Originally Posted by NW Ponderer
My friend, you cling to Smoot-Hawley like a drowning man to a reed when the real issue is the sinking boat. Capitalism and greed created the Great Depression, not government intervention. Period. Full stop. It wasn't even introduced until six months after the crash of 1929. Did it make matters worse? You betcha. But it didn't cause the Depression. Nor did banking regulation cause banks to be run irresponsibly. Lack of regulation allowed that. As it consistently does. See, savings and loan crisis; Great Recession.
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During a period of strong global growth, growing capital flows, and prolonged stability earlier this decade, market participants sought higher yields without an adequate appreciation of the risks and failed to exercise proper due diligence. At the same time, weak underwriting standards, unsound risk management practices, increasingly complex and opaque financial products, and consequent excessive leverage combined to create vulnerabilities in the system. Policy-makers, regulators and supervisors, in some advanced countries, did not adequately appreciate and address the risks building up in financial markets, keep pace with financial innovation, or take into account the systemic ramifications of domestic regulatory actions.
Capitalists always want to blame others for their failures.
You said that the Smoot Hawley Act wasn't introduced until six months after the crash of 1929. If it wasn't introduced until then why does your article about it say that the House passed it's version in May of 1929? Which came first , May 1929 or October 1929?

Banking regulations didn't help cause the Great Depression? The regulations against branch banking, which prevented a bank from diversifying it's loans, were common prior to and during the Great Depression. Diversified loans and client base that branch banking creates greatly reduces the risk of a bank failing. While greed, which has always existed, did contribute t the Great Depression more than your bogeyman, Capitalism.

The state can never straighten the crooked timber of humanity.
I'm a conservative because I question authority.
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