Comparing the Great Depression to the Great Recession
A very interesting set of posts and graphs comparing the current Great Recession to the Great Depression. The monetary responses have been a lot quicker, but the graphs are eerily similar. Many more graphs and commentary at the link.
http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/3421
Quote:
New findings:
- World industrial production continues to track closely the 1930s fall, with no clear signs of ‘green shoots’.
- World stock markets have rebounded a bit since March, and world trade has stabilised, but these are still following paths far below the ones they followed in the Great Depression.
- There are new charts for individual nations’ industrial output. The big-4 EU nations divide north-south; today’s German and British industrial output are closely tracking their rate of fall in the 1930s, while Italy and France are doing much worse.
- The North Americans (US & Canada) continue to see their industrial output fall approximately in line with what happened in the 1929 crisis, with no clear signs of a turn around.
- Japan’s industrial output in February was 25 percentage points lower than at the equivalent stage in the Great Depression. There was however a sharp rebound in March.
The facts for Chile, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Sweden are displayed below; note the rebound in Eastern Europe.
Updated Figure 1. World Industrial Output, Now vs Then (updated)
![](http://www.voxeu.org/files/image/eichengreen_update_fig1.gif)
Updated Figure 2. World Stock Markets, Now vs Then (updated)
![](http://www.voxeu.org/files/image/eichengreen_update_fig2.gif)
Updated Figure 3. The Volume of World Trade, Now vs Then (updated)
![](http://www.voxeu.org/files/image/eichengreen_update_fig3.gif)
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