I prefer the term “The FDR Depression” to “The Great Depression”, and would encourage all FReepers to use it. It is much more accurate. FDR turned what should have been a 2-4 year recession into a decade-long depression.
Needs repeating as much as possible FP.
A most formidable connoisseur of history you are.
Let us connoisseurs work to prevent history repeating itself wrongly.
I would not normally be the one to defend FDR’s economic policies, but the recession began in October 1929, and FDR was sworn in March, 1933, so it was already 3-1/2 years old when FDR became President. Not only that, but the Depression bottomed the month that FDR was sworn in. I think that a better argument can be made that FDR prolonged the Depression. Most economists will tell you that the Fed was too tight on the money in 1928 and 9, and that is what triggered the downturn. It was Hoover’s interventionist policies, raising taxes and tarriffs, together with continued tight money that turned it into a Depression.