3 ms·

What is the basis of this statement? The economists I've read say that the US gov't didn't do enough in the 1930s (I'm not sure how much Congress and how much R

• fennecfoxen 12y ago
  That's ridiculous. The problem going into the Great Depression was the monetary policy, which was tightened when it needed to be loosened. The problem going through the great depression, what made it really great, was the New Deal -- not today's political footballs like social security, but the radical restructuring of the American economy in a borderline Soviet wave of regimentation and anticompetitive cronyism. We don't think about this much today because it was mostly disassembled, but every so often you hear some story where the government wants to take farmers' raisins for a pittance of compensation (and the crop is at risk of spoiling). Or milk-price boards. Those are just the last lingering vestiges of the system at work, a system run with a mindset that they could drag the nation into prosperity again by burning crops in the time of famine (to support prices don't you know). No I don't have a well-sourced essay for you. Go do some real Depression research. Look up work by multiple economists.
• protomyth 12y ago
  Start by looking at the difference in handling of the 1920 and 1929 crashes (Hoover was involved in both, overruled as Secretary of Commerce and implementing his spending binge as President). Hoover's foolishness worked about as well as Bush 43's and Roosevelt's authoritarian policies kept us down. Government spending hasn't got us out of a depression and the excuse is always "we didn't spend enough".