how bad is the economy?

The stock market crashed. Wall Street panicked. People stashed silver and gold under mattresses while businesses shut doors across America.We're talking, of course, about the Great Depression ... of 1873.

That's the event that Scott Reynolds Nelson cites when asked to give an historical perspective on today's sputtering economy. The historian says the economic panic of 1873 started with the same toxic mix as today's crisis: risky mortgages, a stock market dive, and the use of complex financial instruments that few understood.

"Until 1929, when people used the word[s] Great Depression they referred to 1873," says Nelson, a professor of history at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.

"That was a worldwide international depression that started with the banks. That's what we're seeing now. This looks like 1873."

The nation's economic crisis is not only causing people to look more closely at their 401(k) account statements. They're also turning to their history books. Politicians and commentators routinely invoke the Great Depression and other historical events to describe today's economic crisis.