Comments on: 6 Crises That Keep Economists Up At Night

By: GTT

GTT — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 21:46:59 +0000

Contrary to popular beliefs, the potato is not a native product of Ireland (or Europe for that matter). Peruvian natives cultivated the “papa” as early as 5000 BC and it was later taken to Europe by returning Spanish explorers.

Just thought I might add my 2 cents. :)

By: Lori

Lori — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 03:49:34 +0000

Megan- you’re history teacher must have been British. They were (brutally) controlling Ireland at the time, forcing rent prices way above what farmers could afford. They couldn’t feed their own people because the potatoes were black and rotted.

By: Megan

Megan — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 16:55:25 +0000

A history teacher once told me that the potato famine was mostly the result of exporting so much that they were not able to feed their own population. Had they kept the crops they would have been able to more than keep their population going. Does anyone know if this is true?

By: sraz

sraz — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 01:36:41 +0000

@PuzzleScott

Wouldn’t the stock market crash go along with The depression?

By: jhill

jhill — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 23:53:42 +0000

RE: the Irish Potato Famine, “As many as 1.5 million died as a direct result of the famine” should read “as a direct result of the British government.” As the acting British Treasury Minister Sir Charles Trevelyan put it, “we must now try what independent exertion, and the operation of natural causes, can do”. An extermination policy.

By: PuzzleScott

PuzzleScott — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 22:19:57 +0000

No one remembers the stock market crash of 1920-21. It affected the economy, too. However, the only action President Harding took was to reduce government spending. The economy and the market recovered within the year, which is why no one remembers it.

The Great Depression wouldn’t have been so great if Hoover and Roosevelt would’ve kept their hands off the economy. Hoover moved to keep wages high, but this simply resulted in fewer jobs being made available. Roosevelt not only kept this practice, but expanded such practices under the “New Deal”. So, while people are jobless and hungry, Roosevelt figures it’s a good idea to do things like have 6 million pigs slaughtered and have 10 million acres of cotton destroyed to keep prices for farmers artificially high.

About the only good thing that Roosevelt achieved economically was to require that company which issued stock must also issue regular reports, which gave investors more information.