Been There, Done That!

Oregon Magazine ^ | November 19, 2003 | Peggy Whitcomb

[WaterDragon]

When Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in 1932, the American economy was already in a depression, banks were failing, people couldn't find jobs, people were hungry.

FDR believed that depressions were caused by unchecked, "greedy," big corporations, unregulated free markets, and individuals accumulating what he considered as 'too much wealth'.

He promised America that he would wage war on big business, and during his presidency, assumed unprecedented powers to prosecute that war.

Historian Jim Powell, author of "FDR's Follies," relates the history and development of the massive New Deal programs, brief political biographies of the men who administered them, and especially the effects of the often contradictory New Deal measures on the lives of Americans.

He draws extensively on recent decades of studies by economists and historians who had noted that most histories on FDR focused on the political consequences of his New Deal, not the economic consequences.

Throughout his administrations Roosevelt enjoyed the support of Democratic party domination in both houses of Congress. In the early New Deal years, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down some of the New Deal measures as unconstitutional, but after FDR's attempts to 'pack the Court,' enough of the Justices were intimidated so that a majority cooperated to support his government take-over of the economy.

By Executive Orders and Congressional legislation, with the Supreme Court backing, while reassuring the public with his fireside chats, Roosevelt attacked capitalism and free markets in America....(SNIP)

Click Here For Complete Article!

[GeronL]

Unemployment 6%

Unemployment at this point (around this time anyways) in Clintons first term.. 6.2%

[cyborg]

Eh... FDR the president that locked up fellow Americans just because their eyes slanted a little too much. I'm not surprised that he had a hatred of business, with all due respect to him.

[WaterDragon]

He deserves little respect, thinking about the misery of the 30s.

[cyborg]

My father lived through the depression in New York City. Believe me, he had NO LOVE for FDR or much of government. Many immigrants lived in complete squalor, warehouses in stinking,filthy ghettos. At least he managed because when you're already poor a depresssion doesn't affect you much. And absolutely my father remembers how FDR didn't sneeze at locking up Americans of Japanese descent while the Germans on Long Island held nazi party rallies.

Oh well... that's history. FDR is dead and unfortunately my dad is too. I used to believe that thinking Klintoon was hands down the worst president ever was being sarcastic till I saw the unemployment figures.

[WaterDragon]

ping!

[Soaring Feather]

bump to the top

[eyespysomething]

It's that Keynesianism approach to the economy:

The gubermint knows better than anyone else, and needs to control the markets.

I will give credit to his prediction that the economic punishments levied on Germany after WWI would lead to WWII, but that's it.

Ain't never worked - and it won't.

Stick with von Mises and Hayek models for the economy.

[blackie]

I had fun in the 30's living on a farm in So-Cal. :)

[dixiechick2000]

"Carter and Clinton raised taxes again, and Reagan and Bush again lowered them. Democrats seem to have learned nothing from FDR except to admire the power and control over the nation he cleverly assumed, to our lasting detriment, and his skill in deceiving the public. Even now, they would hang onto the failing Social Security program, they promise to increase taxes, and they would again regulate businesses until they shrink, taking jobs away from us.

No thanks. We've been there and done that."

My sentiments, exactly.

Very nicely reviewed. Thanks for the ping!

[anniegetyourgun]

I still find it meaningful that FDR gave us both the U.N. and fiat money.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

And he wanted to keep Henry Wallace as his VP in the 1944 election.

Henry Wallace was a Soviet spy. He would've become president when FDR died in 1945.

[MeekOneGOP]

Thanks for the good article ...

[WaterDragon]

And he wanted to keep Henry Wallace as his VP in the 1944 election. Henry Wallace was a Soviet spy. He would've become president when FDR died in 1945

Coulter, in her book "Treason," said Wallace was a Soviet "dupe"....the Commies had far too many of those in the U.S., as well. She said he hated the Berlin lift, and thought we should turn Eastern Europe over to Stalin. What an idiot! FDR was too enthralled with Stalin, himself.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Good old Uncle Joe!

I just finished reading treason a couple weeks ago. Wallace was one of the spies named in the Venona Project.

[WaterDragon]

Wallace was one of the spies named in the Venona Project.

Do you remember where in Treason you saw that? I missed it, but would like to go back and check it. THAT is astounding!

Another thing, has anyone noticed that Dean is proposing FDR policies again, of government control of business, and all the Dem twits are demanding INCREASED taxes.

The Democrats ALL are either treasonous, wanting the collapse of this country, or they are as arrogant and ignorant as FDR himself!

[WaterDragon]

Thought you might like to see this....sounds like what John Dean is saying he wants to 'do' for America.

[auggy]

My In-laws, which are in their late 70's, swear that if, it wasn't for FDR and his policies, alot of people would have starved to death.

Of course, they are members of the jackass party.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

I'll have to look it up when I get home.

You're right about Dean. The Dems haven't had a new idea since 1933.

[vladog]

FDR was a Socialist and he turned the Dem Party into a full blown Socialist Party. The policies of FDR like LBJ after him have cost the American Republic many of its freedoms while the cost in $ is in the trillions.