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STEPHEN A BLOCH's avatar

The story of 1920-1923 as you’ve presented it is “a recession happened, the government cut spending, and the recession ended.”

But I think if you added a row for 1919, and perhaps 1918, to your table (ideally with CPI and unemployment numbers for each year), the story would look different, to wit: “the Great War ended, the government drastically cut spending, a recession happened, government spending leveled off, and the recession ended.” A story Keynes could have written…

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Arnold Kling's avatar

Of course, “regime uncertainty “ is Robert Higgs’ story for the Great Depression. You should cite him if you knew that or read him if you didn’t

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