Tag: Great Depression II

This Is Not A Recovery

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, Economic measurement, ethics, Government Failure

I wrote this back in August. I haven’t changed my mind one bit. Whenever I read this nonsense about an economic recovery, I’m struck by how far away the commentator is from actual American life and how close he is to Washington.

So says Paul Krugman at the New York Times. And he’ right. This is the New Great Depression, the second in American history. It will always be remembered by future generations as Great Depression II, the second great depression. Just like the first world war failed to solve the problems that would eventually lead to the second world war, the same problems bit us a second time. The humiliating thing is that if we had continued with the protections from the first great depression we could have avoided much of the damage. But the claims and promises of an irresponsible and incompetent economic elite have led America and the rest of the world into disaster, a disaster these same creatures do not believe is happening since it has no effect on them except a persistent worry that their profession is being “demonized.” Demons would have had serious difficulty in doing more damage to more innocent lives.

James Pilant

Does History Repeat Itself – The Stock Market Crash?

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, Economic measurement, ethics, Government Failure, White Collar Crime

“The past is prologue?” Are we in the same place that America was in during the first years of the Depression? I worry that this economic downturn is just the beginning of long term destabilization of the economy.

(You should probably avoid my blog if you want to put a happy face on the economic situations because I find it hard to find things just to be content about.)

I found a wonderful set of history films about the early days of the Great Depression. They provide a lot of insight into how people thought and reacted to the events as they unfolded day by day. We look at what people were saying, what they were reading, what music they were listening to. We can wonder if we wouldn’t have done the same things. It’s a better way to understand history than the summaries in textbooks.

If you listen to the incredible confidence that the moneyed and political class had in the economy and the sureness they had in an immediate recovery, you have to wonder about those in out system today, who say we’ve turned the corner.

We have not.

Part 1 –

Part 2 –

Part 3 –


Part 4 –

Part 5 –

I want to be wrong about all this. I want the economy to thrive, everyone to have a job, and as much as possible for people to become prosperous.

We’ll see.

James Pilant