Samuelson's Article

Q: What is Samuelson's point? Why does he believe this?

A: Samuel believes that we are in the same state as we were in the 1920's when the Great Depression was happening. Panic in the states, both political and economical, are overcoming the people and becoming the enemy.

Many similarities are occuring now as they were in the 1920's, but there are differences as well. one would be that the federal government is much more involved in the economy then it use to be during the Great Depression. In 1929, it was ony about 3%, but now it has grown to 20%. The Federal Government now is involved in building new roads, Social Security, and defense. Now, they are trying to contain the problem quicker then they ever have done in the past.

He focuses on the fact that many "economic slumps" have occurred since the Great Depression, but none were as bad as that. Yes, there is a greater unemployment rate, but none have been able to scale as that of the 1930's. The closest we have had is 9.0 from 1973-75 and 10.8 from 1981-82, but they still do not compare to the numbers of the 1930's. In september, we were at 6.1% unemployment.

These changes in our economy, as well as many other aspects that afffect our American society, are all because of the immense amount of money being spent, over borrowing, and overinvestment. He does not believe that it will scale as it did during the Great Depression, but the numbers will flunctuate many times before it will finally become stable.