George Selgin on Contextualizing the Great Depression and its Implications on Monetary Policy Today

George Selgin is a senior fellow and director emeritus at the Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives at the Cato Institute, as well as the author of the new book titled False Dawn: The New Deal and the Promise of Recovery, 1933-1947. George returns to the show to discuss the complicated economic history of the Great Depression, how that history has led us to the macro-events of 2008, 2010, and 2020, how we can apply lessons from the Great Depression to macroeconomic policy to the current moment, and much more. Check out the transcript for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on May 13th, 2025 Subscribe to David's Substack: Macroeconomic Policy Nexus Follow David Beckworth on X: @DavidBeckworth Follow the show on X: @Macro_Musings Follow George on X: @GeorgeSelgin Check out our new AI chatbot: the Macro Musebot! Check out our Macro Musings merch! Subscribe to David's new BTS YouTube Channel  Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:25 - Welcoming George Selgin and False Dawn 00:03:25 - Why Another Book on the Great Depression? 00:06:37 - The New Deal’s Role in Recovery from the Great Depression 00:08:50 - Myths About the New Deal Overview of the Great Depression 00:12:30 - Measuring Unemployment 00:16:42 - The Gold Standard and the Great Depression 00:27:05 - Helpful: Suspension of the Gold Standard and the Bank Holiday 00:35:47 - Unhelpful: Reconstruction Finance Corporation 00:38:02 - Helpful: Creation of the Home Owners Loan Corporation 00:42:31 - Unhelpful: The National Recovery Administration 00:48:42 - Unhelpful: Fiscal and Monetary Policy and Ignoring Keynes 00:57:17 - Lessons for Today: Uncertainty 01:00:56 - The Lesson of Level Targeting 01:06:42 - Breaching Contracts 01:11:40 - Outro