Great Myths, Great Depression: Take Action

This coming October 29 marks the anniversary of 1929’s “Black Tuesday,” when The New York Times index of industrial stocks fell about 40 points, the worst hit in Wall Street history to that point. With the current fiscal, financial and economic turmoil, we must learn from history — specifically about bad ideas that turned what could have been a short-lived, less painful recession into the drawn-out calamity it was. To that end, read the article cited in the blog immediately below, or review the Mackinac Center’s Great Myths of the Great Depression. Before next week’s anniversary, pass these readings along. Promptly write a letter-to-the-editor. Contact your elected officials. We cannot afford the consequences of ill-conceived ideas passed into liberty-endangering law. The Oct. 3 federal bailout bill is exemplar. As Bob Williams of the Olympia-based Evergreen Freedom Foundation opined, that bill “essentially nationalizes the mortgage market and gives the Secretary of Treasury virtually dictatorial power over much of our economy.” Imagine what else will come down the federal, and state, political pike if we just stand by.