With all this talk of economic crisis, some are losing sight of the fact that these cycles happen again and again. In an interesting article The links between now and 1958 Jacqueline Thorpe from the financial post puts things into perspective. She writes...

"In these times of economic 'crisis' it bears keeping in mind how little things change: economies boom and bust all the time.

For example, the last time Canadian interest rates were as low as they are today was in 1958 when Canada was emerging from recession. The economy, valued at about $32-billion at the time, was carried higher by a huge investment boom throughout the mid-1950s. Growth rates reached as high 9% in 1955 and 1956.

Then the boom went bust. The unemployment rate, which was 3.4% in 1956 hit 7.2% in 1961; growth slowed to about 1% as business spending fell off a cliff.

While business was retreating into a shell, consumers and governments led the recovery.

"Encouraged by an amply supply of mortgage funds, expenditures for residential construction reached an all-time high," the Canada Year Book for 1959 says."

She goes on to compare it to the current situation.