In my essay, I will briefly describe,compare and contrast the course of The Great Depression and The Great Recession in the United States , and try to find analogies in the causes and policy responses within a framework of Business Cycle theories. The Great Depression The decade prior to the 1930's, the US was in the time of great economic boom known as “The Roaring Twenties”. The national income risen by 20%. However the growth was not distributed equally amongst Americans. Between 1920 and 1929, the disposable income of the population rose 9%, while the top 1% enjoyed a massive 75% increase.
The Labour Party won a huge overall majority of seats in 1945 and this shocked the political establishment of Britain. This majority was primarily the product of the British electoral system, since Labour failed to win even half the total of votes cast. However Labour did poll more votes than the Conservatives and any explanation of why must focus on the positive appeal of Labour and/or the lack of appeal of the Conservatives. Many commentators have focussed on the election campaign itself, though the fundamental period for the rise of Labour and the decline of the Conservatives was in fact World War Two and the years leading to it. In Britain we use the First Past the Post (FPTP) system.
In year 2006, the U.S. and along with other countries like France, Germany and the United Kingdom that first industrialised were faced with a significant drop of GDP. The U.S. dropped from 40.3 percent to 19.7 percent, however still remained the largest in the world. This was due to the faster economic growth of several other economies in Asia. (Jones, 2010) China would be the best example to describe the situation. Basically, China today, increased to a marginal amount of 15.1% from the 1960s.
Using figure 3 and your own knowledge, explain why the pattern of economic power has changed over time. (15 marks) The figure shows four clear distinct stages that the world experienced, is currently experiencing and is forecast to experience. During 1913, the British Empire was at its strongest forging a uni-polar world wherein Britain was the most predominant power globally. During the 1950s, a bi-polar world came into existence which then crumbled later in 1998 along with the fall of communism. In 2025, the emerging powers suggest the rise of a multi-polar world.
Over the same period Samsung electronics had focused on contract production of consumer electronics for the established brands. In 2003, Canadian electronics consumer market was highly fragmented with dozen of multinational firms competing for Cdn$2.3 billion market value. At this time, Sony was the clear leader in term of brand recognition and sales. Economic Variables Globally, economic growth showed a sharply slows in 2001 due to the uncertain international situation. Canada is one of the large economy in the world and one of the world's wealthiest nations.
The sudden downturns in the economy led to a sharp drop in gold reserves and put pressure on the government to bring in a high protective tariff. From 1896 the political influence of big business remained a key factor in politics. Big business contributed to the political dominance of the Republican Party until 1912. The impact of big business on the economy was the size and mount of American Wealth and the relatively new and unregulated financial system meant that great entrepreneurs (often referred as ‘robber barons’) could use ruthless methods to defeat their competitors. Also in
This debt has been accumulated over the past thirty years and has been growing much faster than the overall level of GDP. This poses serious threat for the economy as sooner or later this debt bubble will burst just like the housing bubble which led to the financial crisis in 2007. The bursting of the debt bubble will cripple the entire economy as it has become dependent on borrowing and debt. Nearly all the transactions of the economy is done on a credit basis, adding to the overall national debt. A burst of this bubble would affect the increasing standard of living being enjoyed by the citizens of America today.
Bagehot described the city ‘It is by far the greatest combination of economical power that the world has ever seen.’ This comment was made in 1873 (Unwin 1998). The First World War was the decline of the city, as the financial markets entered a time of uncertainty (Roberts 1994). Countries such as the United States overtook the UK as they began to lag behind. Here the emergence of the US dollar began, the US dollar became the chief currency of international trade, this marked the shift in power and the British banks lost much of their international influence (Roberts 1994). Since the 1950’s this has changed as London began to boom once more, as in did in the 19th century (Roberts 1994).
According to World Bank (2005), poverty reduction, in the context of environmental sustainability, is one of the greatest human challenges in the twenty-first century. The social inequality may be one of the reasons for people being in poverty and not good for the development in the future. 85 people have as much wealth as the poorest half of humanity in 2014 and it is getting worse nowadays. 70% of human lives in countries where the gap between rich and absolute poverty currently and it is getting bigger (Oxfam GB, 2015). In capitalism economic model, a wealthy man probably uses its wealth to influence or pressure governments for creating laws or policies which can make more money such as allow him to pay less to his employees.
Owing to the surge in international oil prices during 2007-08, Nigeria managed an annual GDP of US$352.3 billion. The nation ranks 33 in the world in terms of GDP. The GDP per capita is US $2,400. Widespread poverty and lack of industrial resources are the biggest challenges for Nigeria. The country ranks 151 out of 177 on the UN Development Index.