Fueling the US Economy: Energy as a Production Factor from the Great Depression Until Today

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julius Frieling ◽  
Reinhard Madlener
Keyword(s):  
Great Depression ◽  
Production Factor ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
The Us

The Effect of New Deal Policies Revisited

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yangyang Ji
Keyword(s):  
New Deal ◽  
Aggregate Demand ◽  
American Economic Review ◽  
Supply Side ◽  
Natural Rate ◽  
Jel Codes ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
The Us ◽  
The New Deal

Abstract Eggertsson (2012, American Economic Review, 102, 524–55) finds that when the nominal interest rate hits the zero lower bound, the aggregate demand (AD) curve becomes upward-sloping and supply-side policies that reduce the natural rate of output, such as the New Deal implemented in the 1930s, are expansionary. His analysis is restricted to a conventional equilibrium where the AD curve is steeper than the aggregate supply (AS) curve. Recent research, however, demonstrates that an alternative equilibrium arises if the AD curve is flatter than the AS curve. In that case, the same policies become contractionary. In this article, I allow for both possibilities, and let data decide which equilibrium the US economy actually resided in during the Great Depression. Following the work of Blanchard and Quah (1989, American Economic Review, 79, 655–73), I find that there is a high probability that New Deal policies were contractionary. (JEL codes: E32, E52, E62, N12).

Chaplin’s Modern Times and the Great Depression: The Reception of the Film in the US, France and Britain

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melvyn Stokes
Keyword(s):  
Great Depression ◽  
Political Identities ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
The Us ◽  
Hard Times ◽  
Hollywood Movies

Chaplin’s Modern Times confronted the effects of the Great Depression in a way unique for its socio-economic realism at the time of its mid-1930s making. In examining reception of the movie in the US, UK and France, this essay debunks notions that Hollywood movies were part of some uni-directional current of ‘Americanisation.’ It suggests instead that the differing national receptions reflected local circumstances and their own social, cultural and political identities and preoccupations. A complex transnational text, Hard Times was made by a Hollywood-based Englishman influenced by ideas developed on his world tour of 1931-32. Chaplin’s ‘Little Tramp,’ making what would prove his last film appearance, could therefore be interpreted with differing national contexts as a victim of industrialisation and the Great Depression, an inadvertent radical, a defender of order, or the ultimate survivor.

scholarly journals Understanding rating addiction: US courts and the origins of rating agencies' regulatory license (1900–1940)

2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Flandreau ◽  
Joanna Kinga Sławatyniec
Keyword(s):  
Great Depression ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Financial System ◽  
Subprime Crisis ◽  
Rating Agencies ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
The Us

This article challenges the ‘regulatory license’ view that reliance by regulators on the output of rating agencies in the 1930s ‘caused’ the agencies to become a central part of the fabric of the US financial system. We argue that long before the 1930s, courts began using ratings as financial-community-produced norms of prudence. This created ‘a legal license’ problem, very analogous to the ‘regulatory license’ problem, and gave rise to conflicts of interest not unlike those that have been discussed in the context of the subprime crisis. Rating agencies may have had substantial responsibility for the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The rate of profit and economic stagnation in the United States economy

1997 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 161-174
Author(s):  
Fred Moseley
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
The United States ◽  
Real Wages ◽  
Debt Burden ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
United States Economy ◽  
The Us ◽  
Post War ◽  
Rate Of Profit

AbstractIn the first thirty years after World War II, the US economy performed very well. The rate of growth averaged 4—5%, the rate of unemployment was seldom above 5%, inflation was almost non-existent (1—2%), and the living standards of workers improved steadily. These were the ‘good old days'. However, this long period of expansion and prosperity ended in the 1970s. Since then, both the rate of unemployment and the rate of inflation have been much higher than before, and the average real wages of workers (i.e. the purchasing power of wages) have declined some 20%. Productivity growth has also slowed down and the debt burden of both capitalist enterprises and the Federal government has increased dramatically. It is in this sense that we may refer to the ‘economic crisis’ of the US economy over the last two decades. This crisis has certainly not been as severe as the Great Depression of the 1930s, but the economic performance has been significantly worse than in the early post-war period.

The Advent of a New Banking System in the US

2021 ◽  
pp. 24-46
Author(s):  
João Rafael Cunha
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
Banking Sector ◽  
Banking System ◽  
Financial System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Financial Deregulation ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Regulatory Changes ◽  
The Us

The 1980s was one of the most eventful and consequential decades in the development of the US financial system. During this decade, the regulatory framework established in response to the Great Depression started to be dismantled. These regulatory changes were a key driving force behind the transformation of the banking sector. Moreover, the end of the decade saw the most serious banking crisis since the Great Depression. This pattern of deregulation and crises, which started in the 1980s, has continued until the present. Thus, it is worth study this period in greater detail and the consequences it has had for the US banking and financial system. The chapter argues that the deregulatory process that started in the 1980s in the banking industry in the United States has changed the profile of this sector. Between the Great Depression and the 1980s, the banking sector in the United States was a stable, yet not competitive sector. The financial deregulation of the 1980s changed this sector to a competitive, yet unstable one. This deregulatory process occurred mostly as a response to the economic conditions of the 1970s.

scholarly journals Is this 'it'? An outline of a theory of depressions

2016 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 451-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
FERNANDO J. CARDIM DE CARVALHO
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The United States ◽  
Main Mechanism ◽  
Downward Movement ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Level Of Activity ◽  
The Us ◽  
Debt Deflation

ABSTRACT The crisis initiated in the United States in 2007, and spread worldwide in 2008, has been compared to the Great Depression of the 1930s. They have in common a deep fall in the level of activity (although in the 2010s government intervention was able to contain the fall before it could reach the dimensions of the 1930s), followed by a period where recovery is uncertain and fragile, as has been the case both in the US and in Western Europe. The paper outlines a theory of depression that comprises both aspects. The theory draws on the theoretical contributions of Keynes, Fisher, Minsky and Leijonhufvud, proposing that the concept of "corridor of stability" may help to explain how an initial adverse aggregate shock may lead to a contractionary spiral, where debt deflation is main mechanism to explain the downward movement of the economy and why one should expect a period of weak and volatile recovery to follow it.

scholarly journals Una montagna di debiti. L'Italia e la gestione del debito pubblico tra le due guerre

2020 ◽  
pp. 191-214
Author(s):  
Marianna Astore
Keyword(s):  
Great Depression ◽  
Public Debt ◽  
Policy Issue ◽  
Interesting Case ◽  
Significant Part ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
The Us ◽  
History Of ◽  
Fiscal Austerity

The surge in public debt during the recent pandemic crisis has made high debt a prominent policy issue. Italy is an interesting case study since it has experienced high levels of debt for a significant part of its history. This article revisits the history of Italian public debts in the inter-war period. Italy emerged from WWI with public debt that peaked around 160 percent of GDP. In the mid-1920s a significant reduction of public debt occurred, in concomitance with a regime of fiscal austerity and two restructuring agreements that wiped more than 80 percent of Italian foreign debts. By the early 1930s, the US reaction to the Great Depression that opposed any form of international cooperation, led to an Italian default on war debts in 1934 and a move toward autarky.

Trade Policy in American Economic History

2018 ◽  
pp. 304-324
Author(s):  
Doug Irwin
Keyword(s):  
Trade Policy ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Foreign Competition ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
The North ◽  
The Us

This chapter reviews the evolution of US foreign trade and trade policy from the colonial period to the present. International trade has been a small but important part of the US economy throughout the country’s history. The Constitution gives Congress the authority to levy import duties. The use of this power has been extremely controversial ever since, with the political debate revolving over whether tariffs on imports should be high or low. This debate has pitted export-oriented producers against domestic producers facing foreign competition. After the Smoot Hawley tariff of 1930, which coincided with the Great Depression, protectionism was given a bad name and the United States began to turn to reciprocal trade agreements with other countries. The led to the formation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1947 and later agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1993.

Financial Innovations and the Stability of the Housing Market

2014 ◽  
Vol 230 ◽  
pp. R16-R33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franklin Allen ◽  
James R. Barth ◽  
Glenn Yago
Keyword(s):  
Housing Market ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
Housing Finance ◽  
Government Interventions ◽  
Financial Innovations ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
The Us ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Stability

The recent crisis has underlined the importance of the interaction of financial innovations and the housing market. We consider five major innovations relevant to housing finance. These are (i) mortgages; (ii) specialised housing finance institutions; (iii) government interventions in housing finance in the US during the Great Depression; (iv) covered bonds; and (v) securitised mortgages. The history of these innovations and their positive and negative aspects are discussed. Future innovations to help the stability of the housing market are also suggested.

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