The Economic Abyss (1)

Question 1

German hyperinflation, modernity out of bound

Answer 1

On November 15, 1923, the Reteenmark
(provisional German currency) was introduced within a few weeks, the hyperinflation had disappeared. In addition, an interest rate policy to protect currency

Question 2

Elias Canetti

Answer 2

Inflation is a crowd phenomenon in the strictest and most concrete sense of the word. There is nothing in our modern civilauitions which compares the importance of it. The unit of money suddenly loses its identity

Question 3

The Great Depression of 1929: the collapse of the capitalist world economy

Answer 3

US industrial production fell by about a third in 1929-1931

Crisis in primary production (prices fell)

People were out of jobs

Question 4

John Keynes

Answer 4

Keynesian Revolution

Markets would not naturally correct themselves but the micro-econmony should be governed by capitalism to maximize employment and wealth

Question 5

Berlin: The experience of modernity

Answer 5

135,000 units were completed between 1924 and 1930

Many things were made modern (electronics, entertainment, radio, opera house)

Question 6

The empowered consumers of 1920s Chicago

Answer 6

A picture of a prosperous economic life in the US in the 1920s

Homes and furnishing were undergoing a revolution (flush, vacuum)

However, a lot of poverty and unemployment, a third of non-farm families were under the poverty line in 1929

Chiago was the fastest growing city in the world in the half of the 20th century

Question 7

A Black Meca

Answer 7

black businesses developed a different and complex relationship to mass culture

Question 8

Detroit Capital of the 20th Century

Answer 8

Fordism (assembly)

a historical shift in the relationship between economy and society

later became the term Americanization
Three main elements of Fordism
Sequencing
Machines
Mobilize the unskilled worker