Hi Jay - odd coincidence - last night I decided to stop obsessing over the election and the furthest away thing I could think of was the Great Depression.
I understand, more or less, the fact that gold, exchange rates, and interest rates were the primary cause, not the Great Crash, and I understand pretty well the role that the Federal Reserve (US), Bank of England, and Hjalmar Schacht (Germany) played. I have been putting off and putting off studying France's role, so finally started on that.
I read Kenneth Moure's seminal 1996 essay on the Franc Poincare. Beautiful. It all fell into place. I need to get the book.
discovereconomics.com
I've recommended before Bernanke, as well as Eichengreen's Golden Fetters, which is probably the most accessible.
I can't respond to your entire post, as I am headed to Charlottesville for a Slow Food event, apple harvest and cider tasting, and need to hit the road.
Re: China. You really really really need to get up to speed on Mundell-Fleming. I posted a diagram of Mundell Fleming (the trilemma) a while back, it may still be up, find the link and check it out. Mundell explains all. Governments can control any two of the following three: 1) international flow of capital; 2) exchange rates; 3) interest rates and money supply -- but only two.
I've tried to explain to y'all that when it finally is peeled away, economics isn't really politics and it isn't really animal spirits, it's math. Especially interest rates and exchange rates. I think you probably need to understand differential equations to play with it, but you can understand the broad principles without being good at math.
Check it out.
Re: election. Bush wins. |
