There was a time when people said another Great Depression would be impossible. Now experts aren't so sure.

Lucille Turner, born in 1924, was just a young girl during the Great Depression but she remembers it well.

“I was going to school and had one dress to wear and I had to come home and wash it so I could wear it the next day,” she said.

Economist Tom Wyrick at Missouri State University says it all started with a few banks failing, a loss in confidence and a flight toward cash instead of investments. That sounds familiar to what’s happening now. Wyrick believes another Great Depression is possible.

One thing that Americans have now that they didn't have during in the 1920s is deposit insurance from the federal government. Wyrick says even that's at risk.

“Let’s say there is no rescue and Wachovia loses $42 billion - then FDIC has to absorb $42 billion. The only thing is that's everything FDIC has - $42 billion,” he said.

And he says since America's biggest financial institutions are already as big as they can lawfully get. They couldn't absorb another failing bank. So it would be up to the FDIC to pay depositors back. The problem is there wouldn't be enough to go around.

“Millions would be lined up at banks; there would be stampedes, panic, people trying to get out money,” said Wyrick.

He says Congress could pump more money into the FDIC but he worries by then it will be too late.

“If we get to the point of panic and it’s spreading, $700 billion won't be enough; neither will $1 trillion or $2 trillion.”

And, by then, he says history could repeat itself.

“There will be shockwaves throughout the economy and millions out of work and bankrupt,” said Wyrick.

While possible, Wyrick says a depression is still unlikely.