Interesting, but there are 2 critical differences :<p>1/ there was no Federal Reserve in 1873. The 1873 depression was one of the crisis that motivated the creation of the Fed, we thought a centralized bank system would help to stabilize the system.<p>2/ We are under the Bretton Woods system since 1944. It's the 1929 Great Depression that motivated the agreements of Bretton Woods.<p>What makes this crisis unique of its kind is that the US autorities are going to unleash 700 friggin billions dollars in the engine. It is a first time in history that such ridiculous numbers are summoned. This challenges at least one assumption of this article :<p><i>The post-panic winners, even after the bailout, might be those firms — financial and otherwise — that have substantial cash reserves. </i><p>In 1873, money was tied to gold. Therefore if you had cash reserves, it meant you could exchange it against sound, physical gold. It was guaranteed. It's not true anymore.
"Most important, when banks fall on Wall Street, they stop all the traffic on Main Street — for a very long time."<p>best part for me, and how people aren't really getting why you would bail out banks.