Current Reading

I have missed a couple of my most recent reads, but I will get to those later. My current reading is by a gentleman from the D.C. based Cato Institute, my favorite libertarian think tank.

The title of the book is "FDR's Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression."

I have been interested in reading this book for some time, as most of what the Democrats idealize is a return to the New Deal policies. It is and has been my opinion that the New Deal policies hurt America and that politicians and apologists have been revising history ever since.

While I am only about half-way through the book, there are some interesting facts to note: First, Roosevelt was innagurated in March of 1933. It is widely (correctly) assumed that the Great Depression began sometime in 1929. The first New Deal program was passed into law in late March 1933. The Great Depression ended sometime in the early 1940's, spurred by our entrance into World War II.

What is not widely agreed upon are the causes or the remedies of the Depression. Powell argues (and I agree) that the Depression ocurred largely because of the Smoot-Hawley tariffs, which led to a worldwide trade war, massively depressing consupmtion and investment. Roosevelt argued that is was greedy businessmen and stock speculators.

I would go so far as to say that if President Bush had attempted some of the remedies that Roosevelt did to allow our economy to recover, that Congress would have forgone impeachment hearings and went directly to lynching him.

Whatever your opinion of Roosevelt was (I believe that he was a great President), his tactics were certainly unconstitutional. Many of his (and his Brain Trust's) ideas came directly from facist Italy and Communist Russia. He was great, in my opinion, however, because of the spirit of the country, which he helped to bring back to life. Were it not for Roosevelt stopping the country's lethargic slide, this may very well be a different nation. If nothing else, he inspired hope, as have other great presidents before and after him.