-LRB- k -RRB- account statements . They 're also turning to their history books . Politicians and commentators routinely invoke the Great Depression and other historical events to describe today 's economic crisis . Watch the debate over ` Depression ' talk '' But how fair is that historical analogy ? Why Great Depression comparisons may be unfair James Kolari , an economist at Texas A&M University , says the nation experienced two `` rough '' recessions in the mid-1970s and the early 1980s . A recession is generally defined as a decline in the Gross Domestic Product for two or more consecutive quarters . He says it 's not fair to compare the current economic crisis to the Great Depression , because the federal government was far more passive in the 1920s . `` We let 15,000 out of 30,000 banks fail , '' he says . `` Government efforts to jump-start the economy were slow and relatively weak until President -LSB- Franklin -RSB- Roosevelt came along with the New Deal . '' Kolari says people can learn more by looking at Japan . He says the U.S. economy is facing the same crisis as Japan in the 1990s
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- The stock market crashed . Wall Street panicked . People stashed silver and gold under mattresses while businesses shut doors across America . People in Detroit , Michigan , line up for food at the Capuchin Soup Kitchen . We 're talking , of course , about the Great Depression ... of 1873 . That 's the event that Scott Reynolds Nelson cites when asked to give an historical perspective on today 's sputtering economy . The historian says the economic panic of 1873 started with the same toxic mix as today 's crisis : risky mortgages , a stock market dive and the use of complex financial instruments that few understood . `` Until 1929 , when people used the word -LSB- s -RSB- Great Depression they referred to 1873 , '' says Nelson , a professor of history at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg , Virginia . `` That was a worldwide international depression that started with the banks . That 's what we 're seeing now . This looks like 1873 . '' The nation 's economic crisis is not only causing people to look more closely at their 401