The Great Depression - why did it end?

[SpidermanTuba]

I guess technically this is history, but its so relevant to now I thought it best here.


Now that we're already into this recession, there's no point to playing the blame game any more. Especially when there is plenty of blame to be heaped on both sides.

The real question now, is how do we fix it?

Let's look to history.


The Great Depression - for what reasons did it end?

 

[Midnight Marauder]

its so relevant to now

It really isn't. We haven't even reached the economic lows established in the late 70s, much less the 30s. But, I'll forget that and stay on topic.

Economic studies have indicated that just as the downturn was spread worldwide by the rigidities of the Gold Standard, it was suspending gold convertibility (or devaluing the currency in gold terms) that did most to make recovery possible.

US recovery is generally agreed to have begun in the spring of 1933. There is no consensus among economists regarding the motive force for the U.S. economic expansion that continued through most of the Roosevelt years (and the sharp contraction of the 1937 recession that interrupted it). According to Christina Romer, the money supply growth caused by huge gold inflows was a crucial source of the recovery of the United States economy, and that fiscal policy and World War II were of little help.

Of course, it depends on who you ask.

 

[Gunny]

I guess technically this is history, but its so relevant to now I thought it best here.


Now that we're already into this recession, there's no point to playing the blame game any more. Especially when there is plenty of blame to be heaped on both sides.

The real question now, is how do we fix it?

Let's look to history.


The Great Depression - for what reasons did it end?

A better question ... Why is something from the 1930s posted in Current Events?

 

[Gunny]

I guess technically this is history, but its so relevant to now I thought it best here.


Now that we're already into this recession, there's no point to playing the blame game any more. Especially when there is plenty of blame to be heaped on both sides.

The real question now, is how do we fix it?

Let's look to history.


The Great Depression - for what reasons did it end?

WWII ended it. The mobilizing of US industry and sudden employment of any man between the age of 18-45 was a hit of speed on the economy.

 

[SpidermanTuba]

its so relevant to now

It really isn't. We haven't even reached the economic lows established in the late 70s, much less the 30s. But, I'll forget that and stay on topic.

Economic studies have indicated that just as the downturn was spread worldwide by the rigidities of the Gold Standard, it was suspending gold convertibility (or devaluing the currency in gold terms) that did most to make recovery possible.

US recovery is generally agreed to have begun in the spring of 1933. There is no consensus among economists regarding the motive force for the U.S. economic expansion that continued through most of the Roosevelt years (and the sharp contraction of the 1937 recession that interrupted it). According to Christina Romer, the money supply growth caused by huge gold inflows was a crucial source of the recovery of the United States economy, and that fiscal policy and World War II were of little help.

Of course, it depends on who you ask.

It seems an awful big coincidence though, that the recover really hit full swing with WW II, don't you think?

 

[Midnight Marauder]

I guess technically this is history, but its so relevant to now I thought it best here.


Now that we're already into this recession, there's no point to playing the blame game any more. Especially when there is plenty of blame to be heaped on both sides.

The real question now, is how do we fix it?

Let's look to history.


The Great Depression - for what reasons did it end?

A better question ... Why is something from the 1930s posted in Current Events?

Because most of the brain-dead public at large has drank the kool-aid that today's economic situation is somehow analogous to the depression of the 30s. It's not.

It's the Goebbels factor: say it loud enough and long enough and gullible people will just accept it as fact.

 

[SpidermanTuba]

I guess technically this is history, but its so relevant to now I thought it best here.


Now that we're already into this recession, there's no point to playing the blame game any more. Especially when there is plenty of blame to be heaped on both sides.

The real question now, is how do we fix it?

Let's look to history.


The Great Depression - for what reasons did it end?

WWII ended it. The mobilizing of US industry and sudden employment of any man between the age of 18-45 was a hit of speed on the economy.

Wasn't the employment of everyone 18-45 caused by a draft which was funded by massive government spending?


What if the government today said, everyone who is between 18 and 45, who doesn't have a job, can come work for the government, and that went on for 4 years? Would that help?

Seems like the New Deal wasn't big enough. They weren't prepared to employ EVERYBODY. WW II did employ all men in those ages - which must have been at least 35% of the workforce. Since unemployment wasn't at 35% this meant immediate full employment for anyone who wanted work, women, older men, and those unfit for military service.

 

[Midnight Marauder]

Seems like the New Deal wasn't big enough

It was largely irrelevant, as was WW2. The gold standard caused the problem and getting rid of it solved the problem. FDR's policies actually extended the depression 7-8 years.

 

[SpidermanTuba]

I guess technically this is history, but its so relevant to now I thought it best here.


Now that we're already into this recession, there's no point to playing the blame game any more. Especially when there is plenty of blame to be heaped on both sides.

The real question now, is how do we fix it?

Let's look to history.


The Great Depression - for what reasons did it end?

A better question ... Why is something from the 1930s posted in Current Events?

Because most of the brain-dead public at large has drank the kool-aid that today's economic situation is somehow analogous to the depression of the 30s. It's not.

It's the Goebbels factor: say it loud enough and long enough and gullible people will just accept it as fact.

How is it not? Wasn't one of the biggest contributors to the depression massive land speculation and bank failures? Didn't the nation experience a huge stock market failure, massive unemployment, and a sharp contraction in the GDP?

If you break your leg in a car accident, and then break the other one 10 years later tumbling down a flight of stairs - isn't the treatment for your leg going to be just about the same even though the causes are very different?

 

[Midnight Marauder]

A better question ... Why is something from the 1930s posted in Current Events?

Because most of the brain-dead public at large has drank the kool-aid that today's economic situation is somehow analogous to the depression of the 30s. It's not.

It's the Goebbels factor: say it loud enough and long enough and gullible people will just accept it as fact.

How is it not? Wasn't one of the biggest contributors to the depression massive land speculation and bank failures? Didn't the nation experience a huge stock market failure, massive unemployment, and a sharp contraction in the GDP?

If you break your leg in a car accident, and then break the other one 10 years later tumbling down a flight of stairs - isn't the treatment for your leg going to be just about the same even though the causes are very different?

Today's economic issues and those of the 30s are two totally separate things, with separate causes, and will have separate cures. And the US economy and the world's as well aren't anywhere near as bad as the 30s. Think back only to 1977, for an analogue of today.

To fix your analogy for you, the 30s was a broken spine, today is a hang nail.

 

[Truthmatters]

FDRs stimulus of the economy worked. He pulled back briefly in 1937 and tried to balence the buget on the advice of the conservatives of the day and had to then reverse the action and go back to stimulus the next year. It was working to pull us out and then the war effort started and finished the job.

The end of WWII actually flooded the job market with men needing a job, women went back home which helped tremendously with the job market. Some women had no choice but to continue to work.

 

[Chris]

I guess technically this is history, but its so relevant to now I thought it best here.


Now that we're already into this recession, there's no point to playing the blame game any more. Especially when there is plenty of blame to be heaped on both sides.

The real question now, is how do we fix it?

Let's look to history.


The Great Depression - for what reasons did it end?

WWII ended it. The mobilizing of US industry and sudden employment of any man between the age of 18-45 was a hit of speed on the economy.

So government spending brought us out of the Great Depression.

 

[Annie]

A better question ... Why is something from the 1930s posted in Current Events?

Because most of the brain-dead public at large has drank the kool-aid that today's economic situation is somehow analogous to the depression of the 30s. It's not.

It's the Goebbels factor: say it loud enough and long enough and gullible people will just accept it as fact.

How is it not? Wasn't one of the biggest contributors to the depression massive land speculation and bank failures? Didn't the nation experience a huge stock market failure, massive unemployment, and a sharp contraction in the GDP?

If you break your leg in a car accident, and then break the other one 10 years later tumbling down a flight of stairs - isn't the treatment for your leg going to be just about the same even though the causes are very different?

I'm not a doctor and don't play one on tv, but would think the answer would be no. Bone is 10 years older. Techniques change in addressing the breaks. Different type of break? Lots of factors.

 

[Truthmatters]

File:Gdp20-40.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Look at this chart and you will see the new deals effects


This chart represents the facts.

Now tell me why did it start to improve and why did it fall back durring 1937?

can you answer?

 

[Truthmatters]

I guess technically this is history, but its so relevant to now I thought it best here.


Now that we're already into this recession, there's no point to playing the blame game any more. Especially when there is plenty of blame to be heaped on both sides.

The real question now, is how do we fix it?

Let's look to history.


The Great Depression - for what reasons did it end?

WWII ended it. The mobilizing of US industry and sudden employment of any man between the age of 18-45 was a hit of speed on the economy.

So government spending brought us out of the Great Depression.

You Got It!

 

[Truthmatters]

that chart always ends the discussion.

 

[Yukon]

Adolph Hitler ended the Great Depression.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

The gold standard did not cause the Great Depression, the "gold standard" at the time was a bastardized gold standard at most and was nothing near "rigid." The Federal Reserve caused the Great Depression, the same way it has caused our current recession. Neither the New Deal nor World War 2 brought us out of the Depression either. Of course unemployment went down with WW2, because so many were drafted to fight in the war. The Great Depression did not end until after WW2 when America once again began producing things people wanted or needed, and government controls over the economy lessened.

 

[Midnight Marauder]

FDRs stimulus of the economy worked. He pulled back briefly in 1937 and tried to balence the buget on the advice of the conservatives of the day and had to then reverse the action and go back to stimulus the next year. It was working to pull us out and then the war effort started and finished the job.

The end of WWII actually flooded the job market with men needing a job, women went back home which helped tremendously with the job market. Some women had no choice but to continue to work.

Complete baloney. But it is the basic parroted partisan view. So, nice job.

FDR replaces JFK as the far-left guidon bearer?

 

[Truthmatters]

The one who is spouting partisan hackery is you.

FDRs actions during the great depression was credited by the people who lived it as well as the vast majority of historians for pulling us out of the great depression.

You are trying to rewrite history and you have failed.