View source for User:Jers/blog/2011/11/27/What Fixed the Great Depression Really

<hide>
<let name=data index=Title>What Fixed the Great Depression &ndash; Really?</let>
<let name=data index=User>Jers</let>
<let name=data index=TopicsUser></let>
<let name=data index=TopicsGlobal>\Great Depression\economics</let>
<let name=data index=TextAbove>
<blockquote>Our Greatest Generation president, FDR, drove unemployment down from 25% to 15% [!] during the ‘30s using this recipe [government spending on infrastructure, etc.].  Some make the point that WW2 ended the Great Depression…That’s true, but only because the war required the government to raise money to build the infrastructure for war...</blockquote> (Frank Hyman, p 1A ''Raleigh News & Observer'', [http://www.thedurhamnews.com/2011/11/27/v-print/209758/give-durham-a-gift.html December 2011])

This is a common view of the cause and cure of the Great Depression, but it needs a little unpacking.  First, the reduction in unemployment from 25% to 15% during FDR’s tenure still leaves it at ludicrously high levels.   If FDR prescribed a cure, it was only slightly better than the disease.  WW2 did the job, though..</let>

<let name=data index=TextBelow>This is the main text.</let>

<let name=data index=TimeStamp>2011-11-27 1743</let>

Note: the date of this post was set to the date of the newspaper article on which it comments, since I don't know when the post was actually written.

</hide><noinclude><if not flag=including><call ShowBlogPostPage></if></noinclude>