America's Great Depression, by Murray Rothbard

I'm no economist, and I'm no historian, and I'm no economic historian, but that's OK, because Murray Rothbard's America's Great Depression is accessible to the interested non-professional reader.  It's not necessarily an easy read, and Rothbard does throw around enough facts and figures and charts to cause some readers' eyes to glaze over.  But if you're interested in a thorough factual analysis on the causes of the Great Depression, it doesn't get better than Rothbard.

First published in 1963, America's Great Depression is still in print and remains the standard treatment of the Depression.  He discusses the business cycle, and claims the Depression was an overreaction to the business cycle.  Our political just made things worse and worse by trying to impose artificial controls on the economy. 

The important question is, does anyone today remember this?  Do our political leaders have a clue?  You listen to any of them, right or left (but especially left), and they are fully prepared to head down the path that Rothbard warns us against.  It's almost amusing and quaint to read Rothbard's figures regarding the state of the economy before and during the Depression and compare them to the economy today.  Deficit?  Government expenditures as a percentage of GDP?  Unemployment figures?  I think political and economic leaders today need to revisit Rothbard and act accordingly.  (But I'm not holding my breath.)