Shannon Napples

ECON 2020 - 400

Dr. KT Magnusson

April 30th, 2017

E-Portfolio Reflection

"The depression has ended."

... Dr. Julius Klein, Ass. Sec. Commerce

June 1931.

This quote may not seem like much when first reading it but on closer inspection, it has

an emotional impact on me, especially after reading the Great Depression article by Richard

H. Pells and Christina D. Romer. The reason why it has such a great impact is because this article

goes into great detail about every little thing that happened with the Great Depression. When in

history class in grade school, we are always just taught that it was a bad thing, people suffered

(did not go into detail about how much) and that it was caused from the stock market crash. No

teacher ever went past that level of explanation so, for me, I did not think twice about what it

might have been like for the people during and after the Depression. The only thing that have to

compare it to that I have seen would be the housing crash in 2008. That is a small potato

compared to the Depression, I realize, after reading this article. This quote has a deeper meaning

because it is a sigh of relief, a champions cry after realizing they are victorious and it is the

promise that tomorrow would be brought in with happy news instead of depressing news.

This has such a deep impact on me personally because it helps me understand the

psychology behind why people act the way they do today, those who have gone through the
depression, I mean. I help elderly individuals all the time at work and I never understood why

they do some of the things they do like keep a detailed recored of each and every little thing they

spend in a check register. Now I understand, because they want to visually see where their

money is going because when they were growing up they did not have any or if they had a little

they had to make darn sure they knew where it was going. I am not talking about major

purchases here, I am talking about their need to track their balance down to the penny. It gives

me a great respect for them because I realize that that is how they had to learn and they had to do

it out of necessity.

This helps me understand more about economics because this goes into such great detail

about what has happened and the direct effect it had on the economy. It is one thing to learn

about the cycle but it is completely different to see a real world example of the effects in action.

It was very interesting to me to learn that just because our economy is hurting does not mean that

it has no effect on the rest of the world. The Depression affected virtually every country of the

world. This excerpt from the article goes on to explain that the devastating effects of the

Depression were not limited to the boarder of America. It reached its hand to other countries all

over the world and it makes sense as to why. America does business with countries and when we

run low on exchanges it tends to have an adverse effect on the rest of the world. Even after

America started to come out of the Depression, other countries were still in it and had to come

out of it one their own and in different ways. To sum up, Americas economy just as dependent

on other countries economies as they are with Americas.

Another fact that I found interesting is the flow, the business cycle. It is a constant cycle

that can be predicted and the variable comes with not knowing how deep it will go. It can always

be counted on to go peak, recession, trough, expansion and back to peak but it is variable when it
comes to how long it will last or what will be the ultimate cause for it until it happens. I

remember learning briefly about the business cycle in eight grade because that was the grade I

was in during 2008 and it still had no affect on the way that I thought about economy. Maybe

that was due to my age, but I wonder if it was because I just learned the words and not the actual

account of it.

With the business cycle, I have come to realize how important business is in keeping the

recession periods to a manageable state. According to the article, one major cause for the

Depression was that consumers did not spend as much money on business products or services.

When they did this it created a downward slope that they just could not pull up from. It resonates

personally with me because I want to be a business leader and it makes it clear to me that my

ultimate goal is to provide goods and services that will appeal to consumers at a competitive

price that will keep the consumers spending their money. It is like one giant cycle that keeps it

going round and one small hiccup (or stock crash) could bring it all tumbling down.

In conclusion, the Great Depression is the best example we have to learn from in todays

world. It shows us what will happen when the economy goes deep down into recession and the

trough period not just on a numbers scale, but on an emotional scale. All one would have to do is

to read in depth about it and they would understand why economics is such a vital part of

keeping the world going.