The Return Of Depression Economics And The Crisis

The mortgage crisis of 2007 marked catastrophe for millions of homeowners who suffered from foreclosure and short sales. Most of the problems involving the foreclosing of families’ homes could boil down to risky borrowing and lending. Lenders were pushed to ensure families would be eligible for a loan, when in previous years the same families would have been deemed too high-risk to obtain any kind of loan. With the increase in high-risk families obtaining loans, there was a huge increase in home buyers and subsequently a rapid increase in home prices. As a result, prices peaked and then began falling just as fast as they rose. Soon after families began to default on their mortgages forcing them either into foreclosure or short sales. Who was to blame for the risky lending and borrowing that caused the mortgage meltdown? Many might blame the company Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but in reality the entire system of buying and selling and free market failed home owners and the housing economy.

On June 16, 1933, President Roosevelt signed into law the widely debated Glass-Steagall Banking Act. Sponsored by Virginia’s U.S. Senator Carter Glass and Alabama’s U.S. Representative Henry Steagall, the Glass-Steagall Banking Act was one of the attempts to restore the American people’s confidence in the banking system. Congress knew the current banking system needed reform. They desired to restrict the use of bank credit for speculation and instead direct bank credit to more productive uses, such as agriculture, commerce, and industry.

2008 Economics Noble Prize winner and Princeton University professor, Paul Krugman, translates the roots of modern and prior financial crisis economics. In his book, The Return of Depression Economics and The Crisis of 2008, Krugman first educates the reader of historical and foreign financial crises which allows for a deeper understanding of the modern financial system. The context provided from the historical analysis proves to be a crucial prospective in such a way that the rest of Krugman’s narrative about modern finance continually relates back to the historical analysis. From there, Krugman analyzes and updates his prior studies done on the Asian financial crisis. He then applies his knowledge from historical events to the modern day financial struggles and argues his opinion about how and why our financial world operates the way it does. Krugman explains his perspective that the world believed that depression economics was no longer a problem, however the Asian crisis, Japan 's liquidity trap and the Latin American crisis having acted as warning signals to modern market struggles. Thus he says that this subject needs further examination and more resources should be poured into it. For Krugman, Depression Economics is still a relevant problem and should be further studied.

When we look back through history we can find many opportunities to learn the lessons of economic theory but The Great Depression is a particularly relevant historical event when discussing economics. It is a defining event in the history of America as politics and economics intertwined, transforming the role of the federal government in the economy. Due to the length, severity and global effects an entire decade is known as the Great Depression. Theories continue to be debated on how or why the Depression took place and the reasons for its eventual end however, what most will agree on is that “The Great Depression (1929-39) was the deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world” (History.com Staff, 2009).

The financial crisis emerged because of an excessive deregulation of business operation of financial institutions and of abusing the securitization mechanism in the absence of clearly defined rules to regulate this area in the American mortgage market (Krstić, Jemović, & Radojičić, 2013). Deregulation gives larger banks the opportunity to loosen underwriting lender guidelines and generate increase opportunity for homeownership (Kroszner & Strahan, 2013). After deregulation, banks utilized many versions of mortgage loans. Mortgage loans such as subprime and Alternative-A paper loans became available for borrowers challenged to find mortgage lenders before deregulation (Elbarouki, 2016; Palmer, 2015). The housing market has been severely affected by fluctuating interest rates and the requirement of large down payment (Follain, & Giertz, 2013). The subprime lending crisis has taken a toll on the nation’s economy since 2007. Individuals who lacked sufficient credit ratings or down payments resorted to subprime mortgages to finance their homes Defaults on subprime and other mortgages precipitated the foreclosure crisis, which contributed to the recent recession and national financial crisis (Odetunde, 2015). Subprime mortgages were appropriate for borrowers with substandard credit and Alternate-A paper loans were

Imagine that you received a huge bonus from your occupation that compensates almost $50,000 a year. You go to your bank to cash your paycheck, only to have the bank clerk disclose that they do not have your money. The financial institution went belly up, losing all the money within it because of external sources. This paper discusses the reason behind the Great Depression and distinct policies generated to mend the American financial system that began when the stock market crashed October 29, 1929.

The Glass-Steagall Act came into existence largely due to the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. The crash and its aftermath caused Americans to lose faith in the banking system. Glass-Steagall attempted to restore the public’s faith in banks by separating commercial banking from investment banking and providing insurance on bank deposits. The Act worked as intended but its effects slowly diminished over the next 67 years and deregulation in the banking industry culminated with the enactment of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in 1999 by then President Bill Clinton.1 The GLBA gutted Glass-Steagall and ended restrictions on intermingling between commercial and investment banking.1 Many believe the GLBA was a major cause of the financial crisis that erupted in 2008.

Two of the most dramatic episodes in American economic history were the 1929 Great Depression and the 2008 Great Recession. While in each period the sources of economic excess differed, manufacturing in 1929 and housing in 2008, there are many similarities in their causes and effects. Initially there were also similarities in the way government and monetary authorities responded. However, it is the differences in response that are the most important and will have the greatest impact on the length, and depth of the two economic declines. Both crises began with poor quality lending by banks and unaffordable borrowing by consumers and industry. This led to overvalued prices for asset. While both crises were global, this paper will focus on national policy decisions and how they impacted U.S. outcomes.

Low interest rates and the ease of borrowing money are two primary causes of the current recession. In 2007, 37% of the total home mortgage loans were considered a “liar loan” because the mortgage lender did not evaluate income or assests (Russo, Mitschow, & Schinski, 2015). The Federal Government sought to encourage home loaners to loan to risky homebuyers and they kept low interest rates for far too long. During this time mortgage brokers began selling home mortgage loans rather than a commercial banking system. They were not subject to the scrutinized federal regulations, and lent money to many individuals who were unable to afford the homes that they were buying. Many people overestimate their ability to pay debt, resulting in them buying expensive homes because they were approved regardless of their credit or income. The crisis occurred when homes values dropped due to the ability for individuals to buy expensive homes, which resulted in people owing more on their homes than the value of the house. It was nearly impossible for people to make a profit when selling their homes, so many homeowner’s felt that it would be best to default on their loans as they were losing money paying for a home with less value than the actual loan. The more foreclosures there was, the more home values diminished and causing more and more

In the time of the Great Depression banks did not run on the guarantees with costumers. At this time most Americans had their life savings in the banks, and in the fall of 1931-1933 thousands of banks went under. Leaving millions of Americans to lose all they had to the banks failure. “President Hoover [tried to] help the banks by giving them loans [thinking that] the

The Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 was a direct response to the Great Depression of the 1930s. The years before the Depression were marked by robust financial growth, led by an expansion of credit through the policies of the Federal Reserve and new financial innovation, such as investment trusts (Neal and White 2012). Though these trusts were similar to a savings bank, they differed in that trusts were not regulated in which securities they could invest in and had had little government supervision. The

The Great Depression, often acknowledged with the Stock Market Crash of 1929, but something that is so much more than that, was a decade of economic turmoil. The Great Depression lasted from 1929-1939 consuming a long grueling decade, and as defined by The History Channel, it “was the deepest and longest lasting economic downturn in the history of the western industrialized world” kicked into fast forward by the Stock Market Crash in the fall of 1929. During the fall of 1929, Wall Street was forced into a panic, causing unforeseeable effects to the United States stock market. Following in the crash, consumer spending and investments declined, resulting in a dramatic decline of the output of industries, which came hand in hand with the spike in unemployment as these industries continued downward employees began suffering the consequences and being laid off. Preceding the stock market crash, according to Hyperhistory.com, during the time period of May of 1928 and September 1929, the “average price of stocks will rise 40 percent. The boom is largely artificial.” This is important because America had entered a recession, similar to what the United States recently went through between 2007-2009, during the summer of 1929. The price of stocks rising 40 percent causing the prices to reach a price level that according to The History Channel, “could not be justified by anticipated future earnings”. People were spending far out of their means.

Roosevelt quickly stepped up to take measures in fixing the economy in the country. The Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 was the one of the first government responses to the Great Depression. Drafted by Senator Carter Glass and Representative Henry Steagall, the act’s clear objective was to regain the lost confidence in the American financial institutions with two main provisions. First, the act restricts and limits commercial banking activities with investment banks. By separating the two, banks are allowed to operate more efficiently without the influence or risk of their counterpart, reducing the chances of another bank run.

In The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008, Paul Krugman warns us that America’s gloomy future might parallel those of other countries. Like diseases that are making a stronger, more resistant comeback, the causes of the Great Depression are looming ahead and much more probable now after the great housing bubble in 2002. In his new and revised book, he emphasizes even more on the busts of Japan and the crises in Latin America (i.e: Argentina), and explains how and why several specific events--recessions, inflationary spiraling, currency devaluations--happened in many countries. Although he still does not give us any solid options or specific steps to take to save America other than those proposed by other economists, he

The great Depression was the worst and longest economic decline experienced by the industrialized western world. Economic cycles are continuous loops of periods of business expansion followed by business contraction. This is the way economics has always been in the industrialized world and extended periods of contraction was something people had seen before. However, the Great Depression was something people had never seen before. It wasn’t merely a temporary economic set back as experienced in the in the great recession of 2007, it was a period of extreme destitution, unemployment, and panic amongst the rich and poor alike across the globe that lasted 56 months (Swarup, 212).