Posted on 02/24/2017 7:09:14 AM PST by SeekAndFind
James Grants The Forgotten Depression (2014) is a splendid account of an important period in U.S. economic history that is easily overshadowed by the Great Depression a few years later. It seemed to be, as Grants subtitle says: The crash that cured itself. This stands in contrast with the Great Depression, which remained uncured throughout the 1930's even after enormous government intervention; or our own experience, milder but equally prolonged, since 2008.
I group it with Lawrence Kudlow and Brian Domitrovic's JFK and the Reagan Revolution (2016) as an example of a new sort of hybrid a readable history book by economic sophisticates. As the publisher of Grants Interest Rate Observer, Grant has spent the last few decades immersed in discussion of markets and economies with some of the most sophisticated investors on Earth. Larry Kudlow brought similar expertise to JFK, with similarly superb results. Books by historians tend to become compilations of newspaper headlines, spiced with individual anecdotes; books by academics tend to be unreadable, and for those that persist nevertheless, compromised by fallacy and dogma born of academic isolation.
Although Grants book is brief, enjoyable, and beautifully written, he cites the help of four research assistants, plus three other research contributors.
World War I caused a U.S. economic boom powered by European wartime demand and U.S. government military spending. In addition, the newly-created Federal Reserve was engaging in aggressive money-creation to allow huge U.S. deficits to be financed at attractive rates. A gold embargo in 1917 effectively suspended the gold standard and allowed inflation. When the gold embargo was lifted in 1919, the Federal Reserve had to reverse some of its wartime money-creation to raise the value of the dollar back to its prewar parity and halt gold conversion outflows.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
I’m currently finishing up this book - it’s great!
The reviewer’s observation about academic writers (versus historians) is spot on. I’ve died numerous deaths reading such tomes that really bought little to the table for me.
But I digress...
I can heartily recommend this book.
CA....
Thank you for the spotlight on this book and the recommendation!
Note the presidential candidate was a socialist/communist (like clinton) who wanted to continue Woodrow Wilson policies. Today Canada’s Justin Trudeau wants to have basic income, in other words everyone is on the dole which will help wreck Canada’s economy. England has never really recovered from WW1 and their tax policies.
FTA: Britains tax rates also soared during wartime, but they were not reduced afterwards. Instead, a series of new taxes were imposed, to pay for new welfare programs. The new taxes created more unemployment; and the new public dole made the unemployment more persistent.
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