On the Great Depression
4 May 2007
Editor, Washington Post
1150 15th St., NW
Washington, DC 20071
Dear Editor:
E.J. Dionne argues that the Great Depression was caused by high income inequality ("If Democrats Want to Help the Poor..." May 4). The empirical evidence points to other culprits.
Research by Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz, among others, finds that the Depression was launched by the Federal Reserve's massive contraction of the money supply in the early 1930s.* More recently, economic historian Robert Higgs finds that the Depression was deepened and prolonged by interventionist policies and attitudes that frightened away investors.**
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
* Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz, Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960 (Princeton University Press, 1963).
** Robert Higgs, Depression, War, and Cold War (Oxford University Press, 2006).
Editor, Washington Post
1150 15th St., NW
Washington, DC 20071
Dear Editor:
E.J. Dionne argues that the Great Depression was caused by high income inequality ("If Democrats Want to Help the Poor..." May 4). The empirical evidence points to other culprits.
Research by Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz, among others, finds that the Depression was launched by the Federal Reserve's massive contraction of the money supply in the early 1930s.* More recently, economic historian Robert Higgs finds that the Depression was deepened and prolonged by interventionist policies and attitudes that frightened away investors.**
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
* Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz, Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960 (Princeton University Press, 1963).
** Robert Higgs, Depression, War, and Cold War (Oxford University Press, 2006).
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Monday December 24, 2007 at 3:20pm