John Coumarianos, Marketwatch: Chilling ways the global economy echoes 1930s Great Depression era
Protectionism, shaky debt, and weak banking systems have consequences
One view of what caused the Great Depression in the 1930s is that the Federal Reserve failed to prevent a collapse in the money supply.
This is the famous thesis of Milton Friedman’s and Anna Schwartz’s A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960, and it was, more or less, the view of Ben Bernanke when he was chairman of the Federal Reserve.
The global economy today resembles that of the 1930s in several ominous ways.
Financial author Edward Chancellor recently called attention to a paper written by Caludio Borio, head economist at the Bank of International Settlements, that provides a fuller picture of the causes of the Great Depression. The paper also draws parallels between global economic conditions that led to the rise of protectionism in the 1930s and our situation now.
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WNU Editor: In 1992 the Russian economy collapse .... and it had all the hallmarks of the U.S. Great Depression of the 1930s. Mass unemployment, homelessness, no money, no social safety net, .... I saw and experienced it all ... and I vowed to never have that happen to me and to my family again. Flash forward to today .... and trust me on this one .... there are too many similarities between that time and today. I pray and hope that I will never see it again .... an economic crash that destroys wealth and a society's sense of well being .... but we are "creatures of habit" who have a nasty habit of repeating history .... and I am seeing history repeat itself..