Posted on 04/20/2009 6:36:03 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Edited on 04/20/2009 6:43:20 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
The Great Depression of the 1930s was the most momentous economic event of the 20th century. It was a proximate cause of World War II, having fed the Nazis' rise in Germany. It inspired a new American welfare system as a response to mass misery. Everywhere, it discredited unsupervised capitalism. Given today's economic crisis, our renewed fascination with the Depression is natural. But we ought not stretch the parallels too far.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearmarkets.com ...
Still, striking differences separate now from then. The biggest is that governments -- unencumbered by the gold standard
which had limited their meddling...
-- have eased credit,
(printed money out of thin air)
propped up financial institutions and increased spending
(printed more money out of thin air)
to arrest an economic free fall.
The Federal Reserve and the International Monetary Fund have made loans available to emerging-market countries to offset the loss of private credit.
(printed money out of thin air)
Nor is there anything like the international rancor that followed World War I and impeded cooperation: In 1931, the French balked at rescuing Austria's biggest bank (Creditanstalt), whose failure triggered a chain reaction of European panics.
So far the U.S. is playing Sugar Daddy to the world. We'll see how much "cooperation" is forthcoming when any other country is asked to start playing that game. Oh, BTW, ignore the unpleasantness in Greece.
Add to that the US Treasury 'printing' more money to monetize US debt (hyper inflation component for the formula for disater).
Lot's more pain is coming in the form of hyper-stagflation.
It's not one piece of information or news article that's pimping the doom & gloom, it's several interdependent pieces of the puzzle that are coming together for no economic growth in the foreseeable future plus an incompetent administration and crooks at the helm.
Neat article.
Gloomdoom - ping.
[It’s not one piece of information or news article that’s pimping the doom & gloom, it’s several interdependent pieces of the puzzle that are coming together for no economic growth in the foreseeable future plus an incompetent administration and crooks at the helm. ]
Here’s what scares me. You have your list of doom and gloom indicators. I have a list that overlaps but is different. All I see out there is bad JuJu long term. Pension funds belly-up, consumer debt out of control, capital gains tax up, commercial real estate collapse, etc. etc. Bad JuJu everywhere, and still people predicting recovery in late 2009. I just see a suckers rally.
The snowball has just come into view for many of the wishful and deniers. Like you said, ‘Bad JuJu, all around’. Sadly, our goobermint (at all levels) is doing exactly what shouldn’t be done in this situation, pulling more money from the private sector in vain attempts to protect the rich (Wall Street & banking swindlers) and themselves.
Also mentioned is ‘massive inter-governmental debt’ causing depression.
Like our trade debt to China unencumbered by a gold standard.
BUY HERE + MAKE THERE = DEPRESSION
MAKE HERE + MAKE NOW = RECOVERY
They knock the gold standard all they want but I notice China going on kind of a cooper standard rather than hold US Dollars or other currency. I’ll bet China is buying gold quietly too. They say nothing so as to not drive up the gold price
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