John Steele Gordon, author of "An Empire of Wealth: An Epic History of American Economic Power" wrote a very interesting piece today featured in The Wall Street Journal which is a comparison of 1932 and today, both economically and politically.

You see, in 1932 the market slid straight down into July 11th. Sound familiar? While, admittedly, there are some dissimilarities between today's market and that of 1932 (in 1932 the market was already down 60% in July, today we're only down 20%), there are also enough similarities to get both economists and historians talking. If history repeats itself, like Gordon believes, then we could be looking for a 70% out-of-the-blue turnaround as early as this week.

To learn more about how history could repeat itself historically as well, I suggest you read Gordon's article "2008: A Watershed Election." Here's an excerpt to get you started:

Exciting as presidential elections can be, they don't often change things fundamentally. Now and then, however, they can remake the American political landscape for years to come, and the country enters into a new era. Will 2008 be one of those watershed elections? Perhaps, but not in the way that many people think.