America's Great Depression

the long version

This staple of modern economic literature explains how the American Great Depression was not a crisis for capitalism but merely a downturn in the business cycle, generated by government intervention in the economy. Rothbard, an economist of the Austrian School of Economics, writes clearly and eloquently on the topic. Rothbard holds the interventionist policies of the Hoover administration responsible for magnifying the duration, breadth, and intensity of the Great Depression. Rothbard explains how government manipulation of the money supply sets the stage for the familiar "boom-bust" phases of the modern market. He then details the inflationary policies of the Federal Reserve from 1921 to 1929 as evidence that the depression was essentially caused not by speculation, but by government and central bank interference in the market.