America's Great Depression

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 Great Depression was not a crisis for capitalism but merely an example of the downturn part of the business cycle, which was generated by government intervention in the economy. Had this 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.

©1978 Murray N. Rothbard (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Outstanding historical analysis

Excellent book, but not for someone looking for a biographical history filled with famous personalities or a social history looking back at everyday life during a time of 25% unemployment. This is an economic history. It is recommended for anyone who would like a detailed anaylisis of how federal monetary policy errors can cause false booms by expanding the credit money supply, leading eventually to inevitable recessionary or depressionary corrections. It also explores how Keynesian fiscal policy tends to exacerbate and extend these periods of correction. Interesting, if for no other reason than this cycle of inflationary boom and recession/depression is still with us, and the same disproven tactics are still used as treatments. Anyone interested in the history of banking, finance or economics will probably find this a good read.

required reading- hard to capture over audio

Murray Rothbard is one of the Austrian Economists who Rep. Ron Paul puts on his reading list. This book is very technical and requires a lot of concentration to truly understand the causes of the depression and what prolonged the depression.

This book gives an excellent account of causes of the great depression in the 20s. It uncovers banker's corruption, moral suasion, and secrets of Cal and Harding's presidency. There are unfortunately many similarities between the greenspan/bernanke fed and the fed of the 20's.

This book should be required reading for every person elected to our congress.

Maybe a little heavy on the Austrian I Told You So

This is the first Rothbard book I have read, by way of disclosure, but I have spent a lot of time in the last year reading about the rise of modern banking, as well as classical economics, and I read Mises' Socialism in the last year, as well. At a basic level, this book does a nice job of explaining the role of governmental intervention in boom/bust cycles and applying Mises' theory to the Great Depression. It does not spend a lot of time explaining late 19th century banking or early 20th century banking, so it does assume the reader knows some things about how runs occur, what fractional reserve lending is, how it worked during the late era of the gold standard, etc. Probably the greatest current relevance of this book is that it applies Mises to American boom / bust cycles and it emphasizes the role of government actions that encouraged the boom. The problem is nobody wants to restrain booms (through action or inaction), and so discussion in the public discourse of this kind of Austrian approach always seems to only occur during the bust cycle and we never really learn our lesson. Rothbard raises excellent points about forms of intervention that are counterproductive or yield paradoxical results, although even by Austrian standards this book can feel snide at times (Mises, himself, is overbearing, especially compared to the much more thoughtful approach of Hayek, although in the places where he's right, he's just plain right, and what can one do...). I do feel a little as if this particular book does not really reveal as much of Rothbard's own thinking (although it is certainly present when comparing what is said here to Mises himself), but it is a nice analysis, albeit it should probably be read in the context of other perspectives on the matter.

The narration style is dry, but production quality is good, the narrator is easily understood, and overall this is a well produced rendition that is easy to listen to while commuting.

Needs a whiteboard

The content of this book might be academically superb, but I’ll never know because half way through I just can’t waste any more time on it.

It’s a ‘waste’ not because the content, but trying to follow along with continuous date references, numerical values and dry narrative (there’s no ‘story’) is impossible in audio form.

It’s my fault because I’m trying to learn about economic history while washing my car, I asked too much.

excellent analysis

I had no idea the extent of the status interventions leading up to the crash. though I knew Hoover was no lessai faire president, I did not know the full extent of his meddling.