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["Don Bowen" <don.bowen AT earthlink.net>]

> AND the New Deal didn't work.  We've already posted the comments made in
> 1929 and 1930 that showed that the administration back then thought the
> depression would last only a few months at worst.  And of course they 
> were calling it a depression' so as not to use the more horrific 
> term 'recession'.

The term they did not want to use was "Panic".  This was the new era of
radio in mass communication.  The term depression was thought less well
depressing.  The panic of 1873 had among its shock the attempt by Gould and
Fisk to corner the market in gold.  The severe downturn caused the term
depression to be used in describing the severe downturns.  After the
depression of the 30s the term recession was used.  What will be the next
attempt to cover over economic problems with language?

The fabled stock market crash of Oct 1929 is always thought of as the
beginning but the real problems happened when many banks started failing in
the early 30s.  The steep downturn was in 1932 when many people thought the
very existence of the USA was in jeopardy.  One result was the Glass-Segal
Act which brought stability to banking until the late 90s overturn lead by
Phil Gramm.

Also keep in mind that farms were in severe economic stress from the early
20s.  After the wars in Europe they closed their borders to imported farm
products in order to facilitate their own recovery.  US farmers had invested
heavily only to have prices fall to less than the cost of production.

Recovery was well underway by the late 30s but it was a very anemic
recovery.  Early in the 30s the Smoot-Hawley act was passed that retaliated
against those countries that restricted imports.  The affect of the act was
to cause further retaliation against the US and a drop US exports.  The
opening days of WWII and Lend Lease swept away many export restrictions here
and abroad.

Don Bowen  KI6DIU
http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html