He further argued that the global monetary system based on the gold standard transformed the depression into a global one that spread even to countries that were not suffering from their own banking crises.7 The Parliamentary Supervisory Council of the Bank of Finland met Ben Bernanke during the last week of his term of office in Washington last January.
We asked him what lessons we might take from the research on the depression of the 1930s in the current crisis, and if there had been any new developments in the field.