History questions?
1. According to Gary M. Walton and Hugh Rockoff, “The Great Depression was the most important economic event of the twentieth century.” In
1. According to Gary M. Walton and Hugh Rockoff, “The Great Depression was the most important economic event of the twentieth century.” In this essay, you have the opportunity to address two of the most important questions debated by economic historians of the Great Depression: “What caused this unprecedented collapse? Why did the economy remain depressed for so long?” (Walton and Rockoff, Chapter 23, page 422)
2. Walton and Rockoff pose, perhaps, the most important set of questions facing economic historians of the 1920s: “A central question faced by economic historians is whether the disasters of the 1930s were the inevitable outcome of the prosperity of the 1920s and its reliance on a free market economy, or whether they were the result of shocks and policy mistakes in the 1930s. Was there, to put it somewhat dramatically, a fatal cancer growing in the economy of the 1920s that brought disaster ever closer, even as the economic physicians of the day continued to pronounce the patient in good health?” (Walton and Rockoff, Chapter 22, page 394). What do you think?
or:1. According to Gary M. Walton and Hugh Rockoff, \u201cThe Great Depression was the most important economic event of the twentieth century.\u201d In this essay, you have the opportunity to address two of the most important questions debated by economic historians of the Great Depression: \u201cWhat caused this unprecedented collapse? Why did the economy remain depressed for so long?\u201d (Walton and Rockoff, Chapter 23, page 422) 2. Walton and Rockoff pose, perhaps, the most important set of questions facing economic historians of the 1920s: \u201cA central question faced by economic historians is whether the disasters of the 1930s were the inevitable outcome of the prosperity of the 1920s and its reliance on a free market economy, or whether they were the result of shocks and policy mistakes in the 1930s. Was there, to put it somewhat dramatically, a fatal cancer growing in the economy of the 1920s that brought disaster ever closer, even as the economic physicians of the day continued to pronounce the patient in good health?\u201d (Walton and Rockoff, Chapter 22, page 394). What do you think?
or:The answer is pretty basic to economists, maybe not to historians. The Federal Reserve was created in 1913 specifically to inflate the money supply. The first result of inflation is high employment, which we call \"roaring twenties\". The second result is rising prices. Hoover said \"What the country needs is a good five cent cigar.\" The price of cigars had risen to ten cents. The value of savings accounts had fallen to half their former value. Hoover forced austerity on the country to restore normal money values. The price of a cigar returned to five cents, savings accounts regained full value, and the nation showed signs of prosperity: consumption of meat and butter rose, and so did charitable donations. The nation only remembers the unemployment and the low prices. Here is a familiar photo from that period. If you read her story you notice that MOST people had no such problems. www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/12/02/dustbowl.photo/index.htmlHere are some essays by a professional economist:www.shtfplan.com/category/howard-katz
