The Dow dropped pretty close to 50% of its value in a matter of a month in '29 and didn't recover until the mid-'50s.  The current market's off about 20% from the high last fall, so it's a bear market (which is still rubbish), but nothing like the ferocity of '29.

And, as I said to AT, if we were facing a '29-like crash, then I think it would be the case that Bernanke's probably reacting in roughly the correct way, compared with the Fed of the Great Depression.

But I think Bernanke's overreacting and casting the net too wide on what constitute critical financial institutions.

Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin