An article about the limited ability of underwater homeowners to refinance makes repeated references to past housing booms and busts. The problem is that no prior post-depression boom and bust bears any similarity to this one.
We are in the worst downturn since the Great Depression because the Greenspan-Bernanke crew allowed an $8 trillion housing bubble to grow. The wreckage from this bubble dwarfs the troubles caused by the end of prior housing booms.
It is bad enough that the Post could not see the bubble on the way up. It is astounding that it still has not noticed the bubble even now.
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