Conservative Washington Post columnist George Will at the 2014 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland on March 6, 2014 (Christopher Halloran/Shutterstock.com)
In his new book, "1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History — and How It Shattered a Nation," financial journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin examines the conditions on Wall Street that preceded the Great Depression of the 1930s. And Sorkin, a CNBC host and New York Times columnist, also offers some lessons that the 1929 crash offers on the U.S. economy and artificial intelligence (AI) during Donald Trump's second presidency.
Never Trump conservative George Will examines Sorkin's book in his December 17 column for the Washington Post, adding some of his own insights on the state of the Trump-era economy.
"New York Times financial columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin has kicked a hornets' nest by writing '1929,' his lively retelling of what preceded the crash, and what the crash precipitated," Will explains. "It is about the consequences of the crash itself that the hornets are being heard from…. Read Sorkin for fascinating details about the 1920s stock-buying mania. And for perspective on what today's animal spirits are producing in artificial intelligence investments."
Will adds that although the New York Times "did not rank the crash the top story of 1929," a "lost decade followed."
"Sorkin and the hornets can debate the causation," Will comments. "Now, about today."
Will goes on to note The Economist's warnings about the U.S. economy in an article published on November 15, drawing parallels between their analysis and Sorkin's.
"The Economist says, 'If America’s stock market crashes, it will be one of the most predicted financial implosions in history,'" the conservative columnist writes. "Stocks are 21 percent of households' net worth, and AI-related assets 'are responsible for nearly half the increase in Americans' wealth over the past year.' And 'a fall in stocks comparable to the (early 2000s) dotcom bust would reduce Americans households' net worth by 8 percent. That could cause a big retrenchment in consumer spending.' This will be messy."
George Will's full Washington Post column is available at this link (subscription required).
