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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: Great Depression

Great Depression stories: 40 news summaries

1 - 20 of 40 Stories | 1 2 Next >>

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(Newser) - Families appear to be putting off that baby until economic conditions improve, the New York Times reports. The birth rate fell 2% in 2008 compared to 2007, and the trend looks to be continuing into 2009. “It’s the recession," a sociologist says. "Children are the... More »

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pregnancy • children • baby • recession • birth rate • Great Depression • household expenses • economic downturn

(Newser) - US tax revenue is set to shrink 18% from last fiscal year to the current one, ending in October—the largest falloff since 1932, the AP reports. Individual income-tax receipts are off 22%, and corporate revenues have sunk an astounding 57%. “Our tax system is already inadequate to support... More »

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IRS • recession • Social Security • Internal Revenue Service • federal income tax • Federal government • tax revenue • Great Depression • financial crisis • economic downturn

(Newser) - California's recently issued IOUs are only the latest in a long history of dollar substitutes in America, the Wall Street Journal reports, and they're already being eyed by collectors of  temporary currency on everything from leather to plywood to old tires to clamshells. Schwarzenegger's scrip is plain in comparison to... More »

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California • currency • Great Depression • IOU

OPINION

We're Doomed Without
Another Stimulus: Krugman

Jobs report offers scary echoes of 1930s stagnation

Jul 3, 09 7:35 AM CDT
(Newser) - Yesterday's grim jobs report is the clearest sign yet that the US desperately needs another fiscal stimulus, writes Paul Krugman in the New York Times. This is 1930s redux: a Democratic president has pushed through an insufficient program, while strapped state governments cancel out federal spending with their own budget... More »

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Barack Obama • recession • unemployment • deflation • Paul Krugman • economic stimulus package • Great Depression • job • Christina Romer

MOVIE REVIEW

 Public Enemies Pretty, if Rote 

Mann's film is visually luscious, but some find it rote

Jul 1, 09 2:39 AM CDT
(Newser) - Critics mostly like Public Enemies, Michael Mann’s lusciously shot—if not terribly deep—ode to ‘30s gangster life with Johnny Depp as bank robber John Dillinger.
  • The film is a "beautiful work of art," declares Manohla Dargis for the New York Times, "a vividly
... More »

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Johnny Depp • bank robber • Great Depression • gangsters • John Dillinger • Public Enemies

OPINION

It's Too Soon for Feds to Ease Up on Economy

If Washington cuts off the cash, recession will worsen: Krugman

Jun 15, 09 9:42 AM CDT
(Newser) - With critics prematurely calling on Washington to scale back financial rescue efforts, economic history fans see “déjà vu all over again,” writes Paul Krugman in the New York Times. This is the third time a major economy has been stuck in a liquidity trap, and both previous... More »

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inflation • government spending • Federal Reserve • liquidity • Paul Krugman • economic stimulus package • Great Depression • financial crisis

Obama to Launch Radical Bank Reform

Changes will be the most ambitious since the Great Depression

Jun 14, 09 9:51 AM CDT
(Newser) - President Obama will unveil next week sweeping new changes to the nation’s governance of troubled financial institutions, the AP reports. Unlike Washington’s temporary ownership stake in automakers and major financial companies, the new regulatory protocol will be permanent and will present the most ambitious revision since the 1930s.... More »

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Barack Obama • private equity • Ben Bernanke • Federal Reserve • financial institutions • Great Depression • bank regulation • hedge funds • financial crisis

(Newser) - Even before enlisting, World War II soldiers were made great by the “deprivations and lessons of the Great Depression,” Tom Brokaw writes in the Wall Street Journal. Shared sacrifice and lack of staple goods forged the outlook of the "Greatest Generation," and made the Army... More »

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veterans • World War II • Great Depression • Tom Brokaw • D-Day • Normandy • Greatest Generation • fortitude

ANALYSIS

 Uncertainty, Not 
 Poverty, Behind 
 Recession Blues 

It's not the lack of funds, it's the lack of knowing that brings us down

May 21, 09 8:32 AM CDT
(Newser) - Americans are worrying more than they were last year, and happiness is down while sadness is up, writes Daniel Gilbert in the New York Times. But it’s not the lightness of our pocketbooks that’s weighing on us; it’s the uncertainty of the times. While most of us... More »

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depression • recession • psychology • happiness • Great Depression • financial crisis • recession depression

(Newser) - During the Great Depression, legend has it a group of Wall Street bankers went to Hollywood to see if it was worth investing in, only to be immediately repulsed by the brazen displays of wealth they saw there. Now that it's the bankers being pilloried for their excesses, writes Neal... More »

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Wall Street • Hollywood • financial sector • Great Depression • bank regulation • deregulation • banking industry • financial crisis

Anti-New Deal Book Is GOP's New Bible

Republicans flock to
The Forgotten Man in fight over stimulus

Apr 21, 09 10:19 AM CDT
(Newser) - For the Republican Party, looking for any kind of traction for its opposition to President Obama’s stimulus spending, anti-New Deal book The Forgotten Man is a godsend, Politico reports. Author Amity Shlaes suggests, in what some call revisionist history, that FDR’s plan, pushed by government bureaucrats on a... More »

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New Deal • economic stimulus package • Great Depression • Steve King • Spencer Bachus • Eric Cantor • Wall Street bailout • President Obama • Amity Shlaes • The Forgotten Man

(Newser) - When Paul Krugman was in grad school, nobody wanted to be a banker. Sure, it paid more than being an academic economist, but “everyone knew that banking was, well, boring,” he writes in the New York Times. That was before deregulation came into vogue in the 1980s,... More »

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Paul Krugman • financial sector • Great Depression • bank regulation • deregulation • banking industry

(Newser) - The recent spate of shootings could point to a link between violence and the faltering US economy, the Christian Science Monitor reports. “Most of these mass killings are precipitated by some catastrophic loss, and when the economy goes south, there are simply more of these losses,” said criminologist... More »

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suicide • murder • recession • gun violence • economy • Great Depression

GLOSSIES

 How the US Became 
 a Banana Republic 

America is a textbook IMF case—but one without a solution

Mar 30, 09 2:51 PM CDT
(Newser) - As chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, MIT professor Simon Johnson saw a pattern in bankrupted countries from Argentina to Indonesia: "The powerful elites within them overreached in good times and took too many risks." The current US crisis, Johnson writes in the Atlantic, is "shockingly... More »

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depression • International Monetary Fund • recession • IMF • US economy • developing countries • emerging markets • Great Depression • oligarchy

Iconic Depression Setting Makes Do Amid Recession

Could things get as bad for Sallisaw, Okla., as they did in the 1930s?

Mar 24, 09 5:46 PM CDT
(Newser) - Many have made the parallel between the current economic slump and the Great Depression. Interested in pursuing the connection, Rafael Alvarez visited Sallisaw, Okla., an icon of the troubled 1930s as the setting of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, he writes for the Christian Science Monitor. The downturn... More »

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Oklahoma • Great Depression • downturn • economic downturn • John Steinbeck • recession depression • The Grapes of Wrath

ANALYSIS

 'Recession Babies' Will 
 Be Boring But Sensible 

Economic upheavals rear careful, dull generations

Mar 8, 09 1:00 PM CDT
(Newser) - If history tells us anything, it’s that our modern “recession babies” will grow up to be risk-averse bores. “Today’s youngest children are being raised in the same kind of protective bubble as the Depression babies,” Kate Zernike explains in the New York Times. “They... More »

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recession • youth • values • Great Depression

OPINION

 Krugman: We've All 
 Been Madoffed 


Feb 16, 09 8:38 AM CST
(Newser) - Bernie Madoff’s investors thought they were getting richer every quarter. Then, one day, they discovered their wealth “was a figment of someone else’s imagination,” writes Paul Krugman in the New York Times. And sadly, that’s a pretty good metaphor for America’s experience this... More »

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debt • Paul Krugman • savings • market bubble • economy • Great Depression • Bernard Madoff

 Will the Recession 
 Drive Up Suicides? 

We're better prepared now, but rates are still tied to cultural trends

Feb 9, 09 1:31 PM CST
(Newser) - America is reeling from the financial crisis, and the psychological strain has analysts carefully watching national suicide rates, Time reports. Though three high-profile European businessmen took their own lives recently, suicide rates have held steady at 11 per 100,000 people; during the Great Depression, they spiked at 17 per... More »

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suicide • recession • suicide rate • Great Depression • downturn • financial crisis • economic downturn • recession depression

OPINION

Obama Must Spend Boldly— or It's Great Depression II

Only government can save us now: Krugman

Jan 5, 09 7:55 AM CST
(Newser) - For decades economists believed that a second Great Depression was impossible; all the Fed had to do, they said, is print more money. But as Paul Krugman writes, monetary policy has failed; despite "supplying liquidity like an engine crew trying to put out a five-alarm fire," credit remains... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Barack Obama • Federal Reserve • Paul Krugman • economic stimulus package • Great Depression • monetary policy • financial crisis • President Obama • John Maynard Keynes • fiscal policy

(Newser) - Though it's no secret the country is weathering a financial calamity, the crisis still lacks a catchy handle. The New York Times takes a look at news organizations' so-far unsuccessful efforts to find one: Some obvious contenders such as “credit crunch” and “Wall Street crisis” have popped up,... More »

MORE ABOUT:
recession • credit crisis • Great Depression • credit market chaos • financial crisis • Wall Street bailout • economic downturn

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