If WW2 ended when A-bombs dropped on Japan, when did the global depression occur?
It is a historical FACT that Truman called up the Russian embassy and gave them only 48hrs to remove all Russian troops from Turkey or he would "drop the bomb on 'em! & if you don't believe I will, just ask the Japs!" They were gone in 24hrs which marked the beginning of the Cold War or actually the 2nd half of World War Two.
Look at Scientific American documents of global oil usage you will see that Germany and Japan succeeded in gaining access to the BULK of mid-east oil by early 70s precipitating oil transportation limitations. 1974 Oil price were raised to build necessary SUPERtankers to meet transport demands. BULK of US foreign oilncame from ONE OPEC nation in 1974, Venezuela. The bear markets of 70s, 80s, &n01 were NOTHING compared to Great Depression. You didn't have teenagers outnroaming the countryside chopping cotton for a plate of food did you like in the 30s?nMy Grandparents called 'em "Hoe Boys" Can you guess where Ho-Bo came from?nWe're all living on borrowed tim
Answers
2082 points
alanj answered one year ago …
The Great Depression occured before WWII as a result of stock manipulation in the late 1920's by a group of about 5 wealthy investors, not WWI as a previous writer on this site claimed. The only thing that will get you out of a depression is economic growth. The Great Depression was so deep that it required a massive amount of growth. And the size of WWII did just that. Worldwide it probably employed 100's of millions of people. Not just directly but also indirectly. As people would receive a regular paycheck they would start spending. This would create a demand for more stuff. Businesses would then make more stuff. Which means they would have to hire more people. And then these people would also buy more stuff. You've now got economic growth. Where was the depression after WWII? There wasn't one. We have had some bear markets since then, but no depression. The markets are not constant. They go up and down. It has a way of correcting when it gets to far out of sync. It's down now, but it will eventually go back up. And it will go up higher. It always has, and it will again.
Read more from alanj2775 points
Oldman answered one year ago …
It's nice to believe in conspiracies, but the great depression actually occurred very slowly in Europe after WW One, due to the reparations required by Britain & France on the defunct Austro_Hungarian empire and Germany. With Russia in the throes of the Bolshevik revolution, commerce in Eastern Europe ground to a halt, and Banks had no collateral to lend, nor did the displaced migrants have land to farm. In the Weimar Republic of Germany, at the beginning of the Facist movement's growth, in the early 1920's, the printing presses for Marks were going so fast, that, similar to Zimbabwe today, a wheelbarrow of Marks was needed for the few loaves of bread in a big city, such as Nurnberg.
The causes of the Market Crash of 1929, in the U.S. have been variously explained, but protectionist tariffs, financial derivatives (the stock market had no SEC oversight) and hyper expectations of increasing valuations of the trading paper combined with excessive leverage, destroyed a lot of "big" investors. The Developed Economies were "Broke". It wasn't 5 manipulators, but millions of "investors" who believed that they could get something for nothing.
In contrast, the market changes after WW2 were a result of costs to change from making tanks to making cars, and for retooling the returning soldiers and out-of-work Navy Yard steel workers into producing consumer-products. There was a 2 and a half year slump in the markets, and a lot of wage pressures...there were disruptive UMW stikes vs Coal companies, and steel worker strikes, etc.
The previous Depression of 1907, worldwide had vastly different causes, as did the 1850-1880 period of monetization depression, as did the 1834-1838 depression...and so on. Each time a different set of factors were involved..and a different set of characters were blamed...Boss Tweed, The Morgan-Carnegy-Rockefeller Oligarchy; the free silver & know-nothing movements. etc.
It's fascinating to see how the ignorant blame the ficticious for their poverty.
825 points
Dragonsbane answered one year ago …
I agree with Oldman. Global deflation/credit contraction was the cause of the Great Depression (despite German hyperinflation), not stock manipulation. Ironically, all banks are now capital impaired as they were then (though today they have greater access to capital). As for people trying to get something for nothing, how about house flippers in the last decade? It's a 0 sum game. Without an actual increase in demand, prices shouldn't increase, but prices still went up at an outrageous pace as supply rose faster than demand. It was pretty obvious someone would be left holding the bag at the end. Another group of people who wanted something for nothing were institutional investors. For "sophisticated investors", you would think they'd know that you can't get a return in excess of the risk free rate without taking on additional risk. But somehow they thought high yielding credit derivatives with a "AAA" stamp were of equal risk to US treasuries (ie no risk) and the extra 2% yield was just free. Well, I guess we all know how that turned out.
In any case, I don't think we'll see another depression this time around, but the current downturn will be far worse than your typical recession. So get ready because the bear market is just getting started.
