Looking at the Great Depression through the lens of the moment.  A preview of what ifs unlikely to fully materialize, but nonetheless, frightening to even consider.

"In the 1930s, the US Congress did more than its part in helping to turn a financial crisis into a global depression. Yesterday it looked as though it was auditioning to assume that role again. Back then, Congress's vote for protectionist legislation, the infamous Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which erected trade walls around America, almost brought to a halt the free movement of goods and services vital to the efficient functioning of the global economy. In rejecting a plan to help rescue the US financial system that had been constructed and reconstructed by the Bush administration in collaboration with the Democratic and Republican leaderships, the House of Representatives dealt a hammer-blow to an already almost immobilised global financial system. In the immediate aftermath of the vote, Washington and Wall Street were plunged into chaos."