Financial and economic crises are not unfamiliar to the U.S economy, as they almost appeared in a cyclical way at various times throughout the centuries, shaking many times the foundations of the country. Concerning the Great Depression 1929-1933, let us remember that on 29 October 1929, billions of dollars turned into dust. Before the crisis’ years, the market "The Dow" was turning endless of people into millionaires. This kind of market turned into the hobby of many ignorant people who knew nothing about the stock market. When the government entered the “game” trying to calm things down by increasing the interest rate, panic rose. Investors tried to withdraw their reserves and unfortunately even the banks had invested in stock. Firstly, this essay will discuss and look at the monetary …show more content…
You’re right, we did it. We’re very sorry. But thanks to you, we won’t do it again. (Ben Bernanke, November 8, 2002, during a speech)”. Ben Bernanke, at that time a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, admitted publicly what economists had long believed caused the Great Depression. During the early years of the depression, FED followed continuously a restrictive monetary policy, what many economists believe was what turned a recession into a depression. In the years 1930-1933, more than 9,000 banks failed (50%) and the money supply fell from 26.6 billion dollars to 19.9 billion dollars. At this time, the unemployment rate increased from 3.2 to 24.9 percent. What economists generally argue on, like Friedman and Schwartz is that the FED should have reduced the discount rate which allowed member banks to borrow, and purchase bonds through the open market operations, in order to fight bank failures and unemployment in the U.S economy, this way also contributing to increases in the money supply. Yet, the Federal Reserve paid more close attention to the international gold standard. The