The government created the great depression

1. Monetary policy My opponents first claim is they did not create the boom, rather other aspects did. One of the reasons was rising price in foreign goods through taxes and tariffs, government policy. [1] Many of my opponents claim too are interesting, and he claims laissez faire policies created the boom. My opponent does not list why there was mass production of goods. Now there was mass production, but as stated this was linked to the government as well as we had to make everything here due to tariffs. Now, he claimed the ability to buy credit. The ability to get mass loans essentially. He forgets the government essentially created this too. The federal reserves policies rose prices on everything and increased credits which did indeed lead to a boom, then a bust. [2] He then stated the government did not intervene in business, but is this actually true? The government actually grew in the 1920s, we can see this through spending: http://www.debate.org... http://www.cato.org...; (soruce)There was significant government growth and snding in the 1920s, hinting they where actually gaining power, which ads to regulaitons. "Without strong presidential leadership or an aggressive presidential agenda, political initiatives from the Congress became oriented more toward special interest programs that generated economic benefits for clearly identified groups, but such initiatives involved an expansion of governmental scope and power." [3]This was essentially saying in the 1920s, the boom and bust, was highly pushed by the government. http://www.debate.org... (picture, my computer has like a 1 picture max, other wise it freaks out)Same source for other one. Here we also see massive increases in spendingin almost all areas. with this we can assume the government was growing, and notice some of the spending was economic pushing. See source #3 for info and the picture. With this information we can assume the government had something to do in the situation. My opponent then claims the vernment was non interventionist, and claims I agree. I do not, and have proven incresing govenment size and spending, through inflaiton and regulaitons and such, created the boom and bust. My opponents next claim is the government doing to little is caused the boom and bust, not the government itself. I think my opponent has actually forgot that the government actually helped create the boom, and through federal reserve policies made it grow at an even faster rate through inflation and credit. [4] My opponent totally forgot the argument that if the government didn't artificially push the markets the bust would have never occured. 2. Fiscal My opponents first claim is the high wages may have hurt buisness, but did not destroy them. The thing he forgets is it is estimated these policies lead to a 66% decrease in productivity in the market in which the policies affected. [5] "By late 1931, real manufacturing average hourly earnings had increased more than 10 percent as a consequence of the Hoover program and deflation, and manufacturing hours had declined more than 40 percent." [6]Based off of working hours the major decrease lead to a labor deficiency that terribly hurt the economy and helped, and possibly was, the reason we had such a big bust. a 66% decrease in productivity and a 40% decrease in working hours would be detrimental to any economy. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________3. Deflation My opponent actually drops te majority of my analysis in my argument. My opponent claims many things cause deflation, yet forgets productivity actually fell due to governnt wage policies in the late 1920s, at the same time the alleged deflation occured. My opponents second argument is decreased demand caused the inflation, but note he links it to the cash of 1929. Now, is this the real reason to deflate? Even if it is, his argument is false as there was increased inflation by the federal reserve at the time we are debating this. [2] If we had not destroyed our monetary policy through inflation and delation we could have avoided the great depression. [7] My opponent also forgets just because something causes this does not mean we can shift blame, as this is all linked to the fed. So either way the ogvernnt is the cause of this argument. Also:http://en.wikipedia.org... We can see from this the monetary deflation and inflation from the GOVERNMENT likely had a role in the depression, a large one. Either way this argument proves my point. 4. Banks Once again, my opponent is claiming people are doing this, and that the government had no role. As stated, and essentially ignored by my opponent, the reason everyone was rushing to the banks was the boom, which lead to the bust. People said lets go borrow money and spend it on stocks, the bubble and the boom. With is being said, both of these created by the government, we can assume we can link this to the government. What my opponent also forgets is the banks where highly regulated, I beleive this was stated in round 2. The oppresive regulations also where a huge problem for the banks as well. [8] So my opponent; a) forgets the governments regulatory role with the banks, and b) forgets why the people went to the banks, the boom and bubble, created by the government. My opponent also concedes the point when he states: "the reason people were doing this was because they believed it was a way to get rich and wealthy", and hten somehow claims this is not a bubble. Now, this time was a time of incertanty, people feared an economic downturn in the 30s, and they knew a boom was lead by a bust, so we needed to hop on the boom before it busted. This is also known as a bubble. [9] As the people where trying to get rich fast due to a boom, and they likely knew to hop on the boom jump off near the bust, this was then fueled by a bubble. It was fueled by a bubble, no matter which way you look at it. My opponent then claims lack of regulation and credit caused the bank failures, yet as stated there was alreay overbearing regulation. [8] Also we can link the federal rserve through inflation and interest rates to the banks problems. [2] My opponent ignores the governments involvement, no matter how clear it is!!My oppoennt then claims again the bubble did nothig. I have already proven this in earlier rounds and earlier in this argument. 5. WWIMy opponent admits th emoney was from the government, therefore this argument helps my side. He actually admitts it is essentially the governments lending to other governments, and as it was a government affair and he claims this helped fuel the great depression this means the government was responsible. This argument helps my side. CONCLUSION: In any way you look at it, the government played a huge role in the great depression and caused it. A moderate scare was made into a major boom and bust cycle because of the government, hence we can assume I have won this debate. The majority of my opponents arguements are either wrong or prove my point, and are linked to the boom created by the government. VOTE PRO.[1] http://www.gcsehistory.org.uk... [2] http://mises.org... [3] http://www.cato.org... [4] http://mises.org... [5] http://www2.warwick.ac.uk... [6] ic.ucsc.edu/~fravenna/appliedmacro/lucas_confer_final_berkeley.pdf [7] http://www.thefreemanonline.org... [8] www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/regv25n2/v25n2-4.pdf [9] http://en.wikipedia.org...