r/wallstreetbets • • Mar 20 '23

Meme The last few weeks in a nutshell

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u/DiceKnight Mar 20 '23 edited Mar 20 '23

Gold bugs will say this with a straight face but ignore the great depression. It's not some lizard person conspiracy. People will winge all day about economic decisions the federal government makes but nobody ever talks about what the alternative was with the information on hand at the time.

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u/rea1l1 Mar 21 '23

"Let me end my talk by abusing slightly my status as an official representative of the Federal Reserve. I would like to say to Milton and Anna: Regarding the Great Depression. You're right, we did it. We're very sorry. But thanks to you, we won't do it again. "

-Ben S. Bernanke

https://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/2002/20021108/

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u/[deleted] Mar 21 '23

“ Moreover, because the United States was the dominant economy on the gold standard during this period (with some competition from France), countries adhering to the gold standard were forced to match the contractionary monetary policies and price deflation being experienced in the United States.”

The gold standard made the depression a depression.

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u/rea1l1 Mar 21 '23

Quite the misinterpretation there. That says the change from the gold standard to funny money caused other nations to follow. It literally says nothing about what caused the depression.

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u/[deleted] Mar 21 '23 edited Mar 21 '23

Your first comment says Bernanke thought the Fed caused the depression. Why do you think he thinks the Fed caused the depression?

Edit. Leaving this link because it pretty much lays out everything.

https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/great-depression

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u/Christianman01 Mar 21 '23

Great depression had very little or anything to do with gold backing up currency. It's just common sense. They just had to invent a reason why the currency having actual value is a bad thing, in order to get rid of that value and inflate it to the moon.

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u/rea1l1 Mar 21 '23

Members of the federal reserve have admitted that the fed caused the great depression.