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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: maceng2 who wrote (45483)	1/22/2009 5:28:44 AM
From: Snowshoe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 219603

Thanks. I haven't read it yet, but I just added it to my buy list. It's actually up to the 5th edition (2005)... Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises (Wiley Investment Classics) (Paperback) by Charles P. Kindleberger (Author), Robert Aliber (Author), Robert Solow (Foreword) amazon.com This one looks interesting too. See the comments below about the gold standard... <g> The World in Depression, 1929-1939 Revised and Enlarged edition (History of the World Economy in the Twentieth Century) (Paperback) by Charles P. Kindleberger (Author) amazon.com (Review) By A Customer This book is outstanding at describing the economics of the Great Depression. In his time, Kindleberger was regarded by many as the highest authority on the economics of the Great Depression. He also was a regular economist of the highest order. (Check out his other books.) This book is outstanding analysis of the Great Depression. Kindleberger explains that the reason for the Depression was a lack of a stable international economic structure. In other words, the financial structure we enjoy today simply did not exist at the time. The flawed international system could only have led to a financial crisis eventually. The financial world used a flawed gold standard - and this book describes why it was a disaster. Great Britain (and finance minister Winston Churchill specifically) played a leading role in implementing the flawed international system. Then when the depression hit, Great Britain quickly dumped the gold standard - hypocrosy - and recoverd the soonest. Herbert Hoover rigidly stick to the gold standard. FDR dumped it once becoming president, and it brought about a recovery. But a full recovery from the great depths of the Great Depression did not occur until the massive spending of World War II. Why did this all happen? There simply was no financial structure in place to exact a powerful enough of a force on the global financial system. Great Britain had abdicated the leadership role and the United States was yet unwilling to assume that role. Nations turned inward (and I would add that countries that devalued quickly faired best). Macroeconomics had not yet been developed. Keynes General Theory only came out in the mid-1930's, and then it was largely unknown. Friedman would not develop his monetary theory until well after the Great Depression had ended. The book is not the only explanation of the Great Depression, nor pretends to be, but is a highly valid one and should be considered by anyone seriously interested in the subject. This book is a classic for the subject.