By Jeff Harding
This article on the Great Depression was written in 1969 by Hans Sennholz, an Austrian theory scholar and professor. Ludwig von Mises had escaped the Nazis in Vienna and then in Switzerland to arrive in New York in 1940. Mises arrived with nothing, almost the last surviving scholar of the Austrian School. Sennholz was Mises’s first PhD student in America and was a major force in the rebirth of the Austrian movement.
It’s a brilliant summary of the history of the Great Depression and I urge you to read it at your leisure. It is a long article, but wonderfully written. It will save you from reading lengthier tomes on the subject. You will find the parallels to our present situation remarkable.
The Great Depression
Caused by government action
Although the Great Depression engulfed the world economy many years ago, it lives on as a nightmarefor individuals old enough to remember and as a frightening specter in the textbooks of our youth.
Some 13 million Americans were unemployed, “not wanted” in the production process. One worker out of every four was walking the streets in want and despair. Thousands of banks, hundreds of thousands of businesses, and millions of farmers fell into bankruptcy or ceased operations entirely.
Nearly everyone suffered painful losses of wealth and income.
Many Americans are convinced that the Great Depression reflected the breakdown of an old economic order built on unhampered markets, unbridled competition, speculation, property rights, and the profit motive. According to them, the Great Depression proved the inevitability of a new order built on government intervention, political and bureaucratic control, human rights, and government welfare. Such persons, under the influence of Keynes, blame businessmen for precipitating depressions by their selfish refusal to spend enough money to maintain or improve the people’s purchasing power. This is why they advocate vast governmental expenditures and deficit spending — resulting in an age of money inflation and credit expansion. … Continue reading The Great Depression: A Short History
