From Prosperity to Depression

Irvin S. Cobb ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
William E. Ellis
Keyword(s):  
Stock Market ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
Stock Market Crash ◽  
Slowing Down ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Changing Times ◽  
To Receive

In the late 1920s Cobb’s popularity declined, due to the changing times. Although he continued to add books to his repertoire, they failed to receive critical acclaim. Other elements of Cobb’s life were still satisfying, such as his wanderlust and his love of spending time with friends. The stock market crash and the Great Depression took a toll on the Cobb family’s finances. While Cobb’s writing career was slowing down, Buff had become an accomplished writer. Cobb delved into work in radio and ventures in Hollywood.

Anatolian Peasants in the Great Depression 1929–1933

2000 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 79-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elif Akçetin
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
Stock Market ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Stock Market Crash ◽  
Sudden Drop ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Area Of Study

The effects of the Great Depression of 1929 on peasants in Turkey is an area of study that has remained neglected, despite the fact that peasants then constituted 75 percent of the population. The reason why the condition of peasants has not attracted much attention is the dramatic change between the economic policies of the 1920s and those of the 1930s. The immediate consequence of the stock-market crash and the sudden drop in prices was the shrinkage of international trade. Governments dealt with the depression by implementing quotas on imports, and liberal economic policies were no longer considered successful. Protectionism became the most popular policy for the management of economies in difficulty. The change in economic policies during this period constituted a break with the past and therefore has been the principal focus of studies on the Great Depression.

scholarly journals The Repeal Of The Glass- Steagall Act And The Current Financial Crisis

2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Corinne Crawford
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Stock Market ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
Conflict Of Interest ◽  
Investment Banking ◽  
Too Big To Fail ◽  
Stock Market Crash ◽  
Financial Conglomerates ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Current Financial Crisis

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; color: black; font-size: 10pt; mso-themecolor: text1;">The Glass-Steagall Act was passed in 1933 in response to the failure of the banks following the Great Depression.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>One out of every five banks failed in the aftermath of the stock market crash. Legislators and regulators questioned the role the underwriting of securities played in the financial collapse. Many believed these investment banking activities caused a conflict of interest in that banks often suggested that their customers purchase securities the banks had underwritten.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>They believed that this conflict of interest contributed significantly to the stock market crash and the bank failures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The Glass-Steagall Act forced banks to choose between being a commercial bank or an investment bank, in effect constructing a wall between commercial banking and investing banking activities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The Glass- Steagall Act was the first law signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt upon taking the oath of office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Almost immediately upon enactment, the financial community lobbied to have the Act repealed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Over the years, this persistent lobbying led to a continual reinterpretation and liberalization of the Glass-Steagall Act, until the Act was repealed in 1999.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>On the dawn of repeal, the late Senator Paul Wellstone made an impassioned plea on the Senate floor. He said the repeal of Glass-Steagall would enable the creation of financial conglomerates which would be too big to fail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Furthermore, he believed that the regulatory structure would not be able to monitor the activities of these financial conglomerates and they would eventually fail due to engaging in excessively risky financial transactions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Ultimately, he said, prophetically, that the taxpayers would be forced to bail out these too-big-to-fail financial institutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Clearly, Senator Wellstone was in the minority as the legislation repealing the Glass-Steagall Act was passed in both the House and the Senate with large majorities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>President Bill Clinton signed the legislation into law in late November, 1999.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It has now been over ten years since the repeal of Glass-Steagall and the United States is in the grip of the largest financial crisis since the Great Depression.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Legislators and regulators are again questioning the role that the investment banking activities of commercial banks have played in a financial crisis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Some believe the repeal of Glass-Steagall contributed significantly to the current financial crisis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Others believe that if Glass-Steagall had still been in place, the financial crisis would be much worse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>This paper examines the role that the repeal of Glass-Steagall played in the current financial crisis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span></p>

Regulating Greed

2019 ◽  
pp. 79-94
Author(s):  
Saul Levmore
Keyword(s):  
Stock Market ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
John Dos Passos ◽  
Social Response ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Stock Market Crash ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Biographical Sketches ◽  
The Right

John Dos Passos’ The Big Money (1936) is hardly the only important American work to see greed as a cause of the stock market crash and then the Great Depression. It is packed with the problem of distinguishing greed from ambition, and it raises the question of the right social response to unattractive impulses. Prior to losing his idealistic fervor, or exchanging it for conservative passion, Dos Passos freely associated ambition with corruption, and acquisitiveness with antisocial self-interest. His deployment and biographical sketches of industrialists and other notable Americans suggest the difficulty of distinguishing avarice from ambition. Dos Passos’ treatment of ambition presupposes an economy where one person’s gain is at the expense of another; artistic accomplishment is, however, freed from this assumption. The novel speaks more to individual excesses than to their regulation, but it offers an opportunity to think about both.

Remaking the Heartland

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Wuthnow
Keyword(s):  
Great Depression ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
Social Transformations ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Objective Observer ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Changing Times ◽  
Middle West

For many Americans, the Middle West is a vast unknown. This book sets out to rectify this. It shows how the region has undergone extraordinary social transformations over the past half-century and proven itself surprisingly resilient in the face of such hardships as the Great Depression and the movement of residents to other parts of the country. It examines the heartland's reinvention throughout the decades and traces the social and economic factors that have helped it to survive and prosper. The book points to the critical strength of the region's social institutions established between 1870 and 1950—the market towns, farmsteads, one-room schoolhouses, townships, rural cooperatives, and manufacturing centers that have adapted with the changing times. It focuses on farmers' struggles to recover from the Great Depression well into the 1950s, the cultural redefinition and modernization of the region's image that occurred during the 1950s and 1960s, the growth of secondary and higher education, the decline of small towns, the redeployment of agribusiness, and the rapid expansion of edge cities. Drawing arguments from extensive interviews and evidence from the towns and counties of the Midwest, the book provides a unique perspective as both an objective observer and someone who grew up there. It offers an accessible look at the humble yet strong foundations that have allowed the region to endure undiminished.

The Primal Force of the Great Depression

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Kenneth Galbraith
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Classical Tradition ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
The Other ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Stock Market Crash ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Classical Economic ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Brain

This chapter examines the impact of the Great Depression on classical economic ideas. When the Great Depression struck after the stock market crash of October 1929, economists in the classical tradition such as Joseph Schumpeter and Lionel Robbins chose to do nothing. They argued that the depression must be allowed to run its course. The chapter first considers U.S. economic policy under Franklin D. Roosevelt, focusing on how he addressed three visible features of the depression: deflation in prices, unemployment, and the hardship depression suffered by especially vulnerable groups. It also discusses the views of two scholars who belonged to the group known as the Roosevelt Brains Trust (later the Brain Trust), Rexford Guy Tugwell and Adolf A. Berle Jr. Finally, it explores how depression and price deflation led to two efforts to raise prices, one through the National Recovery Act and the other through agriculture.

scholarly journals Deciphering the Liquidity and Credit Crunch 2007–2008

2009 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus K Brunnermeier
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Stock Market ◽  
Financial Markets ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
Financial Market ◽  
Mortgage Market ◽  
Credit Crunch ◽  
Real Economy ◽  
The Real ◽  
The Great Depression

The financial market turmoil in 2007 and 2008 has led to the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression and threatens to have large repercussions on the real economy. The bursting of the housing bubble forced banks to write down several hundred billion dollars in bad loans caused by mortgage delinquencies. At the same time, the stock market capitalization of the major banks declined by more than twice as much. While the overall mortgage losses are large on an absolute scale, they are still relatively modest compared to the $8 trillion of U.S. stock market wealth lost between October 2007, when the stock market reached an all-time high, and October 2008. This paper attempts to explain the economic mechanisms that caused losses in the mortgage market to amplify into such large dislocations and turmoil in the financial markets, and describes common economic threads that explain the plethora of market declines, liquidity dry-ups, defaults, and bailouts that occurred after the crisis broke in summer 2007.

When the Money Stopped

Money ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Kenneth Galbraith ◽  
James K. Galbraith
Keyword(s):  
Stock Market ◽  
Federal Reserve ◽  
The United States ◽  
Bank Failures ◽  
Open Market ◽  
Federal Reserve System ◽  
Stock Market Crash ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Monetary System ◽  
Reserve System

This chapter examines the impact of the stock market crash of October 1929 on the monetary system of the United States. Very little attention has been given to the factors which converted the uncomfortable and distressing crises of the previous century into the profound and enduring tragedy known as the Great Depression. Neither the stock market crash of October 1929 nor the antecedent speculation has often been deemed to be a decisive cause. The chapter first considers how the stock market crash affected investment expenditures by business and consumer expenditures before discussing the bank failures that followed the crash. It also explores how bank failures and the fear of bank failures induced deflation and how the Federal Reserve System began open-market operations after harboring fears of inflation. Finally, it looks at the reform of the Federal Reserve System by legislation in 1933, 1934, and 1935.

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