That's what Robert Samuelson tells us anyway. Economists have learned a lot since the Great Depression about what went wrong then, and what can be done to prevent a repeat now. One choice nugget:
There are parallels between then and now, but there are also big differences. Now, as then, Americans borrowed heavily before the crisis—in the 1920s, for cars, radios and appliances; in the past decade, for homes or against inflated home values. Now, as then, the crisis caught people by surprise and is global in scope. But unlike then, the federal government is now a huge part of the economy (20 percent vs. 3 percent in 1929) and its spending—for Social Security, defense, roads—provides greater stabilization. Unlike then, government officials have moved quickly, if clumsily, to contain the crisis.
Maybe big government is the, or at least a, solution afterall.
