Why Was the Great Depression So Great?

On May 5, 2011, Show-Me Institute Research Assistant John Payne spoke about the causes of the Great Depression to a number of 8th-grade students at Westminster Christian Academy. The talk covered many misconceptions about why the Great Depression happened — and why it lasted so long. Watch Payne’s engaging presentation debunking many of the popular myths relating to this infamous period of economic distress.

There were a few minor factual errors in this presentation, for which we apologize. Here are corrections:

• At the time this talk was given, national unemployment was 9.0 percent, not 9.5 percent.
• The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act was passed in 1930, not 1931.
• The Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States decision was delivered in 1935, not 1937.
• Eisenhower won some southern states, therefore Goldwater was not the first Republican to do so (since Reconstruction).