I have been thinking a lot about the current world economic situation so I started googling. I found an interesting site about the Great Depression that seems to be well researched, with fascinating statistics that just prove to me, as an historian and political scientist, that those who neglect to learn their history are doomed to repeat it. So much of this looks familiar based upon what we are seeing today. Being a student of history, the recent developments in the world economy have frightened me greatly. Check this out and you will see why it was important that the Bush and Obama administrations act quickly to stem the hemorrhaging of the economy. I studied something called laissez faire capitalism pretty extensively in college and I decided that it was not a good basis for an economy. That doesn't mean that I am not a believer in the capitalist system, I am, I just believe that because humans can be greedy (sound familiar based on the last decade's events) there must be some sort of government intervention. I support something called modified market capitalism. I believe that President Obama supports this form of capitalism. This is an interesting essay that I found on Modified Market capitalism.