Great write up. I have been reading Kindleberger's panics and manias book and he seems to be a bit of a closet gold bug. Can you comment on whether this might be the case and how it could align with his theory of the depression?
He's not a closet gold bug, but he is a proponent of fixed exchange rates. I'd recommend reading Money and Empire by Perry Mehrling on this. In short, in the 1970s Kindleberger wanted to keep a dollar system of fixed exchange rates but was ambivalent at best about its gold basis. He was not against devaluation and in essence believed gold was irrelevant -- it was all about the key currency.
In terms of the Depression Kindleberger is as critical as anyone on the interwar gold exchange standard, so definitely not a gold bug in that regard! Once again for him the problem is the lack of a clear lender of last resort between the US and the UK.
Thanks for the clarification. I guess to me being a proponent of fixed exchange rates is tantamount to being a closet gold bug. The euro is a system of fixed exchange rates (rate fixed at 1) and it shows many of the same flaws as a gold based system, especially the need for devaluation leading to stagnation. I think the idea of fixed exchange rates is ultimately unworkable because exchange rates are at least partially reflections of power dynamics between different states. You can't fix the relative power of states, so neither can you fix the currency exchange rates.
I am not the only one to make the connection between the Euro crisis and the depression either. The great Eichengreen book hall of mirrors (which I think you reviewed a few months ago) is quite explicit in drawing the connection.
Thanks. The moment isn't only 1930, with the Smoot-Hawley tariffs. It's 1930 rolled into 1933 with a mad dictator in power destroying or capturing all institutions. The difference is that the current version of Adolf Trumpler bullies and bluster and blackmails, but is also the creature of the bloody Russian dictator, Vladimir Putin. In that, he resembles more Hitler's jackal, Mussolini.
TIL that the "updated" version of The World in Depression seems not to be in print and the re-issue of the original version is available only in paper, except that you can get a cheap e-book of the German translation.
Great write up. I have been reading Kindleberger's panics and manias book and he seems to be a bit of a closet gold bug. Can you comment on whether this might be the case and how it could align with his theory of the depression?
He's not a closet gold bug, but he is a proponent of fixed exchange rates. I'd recommend reading Money and Empire by Perry Mehrling on this. In short, in the 1970s Kindleberger wanted to keep a dollar system of fixed exchange rates but was ambivalent at best about its gold basis. He was not against devaluation and in essence believed gold was irrelevant -- it was all about the key currency.
In terms of the Depression Kindleberger is as critical as anyone on the interwar gold exchange standard, so definitely not a gold bug in that regard! Once again for him the problem is the lack of a clear lender of last resort between the US and the UK.
Thanks for the clarification. I guess to me being a proponent of fixed exchange rates is tantamount to being a closet gold bug. The euro is a system of fixed exchange rates (rate fixed at 1) and it shows many of the same flaws as a gold based system, especially the need for devaluation leading to stagnation. I think the idea of fixed exchange rates is ultimately unworkable because exchange rates are at least partially reflections of power dynamics between different states. You can't fix the relative power of states, so neither can you fix the currency exchange rates.
I am not the only one to make the connection between the Euro crisis and the depression either. The great Eichengreen book hall of mirrors (which I think you reviewed a few months ago) is quite explicit in drawing the connection.
Thanks. The moment isn't only 1930, with the Smoot-Hawley tariffs. It's 1930 rolled into 1933 with a mad dictator in power destroying or capturing all institutions. The difference is that the current version of Adolf Trumpler bullies and bluster and blackmails, but is also the creature of the bloody Russian dictator, Vladimir Putin. In that, he resembles more Hitler's jackal, Mussolini.
I like the drain paired with his spiral.
https://tradebetablog.wordpress.com/2025/02/04/trump-tariff-kindelberger-spiral/
TIL that the "updated" version of The World in Depression seems not to be in print and the re-issue of the original version is available only in paper, except that you can get a cheap e-book of the German translation.