FDR Prolonged the Great Depression
ChrisB on Oct 07 2008 at 11:50 am | Filed under: Chris' Page, Domestic Politics, Economics, Libertarianism
says two UCLA economists.
Two UCLA economists say they have figured out why the Great Depression dragged on for almost 15 years, and they blame a suspect previously thought to be beyond reproach: President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
After scrutinizing Roosevelt’s record for four years, Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian conclude in a new study that New Deal policies signed into law 71 years ago thwarted economic recovery for seven long years.
“Why the Great Depression lasted so long has always been a great mystery, and because we never really knew the reason, we have always worried whether we would have another 10- to 15-year economic slump,” said Ohanian, vice chair of UCLA’s Department of Economics. “We found that a relapse isn’t likely unless lawmakers gum up a recovery with ill-conceived stimulus policies.”
In an article in the August issue of the Journal of Political Economy, Ohanian and Cole blame specific anti-competition and pro-labor measures that Roosevelt promoted and signed into law June 16, 1933.
Not exactly news to free market liberals, but still something very important to remember in these comming days of cries for the government to “do something” and distrust of the free market.
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Factoid:
During the Great Depression, my dad was growing tomatos. The feds bought some part of the tamato crop, ordered my dad to plow under the rest.
My dad told neighbors, who were short on food, that he had to plow under the tomatos, and that he could sell them or even give them away, but if someone stole them there was nothing he could do about it.
The next few days, sure enough, various neighbors showed up and “stole” tomatos. From my dad, a heartless Republican conservative . . .
Uggg. I meant to say he couldn’t sell the tomatos.