As we prepare to transition from the campaign season to a seemingly inevitable push in Washington toward higher taxes, bigger government, increased trade restrictions and a "New New Deal," bookmark and file away this op-ed from this morning's Wall Street Journal.

It lays out five myths about the Great Depression.  They say history always repeats itself, and the way things look right now, we're going to have to dust this column off for the fight against a possible, dreadful repeat of the 1930s.  Here's the summary, but check out the whole thing:

1. Herbert Hoover, elected president in 1928, was a doctrinaire, laissez-faire, look-the-other way Republican who clung to the idea that markets were basically self-correcting.

2. The stock market crash in October 1929 precipitated the Great Depression.

3. Where the market had failed, the government stepped in to protect ordinary people.

4. Greed caused the stock market to overshoot and then crash.

5. Enlightened government pulled the nation out of the worst downturn in its history and came to the rescue of capitalism through rigorous regulation and government oversight.

Sound familar?