You are absolutely right. The mess started with Herbert Hoover, with his interventionist policies to stop prices from falling in a natural corrective process. FDR actually ran on a platform of:
(1) reducing the size of the government;
(2) getting rid of Hoover's price setting and regulating "committees";
(3) defending gold standard.
Voters elected him to end Hoover's failed big government policies. Of course, after getting elected, FDR continued and enlarged Hooverism (it's Hoover Dam, not FDR Dam, after all;). Sound familiar? (Bush --> Obama)
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
