While Joe from Butler may ridicule the timing of when I believe the US economy had begun its recovery from the Depression, it doesn't change the facts. The Depression ended with the changes occuring with the death of FDR (1945), the surrender of Germany (1945), and the Breton Woods agreement (1945, re-establishing the convertibility of the dollar to gold). The Republican-led 80th Congress, which was seated in 1947, also played a major role in the economy's recovery.