History of U.S. Economic Crashes since 1929

Worst Economy of the Last 50 Years? Wizbang has market graphs, common sense and the whole shebang on the five largest meltdowns from the Great Depression on.

According to the historical data, the United States has suffered five periods between 1920 and today where the value of the stock market dropped greater than 40% -- 1929 to 1932, 1937, 1973 to 1974, 1987, and 2008. Both of the market drops during the 1930's were either worsened or directly caused by misdirected government intervention. And the 1970's was defined by Keynesian economic policies throughout the Nixon, Ford, and Carter administrations, beginning with Nixon's wage and price controls and ending with Carter's attempts to manipulate the market through interest rates and cap the cost of energy through excessive government regulation. In contrast, despite the suddenness and the size of the 1987 market drop, the Reagan Administration eschewed an overblown response, and the market recovered on its own. Liberals like to point out that most major recessions have occurred during Republican administrations. But market data also indicates that the longest and most damaging recessions occurred during times of heavy interventionist government policies, the kinds of policies strongly supported by today's Democrats.

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