The Great Depression wasn't all that great. We'd had many depressions before that, many triggered by the Federal government meddling with trade or monetary policy, and we bounced quickly back within a year or two. What made the Great Depression so grand, was that the Federal Government not only caused it, but tried to fix it with Keynesian spending. That extended it from 2 years, to long enough to have another depression in a depression.
Issue
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Lie
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Truth
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The Great Depression
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The left believes that the Great Depression was caused by capitalism/Wall Street and Hoover fiddled while Rome burned. Then FDR came in, gave us the new deal, and everything was good because he saved the day. All bunk.
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What happened is Hoover saw some of it happening in New York, and warned FDR about it (who was in NYC), but FDR didn't react. When it crashed Hoover did spending and wanted to do more to lessen the bank failures, but the Democrats resisted any mitigating factors because they new ruination would lead to regime change. FDR gave us the New Deal, and it didn't help, and in fact contributed to the second depression (depression in a depression as it was called), so he offered a New New Deal, and that didn't help either. (Government spending and dramatic changes scares investors/businesses). Then the war happened and saved FDR. When the war ended the Keynesians wanted another New Deal to prevent a post war recession, but the country had grown and resisted. And instead of the Keynesian predicted recession, we got a post war free market boom instead.
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FDR: 1930 - Depression, First Term and the New Deal
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He contributed to the Depressions causes by not regulating the banks, then blamed others when they collapsed. He became President by attacking Hoover's policies, then stole all of Hoovers ideas (only worse). And he completely flipped on all his campaign promises like he was going to cut deficits/spending, wasn't going to take us off the Gold Standard, he was going to be the era of smaller government, and not be corrupt. Then he did the opposite of all those things, abusing the trust of the public, powers of the office, and made the depression much worse and longer.
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📚 References
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Book: The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression (2007) by Amity Shlaes
The book is an analysis of the events of the Great Depression, criticizes Herbert Hoover and the Smoot-Hawley Tariff for their role in exacerbating the Depression through government intervention. It criticizes Franklin D. Roosevelt for erratic policies that froze investment and for failing to take the steps needed to stop the Depression. Shlaes criticizes the New Deal for extending the length of the Depression and for its effects on individuals. The book points out that members of FDR's "Brain Trust", including Rexford Tugwell of Columbia University, had connections to the Soviets and their interest in central planning, and it got the outcomes that central planners often give us.
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