Economist Robert Murphy on the Great Depression, and his new book.
Posts Tagged ‘Roosevelt’
Roosevelt’s Recession of 1937
Roosevelt’s Recession of 1937, which saw the unraveling of supposed economic growth in the prior years, is oftentimes used as an historical example of what occurs when government decreases spending levels or the central bank fails to continue credit expansion. The use of this event to exemplify these things is disingenuous. More accurate lessons can be drawn, which show that only the market can fix itself.
The Dangerous “Lessons” of 1937
The recession of 1937 provides a perfect case study to offer a vision of the future based on our current fiscal and monetary policies. It turns out that high government spending and intervention, mated with an inflationary monetary policy, caused the severe downturn of 1937. We are headed down that same road.
How Franklin Roosevelt Damaged America
Burton Folsom Jr. provides a telling history of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration during the Great Depression, returning a sense of accuracy to the story. The president’s New Deal concluded in continued plight and poverty for the average American, while foreign countries were already pulling out of their own economic quagmires. Despite these failures, today’s leaders promise the same.
A New Perspective on Roosevelt’s Recession of 1937
From the essay “The Dangerous “Lessons” of 1937. Roosevelt’s Recession of 1937 may be more relevant to the current financial situation in the United States than the Crash of 1929. This is because we may be headed in the same direction.
The Depression is Not Over
On Friday, 17 July, MSNBC reported that the “recession is slowing” in twenty-three major urban centers throughout the United States. They equate a slowing recession with a “bottoming out” economy. These trends show that early signs of recovery, or more accurately “bottoming out” (recovery begins only after the markets have cleared), can be deceiving. The United States’ economy is still clearing, and it has a long ways to go.
Roosevelt’s Depression of 1937
The “Great Depression” is a thoroughly-studied event in the economic history of the United States. A less studied section of the Great Depression was the so-called “depression within a depression”, or “Roosevelt’s depression”. The monetarist theory is that the Federal Reserve ended its credit stimulus too early, or too abruptly, causing a decline in government and consumer spending. This latter argument is probably the more correct argument.
