Abstract
The paper describes how many American colleges have had to close because their endowment funds were wiped out, community banks have failed, wiping out people's life savings, and even those with assets have stopped spending any money except for absolute necessities, since inflation is so high. The paper then relates that inflation and corporate insolvency has virtually eliminated any type of financial credit and a barter system has evolved whereby people trade goods and services. The paper also reveals how businesses have folded, police departments have stopped using patrol cars and have laid off the majority of their officers, and the fire department is made up of mainly volunteers. The writer thinks this depression may reverse the dominant patterns of consumerism when many goods and services fulfilled little genuine need, but appealed instead to the impulse to display one's wealth or status.

From the Paper
"In our family, life has changed dramatically. I should be finishing up my freshman year of college right about now, but in the year since the Dow Jones plummeted below 4000 points, many American colleges had to close because their endowment funds were entirely wiped out. The few that remained open at all now have a very high acceptance rate of nearly one-hundred percent, simply because there are so few students whose families can afford approximately $1,000,000 annual tuition.
"Many community banks have failed, wiping out people's life savings because they were not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Larger banks have also failed wiping even many of the wealthiest people's life savings if they had them all in any one institution, since the FDIC guaranteed only their first $250,000 on deposit. Therefore, of the (already) few people who were wealthy enough to have a net worth in the millions, only those who spread their savings into many smaller accounts at FDIC-insured banking institutions still have any substantial financial assets. Generally, even they stopped spending any money except for absolute necessities, since inflation is so high that one could easily spend millions on nothing besides ordinary consumer and household goods."

Tags:inflation, insolvency, savings, bartering

Abstract
The paper looks at how Gabrielle Roy's "The Tin Flute" and Denyse Baillargeon's "Making Do" both deal with very similar issues and material: the lives and experiences of working-class individuals, and particularly women, in Montreal in the years of the Great Depression. The paper critically explores the impact of unemployment on working class families as represented in both texts, with a particular focus on the coping strategies of the families and how gender dynamic interrelated with this economic context. The paper shows how, with reference to at least these two examples of their respective genres, historical monographs and historical fiction can serve as admirable complements to explore and illustrate the full complexity of life in a particular historical period.

From the Paper
"Gabrielle Roy's "The Tin Flute" and Denyse Baillargeon's "Making Do" both deal with very similar issues and material: the lives and experiences of working-class individuals, and particularly women, in Montreal in the years of the Great Depression. This being said, both texts are radically distinct in that Roy's is a fictional narrative written in 1945, only several years after the events of her novel, while Baillargeon's is a historical monograph drawing upon both documentary history and the oral histories of a number of women who lived during the period, collected by the author a half century after the fact. This essay will critically..."

Tags:class, working, quebec

Abstract
This paper describes the causes and outcomes of the Great Depression which is much more different than similar to the current economic situation although lessons learned from this earlier period can be applied today. Next, the author relates that the Great Depression was caused by poor governance, irrational investing and a series of ill-conceived policies; whereas, the greatest outcome was the development of a regulatory framework for the banking industry. The paper underscores the importance of regaining consumer confidence to help turn around this type of economic depression.

Table of Contents:
Introduction
Antecedents
Impacts
Economic Influence
Conclusion

From the Paper
"The Securities Exchange Commission was created in response to the view that the stock market crash had contributed too much to the Great Depression. The excessive use of margin had encouraged speculation. Poor governance on the part of banks and brokerages allowed for a market failure where investors were not making rational decisions, resulting in a bubble.
"A variety of new taxes were created to offset Roosevelt's social programs. The American psyche had been scarred by the abject poverty of such a wide proportion of the population."

Tags:margin, stock markets, new deal, tariffs banking

Abstract
This paper examines the forces that led to the near-collapse of the capitalist system and, by doing this, we are able to ascertain what factors caused the economic collapse itself. Indeed, the economic depression was caused by certain forces that had truly become out of control and they revealed the flaws within capitalism itself. At the same time, however, an examination of the cures of the depression can also tell us a significant amount about its causes, since both phenomena are intricately linked. By analyzing how Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal dealt with the depression, we are able to better gauge how the economic collapse could have been avoided in the first place.

Abstract
The paper discusses how Marx and others maintain that the most significant cause of female oppression is economic oppression. The paper shows how Marx believed that environment shapes the individual and he blamed economic depression on the capitalist/private property system that is in place in most of the world today. The paper also quotes Jaggar, a well known feminist, who believed that there is a direct and traceable link between class structure and the oppression of women. The paper concludes that the only way women will reach the status of true equality will be for them to be treated as equals in the economic sphere with equal pay for equal jobs, with credit being allowed for women with the same criteria as it is for men, and with women being offered an equal say in the economic decisions their families and government make.

Outline:
Introduction
Marx
Jaggar
Conclusion

From the Paper
"The feminist movement was big in the 1960's and 1970's in many industrialized nations, however the less developed nation and some of the developed nations did not jump on the bandwagon when it came to the equalization of women. The oppression of women has been occurring in many nations for many years and one significant factor that it can be reduced to is economic repression. Whether it is because women do not get paid as much as men do for the same job, or men in the homes keep a rein on the purse strings it cannot be denied that the underlying factor in the oppression of women is by wielding economic depression as a tool."

Tags:feminism, class, structure, environment, equality

Abstract
The paper discusses how although Cuba is considered a communist country, its economy is state-controlled by socialist principles, with outside investments largely restricted (U.S. Department of State, 2007). The paper explains that Cuba had been dependent on the Soviet Union prior to its collapse for government subsidies, as the Soviets would pay above-market prices for Cuban goods, while providing oil to Cuba at below-market rates. The paper further explains that Cuba went into an economic depression after the fall of the Soviet Union, and slowly rebuilt its economy by using some free market measures to obtain food, consumer products, and services.

From the Paper
"Two diverse economies that exist within the global market are Cuba's state-controlled socialist economy, and Israel's capitalist free market economy."

Tags:economy, global, government

Abstract
Paul Krugman's book, The Return of Depression Economics, examines the economies of seven different countries that produce the majority of the economic output of the world, and how each has been affected by major economic slumps throughout the world. This interesting yet very complicated book offers a tour of the major economic crises which have spread across the world in the 1990s, including those of East Asia, Brazil, Mexico, and Russia. Paul Krugman provides brief accounts of the devaluation of Thailand's baht currency, the "financial doomsday machine" created by hedge funds, and the "liquidity trap" of the Japanese economy. Krugman's light journalistic style is easy to read for the most part and is well-targeted at his intended audience. Many of the nine chapters stand very well on their own as slightly extended versions of what is known in the US as op-ed pieces. For example, the chapter on hedge funds contains as clear an explanation of the operation of such funds as a layman could get anywhere. It also contains a number of brief, enlightening and well-written stories under sub-headings like 'The Legend of George Soros' and 'The Madness of Prime Minister Mahathir', and concludes with 'The Panic of 1998' which outlines the demise of Long Term Capital Management. In other chapters there are equally succinct and fascinating stories concerning Mexico, Argentina, Thailand and so on. Some of these extracts ought to make very useful reading to stimulate discussion on undergraduate macro, international or development economics courses. It is the purpose of this paper to examine the major themes of Krugman's book.

Tags:return, depression, economics

Abstract
This paper examines author Robert McElvaine's book "The Great Depression: America 1929-1941," which centers on two specific economic movements: Progressivism and the New Deal. Progressivism was, in effect, an expansive ideal about what the U.S. should be to its own citizens and to the impending globalization. The New Deal was a desirable strategy for most Americans to combat the effects of the Depression. This paper details the similarities of both movements which favored the ideas and ideals of American values. The writer also compares the present status of the U.S. government and economy to that of the depression era.

Table of Contents:
Progressivism
The New Deal
Progressivism and the New Deal: Comparisons and Differences
Works Cited

From the Paper
"Both movements favored the ideas and ideals of some sort of American values. Just as the progressives movement was founded not only with both moral and economic values as guide posts, and saw World War I as "the last and greatest example of the progressive spirit of sacrifice, so the New Deal began with individuals having to (mostly gladly) sacrifice some of their individualism for government-run and controlled works and policies determined to avoid sinking further into an economic sinkhole. We can also see similarities in the fact that the values and the eventual legislation formed a trickle-down philosophy, from the upper middle and upper classes to benefit the less-fortunate. We have to remember that President Wilson as well as FDR were "patricians"- in the best sense of the word, and their aim was to protect the citizens of this nation from war and from economic disaster, even if it meant a sacrifice and even an attempt to undo the Constitutional balance of power."

Tags:history, economics, franklin, delano, roosevelt, depression, government

Abstract
The Great Depression in the 1930s was not simply an American issue as the stock market crash of 1929 had an effect on financial markets around the world and created similarly damaged economic and social conditions in various countries. In the early part of the twentieth century, life in the United States and life in India was different in a number of respects, even before the era of the Depression.

From the Paper
Introduction The Great Depression in the 1930s was not simply an American issue as the stock market crash of 1929 had an effect on financial markets around the world and created similarly damaged economic and social conditions in various countries. In the early part of the twentieth century, life in the United States and life in India was different in a number of respects, even before the era of the Depression. People in both countries suffered during the Depression, but to different degrees in keeping with the difference in economic development between the two countries before the stock market crash. The nature of the Great Depression in American life

Tags:depression, economy, india

Abstract
This paper compares and contrasts the economic situations in Britain and America during the Great Depression. Following a brief overview which highlights the timelines of the depression, comparisons between America and the United Kingdom are made in the areas of banking, the economy and the government's interventions. A conclusion section summarizes the findings. Includes charts and tables.

From the Paper
"The Great Depression was an economic slump, in North America, Europe, and other industrialized areas of the world, that began in 1929 and lasted until about 1939 (Fearon, 1981). It was based partly on the British refusal to devalue the pound sterling, partly on the problems the European nations were facing following World War I, partly on the destruction of the system of world trade and partly on the United States economic boom of the 1920's, and partly because of the speculation in stocks which led to the stock market crash of October 1929 (Walton & Rockoff, 1998)."

Tags:economic, banking, government, intervention, pound, stock, market, crash