1929101On October 24th, the United States ushered in its "Black Thursday". On this day, the US financial sector crashed and the stock fell from the top to the abyss overnight. The price fell so fast that it couldn't keep up with the automatic display of the stock market. In just two weeks from 1929 to 1 13, * * has lost $30 billion in wealth, equivalent to the total expenditure of the United States in World War I. However, the collapse of the US stock market is nothing more than the crater of a disastrous economic crisis.
At that time, a children's song was popular in new york: "Mellon blew the whistle and Hoover rang the bell. Wall Street signals that the United States is heading for hell! " . With the collapse of the stock market, the American economy immediately plunged into a devastating disaster, and a terrible chain reaction soon occurred: crazy runs, bank closures, factory closures, unemployment of workers, poverty, organized resistance, and the brink of civil war. Agricultural capitalists and large farmers destroyed a large number of "surplus" products, used wheat and corn instead of coal as fuel, and poured milk into the Mississippi River, turning the river into a "galaxy". Homeless people in the city set up simple shelters with wooden boards, old iron sheets, tarpaulins and even kraft paper. The village where these huts gather is called "Hoover Village". The tramp's begging bag is called "Hoover bag", the car pulled by animal power because it can't buy fuel is called "Hoover car", and even the newspaper covered by the tramp sleeping on the street bench is called "Hoover blanket". Apple vendors on the street became one of the most famous symbols during the Great Depression. Many of those who were forced to make a living by running mobile fruit stalls used to be successful businessmen and bankers.
The collapse of the stock market led to four years of economic panic, which quickly spread from the United States to other industrial countries. For millions of people, life has become a struggle for food, clothing and shelter. In order to safeguard their own interests, countries have strengthened measures and means of trade protection, further aggravating and worsening the world economic situation.
The result of economic recession is mass unemployment: 654.38+03.7 million in the United States, 5.6 million in Germany and 2.8 million in Britain.
People who have experienced the Great Depression have changed their minds. The workers woke up from the numbness in the 1920s and launched a high-spirited strike. When the legitimacy and legitimacy of the capitalist system almost disappeared, liberals were attracted by the prosperity of the Soviet Union and became Marxists. Conservatives who are afraid of Bolshevism are increasingly turning to fascism.
Although western countries tried their best to save the country, including Roosevelt's New Deal, the crisis failed to end. It was not until the outbreak of World War II that the crisis came to an end.
Now that the world is once again facing the impact of the once-in-a-century financial crisis, it is quite meaningful to review the crisis of 1929.
First of all, after hundreds of years and paying a heavy price, the greed of capital has not converged, and it continues to make waves crazily, endangering the whole world. The capitalist system itself still has not found an effective way to deal with it. Perhaps this is the cancer of the capitalist body until it is destroyed.
Secondly, there are still huge loopholes in social supervision, which can be described as a height of one foot and a height of ten feet. Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, who was once regarded as the hero of maintaining the long-term economic growth in the United States, finally publicly admitted his regulatory mistakes, but it was too late.
Third, the crisis is likely to be long-term, not short-term. At present, although the United States spent $1 trillion and Europe spent € 2 trillion, the financial crisis continues to develop, and the stock markets of major western countries continue to fall sharply after a short rebound. The crisis of people's confidence has deepened further. At present, one person goes bankrupt every five minutes in Britain, which is in the early stage of social unrest.
Fourth, if the crisis intensifies and causes comprehensive and major social problems, there may be extreme left or extreme right political system forms. In 2002, French far-right parties took advantage of the poor economic situation in France to enter the second round of the general election, which shocked the world.
Fifth, if capitalism can't solve the problem in the end, there is still the possibility of resorting to war. Use it to end the crisis. Throughout history, so far, there are three ways for modern countries to overcome economic recession and crisis: large-scale infrastructure construction led by the government to increase employment and stimulate consumption; The new technological revolution drives a new round of economic take-off; By launching foreign wars, we can stimulate consumption and production, control resources and transportation, and stimulate people's psychological potential to get out of the trough. The first method needs to be carried out on the premise that the country's development is still in the primary stage, the infrastructure is underdeveloped, the quality of the labor force is good and the price is low, and the government has strong control (like the United States in those days and China today). But today's America has no market and social environment like that when President Roosevelt implemented the New Deal. The "information technology revolution" in full swing in the United States a few years ago is cooling down, and economic development cannot find new growth highlights through new technological reforms. For the United States, there is only a third way.
Obviously, what kind of fate this second reshuffle in a hundred years will bring to mankind is still in the air. But what we need to think about is why, as the birthplace of western civilization, Europe has become the source of two world wars in the past 100 years. Why did the United States, the promoter of western civilization, have two economic crises that led to the world? Even Japan in Asia, after learning from the west, has become the source of war in Asia, and this process has always been supported by western countries? After Europe contributed to democracy, why did it contribute to fascism and productism? As soon as the Cold War ended, why did Britain take the lead in blowing the horn of the Cold War and expanding the confrontation in Europe to the whole world?
This crisis is not only a question of rethinking the future development direction of mankind, but also a moment for global reflection on the fate of western civilization.