"The government is doing what it can. They've learned the lessons of the 30s. And the lesson of the 30s was to put ideology aside and do whatever you can to bail it out," New York Times Chief Financial Correspondent Floyd Norris said in an Oct. 8 video on the publication's Web site entitled "Echoes from a Dismal Past."
"I agree with you," economics reporter Louis Uchitelle said, also pointing out that it took two years before the government really "stepped in and acted" during the Depression - referring to Franklin Roosevelt's action.
Norris said one of the first lessons of the 1930s was that bailing banks out would "limit the damage of the financial crisis."
"If you go back just two or three years ago, you had this powerful argument that government was the problem. So there is emerging from this an understanding that markets and government are married whether they like it or not," Uchitelle said.
Despite the reporters' assertions that the lesson from the 1930s was that government should have a big presence in markets, there are experts who say that market intervention actually made the situation worse.
In 2004, economists at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), studied the policies of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal and determined his policies prolonged the Depression by seven years.
Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian blamed anti-free market measures for the slow recovery in an article published in the August 2004 issue of the Journal of Political Economy.
"[Roosevelt] came up with a recovery package that would be unimaginable today, allowing businesses in every industry to collude without the threat of antitrust prosecution and workers to demand salaries about 25 percent above where they ought to have been, given market forces. The economy was poised for a beautiful recovery, but that recovery was stalled by these misguided policies," Cole said in a press release dated Aug. 10, 2004.
—Paul Detrick is a research analyst at the Business & Media Institute.




















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WWII ended the Great Depression, not FDR
November 7, 2008 - 14:38 ET by ArchConservativeGovernment was the reason that the Depression lasted as long as it did. If Roosevelt didn't overstep his bounds and try to stack the Supreme Court we would have been in a much better position economically before December 7,1941. WWII was the reason that we got out of it.
The constant hand of FDR into the private sector was the worst mismangement of government ever seen in American history. Now we are about to make that same mistake again on a much larger and damaging scale.
You support the troops by supporting the mission! If you don't support the mission, have the guts to say you don't support the troops.
Obama: Not my President. Ever.
Those who don't remember history...
November 7, 2008 - 14:48 ET by AJBWhat STUPID people! According to REAL economists, the 30's depression would have been a run-of-the-mill mild recession EXCEPT the gub'ment people got involved. Then they spend the next fifty years lying about the causes. What did they teach you in school? It was the evil businessman, the wild speculation, the stock market shenanigans.
No. It was government who quadrupled income taxes in the same year they cut the money supply in half. With no liquidity, there was a financial meltdown. THEY were the cause. And we've had to live with the consequences of the Great Socialist, FDR, ever since. Social Insecurity, minimum wage, etc etc.
Forward this thread to OBAMA
November 7, 2008 - 15:18 ET by MaximusBraveheartObama on TV now saying how government will help. Someone please forward this to him and let him know that government should only facilitate business. Not impede the free economy. A free economy would not have made improper loans. They were forced to. Government allowed all the other bad paper and short trading scams by not enforcing laws. Buddy system looking after itself.
M-B
never let history stand in the way of good propaganda
November 7, 2008 - 14:49 ET by UndercoverConservativeit's said that "those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it". Sadly there are those who profit from the worst parts of history. And those types of people have no problem making damned sure that *no one* learns from history, and do everything they can to *force*people to repeat it.
So certain folks want us to act like it's the 30's again? Want to look back at what that era was like worldwide and the evils that came about soon after? Depressions, Isolationism, Eugenics, the rise of the Nazi party and it's pseudo-religious propaganda? the first industrialized attempts at genocide? And the seeds of what became the first wartime activation of nuclear weapons that created generations of fear while stifling future development of peaceful energy sources for over a half century (and beyond)?
No thanks. Let's *not* do things the way they did in the 30's. Let's try something different-Liberals are big on "social experiments" anyways. We did the Liberal thing already. Didn't quite work as planned. So, let's try another way of fixing things-less government, less welfare, less Kumbaya, less evil.
"to call an illegal immigrant an "undocumented alien" is the same as calling a streetcorner drug dealer an "unlicensed pharmacist".
"You spend your money anyway you want and respect other's rights to do the same"
History Repeats due to dumb media!
November 7, 2008 - 14:52 ET by MaximusBraveheartIf the media had been doing their job they would have pointed this out so people can make an INFORMED decision. They are hurting the USA by not doing any research and rabidly promoting socialist, non-moral, and immoral views.
M-B
The PC blinders are in full
November 7, 2008 - 15:06 ET by dscottThe PC blinders are in full virtual reality mode, the libs and MSM will only see what they want to see and implimenting PC policies thus guaranteeing this recession will turn into a Depression.
Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, starving the poor one gallon of ethanol at a time. Fill your tank with E85 and cull a village.
only half of the story
November 7, 2008 - 15:11 ET by i was just thinkingDon't forget, it also took a war. So it looks like we're set for a dynamic recovery... Obama will give us more government, and given his strong ideas on national defense, we're likely to have a war, too!
FDR Caused The Great Depression
November 7, 2008 - 15:18 ET by Gat New YorkWhat Norris and Uchitelle of the NY Times were talking about were essentially the myths of the Great Depression that we were taught in school.
The facts conflict with their myth.
Uchitelle: "panic reminiscent of the Great Depression."
Even during the height of this panic people were not on bread lines, jumping out of windows, and without basic essentials. Not even close!
Norris: "lessons of the '30's was to put ideology aside and do whatever you needed to bail out businesses."
The lesson of the 1930's was that the more government interferred the worse the financial situation became.
Uchitelle: "it took the U.S. 2-3 years until FDR took office and more than 2 years into The Great Depression before government stepped in an acted."
I would suggest that this supposed expert in economics history go back to school. Under Hoover government stepped in immediately with massive government intervention that took a market that slid from 321 down below 100. at the time we were NOT in a depression. When FDR took office he went on a binge of reckless government programs - some against the advice of most of his advisors - which took a deep recession and turned it into The Great Depression. Unemployment has gone up to 6.5% - the unemployment related to Carter's stagflation went over 11% - and the Great Depression went up under FDR to a sustained level of over 20% for years. So enough of the mindless hyperbole by the tabloid idiots at the Times.
Uchitelle: "2 or 3 years ago government intervention was thought to be the problem"
It was. The free market was affected by reckless government interference with forcing the banks to give mortgages to people who would not ordinarily qualify in the name of equal rights. That led to unfettered support of ACORN and allowing Fannie and Freddie to give out mortgages to these people more and more which led us to this problem. It was not a lack of government regulation - it was unethical and incompetent behavior by our government.
In watching "The Office of The President-Elect" Obama in his news conference I am reminded of one more thing. A major problem was the conflict Hoover and FDR had in the transition that help to intensify the economic problem. I had a hint that Obama might challenge Bush before he takes office. This could be interesting.
What these two clowns would find out if they went back to school is that The Great Depression was only resolved by our entry into World War II.
since we're taking a trip back in time
November 7, 2008 - 15:20 ET by katainkentI would recommend that
November 7, 2008 - 15:25 ET by Gat New YorkI would recommend that these NY Times clowns as well as Obama read Amity Shlaes book to understand reality before sinking the U.S. the way FDR did.
Hey, and Hitler and Mussolini...
November 7, 2008 - 15:31 ET by Prester John...did a great job in getting the economies of Italy and Germany going in the 30s also. In fact, they got their economies going much quicker than FDR got ours going. Built the autobahn, made the trains run on time, hosted the 36 Olympics in Berlin. And let us not forget ol' Uncle Joe Stalin and his creation of the Worker's Paradise in the Soviet Union.
Yep, government control of the economy is just great, especially when the people just go along with it.