Posted on 04/21/2010 9:08:40 PM PDT by arthurus
It is a cliché that if we do not study the past we are condemned to repeat it. Almost equally certain, however, is that if there are lessons to be learned from an historical episode, the political class will draw all the wrong ones — and often deliberately so.
Far from viewing the past as a potential source of wisdom and insight, political regimes have a habit of employing history as an ideological weapon, to be distorted and manipulated in the service of present-day ambitions. That's what Winston Churchill meant when he described the history of the Soviet Union as "unpredictable." For this reason, we should not be surprised that our political leaders have made such transparently ideological use of the past in the wake of the financial crisis that hit the United States in late 2007. According to the endlessly repeated conventional wisdom, the Great Depression of the 1930s was the result of capitalism run riot, and only the wise interventions of progressive politicians restored prosperity.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketoracle.co.uk ...
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We don’t have to go back that far to find lessons to be learned. Check out this link:
The second factor was the mistake of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in dealing with this deflationary recession, by raising the fed rate from 4% to 7% from December 1919 to June 1920, exactly the opposite of what was called for.
Long but great article. Too bad our illiterates in Congress can’t read.
“Mises compared an economy under the influence of artificial credit expansion to a master builder commissioned to construct a house that (unbeknownst to him) he lacks sufficient bricks to complete.”
Would this be the source for “A few bricks shy of a full load”?
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