This is a great blog post that was written by Greg Rand on the historical causes of the economic shifts and the corrilation to today's economy. Great way to get perspective on what is happening in todays economy.
Most historians and economists who write about the Great Depression agree that the combination of irrational optimism in the Roaring 20′s and post WWI macro economics lit the fuse on the massive recession that followed. They also agree that irrational pessimism drove the recession deeper and turned it into a depression. They also agree that the government spending that resulted from fighting World War II is what got us out of it.
I don’t agree with that last part. Speak to people who lived through it, as I have, and you will find that no amount of government spending could drive out the demons of pessimism and fear that gripped the nation in the 1930s. Something needed to happen to crush that negativity and turn fear into hope. It wasn’t spending money for WWII that provided that spark, it was winning.
Today’s version, the Great Recession, keeps wanting to recover. There were signs earlier this year that things were looking up, only to have our enthusiasm dashed by anemic growth and stubborn unemployment. Could yesterday’s election provide the spark we need to turn our pessimism into optimism? I think the answer is a resounding….maybe.
We need a tipping point, and yesterday did it for me. This was not a simple off-year election when the party in power loses seats. It was a demonstration that the people who make this country work still have control over it. The people run the country, not the party in power at any given time. What an empowering concept. Our founding fathers designed this government to allow us to yank the leash if we are not pleased with the behavior of our elected officials. The moment they start acting like they are the bosses of us, we prove them wrong. That feels great.
I hired someone already today. I invested money in the stock market today. I am not taking this election as a sign that the people consider one party better than the other, but that they consider this their country . We are the bosses of them, not the other way around. I love it!
This was my tipping point. Let it be yours too.
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