Banking And The Business Cycle A Study Of The Great Depression In The United States Chester Arthur Phillips by Chester Arthur Phillips, Richard Ward Nelson, Thomas Francis Mcmanus instant download after payment.

The task that is attempted in this book is a contribution to an understanding of the banking and financial events of the War and post-War period as the underlying causes of the Great Depression in the United States. There were many causes which contributed to this collapse; among others, mention might be made of misguided tariff policy, war debts, monopolistic practices. Our failure to accord certain non-monetary phenomena special treatment is  not to be construed as disregarding their influence; we have preferred to focus attention upon those causes which we believe to be predominantly basic.

There is good reason for this belief. In no previous depression have all of the same non-monetary phenomena been present; in no previous depression have the monetary phenomena been absent. The financial mistakes of the past two decades are not dissimilar to those of England during and following the Napoleonic Wars, and the inflation of the Civil War and the depression of the 'seventies bear striking resemblance to the recent upheaval; the follies of the ages are repeated again and again. It is a melancholy fact that each generation must relearn the fundamental principles of money in the bitter school of experience. The inflationists, it would seem, we always have with us. It is nevertheless a duty of economists to devote attention to periodic reiteration of the ancient truths of monetary science; it is necessary to make as familiar as possible the workings of the financial machinery if further errors are to be avoided in the future. It is to the mismanagement of the monetary mechanism that most of our recent troubles are chiefly ascribable. And with the juggernaut of another inflationary boom already upon us, emphasis upon the monetary causes of the last depression, to the neglect of others, is not only warranted but needful if progress toward an understanding of business cycles is to be expected.

A. Marshall - reckless inflations of credit, chief cause of economic malaise.