Ive been enjoying the Ken Burns documentary on the Roosevelts on PBS this week. Criticisms: (1) not enough period audio, like T.R.s speeches and those ironically upbeat World War One songs, and (2) almost no comprehension of economics, so FDRs mistakes are listed uncritically along with his genuine reforms. For instance: FDR set the price of gold and strengthened the Federal Reserve in the 1930s, but that did no good to anybody but the banksters. The Feds policies actually deepened and prolonged the depression, as pointed out by Friedrich Hayek in his Nobel-winning analysis. (Hayek also wrote The Road to Serfdom, B.T.W.) Burns does mention that by 1939 the economy still hadnt healed--but glosses it over, whereas FDRs own treasury Secy, Morgenthau, said, We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before, and it does not work... after eight years ...we have just as much unemployment as when we started...” As for gold, FDR made it illegal for individuals to own it, so they all had to turn it in to the government, for which they received paper dollars. Also, FDR made an ounce of gold worth about 50% more than before, which (since the dollar was backed by gold) made each dollar worth a third less. In other words, he devalued the currency, which was hardly a decent thing to do people trapped in poverty and unemployment.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 20:55:04 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015