Monday, September 22, 2008
So, you think it is 1929?
Those of you who are pondering comparisons of the current financial crisis to the Great Depression might be interested in this timeline of events during that traumatic time. There is "evidence" in there for every political position, but at least two points stand out at the moment: The economy was really bad back then, contracting by double-digit amounts year after year, and the government took far too long to act boldly. Read the whole thing.
CWCID: A loyal reader, who happens to be a lawyer and an economist.
4 Comments:
By 
Elise, at
Mon Sep 22, 09:35:00 AM:
the government took far too long to act boldly.
Okay, but why do we have to pass Paulson's plan by the end of the week (which is what I think I was hearing on the talk shows yesterday)? I watched "This Week" yesterday and Dodd and Boehner were reluctant to describe "on Sunday morning" what dire consequences Paulson and Bernanke had laid out. What am I missing?
By 
, at
Mon Sep 22, 11:29:00 AM:
See
Great Myths of the Great Depression
http://www.mackinac.org/article.aspx?ID=4013
Tim
By , at
Mon Sep 22, 11:31:00 AM:
For those who don't want to follow the link.
The depression was at least as much, probably more, about the government doing too much (and being very foolish in what it chose to do) as it was about the government doing too little too late.
Whipsawing the economy with loose money and then very tight money (yes that's the fed but they are a government institution if an unusual one), higher income taxes, higher tariffs, greater regulation, price controls, pressure to keep wages up when companies couldn't afford to pay their workers at the current rate, destruction of agricultural production when people where hungry, etc.
Tim
By Noumenon, at
Wed Sep 24, 08:16:00 AM:
To me the big thing there is half the population in the 1920s being at the subsistence level. We have far more slack in the system today, we can afford to get a lot poorer without even giving up our flush toilets (not common in America till after the 1950s).
