Search results for "Great Depression"

1936. Frustrated Hopes: The Great Depression, the Second Republic and the Civil War

2020

The Great Depression was accompanied by the collapse of the monarchical regime and the establishment of a modern democracy with the Second Republic in April 1931. The new regime had to balance the importance of gaining domestic and international respectability (using orthodox fiscal and monetary policy) with efforts to shift towards a moderate protectionist policy, and enact land, labour and educational reforms. There were fierce confrontations from 1934 on, eventually culminating in a civil war in 1936. The consequences included a long-lasting impact on economic growth; autarky and interventionist policies; a huge loss of human capital; poverty and rising inequality; and a 40-year-long dic…

From 2009 to 1929

2010

The current and still unfolding crisis of our economic system shows disturbing resemblances to the Great Depression in terms of magnitude, triggering mechanisms, and curative public interventions. This paper compares the experience, mechanisms, and consequences of these two crises in light of the analysis of Fisher, Keynes, and Minsky. This analysis proves very useful for understanding the triggering mechanisms of the current crisis, as well as its propagation mechanisms. It also addresses two dilemmas within the debate about the curative as well as preventive measures for getting out of the crisis and avoiding a new disaster: the dilemma of monetary activism and that of liquidity.

Between Harvard and Chicago: Jacob Viner and New Deal Banking Reforms (1933-1935)

2007

From the great depression to bretton woods: Jacob Viner and international monetary stabilization (1930-1945)

2009

This paper examines Jacob Viner's contribution to the debate and the policy decision-making concerning international monetary policy from the Great Depression to the Bretton Woods agreements. An outstanding member of the so-called 'early Chicago School of Political Economy', Viner was actively engaged in the debate over the causes and cures of the Depression, emphasizing the important role international economic problems played in producing its onset and in reinforcing its duration. During the 1930s Viner was an outspoken supporter of international monetary cooperation, set up to secure exchange rates stability, which he regarded as a paramount factor in restoring business confidence and fo…

Introduction

2012

HARVARD MEETS THE CRISIS: THE MONETARY THEORY AND POLICY OF LAUCHLIN B. CURRIE, JACOB VINER, JOHN H. WILLIAMS, AND HARRY D. WHITE

2015

The paper discusses the interpretation of the Great Depression and the policy decision making by four Harvard economists: Lauchlin B. Currie, Jacob Viner, John H. Williams, and Harry D. White. All were eminent scholars in the field of monetary and international economics, and were deeply involved in policy decisions during the New Deal. We will discuss how their Harvard training provided them with a common methodological and analytical perspective, and how this common perspective translated into specific policies when they moved from the academia to public service in the US administration. Their interpretation of the causes of the Great Depression and their policy proposals show the eclecti…

The global economic crisis as a critical Juncture? The crisis's impact on migration movements and policies in Europe and the US

2016

The current global economic crisis has resulted in the strongest recession in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries since the Great Depression in the early 1930s and the 1970s oil shocks. This special issue sets out to explore how the most recent economic crisis impacted immigration and immigration-related policy in the United States of America and in European countries that are part of the OECD. The crisis of the late 2000s was offset by the collapse of the subprime US housing market, destabilising the financial system and leading to a sovereign debt crisis. The shock was marked by a “sudden […] deterioration of most, or all, key macroeconomic indicator…

Jacob Viner and the Chicago monetary tradition

2009

The paper aims at assessing Jacob Viner's role in that brand of monetary thought which historians associate with the Chicago School and whose origins can be retraced in the writings and teaching of Frank Knight, Lloyd Mints, Henry Simons and Viner himself. After a brief description of the prolonged debate over the origins and nature of the so called “Chicago Monetary Tradition”, we examine Viner's analyses and policy proposals drawing particular attention to: his analysis of the Great depression; his proposals for monetary expansion and banking reform; his shift of emphasis in favour of Fiscal Policy; the evolution of its monetary framework in the early 1930's. Finally, we compare his posit…

Conan Fischer, A Vision of Europe. Franco-German Relations during the Great Depression, 1929–1932. Oxford, Oxford University Press 2017

2018

Finland’s great depression of the 1990s: Lessons about financial reform based on econometric macro evidence

2020

The paper re‐examines the Finnish Great Depression of the 1990s, based on an open macro model, with specific dummy variables to identify the initial effects of liberalized financial markets and capital mobility, and of the Russian trade collapse. It is shown that the explosive credit expansion resulting from the simultaneous liberalization of the financial markets and international capital movements in 1986 has played the most important role in explaining the uncontrolled growth and the subsequent depression in 1989 in real economic activity in Finland. Their effects were strengthened by a vicious circle between the financial and asset markets. The Russian trade collapse in 1991 had a small…