Posted on 07/01/2009 12:14:39 PM PDT by sdw2009
One thing to remember is that while the depression that started in 1929 may have come to a bottom in 1933, it took a long time to recover...
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailycrux.com ...
Wait, that’s not what my government education history books told me.
We have tried spending money. We are spending more money than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just none interest, and if I am wrong . . . somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job, I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises . . . . We have said we would give everybody a job that wanted it. We have never taken care of the people . . . . there are four million that don't have that much income. We have never done anything for them . . . We have never begun to tax the people in this country the way they should be . . . . People who have it should pay. . . . It's never a good year to have a tax bill, but I think it's a darn good year to begin to balance the budget. . . . the biggest deterrent of all . . . is that the country does not know when the end is in sight and this unbalancing of the budget . . . that's what frightens people. I say after eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started . . . . And an enormous debt to boot!
“People say that World War II cured the depression, but in fact, it made it worse. As bad as things were in the ‘30s, they were worse during the war in the ‘40s. You couldn’t get shoes. You couldn’t get gasoline. You couldn’t get tires. You couldn’t get just about anything that was being used for the war. The war prolonged and deepened the depression. The thing that ended the depression was not the war but the fact that since people could not consume, they were forced to save. That delayed consumption resulted in a huge amount of savings, and that’s what caused the recovery in the late 1940s.”
I wonder if there will be rationing coupons again. Everyone from WIC on up, saving up coupons for gas, shoes and sugar/food, energy. What a racket.
I have a better idea. First, we have no savings as a nation. Those who own their homes have seen them decline in value. Same with retirement plans. Plus we are now a consumer economy which means most of our jobs are frippery based. In bad times, how many will pay for pedicures, Abercromie Fitch clothes, Starbucks, Bed Bath and Beyond matching towels and toilet paper, $20 pizzas, etc.
But, what we do have is a bunch of frigging credit card debt. Ease up on the bankruptcy rules and let people get rid of this useless debt. Now, there is more spendable money because you ain’t paying some yankee bank 22.9% interest.
Once these yankee banks get burned, they will have to get back to sound lending policies, and won’t have the 22.9% usurious money to fall back on.
parsy, who thinks that would be a good start.
“usurious money”
I have come to think of the rates charged on credit cards as Vigs, pure and simple. IIRC, Chase changed terms ‘on everyone’ as one of my friends was told. I also remember the changing of terms on then BankOne’s credit cards with the merger/acquisiton of First Chicago. Doctors and professionals who had been used to certain, favorable treatment by BankOne were met with 3rd tier credit treatment. Apparently, the analysis of profit expectations from defaults on credit cards led bank analysts to believe that a 29+% profit was expected. Projections were extrapolated, and internal budgets were thus based on that figure. However, many professionals simply cancelled their credit and other accounts.
It is vig. Legalized loan sharking. That is why i got so po’ed at the bankruptcy reform, I quit the GOP. The credit card companies have access to credit information and know how many cards and what credit a potential card holder had outstanding. To throw them at people was just as irresponsible as people taking them.
Bankruptcy used to give them some pause, some reason to look at the loan. Remove a part of the deterrent, and you increase the bad loans. Not speculation. Now it is hindsight and is 20/20.
parsy, who says take bankruptcy and watch a yankee banker cry!
America's Great Depression - by Murray Rothbard
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