Free Republic

FDR's Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great DepressionBy Jim Powell What the Critics Say: " Very readable, factual, and insightful - and endorsed by two Nobel Prize-winning economists." (Thomas Sowell, Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University)Think FDR was a great president? Think again. In the minds of historians and the American public alike, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was one of our greatest presidents, not least because he supposedly saved America from the Great Depression. But as historian Jim Powell reveals in this groundbreaking book, Roosevelt's New Deal policies actually prolonged and exacerbated the economic disaster, swelled the...

President-elect Barack Obama may consider delaying a campaign promise - to roll back tax cuts on high-income Americans - as part of his economic recovery strategy, two aides said on Sunday. David Axelrod, the Obama campaign strategist who was chosen to be a senior White House adviser, was asked if the tax cuts could be allowed to expire on schedule after tax year 2010 rather than being rolled back by legislation earlier. "Those considerations will be made," he said on "Fox News Sunday." Bill Daley, an adviser to Obama and commerce secretary under former President Bill Clinton, said on NBC's...

The U.S. financial system still needs at least $1 trillion to $1.2 trillion of tangible common equity to restore confidence and improve liquidity in the credit markets, Friedman Billings Ramsey analyst Paul Miller said. The bulk of the capital will have to come from the U.S. government, Miller said. The government needs to take the initial steps to begin the process, and private capital and earnings can finish the job. "The quicker the government acts, the sooner the financial system can work through its current problems and begin to supply credit again to the economy," he said.

His friends advise Barack Obama to launch a "New" New Deal. Maybe that's because the old New Deal is sinking fast. Mr. Obama's one deeply false note during the campaign was his harping on "deregulation" as if that were the source of current troubles. His real problem is the crack-up of the world FDR built.

by Gina L. DiorioSixty-four years ago, economist, political philosopher, author, and professor F.A. Hayek published his classic political discourse, The Road to Serfdom. Written, in Hayek’s own words, as “a duty which I must not evade,” the work stands as a timeless warning of the dangers of believing one can exchange freedom for security while simultaneously preserving liberty.“It was in no spirit of mockery,” Hayek writes in his preface to the 1956 edition, “that I dedicated it ‘To the Socialists of All Parties.’ It had its origin in many discussions which, during the preceding ten years, I had with friends...

Fiscal Policy: With liberal Democrats set to run Washington, you'd expect big tax-increase talk. But House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel doesn't want a depression with his name on it.Three years ago, when the economy was booming under Republican governance of both the White House and Congress, veteran Harlem congressman Rangel accused President Bush of "destroying the fabric of America with a combined policy of war, tax cuts for the wealthy, and reductions in spending for domestic needs." Now, when the Democrat-dominated 111th Congress begins in January, and Rangel resumes his chairmanship of the panel from which all...

It is useful, at this juncture, to stand back and survey the economic landscape--both as it is now, and as it has been in recent months. So here is a summary of many of the points that I have made for the last few months on the outlook for the U.S. and global economy, as well as for financial markets: --The U.S. will experience its most severe recession since World War II, much worse and longer and deeper than even the 1974-1975 and 1980-1982 recessions. The recession will continue until at least the end of 2009 for a cumulative gross...

COMMENTARY: The worldwide economic crisis presents President-elect Barack Obama with a golden opportunity to establish his leadership bone fides preemptively before the anticipated foreign challenge comes to test his mettle as a leader. As the world's leaders prepare a summit to discuss establishing a new "global financial architecture," the president-elect should forestall efforts by European leaders to give him a bum's rush down the path toward global governance and strip the United States of its economic sovereignty. He can do so by launching his presidency with a legacy-making initiative that would hit the reset button on the economy and restore...

WASHINGTON – Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was less than upfront in his half-hour commercial Wednesday night about the costs of his programs and the crushing budget pressures he would face in office. Obama's assertion that "I've offered spending cuts above and beyond" the expense of his promises is accepted only by his partisans. His vow to save money by "eliminating programs that don't work" masks his failure throughout the campaign to specify what those programs are — beyond the withdrawal of troops from Iraq. A sampling of what voters heard in the ad, and what he didn't tell them:...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government is considering a plan that would help around 3 million homeowners avoid foreclosure, sources briefed on the matter said. A final deal had not been reached as of Wednesday afternoon and negotiations could still fall apart, but government agencies were contemplating using around $50 billion from the recently passed bailout of the financial industry to guarantee about $500 billion in mortgages. The plan could include loan modifications that would lower interest rates for a five-year period, according to two people briefed on the plan, who asked not to be identified because details were still being...

In Richistan, I wrote about a new political divide emerging among the wealthy. While most Lower Richistani’s ($1 million to $10 million in net worth) were voting Republican, most Middle-and Upper Richistanis (those worth $10 million plus and $100 million plus) were voting Democrat...

<p>WASHINGTON – The Federal Reserve has slashed a key interest rate by half a percentage point as it seeks to revive an economy hit by a long list of maladies stemming from the most severe financial crisis in decades.</p> <p>The central bank on Wednesday reduced its target for the federal funds rate, the interest banks charge on overnight loans, to 1 percent, a low last seen in 2003-2004. The funds rate has not been lower since 1958, when Dwight Eisenhower was president.</p>

In 1976, a scandal arose in Sweden when marginal tax rate for self-employed was 102%. Yes, 102%!!! It is not a typo. This was to be known as the "Pomperipossa effect" from a story published on March 3, 1976. The publication led to a stormy tax debate. In the parliamentary election later in the same year the Social Democrat government was voted out for the first time in 40 years, and the tax debate was one of several controversies that may have contributed to the election result.

Americans Oppose Income Redistribution to Fix Economy by Dennis Jacobe, Chief EconomistPRINCETON, NJ -- When given a choice about how government should address the numerous economic difficulties facing today's consumer, Americans overwhelmingly -- by 84% to 13% -- prefer that the government focus on improving overall economic conditions and the jobs situation in the United States as opposed to taking steps to distribute wealth more evenly among Americans.Lack of Support for Wealth Redistribution Spans Political Party, Income GroupsAmericans' lack of support for redistributing wealth to fix the economy spans political parties: Republicans (by 90% to 9%) prefer that the government...

God bless those Democrats. They're so nostalgic. This is not a new Great Depression, but if we all try hard enough, we can make it one! They long to take us back to yesteryear, when financial collapse ushered in an era of solidarity and equality. We were all in this together. All together in the crapper, but we were all together. Ah, what a time it was: Hobos huddled around open fires down at the rail yard, bankers were jumping out of windows, and we spent more time at home with family because we had no money to feed our...

This election is not going to be won or lost on trade. Compared to the banking crisis and the wars we are fighting, trade is a distant concern in the public’s mind. When Americans do think about trade, polls show that a majority think it kills jobs and generally hurts the country. This only goes to show that a handful of bloviators can be more influential than a consensus of Nobel Prize-winning economists. Indeed, even the most recent winner of the Prize once wrote, “A country serves its own interests by pursuing free trade regardless of what other countries may...

(CNSNews.com) – Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s plan to cut taxes on 95 percent of taxpayers would effectively increase government spending by an average of $64.8 billion a year and effectively raise income tax rates for many Americans, even on some earning $20-$50,000 per year, according to the non-partisan Tax Policy Center. The heart of Obama’s tax cut proposal is in his use of refundable tax credits, which the Center describes as “credits available to eligible households even if they have no income tax liability” -- in short, refunds available even to those who don’t pay taxes. These refunds are...

One of Barack Obama's most potent campaign claims is that he'll cut taxes for no less than 95% of "working families." He's even promising to cut taxes enough that the government's tax share of GDP will be no more than 18.2% -- which is lower than it is today. APIt's a clever pitch, because it lets him pose as a middle-class tax cutter while disguising that he's also proposing one of the largest tax increases ever on the other 5%. But how does he conjure this miracle, especially since more than a third of all Americans already pay no income...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Sen. John McCain rolled out new economic proposals aimed at seniors, investors and the unemployed on Tuesday, a day before he was to face Sen. Barack Obama in the final presidential debate and markets staged recoveries on the heels of a new government plan to buy stakes in the largest U.S. banks.

BLUE BELL, Pa. (AP) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Tuesday proposed a $52.5 billion economic plan that would eliminate taxes on unemployment benefits and cut the capital gains tax while warning voters about taking a chance on Democratic rival Barack Obama. "Perhaps never before in history have the American people been asked to risk so much based on so little," McCain said of his opponent during a speech at a community college in this Philadelphia suburb. McCain also promised that as president he would order the Treasury Department to guarantee 100 percent of all savings for six months....