The financial crisis has spread to Europe, where it will probably be more difficult to deal with since, unlike the U.S., their political union is not as comprehensive as their economic union. We've already seen some European governments take steps that are not helpful to their neighbors.

Robert J. Samuelson asks whether or not it is 1929 again. He concludes that it is not, primarily because it was the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Government, through action and inaction, that made what should have been a recession into the Great Depression. It seem that, so far at least, the U.S. Government and the Federal Reserve are reacting helpfully (although we won't really know until later on whether what they have done is helpful or harmful).