The Forgotten Depression: 1921, the Crash That Cured Itself

James Grant's story of America's last governmentally untreated depression: A bible for conservative economists, this "carefully researched history...makes difficult economic concepts easy to understand, and it deftly mixes major events with interesting vignettes" (The Wall Street Journal).In 1920-1921, Woodrow Wilson and Warren G. Harding met a deep economic slump by seeming to ignore it, implementing policies that most twenty-first century economists would call backward. Confronted with plunging prices, wages, and employment, the government balanced the budget and, through the Federal Reserve, raised interest rates. No "stimulus" was administered, and a powerful, job-filled recovery was under way by late 1921. Yet by 1929, the economy spiraled downward as the Hoover administration adopted the policies that Wilson and Harding had declined to put in place. In The Forgotten Depression, James Grant "makes a strong case against federal intervention during economic downturns" (Pittsburgh Tribune Review), arguing that the well-intended White House-led campaign to prop up industrial wages helped turn a bad recession into America's worst depression. He offers examples like this, and many others, as important strategies we can learn from the earlier depression and apply today and to the future. This is a powerful response to the prevailing notion of how to fight recession, and "Mr. Grant's history lesson is one that all lawmakers could take to heart" (Washington Times).

Author: James Grant
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 11/17/2015
Pages: 272
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.80h x 6.00w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9781451686463

About the Author
Grant, James: - James Grant is the founder of Grant's Interest Rate Observer, a leading journal on financial markets, which he has published since 1983. He is the author of seven books covering both financial history and biography. Grant's journalism has been featured in Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Foreign Affairs. He has appeared on 60 Minutes, Jim Lehrer's News Hour, and CBS Evening News.