Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is keeping up steady American calls for a durable and sustainable cease-fire in the Mideast, even if it can’t be brought about immediately.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says the financial crisis now plaguing the world economy is an event that happens “once or twice” in 100 years.

With all the coverage of the current economic crisis that’s now worldwide, there have been a lot of comparisons made to the Great Depression that lasted through the 1930s. Leading up to the stock market crash in October 1929, the United States was in an era of economic growth. Easy credit allowed people to speculate in the stock market, borrowing money to invest thinking the growth of their stocks would pay them back. That’s very much like the growth in the housing market before the recent crash, with people using easy credit to buy more house than they could afford, thinking the homes’ rising value would keep them afloat.