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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> >What started in 1929 took four years to complete.  We are 'not', yet, even 
> close.  For us to reach what was completed in 1933, the dow would have to 
> fall to around 1000, as a measurement;  and, real unemployment to rise 
> above 25%
> 

In 1929 stocks dropped twelve percent the first day and then thirteen percent 
the next, the 'crash' was just 25% below peak.   There were several rallies 
before the slow, inexorable slide that ended in '33.  We are already more 
than 
30% below the peak, took more than two days, but that's immaterial.

Another factor is that in the 30's the US had plenty of its own oil.   To a 
large extent we were able to eventually 'oil' our way out of the economic 
troubles.  Now we don't even have half our own consumption.  In the 30's 
hundreds 
of millions of people went back to throw their lot in with the family farms 
they had so recently vacated for the cities.  Now there are no such farms.

Picking up a truck part the other day and this having been the lousiest 
fishing season on record, I stopped by a mart to see if there were any fish I 
could 
afford to buy.  I had one criterion - it could not be from China.  From a 16 
foot row of frozen cases, there was not ONE seafood product that was not from 
China.  Look on the backs of canned and frozen goods in the stores, almost 
none of it any more is a product of the USA.

I keep hearing blather about things are different this time because of Fed 
involvement and early intervention.  Hell yes things are different this time, 
we 
have NO backup, NO plan B, NO effective safety net.

Our grimness is exceeded only by our grimness.   No, wait, that's too 
negative.  Let me put on the Pollyanna handpuppet:  "Yes, boys and girls, 
everything 
will be just fine.  The US government (full faith and integrity, don't you 
know) would never let houses devalue nationwide by 30%, let the stock market 
slip 
below 10,000, or let the money evaporate out of your 401K ..... no ... wait 
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