Started off ok, then the narrator lost all credibility by tying to be funny... Hoobama? Come on, state the facts, not your opinion...

Meh, if I was watching a 2 hour long documentary that would be a little uncalled for. But for a response to comments on other videos seems like a playful tone would be ok. Context matters

Yeah, I totally, TOTALLY agree with the filmmaker in that the free market can fix itself. Anybody wanna buy some collateralized debt obligations? Anybody?

If it is backed by government insurance saftneting all my decisions, sure! Same goes for Sub-prime mortgages...if I have government in my pocket, spend spend spend!

Actually, it's pretty funny to me how he essentially says that the problem was that the Fed contracted the money supply in response to a crash. That's exactly what the Keynesian and Monetarist schools believe.

I also like how at 9:20 or so he says "the biggest gains happened when the National Recovery Act was overturned" well skippy, the National Recovery Act was trying to stop deflation by fixing prices. Not a good idea, definitely a drag on the economy, and not a part of the New Deal liberals want to repeat. He then says the "Agricultural Adjustment Act" (aka a farm subsidy bill) was struck down in 1936, and boom, growth immediately falls off (according to the chart), though his narrative blames that on the institution of the NLRA, which still exists today, and just protects the rights of workers to organize Unions.

What really cause the fall off was that Roosevelt was persuaded to believe that the depression was over, and it was time to cut spending, raise taxes, and balance the budget. Doing so immediately sent the economy crashing down again.

He also uses some voodoo to leave you thinking that because Obama thinks fiscal stimulus will help (and it did, even this video states that the economy recovered when the giant government stimulus of WWII began), he will somehow order the Fed to contract the money supply too. One, he can't, and two, we learned our lesson -- you need to expand the money supply in downturns, otherwise it chokes off the recovery. Bernanke is expanding the money supply.

He also defiantly ends with "it was not the free market and the gold standard that caused the problem", he's half right. With regard to the Great Depression, they were contracting money supply to get back onto the gold standard, and refusing to bail out the banks, which made a recession into a depression (not the free market). This economic problem was caused by the free market, and but Austrians cry out for a return to the gold standard, and that we let the banks fail.

We did it the classical/Austrian way in the 1930's, and it caused the Great Depression. Now you want us to do the same things you wanted (and got) Hoover to do, and got Roosevelt to do in 1937. Forget it.

1. You can't say that doing nothing is what we got Hoover to do.
2. Hoover provided loan guarantees to the banks just like Obama/Bush
3. Hoover pledged public money towards building projects
4. Hoover made business leaders pledge to keep employment high
5. Hoover created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to lend money and unfreeze the credit markets.
6. Hoover made the depression worse by tinkering with interest rates and taxes.

There is no rule, that says you always boost the monetary supply in recessions. Is there?

Are all economic challenges the same? No!

Why is it so hard to believe the words in this video? Is it so hard to believe that the Fed is operating on policies that benefit the few people who actually own the Fed?

>> ^marinara:
1. You can't say that doing nothing is what we got Hoover to do.

I didn't say that doing nothing is what "you" (meaning Austrian Economists, apparently) got Hoover to do. I said getting Hoover and Mellon to let banks fail, balance budgets, and adhere to the gold standard are what "you" got Hoover to do, and what Austrians are calling for Obama to do.

2. Hoover provided loan guarantees to the banks just like Obama/Bush
3. Hoover pledged public money towards building projects
4. Hoover made business leaders pledge to keep employment high
5. Hoover created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to lend money and unfreeze the credit markets.

He did all of that in 1932, and not on the scale needed. Not every ounce of what Hoover did was wrong, nor was every ounce of what Roosevelt did right.

6. Hoover made the depression worse by tinkering with interest rates and taxes.

Oddly nonspecific what you say there with "tinkering". Hoover/Mellon raised interest rates and taxes. Obama/Bernanke cut them.

There is no rule, that says you always boost the monetary supply in recessions. Is there?

Actually, that is the short-form advice of mainstream economists. There is quite a long list of exceptions to the rule, though none apply right now.

Are all economic challenges the same? No!

I'm not saying they're all the same, but there's a lot about the current economic crisis that's very similar to the Great Depression.

Why is it so hard to believe the words in this video?

Because it's internally inconsistent, and cherry-picks facts around an obvious political agenda!

Is it so hard to believe that the Fed is operating on policies that benefit the few people who actually own the Fed?

Actually, no. But not all anti-Fed propaganda is created equal. Saying "Goldman Sachs got a sweeter deal from the Fed from anyone else because they have close ties to the board of governors" I believe.

Saying "the Fed destroyed the global economy on purpose, at least twice for private gain" requires a leap from the tenuous argument that the Fed caused both depressions (I'm not sold on the Great Depression, and I vehemently disagree about today's depression), to the Fed intentionally caused both for the economic gain of some small set of people.