While favorable to the New Deal’s motives, this book is critical of its implementation. It argues the Great Depression was caused by a technological shock that gapped productivity and income. The New Deal sought to close this gap, but its policies were doomed from the start.
The Stock Market Boom and Crash of 1929 Was Not a Bubble
After the 1929 crash, Yale Professor Irving Fisher argued the boom was warranted. While his view was dismissed in favor of “irrational exuberance,” this book shows why Fisher was right, pointing to the Smoot-Hawley Tariff as the cause of both the boom and the crash.