Five Myths About the Great Depression

Nice article. Thank you.

So allowing the market to do its thing unfettered is impractical how?

I would truly like to hear your questions either way. If I am wrong than I would like to know it. It would prevent me from continuing to act destructively.

yes incredibly and their attempts to somehow conflate slavery with the peoples unprecedented repeated election of a president is breathtaking..there is no reasoning with many, not all, but certainly many republicans

Reply to Eleganza

Just another revisionist trying to rewrite history...lets wee if you can dispute this fact..FDR was elected as president four times..

I agree that FDR was elected as president four times.

Try telling the people who were living during those miserable years that he was doing a poor job

So you're saying the opinions of the people living during those times is evidence against FDR prolonging and worsening the great depression? You must realize that people's opinions don't necessarily coincide with economic realities or for that matter any reality. At one point people would have agreed the world was flat, slavery was good, women suffrage was bad, and historically people sacrificed their kings when crops failed. And no I'm not implying that people are idiots only that the common man and historians have very little economic education, it would be like basing the validity of M theory on the opinion of the masses.

...not some asshole who is trying to convince you that...I am growing quite weary of republicans attempting to shift the responsibility for the run up to and then the onset of the depression to FDR.

Science continually evolves as new evidence presents itself and old theories are disproven. The idea that economic historians should not and can not reinterpret the past events in the light of new evidence and evolved theories seems rather absurd. It would be like saying we should revert to the scientific views of the Great Depression because changing them would be revisionistic.

President Roosevelt is, in the opinion of presidential historians, always in the top three in our nations history ..Washington and Lincoln being the other two.

Again this adoration in no way negates the realities of economics. Some of the most damaging decisions have been made by charismatic people in power with good intentions. That's not even considering the third and fourth term were during WWII. And historians adoration have nothing to do with FDR's actual effect on the economy. This is like past presidents being given credit for the economy they just happen to be president over. As if somehow the president can conjure up trillions of dollars of increased productivity. This is a ridiculous assertions the president generally has very little to do with increases in production they can only distort and weaken economies through legislation.

Common knowledge is not proof that something is correct.