‘Red Ted’ Theodore was the no holds barred union organiser who rose to be federal treasurer, only to confront the gravest economic crisis in Australia’s history. When the economic rationalists demanded spending cut backs, Red Ted argued for priming the pump. Beaten by the banks, betrayed by Jack Lang and undone by scandal Red Ted’s visionary economic plan never saw the light of day. As a result, the Great Depression lingered until the Second World War. Red Ted and the Great Depression looks back to the 1930s, not with nostalgia, but for the light it sheds on crucial contemporary issues of unemployment and international recession.