The Question

A lot of people have recently asked the question, "Have we begun another Great Depression?" They follow that shortly with the firm statement that the federal officials learned from the last depression; therefore, they will not make the same mistakes again.

To the question I respond, "I don't know."

To the statement I can only comment, "No, they did not learn. First they have no business monkeying with the economy. Second, the system they created lies at the heart of the problem."

A Video?

My friend, Dennis Polhill, mentioned that his organization would like to create a short video about the causes of the Great Depression. I responded that I could not create the video, but that I might feed him some ideas.

Thinking about those ideas lead to the slide show I have placed on this site.

The Slide Show

I do not present this slide show as a completed project. In its present form I view it more as a story board for a possible video (which someone else may have the pleasure of producing). I have placed a lot of text in these slides that take the place of a voice-over narrative in a video. Of course, a video would require more images -- so use your imagination.

I take no responsibility for spelling or grammar errors. That responsibility belongs to my keyboard.

(Navigation link to "New Depression?" slide show also at the left.)

A Brief Summary

I don't mean to spoil the show, but, because I have not attempted this sort of presentation before, a brief summary of my argument might help your viewing.

I contend that in order to understand what influences the performance of any complex system like the U. S. economy you need to study more than events and patterns-of-behavior. You must study the fundamental structure of the system. The structure determines the range of behavior of the system.

To illustrate this point I use the 747 jetliner as an example. The systemic structure of that plane determines how well it takes off, flies and lands, indeed, whether it will fly at all.

The structure of the economy contains two primary elements: 1) political and 2) market.

The political elements consists entirely of tools for interventionist processes, of one sort or another. The market elements consist of you, all the other players cooperating and coordinating in the market, and the mental models you use for decision making and action.

The structure of the U. S. economy has not changed substantially since before the Great Depression (1913 makes a good starting point). The interventionist processes have caused every economic cycle since the beginning. The Great Depression stands only as the most notable example. Whether we deem the current mess a depression, the ups and downs will continue as long as this structure remains in place.

Federal officials can take only one correct set of actions. First, lay down the tools given them by previous congresses. Second, dismantle the political elements of the economic structure.

The market, being smarter than politicians, will take care of itself.

You won't find all of this in the slide show, but you get what you get.

Later...

 

For anyone who might have viewed this show before, I found the Power Point slide show in compatible to many browsers. I have replaced it with a series of images.

It's not quite so glamorous, but it works.