Blamed on the free market, the depression was caused by monetary controls and protectionism, and was actually made much worse by Roosevelts's New Deal. Before the New Deal, government was primarily a policeman, prohibiting force and fraud from the marketplace. The New Deal legitimized peacetime price controls, massive increases in government employment, huge rises in taxes, bureaucratic control of industry, and national welfare programs. Today there is no enterprise, no transaction, and no service, however humble, that government does not control. The state regulates what crops a farmer can grow in his own fields, how many hours office workers can be employed, and even the words that can be used to describe potato chips.
Government dominates education, communications, transportation, banking, and manufacturing.
In short, government now controls the entire economy. This massive increase in state control is far more than our seriously-weakened economy can bear. Enterprises of every size, from hot dog stands to large corporations, are being taxed and regulated to death. Already hard-hit by the recession, most Montgomery County builders have stopped new construction. As a result, in 1991 there were massive bankruptcies of boat builders, luxury car dealers and jewelry stores.