How bad could the economy get, realistically?

[??????????]

This isn't even 1/2 of the Great Depression. If you want to know how bad the Great Depression was go ask one of your grandparents, especially if they didn't live in the Northeast. I've heard all the stories, even the poorest aren't there.

My Grandad lived in a different North East and always insisted that the Depression began in the mid '20's (which from a parochial perspective is actually true, although things got even worse when the Great Depression proper started).

Of course the thing about the Great Depression is that only got as ghastly as it did because of criminally stupid policies in the first couple of years after the Crash...

Well, from the humble roots of my mothers side (my fathers side was grossly wealthy for the most part) of the family the Great Depression (extreme poverty) never ended until they moved to the city in the 1950s.

[dead0man]

Of course the thing about the Great Depression is that only got as ghastly as it did because of criminally stupid policies in the first couple of years after the Crash...

You shouldn't bad mouth FDR like that, he didn't know any better.