Opinion

How we got out of last financial crisis

Posted February 19, 2009 10:00 pm

I really do hope the economy turns a corner and starts improving relatively soon. But if you believe that the $800 billion "stimulus" package is the cure-all that is going to save us, just check out history.

The current situation is being compared to the Great Depression of the 1930s. It is believed that at the time, the stock market crash of 1929 started the trouble. To solve the problem, major public works initiatives were implemented to create jobs. Unemployment still rose. Protectionist policies were implemented to protect jobs, which started a trade war and international trade plummeted. Unemployment still rose. What brought the world out of the Depression was World War II and the manufacturing demand it created.

What is in the "stimulus" bill just passed? Some public works projects, a bunch of pork-barrel spending and protectionist policies. Will history repeat itself?

Rich Przybylski

Grayslake

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