Great Depression versus the Current Recession

Great Depression versus the Current Recession

1.       How did the Great Depression start?

The great depression originated in the united states in 1929, the stock market crashing was a big part of the depression, because in the 1920’s people had a lot of money from working in the war so they invested in the stock market when the stock market crashed they lost all their money, so people started to get scared and tried to sell their stocks, but  no one was buying, also the banks had invested their clients savings and when market crashed , they had to close and when more and more banks closed people started to panic.

2.       How did the Current Recession start?

The current recession started in 2008 in the United States due to the fact that banks started to lend sub-prime mortgages to people who couldn’t afford them which forced them into bankruptcy. Soon after the bank would take their property into foreclosure, this caused a collapse in the housing market, this made big companies and the government bailout banks. Also this incident had scared everyone and they have started to withdraw their money from the banks and sell their assets.    

3.       How did the government take part following the event?  Where are they successful attempts?

The governments were trying to help the world get out of recession but all their plans seemed to fail. US had a new president; Roosevelt closed all the banks and only let them reopen once they were stabilized. Roosevelt started to establish programs that became known as the New Deal. The new deal was to help the farmers and agriculture, but also to help unemployment. It’s uncertain if the new deal actually helped us get out of recession but to the citizens of the US Roosevelt was a hero.   In the current recession government has made stimulant projects the like Canadian economic action plan. Canada is trying to create more jobs for its citizens, in my opinion I think the government is doing a better job in this recession than the great depression because a lot more people were homeless and people have even started looting for money and food stealing for food, but in this recession though people don’t have a lot of money they are still some how making it and are still getting food and shelter.

4.       What factors are present now that were not present during the Great Depression?  Ex banking, online resources, etc.

They are a lot of new technologies now than the time period of the great depression. We have online banking which can be a great thing or a very bad thing because all of our information is on the computers and if the commuter are down or is the memory is lost all of or information will be two, in the other had computers make our lives easier and if we need to find out something its easier to search up in the computer. Also a new thing that was not discovered in the 1900 was credit cards. Credit cards are a big part of our lives now pretty much everything we buy is on a credit card, this is becoming a problem for the people who can not pay off the debt and need to go into bankruptcy. 

5.       How did these two affect United States’ GDP?

Each recession affected the United States gross domestic product, in the great depression the untied states were giving loans to other countries especially Germany, in the 1920 the untied states were at the top with 1 billion dollars in their gross domestic products. But when there soldiers came back from the war and there stock market crashing they lost a lot of gross domestic product. Though they lost a lot of GDP they were still one of the countries with the highest GDP. In the current recession the GDP of the United States have gone down but not as much as when the great depression. the united states and the world has learned from the great depression so if another depression happens it will not hurt a country as bad and the countries GDP will still be good.

6.       Reflection: In your own words, tell me which one has made more of an impact on the word.

In my opinion I think that the great depression made more of an impact on the world because, none had ever experienced a recession this bad and the government and the people didn’t know what to do to make this situation better. The great depression turned into a learning experience on how to handle such a big issue. With technology this recession was not as bad the government had taken control and tried to stimulate the economy, like the Canadian action plan. In the great depression you herd stories like people had to fight for food and people going from one city to another just to find work or food. So I believe that the great depression had a bigger impact on the world.

http://wanttoknowit.com/when-did-the-great-depression-start-and-end/

http://www.articlesbase.com/finance-articles/recession-its-causes-effects-680290.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression

http://history1900s.about.com/od/1930s/p/greatdepression.htm  

http://americanhistory.about.com/od/greatdepression/tp/greatdepression.htm

One BC's most successful exports is a business model

SOURCE:

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/From+humble+beginnings+Ritchie+Bros+create+global+empire/4583105/story.html

SUMMARY:

This article talks about the Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, which is a company that auctions big heavy machinery. Before becoming Auctioneers they were a furniture store. They started this company here is British Columbia which was very successful. Last year they opened a half-dozen auction houses in places ranging from Japan and Germany to St. Louis and Chilliwack unfazed by the global economic recession. That adds to existing sites in Dubai, Australia, India, Spain, Mexico and France. Net earnings for 2010 were $65.9 million down from $93.5 million in 2009 due to global economic recession. They are British Columbia’s biggest export companies

CONNECTION:
            In this article it talks about Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers and how they are one of the biggest auctioneers in British Columbia. How I connection this article and chapter 6 together is by aggregate demand. Both the article and chapter has aggregate demand. This company is one of the biggest export companies and export is a big part of aggregate demand which is the total demand for final goods and services in the economy at a given time and price level. Our goods are selling which will help pay for public services that the government pays for.
REFLECTION:
              Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers have done a very good job with their business and making it such a big company. They are helping Canada as one of the biggest exports British Columbia has. Though their products are elastic it is still a very strong company. They have a lot of competition but yet their company still seems to come at the top. Heavy duty machinery is sold everywhere but Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers have business confidence and always try to get new products. So I believe that Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers a very good company and they are going to expand even more which will give us and even more export.

U.S economic growth slower than thought!

SOURCE: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/economic+growth+slower+than+thought/4346606/story.html

SUMMARY:
            This article is about economic growth in the U.S, which has not met the expectations. The recession has hit the U.S very hard and now is recovering from it. Economists have been predicting a better growth for the U.S economy but the stats have shown us that the economic growth is not meeting the expectation. Gross domestic product growth was down to an annual rate of 2.8%.The report show that Federal Reserve’s are concerned that the pace of growth remained too slow to significantly lower a 9.0% unemployment rate. Also consumer spending which is more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity has grown 4.1% in the final three months of 2010 instead of 4.4%. It was still the fastest since the first three months of 2006. But there are concerns that surging crude oil prices could hurt consumer spending and slow the economy’s recovery.

CONNECTION:
        The economic growth of U.S has been improving a little bit but the recession had a huge effect. This topic is a very big deal because the U.S is a has a very big and strong economy with helps other countries like Canada and Mexico. With the economic growth not meeting expectations, it also will affect other countries. Though this article does not personally affect me it still affects my country and my countries economy. As a consumer I have been buying less due to the recession and so have many other people. With the increase in crude oil more people will cut their spending.   

REFLECTION:
        The economy of the U.S must be strong, because it is the world’s most powerful economy. Though Canada’s economy is not suffering as bad at the U.S we still had our ups and downs. The stats showed us that U.S still needs sometime to grow and become the economy before the recession. Though it is going to be hard because crude oil products are increasing and consumer spending is decreasing. The unemployment rates cannot go down either because the stats are not meeting expectations and more jobs are not becoming available. Therefore the rates are going to drop and not meet the economist predictions.

                                                         

ALARM OVER WAITING LISTS HAS RING OF AN AGENDA

SOURCE: http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Alarm+over+waiting+lists+ring+agenda/3943394/story.html

SUMMARY:

In this article it talks about the wait time for a surgery in Canada and how they have because very long. Fraser Institutes was doing its annual survey and came to the conclusion that the first time in 4 years waiting list are getting longer. Though the population is growing and aging and more surgeons have been added the taxpayer’s health care system is struggling to keep up. Two different surveys show that B.C is doing okay but that still isn’t good enough. Mark Rovere says that the politicians stick to the awful system instead they should help the patient in the wait list suffering mentally and physically. One of the reasons that the system is crashing is because of the tax cuts.

CONNECTIONS:

        This article talks about wait times and that is a difficult topic. I can relate to this article because I have researched this topic and have seen how rough the wait times are. Surgery wait times can take up to 1 to 3 days and some times even more. The tax money is low and yet we can not increase it. Equalization payments should be provided but in this case it doesn’t seem like the tax payers are getting their moneys worth. They have to wait in long line ups for a surgery, even when they pay there taxes. The government should provide equalization to the tax payers.

REFLECTION:

        I have been in a wait list and it is horrible. You are in pain and yet you can not do anything. I have also researched this topic and seen both sides of the story. We can not increase taxes, even though we are low and we don’t want to wait in a wait list for a surgery we need. That is why the government should make the two tired method which will allow the patients who can afford to get there surgery to pay for it and get. We would be getting more money and shorting the wait list. The other patients would still get there surgery. Also the government would be giving equalization payments.

APPS? THERE'S A CLASS FOR THAT

SOURCE:http://www.theprovince.com/technology/Apps+There+class+that/3768352/story.html?cid=megadrop_story

SUMMARY:
                        This article talks about apps for iPhone and other electronic devices. Since the iPhone or itouch has been made millions of apps have also been made. Apps have taken over our lives. Since people use a lot of apps the University of Regina has started to offer a course that teaches students how to write applications for smart technology. In the article is said "There's tens of thousands of apps being created and some of the people who make them are making millions of dollars from one simple idea". There are millions of apps in the world and they only cost a couple of dollars to get them.

CONNECTION:
                             This article is related to supply and demand. Everyone wants to get apps for there iPhone or other electronic devices. There is a high demand for applications so people with ideas have started to make applications to profit from it. iPhones are very popular at this moment and you need applications to make the iPhone more interesting and fun. most i phones have about 10-15 applications, some may even contain more. Now there are classes to teach you how to make an application. anyone can make and application which will add to the supply product and cut down on the demand.

REFLECTION:
                

          I have and I touch and have many applications on it. When I search though the applications some of the applications seem to be useless. For example I found an app that guess your age. it gives you a lot of numbers and you tell you pick yes or no then it tells you how old you are, also one app tell you how many days you have been on earth, you just punch in you birth date and it give you the amount of days you been on earth. Personally I don't think we need that many applications. Now that there is a school that teaches you how to make an application there will be more useless application.

LAWYERS FOR TAMILS ARE RUNNING OUT OF FUNDS!

SOURCE:
http://www.Vancouversun.com/news/Lawyers+Tamils+running+funds/3537302/story.html

SUMMARY:

           This article was published by the Vancouver Sun, the topic for this article is the Lawyers For Tamils Migrants Are Running Out Of Funds In early September a ship full of Tamil migrants reached Vancouver shorelines. There were about 490 migrants on this ship.These migrants have been staying in correctional facilities. The government have has sent aside 1.5 million for immigration cases this year, but they got 490 more immigrants than expected. The lawyers have to represent the federal courts as well as the Tamil migrants. The society is in discussions with the federal Department of Justice for additional funding.

Another option is to appeal to the Federal Court to issue an order that additional public funds are given.The government is also blocking some of the released migrants.

CONNECTION

              The main idea of this article is related to scarcity. scarcity is a limited resource, the money the government has sent aside for immigration was 1.5 million and in this past month had 490 migrants. The money is becoming scarce. the 1.5 million covers about 700-800 new migrants. The money is spent on the lawyers, court cases, and food and shelter for the migrants. 75 migrants had also arrived in Vancouver last year and had but the immigration budget in trouble. The government is predicting that is a year or two another Tamil ship will arrive at Vancouver putting again the immigration budget is trouble.

REFLECTION

          I already knew about the Tamil ship that had arrived in Vancouver, but I did not know about the financial problems. The Tamil migrants have made the money for immigration scarce. This problem is kind of predicable, because 490 people are going to have a lot of cost, for example, their health, food, and shelter.I think the Tamil's should get every chance to succeed. My ancestors are not from Canada they are from India. They boarded a ship for Canada but back then the Canadians didn't let them in so they were sent back to India. Even though the money is scare i think it will be a good investment, because the migrants will work and pay taxes which will even out the cost we are spending now.