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Barack Obama and the FDR-Great Depression Myth
Human Events ^ | Nov. 26, 2008 | Michael Fumento

Posted on 11/27/2008 11:17:39 AM PST by SeekAndFind

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1 posted on 11/27/2008 11:17:39 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind
Photobucket
2 posted on 11/27/2008 11:18:49 AM PST by BunnySlippers (I LOVE BULL MARKETS . . .)
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To: SeekAndFind

Obawan hasn’t even been sworn in and the MSM has already declared that he’s the greatest president in history.


3 posted on 11/27/2008 11:19:36 AM PST by Mad_Tom_Rackham (The committed will surely dominate the complacent.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Good article.

More factual data:

FDR’s policies prolonged Depression by 7 years, UCLA economists calculate

http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/FDR-s-Policies-Prolonged-Depression-5409.aspx

“After scrutinizing Roosevelt’s record for four years, Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian conclude in a new study that New Deal policies signed into law 71 years ago thwarted economic recovery for seven long years.

“Why the Great Depression lasted so long has always been a great mystery, and because we never really knew the reason, we have always worried whether we would have another 10- to 15-year economic slump,” said Ohanian, vice chair of UCLA’s Department of Economics. “We found that a relapse isn’t likely unless lawmakers gum up a recovery with ill-conceived stimulus policies.”

In an article in the August issue of the Journal of Political Economy, Ohanian and Cole blame specific anti-competition and pro-labor measures that Roosevelt promoted and signed into law June 16, 1933.”

Note that Obama is planning to institute exactly the measures that FRD introduced, which proplonged the depression.


4 posted on 11/27/2008 11:23:01 AM PST by FocusNexus
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To: SeekAndFind

As if to add insult to injury, I feel certain that not only will Obamaite make work programs have the same dilatorious effect on the economy that FDR’s did, but they won’t give us any beautiful public buildings: WPA art deco, what I like to call ‘American fascist architecture’, was the last gasp of beautiful American architecture. Anything now will be Bauhaus at best.


5 posted on 11/27/2008 11:25:53 AM PST by The_Reader_David (And when they behead your own people in the wars which are to come, then you will know. . .)
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To: SeekAndFind
"This is like deja vu all over again."


6 posted on 11/27/2008 11:42:04 AM PST by Deo volente (On January 20, 2009 America moves to DEFCON 2.)
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To: FocusNexus

Yes, but even that didn’t tell the real story, after lengthening the depression for seven years it was only WWII that actually refocused America, restarted it’s industry and stopped the depression in it’s tracks. If it hadn’t been for WWII, we would still be living in Kenyan huts on $12 a day.

After WWII, American industry was then turned onto consumer goods, and improving life for all.

Ronald Reagan,’s economy, in eight yeras, created 15 million good paying jobs, proving that the correct formula is trickle down economics, not trickle up poverty.


7 posted on 11/27/2008 11:42:13 AM PST by Tarpon (America's first principles, freedom, liberty, market economy and self-reliance will never fail.)
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To: Tarpon
Yes, but even that didn’t tell the real story, after lengthening the depression for seven years it was only WWII that actually refocused America, restarted it’s industry and stopped the depression in it’s tracks. If it hadn’t been for WWII, we would still be living in Kenyan huts on $12 a day.

Well, Looks like we need another World War to jumpstart our economy and the world's.

Good excuse to invade Russia and North Korea ( let's throw in Syria and Venezuela to make it a REAL world war ).
8 posted on 11/27/2008 11:45:17 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Right, like Freidman mentioned the other day where an “immigrant” in California who couldn’t speak English, earning $14,000 a year qualified to buy a $720,000 home.


9 posted on 11/27/2008 11:49:49 AM PST by boxer21
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To: SeekAndFind

Reagan didn’t need no stinking war, it’s only the rats that cause war. Republicans have brains.

What’s that line of Reagan’s -— Oh here it is ... “It isn’t that Liberals are ignorant. It’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.”


10 posted on 11/27/2008 11:54:53 AM PST by Tarpon (America's first principles, freedom, liberty, market economy and self-reliance will never fail.)
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To: SeekAndFind

After reading Jonah Goldberg’s book “Liberal Fascism” I realized just how similar Obama may very well be to not only FDR but also Woodrow Wilson (read: the sedition act) FDR and Wilson proudly installed fascist policies. In fact, Hitler and Mussolini themselves wrote communications to FDR after his inauguration about how impressed they were with his socialistic ideas.


11 posted on 11/27/2008 12:09:30 PM PST by paltz
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To: SeekAndFind

There are at least 5 reasons why Obama will deepen the depression:

(1) President Obama will institute policies that will prevent wages from dropping to market rates. This is exactly what Herbert Hoover and his successor Franklin Roosevelt did in the 1930’s. Such policies by Hoover and Roosevelt dramatically increased the unemployment rate. By preventing wages from adjusting to market forces during the Depression, businesses were unable to afford to keep people employed. As a result, the unemployment rate skyrocketed to 25%. Barack Obama is of the same ilk, and he will not be able to resist policies that keep wages, and thus, unemployment higher than the free market would dictate. In this cycle, an unemployment rate between 10 and 15 percent is a very real possibility.

(2) He will raise capital gains taxes. We are in a period when capital is desperately hard to come by. Great American companies are begging our own government and foreign sources for capital. Raising the cost of capital by raising the capital gains tax rate is exactly the opposite of what we ought to do. It will choke off capital and deepen the depression. In addition, every notch upward in the capital gains tax rate will bring a notch downward in the stock market. Every notch downward in stocks will add more fear and will keep Americans from spending to support the economy.

(3) Obama and his pals in Congress will raise taxes not only on the upper echelon but also on the middle class. He has promised free health care, free college, free child care, free this and free that. Guess what. There is no free lunch. The working class will be hit with higher taxes along with the employer class. According to the National Taxpayers Union, Obama’s fiscal agenda will cost $344 billion per year. This agenda will force higher taxes on everyone. Herbert Hoover dramatically raised taxes in 1932 during the Depression. Economists now recognize this as perhaps the biggest tax blunder in American history. This sucked money out of the productive economy and sent the economy into a death spiral. The handwriting is on the wall; Obama will repeat the mistakes of the Great Depression.

(4) Obama’s policies will skyrocket the federal deficit. It is clear that his spending priorities far outweigh his revenue enhancements. Under normal circumstances, our economy can handle more debt during a recession. But in a period of asset deflation and credit contraction which began when debt was already too high, to balloon the deficit further is to risk the very foundation of our economy. His spending policies will expand the already incredible deficits created by the Bush TARP program. The risk is worldwide loss of confidence in the US government and its debt and a potential collapse of the bond market.

(5) Obama is committed to spending huge amounts of money on uneconomic ventures—such as the auto industry and solar energy. The American auto industry is hopelessly uncompetitive against the Japanese manufacturers.
In large measure because of the monopolistic power of labor unions, American manufacturers suffer a $1500 per car cost disadvantage. Throwing more money at the problem will not help unless the unions capitulate—an unlikely event. Government loans to the auto industry will never be paid back. It is a black hole. As for solar energy, it will account for only around 5% of the U. S. energy needs by 2020. And it is multiples more expensive per kilowatt hour. Every dollar spent by the government to support this industry, like other government wasteful spending, is money down a rat hole. And no doubt, Obama will find many other uneconomic projects to support.

These things will be explained to President Obama. But he will reject them because of his ideology. Obama is a left-wing ideologue. Other Democrat presidents have been fairly utilitarian. But not this man.
Nothing will stop Obama from pushing leftist/socialist economic policies on our country. And the results will be disastrous.

Mr. Meek can be reached by email at cmeek01@msn.com.


12 posted on 11/27/2008 12:27:05 PM PST by grumpa (VP)
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To: SeekAndFind

BTTT & Happy Thanksgiving!


13 posted on 11/27/2008 12:38:42 PM PST by neverdem (Xin loi min oi)
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To: SeekAndFind
Obama's writers just go: "What would the people like to hear?...and nothing more. The FDR lovers have pretty well passed.

The world of the '30's is not the world of today. The big thing in using FDR is to justify handouts.

14 posted on 11/27/2008 12:57:27 PM PST by Sacajaweau (I'm planting corn...Have to feed my car...)
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To: Tarpon

“The Politically-Incorrect Guide to American History” actually addresses the belief that WWII was what brought us out of the depression, denying said belief as false.

According to the book, it was the return to normal free-market capitalism and the death of FDR (and thus, no more reason to live in fear of what new economic outrages he would do) that brought back prosperity.


15 posted on 11/27/2008 2:23:06 PM PST by RWB Patriot ("Let 'em learn the hard way, 'cause teaching them is more trouble than they're worth,")
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To: SeekAndFind

Good summary......as P.J. O’Rourke said at a 93 Gopac speech on DEMONRATS and the Impeached, treasonous, bent-crank violent rapist;

They are dung beatles in legislation, legislators in the bed-chamber, Chamber-maids on the battlefield, and Field-marshalls in the war against everything reasonable and decent.

Such like has not been seen in the Executive branch since Franklin Delano Roosevelt was wheeled up the disabled access ramps to the gates of HELL.


16 posted on 11/27/2008 2:55:39 PM PST by Electric Graffiti
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To: RWB Patriot

The unemployment rate went down dramatically by 1942 and stayed down. The good news is FDR was dead when the war ended, and America and it’s the economy prospered. Even though up until RR the income tax was set at confiscatory rates, near 90% for the top marginal rate. When Reagan cut that way back, the economy took off.

New Deal II is a scam ... Reject Obamunism.


17 posted on 11/27/2008 3:19:14 PM PST by Tarpon (America's first principles, freedom, liberty, market economy and self-reliance will never fail.)
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To: grumpa
I'd like to add another.

(6) He's said he wants to "renegotiate NAFTA" and is opposed to the free trade agreement with Columbia. The affects of such a protectionist trade policy could be the similar to that of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930.

18 posted on 11/27/2008 3:29:31 PM PST by raisetheroof ("To become Red is to become dead --- gradually." Alexander Solzhenitsyn)
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To: SeekAndFind

the reason why WW2 ‘worked’ has to do with the Laffer curve. Usually you can’t raise taxes and expect maximum revenue. People decide they might as well just work less or try to shelter their income. But in the case of a total war, everyone does their patriotic duty to work for the defense of the country even with maximum tax rates.

On the other hand, if it is for an unpopular war such as Vietnam, it won’t work.


19 posted on 11/27/2008 4:44:23 PM PST by ari-freedom (Thank you for everything!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Gird your loins. Obama wants to be a ‘great’ president, and every ‘great’ president has to have a ‘great’ war.

Nobody remembers the presidents that simply built a lot of bridges and roads.


20 posted on 11/27/2008 4:47:29 PM PST by ari-freedom (Thank you for everything!)
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