Thanks for that lucid explanation Peter ... On Wed, Apr 15, 2020 at 1:46 PM Peter Frederick via Mercedes < mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote:
> I tend to believe academic researchers over stuff on the web. > > Discounting Germany because the Depression there was both self-induced > (the runaway inflation was an attempt to get out of the reparations from > WWI) and external due to the rapaciousness of the French and British who > didn't want to pay for the war they helped start. In all other cases, > going off the gold standard opened up the economy. > > In fact, things stayed really bad until Franklin simply raised the price > of gold every week. Coupled with banning private ownership of gold (and > hoarding money that way), the value of goods started to increase and > commerce started back up. Should have been done much faster. > > The other major problem was simple lack of money in any demonimation -- > when the banks failed, all the cash vanished. No one had any, there wasn't > any way to get any, and hence commerce stopped. > > Remember, the Fed RAISED interest rates repeatedly through the Depression, > and refused to lend money for quite a while. Things were going well by > 1936, when the Republican Congress insisted on balancing the budget > immediately, removing money from the economy just about the time it was > becoming self sustaining. > > Key point, if you are interested, is the 1936 flood in New England. In > response to the serious serious damage, the Feds sent actual money, and > quite suddenly, with actual money being in circulation, the local economy > boomed. People had cash to buy lumber to rebuild damaged buildings, and > suddenly the sawmill had work, and got paid, and the workers took home real > paychecks and bought stuff at the dry good store so the store had money to > buy more stock, and so forth. > > Took some people a very long time to figure out that without money, no one > buys anything, and if no one buys anything, all commerce stops. > > In fact, there are quite a few loudmouths out there already honking about > the evils of unemployment compensation and public grants. Mostly > "business" people, demonstrating how little they know about their own > activities and the relation they have to functioning commerce. > > Unemployment isn't to allow lazy people not to work, it's to keep business > operating rather than the whole nation going bankrupt. > _______________________________________ > -- OK Don "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." Mark Twain “Basic research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I am doing.” Wernher Von Braun 2013 F150, 18 mpg 2017 Subaru Legacy, 30 mpg 1957 C182A, 12 mpg - but at 150 mph! _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
