Close encounters of the "thirties" kind

After all, the Great new interest in the 1930s is completely understandable be- Depression lasted all 10 years of the 1930s decade and is often cause the economic and social events leading up to the current referred to as “10 lost years”.1 recession so greatly resemble the comparable period before The standard of living our parents and grandparents expe- the Great Depression. [...] On May 1, 1930, Herbert the Great Depression and the Great Recession Hoover4 told the audience at the annual dinner of the Chamber of 2008–09 in Ontario of Commerce of the United States: “While the crash only took place six months ago, I am convinced we 1. Both downturns were unplanned have now passed the worst and with continued unity of effort we shall Both the Great Depression and the Crash of [...] In 1932, Ontario’s Premier George In early 1929, before the surprise market crash that occurred Henry asked Wallace Campbell, general manager of the Ford later that year, the Ontario government commissioned a study Motor Company and arguably Ontario’s most important busi- that resulted in the creation of the Department of Public Wel- ness person, to chair the Advisory Committee on Direct Relief fa [...] If anything, the Department came out of the prosperity that “In the middle of the Depression in 1934, Ontario’s Lieutenant Gover- brightened the first and last years of the 1920s, when new welfare nor Herbert Bruce, stood up at the city’s bicentennial luncheon and, benefits seemed affordable and the lengthened list of services sug- addressing, the city’s elite, proposed that something should be do [...] It is interesting to compare the terest is that both of the reviews of the 1930s were conducted similarity of the calls, over 76 years apart, at the provincial at much more senior levels of government, the former being government level for community solutions to economic and a Royal Commission reporting directly to the Premier and the social problems.