Why did the WWII monetary inflation pull the US out of depression? And will Bernanke's inflation have any effect this time around?
Shipping our productive yet unemployed young men & women off to get killed in war certainly reduces unemployment. Consuming commodities to produce war machines only to blow them up, not to employ such resources to make capital goods for the production of consumer products and wealth growth, certainly seems opposite of what you want to do to get out of a depression. Almost like the broken window fallacy, just on a bigger scale. Yet, politicians cheer that war got us out of the depression. How did it do so? Did the government inflation during the war actually take effect because by 1939 the American economy had deleveraged and failed businesses were no longer being propped up? I ask because I'm not to familiar with details of the Roosevelt era. Rothbard's book only covers up to 1933 and what I've read of FDR's attempt has been limited to short papers & writings from this site and others.
Why won't Bernanke's inflation give a short term pop to the economy? Because debtors and failed businesses haven't had a chance to deleverage?
I by no means support inflation or cheap credit as a means to attempt end a recession. I believe we will be facing an inflationary depression or a case of stagflation.