Is the current economic bleakness reminding you of 2008?  If it is, you are not alone.  But the Wall Street Journal's Francesco Guerrera warns not to get caught up in that thinking.  "This time is different," he says.  For starters, the root cause of the problems today come from a different place:

The older one spread from the bottom up. It began among over-optimistic home buyers, rose through the Wall Street securitization machine, with more than a little help from credit-rating firms, and ended up infecting the global economy. It was the financial sector's breakdown that caused the recession.

The current predicament, by contrast, is a top-down affair. Governments around the world, unable to stimulate their economies and get their houses in order, have gradually lost the trust of the business and financial communities.

That, in turn, has caused a sharp reduction in private sector spending and investing, causing a vicious circle that leads to high unemployment and sluggish growth. Markets and banks, in this case, are victims, not perpetrators.

Read Why This Crisis Differs From the 2008 Version here.