Amongst the nonsense of the FDR era, the belief that WWII ended the Depression stands out as particularly nonsensical. It did end unemployment, we can admit that -- forcing 9 million young men into military service will effectively kill unemployment [and a lot of young men, too].
But it did not end the Depression. Americans lived very frugally during the War years. There were very few consumer goods that FDR's government even allowed to be made.
What ended the Depression was FDR's death, itself. Once free of his influence, a newly-elected Republican Congress in 1946 moved quickly to remove most of the New Deal's economy-damaging policies.
Taxes were slashed, business-killing regulations were eliminated, and labor-laws were relaxed. Oh, did I say that taxes were slashed? A boom quickly followed.
But the old chestnut that the War ended the Depression is still believed fiercely -- even among conservatives who should know better. The FDR myth is beginning to shatter. But, damn, it's been 75 years and it still manages to live on with some.
Having read most of what comes out of Cohen's ass keyboard for the past 15 years I can assure you that his unstated implication is that history will revisit the current deification of Ronald Reagan.
Bingo! We have a winner. And our newly re-elected President is intent on repeating most of Roosevelt's insane ideas.
The idea that the war ended the depression is simply the “broken window fallacy” expanded to absurd dimensions. Anyone who lived all alone would never imagine that having a window broken is anything but a loss but those who live in cities can somehow imagine that the broken window is good for the “economy”.
I used to believe that line about the war ending the depression but as I grew older I came to realize that war only destroys, if you could end a depression by destroying lives and property it would be a very strange depression. It is amazing that some still believe it but then some people seem to be able to believe almost anything as long as it makes no sense whatsoever. Two and two makes four they cannot accept but have some charlatan tell them that three plus one makes thirteen and they are okay with that.