Anna Schwartz

Banks had collapsed by the thousand, the money supply caved in by a third, and the institution built to stop this stood there and watched.

Economists Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz spent 900 pages proving that the Fed turned a recession into a Great Depression, and the Fed itself eventually agreed.

In 2002, at Friedman's 90th birthday, Fed Governor Ben Bernanke stood up and said it out loud.

In reference to the Great Depression, he said, you're right, we did it.

This is one of Milton Friedman's great findings.

Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz, and they blame the Depression on that.

And that is what most economists understand today as being the spark for the Great Depression.

Today, the Fed prints lots of money.