You might consider WWII rations and savings/war bonds plus the universal draft. Beats shopping and duct tape as a homeland strategy.
On Sep 23, 9:18�pm, "M.A. Johnson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Willis > �� Nope, read history instead of spouting rhetoric. The crash of 1929 > �� under Hoover was simply a correction. The market had great highs and > <snip>The Mysteries of the Great Depression Finally SolvedThe depression ... > was endemic to the system: the economy was not self-regulating and needed to > be controlled.���������� -- David Colander and Harry Landreth'The Great > Depression of the 1930s may be a dim memory now, but its impact is still > being felt in policy and theory.� The prolonged depression created an > environment critical of laissez-faire policies and favorable toward > ubiquitous state interventionism throughout the Western world.� The > depression led to the Welfare State and boundless faith in Big Government.� > It caused most of the Anglo-American economics profession to question > classical free-market economics and to search for radical anti-capitalist > alternatives, eventually converting to the 'new economics' of Keynesianism > and 'demand-side' economics. > Prior to the Great Depression, most Western economists accepted the classical > virtues of thrift, limited government, balanced budgets, the gold standard, > and Say's Law.� While most economists continued to defend free enterprise and > free trade on a macroeconomic scale, they rejected traditional views on a > macroeconomic level in the postwar period, advocating consumption over > saving, fiat money over the gold standard, deficit spending over a balanced > budget, and active state interventionism over limited government.� They > bought the Keynesian argument that a free market was inherently unstable and > could result in high levels of unemployed labor and resources for indefinite > periods.They blamed the Great Depression on laissez-faire capitalism and > contended that only massive government spending during World War II saved the > capitalist system from defeat.� In short, the depression opened the door to > widespread collectivism in the United States and around the world. > Fortunately, free-market economists have gradually punctured holes in these > arguments and the pendulum has slowly shifted toward a reestablishment of > classical free-market economics.� Three questions needed to be addressed: > What caused the Great Depression? Why did it last so long?� Did World War II > restore prosperity?� Economic historian Robert Higgs had dubbed these three > arenas of debate the Great Contraction, the Great Duration, and the Great > Escape.The Cause of the Great ContractionMany free-market economists had > attempted to answer the first question, including Benjamin M. Anderson and > Murray N. Rothbard, but none had the impact equal to Milton Friedman's > empirical studies on money in the early 1960s.� His was the first efective > effort to destroy the argument that the Great Depression was the handiwork of > an inherently unstable capitalistic system. Friedman (and his co-author, Anna > J. Schwartz) demonstrated forcefully that it was not free enterprise, but > rather government -- specifically the Federal Reserve System -- that caused > the Great Depression.� In a single sentence underlined by all who read it, > Friedman and Schwartz indicted the Fed: "From the cyclical peak in August > 1929 to a cyclical trough in March 1933, the stock of money fell by over a > third." (This statement was all the more shocking because until Friedman's > work, the Fed didn't publish money supply figures, such as M1 and M2!) > Friedman and Schwartz also proved that the gold standard did not cause the > depression, as some Keynesian economists have alleged.� During the early > 1930s, the U.S. gold stock rose even as the Fed perversely raised the > discount rate and allowed the money supply to shrink and banks to > collapse.The Prolonged SlumpEconomic activity and employment stagnated > throughout the 1930s, causing a paradigm shift from classical economics to > Keynesianism.� Friedrich Hayek, the Austrian economist who challenged Keynes > in the thirties, was so disheartened about the state of the free-world > economy that he abandoned the study of economics in favor of political > philosophy. > Why did the depression last so long?� Many free-market economists have picked > up where Murray Rothbard's America's Great Depression left off, at the time > Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office in 1933.� Gene Smiley (Marquette > University) attempted an 'Austrian' perspective on the perverse role of > fiscal policy in the 1930s.� I summarized the causes of stagnation and > persistent unemployment, such as the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, tax increases, > government regulation and controls, and pro-labor legislation. > More recently, Robert Higgs of the Independent Institute has made an in-depth > study of the 1930s' malaise and focused on the lack of private investment > during this period.� According to Higgs, private investment was greatly > hampered by New Deal > initiatives that destroyed investor and business confidence, the key to > recovery.� In short, the New Deal prolonged the depression.What Got Us Out?In > another brilliant study, Higgs attacked the commonly held view that World War > II saved us from the depression and restored the economy to full employment.� > The war gave only the appearance of recovery, when in reality private > consumption and investment declined while Americans fought and died for their > country.� A return to genuine prosperity -- the true Great Escape -- did not > occur until after the war ended, when most of the wartime controls were > abolished and most of the resources used in the military were returned to > civilian production.� Only after the war did private investment, business > confidence, and consumer spending return to form. > In sum, it has been a long and hard-fought war to restore the case for > free-market capitalism.� Finally, through the path breaking work of Friedman, > Rothbard, Smiley, Higgs, and other scholars, we can now say the battle has > been won.�1. David C. Colander and Harry Landreth, eds., The Coming of > Keynesianism to America (Edward Elgar, 1996), p. 16. > �2. BenjaminM.Anderson,EconomicsandthePublicWelfare (Indianapolis: Liberty > Press, 1979 [1949]) and Murray N. Rothbard, America's Great Depression > (Princeton: D. Van Nostrand, 1963). > �3. Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz, A Monetary History of the United > States, 1867-1960 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963), P. 229. > �4. Friedman and Schwartz, Monetary History, pp. 360-361. See also my May > 1995 Freeman column, "Did the Gold Standard Cause the Great Depression?" > �5. Gene Smiley, "Some Austrian Perspectives on Keynesian FiscalPolicy and > the RecoveryoftheThirties, "ReviewofAustrian Economics (1987), 1:146-79, and > Mark Skousen, "The Great Depression," in Peter Boettke, ed., The Elgar > Companion to Austrian Economics (Edward Elgar, 1994), pp. 431-439. > �6. Robert Higgs, "Regime Uncertainty: Why the Great Depression Lasted So > Long and Why Prosperity Resumed After > the War," The Independent Review (Spring 1997), 1:4, pp. 561-590. > �7. Robert Higgs, "Wartime Prosperity?� A Reassessment of the U.S. Economy in > the 1940s," Joumal ofeconomic History 52 (March 1992), pp. 41-60.� See also > Richard K. Vedder and Lowell Gallaway, "The Great Depression of 1946," Review > of Austrian Economics 5:2 (1991), pp. 3-31. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
