It's a depression

[1] http://dshort.com/charts/bear-markets.html?four-bears

"Helen Thomas (born August 4, 1920) is an American news service reporter, a Hearst Newspapers columnist, and member of the White House Press Corps. She served for fifty-seven years as a correspondent and, later, White House bureau chief for United Press International (UPI). Thomas has covered every president since John F. Kennedy. She was the first female officer of the National Press Club, the first female member and president of the White House Correspondents Association, and the first female member of the Gridiron Club. She has written four books; her latest is Watchdogs of Democracy?: The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Thomas)

Not that I necessarily agree with her, but I would hardly peg Helen Thomas as the "media frenzy" type.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/22/depression-analo...

The reason we’re making analogies with the Great Depression — and the reason I’ve come out with a new edition of "The Return of Depression Economics" — is the collapse of policy certainties. In particular, the Fed’s sudden impotence — its inability to cut rates any more, because they’re essentially zero — is a very real parallel with the Depression, and necessitates drastic responses.

Now, if all goes well the Obama stimulus plan will head off the worst. But that will be precisely because we understood that the current crisis is, indeed, like the Great Depression in important ways. Only those who learn from history can hope to avoid repeating it.

http://www.nber.org/cycles/dec2008.html