Economic historians Barry Eichengreen and Kevin H. O’Rourke are using empirical data to compare this downturn to the Great Depression. I’ll be referring to and adding to their comparison in the next Debtwatch (which will be published late next week, before the RBA’s July meeting), but the research is so good that it deserves to be highlighted now.
Their conclusion is compelling:
To summarise: the world is currently undergoing an economic shock every bit as big as the Great Depression shock of 1929–30. Looking just at the US leads one to overlook how alarming the current situation is even in comparison with 1929–30.
Click here to see the full post; below I simply link to some of the figures.
