Though Herbert Hoover was a pioneer among presidents in getting the government to "do something" about a depression, he was no maverick. He had the support of distinguished court economists who promoted the idea that stable prices were the key to lasting prosperity.

Common sense tells us that if we walk into a store and find prices consistently lower than they had been, we are better off, other things equal, because our money buys more. As Rothbard wrote, "Increased productivity tends to lower prices (and costs) and thereby distribute the fruits of free enterprise to all the public, raising the standard of living of all consumers. Forcible propping up of the price level prevents this spread of higher living standards."

While the concept "stable price level" may not sound menacing, the mechanism for achieving it was. The theory's proponents, which included such economics luminaries as Irving Fisher and John Maynard Keynes, weren't too concerned with price stability when prices tended to rise during a boom, especially if prices were rising on the stock market where they were heavily invested. The price stability priests were mostly concerned with falling prices during a bust, and for that they relied on government's creature, the central bank. Falling prices, in fact, were regarded as the cause of depressions. Using enlightened "monetary policy," central banks needed to keep prices from falling to keep economies from collapsing.