[Elliott Jackalope]

Lawrence Reed of the Mackinac center for public policy wrote a paper titled "Great Myths of the Great Depression" that you can find at http://www.mackinac.org/article.asp?ID=4013 - I highly recommend reading it.

[ElkGroveDan]

Thank you for posting this.

[Cathryn Crawford]

For 70 years there has been a holy creed--spread by academia until accepted by media and most Americans--that Franklin D. Roosevelt cured the Great Depression. That belief spurred the growth of modern liberalism; conservatives are still on the defensive where modern historians are concerned. Not so anymore when the facts are considered. Now a scholar at the libertarian Cato Institute has demonstrated that (a) not only did Roosevelt not end the Depression, but (b) by incompetent measures, he prolonged it.

Ping...

[jmc813]

The drug war is another product of the New Deal.

[MayDay72]

...BUMP...

[Chad Fairbanks]

Thanks for posting this - the part about how Black Farmers were never reimbursed was pretty telling, actually.

The inherent racism of the Democratic Party never ceases to amaze me...

[liberallarry]

Roosevelt didn't end the Great Depression. War did.

The author hasn't "demonstrated" anything. He argues - not very convincingly in my opinion - for a certain interpretation. An example of a weakness in his argument; he neglects to mention that the Federal Reserve in the period 1929 to 1933 - Hoover's presidency - acted in accord with sound Conservative principles of the time.

[Allan]

For 70 years there has been a holy creed--
spread by academia until accepted by media
and most Americans--
that Franklin D. Roosevelt cured the Great Depression.

Is that true?
I was born in 1940
and I never have met a single person
who lived through the depression
who thought that FDR ended it.

Most people seem to think WWII did it.

[Jack Black]

thanks. I think the tight money supply is generally accepted to have been a huge contributor to the depression. I was taught this 20 years ago at a liberal college. Still more debunking of the socialist hero is always called for.

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

Great post!

This was in the SunTimes?

[demlosers]

A good read very interesting.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

To really flesh out your understanding of FDR you really should read The New Dealers' War by self-identified (on a Booknotes interview) Truman Democrat Thomas Flemming.

Neville Chamberlain's appeasment policy was popular in Britain, and Winston Churchill railled helplessly against it from a back bench. Likewise 80% of Americans opposed entry into WWII before Pearl Harbor. Against that backdrop the efforts of FDR to inflame war between the US and Germany just didn't get any traction before Pearl Harbor.

Of course we now know that FDR was informedat the end of November 1941 that the Japanese Embassy had been ordered to destroy its diplomatic codes and end negotiations with America at a certain time on Dec 7, 1941--but at the time, that was a closely guarded secret. Had the public known that in December 1941, FDR would have been impeached--for FDR had mousetrapped the 80% of the public who, before Pearl Harbor, opposed entry into WWII. Because somebody--somebody who was never punished or even had his career ruined--leaked information which created a sensation of antiwar agitation just when the Japanese were launching their attack on Pearl Harbor.

FDR's antiGerman policy hardened in the summer of 1941, which just happens to coincide with the invasion by Hitler which started June 22, 1941--the invasion of the USSR.

FDR was hostile to the British Empire, and didn't take suggestions very well from the British Navy--part of the reason that 400 US merchant ships in US coastal waters were lost to U-boats by June 1942.

Oh, and did I mention that FDR's first diplomatic move as POTUS was to recognize the Soviet Union?

[Cicero]

Nothing new here, unfortunately. FDR was an enormously destructive force, but the liberal press will never admit it. The average American still thinks FDR was a great president, and for that reason even Republicans like Reagan invoke his name.

Unfortunately, you can't reason with a liberal. They are impermeable to logic.

[RaceBannon]

http://www.rooseveltmyth.com

Great web site

you must read the book, I have a hard copy, but they have it online!

[norwaypinesavage]

One of the strongest arguments I've ever heard that proves Rosevelt did not cure the depression has to do with timing. He enacted many of his strongest programs the first year after he was elected, 1933. If these programs cured the depression, why did it take 10 years for them to become effective?

[marron]

FDR is the guy who failed to end the depression in two terms as president (he served three terms and was elected to a fourth). Despite the fact that Hitler took power in 1933, about the same time FDR took office, and the Japanese started their march about the same time, by the end of his second term when we were hit at Pearl Harbor FDR had done nothing to prepare us for war. Our guys were still training with sticks and our ships were sitting in harbor to save fuel.

FDR is the guy that sent refugee Jews back to be slaughtered in Hitler's camps. He's the guy that handed half of Europe over to Stalin, who easily bested Hitler in the butchery department by a factor of at least 3.

FDR is the guy who rounded up US citizens by the thousands and interned them in camps, and allowed their property to be seized. He is the guy that refused to outlaw the lynching of Negroes.

A more miserable excuse for a president has never sat in the White House.

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

[B Knotts]

FDR was the American Dictator.

The sad thing is, we now have a fair amount of "conservatives" who admire FDR and his socialistic policies.

[Patriotways]

The New Deal built the New World Order




http://gopusa.com/sartre/sartre_0825.shtml

[StriperSniper]

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