CNN: Worse than the Great Depression

The financial crisis that’s consuming the U.S. along with the rest of the world is worse than the Great Depression, and more along the lines of the collapse of the Soviet Union.


Three boys play marbles in a dirt alley, 1930s. Financier George Soros says the current financial crisis is worse than the Great Depression.

That’s according to renowned billionaire investor George Soros.

He points to the September collapse of Lehman Brothers as a turning point. Said Soros, “The economy went into freefall and is still falling and we don’t know where the bottom will be until we get there and there’s no sign that we are anywhere near a bottom.”

Soros describes the collapsed financial system as still being on “life support” since that point. He says the current turmoil can be traced back to the financial deregulation of the 1980s, and that it marks the end of the free-market model.

There’s more. Soros believes the Obama administration’s plan to buy bad assets from banks won’t be enough to get our financial institutions to start lending again. Instead - he suggests injecting capital directly into the banks.

Meanwhile - it looks like most Americans sense we’re headed to a pretty dangerous place. A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll shows that 73 percent of those surveyed are “scared” about the way things are going in the country today. That’s up 6 points from October.

Here’s my question to you: What does it mean when one top investor says the economic crisis is worse than the Great Depression?

Interested to know which ones made it on air?


Kevin from Pennsylvania writes:
Doesn’t mean that much to me. We’re not even close to a 25% unemployment rate of the 1930s and we have a lot more safety nets than during that time. No doubt it’s real bad, but it ain’t the 30s. So let’s start losing the Great Depression comparisons and focus on getting back on the right track. And 24-hour cable news networks hammering this stuff over and over again is not helping the situation.

Patty from Illinois writes:
I am wondering: Did he live through the Great Depression? My grandparents and parents did and they say we are nowhere near it. Just because some of us have to change our lifestyle from wanting to have every little thing to just having the things we need most does not mean we are in worse shape than the Great Depression.

Robert writes:
Soros wouldn’t make a comment like that unless he thought he could profit from it. That’s how he became a multi-billionaire. Dollars to donuts he’s shorting the entire U.S. economy and laughing all the way.

Chris from South Carolina writes:
During the Depression, people turned first to agriculture, then to building projects and then the government started helping people. Today, who needs a job? I can get unemployment, food stamps, a mortgage bailout, low-cost heating fuel and not do or produce a thing.

Don from Grand Rapids, Michigan writes:
Jack, As long as you negative media hypes and people like Soros keep pushing this, we’ll keep sliding. My question to you is: when was the last time you had a positive thought? All this negativism is BS, shovel-ready BS!

Kathy from Chicago writes:
Viva la revolution, Jack. This country is screwed! This problem is bigger and more complicated than anyone thought. Globalization has screwed us in the workforce, greed has screwed us in finances, political corruption has screwed us in taxes and laws. Maybe we can all get jobs cutting lawns in Mexico.