The Economics Journal

                                                                                                                                Next in the Series >>

We might be getting close to a depression or atleast a deep recession. But, do we know what a depression means and how bad it is? In the next few months my plan is to take you through historical depressions worldwide, their causes and effects. I’m not going to wear a pink glass and say everything that is happening is going for good. I want to be realist and give you both sides of the coin – something that the traditional media lacks. There are both positives and negatives, and we keep an objective mind we can overcome any crisis is what history teaches us.

What is the series going to contain?

I’m dividing the series into 3 parts. Part I will focus on the history of major depressions, worldwide. It will start from Tulip mania in the 17th century Netherlands, and continue through South Sea bubble of 18th century England, Panic of 1837 in US, the Long depression of 1870s, the Great Depression of the 1930s, the 1970s style stagflation in US, the Japanese lost decade – 20 year depression, the Asian and Latin American Crisis of 1997-98. We will also briefly walk through some of the other relatively minor crisis in Scandinavia, US S&L crisis of 1980s and crisis in Indian economy. And finally to the current recession/depression. This part will give the cause and effects, and how it influenced the society, politics and the economy.

Part II will focus on the other side of the depression, most particularly the Great Depression of US. We all think of depression only in terms of the bad aspects – soup lines and unemployment, but were there other elements besides these?

Part III will focus on drawing the knowledge from these depressions and how to apply it for the future. Will the world survive from this? Yes, it will. But, how?

Join me in this ride of back to the future… Send me comments on the articles.

                                                                                                                                Next in the Series >>