Today’s wordless or near wordless offering is a video regarding the Great Depression from the Thomas Brothers. If you aren’t sure who the Thomas Brothers are check out their website here and follow this link to another video clip showing how they mix history, video, and song to entertain and teach with.
Even if you can’t get the Thomas Brothers in front of students these clips are interesting enough to add to a lesson or unit of study.
Be sure to check out the video here that clearly shows how they work their magic with all age groups.
You can locate other bloggers participating in Wordless Wednesday here.
Showing posts with label Great Depression. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Great Depression. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
The Greater Depression?
In an October, 2008 online article at the site for a South Carolina news station, USC economist Dr. Bill Hauk states, “There are enough similarities [between the current economic crisis and the Great Depression] to say there’s definitely something wrong here. We definitely do need to be concerned. I think the comparisons to the Great Depression are certainly premature and hopefully unneeded.”
I agree with him to a point. The current situation is exactly that…current. We are living through a huge historical event that others in the future will analyze and judge. It’s too early to look at the situation clearly, yet that is our nature, isn’t it?
As a teacher of history I’m anxious to get my facts NOW, so when little John or Jane asks why did my dad lose his job, how did this all happen, or why does my mom yells at the television and throws things every time Obama’s face shows up on the screen I can give a proper answer.
Yet, we must realize the situation is still fluid, and we certainly don’t know the whole story regarding how all of the dominos have fallen or in some cases been pushed. While I want to agree with Dr. Hauk and state I don’t think today’s situation is greater than the problems our nation experienced in the 1930s especially listening to some of the folks including my parents who lived through the events I honestly have to say I don’t know…because this historical chapter is still in play.
Dr. Krassimir Petrov, a professor of Macroeconomics, International Finance, and Economics at the American University in Bulgaria, wrote a great article at The Market Oracle in November, 2008. He states, “At its core, environment of the 1990s, and the response of the Fed to the tech-telecom bust has created an economic environment that has encouraged the repetition of the very same mistakes that led to the Great Depression.”
Dr. Petrov then lists several obvious parallels to the current crisis that include:
*Asset Bubbles…first in the stock market during the 1990s, then in real estate during the 2000s, pretty much mirroring the stock and real estate market bubbles of the 1920s.
*Securitization…Although not in the very “ultra-modernistic” form and shape of the 2000s, with slicing and dicing of pools and tranches of seniority, it was widely recognized in the 1930s that securitization during the 20s drove the domino effect in the U.S. financial system during the Great Depression.
*Excessive Leverage…It was very clear back then that the root of the problem was not deleveraging per se, but the excessive leverage that took place prior to the deleveraging process. “Investment Pools” were then instrumental in both the securitization and excessive leverage, just like the Hedge Funds of today.
*Corrupt Gatekeepers…accounting firms aided and abetted the Environs and Worldcoms and in the current crisis we are seeing the same thing (see the most recent report from ABC's Brian Ross) and following the Depression the SEC was created due to the corruptness in the 1920s.
*Financial Engineering…We are led to believe that financial engineering is a rather recent phenomenon that flourished during the New Age Finance Era of the last 15 years, yet financial engineering was prevalent in the 1920s with very clear goals: (1) to evade restrictive regulations, (2) to increase leverage, and (3) to remove liabilities from the books, all too familiar to all of us today.
*Lagging Regulations…Understandably, regulations should have forseen today’s financial problems and should have been introduced before the crisis.
*Market Ideology…Laissez-Faire reigns, but we need to remember the money markets are not really free
*Non-Transparency…Originally, lack of transparency was designed to fool the markets; ironically, modern-day financial executives have gotten to the point of fooling themselves.
But then Dr. Petrov takes a turn and states the current mess will be judged greater than the Great Depression. I wonder what moniker history will finally give this time period….the Great, Great Depression? The Greater Depression?
Here are Dr. Petrov’s six reasons why this period will be judged greater:
*Overvalued real estate…The real estate market has been driven by a number of innovations in real estate finance
*Total U.S. credit – Credit makes leverage…the more credit in the market, the more leveraged it is
*Explosion of Derivatives…Warren Buffet has linked derivatives to ‘financial weapons of mass destruction.’ Derivatives, as well as ‘Value at Risk” (VaR), has skyrocketed in recent years with the potential to destabilize the financial system for decades…The unwinding of these derivatives could only be compared with a nuclear explosion in the financial system.
*Dow-Gold ratio…[This] ratio represents the most important ratio between the relative pieces of financial assets and real assets…When leverage in the financial system increases significantly, so does the ratio. When leverage increases, so does the ratio. A high ratio is interpreted as an imbalance between financial and real assets – financial assets are grossly overvalued, while real assets are grossly undervalued. It implies a correction eventually will be necessary – either through deflation, deleveraging and a collapsing stock market, or through inflation, which implies stagnant market for many years and steadily rising prices of real assets, commodities, and gold, usually associated with stagnant economy and typically resulting in stagflation. Deflation occurred during the 1930s while stagflation occurred during the 1970s.
*Global Bubbles…It is impossible to make direct comparison with the 1920s, but today the global economy is rife with bubbles. Back then in the 1920s, the U.S. had its stock and real estate bubbles, while the European communities were struggling to rebuild from the devastations of WWI that ended in 1919.
*Collapsing Bretton Woods II …The global monetary system was on a quasi-gold standard during the 1920s….While the media describes the problem as one of illiquidity and confidence, a more serious analysis indicates that boom-time credit has been employed unproductively and so losses must be incurred. In other words, scare capital has been misallocated, poorly invested, and effectively wasted. No amount of money or fiscal policy can fix the errors of the past, just like no modern treatment can quickly restore to health a drug addict debilitated from a decade-long drug abuse.
If Dr. Petrov is correct even harder times are coming. Harder times regarding life choices and harder times in trying to figure out how to teach this mess because for every economist like Dr. Petrovthat argues we are entering a period worse than the Great Depression there are just as many stating we are just in a slump and no comparison can be made.
For me….for now...the jury is still out.
I agree with him to a point. The current situation is exactly that…current. We are living through a huge historical event that others in the future will analyze and judge. It’s too early to look at the situation clearly, yet that is our nature, isn’t it?
As a teacher of history I’m anxious to get my facts NOW, so when little John or Jane asks why did my dad lose his job, how did this all happen, or why does my mom yells at the television and throws things every time Obama’s face shows up on the screen I can give a proper answer.
Yet, we must realize the situation is still fluid, and we certainly don’t know the whole story regarding how all of the dominos have fallen or in some cases been pushed. While I want to agree with Dr. Hauk and state I don’t think today’s situation is greater than the problems our nation experienced in the 1930s especially listening to some of the folks including my parents who lived through the events I honestly have to say I don’t know…because this historical chapter is still in play.
Dr. Krassimir Petrov, a professor of Macroeconomics, International Finance, and Economics at the American University in Bulgaria, wrote a great article at The Market Oracle in November, 2008. He states, “At its core, environment of the 1990s, and the response of the Fed to the tech-telecom bust has created an economic environment that has encouraged the repetition of the very same mistakes that led to the Great Depression.”
Dr. Petrov then lists several obvious parallels to the current crisis that include:
*Asset Bubbles…first in the stock market during the 1990s, then in real estate during the 2000s, pretty much mirroring the stock and real estate market bubbles of the 1920s.
*Securitization…Although not in the very “ultra-modernistic” form and shape of the 2000s, with slicing and dicing of pools and tranches of seniority, it was widely recognized in the 1930s that securitization during the 20s drove the domino effect in the U.S. financial system during the Great Depression.
*Excessive Leverage…It was very clear back then that the root of the problem was not deleveraging per se, but the excessive leverage that took place prior to the deleveraging process. “Investment Pools” were then instrumental in both the securitization and excessive leverage, just like the Hedge Funds of today.
*Corrupt Gatekeepers…accounting firms aided and abetted the Environs and Worldcoms and in the current crisis we are seeing the same thing (see the most recent report from ABC's Brian Ross) and following the Depression the SEC was created due to the corruptness in the 1920s.
*Financial Engineering…We are led to believe that financial engineering is a rather recent phenomenon that flourished during the New Age Finance Era of the last 15 years, yet financial engineering was prevalent in the 1920s with very clear goals: (1) to evade restrictive regulations, (2) to increase leverage, and (3) to remove liabilities from the books, all too familiar to all of us today.
*Lagging Regulations…Understandably, regulations should have forseen today’s financial problems and should have been introduced before the crisis.
*Market Ideology…Laissez-Faire reigns, but we need to remember the money markets are not really free
*Non-Transparency…Originally, lack of transparency was designed to fool the markets; ironically, modern-day financial executives have gotten to the point of fooling themselves.
But then Dr. Petrov takes a turn and states the current mess will be judged greater than the Great Depression. I wonder what moniker history will finally give this time period….the Great, Great Depression? The Greater Depression?
Here are Dr. Petrov’s six reasons why this period will be judged greater:
*Overvalued real estate…The real estate market has been driven by a number of innovations in real estate finance
*Total U.S. credit – Credit makes leverage…the more credit in the market, the more leveraged it is
*Explosion of Derivatives…Warren Buffet has linked derivatives to ‘financial weapons of mass destruction.’ Derivatives, as well as ‘Value at Risk” (VaR), has skyrocketed in recent years with the potential to destabilize the financial system for decades…The unwinding of these derivatives could only be compared with a nuclear explosion in the financial system.
*Dow-Gold ratio…[This] ratio represents the most important ratio between the relative pieces of financial assets and real assets…When leverage in the financial system increases significantly, so does the ratio. When leverage increases, so does the ratio. A high ratio is interpreted as an imbalance between financial and real assets – financial assets are grossly overvalued, while real assets are grossly undervalued. It implies a correction eventually will be necessary – either through deflation, deleveraging and a collapsing stock market, or through inflation, which implies stagnant market for many years and steadily rising prices of real assets, commodities, and gold, usually associated with stagnant economy and typically resulting in stagflation. Deflation occurred during the 1930s while stagflation occurred during the 1970s.
*Global Bubbles…It is impossible to make direct comparison with the 1920s, but today the global economy is rife with bubbles. Back then in the 1920s, the U.S. had its stock and real estate bubbles, while the European communities were struggling to rebuild from the devastations of WWI that ended in 1919.
*Collapsing Bretton Woods II …The global monetary system was on a quasi-gold standard during the 1920s….While the media describes the problem as one of illiquidity and confidence, a more serious analysis indicates that boom-time credit has been employed unproductively and so losses must be incurred. In other words, scare capital has been misallocated, poorly invested, and effectively wasted. No amount of money or fiscal policy can fix the errors of the past, just like no modern treatment can quickly restore to health a drug addict debilitated from a decade-long drug abuse.
If Dr. Petrov is correct even harder times are coming. Harder times regarding life choices and harder times in trying to figure out how to teach this mess because for every economist like Dr. Petrovthat argues we are entering a period worse than the Great Depression there are just as many stating we are just in a slump and no comparison can be made.
For me….for now...the jury is still out.
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
13 Things About the Coit Tower Murals
Last week I posted a painting for my wordless image….actually it is part of mural….part of a series of 26 murals that can be found in the Coit Tower. One reader, Keith, first identified the location as San Francisco but the gold star goes to Shannon at Cyberbones for correctly identfying the tower, the location, etc. Here are 13 things about the Coit Tower murals. Don’t miss the slide show at the end of the post with several images of the murals.1. You can find Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco, California. People often use the art decco, reinforced concrete tower as a directional marker when in San Francisco
2. The money for the construction of the tower came from the very eccentric Lillie Hitchcock Coit. She loved San Francisco, and she got away with doing things other women of her day wouldn’t have been able to do mainly because she was wealthy.
3. Some people think the tower was built to resemble a fire hose because Lillie loved the fire department. Others think it looks like something else, but I won’t mention that here.:)
4. Inside the tower you can find murals from 26 different artists. They were done with the cooperation of the Federat Arts Project which came out of the Works Progress Administration and are protected as historial treasures.
5. The murals were painted in 1934 and are considered to be California’s best example of Depression Era art. The art style is patterned after Diego Rivera's social realism style and show various ways working class Californians spent their time during the Depression.
6. The group of murals contains several different scenes including a bank robbery, a scene from the harbor, and the interior of a department store. My slide show (scroll down) includes a dairy scene, farm scenes, a newpaper office, and manufacturing scenes.
7. The murals were highly criticized by some, and the opening of the tower was delayed for several months because of them. Critics opposed what they called subversive and Communist themes shown in the murals. 1934 is the same year that a maritime worker strike occurred in California that led to several deaths on what is remembered as Bloody Thursday.
8. The images with this post (not in the slideshow) are from the public library scene. This mural was painted by Bernard B. Zakheim. He depicted another artist, John Langley Howard, as the man reaching for the book. The title of the book he’s choosing from the shelf is Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. He is choosing it over the newspaper which he’s crumpling in his hand.9. Notice the man reading the paper (image below). This is supposed to be another artist, Ralph Stackpole. The headline of the paper reads “Local Artists Protest Destruction of Rivera’s Fresco”. This protest stems from a controversy concerning a Rivera mural at Rockefeller Center which was destroyed because Rivera refused to remove an image of Lenin. Rivera and Stackpole were great friends.
10. Another headline in the library refers to Nazi attacks in Austria. Remember this was 1934 and American had not yet gotten involved in the conflict that would become World War II
11. One of the murals even had the slogan, “Workers of the World Unite!” It was removed before the tower opened to the public.
12. These murals and the interesting story regarding Coit Tower could be key ingredients to any unit or lesson regarding Socialist leanings in the 1930s, the Depression, California history, and Roosevelt’s ABC government since the Works Progress Administration put artists to work. Students love the irony that they were given work during a time when many did not have a job, and they used the opportunity to protest the Establishment.
13. A book by Masha Zakheim Jewett titled Coit Tower, San Francisco: Its History and Art 
contains more information regarding the tower and the interesting murals on its walls.
contains more information regarding the tower and the interesting murals on its walls.
Learn more about Thursday 13 and locate other 13 posts to view here.
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