America's Great Depression

AMERICA'S GREAT DEPRESSION by MURRAY N. ROTHBARD www.mises.org Applied Austrian economics doesn't get better than this. Murray N. Rothbard's America's Great Depression is a staple of modern economic literature and crucial for understanding a pivotal event in American and world history. The Mises Institute edition features, along with a new introduction by historian Paul Johnson, top-quality paper and bindings, in line with the standard set by The Scholars Edition of Human Action. Since it first appeared in 1963, it has been the definitive treatment of the causes of the depression. The book remains canonical today because the debate is still very alive. Rothbard opens with a theoretical treatment of business cycle theory, showing how an expansive monetary policy generates imbalances between investment and consumption. He proceeds to examine the Fed's policies of the 1920s, demonstrating that it was quite inflationary even if the effects did not show up in the price of goods and services. He showed that the stock market correction was merely one symptom of the investment boom that led inevitably to a bust. The Great Depression was not a crisis for capitalism but merely an example of the downturn part of the business cycle, which in turn was generated by government intervention in the economy. Had the book appeared in the 1940s, it might have spared the world much grief. Even so, its appearance in 1963 meant that free-market advocates had their first full-scale treatment of this crucial subject. The damage to the intellectual world inflicted by Keynesian- and socialist-style treatments would be limited from that day forward. Contents Part I: BUSINESS CYCLE THEORY Chapter 1 THE POSITIVE THEORY OF THE CYCLE Business cycles and business fluctuations The problem: the cluster of error The explanation: boom and depression Secondary features of depression: deflationary credit contraction Government depression policy: laissez-faire Preventing depressions Problems in the Austrian theory of the trade cycle Chapter 2 KEYNESIAN CRITICISMS OF THE THEORY The liquidity "trap" Wage rates and unemployment Chapter 3 SOME ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATIONS OF DEPRESSION: A CRITIQUE General overproduction Underconsumption The acceleration principle Dearth of "investment opportunities" Schumpeter's business cycle theory Qualitative credit doctrines Overoptimism and overpessimism Part II: THE INFLATIONARY BOOM: 1921–1929 Chapter 4 THE INFLATIONARY FACTORS The definition of the money supply Inflation of the money supply, 1921-1929 Generating the inflation, i: reserve requirements Generating the inflation, ii: total reserves Treasury currency Bills discounted Bills bought-acceptances U.S. government securities Chapter 5 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE INFLATION Foreign lending Helping Britain The crisis approaches Chapter 6 THEORY AND INFLATION: ECONOMISTS and THE LURE OF A STABLE PRICE LEVEL Part III: THE GREAT DEPRESSION: 1929-1933 Chapter 7 PRELUDE TO DEPRESSION: MR. HOOVER AND Laissez-Faire The development of Hoover's interventionism: unemployment The development of Hoover's interventionism: labor relations Chapter 8 THE DEPRESSION BEGINS: PRESIDENT HOOVER TAKES COMMAND The White House conferences Inflating credit Public works The New Deal Farm Program Chapter 9 1930 More inflation The Smoot–Hawley Tariff Hoover in the second half of 1930 The public works agitation The fiscal burdens of government Chapter 10 1931—"The Tragic Year" The American monetary picture The fiscal burden of government Public works and wage rates Maintaining wage rates Immigration restrictions Voluntary relief Hoover in the last quarter of 1931 The spread of collectivist ideas in the business world Chapter 11 THE HOOVER NEW DEAL OF 1932 The tax increase Expenditures versus economy Public works agitation The RFC Governmental relief The inflation program The inflation agitation Mr. Hoover's war on the stock market The home loan bank system The bankruptcy law The fight against immigration Chapter 12 THE CLOSE OF THE HOOVER TERM The attack on property rights: the final currency failure Wages, hours, and employment during the depression Conclusion: the lessons of Mr. Hoover's record APPENDIX: GOVERNMENT AND THE NATIONAL PRODUCT, 1929-1932 (p339) Tables Table 1: Total Money Supply of the United States, 1921-1929 Table 2: Total Dollars and Total Gold Reserves Table 3: Member Bank Demand Deposits Table 4: Demand and Time Deposits Table 5: Time Deposits Table 6: Member Bank Reserves and Deposits Table 7: Changes in Reserves and Causal Factors . . . 1921-1929 Table 8: Per Month Changes in Reserves and Causal Factors . . . 1921-1929 Table 9: Factors Determining Bank Reserves July-October 1929 Table I: National Product Table II: Income Originating in Government Table III: Private Product Table IV: Government Expenditures Table V: Expenditures of Government Enterprises Table VI: Expenditures of Government and Government Enterprises Table VII: Receipts of Government and Government Enterprises Table VIII: Government and the Private Product -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 1963, 1972 by Murray N. Rothbard Introduction to the Third Edition Copyright © 1975 by Murray N. Rothbard Introduction to the Fourth Edition Copyright © 1983 by Murray N. Rothbard Introduction to the Fifth Edition Copyright © 2000 by The Ludwig von Mises Institute Copyright © 2000, 2005 by The Ludwig von Mises Institute

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OhSleeper (2011-05-10)

Thank you so much!=)