What was the difference between these two stock market crashes? The 1929 stock market crash was followed by the most catastrophic depression in American history, with as many as one-fourth of all American workers being unemployed. The 1987 stock market crash was followed by two decades of economic growth with low unemployment.
But that was only one difference. The other big difference was that the Reagan administration did not intervene in the economy after the 1987 stock market crash-- despite many outcries in the media that the government should "do something."
As usual, Sowell blows my mind with some insight that he articulates in a powerful way.
This is the type of information we have to teach our children! We are dying as a nation for "lack of knowledge." And, yes, I mean that on several relevant scales.
Yes, this is a classic Sowell piece and not the first time he’s articulated it. Though he didn’t mention Obama it’s pretty clear his timing for it.
It’s worse than a “lack of knowledge”. Rather, it is the false knowledge of things that just are not true.
Like Mark Twain said, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
Liberals and progressives are not just ignorant of economics, they are benighted. This is not a mere opinion, it is the conclusion of a scientific survey recently reported in the economics literature.
Yet even here on FR, we have people crying for protectionist schemes that they think will magically protect American jobs from more cost-effective competitors. To them, I say: "Sorry, folks, but the union job benefits ain't free and a God-given right."