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Great Depression

One Lesson from the 1930s: Financial Regulation Has to Be Bold

Mitchell Bard | Posted 07.18.2009 | Politics

Read More: Securities Exchange Act of 1934, John Boehner, Gramm-Leach-Biley Act, Franklin Roosevelt, Democrats, Barack Obama, Gillian Tett, Centrist Democrats, Securities Act of 1933, Financial Crisis, Banks, New York Times, Glass-Steagall Act, Daniel Gross, Paul Krugman, Financial Institutions, American Economy, Republicans, Great Depression, Economy, Politics News
Mitchell Bard

Contrary to what John Boehner says, a big foot needs to be placed on the financial industry to make sure that last year's near collapse can never happen again.

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Fear and Looting in America: Shouldn't We Let them Fail?

Les Leopold | Posted 07.17.2009 | Business

Read More: Income Gap, Aig, Unemployment, Lehman Brothers, Economy, Economic Crisis, Financial Crisis, Obama Administration, Great Depression, Business News
Les Leopold

Obama's policies are likely to fail because they don't get at the real cause: The financial crisis is a direct result of the redistribution of wealth to the very top of the income ladder.

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The Greatest Generation Takes a Sip of Bourbon

B. Jeffrey Madoff | Posted 07.09.2009 | Business

Read More: Baby Boomers, Greatest Generation, Chrysler, Aig, Millennial Generation, Civil Rights, Iraq War, Internet, Rebel WIthout a Cause, General Motors, Washington Mutual, Lehman Brothers, Astrology, Gay Marriage, China, Generation Y, Great Depression, Akron-Ohio, Tom Brokaw, Business News
B. Jeffrey Madoff

The significance of every generation will be examined, interpreted and reinterpreted, but in reality, the distinctions between them aren't so clear.

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A Real Pecora Commission

Robert Kuttner | Posted 07.01.2009 | Politics

Read More: New Deal, Pecora Commission, Economic Crisis, Ferdinand Pecora, Financial Crisis, Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act, Financial Markets Commission, Great Depression, Politics News
Robert Kuttner

In 1932 through 1934 the Senate Banking Committee, led by its Chief Counsel Ferdinand Pecora, ferreted out the deeper fraud and corruption that led to the Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. The Pecora Committee's findings helped change the political mood, and laid the groundwork for the sweeping financial reforms of Roosevelt's New Deal. President Obama has now signed legislation which, among other things, creates an investigative commission inspired by Pecora. The new Financial Markets Commission has a sweeping mandate, including subpoena powers, to investigate all the causes of the collapse. But whether the commission carries out this mandate will depend entirely on who its chair and members are, and whether they hire a tough staff.

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Happy Birthday to the King of Swing: Benny Goodman Turns 100

Tony Sachs | Posted 06.30.2009 | Entertainment

Read More: Big Band Jazz, Teddy Wilson, Fletcher Henderson, Bunny Berigan, Elvis Presley, Gene Krupa, Jazz, Louis Armstrong, Harry James, Duke Ellington, Swing, Swing Music, Frank Sinatra, Lionel Hampton, Carnegie Hall, Benny Goodman, Rolling Stones, Great Depression, Entertainment News
Tony Sachs

If you like jazz -- or 20th century American music, for that matter -- then you owe it to yourself to check out Benny Goodman.

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Fear and Looting in America: Be Happy as Wall Street walks off with Your Money

Les Leopold | Posted 06.22.2009 | Business

Read More: Toxic Assets, Financial Crisis, CEO Pay, Green Jobs, Wall Street, Derivatives, Happiness, Great Depression, Business News
Les Leopold

Should we stop whining and accept the new economic realities? No thank you.

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Fear and Looting in America: Geithner Caves to Wall Street

Les Leopold | Posted 06.19.2009 | Business

Read More: Financial Crisis, CEO Pay, Bail Out, Wall Street, Barack Obama, Wages, Great Depression, Geithner, Business News
Les Leopold

We need a President's Wage Cap because the Obama administration does not want to put the screws to Wall Street's lavish compensation packages.

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Chrysler's Debtors a Throwback to the '30s

Joshua Schoen | Posted 06.13.2009 | Business

Read More: Detroit, Henry Ford, Chrysler, Great Depression, Detroit-Michigan, Business News
Joshua Schoen

America is at a turning point, and if the debtors refuse to restructure, there is sure to be reverberations throughout the economy.

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It Will Take Years Before the Current Recession Will End

Michael D. Intriligator | Posted 06.02.2009 | Business

Read More: Japan's Lost Decade, Economy, Economic Crisis, Japanese Economy, Financial Crisis, Banking Crisis, Timothy Geithner, Barack Obama, Great Depression, Business News
Michael D. Intriligator

Many are predicting that the current recession will end soon, by this summer, later this year, or at most next year. I don't believe this prediction -- it will take years for the recession to end.

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What Wonders He Has Seen

Roger I. Abrams | Posted 05.27.2009 | Entertainment

Read More: California Gold Rush, Wrigley Field, Peter Seitz, Arthur Gidden, Great Recession, Burleigh Grimes, Yankees, Boston Braves, Fenway Park, Black Sox Scandal, Red Sox, Ty Cobb, Commissioner Landis, Great Depression, Babe Ruth, Herbert Hoover, Entertainment News
Roger I. Abrams

On Saturday, April 24, we went to Fenway Park to see Arthur Giddon, the Red Sox honorary bat boy. Also scheduled was a match bet...

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Obama Needs to Be Tough on Credit Card CEOs

Robert S. McElvaine | Posted 05.23.2009 | Business

Read More: Greed, Populism, Class Warfare, Bankruptcy, Economic Crisis, Credit Cards, New Depression, Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights, Global Recession, Credit Card Abuses Legislation, Obama Credit Card Abuses, Credit Card Rate Increases, Banks, Banking Crisis, Financial Crisis, Great Depression, Business News
Robert S. McElvaine

The American people do not want the unconscionable interest rate increases made "easier to understand" -- we want them reversed.

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Is Another Hitler Possible?

Robert Gellately | Posted 05.21.2009 | Politics

Read More: Hitler, Adolf Hitler, Great Depression, History, Leadership, Economic Crisis, First World War, Leadership Void, Politics News
Robert Gellately

Our duty as citizens today is to become more active and watchful. Our freedoms are precious and we must protect them as the heritage our forefathers passed on to us.

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Millennials' New Mantra: Have Less, Imagine More

Bob Jeffrey | Posted 05.21.2009 | Living

Read More: The Silent Generation, Millenial Generation, Millenials, Great Depression, Me Generation, Living News
Bob Jeffrey

The Millennials are now inheritors of one of the greatest collapses of collective judgment this century has seen. Are they in denial, in disappointment or simply in disbelief?

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Keep the Bank Pirates on the Run

Robert S. McElvaine | Posted 05.20.2009 | Business

Read More: Greed, Credit Card Abuses Legislation, Populism, Class Warfare, Bankruptcy, Economic Crisis, Credit Cards, Obama Credit Card Abuses, New Depression, Global Recession, Credit Card Rate Increases, Banks, Banking Crisis, Financial Crisis, Great Depression, Business News
Robert S. McElvaine

President Obama seems to be hearing the growing outcry against the big bank pirates' declaration of war on the American people through their outrageous increases in credit card interest rates.

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Paul Krugman Angers Austria's Bankers, Politicians by Stating the Obvious

Sheldon Filger | Posted 05.20.2009 | Business

Read More: Great Depression, Austria, International Monetary Fund, Banking Crisis, Imf, Global Financial Crisis, Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize, Global Economic Crisis, Business News
Sheldon Filger

Nobel laureate Paul Krugman stirred the ire and indignation of Austria's political and financial establishment by merely stating the obvious. No European state is in as precarious a state as Austria.

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Tea Parties: GOP Once Again Manipulating the Average Joe

Andy Ostroy | Posted 05.17.2009 | Politics

Read More: Tarp, George Bush, Karl Rove, Bank Bailouts, President Obama, Gallup Poll, Tax Cuts, Gop, Democrats, Newt Gingrich, Tea Parties, Republican Party, Contract With America, Tax Increases, Great Depression, Politics News
Andy Ostroy

Low and middle-income taxpayers who ironically stand to gain the most from Obama's tax policies have once again been manipulated by the GOP.

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Banks Declare War on America

Robert S. McElvaine | Posted 05.16.2009 | Business

Read More: Greed, Populism, Bankruptcy, Capitol One, Economic Crisis, Bank of America, Recession, New Depression, Credit Cards, J.P. Morgan Chase, Credit Card Rate Increases, Citibank, Financial Crisis, Banking Crisis, Banks, Class Warfare, Amex, Great Depression, Business News
Robert S. McElvaine

These rate increases -- some to as high as 29 percent -- are exactly the opposite of what the bad economy needs for recovery.

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Some Hard Truth About Hard Times

Jeffrey Shaffer | Posted 05.16.2009 | Politics

Read More: History, Economy, Poverty, Political Humor, Economic Downturn, Crisco, Depression, Flappers, Alphabet Soup, New Deal, Economic Crisis, Scrimping, Franklin Roosevelt, Speakeasies, Recession, Fdr, Silver Tea, Redwood City, Great Depression, Rice, Saving, Norman Rockwell, Jazz Age, Bailout, New-Deal, San Francisco, Gilded Age, Politics News
Jeffrey Shaffer

Using the Depression as a baseline for discussions of national prosperity ignores an important historical truth: for millions of average citizens, money was tight prior to the 1930s.

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How It Was: Fatuosity and the Great Depression

Dan Agin | Posted 04.18.2009 | Business

Read More: Business, Economics, Recession, Great Depression, Fatuosity, Business News
Dan Agin

Fatuosity, an archaic term for idiocy, is such a marvelous word it needs rejuvenation in our modern era of buffoon economists, smirking corporate charlatans, and giggling business journalists.

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No Hoax: Pass Employee Free Choice Act to Revive Economy

Leo W. Gerard | Posted 05.14.2009 | Politics

Read More: Efca, Bailout Money, Ceos, Ceo, Employee Free Choice Act, Wall Street Speculators, Abraham Lincoln, Panics, Nlra, Anti-Union Lobbyists, Great Depression, National Labor Relations Act, Sub-Prime Mortgages, All-Clad, Politics News
Leo W. Gerard

Workers must vanquish the new hoax being perpetrated by conservatives, greedy CEOs and other labor union-haters. Workers must win the freedom that they had in 1935 to choose how to form their unions.

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Don't Call It a Comeback

Harry Moroz | Posted 05.09.2009 | Business

Read More: Consumer Confidence, Unemployment, Durable Goods, Foreclosures, Baseline Scenario, Green Shoots, Housing, Paul Krugman, Vox EU, Tyler Cowen, Wall Street Journal, Stocks, Great Depression, Economy, Inventories, Business News
Harry Moroz

This rather overwhelming response to the first "green shoots" of the economic crisis suggests that we've reached a significant, even threshold, moment that policymakers must utilize.

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Don't Turn the Recession into a Depression

Alan Schram | Posted 05.09.2009 | Business

Read More: Dollar, Interest Rates, Taxes, Housing Bubble, Business News, Federal Reserve, Obama, Tariffs, Financial Crisis, Great Depression, Business News
Alan Schram

Many compare the current economic crisis to the Great Depression of the 1930's. While their origins were similar, the denouement should not be.

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Ryan Grim

Global Economic Shock Worse Than Great Depression

HuffingtonPost.com | Ryan Grim | Posted 05.08.2009 | Business

Read More: Great Depression, Kevin O'rourke, Recession, Barry Eichengreen, Economic Depression, The Great Depression, Business News

The global economic collapse of the last several months is already greater than the shock that hit the world 80 years ago, triggering the Great Depres...

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Brother, How Unemployed Art Thou?

Steve Proffitt | Posted 05.08.2009 | Living

Read More: Npr, Umemployment, Great Depression, Video, Economy, Living News
Steve Proffitt

A small video tribute to the now more than 13 million Americans who want a job, but can't find one. O Brother How Unemployed Art Thou? from steve pro...

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Recession, Depression and Therapy

Alan Miller | Posted 05.06.2009 | Living

Read More: Recession Fears, Depression, Fear Watch 2008, Recession Anxiety, Economic Recession, Recession, Great Depression, Living News
Alan Miller

We should challenge both the nasty idea that recession somehow will result in a cultural renaissance and the destructive one that we are all in need of therapeutic counseling.

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