Thomas Sowell is on of the brightest, and most concise writers in the country when it comes to economics. In this column he also shows a good understanding of history.
For those who would like more information on the Great Depression, see the recent, excellent book by Amity Schlaes, which patiently lays out how foolish government policies were in the 1930s, and how they prolonged the Depression, and left us with a heritage of Social Security and a raft of other bad policies and bad habits, all touted by the media (and in your public schools!) as the story of how FDR “brought us through the Depression.” (He then “brought us through the war,” and messed up that, too.)
In all fairness to FDR, I think he did the best he could during World War 2, even though he will forever be the absolute worst president in regards to domestic policy. I credit FDR for starting our nuclear weapons program. It was too bad that we did not have a usable weapon until 1945. If we had had nuclear weapons in 1942, we could have ended World War 2 in hours, not years, and lost far fewer lives in the process.
I also believe that had we had nuclear weapons early on in World War 2, it would have prevented the USSR from occupying Eastern Europe after the war. I do disagree with FDR's "selling out" of Eastern Europe to the Soviets, but I think that decision was only made out of pragmatism, as we needed their help to defeat Germany (as we did not have nuclear weapons).