Great Depression

Hey, America, we're not the slacker savers we thought. A while back, the government reported that for the first time since the Great Depression our personal savings rate went negative in 2005, meaning we spent more than we took home. And we did worse in 2006. But those figures were recently revised. It turns out we squeaked out positive savings rates of 0.5 percent in 2005 and 0.4 percent last year. That's nothing to brag about, of course. Basically, we saved a half-penny for every dollar we took home.

Gore can't go over Bradley's head. He has to fake him out and drive to score.Congress dismantled the last of the reforms designed to prevent another Great Depression. Wall Street is excited.Anyone can have a good idea. Obtaining funding for it from the tobacco settlement takes talent.Those d--- Yankees come back to haunt the nation every Halloween.

You know, the only trouble with capitalism is capitalists; they're too damn greedy.-- Herbert Hoover to author Mark SullivanAs Wall Street concludes yet another wobbly week, it can't help but serve as a reminder to investors that historically October, not April, may be the cruelest month.It is, after all, the 70th anniversary of the Great Crash of 1929, which presaged the Great Depression and successfully wiped away all traces of the unbounded boom and prosperity that followed the end of World War I.For those not quite old enough to remember the really big one, the 554-point skid in 1997 and the 191-point plunge in 1989 are recent reminders of the vagaries of Wall Street.

MOSCOW -- There was a time when Russians pitied Americans.Bystanders during the Great Depression of the 1930s, they felt vindicated in their belief in Soviet progress. But who wouldn't extend some sympathy toward the victims of the breakdown of capitalism?"Oh, my God, such a rich country, such a big country," says historian Edward Ivanian, recounting the way people thought back then and smiling ruefully at how history has turned. "And those poor people done in by the bankers, their wealth just poured down the drain."

A pair of professional world-watchers have produced a book that is destined to get a great deal of attention from people who believe seriously that the earth can, indeed, be managed. The tattered remains of the far left will detest this book for its failure to declare outright that all government is good, all free enterprise evil. Those ideologues' brothers on the far right will hate it for failing to declaim the creed that the Market Is God and that all government is vile.Therein lies the core strength of "The Commanding Heights: The Battle Between Government and the Marketplace That Is Remaking the Modern World," by Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw (Simon & Schuster, 457 pages, $26)

SIXTY-NINE years ago today, the stock market plummeted, sending the nation into the Great Depression.Four days before the crash, President Herbert Hoover declared, "The fundamental business of the country . . . is on a sound and prosperous basis."Like so many other good financial advisers, he was wrong. In the financial devastation that followed, more than 16 million shares were dumped. Billions of private investment dollars were lost. For almost 10 years the nation faced the consequences for years of spending, lending and buying.

PARIS -- President Clinton asked American broadcasters last week to give free time to political candidates. He proposed that the Federal Communications Commission make this a condition for authorizing broadcasters to switch to digital technology.He meant this to be a backfire lighted against the campaign-money conflagration threatening his White House. It is actually an essential remedy to the most important crisis of democracy the United States has experienced since the Great Depression.

"When you get a raise, you owe income taxes, but try to get extra money tax free via an expense reimbursement account instead."Key: Most employees pay out-of-pocket expenses their employers won't reimburse, but reimbursements are tax free. So take your money through an expense account, not salary, and keep more after taxes." (Tax Hotline.)LOCAL LAURELS: "McCormick Renews Its Taste For Growth." (Headline of favorable article in Smart Money, October.)Legg Mason's latest "Buy List" includes Potomac Electric Power.

There are two must-see shows tonight, one silly, one serious. The serious one is a lengthy, spellbinding "American Experience" documentary on Malcolm X, and the silly one is the premiere of an animated series called "The Critic," starring Jon Lovitz as the voice of a New York film critic. For very different reasons, both hold up to repeated viewings and, if possible, should be taped.* "Babylon 5" (8-9 p.m., WDCA, Channel 20; 9-10, WNUV, Channel 54) -- The good news is that this new sci-fi series, picking up where its two-hour pilot began a year ago, has replaced some of its leading players with more talented performers: Claudia Christian now plays Michael O'Hare's second-in-command, while Andrea Thompson now plays the telepath.

Stocks, bonds and the dollar posted modest gains yesterday, following the Federal Reserve's decision not to raise interest rates on Tuesday. The Dow Jones industrial average, up 15.14 points to close at 3,878.18, has added 46 points this week, erasing almost half of last week's loss. The closely watched index now stands exactly 100 points, or 2.5 percent, below its all-time high.GLOOMY PARALLEL: "Read this from the Wall Street Journal: 'The news of the day has been big financially, and promises to get bigger.

WASHINGTON - -The government report Thursday that the nation's unemployment picture took an unexpectedly sharp turn for the worse after four straight months of moderately encouraging news was a sobering jolt to hopes that the economy might gradually be getting back on track. The overall unemployment rate edged up just a notch, to a 26-year high of 9.5 percent in June, but the loss of 467,000 payroll jobs made it clear that the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression was far from over - at least for American workers.

The Baltimore Sun is looking for people who lived in Maryland during the Great Depression to find out how it affected their lives, families and communities. If you have memories that you'd like to share, and don't mind being interviewed on camera, please contact us at 410-332-6935 or anica.butler@baltsun.com.

Will bill-payers also get public bailout? Friday's Baltimore Sun noted that approximately 11 percent of all Marylanders with home loans have either missed payments or are on the verge of foreclosure ("A record 11.1% of Md. home loans distressed," March 6). This will surely raise eyebrows in Washington as lawmakers scramble to have the government offer low-rate refinancing to those in such dire straights. But while this news offers a sober reflection on today's economy, what will happen to the other 89 percent of homeowners, who apparently manage their money properly?

There is a maxim that raises the hackles of most people. It is this: All things end badly. Who wants to believe that? It's so grim, so lacking in uplift, such a bummer of an observation that once, when I mentioned this to a young woman whose mother had just died of a wasting disease, she recoiled in shock and said, "That's not true," rejecting the notion of bad endings even while experiencing the pain of significant loss firsthand. The departure of George W. Bush and his not-so-merry band from executive power in Washington is further evidence of things ending badly, especially when contrasted with the widespread euphoria greeting the man who replaced him yesterday as president.

If your mailbox is filling up faster than usual, thank your financial planner. Ever since the failure of Lehman Brothers Holdings in September that set off a panic, planners have been sending three to five times the usual number of newsletters and e-mail blasts to clients. "We have been sending out a lot of articles trying to reassure people that they need to hang in there as long as they can," says Annette Simon, a Bethesda financial planner. "The instinct for a lot of people ... was to get out and maybe stop contributing to their 401(k)

Ignoring context of Israeli attacks The Baltimore Sun's "24 hours in pictures" feature on Nov. 17 included a large, Associated Press photograph with the caption: "PATROL: Israeli soldiers stand by their tank outside the Gaza Strip, near where four Palestinians were killed in an airstrike." That's all the paper published: a picture silhouetting three soldiers, two in what might be considered aggressive postures, and the outline of a tank "near where four Palestinians were killed in an airstrike."

Character questions show Obama is unfit I strongly disagree with the editorial "Obama for president" (Oct. 26) and am sorely disappointed that The Baltimore Sun has been duped by Sen. Barack Obama's smooth oratory and numerous domestic promises. Mr. Obama's promises to strengthen our domestic policies seem to change from day to day, leaving the public confused about what he actually believes. As an independent voter, my first criterion in every election is to attempt to determine the strength of each candidate's character based on his complete life.

Sen. John McCain likes to compare his Democratic opponent Sen. Barack Obama to Herbert Hoover, the conservative Republican president whose tax hikes and restrictive trade policies have been blamed for deepening America's Great Depression in the early 1930s. But a closer look at Mr. McCain's economic proposals -- aiming to reduce the deficit and cut government spending in the midst of a serious financial crisis -- make him sound more like Mr. Hoover. Senator Obama's proposals to seek more public spending to reverse the current economic decline are more reminiscent of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the honored warrior against the Great Depression.

Who doesn't smile when surprised with a dozen roses at work? Even after seeing the "I love you very much" card from her fiance? Meet Melissa Fralin. It's not that Fralin is ungrateful or shy. And it's not because, ha ha, she works at the Motor Vehicle Administration in Westminster and faces a daily onslaught of people with vehicle registration issues. No, the 28-year-old customer agent seemed ho-hum the other day because she gets flowers all the time from her fiance, Neal Shiloh. Those were her words: All the time.

President Bush's tepid Rose Garden reassurances Friday that the government is addressing the economic crisis notwithstanding, Washington still hasn't tamed the Wall Street beast. Try as it might, the administration's combination of moves hasn't stopped the free-fall or lessened the fear gripping the nation's investors. The moves have been many, from interest rate cuts and the takeover of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to the $700 billion rescue plan and last week's decision by the Federal Reserve to loan money directly to corporations.