Another Great Depression?
(By Thomas Sowell, TownHall.com) - With both Barack Obama's supporters and the media looking forward to the new administration's policies being similar to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's policies during the 1930s depression, it may be useful to look at just what those policies were and-- more important-- what their consequences were.
The prevailing view in many quarters is that the stock market crash of 1929 was a failure of the free market that led to massive unemployment in the 1930s-- and that it was intervention of Roosevelt's New Deal policies that rescued the economy.
It is such a good story that it seems a pity to spoil it with facts. Yet there is something to be said for not repeating the catastrophes of the past.
The prevailing view in many quarters is that the stock market crash of 1929 was a failure of the free market that led to massive unemployment in the 1930s-- and that it was intervention of Roosevelt's New Deal policies that rescued the economy.
It is such a good story that it seems a pity to spoil it with facts. Yet there is something to be said for not repeating the catastrophes of the past.
posted by BP News Bureau | 12:30 PM
2 Comments:
I wish this could be mandatory reading because so few know this stuff (even conservatives).
Merry Christmas.
Indeed.
Conservatives and liberals alike don't seem to also know that Roosevelt's policies actually extended the depression by as much as 5 years. Rothbard's America's Great Depression should also be required reading. While Sowell is largely a free-marketer, he still favors far too much government intervention, e.g. the Federal Reserve, regulation of monopolies, etc.
Since history is a nearly infallible guide to future events, we can rest assured that Obama's policies will very likely slip us into depression sooner and leave us there longer. But as Sowell says, he will never take the blame in popular mythology (a.k.a public school history classes). He has Bush to blame for anything that doesn't go exactly the way he plans it.
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