in inflation (which will of necessity require a not-fun period of higher interest rates) and things will get to a much better place.
Bush squandered our peace dividend.
