The opening paragraph from Galbraith's The Great Crash of 1929
Some years, like some poets and politicians and some lovely women, are singled out for fame far beyond the common lot, and 1929 was clearly such a year. Like 1066, 1776, and 1914, it is a year that eeryone remembers. One went to college before 1929, was married after 1929, or wasn't even born in 1929, which bespeaks total innocence. A reference to 1929 has become shorthand for the events of that autumn. For a decade, whenever Americans have been afflicted with doubt as to the durability of their current state of prosperity, they hav asked: "Will it be 1929 all over again?" And even afte ra quarter of a century, this is still a year with a singular political personality. Just as Republican orators for a generation after Appomattox made use of the bloody shirt, so for a generation Democrats have been warning that to elect Republicans is to invite another disaster like that of 1929. The defeat of the Democratic candidate in 1952 was widely attributed to the unfortunate appearance at the polls of too many youths who knew only by hearsay of the horrors of those days.
I wonder if we won't be hearing the same again, in years future . . .
Are you really suggesting that the whole subprime fiasco is GW's fault? Or are you simply suggesting that other people may suggest so?
just finished reading this book. It was amazing to compare how similar the current market downturn was similar to the crash of 1929. Florida real estate, leverage, speculation, and even the word that Rockefeller was "buying stocks" (think Buffett). Let's hope the slow crash following the autumn on 1929 and the depression that followed isn't a precursor for today. Interestingly enough, Hoover wanted to CUT spending in the aftermath which some economists would argue prolonged the depression...
I simply cannot remember, are we, at this blog, generally of the opinion that certain actions taken by Roosevelt made the Depression the catastrophe what it was rather than a nominal disaster, and by that rational we are awaiting the decisions to be made by Obama and his cadre of house Democrats?
Because as of yet our crisis does not even compare to what our economy's state was in circa 1980. So if we haven't come that close, why the bum rush to a 1929 comparison. My guess is that people love their symbols. Galbraith hits it on the nose. 1980 does not have that buzzword appeal that "1929" has. Everyone learns about the Great Depression. Only those of us who studied economics cared to read about all those "minor" recessions.
No, I am not suggesting that it is actually rational to avoid voting for Republicans in order to prevent financial crises; only that some people will no doubt claim it is.
What? So the set who predicted financial catastrophe should Clinton's tax increase pass (the 'biggest tax increase in history') get a complete pass on their predictive abilities. While - of course - those who predicted what a disaster, fiscal and otherwise, that a Bush administration would herald get dismissed yet again as 'lucky guessers'.
And not only that, but that set is also the same set which blamed FDR for the Great Depression. Liars then and liars now.
Barry - You have no evidence at all that those that blame FDR are liars. Even if they are wrong (and you provide no argument to that effect) "wrong" does not equal "liar".
And FDR does indeed deserve some blame for the duration of the depression. Hoover deserves a lot of blame as well, but not the specific blame he usually gets. He didn't do nothing and thus let the economy slide in to depression, he did a lot and helped cause the economy to slide in to depression.