The Federal Reserve and the Great Depression Analytical Essay by Top Papers

This paper finds that the Federal Reserve largely failed to respond to the crisis of the Great Depression. Relying largely on the work of Milton Friedman and Anna Jacobson Schwartz, the leading analysis of the Federal Reserve's actions, this esay concludes that if the Federal Reserve had intervened in the economy in a timely manner, much of the worst of the suffering of the Depression would have been avoided. It finds that the defense of the Federal Reserve largely consists of two schools, a social Darwinism that say no intervention is ever appropriate, and an apologist school that cites constraints, most of which are more imaginary than real.