You may be depressed, but the economy probably won't be

Not that it will be good, but compared to the Great Depression, our recession ain't even close. At least, that's what the Times's Michael Hiltzik says.

Both then and now, Americans faced the popping of bubbles - stocks then, housing now - but our unemployment rates don't hold a candle to the near quarter of the country out of work in the 30s. Cool, so no Depression. Phew.

"I've been asked many times whether we will have another Great Depression," says David M. Kennedy, a Stanford University history professor and the author of "Freedom From Fear," a Pulitzer Prize-winning history of the Depression and World War II. "My standard answer is that we won't have that one again -- I'd be surprised to have one of that seriousness and duration. But that doesn't mean we wouldn't have a catastrophe we haven't seen before."

Oooh, right, so it could be a different kind of Great - a new one with which we'll be unfamiliar and won't necessarily notice coming on? Awesome. I feel better. This totally makes me want to take my rebate check, run out, and . . . . stick it under my mattress.