Five Myths About the Great Depression

Wall Street Journal ^ | 11/4/2008 | Andrew B. Wilson

[Ronzo]

The current financial crisis has revived powerful misconceptions about the Great Depression. Those who misinterpret the past are all too likely to repeat the exact same mistakes that made the Great Depression so deep and devastating.

Here are five interrelated and durable myths about the 1929-39 Depression:

[LifeComesFirst]

Good article but it really needed to explain—when debunking the crash misconception—about the enormous monetary contraction, which is what actually destroyed the economy (while New Deal policies prolonged the depression).

[potlatch]

 

 

[TradicalRC]

4. Greed caused the stock market to overshoot and then crash.

While the "greed" card gets overplayed by liberals, it most certainly DOES play its part in the expanding bubbles such as the one in real estate, whether it's mortgage brokers trying to make a deal or would-be real estate magnates trying to "flip houses".

And slapping around tariffs is mere boilerplate for free market ideologues everywhere.

[ken21]

this was a most excellent article.

thanks.

[PhilDragoo]

We could surmise that the Left has engineered a catastrophe to precipitate the thesis-anthithesis-synthesis cycle which the KGB Active Measures defector described as demoralization-destabilization-crisis-resolution (revolution).

The latest King of the Sandbox in the tradition of Lenin, Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler, Mao.

The market will right itself when enough with a stake eject the Spoiler.

[fishhound]

BOOKMARK.

[fishhound]

Great post. Thanks.

[LS]

If you are into political thrillers, no one is better than Vince Flynn. Get his first book and work your way through. He's the modern day Ian Fleming. Easy to read, exciting.

If you want tougher sledding, but absolutely eye-opening new interpretations on every page, here are two:

Adam Tooze, "The Wages of Destruction," about the economy of Nazi Germany. He blows away almost every preconceived notion we ever had about Hitler's "miracle" economy, Speer's "production miracle," and the relationship between Jew-murder and production in the Reich; and

Tony Judt, "Postwar." This is a fabulous (long) history of post-war Europe. He hates Bush, but strangely enough stumbles into most of the right conclusions anyway. His take on the fall of the Soviets is good (not heavy enough on Reagan, but after all, it is about Europe). He hates Thatcher, but once you get past that, it's really an informative, dense book.

[TigersEye]

Yes, and if the historical lessons are ignored, which they are, they will be learned again.

Again? According to the author they weren't learned the first time. He points out that Hoover and FDR employed propagandists to deliberately hide those lessons from the public.

[RightWhale]

Yes, they were and they are available to be read in history books. Unfortunately we pick and choose which historians we listen to rather than listen to the obviously correct Conservative or unbiased.

[meanie monster]

bookmark

[x_plus_one]

The Fed's "Depression" and the Birth of the New Deal