The Great Depression, Part I

Hale "Bonddad" Stewart
Posted December 31, 2008 | 07:34 AM (EST)

This article is the first in a series on the Great Depression. I am writing this with the help of New Deal Democrat (who blogs over at Economic Populist). The purpose of this series is simply to talk about the Great Depression. The reason for writing this article is the emergence of the "FDR made the Depression worse" talking point from the Right Wing Noise Machine -- econ division. While none of the stories using this line have any facts to back them up -- no charts, no graphs no data -- they continue to spew this talking point. So, let's get some data -- as in facts -- to see that actually happened.

"I have no fears for the future of our country. It is bright with hope." - Herber Hoover's Inaugural Address, March 4, 1929.

Let me begin with an excerpt from Milton Friendman's Monetary History of the United States (page 299):

The contraction from 1929 to 1933 was by far the most severe business-cycle contraction during the near-century of US history we cover and it may well have been the most severe in the whole of US history. Though sharper and more prolonged in the US than in most other countries, it was worldwide in scope and rates as the most severe and widely diffused international contraction of modern times.

Pause for a moment and consider the above statement. It wasn't just bad, or slightly bad -- it was the worst economic calamity in US history, bar none: