Reddit reviews The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression

You would probably enjoy reading The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes.

The Forgotten Man, by Amity Shlaes.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Forgotten-Man-History-Depression/dp/0060936428

Yeah absolutely, you too. I have no problem disagreeing and up vote all intelligent posts, even if they disagree with my opinions. It is amazing how rare of a commodity a civil conversation can be here. I suppose we are both at fault as neither one of us were really arguing for total anarchy or a total dictatorship.

If you do have a greater interest in learning more about the Great Depression, I would suggest reading into the similarities between the Recession of 1921 and the Crash of 1929. Both yielded double digit rates of deflation and high levels of unemployment, but they were responded to in very different ways. The book, The Forgotten Man chronicles in great details the economic policies of the great depression that significantly altered the outcome. Policies such as wage fixing, price fixing, and other economically distorting policies certainly contributed to the different result - the author will argue some helped speed up recovery, while some significantly hurt recovery. Either way I found it to be incredibly interesting to read for political, economic, and historical context. Most people still subscribe to the notion that Hoover was a "do nothing" president which caused the depression which was then saved by a "do something" FDR. This is simply not true and out outlined in awesome detail. As a fellow history buff, I highly recommend it!

I was taught the same thing you believe in public school. Stock market crash caused by rampant speculation sparking a national depression and the great socialist savior FDR saving the nation. Looking back now decades later with lots more knowledge that was pure balderdash propaganda. Read this book for an intro to the failures of the New Deal and National Recovery Act. Amazing true stories about FDR.

Quoting Federal Reserve Governor Ben Bernanke in 2002, "I would like to say to Milton [Friedman] and Anna[Schwartz]: Regarding the Great Depression. You're right, we did it. We're very sorry. But thanks to you, we won't do it again."

Read what the Federal Reserve did leading up to and during the recession. Catastrophic decisions that pillaged the economy and transferred vast fortunes to central banks. It was an entirely Fed caused catastrophe though lots of government incompetence made it even worse.

devastating impact of Federal Reserve Bank monetary policy artificially lowering then jacking up interest rates, then drying up cash and lending in the face of already serious deflation

one of the better written ones if you're willing to read something longer, but you can go here for something punchier.

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/8127

Read the second letter down.

http://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Man-History-Great-Depression/dp/0060936428

Some of the real history is also finally starting to break through.

It isn't a vast liberal conspiracy. It's just that your history is so vile that you needed to rebrand and whitewash it to make it palatable to us Normals.

The House of Cards is starting to crumble though.


Check out how fond of FDR and his policies Hitler was here