Or has it? / as tehn

Hi teachers,

The United States and many countries approved "stimulus" programs of tax cuts and additional spending. Panic was halted. A downward spiral of falling private spending and rising unemployment was reversed. The resulting economic slump was awful. But it was not another Great Depression. The worst has passed.

Or has it? Greece's plight challenges this optimistic interpretation. It implies that celebration is premature and that the economic crisis has moved into a new phase: one dominated by the huged debt burdens of governments in advanced societies. Comparisons with the Great Depression remain relevant - and unsettling. Now, as then, we may be prisoners of deep and poorly understood changes to the world economic system.

1. Does "or has it?" mean "or has the worst pased?"

2. Does "one" mean "a new phase"?

3. I've seen "as then" twice in this writing, what does that mean?

Thank you.

Tinanam