The Stock Market Crash of 1929 began the long plunge into the Great Depression. Previous economic depressions had usually lasted no more than three years, so why did this one last so long?

Historians often denounce President Herbert Hoover for doing nothing to stop the depression while praising President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s efforts to ultimately end the depression. They are wrong on both counts. The main reason why the depression lasted so long was because of  the failed interventionist policies of both Hoover and Roosevelt.