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Marron, Your post just about "says it all".

I can only echo that FDR's errors on economic policy and the Stalinist infiltration of his administration during WWII should be a cause for historians to revisit the FDR myth.

FDR cannot be credited with anything related to the great depression except extending the depression that began on Hoover's watch; FDR's New Deal had bad regulatory policies that hurt the economic recovery.

Those who dont *properly* learn from history are doomed to repeat it. And not just in Latin America:
Japan recently went through their own 'lost decade' of stagnation, coincidently a decade where they tried all manner of Keynesian interventions and Govt WPA-type projects. What they got for it was huge Govt debt, a lot of concrete projects, and more economic stagnation. Only now, after finally revamping the banking system and easing up on taxes are they beginning to crawl out of the hole - the Nikkei average is back above 10,000, less than a THIRD the peak price in 1989 of 35,000. The mind boggles.

In 2001, USA was faced with the same kind of post credit-bubble economic abyss, created because of Fed malfeasance in over-stimulating for Y2K (it wasnt needed but it led to a Nasdaq "bubble" price of 5000 and overpriced stocks and useless IPOs galore); bubbles create busts; 9/11 only compounded it. We could have been stuck in the soup for years, but we managed to pull through with a minor recession only unemployment no higher than 6% or so, a miracle considering - but a miracle engineered with tax cuts and loose monetary and fiscal policies. I remain convinced that this *could* have been another Japan-like malaise for the US, but thanks to having GW Bush in the White House, this decade WONT be a lost decade; our growth will be quite good.

It may well be that GW Bush is the leader FDR needed to be; GWB's domestic and foreign policies back in the 1930s would have worked wonders. JMHO.