The Pros And Cons Of The Great Depression

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The Great Depression was just that, great. It was a unique experience that America has only gone through once… or perhaps twice? Maybe the 2008 American economic crisis did not lead to a recession at all; maybe it led to a second Great Depression. Of course that’s utter insanity, because everything from the numbers to the feelings show that 2000-2010 was nothing like the twenties and thirties. Realistically the most recent American recession was a barnacle on the whale of the Great Depression. Children of the recession can confirm to you that very little was similar to their twenties brethren. There was no widespread disgrace and debilitating state off living, there was only mild annoyance. Everyone remembers when the unemployment rate rose …show more content…

“In 1928 there was a synchronized, global contraction of monetary policy, which occurred primarily because the Fed was concerned about stock prices.” (Cogley). Though most people think of the Great Depression as the result of few government restrictions and a nonexistent monetary policy, the truth is quite the opposite. Though during immediate months before the Depression, there was virtually nothing occurring, this was a very short period of time. The government was actually actively attempting to limit speculation. To do this, they kept a very direct approach to guiding the economy. In an attempt to stop the inflation bubble from getting too large, they popped it prematurely. “The Fed succeeded in putting a halt to the rapid increase in share prices, but in doing so it may have contributed one of the main impulses for the Great Depression.” …show more content…

(Klein) President Roosevelt took many of these ideas and put money into public works to give people jobs, as well as giving subsidies to farms to keep food supplies constant and accessible. Advocates of this approach claim it to have been successful, and many of the programs that were set up during the New Deal softened the blow of the 2009 recession decades later. Though these reforms did little to stop the recession from occurring in the first place, they did allow people the ability to weather the storm for a few years while the economy stabilized. Removing them would only leave open the people who would be hurt the most in another

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