President Elect Obama is beginning to reveal his economic stimulus package. Apparently he is taking a page from Franklin D Roosevelt’s book of “Failed Economics and Political Reelection.”
As I have stated previously, the stock market crash of 1929 has gotten a bad rap. It was a big drop in stock prices, signaling the end of an economic speculative bubble, but the resultant recession and unemployment figures were relatively mild .
The Great Depression was born through the efforts of President Roosevelt attempting to reduce unemployment to pre bubble levels of 3-4 %. In November 1929 unemployment was at 6%, and would rise to almost 9% by December 1929, but quickly dropped back to approx 6% in June 1930.
The relatively “normal” recession became a deep Depression in 1931-1937 when unemployment never dipped below 14 % and reached into the low mid 20’s for most of that time.
This was caused by the vast stimulus programs instituted by FDR, Public works, the TVA, bridge and road construction. Dams for generation of cheap electricity and conservation, created many new structures but no new wealth. Private industry was overwhelmed by taxes and tighter regulations.
The appearance of a hard working president was broadcast on radio and blared in banner newspaper headlines .
The reality was , the New Deal was a fiscal disaster, which created and extended the Depression. Sending hundreds of thousands of unemployed Americans out to build and work on Government payroll projects looked heroic on FDR’s part, and kept him as President and the Democratic Party in power for almost 20 years, but He was a false hero whose policies did more harm than good.
Obama looks great on paper, but sadly our recession/ depression is destined to last for the better part of 8 years.
1. I’ve got to say that I have studied history pretty extensively and in a very non-partisan way, and I have never heard anyone bring up such negative feelings toward FDR. Not to judge, but you state so many things as fact, and in this day and age, it is easy to read something on the internet and assume it must be true, as long as it is concise and well written. However, do you have sources? Is this speculation? I’m kind of curious. I don’t judge by any means, and I hope you know that I have a great deal of respect for you. I’m just wondering if these ideas are personal, or have been acquired from somewhere.
And I hope you understand that I ask because these IS a great deal of truth and fact to what you bring to the table, and so I am not quite sure myself as to the true nature of what happened. I’m sure part of that is valid, because if anybody truly knew the cause and effects of everything that happened during the depression, people would be much more conscious and knowledgeable about how to deal with the current financial situation. However, nobody seems to know the best course of action.
2. New Deal ideas aren’t as bad as you make them out to be. I haven’t expressed this before as much as I would like to have. No, building bridges, dams, power plants, new energy plants, and whatever else Obama plans isn’t going to directly effect you, me or probably anyone we know directly. We aren’t engineers, architects, construction workers, or anyone else these public works projects will hire. That isn’t the point however. The point is that it will be creating jobs. 1 million jobs, up to 5 million jobs, are still jobs, whether they are for us or for joe plumber (sorry, I had to). The idea is that these jobs keep a great amount of people working, supporting their families, and so on. It also creates amazing infrastructure for the nation, which is something that I’m positive is needed. New Deal public works brought about amazing structures, including dams, roads, bridges. Think of The western US without the Hoover Dam. And finally, many more jobs in one sector, creates more jobs in another. If someone is earning a steady paycheck, they can possibly afford to better their home, see a movie, or buy goods on the web, which benefits many people.
3. I don’t agree with everything that’s going on, although it appears that you think that I do. Bailouts to me are ridiculous. Most companies should be made to accept the fact that they are failing because they are creating sub-par products. Detroit is having a lot of problems, and yet Honda and Toyota aren’t so bad. People are losing their mortgages, but whose fault is that…the people who took out the loan that was clearly unpayable, or the people who granted them that loan? A lot of people are at fault. I don’t want myself and my nation to go even further into debt for the stupid decisions of everyone else. And yet…The other choice is to leave everyone hanging. Let them fend for themselves.
I Have to admit, that a great deal of my responses are to make you see the other side. Honestly, I feel like this blog gets a little one-sided, and I hope you appreciate a little leveling out of your political views. : ) Think about it. With age, wisdom doesn’t always come. Just look at Bush and Cheney.
Actually there was a lot of opposition to FDR during his administration. Much of that has dissapeared in scholastic books, ie school books in high schools or universities, because 1. FDR won WW2 and is a hero and 2. Most schools are packed full of socialist liberals, who rewrite things to make FDR’s problems not seem so bad
During FDR’s presidency he tried to add two new judges to the supreme court because he wanted to have more liberals on his side so that he could move the law of the land further left
During FDR’s presidency the leaders of many of the major industrial companies, the steal barons, the railroad guys etc tried to create a secret military coup in an attempt to topple FDR. The plot was uncovered when the guy they went to, to replace FDR, went to congress and turned them in. But he had no proof so it never went anywhere.
There are plenty of people, free market people, who dont like FDR that much. Its just that those people are drowned out by the fact that FDR is a hero that won WW2
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Having said that, I still think WW2 ended the great depression. WW2 was the biggest public works program in history, and it produced nothing but death and broken tanks. I say if we spent the kind fo money that we would on a war on the economy, we would end our second great depression, and actually get something out of it. The only problem is, those bridges we get, will cost an annual fee to maintain. That means if we dont get a quick economic turn around, we will end up with a bunch of dilapidated bridges
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btw drew if you read this check out the url in my name. Its my new site
what a great way to have a spirited dialogue between us
Good point on FDR, and after writing that, I read up a bit on some of it too. But perhaps the best point is that WW2 without a doubt brought us out of depression, and public works on that scale would pull us out again. Hopefully we don’t end up with such a war again though.
public works pushed us from recession into major depression
we were only able to get out of the depression because of the war
ww 2 was more than a mass public works project.
when they built air planes and tanks and jeeps, they were feeding an industry that would easily turn into a civilian employer, keeping and creating millions of new jobs and globs of wealth with much happening after the war ended and soilders came home to buy cars and fly in the airlines
I LOVE THE BACK AND FORTH IT IS HOW WE ALL GROW AND LEARN JUST REMEMBER THAT MONUMENTAL WORLD CLASS T V SHOW OF THE 50′S “FATHER KNOWS BEST” JUST KIDDING