[Marxism] A Tale of Two Depressions

[Pat Costello <pt_costello@xxxxxxxxx>]

Often cited comparisons â which look only at the US â find that todayâs 
crisis is milder than the Great Depression. In this column, two leading 
economic historians show that the world economy is now plummeting in a 
Great-Depression-like manner. Indeed, world industrial production, trade, and 
stock markets are diving faster now than during 1929-30. Fortunately, the 
policy response to date is much better.

The parallels between the Great Depression of the 1930s and our current Great 
Recession have been widely remarked upon. Paul Krugman has compared the fall in 
US industrial production from its mid-1929 and late-2007 peaks, showing that it 
has been milder this time. On this basis he refers to the current situation, 
with characteristic black humour, as only âhalf a Great Depression.â The 
âFour Bad Bearsâ graph comparing the Dow in 1929-30 and S&P 500 in 2008-9 
has similarly had wide circulation (Short 2009). It shows the US stock market 
since late 2007 falling just about as fast as in 1929-30....

 
full:

http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/3421


      

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