FDR Again

        I don’t know where John Kretzer grew up, (Yuma Sun, January 11, 2016) but his childhood sounds a lot like mine, a simple life, no electricity, no running water, neighbor helping neighbor, whole families gathering at first this farm and then that one, canning corn, helping with the harvest   And I quite liked the PBS special on Roosevelt.  He was a remarkable, fascinating man. His greatest strength was the way in which he united the country.  With him we thought anything was possible. I remember carefully peeling the foil off of every gum wrapper I found, knowing that somehow I was helping to win the war.

           I simply disagree with FDR’s leadership philosophy.  Interestingly enough, I don’t think he agreed with that leadership style either until after he became president.  On the campaign trail he decried every interventionist act Hoover had taken and promised to reduce government spending by 25 per cent, to ensure a sound gold currency, to end the extravagance of Hoover’s farm programs, to remove government interference in the affairs of private industry.  The problem with power is that it a potent brew.  Leaders often lose their sense of humility and start believing they can solve all our problems. 

         Both John and James Sefkac ( Yuma Sun January 7, 2016) need to check out the graphs at “Macro Trends.”  They show, definitively the response of the stock market to government intervention.  By March of 1930 it had recouped half of what it lost in 29.  Hoover signed Smoot Hawley in June and boom!  The bottom dropped out again.  It struggled back and looked better by April of 32, but Hoover signed the Revenue Act in June which more than doubled the income tax, and boom! Again.    

      Within the first 100 days of FDR’s presidency he had confiscated the people’s gold and devalued the dollar by 40 per cent.  He called for a nationwide bank holiday and 5000 of the banks he closed never opened again.  He passed a minimum wage law.  Boom! Boom!  Boom!  The National Industrial recovery act in 1933.  Boom! Tax rates at 90 per cent in 1934.  Boom!  The Civil Works Administration and when that didn’t work, The Works Progress Administration.  Boom!  Boom.  Like taking a sledge hammer to production and progress. 

         Battered at every turn, the economy would not recover to 1929 heights until 1959.   Left alone, the economy creates its own rhythm.  Our country has suffered an economic down-turn every 20 years since 1779.  Notice on the graph that only three times did it last more than two years, always in periods of intensive government intervention, under Hoover and FDR in the thirties, under Jimmy Carter in the 70’s, and most recently under George Bush and Barak Obama.  And don’t let the media trick you into thinking the depression is over.  The real unemployment rate is well over 25 per cent. 

     The intelligentsia think they must take care of the rest of us, but most of what the government does is detrimental to personal happiness and success.