I think it is difficult to compare the current crisis with previous market crises. During the cold war, we had two competing economic systems. Both were up to crushing the other, and both rellocated significant amounts to armament (hence the economic boom when the cold war ended and Bill Clinton slashed military spending). Right now, we have passed several important land marks throughout the past years: 1.) China has become capitalist, matter of fact. It's economic boom comes at a price: if it doesn't succeed in creating millions of new jobs in it's export oriented industries throughout the next years, get ready for some turmoil. And we're talking about a population of over a billion. They can't afford the U.S. economy to stutter. 2.) Even OPEC and Russia rely on economic expansion in the western countries, due to their dependency on exporting raw materials and crude oil. What would Venezuela be like, if Hugo had to slash his public aid programs due to lower oil exports? Or Ahmadinejad? Gentleman, we have no more global economy with free trade: Welcome to the new global capitalism, where markets are only free, as long as they grow. The thing is, this sort of intertwining dependencies might actually be a good thing for the world...