Re: An ignorant man's question about the great depression



On 23 Oct 2006 14:13:13 -0700, "piero_ds" <piergi@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I have a question about the Great Depression. I know that during
Germany's depression, the Reichsmark was in a freefall, "collapsed from
8.9 per US$1 in 1918 to 4.2 trillion per US$1 by November 1923".

I remember seeing pictures of people pushing wheelbarrows of money to
the bakery.

Was it the same in the US during the 30's? Or was it that simply people
didn't have money? What happened to the price of goods?

The US Great Depression was accompanied by DEflation, not INflation.
Prices of goods and labor both fell; indeed, almost all prices fell,
some of them by more than half. It has been suggested that the lack
of downward flexibility in union wages greatly increased the
unemployment and other economic damage inflicted by this deflation.

-- Roy L
.



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