The high cost of government misdiagnosis and interference.

As the superb Thomas Sowell makes clear, Hoover and FDR had no understanding of the U.S. economy after the stock market crash of 1929 and their interference in it deepened and prolonged the nation's misery. Yet, it's FDR's interference that our wise men see as having somehow saved the day:

Given the two most striking features of that [Depression] era — the stock market crash and a widespread government intervention in the economy — it is not immediately obvious which was more responsible for the dire economic conditions. . . . It has been largely a foregone conclusion that the market was the cause and government intervention was the saving grace.

While unemployment went up in the wake of the stock market crash, it never went as high as 10% for any month during the 12 months following that crash in October 1929. But the unemployment rate in the wake of subsequent government interventions in the economy never fell below 20% for any month over a period of 35 consecutive months.

In short, though the stock market crash has been conceived of as the "problem" and government intervention as the "solution," in reality the unemployment rate following the economic problem was less than half of the unemployment rate following the political solution.

Alas, the Dem muti for our economic problems is the same reckless, ignorant interference with the natural processes of recovery and rejuvenation.

$1.6 trillion worth of interference, that is.

If only it were simply interference instead of the payoffs in aid of subversives that it is.

"Massive Government Intervention Drove U.S. Deeper Into Depression." By Thomas Sowell, Investor's Business Daily, 1/19/10 (emphasis added).