Getting Out of This Mess
I heard for most of my life that the Great Depression ended because of the US involvement in World War II, and that it was the manufacturing jobs that directly lifted the nation out of the depression. This notion made sense to me and I accepted it without much inspection. The idea, however, brings little comfort as the US straggles through the current recession when one realizes that the US is already in a war, and that fact alone is not enough to pull the country out of the economic doldrums. So it was refreshing to read that Niall Ferguson, (in his brilliant, “The Ascent of Money”) says that “American business has always rebounded from financial crises through technical innovation –RCA, Dupont and IBM after the Great Depression; Microsoft and Apple in the 1970’s” www.pbs.org/wnet/ascentofmoney/www.pbs.org/wnet/ascentofmoney/www.pbs.org/wnet/ascentofmoney/ While I’ve never heard that particular theory before, it is certainly a breath of fresh air, or at least a straw that one can eagerly grasp. Now if only the United States can find something to manufacture……
By Myron Gushlak