That's the loans they'll make directly to banks, but not just to commercial banks as usual but also to securities dealers, which is something they haven't done since the Great Depression.

NPR: Bailing out Bear Stearns

The world in the last six months--I don't remember any time, maybe even the Great Depression, when things went down quite so fast, quite so uniformly around the world.

FORBES: Intelligent Investing Panel

Professor BRAD DELONG (Economics, University of California, Berkeley): You don't want to repeat the mistakes of the Great Depression, and the big mistake of the Great Depression was letting the banking system collapse.

NPR: Federal Plan To Invest In Banks Met With Caution