[RockinRight]

UCLA admits this???

Who has that pic of the "Hell" sign covered in ice???

[Enterprise]

"FDR Responsible for Prolonging Great Depression"

DOH!

[frogjerk]

“The fact that the Depression dragged on for years convinced generations of economists and policy-makers that capitalism could not be trusted to recover from depressions and that significant government intervention was required to achieve good outcomes,” Cole said. “Ironically, our work shows that the recovery would have been very rapid had the government not intervened.”

The DIMS are now going to claim revisionist history...Sucks being them...

[cotton1706]

This has been known for years. He did nothing to end the Depression. He tried, but all his policies and programs were socialistic and unsuccessful.

[Rate_Determining_Step]

FDR's Folly documents this at length. A great read. Avaialble at Amazon.

Learn all about the best minds (and they acutally were smart) and alphabet soup of laws that FDR enlisted for the new deal.

Fascinating (like a train wreck) stuff.

[headsonpikes]

Robert Higgs' work is the benchmark text of this school of thought.

http://independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?issueID=34&articleID=430

It's a PDF file.

[PhiKapMom]

My Grandfather switched parties and became a staunch Republican farmer because of FDR. If he were alive today, he would be smiling from ear to ear and saying "I Told You So!" after reading this article. He abhored the Farmer's Union, FDR, and any Democrat on the ballot from the day he switched parties after FDR's first 90 days.

My Dad was the same way when it came to FDR and Democrats -- he blamed FDR for Pearl Harbor but he immediately enlisted in the Army to go fight after December 7th.

Grew up in an anti-FDR family on both sides -- never thought I would be seeing the day an article like this came out of UCLA -- never ever!

[Maceman]

A very excellent book on this subject: FDR's Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression by JIM POWELL

[marktwain]

This confirms what Nobel prize winner Friedman has said for many years. It is a big boost for libertarian economic policies.

A very significant piece of research, if it holds up.

The fact that it confirms Friedman's work shows that it is not just a flash in the pan, so to speak, but part of a growing body of work.

[Doctor Stochastic]

European economists have been saying this for decades.

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

So add FDR to Jackson and Lincoln as the Presidents who ignored the US Supreme Court.

[js1138]

That would explain why we had a stock market crash a few years ago that was as bad as 1929, but didn't plunge into a depression.

[tacticalogic]

ping

[First_Salute]

Bump.

[Petronski]

[BenLurkin]

I've been saying this for years.

Add to that FDR's public stance as a pacifist while doing all he could th get us into WWII and we begin to see why we never want another one like him

In fact - get FDR's smug mug off the dime and put Reagan on!

[quadrant]

I pity these guys.
Can you imagine the reception they'll receive at the UCLA Faculty Club after publishing heresy like this?

[DoctorMichael]

Paul Johnson does a good job of documenting this in his book MODERN TIMES, a review of the 20th century:

I'm glad to see this point of view is becoming more accepted.

[Maria S]

Better not say this kind of thing around elderly yellow-dog democrats unless you want to lose your head! I have older relatives who think FDR could (and did) walk on water.

[GOP_1900AD]

I agree. By prolonging the purging of bad debt, his actions prolonged the slow down. Witness, more recently, the case of Japan.