The Market
The Dow fell 42% from its high on October 9, 2007 to its low on October 27, which was almost the same as the market's fall in 1929. This time, though, many people had stock mutual funds as the cornerstone of their retirement savings. In 2006, two-thirds of all 401(k) plans were invested in stocks, a percentage little-changed in the previous 11 years.
The biggest change from the Depression is a massive intervention by the world's central banks. "The Federal Reserve has been very aggressive in its role as lender of last resort," says Paul Kasriel, chief economist for Northern Trust. "That's why the Fed was created — not to prevent recessions, but to prevent the implosion of the financial system."
The Bailout
The government has been trying to prevent an economic meltdown because officials worried about another Great Depression. When explaining why President Bush backed the bailout, spokeswoman Dana Perino said: "It was when Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson came to him and said "We could be facing something worse than the Great Depression if we don't act", that the president realized that he had to put aside his instincts and focus on what he could do as president of the United States to help save this economy — to help individual Americans all across the country of all economic stripes." The $700 billion bailout bill, and the fiscal stimulus checks that went out, showed the government was willing to intervene in the financial system to keep it afloat.
Unemployment
The Fed has cut interest rates nine times since the credit crisis began in September 2007. The Fed has also created several credit facilities that allow troubled financial institutions to exchange assets that they couldn't sell otherwise for ultrasafe Treasury securities. Unemployment is expected to rise to as high as another 8% in the next year. Many experts note that real unemployment may be much higher than the official figure of 8% because those numbers don't include people who have stopped looking for work.
Housing
Home prices, which have swooned as much as 25% or more in some areas, still have another 10% to 15% to go.
Education
Education is now a required thing for all students until age 18, or a student graduates. Students may go to public school provided for them, or to a private school in which the parent chooses and contributes to. There are different educational levels: elementary, middle, high, college, and more advanced degrees of college. During the Great Depression, if children went to school, they shared a schoolhouse and were finished with school by the eighth grade (age 15).