FDR Responsible for Prolonging - Not Ending - Great Depression, Say UCLA Researchers

economics department at ucla ^ | ? | Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

The best one can say in Roosevelt's defense is that he prevented something worse, a Communist takeover. I suppose it was possible.

[ctdonath2]

Well it is accurate to say that FDR could walk on water just as easily as he could walk on dry land.

And when spring came, he moved on to amazing people with other tricks.

[wideawake]

Ridiculous. He was doing a heck of a lot to support Britain when the Soviet Union was still part of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.

Your timeline is a bit disingenuous. The Lend Lease Act was passed in March 1941 and Germany invaded Russia in June 1941. At the time the Lend Lease Act was passed, it was common knowledge that the German/Russian alliance of convenience was already at an end and that a German attack on Russia was imminent.

The Lend-Lease Act, beginning of the draft in the US,

The reestablishment of the draft was as much an economic move as a military one and occurred in 1940 - too late to be a deterrent or a warning to the Nazis.

the US escorting convoys in the Atlantic and attacking U-Boats, were all BEFORE Germany invaded Russia.

Yes, FDR did the bare minimum of protecting America's access to the Atlantic sealanes.

The fact is, he campaigned in 1940 on an antiwar isolationist platform, implying that he was completely and almost criminally indifferent to the rise of the Nazi empire.

Then, as soon as Germany turned on his darling Communists, he all of a sudden became committed to a proactive, anti-Nazi European policy.

He ignored the entire situation from 1933-1940, giving mere lip service to the British opposition, turning away refugees, allowing militant bunds to form and permitting Nazis to come and lecture at American universities.

And of course, the Communist influence on his administration is well-documented.

[RKV]

FDR didn't need to be on the payroll to be on the socialist's team. There is a HUGE amount of material to be digested and I am not going to rewrite any books here on this thread. I would simply point out just a few relevant facts 1) the FDR administration was pretty well penetrated by the reds - Harry Dexter White and Alger Hiss to name two 2) the economic policy pursued by the Roosevelt administration runs exactly contrary to what needed to be done to recover from the Depression - e.g. increasing the cost of labor (via social security taxes) surely made unemployment worse (there are MANY other examples of this economic ignorance) 3) a primary characteristic of many New Deal policies is significant increases in government intervention into American economic life, which before had been set by the market (e.g the NRA and other price fixing schemes). There is a LOT more to say about this but please let these few brief points be a summary of my case. FDR a) radically increased the size and scope of the federal government (beyond constitutional limits IMHO) b) he did so with the "central planning" model used by the Soviet Union in mind (and deliberately so, and contrary to our constitution) c) his active aid to the Soviet Union during the war is of much less import in making this case due to the "enemy of my enemy is my friend" effect.

[wideawake]

The best one can say in Roosevelt's defense is that he prevented something worse, a Communist takeover. I suppose it was possible.

There was never a possibility of a Communist takeover of the US. What was possible was a Socialist takeover of the Democratic party, which is what FDR engineered and turned into a Socialist takeover of the US. Luckily, he was forced by patriots to keep his hands of the Supreme Court and some of his most vile Socialist plans were thwarted.

[TASMANIANRED]

bump

[oldbrowser]

I always suspected as much.

[expat_panama]

 end the Depression...   .......the bombing of Pearl Harbor

Conventional macro-econ wisdom for decades has been that the depression was ended by WWII's massive deficit spending that restored liquidity.   If you believe that then you have to also believe that FDR was on the right track but should've done it more. Everyone used to see it this way-- including a my rightwing Econ 1A prof in the '60's.  OTOH, the whole point of this article is that deficit spending only made the economy worse and it was other factors that saved us.

My econ prof pointed out back then that viewpoints were bound to change over time, especially about FDR.   He described an old farmer who hated FDR and used to say "I just wished I could've shoved my arm down his throat, grabbed his balls from the inside, and pulled the bastard inside out!"  

People had real strong feelings one way or the other about FDR back then.

[eno_]

Not to mention the economic ill effects, still felt today, of overturning constitution restraints on the size of federal government.

[expat_panama]

You're describing lots of bad things FDR did.   You're saying he did those bad things because his motivation was sinister and he knew exactly what he was doing and it all fit into a careful plan.

While I do agree that he did a lot of bad things, I don't agree that he was so smart that he knew and understood in advance the consequences of so many of his actions.   I actually don't know whether FDR was a clever evil person or a part-time fool; but I do know that people in general are good and that when they do bad things it's more often than not because they're foolish.

Then again, I hang around a lot of stupid people (present company excepted of course).

[RKV]

At the time, socialism was the big intellectual thing - it was "scientific." Now we know it as "murderous" given our practical experience with socialism as it works in practice. In terms of Roosevelt's motivation(s), I find it hard to categorically say sinister or not. What I can do, is evaluate the facts and look at the outcomes, and infer motivation from that. It is not particularly satisfying, but I leave that to others who can devote much more time and study to the problem than I can. In terms of comparing current politicians to historical ones, I think of FDR as being MUCH like SlickWilly. In a word - manipulative. Smart, but amoral.

[fooman]

ping

[BenLurkin]

Bump

[Kevin OMalley]

Bump for later reading.

[lepton]

bookmark bump

[ken21]

thanks.

[Fiddlstix]

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