Samuelson: Our Depression Obsession

Comment: More from Samuelson. Things have changed since the period after WWI. --JHD

WASHINGTON POST, 4/20/2009 by Robert J. Samuelson (H/t: John H. Detweiler) - The Great Depression of the 1930s was the most momentous economic event of the 20th century. It was a proximate cause of World War II, having fed the Nazis' rise in Germany. It inspired a new American welfare system as a response to mass misery. Everywhere, it discredited unsupervised capitalism. Given today's economic crisis, our renewed fascination with the Depression is natural. But we ought not stretch the parallels too far. Read more at the Washington Post...