I Wrote the Guide to Extend Rothbard - Robert P. Murphy - Mises Institute

I Wrote the Guide to Extend Rothbard - Robert P. Murphy - Mises Institute: "The next step in the argument is for the apologist for FDR to claim that Hoover handed over the worst economy in US history, and hence it's not surprising that things recovered more slowly under the New Deal.

Ah, not so fast. I dispose of that counterobjection by digging up Canadian unemployment statistics from the 1930s. Comparing them year by year with the official US figures, I discovered the following interesting factoid: From 1930 to 1933, the US unemployment rate averaged 3.9 points higher than the Canadian rate. Yet from 1934 to 1941, the US rate averaged 5.9 points higher. (Both rates tended to fall over time from their 1933 peaks, but Canada's fell faster.)

Why is this significant? It shows that not only did the US economy recover from depression under FDR more sluggishly than at any other point in US history, but it also recovered more sluggishly compared to Canada's experience during the Great Depression itself. What else do we need to do to show that the New Deal did not 'get us out of the Depression'?"