Josh Lehner compares America's great recession to other financial crisis recessions:

All told, the recent U.S. financial crisis looks very similar to the historical crises as detailed by Reinhart and Rogoff – your “garden variety, severe financial crisis.” However the US labor market has performed better than 4 of the previous Big 5 crises and Japan’s economic and employment experience over the past twenty years is unique in its own right.

Joe Weisenthal uses the chart to argue that "bailouts worked." Derek Thompson, on the other hand, points out that "there is no chart that can authoritatively tell us what policymakers and politicians would like to tell us: And that is, where the U.S. is today versus where it would be if their policies and ideas were law."