Comments of a Nobody

Whilst politicians and economists from around the world are failing to come to an agreement over how to bring an end to our current economic malaise, perhaps what we need to do is look to examples of the past. A parallel might be the 1930s where after a period of relative prosperity, stock markets crashed and the economies of the world hit recession (and ultimately depression).

What was needed at this time was a cause to bring people together and create a common purpose. And, perhaps more importantly, a distraction from the economics of the time. The course that Nazi Germany took was one of celebrating a new German identity, expanding the German empire and imprisoning and murdering vast numbers of people who were considered by those in power not to conform to the German ideal, i.e. Jews, Gypsies, etc. It is probably not a good idea at this point to consider whether this was good for the German economy, that would just be too abhorrent to think about. But it is true that when times are hard and unemployment increases, prejudice and discrimination against minorities, particular immigrant communities, tends to increase. It is as if we need someone to blame - although at the moment we seem to quite happy to blame bankers.

Of course, at the end of the 1930s the world erupted into global warfare. From an economic point of view this served to unite people of the countries involved against a common enemy and stimulated manufacturing industry. Young men were conscripted into the army and women were brought into the workforce, so unemployment rates dropped considerably.

So that’s the answer then, all we need is major global warfare to solve this recession. There is the small matter of all that death and destruction to consider though - maybe some other solution is required?