From its founding until the beginning of the 20th century, the United States went from a non-economy to being the world’s largest and wealthiest economy. It achieved this feat on the gold standard mostly, with no central bank, (except for 36 years), and with little or no central planning.
The strong dollar, low interest rates and pent-up demand should drive after-tax growth in real consumer spending and a doubling of the rate of housing growth, according to Lombard Street Research.
It was a very deep depression, as deep as the one that succeeded in 1929. But in this case, the government did not intervene, and it was over in less than two years. Was this a coincidence? Grant does not think it was. He believes, as this writer does, that present government interventions have deepened our current economic malaise and are retarding a full recovery.
From Josh Zumbrun at the Wall Street Journal: The U.S. has come a long way since the days of trillion-dollar deficits, just a few years ago. The White House projects 2016 will have the smallest budget deficit in eight years.