Stock market crashes, bread lines, bank runs, and wild currency speculation were worldwide phenomena all occurring with war looming in the background. This period has provided economists with a marvelous laboratory for studying the links between economic policies and institutions and economic performance. Here, ben bernanke has gathered together his essays on why the great depression was so devastating. This broad view shows us that while the great depression was an unparalleled disaster, some economies pulled up faster than others, and some made an opportunity out of it.

By comparing and contrasting the economic strategies and statistics of the world's nations as they struggled to survive economically, the fundamental lessons of macroeconomics stand out in bold relief against a background of immense human suffering. The essays in this volume present a uniquely coherent view of the economic causes and worldwide propagation of the depression. Not only is he technically proficient but his ability to place his results in a larger macroeconomic context is unparalleled. mark toma, financial history review h aving devoted much of his career to studying the causes of the great depression, bernanke was the academic expert on how to prevent financial crises from spinning out of control and threatening the general economy. One line from his essays on the great depression sounds especially prescient today: 'to the extent that bank panics interfere with normal flows of credit, they may affect the performance of the real economy.' roger lowenstein, new york times magazine mr. In essays on the great depression he wrote persuasively that runs on the banks and extensive defaults on loans reduced the efficiency of the financial sector, prevented it from doing its normal job in allocating resources, and contributed to the depression severity.

The depression era problems he studied are mirrored by similar issues today, and they need urgent attention. Shiller, new york times fortunately, before he became entangled in these restrictions bernanke did edit and help write a book, essays on the great depression. Bernanke's motive was that understanding the depression would provide important clues to what can go wrong with capitalist market systems. samuel brittan, financial times the financial crisis has made federal reserve chairman ben bernanke's book essays on the great depression a hot seller.

Bernanke, a former princeton university economist, is considered the pre eminent living scholar of the great depression. He is practicing today what he preached in his book: flood the system with money to avoid a depression. dennis cauchon, usa today this book has been translated into:

chinese simplified other princeton books authored or coauthored by ben s. Bernanke: the effects of the great depression the great depression was a horrible event that took place almost 100 years ago. Everyone was losing their jobs because the companies couldn’t afford to pay them and stay in business at the same time.

After the stock market crashed and the economy went downhill, a lot of changes were made within the government to make sure that nothing like this would ever happen again. This period in time was a sad period, but there were a lot of good things that happened and took place because of it. In order to really understand all the effects that happened after the great depression, you truly needed to live during the time period, but we can’t do that. The crime rate sky rocketed, as millions of americans started to lose their jobs and became unemployed. People had to steal from others just to put food on the table for their families. Also, besides the crime rates going up, the suicide rates rose along with prostitution rates.

Many americans didn’t want to go through this sad and depressing time, so they took the easy way out of things and committed suicide. While women who were jobless needed money to support their family, they would look towards prostitution. Several americans were looking for the easy way out, in which they would forget what was happening in the economy and in their lives. The effect of the great depression on the lives of american citizens was very dramatic. Millions of americans became homeless during this time, in which they had nowhere to go. So americans had to improvise with what they had available to them, such as scraps, abandoned cars and packing crates. With these materials, people created shelters that would protect them from the bad weather and the freezing winters.

American History Term Paper

As their lives were filled with sadness and no hope, they would soon learn that all of that was about to change for them. As the 1932 presidential elections were coming up, the citizens had to choose the right person to lead them out of the great depression. In november of 1932, the united states held a presidential election that was crucial to america. In his acceptance speech in 1932 when he was a democratic party nominee for running president, he made a promise to the citizens of america that there would be a new deal for the american people. He was determined to keep his promise to the citizens of america, that a new deal was coming. He would later keep that promise and would eventually change the economy for the better. Roosevelt’s new deal programs were based on helping the economic problems in several different ways.