Gross
sums up his distaste for the practice of comparing the Panic of 2008 --
The Wall Street Journal's new term for the crisis -- with the Great
Depression with an analogy of his own: "More substantively, the
economic trauma the nation suffered in the 1930s makes today's woes
look like a flesh wound." He goes on to exemplify those differences:
So why all the Depression comparisons? Gross
argues that it is expedient for Wall Street executives to evoke the
Depression because it deflects blame. He writes:
Financial executives invoke distant
history in part to make up for their own recent shortcomings. If a
force as powerful as the Great Depression has been unleashed on the
global economy, how can a mere mortal like Merrill's John Thain be held
responsible?
So it's Wall Street's fault. On top of
everything else, they're abusing analogies as well. In fact, there's
been a vast discussion of the Depression from economists and talking
heads all over the place, including a Time cover in October. Is there a
rule against reading Time at Newsweek? If so, that might explain how
Gross missed Niall Ferguson's recent cover story comparing our economic
calamity with the Depression in October -- weeks before Thain ever
alluded to the Depression. (Ferguson hails from Harvard University.) If
anything, Wall Street executives were late onto the bandwagon, only
joining after the media and politicians beat it to bloody.
Moreover, Gross offers another apology for Depression chic: It is human
nature to use analogies to put events in context. If that's the case,
maybe there is a better analogy. For an answer to that, look no further
than the box attached labeled "Related in Slate," which suggests a May article
comparing the current recession not only with the Depression, but also
the last four recessions, which clearly offer better analogies, but
don't sell magazines or books. - Matthew Wurtzel
See Gross' column from Slate
See related story from Slate
Matthew Wurtzel is the editor of Dealscape.
While the Chicken Littles in the mainstream media comb their archives for images of the Great Depression, an unlikely voice of reason emerges from Newsweek and Slate columnist Dan Gross who argues 2008 is not 1929. Gross, in fact, is downright irate over the issue, suggesting he'd
like to throw Arthur Schlesinger's "The Coming of the New Deal" at the
next person to make the comparison. Of course, if he does toss Schlesinger's three-volume set at someone, they should respond by
throwing back Gross' own tome "Pop!: Why Bubbles are Great for the
Economy," published in May 2007, just before the bubble, well, burst. 
