Originally Posted By mrkthompsn So you're saying that people did not learn from the bad things that occured from 1929, and react to prevent it from happening again? is it? When I say "Actually, it did", that means that the bad economy of 1929 a(and throughout the 1930's) did in fact strengthen the future economy.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 It wasn't really the bad economy per se, though. It was the mechanisms put into place to ensure it wouldn't happen again. That's different.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy << So you're saying that people did not learn from the bad things that occured from 1929, and react to prevent it from happening again? is it? >> People did learn things from 1929. They learned to save money, not to overextend themselves on credit, not to participate in speculative stock and housing bubbles. But that was nearly 100 years ago. There is hardly anyone left who remembers those lessons learned, which is why we have an economy made up of consumers with the lowest savings rate in history, record levels of debt, and speculative bubbles in non-producing assets like housing. There's no reason that the economic woes of the 1930s couldn't be repeated today. Many of the same trends from the 1920s exist today. I think we'll weather the current storm OK, but 10 years from now when a much larger percentage of our Baby Boomer population is striving to live on fixed incomes and still pay off the bloated mortgage and HELOC, we'll see an economic disaster of epic proportions. Perhaps another Great Depression.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< 10 years from now when a much larger percentage of our Baby Boomer population is striving to live on fixed incomes and still pay off the bloated mortgage and HELOC >>> There was a time when everyone pretty much had the same mortgage: 20% down, and a 30-year fixed mortgage for the rest. By the time they retired, the house would be paid off, greatly reducing the monthly living expenses. How many of the boomers do you suppose will enter retirement with a completely paid off house?
