Deflation
Deflation occurred periodically in the U.S. during the 19th century (the most important exception was during the Civil War). This deflation was at times caused by technological progress that created significant economic growth, but at other times it was triggered by financial crises — notably the Panic of 1837 which caused deflation through 1844, and the Panic of 1873 which triggered the Long Depression that lasted until 1879. These deflationary periods preceded the establishment of the U.S. Federal Reserve System and its active management of monetary matters. Episodes of deflation have been rare and brief since the Federal Reserve was created (a notable exception being the Great Depression) while U.S. economic progress has been unprecedented.
New Deal
Lowell E. Gallaway and Richard K. Vedder argue on the basis of Austrian School of economics theories that the Great Depression was caused by wages being too high which they say had caused a loss of depositor confidence which caused the bank runs. They further conclude that the "Great Depression was very significantly prolonged in both its duration and its magnitude by the impact of New Deal programs". They suggest that without Social Security, work relief, unemployment insurance, mandatory minimum wages and without special government-granted privileges for labor unions, business would have hired more workers and the unemployment rate during the New Deal years would have been 6.7% instead of 17.2%. Amity Shlaes wrote that "from 1929 to 1940, from Hoover to Roosevelt, government intervention helped to make the Depression Great". Shlaes said that the NRA was misguided because it used price setting to fix monetary problems. According to Shlaes, Roosevelt's experimentation frightened business into inaction and prevented recovery. Eric Rauchway showed that Shlaes tried to diminish the economic growth by referring to the unrepresentative Dow Jones Industrial Average. He continued that usually a historian or economist would have referred to the gross domestic product, which according to the Historical Statistics of the United States grew impressively by 9% annually during Roosevelt's first term and by 11% annually after the short recession of 1937–1938.