How big is the Hole?

reply to post by plumranch

It wasn't FDR and the NEW DEAL. FDR made all the wrong choices, he raised taxes on business, practiced protectionism and started a bunch of make work government programs, nothing worked. Really, FDR did everything wrong till Pearl Harbor was bombed and forced the US into WWII.

Excellent post. You are absolutely correct. If FDR HADN'T made those moves you mentioned, the depression would have been over by about 1936. His moves did extend the depression. My only suggestion would be to change the last sentence above to read:

"Really, FDR did everything wrong until he allowed Pearl Harbor to be bombed and forced the US into WWII. "

reply to post by ProfEmeritus


Politics and economics do not mix.

Then again, most economic policies are highly complex, and are never actually revealed to the public..

For instance, had the government advised us we are on the verge of complete economic melt down, the single worst economic depression in human memory..

Well that might cause panic, with panic typically comes irrational choices, and with irrationality coupled with chaos and someone to blame, people die.



Yes. The situation is that bad. They throw big numbers around and we are numb to the effects.

If 3 years ago I would have told ats "the economy will see a point in time where the Government will take ownership shares of banks, and prop up the largest economy in the world, as well as key international central banks with 4.616 TRILLION dollars.."

Someone would have said "hoax".

An economist would have said "impossible".

The news would have bleeped me out and laughed at me.

And the intellectuals would have said that if said event where to arise it would arise only in the midst of the single worst economic disaster in known memory. Surely impossible.

While we struggle to print enough (.. we are not printing this money.. more like .. copy and pasting zeros on a screen) .. money to cover the money that's not actually there . . the public is told dumbed down stories "oh those pesky mortgages.." In which a mortgage default wave is only a side effect, not a cause.

You cannot throw money at a problem and assume your worries are done.. it's like setting up sand bags for a tidal wave.. eventually it WILL hit.. and it will take everything out with it.. Unless those sand bags are used to fortify a single high hill with a few select people. If you get my drift.

The Government will blind fold us, while they situate the economy and the government to best be able to handle the crisis when it really deepens.. to allow chaos to develop instantaneously you risk everything.. to warm into chaos gradually, the entire country can be at that stage and be none the wiser.

reply to post by ProfEmeritus

My only suggestion would be to change the last sentence above to read:

Hi my friend ProfEmeritus,

Your read my mind, I was thinking of saying that FDR just wanted an excuse, but that was a little beyond the scope of my post.

I'm sure you have heard about or read The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes ? (Which did an in depth analysis of the Great Depression and how FDR prolonged the depression many years.)

Many of the people my parent's age admire FDR. But from an economic perspective he doesn't deserve it! He kept the country in depression for many years too long.

The lesson, I suppose, is that if a leader can apply the correct economic remedies, war can be avoided.






[edit on 27/11/08 by plumranch]

[edit on 27/11/08 by plumranch]

reply to post by plumranch

I didn't really want to be a doom and gloomer but when I said MAYBE they were gonna try war,I should have said YES war is coming.
To me it looks like if all countries are having money problems then guess what might be coming??In my opinion ww3.
The whole Iran thing with Isreal and then we have the Russians playing their games and then you have south and north Korea and you have the Pakistan and India thing.( just to name a few hotspots)
I see it boiling over to war just to pump up the economies of the world.
I knew of the fact that war makes money I just didn't want to say my opinion but wanted to be more general in my post instead of writing all I have wrote LOL

knew of the fact that war makes money I just didn't want to say my opinion but wanted to be more general in my post instead of writing all I have wrote LOL

reply to post by DrumsRfun


Obama may have to conjure up a war because all the policies and political ideas he espouses will not work in a down economy as we obvously have. His constituents will demand that he do exactly the wrong thing Ie. raise taxes on the producers and redistribute wealth to the non producers. My guess is that he will try to please his buddies and this will lead inevitably to depression as it did in the 1930s.

Eventually the country will be in such a bad state that the only way out will be starting a war to stimulate the economy. I'm sure that Barack is not above that as he has always been an opportunist. We know very little about the man.