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are extremely important differences between this decade and the
period after the First World War and through the early 1930s.
The most crucial is that no fascist or Communist or
revolutionary threats exist now if the great economic powers do
not meet the economic challenges before them. Today the
political and economic contexts are fundamentally different in
crucial regards but still inordinately complex and dangerous.
Now, nations will only face the unpredictable political
consequences that always arise when economies break down. But
fascism and bolshevism were a catastrophe for the status quo and
led to World War Two. For a time the Nazis aborted the threat of
the left in Germany and this won them a great deal of business
support. Although there are many right-wing nativist movements
today that may very well benefit from economic turmoil, there
are important differences between contemporary yahoos in the
U.S. and Europe and the fascists. But tod