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To: SunkenCiv

On "Black Thursday" the market only dropped 33 points. Anyways, I already know all about the Depression. I'm just wondering about the "Dangers of capitalism" and why is the Roaring 20s industrialization viewed so negatively by liberals. Even high school history books can't deny how great the 20s were.

The market went to shit, no doubt, but it was over time. It was not a crash so drastic that the market simply died, and it did not come out of nowhere. Take a look at newspaper headlines on the Black days and you'll see something about the Smoot-Hawley Act.


11 posted on 02/09/2006 4:20:29 PM PST by CreativeRandom
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To: CreativeRandom
Just to expound the conversation a little.. there is an historical disconnect between the cause and effects of the 'great depression'... The Smoot-Hawley act is often misquoted as part of a cause, but most economists agree that Smoot was actually a result of the impending crash..

One of the real problems that was indirectly related to Smoot-Hawley was the transitional change from a protectionist economy to a global economy. It isn't really addressed, but the 'Great Depression' wasn't just a US event, but in some form or other, was across most of the connected world as countries tried to effectively deal with global trade after WWI.

The funny part is that there are a lot of modern day liberal/dems who try to use the Smoot-Hawley as a way of 'defeating' modern Republican/Capitalism philosophy because it happened to be a Republican (Hoover) who pushed this act. This is a fifth grade level of understanding of history and really shows the lack of understanding the left has and how they are still fighting battles that are almost 100 years old. The reality is that it's the modern left who've embraced the protectionist attitude that is proposed by Smoot-Hawley and are almost a century out of date in their understanding of economics and its employer/worker relationships.
13 posted on 02/10/2006 10:22:39 AM PST by mnehring (Perry 06- It's better than a hippie in a cowboy hat or a commie with blue hair.)
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