This is a classic failure of aggregate demand, and it cannot be fixed with monetary policy alone. I'm struck by the continued relevance of the lessons of the Gr

This is a classic failure of aggregate demand, and it cannot be fixed with monetary policy alone. I'm struck by the continued relevance of the lessons of the Great Depression. For example, see these lines from FDR's First Inaugural Address: Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind’s goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men. True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. >>Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.