Great Depression Debates

The cluster centers on discussions of the Great Depression, its causes including the Federal Reserve's role, economic impacts, recovery via New Deal and WWII, and comparisons to historical or modern economic events.

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2,743
Comments
20
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#9357
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2007
4
2008
67
2009
87
2010
97
2011
82
2012
69
2013
107
2014
78
2015
86
2016
177
2017
153
2018
170
2019
147
2020
325
2021
218
2022
225
2023
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2024
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2025
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2026
15

Keywords

FDR US TL WW2 GD wikipedia.org i.e DR en.m UK great depression depression war economy market government economic economists period boom

Sample Comments

taylodl Jul 20, 2024 View on HN

We have not. Look at the economic history of the latter half of the 19th century in the US. We haven't experienced those levels and frequency of market swings since the creation of the Federal Reserve. Also, the Great Depression was a world-wide event. That was our first clue that isolationist policy was misguided.

InDubioProRubio Aug 27, 2024 View on HN

yes, why cant we just all have the great depression 100 time.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression

ty6853 Jun 6, 2025 View on HN

You mean like the great depression which happened not long after formation, which some prominent economists have argued was exacerbated by the fed?Things did stabilize quite a bit after we bombed the rest of the industrial world into oblivion, though, creating a period of prosperity roughly equal in expansion to the period from the end of the civil war to before the creation of the fed.

unityByFreedom May 18, 2020 View on HN

It did during the Great Depression. Then it realized that was dumb and it took a world war to fully recover.

HPsquared Nov 2, 2022 View on HN

The Great Depression wasn't so good.. that came after the Fed.

luckydata Mar 21, 2019 View on HN

It's not like it never happened before. Just read up on the great depression and you'll get an idea.

tmtvl Jun 7, 2025 View on HN

The past century, you say... wasn't there a little thing called 'the great depression' somewhere around a century ago?

moore1474 Apr 2, 2020 View on HN

Yes, just like the great depression.

yuhong Sep 26, 2016 View on HN

Thinking about it, the 1930s Great Depression was after a US trade surplus. Today US have a trade deficit. If the banks actually failed in 2008-2009 and caused another depression, it would be probably harder to recover from.

Andrew_nenakhov Dec 16, 2020 View on HN

> between the beginning of the 30'sYeah right. [1][1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression