What made the great depression so much worse than any other economic downturn?
It wasn't. The Crash of 2008 was way worse. What prolonged was FDR's retarded policies.
>>422143
An economy way more dependent an credit and international trade that moved faster than policy makers knew had to deal with. Bank runs and panics were no longer local but national and increasing tariffs did nothing to stimulate domestic business but shut down global trade. Governments really had no idea what policies could effectively mitigate these things
I may be wrong, but it seems to be the first major crash, so there was an element of expectation in the 2008 crash that there wasn't in the Great Depression. Without the element of expectation, it's harder to rally together solutions, assure the public, and fix the problem.
>>422175
This.
>>422175
Like? I hear this thrown around a lot but I've never heard any evidence for it. The hawley smoot tariff was really the kicker
>>422175
>The Crash of 2008 was way worse
Nope, it was a minor blip. Since then:
>Stock markets doubled
>now at full employment
>people can afford houses now
>wages growing
>gas cheap as fuck
All this after only a few years of minor "recession", interest rates were raised today, the stock market is going up, America is entering a new golden age.
>>422231
There's no reason for gas being over 30 cents. The current situation isn't cheap, it's just cheaper than what he had a few years ago.
>America is entering a new golden age
Actually thanks to the dropping oil prices (caused by Saudis flooding the market) people in the Dakotas and Texas are losing jobs.
>>422252
>prices need to be lower
>because of low prices the economy is being ruined
Nigga what
>>422252
Obongo oversaw this very increase in US oil production though
>>422175
Ahahahahaha.
>>422252
>there is no reason for gas being over thirty cents
Thats not how inflation works fampai
It happened in a relevant country and so was well documented.
>>422205
Google "tulipmania"
Keynesian policies.
Lazy answer.
>>422143
In the panic of 1907 the big banks got together and came to agreements to share the burden and prevent dominos from falling, their motivation was profit (or to limit losses) but they did this in a reasonably competent manner.
This prompted calls for the government to take over this role and implement a central bank like other countries even though this went against America's preference for freedom and autonomy over democratic control. This turned out to be a mistake, politicians motivated no less by personal gain than the bankers almost maxed out their credit which required gold backing, then after the 1929 they had no more credit with which to perform bailouts.
>>422205
Banking Panics in the US
1792 1796–97 1819 1825 1837 1847 1857 1866 1873 1884 1890 (Baring crisis) 1893 1896 1901 1907 1910-11 1929 2007-08
>>422231
>now at full employment
Real unemployment is at 25%, not really good for any economy.
You are right about the rest apart from the new golden age though. The market can fortunately survive a Obama presidency, unfortunately the poor can't.
>>422548
but keynesian policies worked to end it when implemented.
Fuck off to >>>/biz/
>>422548
Keynesian policies aren't the problem. It's idiots who confuse it with socialism that's the problem.
>>423884
They prolonged the crisis. In the case of Australia, if you actually look at the projections for the economy under stimulus spending vs the projections for the market correcting itself, the outcome of stimulus spending did worse than either of those predictions.
>>423865
>The market can fortunately survive a Obama presidency
this "obama is the source of all problems" meme needs to stop desu
>>423956
He's obviously not very responsible for causing the crisis (although his voting record in the Senate encouraged it), but once he got in as president, he did fuck a lot of stuff up.
>>423968
>once he got in as president, he did fuck a lot of stuff up.
what did he fuck up, in your opinion?
>>423968
He's been extremely laid back. If anything he's not done anything. His economic plans have all been very centrist and moderate.
>>422175
As usual Austrian fedoras have no evidence to support their cult-like ideology.
>>423990
You don't have to be an Austrian to disagree with FDR's policies. Monetarists, neoclassicists and socialists would also disagree.
>>423985
>>423989
Bailing out the banks and refusing to liberalise labour laws come to mind.
Whilst the banks have mostly payed back their debt to the taxpayer, it's not like those taxpayers are getting the money back in their pockets. You could also say that they deserved to be bailed out due to the absurd regulations that they had to put up with, but banking deregulation would suffice.
>>422175
> FDR prolonged it
FDR became president three years after the crash, how much of a GOP shill do you have to be to believe such blatant nonsense?
>>424002
>Bailing out the banks
I'm conflicted about this myself. The banks fucked up hard, and they got bailed out while Obama failed to provide relief to people with foreclosure. He did this eventually but it was too little too late.
>liberalise labour laws
I guess you mean making anti-union laws? I don't see the logic to this, though. Unions can be corrupt, but as I see it they are the only entity that stands for worker's rights and as a check to corporate power. The last few years has seen corporations take the largest percentage of the economy in recent history, and combined with the citizens united ruling their power has increased tremendously. Unions are the least of our problems
>>424019
It was recovering by that point.
>>424042
>you mean making anti-union laws
No. Banning unions is not liberalisation. Workers should be free to join and leave unions as they wish.
I'm more talking about eliminating affirmative action in the workplace and minimum wage laws. Affirmative action harms the most vulnerable racial minorities (that often have the worst unemployment problems) and a minimum wage hurts those who are uneducated and just end up living a terrible life on welfare.
>>424002
Both of those things were good for the economy. The banks have actually paid back 100 percent of what was put into them with the bailouts.
>>424136
Yes, but who's to say that the money that went back into government coffers has been spent well?
It should've been used to pay down government debt, not the ridiculous rubbish that the US government usually pays the taxpayer's dime on.
I'd also like you to tell me why a minimum wage actually helps most people.
>>422175
Nigga during some parts of the depression unemployment was at 20%, 2008 crash barely reached half that.
>>422143
The Austrians insisting on maintaining the gold standard against all evidence and logic.
>>422226
FDR's policies would have worked in a National Downturn, but the Depression was global. No matter how much the government invested in public works and created jobs, factories still cannot afford to import goods. WWII ended it because now demand for industrial goods was through the roof, and now the big economies of the world, UK and France were buying shit like crazy, and lend lease made what was once a very risky investment a sure fire way to make money, allowing the US Industry to star off again. Additionally, the demand for war materials also changed resource prices, eliminating the original problem of the Depression in the First Place. Germany healed while doing public works as well, but that is because they coupled it with military build up, what FDR was missing.
