FDR: Not An Economic Genius

And if, (like the liberal academics I listened to last night at a lecture on the 2008 Presidential election at UCL) you think Obama is going to be the second coming of FDR or JFK (BHO, anyone?), maybe this will give you pause.

UCLA economists concluded that FDR's policies exacerbated and lengthened the duration of the Great Depression. That's certainly not what my history teachers taught me.

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."

Liberal Democrats in Congress are hoping for a New New Deal with BHO and they just may get one.

Whether he's the one (The One) who actually pushes it through or it's the abominationional (Obamanational?) love child of Harry Reid (who's nuts) and Nancy Pelosi, it doesn't really matter.


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