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You're assuming macro-economics is concrete, peer reviewed science. Lot's of people disagree. The great depression lasted way longer than it should have becau
by freeasindave 12y ago
You're assuming macro-economics is concrete, peer reviewed science. Lot's of people disagree. The great depression lasted way longer than it should have because of the anti-deflationary measures put into place, like slaughtering millions of livestock to prop up commodity prices while starving, out of work people looked on in horror. If prices had been allowed to fall, wage rates could have come down to a price where hiring made sense.
Read Rothbard's "America's Great Depression" for a good overview of the case against macro-economics and deflationary interventionism.
- brc 12y agoWell, yes. But those who insist that deflation is terrible are hardly going to agree that the depression was made worse by all the ham fisted attempts to fix it.
- dragonwriter 12y ago> But those who insist that deflation is terrible are hardly going to agree that the depression was made worse by all the ham fisted attempts to fix it. Pretty much everyone, everywhere on the political spectrum, irrespective of what they think about deflation, agrees that the depression was made worse by "all the ham fisted attempts to fix it". There's some disagreement about which of the particular policy responses fall into the category of "ham fisted attempts", sure, but the Fed's initial deflationary policy is one of the most widely accepted (I mean, its a point on which Keynesians and Hayek agree.)