Blog Roll: The Great Depression

 

The Great Depression of the Early 20th Century is (and was) a systemic event between World War I and World War II that has been intensely analyzed, if over-analyzed (see References below). The one viewpoint that seems to have been under-analyzed is the perspective of Systems Theory. The following is a Blog Roll of my postings on the topic:

• How do we define Great Depressions? From the standpoint of Systems Theory, not correctly.
• Shock Theories of Great Depressions An obvious but inadequate perspective.
• Did the Great Depression hit at a conjuncture of Technological Change? Maybe, but there have been a lot of Technological Long Waves and Conjunctures.
• Measuring the Great Depression Obsessive focus on the collapse of Gross Domestic product is myopic. 
• The Minsky-Kindleberger Framework So far, the best qualitative systemic framework. It needs to be tested.
• War and Normalcy: (1914-1929)  The Roaring Twenties Bubble was "popped" by the 1929 Stock Market Crash after which the US Economy returned to the long-run attractor path.
• Forecasting the Great Depression in France Not easy (or maybe even possible) since France reinvented itself after WWI and responded very conservatively to the shocks of the Great Depression.
• Black Thursday, Monday and Tuesday The Stock Market Crash.
• Are there Feedback Loop that Control The Economy? Yes, but...
• Ben Bernanke and the Great Depression You have to be a little sympathetic...
• The Fed Now has Better NowCasting Models So let's apply the models to the Great Depression.
• US Debt and the Great Depression The Deficit Scolds don't understand History.
• Political Philosophy and the Great Depression We are still stuck in the 1930's.
• One Problem with the Keynesian Plan It's Political!
• The Great Depression in France A difficult forecasting problem!
• Prohibition and Regulation OK, not all regulation makes sense!
• Income Inequality and the Great Depression Income Inequality peaked right before the Great Depression!
• American Values and Inequality It's a laugh!
• Are there Economic Stabilizers in the Economy? Maybe!
• Do We need Income Inequality for Growth? No!
• Is Income Inequality Inevitable? No!
• Tariffs and the Great Depression. Most politicians must have flunked ECON 101.
• Might MORE Capitalism help? No!
• Scenes from the Great Depression. Rewriting History.

Systems Theory opens up an entirely new perspective on the Great Depression. I will keep adding posts to this Blog Roll until I think I've attacked all the issues and competing explanations.

Notes

Readings

• Peter Fearon (1987) War, Prosperity and Depression, The US Economy 1917-1945. A good summary of the Economic Thinking on the Great Depression
• Charles Kindleberger (2013) World in Depression, 1929-1939 The best understanding of the Great Depression as a World-wide, Systemic Event
• Charles Kindleberger (2015) Manias, Panics and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises What causes departures from the Attractor Path 
• US Government (2008) Outline of US History, Chapter 10, War, Prosperity and Depression. The "official" history for the US! 
• Immanuel Wallerstein (2004) World-Systems Analysis: An Introduction
• Ludwig von Bertalanffy (2015) General System Theory: Foundations, Development, Applications Kindle Edition