The recent crisis of 2008 is often used to illustrate the achievements of the monetary policy since the Great Depression. My paper compares policy responses of the US and the UK monetary authorities during financial crises of 1929 and 2008. On scrutiny of these policy responses, to a large extent it seems indeed to be true that the responses of monetary authorities of the U.S. and Britain were quicker and stronger, with a bigger toolkit applied. Besides aggressive interest rate cuts and liquidity injections, the central banks started extensive asset purchases and other unconventional monetary policy operations. This attitude stays in contrast with rather sluggish responses of the Gold Standard period. Yet, the fact that the crisis took place doubts the ability of the monetary authorities to forecast and prevent the crisis. That might and should be a much more effective skill to have.