[AdrianHealey]

Enfin, in verband met het 'non-interventionisme' van de VS voor (en na) 1929.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Hoover#Economy
In order to pay for these and other government programs, Hoover agreed to one of the largest tax increases in American history. The Revenue Act of 1932 raised income tax on the highest incomes from 25% to 63%.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_...eat_Depression
The specific economic events that took place during the Great Depression have been studied thoroughly: a deflationary spiral forced dramatic falls in asset and commodity prices, dramatic drops in demand and credit, and disruption of trade, ultimately resulting in widespread poverty and unemployment. However, historians lack consensus in describing the causal relationship between various events and the role of government economic policy in causing or ameliorating the Depression.
(...)
the key cause of the Depression was the expansion of the money supply in the 1920s that led to an unsustainable credit-driven boom. In their view, the Federal Reserve, which was created in 1913, shoulders much of the blame.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve_Act
The Federal Reserve Act (ch. 6, 38 Stat. 251, enacted December 23, 1913, 12 U.S.C. ch.3) is the act of Congress that created the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the United States of America, which was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot-Hawley_Tariff
Economists have now generally regarded this Tariff Act (i.e., tax increase on imported goods) as the greatest policy blunder in American economic history, coming as it did after the 1929-30 recession and preventing the economy from a full, natural recovery which had already started by the Spring of 1930.

Monetarists, including Milton Friedman and current Federal Reserve System chairman Ben Bernanke, argue that the Great Depression was caused by monetary contraction, which was the consequence of poor policy making by the American Federal Reserve System and continuous crisis in the banking system.

Etc. Etc. Etc.

Whatever het was: het was niet laissez-faire...