The debate on whether the New Deal ended or prolonged the Great Depression of the 1930s continues with the latest installments coming from David Sirota of Slate and Jason Bean of The Beacon (hat tip Alex Tabarrok). This debate has been an ongoing one in the blogosphere with notable discussions in the past coming from Brad DeLong, James Hamilton, and Arnold Kling. Lately, though, this debate has taken on an increased intensity as many observers have been using the Great Depression experience to make sense of the current economic downturn. Among others, recent contributors to this debate include Paul Krugman, Alex Tabarrok, Eric Rauchway, Robert Higgs, and Amity Shlaes. With apologies to the contributors for oversimplifying, here is my attempt to summarize and capture the essence of this debate in one picture (click on figure to enlarge):
