It requires a knowledge of America's past history before comparing the Great Depression and its
recovery to the current recovery.
The reasons for the former was due to trade problems. America used to rely heavily on her wealth by the influx from moneys from overseas for mainly weapons purchases and rebuilding of the European Allies' own economies after WWI. Finally, those European allies ran out of money and could not pay even what they owed to the US any longer.
In the recovery period of the Great Depression, once the US Government started to bail out the country, the people, upon
getting jobs and incomes, were in a position to drive the economy by
purchasing, because they did not have to pay off old debts. And
purchases are always the foundation for a solid economy. In addition, the war industry began to build up, because the US realized
that the country needed a solid, standing army and defense materiel.
And the weapons industry, especially if it could do trade with other
nations, has always been a great money maker.
However, those citizens of the US, despite losing jobs and consequently
also possessions, were basically not indebted personally as the
citizens in our times are due to their heavy credit card debt. A debt
which they have no way to pay off within a reasonable period of time.
Consequently, they also could not pay the necessary payments for
homes, higher priced than people could afford, and they defaulted.
But in this present time, even those who still have jobs or got jobs, have to spend their money paying off old debts instead of purchasing. What purchasing is done is of those, who were more visionary and lucky in having jobs left, and less debts. And, of course, the ultra rich. This is why the economy can only grow slowly. Also, foreign purchases have declined because of the affected economies in foreign countries.
Also, with a heavy push on spending, people again may fall into the trap of credit cards, adding to further long term problems.
And instead of building up a defense industry, we have already spent enormously on the present 10 year war in the Near East, and have exhausted our resources; and unless we find a large market overseas for weapons, which would bring in money, the rebuilding of our weapon systems will be an additional drain on the economy.
In addition, big business is still cutting jobs, in order to improve their net gains, and refuse to hire to a helpful extent. The same goes for small business. They do not want to risk spending too much money on overhead, not knowing when a healthy purchase system will recur.
So for anyone with common sense, it is obvious that our present situation cannot be blamed on anyone president, but foremost on the citizens. And it was in the making for decades, because Americans felt they had to have "things" beyond their needs and especially means.
