Quote:
Originally Posted by aceventura3
No.
The Panic of 1893 is similar to this recession in some ways:
Panic of 1893 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I think there are lessons that are to be learned. One lesson is
Looks like government wanted to bailout an industry the bailout failed and perhaps made things worse. There are other lessons as well.
-----Added 10/2/2009 at 12 : 43 : 24-----
I often share my conclusions with you folks. I don't have much interest in getting too detailed here because of the lack of serious discourse. I mostly like to do short "hit and run" type posts. If we ever wanted to seriously discuss an issue, I am game. What's your excuse? |
Do you know how the US got out of the 1893 recession? I could point you to academic articles, but wikipedia has it right there: a gold rush. Unless you think a gold rush is coming soon, then we're in for a long depression. Besides, the point is not that only governments can fix recessions, but that only government action can speed up their recovery.
Oh, and I guess you didnt read the entries for the other recessions, huh?
And I would love to see you back your claims. Even conservatives like Ben Bernanke and Milton Friedman blame a failure to properly stimulate the economy as the cause of the great depression. Of course, they dont think very highly of expansionary fiscal policy (though Bernanke has changed his tune) but they think what transformed a recession into a depression was a monetary policy that wasnt expansive enough. Well, right now we are at 0% interest rate. There is nothing more that monetary policy can do. And we are still going downhill, fast.
There is no inherent value on constant government surpluses. In fact, they'd be a bad thing, taking money away from the economy. Governments should also save for a rainy day and spend when that rainy day gets here. Unfortunately, Bush didnt save anything. In fact, he went on the greatest debt expansion during an economic recovery in history, which in turn only fed the bubble. Now, however, is not the time to turn off the faucets. Instead, it is time to really spend (but spend smart) and hope that once the recovery gets going Obama and congress are smart enough to become fiscally conservative.
Oh, and you are reading wikipedia wrong. Most railroads were privately built, but were funded with municipal bonds and supported via added legislation. Most of the early railroad company were chartered by legislation, were partially owned by the municipal or state government that chartered it, and were exempted of taxes.