America's Great Depression

By Murray N. Rothbard

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This 5th edition copyright © Auburn, AL: Mises Institute: 2005, 2000; 4th: 1983, 3rd: 1975, 2nd: 1972, 1st: 1963.

Contents

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction to the Fifth Edition
• Introduction to the Fourth Edition
• Introduction to the Third Edition
• Introduction to the Second Edition
• Introduction to the First Edition

Part I: BUSINESS CYCLE THEORY

• Chapter 1 THE POSITIVE THEORY OF THE CYCLE (p3)
  • Business cycles and business fluctuations
  • The problem: the cluster of error
  • The explanation: boom and depression
  • Secondary features of depression: deflationary credit contraction
  • Government depression policy: laissez-faire
  • Preventing depressions
  • Problems in the Austrian theory of the trade cycle
• Chapter 2 KEYNESIAN CRITICISMS OF THE THEORY (p37)
  • The liquidity "trap"
  • Wage rates and unemployment
• Chapter 3 SOME ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATIONS OF DEPRESSION: A CRITIQUE (p55)
  • General overproduction
  • Underconsumption
  • The acceleration principle
  • Dearth of "investment opportunities"
  • Schumpeter's business cycle theory
  • Qualitative credit doctrines
  • Overoptimism and overpessimism

Part II: THE INFLATIONARY BOOM: 1921–1929

• Chapter 4 THE INFLATIONARY FACTORS (p85)
  • The definition of the money supply
  • Inflation of the money supply, 1921-1929
  • Generating the inflation, i: reserve requirements
  • Generating the inflation, ii: total reserves
  • Treasury currency
  • Bills discounted
  • Bills bought-acceptances
  • U.S. government securities
• Chapter 5 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE INFLATION (p137)
  • Foreign lending
  • Helping Britain
  • The crisis approaches
• Chapter 6 THEORY AND INFLATION: ECONOMISTS and THE LURE OF A STABLE PRICE LEVEL (p169)

Part III: THE GREAT DEPRESSION: 1929-1933 (p185)

• Chapter 7 PRELUDE TO DEPRESSION: MR. HOOVER AND Laissez-Faire
  • The development of Hoover's interventionism: unemployment
  • The development of Hoover's interventionism: labor relations
• Chapter 8 THE DEPRESSION BEGINS: PRESIDENT HOOVER TAKES COMMAND (p209)
  • The White House conferences
  • Inflating credit
  • Public works
  • The New Deal Farm Program
• Chapter 9 1930 (p239)
  • More inflation
  • The Smoot–Hawley Tariff
  • Hoover in the second half of 1930
  • The public works agitation
  • The fiscal burdens of government
• Chapter 10 1931—"The Tragic Year" (p257)
  • The American monetary picture
  • The fiscal burden of government
  • Public works and wage rates
  • Maintaining wage rates
  • Immigration restrictions
  • Voluntary relief
  • Hoover in the last quarter of 1931
  • The spread of collectivist ideas in the business world
• Chapter 11 THE HOOVER NEW DEAL OF 1932 (p285)
  • The tax increase
  • Expenditures versus economy
  • Public works agitation
  • The RFC
  • Governmental relief
  • The inflation program
  • The inflation agitation
  • Mr. Hoover's war on the stock market
  • The home loan bank system
  • The bankruptcy law
  • The fight against immigration
• Chapter 12 THE CLOSE OF THE HOOVER TERM (p321)
  • The attack on property rights: the final currency failure
  • Wages, hours, and employment during the depression
  • Conclusion: the lessons of Mr. Hoover's record

APPENDIX: GOVERNMENT AND THE NATIONAL PRODUCT, 1929-1932 (p339)

• Tables
  • Table 1: Total Money Supply of the United States, 1921-1929
  • Table 2: Total Dollars and Total Gold Reserves
  • Table 3: Member Bank Demand Deposits
  • Table 4: Demand and Time Deposits
  • Table 5: Time Deposits
  • Table 6: Member Bank Reserves and Deposits
  • Table 7: Changes in Reserves and Causal Factors . . . 1921-1929
  • Table 8: Per Month Changes in Reserves and Causal Factors . . . 1921-1929
  • Table 9: Factors Determining Bank Reserves July-October 1929
  • Table I: National Product
  • Table II: Income Originating in Government
  • Table III: Private Product
  • Table IV: Government Expenditures
  • Table V: Expenditures of Government Enterprises
  • Table VI: Expenditures of Government and Government Enterprises
  • Table VII: Receipts of Government and Government Enterprises
  • Table VIII: Government and the Private Product

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