Click on graph for larger image in new window.People forgetting how bad things were last fall
BRAD DELONG got himself a lot of links yesterday by writing that efforts to save the banking industry last fall, by eroding public trust in government, increased the odds of a replay of the Great Depression from virtually nothing to 5%. [...]
For 2 1/4 years now I have been saying that there is no chance of a repeat of the Great Depression or anything like it--that we know what to do and how to do it and will do it if things turn south.
I don't think I can say that anymore.' [...]
INTRODUCTION TO ECONOMIC HISTORY FOR FIRST-YEAR ECONOMICS GRADUATE STUDENTS
Class Topics:Jan 20: Modes of Production
Jan 27: Malthus and the Demographic Transition
Feb 3: Industrious Revolutions
Feb 10: Trade, Law, and State
Feb 17: Industrial Revolutions
Feb 24: Globalizations
Mar 3: Differentiated and Uneven Development
Mar 10: Business Cycles
Mar 17: WWI and the Great Depression
Mar 31: WWII and [...]
While the nation fell into a long and severe depression after the Panic of 1837, conditions in Mississippi were among the worst. With the collapse of the state's banking system, came a collapse of property values. FULL ARTICLE by Clifford F. Thies
[...]Here’s a letter that I sent yesterday to the Washington Post:
Robert Samuelson writes that “Depression prevention means supporting consumption and asset markets” (”The next economic bubble?” Nov. 10). This claim contains a modicum of truth resting atop a mountain of misunderstanding.
What’s true is that the supply of money should [...]
In Foreign Affairs, there is a review of my book Financial Fiasco and Krugman's latest:
"The economic crisis of 2008-9 will no doubt spawn dozens of books. Here are two good early ones. The Nobel Prize-winning economist Krugman has extensively revised his 1999 book, The Return of Depression Economics, [...]
Sovereignty has strange effects on economic development
GAVIN WRIGHT tells the interesting story of the belated economic revolution in the American south in one of my favourite economic history papers. In the years between the end of the Civil War and the Great Depression, the south was essentially a [...]
“I’m sorry. These are people I love and care about. You could imagine emotionally it’s not easy to see what’s happened.”
-John S. Reed, retired Chairman and CEO of Citibank, on why the Congress was wrong to repeal the Depression-era Glass- Steagall Act in 1999
>
A fascinating mea culpa from former Citi [...]
Here’s a letter that I sent this morning to the Wall Street Journal:
Kudos to Mark Spitznagel for drawing attention to the important but neglected work of the late Ludwig von Mises (”The Man Who Predicted the Depression,” Nov. 7).
But while Mr. Spitznagel is correct that Keynesians ignored Mises’s [...]
From last evening in the Wall Street Journal, a very good piece. Nothing new for readers of Mises.org but still very encouraging.
The Man Who Predicted the Depression
Ludwig von Mises explained how government-induced credit expansions led to imbalances in the economy.
By MARK SPITZNAGEL
Ludwig von Mises was snubbed [...]
Without bankruptcy protection, a city that couldn’t pay bondholders would be forced to raise taxes until it could. This happened to West Palm Beach, Florida in the Depression and property tax rates rose to 42.5 percent of assessed value.
Here is more (interesting throughout) and I thank Chug for the pointer.
[...]This morning's productivity numbers showed a huge gain in output per hour in the third quarter--up at an annual rate of 9.5% in the nonfarm business sector.
But here's something else. If we are to believe these numbers, the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression has actually produced [...]
Fascinating discussion:
“Thus an idea that the U.S. banking industry has learned to hate moved a giant step closer to reality. The creation of a consumer protection agency is part of the Obama administration’s plans to enact the most wide-ranging financial regulations since the Great Depression.
Following the 1999 decision to overturn [...]
Disaster averted, for now at least
THIS is courtesy of Paul Krugman:There are a number of indicators suggesting that the initial shocks to output were every bit as serious this time around as in the early years of the Depression, so what explains the difference in outcome? First off, [...]
It's just a matter of time before renewed calls for a Works Progress Administration (WPA) or other Depression-era-like programs are trotted out again with the idea of Uncle Sam putting people back to work. FULL ARTICLE by Doug French
' [...]Does the sobriety of depression lead to crashes?
TYLER COWEN links to a very interesting study, which depressives should enjoy (or not): Bad moods can actually be good for you, with an Australian study finding that being sad makes people less gullible, improves their ability to judge others and [...]
Remember that rally yesterday? All gone and then some ...
Remember that "abandoning gold" isn't akin to shaving one's mustache. When a country dropped a peg, it effectively ripped off every investor who had been holding assets denominated in it. FULL ARTICLE by Robert Murphy
' [...]Mark Zandi on the Great Recession:
[jec.senate.gov]: The Great Recession has finally given way to recovery. This downturn will go into the record books as the longest, broadest and most severe since the Great Depression (see Table 1). The recession was twice the length of the average economic contraction, [...]
I'm working on a GDP post for later ...
