This spring, Ford School economist Joshua Hausman delivered a talk on how the markets for cars and houses influenced the United States macroeconomy in the 1920s and 1930s. The talk was this year’s Bernie Saffran Lecture, in honor of longtime Swarthmore Economics Professor and Chair Bernie Saffran—and Hausman’s professor while he received his undergraduate degree from Swarthmore.
Hausman sees a number of parallels between the economy of the 1920s-30s and today, such as the presence of new technologies, societal change, and new countries rising to prominence in the international economy. “The 1920s were a new era for the international economy in which Britain was no longer able to play a leading role and the U.S. didn’t yet want to play a leading role,” he said. “The obvious analogy to today is to the U.S. and China, where the U.S. would be like Britain in 1920 as the declining power.”
Excerpted from a story by Milan Tenn for the Swarthmore Phoenix. Read the full story.
