Why Was the Great Depression So Great?

Last month, Show-Me Institute Policy Researcher Michael Rathbone visited Westminster Christian Academy in Saint Louis County to deliver a guest lecture to eighth grade U.S. history students. The subject of the lecture was the Great Depression, and the information contained within was frequently contrary to the conventional wisdom that “big business” or “greed” caused or prolonged the Great Depression, instead showing how government intervention encouraged, worsened, and prolonged what might otherwise have been a brief recession.