George Will made a statement on This Week with George Stephanopoulus that I think gets to the heart of arguments with conservatives about the government and the economy.
He stated something like:
When was the last time we had a recession that lasted this long, the answer is never because markets are self healing.
The implication is that government intervention is unnecessary because this will all take care of itself eventually and perhaps even sooner or just as soon with no government intervention. Same argument conservatives make about the Great Depression.
I believe the quote is in this segment, but my computer wouldn't play the whole thing, so I apologize if I'm wrong.
Of course, the problem with this argument is that we HAVE had depressions besides the Great Depression that lasted longer and were not accompanied by government intervention.