From Economic Prosperity to the Depression of 1930s

Abstract

This chapter starts with a discussion of the economic situation in the USA and UK in the 1920s and 1930s and argues that the fundamentals of these two economies in the 1920s were already in a bad shape. In fact, we show that in the US economy the fall in the rate of profit and the stagnation of the mass of real profits preceded the collapse of the stock market in the 1929 and the depression of 1930s. The discussion continues with the economic and political situation in the case of the Greek economy and the way in which she was affected by the depression. From the study of the Greek economy in the 1930s, we derive some useful conclusions that may shed new light to the current depression and debt problems of the Greek economy.Depression of 1930s; Gold exchange standard; Greek economy; debt default