scholarly journals Profit growth in boom and bust: the Great Recession and the Great Depression in comparative perspective

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria N. Ivanova
Author(s):  
Youssef Cassis ◽  
Giuseppe Telesca

Why were elite bankers and financiers demoted from ‘masters’ to ‘servants’ of society after the Great Depression, a crisis to which they contributed only marginally? Why do they seem to have got away with the recent crisis, in spite of their palpable responsibilities in triggering the Great Recession? This chapter provides an analysis of the differences between the bankers of the Great Depression and their colleagues of the late twentieth/early twenty-first century—regarding their position within, and attitude towards the firm, work culture, mental models, and codes of conduct—complemented with a scrutiny of the public discourse on bankers and financiers before and after the two crises. The authors argue that the (relative) mildness of the Great Recession, compared to the Great Depression, has contributed to preserve elite bankers’ and financiers’ status, income, wealth, and influence. Yet, the long-term consequences of their loss of reputational capital are difficult to assess.


2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (Supplement) ◽  
pp. 36-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albrecht Ritschl

AbstractThe Great Recession of 2008 hit the international economy harder than any other peacetime recession since the Great Contraction after 1929. Soon enough, analogies with the Great Depression were presented, and conclusions were drawn regarding the political response to the slump. This paper is an attempt to sort out real and false analogies and to present conclusions for policy. Its main hypothesis is that the Great Recession resembles the final phase of the Great Contraction between 1931 and 1933, characterized by a fast spreading global financial crisis and the breakdown of the international Gold Standard. The same is also true of the political responses to the banking problems occurring in both crises. The analogy seems less robust for the initial phase of the Great Depression after 1929. The monetary policy response to the Great Recession largely seems to be informed by the monetary interpretation of the Great Depression, but less so by the lessons from the interwar financial crises. As in the Great Depression, policy appears to be on a learning curve, moving away from a mostly monetary response toward mitigating counterpart risk and minimizing interbank contagion.


2009 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-129
Author(s):  
Eloi Laurent

Put together, my remarks constitute an unsubtle attempt at rendering explicit the elegant implicit comparisons between the Great Depression and today’s “Great recession” that make Alan Brinkley’s article an insightful delight for the reader. At the end of his paper, Brinkley points out to some similarities between the two crises. In the brief following comment, I will push forward his conclusion but on a somewhat different path: in my view, if the consequences of the Great Depression and the “Great Recession” have so far been quite different, their causes appear to be in many respects alike, or at least parallel.


2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 63-67
Author(s):  
Peter Buell Hirsch

Purpose This paper aims to examine whether the behavior of brands during the Great Depression held lessons for the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic. Design/methodology/approach A review of brand marketing and advertising from the 1920s and 1930s. Findings There are many learnings from the Great Depression that are instructive for today’s brand marketers dealing with COVID-19. Research limitations/implications The review of the literature is not comprehensive and the findings are subjective. Practical implications Today’s brands can learn a great deal from the 1930s such as to take advantage of opportunities and avoid mistakes in today’s difficult environment. Social implications By handling today’s challenges skillfully, brands can refresh relationships with consumers overwhelmed with choices. Originality/value Though there was some commentary on this subject following the Great Recession of 2009, there has been little written about the lessons in brand marketing in the current situation.


2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 427-441
Author(s):  
Janine Brodie

AbstractThe 2008 global financial meltdown, commonly called the ‘Great Recession’, was the most serious crisis in capitalism since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and a fundamental repudiation of neoliberal governing assumptions. This paper focuses on the contexts that informed two governmental responses to this economic crisis — restoration and retrenchment through public austerity. It explains that these responses were contingent, experimental, inequitable and, in the end, unsuccessful. Restoration and retrenchment, however, were entirely consistent with previous neoliberal crisis-responses and the abiding ambitions of this governing project. As the economic crisis crawled into the second half of a decade, the idea of inequality was increasingly identified as an underlying cause of crisis and its amelioration as a necessary part of rebuilding economies and communities in a post-crisis era. The paper tracks the case for the revival of equality politics and policies in the early twenty-first century.


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