“The minimum wage is something that F.D.R. put in place a long time ago during the Great Depression. I don't think it worked then. It didn't solve any problems then and it hasn't solved any problems in 50 years.” ThinkingYearsLongProblemLong TimeSolveMinimumLong Time AgoGreat DepressionMinimum Wage Author:John Raese
“It's almost worth the Great Depression to learn how little our big men know.” KnowsMenLittlesBigsGreat Depression Author:Will Rogers
“One intriguing subplot of the economic crisis is the failure of most economists to predict it. Here we have the most spectacular economic and financial crisis in decades - possibly since the Great Depression - and the one group that spends most of its waking hours analyzing the economy basically missed it.” HoursEconomyGroupsEconomicCrisisFinancialDecadesWakingEconomistSpectacularIntriguingGreat DepressionAnalyzingFinancial CrisisEconomic CrisisSubplots Author:Robert J. Samuelson
“Victimhood and a “can't do” spirit is what the Democratic Party has mostly been about since the Great Depression.” SpiritPartyDemocraticDemocratic PartyGreat DepressionVictimhood Author:Cal Thomas
“The government is now in a position to do what Franklin D. Roosevelt did during the Great Depression of the 1930s - use a crisis of the times to create new institutions that will last for generations. To this day, we are still subsidizing millionaires in agriculture because farmers were having a tough time in the 1930s.” StillsUseGovernmentLastsGenerationsPositionToughCrisisInstitutionsThis DayFarmersAgricultureTough TimesMillionaireFranklinGreat Depression1930s Author:Thomas Sowell
“The stock market crashed in October 1929. But that was not the cause of what caused the Great Depression. It was, in my opinion, a very minor element of it. What happened was that from 1929 to 1933 you had a major contraction which, in my opinion, was caused primarily by the failure of the Federal Reserve System, to follow the course of action for which it was set up. It was set up to prevent exactly what happened from 1929 to 1933. But instead of preventing it, they facilitated it.” ActionCoursesCausesOpinionHappenedElementsMajorsMinorsReservesOctoberPreventingGreat DepressionFederal ReserveContractions Author:Milton Friedman
“I think there is universal agreement within the economics profession that the decline - the sharp decline in the quantity of money played a very major role in producing the Great Depression.” ThinkingRolesMajorsEconomicsUniversalProfessionAgreementQuantityDeclineGreat Depression Author:Milton Friedman
“The Great Depression in the United States was caused - I won't say caused, was enormously intensified and made far worse than it would have been by bad monetary policy.” Has BeensMadeStatesUnitedUnited StatesPolicyMonetaryGreat DepressionMonetary Policy Author:Milton Friedman
“Don't ever let anyone tell you that history doesn't repeat. For 70 years, liberals have been spinning the yarn that FDR's New Deal, despite all the evidence that it exacerbated and prolonged the Great Depression, quickened our economic recovery. Indeed, I remember scratching my head when one of my college history professors in the 1970s tried to convince us of that theory and its corollary - an even better howler - that FDR was actually a conservative, because if he hadn't implemented his socialist programs, the republic would have died right there.” IfsYearsHas BeensRememberDealsEconomicCollegeTheoryEvidenceProgramDiedConservativeRecoveryDespiteRepeatsConvinceRepublicProfessorsSocialistSpinningGreat DepressionNew DealYarnConvince UsEconomic Recovery Author:David Limbaugh
“Jesse Owen was bigger than a black hero, he was an American hero. For me, I looked at it from that perspective. Through my research, I obviously learned a lot, much of which made me sad, upset, disappointed and even angry, regarding what Jesse had to go through. Not only was he a black man in America during an age of high racial tension and segregation, but he was also living in the middle of the Great Depression - it was very difficult times for him and his family.” MenMadeAgeAmericaDifficultBlackMiddlePerspectiveHeroResearchBiggerAngryUpsetTensionDisappointedSegregationDifficult TimesGreat DepressionRacial TensionAmerican Hero Author:Stephan James
“The years of the Great Depression were a superb time for economists because people not knowing what could be done or what should be done would always assume that maybe an economist had the answer. If you were just a lawyer in Washington, you were nobody. But if you were an economist, you might have the answer.” PeopleIfsShouldYearsDoneMightAnswersKnowingAssumingLawyerNot KnowingEconomistGreat DepressionSuperb Author:John Kenneth Galbraith
“Ever since the Great Depression, economists have known that demand shortages tend to persist in the wake of severe financial crises like the ones that happened in 1929 and 2008.” KnownHappenedDemandCrisisFinancialPersistSevereEconomistShortageGreat DepressionFinancial Crisis Author:Bob Frank
“My parents, like others of "The Greatest Generation" who lived through the Great Depression and World War II, wanted to provide the best possible life for their children. My mother and father both attended college but dropped out to earn a living during the Depression, working the rest of their lives at blue-collar work.” WorldChildrenWarWantedMotherFatherParentGenerationsCollegeBlueWar Of The WorldsWorld War IiWorld War ICollarsGreat DepressionMother And FatherBlue CollarGreatest Generation Author:Dan Millman
“Burlesque thrived during the Great Depression, and by extension, so, too, did Gypsy [Rose Lee]. Men could no longer afford to pay $5.50 to see a show on Broadway, but they could scrape together $1.00 for a matinee at a burlesque house.” MenShowsTogetherHousePayRoseExtensionsBroadwayGypsyGreat DepressionBurlesque Author:Karen Abbott
“I know that some poor immigrants from that era had unrealistic expectations and were disappointed, but I don't think my grandparents were disappointed at all, even though they experienced some very hard times during the Great Depression.” ThinkingKnowsHardPoorExpectationsErasHard TimesImmigrantsDisappointedGrandparentGreat DepressionUnrealistic Expectations Author:Samuel Alito
“The public doesn't get to see everything. I worked with X a couple times since then. Me and X have a close relationship. We actually did a record they were going to put on the Training Day soundtrack but he ending up buying the record from me and putting it on Great Depression as a bonus track.” RecordsCoupleTrainingTrackBuyingGreat DepressionBonusSoundtracksClose Relationship Author:Mic Geronimo
“We beat the Great Depression without lotteries and legalized gambling” BeatsGamblingLotteryGreat Depression Author:John Warren Kindt
“We call for a green New Deal, like the New Deal that got us out of the Great Depression, but in this case focusing on green jobs to create 100% clean renewable energy by 2030, which is exactly what the science calls for.” JobsEnergyDealsCasesGreenCleanGreat DepressionRenewable EnergyNew Deal Author:Jill Stein
“I admire President Obama. He inherited the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. That was a terrible time for America.” AmericaPresidentWorstTerribleCrisisFinancialAdmirePresident ObamaGreat DepressionFinancial CrisisTerrible Times Author:Hillary Clinton
“One of [ways being lucky] was to go to school during the Great Depression because teaching became a plum job.” WaySchoolJobsTeachingLuckyGreat DepressionPlums Author:Kurt Vonnegut
“The smartest people in Indianapolis became teachers [during the Great Depression]. And, for once, there was something for women to do because teaching was regarded as a woman's profession, like nursing. So the smartest women in town - Jesus, my women teachers were so exciting.” PeopleJesusTeacherTeachingExcitingTownsProfessionNursingGreat DepressionIndianapolis Author:Kurt Vonnegut
“When my husband was president, we went from a $300 billion deficit to a $200 billion surplus and we were actually on the path to eliminating the national debt. When President Obama came into office, he inherited the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression. He has cut the deficit by two-thirds.” TwoPresidentPathCuttingEconomicWorstHusbandOfficeThirdsDebtBillionsDisasterMy HusbandPresident ObamaDeficitGreat DepressionEliminatingSurplusNational Debt Author:Hillary Clinton
“There is a myth that the New Deal programs on their own pulled the US out of the Great Depression and created the conditions for the economic boom after World War II. As an economist, I can tell you, that is not true. In reality, it was mainly World War II that launched the boom - the massive war mobilization, the horrifying destruction and death caused by it, and then the reconstruction in its aftermath. he US was the only advanced capitalist country that was not bombed during the war.” WorldI CanWarCountryRealityDealsEconomicConditionsProgramDestructionMythWar Of The WorldsMassiveWorld War IiCapitalistWorld War IEconomistGreat DepressionReconstructionAftermathNew DealMobilization Author:Kshama Sawant
“It is reported that about 30% of the world's population is unemployed. That's worse than the Great Depression, but it's now an international phenomenon.” WorldInternationalPopulationPhenomenonUnemployedGreat Depression Author:Noam Chomsky
“Even though the play [ The Best Man] was written a long time ago, the characters seem modern and their struggles to make ends meet and to "have a little fun along the way" have a very contemporary feel. The similarity between the The Great Depression and The Great Recession - as well as the gulf between the super-rich and the ordinary Joe - still rings a bell. One of the things this production accentuates is how beautifully Grandpa and his family accept all kinds of people - rich or poor, black or white - and the best thing that can happen to you is to be part of a loving family.” PeopleMenWayFeelsWellsKindLittlesLongStillsEndsPlayCharacterSeemsHappensFunBlackWhitePoorAcceptingStruggleRichWrittenModernLong TimeOrdinaryProductionsRingsContemporaryAll KindsBest ThingsBellsLong Time AgoSimilarityRecessionsGreat DepressionGrandpaBlack Or WhiteRich Or PoorAccentuateLoving FamilyGreat Recession Author:Chris Hart
“First and foremost, it's important to remember that, from my perspective at least, my most important legacy was making sure that the world didn't go into a Great Depression.” WorldFirstsImportantRememberPerspectiveLegacyGreat Depression Author:Barack Obama
“In the US after the Great Depression, they invested heavily in infrastructure to create a lot of employment. In Germany after the war there was the Marshall plan for roads, rail, housing, energy, water and so on. That created massive employment after the devastation of the war and helped them to rebuild the country.” WarCountryEnergyWaterPlansEmploymentGermanyMassiveInfrastructureHousingRailGreat DepressionDevastationMarshall Plan Author:Raila Odinga
“Did I recognize that there was anger or frustration in the American population? Of course I did. First of all, we had to fight back from the worst recession since the Great Depression, and I can guarantee you if your housing values have crashed and you've lost most of your pension and you've lost your job, you're going to be pretty angry.” IfsFirstsI CanJobsValuesFightingCoursesLostWorstAngryPopulationGuaranteesFrustrationHousingRecessionsGreat DepressionPension Author:Barack Obama
“In the Great Depression in which I grew up and remember vividly, unemployment was over 25 percent, and over 35 percent where I lived. A grown man would work all day, 16 hours, for a dollar. I remember hundreds of people walking by, people who had come down from the North just to get warm. They would come to our house as beggars even though they might have a college education. People didn't have money. They bartered; they'd trade eggs or pigs. It was just completely different.” PeopleMenDifferentMightRememberHouseHoursCollegeGrewWalkingGrew UpPercentTradeDollarsWarmEggsPigsUnemploymentBeggarGreat DepressionCollege EducationGrown Man Author:Jimmy Carter
“[Franklin Delano] Roosevelt was the central world figure in the two great disasters of this century - the Great Depression and World War II. By contrast, JFK came in relatively peaceful, agreeable times.” WorldTwoWarCenturyFiguresDisasterPeacefulWar Of The WorldsWorld War IiContrastWorld War IFranklinGreat DepressionFranklin Delano Roosevelt Author:John Kenneth Galbraith
“Political uncertainty around the world has more than doubled since the election of Trump. To find anything comparable we have to go way back, to the late 1920s for example, the times of the Great Depression. Or think of the United Kingdom in the 1970s, when the International Monetary Fund had to help the country out with a dramatic rescue operation. Up until the Greek crisis, that was the last time that the IMF was forced to intervene to such an extent in Europe.” ThinkingWorldWayCountryHelpingLastsPoliticalUnitedExampleTrumpLateEuropeElectionCrisisInternationalKingdomsAround The WorldUncertaintyOperationsGreekDramaticFundRescueLast TimeMonetaryGreat DepressionUnited KingdomImf Author:Nicholas Bloom
“Beside the two wars he inherited in Iraq and Afghanistan, and promised to end, a financial crisis at home had pushed the United States to the brink of another Great Depression. When we spoke with the new president in March of 2009, the economy was losing 800,000 jobs a month, the government was throwing hundreds of billions of dollars at failing banks, and the auto industry was on the verge of collapse. Politically pummeled from all sides, Obama did his best to keep a sense of humor.” TwoWarEndsStatesHomeGovernmentJobsSidesPresidentUnitedUnited StatesEconomyFailingMonthsIndustryLosingCrisisDollarsFinancialIraqBillionsSpokesMarchSense Of HumorThrowingAfghanistanCollapseGreat DepressionVergeFinancial CrisisAuto Industry Author:Barack Obama
“It is no exaggeration to say that rising inequality has driven many of the 99 percent into a financial ditch. It also helped spawn the housing bubble that gave us the financial crisis of 2008, the lingering effects of which have forced many OWS protesters to try to launch their careers in by far the most inhospitable labor market we've seen since the Great Depression. Even those recent graduates who manage to find jobs will suffer a lifelong penalty in reduced wages.” TryingJobsSufferingCareersEffectsPercentLaborCrisisFinancialDrivenManageInequalityRisingGraduatesBubblesPenaltiesWagesHousingLifelongExaggerationGreat DepressionFinancial CrisisLingeringSpawnHousing Bubble Author:Robert H. Frank
“A lot of the people in history who I really admire lived before the hyperinformation age we're living in. Even if they were governing or solving problems in consequential periods, like the Civil War or the world wars or the Great Depression or the Cold War, they had a period of time and space to actually think, to be private and you read their biographies, and they had time to think about what was happening and how to respond. I don't think human nature has changed in the last 50-150 years, but the stresses, the demands on those of us in public life have just exploded.” PeopleIfsThinkingWorldYearsHumansWarProblemAgeLastsSpaceHuman NatureChangedColdPeriodsDemandHappeningsStressAdmireWar Of The WorldsCivil WarProblem SolvingCold WarBiographiesTime And SpaceGoverningPublic LifeGreat DepressionTime To Think Author:Hillary Clinton
“Ever since the Great Depression, we know that one of the key ways in which the US economy has stimulated growth is by manufacturing weapons and exporting war to other countries.” KnowsWayWarCountryGrowthEconomyKeysWeaponsOther CountriesManufacturingGreat DepressionExporting Author:Arundhati Roy
“We should recall that during the Second World War and the Great Depression there was an upsurge in popular, radical democracy. In all over the world. It took different forms, but it was there, everywhere. In Greece it was in the Greek revolution, and so on. And it had to be crushed. In countries like Greece, it was crushed by violence. In countries like Italy, where the US forces entered in 1943, it was crushed by attacking and destroying the anti-German partisans and restoring the traditional order.” WorldShouldDifferentWarCountryFormOrderForceDemocracyViolenceRevolutionTraditionalRadicalGreekWar Of The WorldsDestroyingRecallsGreeceAttackingCrushedPartisansSecond World WarGreat DepressionRestoring Author:Noam Chomsky
“Our sense of the free market is variable, shifting from a more welfare-oriented model after the Great Depression to a capital-driven market after the collapse of socialism as a viable alternative.” ModelsDrivenSocialismAlternativesWelfareCollapseFree MarketShiftingGreat DepressionVariables Author:Richard A. Falk
“If you look at what happened, I came in the middle of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. And unlike Franklin Delano Roosevelt who waited, well, didn't take office until about three years into the Great Depression, it was happening just as I was elected.” IfsYearsWellsLooksThreeHappenedMiddleWorstOfficeHappeningsCrisisFinancialThree YearsFranklinGreat DepressionFinancial CrisisFranklin Delano Roosevelt Author:Barack Obama
“Our folks have a lot of passion. They're very concerned about the direction of the country and concerned the record debt and deficit and what it means for their kids, concerned about the economy and the fact that we're not getting back on track with the weakest economic recovery since the Great Depression. And at the end of the day, I think that's going to make the difference.” ThinkingMeanCountryKidsPassionEconomyEconomicConcernedTrackRecoveryGreat Depression Author:Rob Portman
“Ladies and gentlemen, the Reagan tax cuts turned the deepest recession since the Great Depression into the largest 20-year economic boom in American history. The Reagan tax cuts of 1981 and '86. And the same thing can happen here again. Democrats just cannot let it.” CuttingEconomicTaxesDemocratGentlemanAmerican HistoryGreat DepressionLadies And Gentlemen Author:Rush Limbaugh
“Housing has always been a key to Great Resets. During the Great Depression and New Deal, the federal government created a new system of housing finance to usher in the era of suburbanization. We need an even more radical shift in housing today. Housing has consumed too much of our economic resources and distorted the economy. It has trapped people who are underwater on their mortgages or can't sell their homes. And in doing so has left the labor market unable to flexibly adjust to new economic realities.” PeopleHomeRealityTodayEconomyEconomicLaborFinanceRadicalMortgageGreat Depression Author:Richard Florida
“My mother gave me very good advice years ago. I grew up in the Great Depression and she always told me to get a good little basic black dress - well-cut, well-made, good fabric - and it could take me through everything. I could go to the office in the morning and stay out all day in the same dress. Just by changing accessories, because they are so transformative, you can make six different outfits. I find that very useful. My mother worshipped at the altar of accessories and I'm an accessory freak, as everybody knows. That, I got from my mother.” DifferentMotherBlackMorningAdviceOfficeVery GoodFreakGood AdviceGreat Depression Author:Iris Apfel
“I don't feel that there is anything deep in the political culture that prevents "educating the masses." I'm old enough to recall vividly the high level of culture, general and political, among first-generation working people during the Great Depression. Workers' education was lively and effective, union-based - mostly the vigorous rising labor movement, reviving from the ashes of the 1920s. I've often seen independent and impressive initiatives in working-class and poor and deprived communities today.” PeopleEnoughTodayPoliticalCultureCommunityPoorLaborIndependentInitiativeImpressiveLivelyGreat Depression Author:Noam Chomsky
“Through much of its history, the US did not have high inequality as compared with Europe. Less so, in fact. That began to change in the industrial age, reaching a peak in 1928, after the forceful destruction of the labor movement and crushing of independent thought. Largely as a result of labor mobilization, inequality declined during the Great Depression, a tendency continuing through the great growth period of regulated capitalism in the early postwar decades.” AgeGrowthCapitalismLaborDestructionIndependentInequalityCrushGreat DepressionIndependent Thought Author:Noam Chomsky
“We're living through an era of higher income inequality than the country has experienced since before the Great Depression. Meanwhile, most people are running in place, and those in the bottom quintile of the economy are being swept backward year in and year out. A worker with a high school education today is likely to earn less in real terms than did their parents and grandparents in the early 1970s. Not coincidentally, while overall life expectancy is increasing in America, for those with low levels of education it's actually declining.” PeopleRealCountryRunningTodaySchoolParentTermEconomyHigh SchoolBottomInequalityGrandparentGreat Depression Author:Sasha Abramsky
“Good humor is a tonic for mind and body. It is the best antidote for anxiety and depression. It is a business asset. It attracts and keeps friends. It lightens human burdens. It is the direct route to serenity and contentment.” MindHumansBodyHumorInspiringBusinessAttitudeDepressionAnxietyDirectBurdenContentmentAssetsSerenityRoutesFunny InspirationalMind And BodyAntidoteSereneGreat DepressionGood HumorBeing DepressedPeople With DepressionHelp With DepressionEncouraging LifeGin And TonicGood HumourClinical DepressionAnxiety DepressionDepression And Anxiety Author:Grenville Kleiser
“I know many of you are hurting and angry about the economy, and I don't blame you. It's the worst economy since the Great Depression. When consumers can't buy and businesses won't expand for lack of customers, the government has to be the purchaser and employer of last resort. We learned that in the Great Depression, but Republicans obviously didn't - and they've blocked every jobs program I've offered.” HurtEconomyWorstRepublicanProgramBlameGreat DepressionBlocked Author:Barack Obama
“I promised to bring change to Washington. The underlying reason for the economic mess we're in has been building for years. It's a fundamental imbalance in which the top 1 percent now gets almost a quarter of all national income. We haven't seen income and wealth this concentrated since the late nineteen twenties, and we all know what happened then - the Great Depression. We'll never really get out of the gravitational pull of the Great Recession until we fix this basic problem.” ReasonProblemWealthEconomicBuildingMessGreat Depression Author:Barack Obama
“A guy I interviewed for Hard Times says, "What do I remember about the Great Depression? That I was hungry, that's all." Elemental things.” RememberGuyHungryHard TimesGreat Depression Author:Studs Terkel
“World War II ended the Great Depression with one of the great public-private industrial collaborations in the history of man.” MenWorldWarWar Of The WorldsCollaborationWorld War IiGreat Depression Author:Jon Meacham