| | Just came back from the webcast of Town Hall for Hope. Awesome! Looks like better than 1 million saw it. Some interesting facts I've learned.
1) This is not the worst recession since the Great Depression. The recession of 72 and of 81 were worse in terms of employment figures and inflation.
2) Economist John Maynard Keynes had the ear of FDR and was probably THE reason for the New Deal. A couple of the economic tenets he handed FDR were: a) government should employ deficit spending during recessions, b) 100% employment is possible and c) government should hire the unemployed.
The idea that the New Deal was "successful" needs to be laid against the backdrop of history. The New Deal really got started in 1938. The US started getting on a wartime footing in 1941, even before Pearl Harbor. Once the US was fully engaged in the war, the economy understandably is "stimulated." By 1944, the GDP had almost tripled from 1938. But was it the New Deal, or the war?
Other item: while a laudable goal, is 100% employment really a good idea? In manufacturing, do you really want all of your assets running at full capacity? No, you want some protective capacity to allow for growth. If the government were to provide employment to all the unemployed, new businesses, serving any real economic growth, would have trouble starting.
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| | Posted 4/23/2009 10:25 PM - 5 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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