Bloomberg points out that, by at least one measure, the stock market is having its worst decade in recorded history. The 1930s are the reigning champ of down decades, and Bloomberg says the Standard & Poor’s 500 had a negative total return of -8.9 percent back then. Since the beginning of 2000, it calculates, the same index has a negative return of -18 percent.

That calculation, I believe, was made before today’s market rout, which knocked nearly 6 percent more off the S&P’s value.

The Dow Jones industrial average isn’t performing quite so badly this decade. Based only on price change, not total return, the Dow is down 17.8 percent since Dec. 31, 1999. It fell by 39.5 percent in the 1930s. You may recall that back in 1999, the Dow wasn’t nearly as tech-heavy as the S&P 500.

We shouldn’t get carried away with the gloomy comparisons, though. In today’s Wall Street Journal, Nobel-winning economist Gary Becker explains why we aren’t headed for another Great Depression.