More from Nobel Prize winning economist Krugman on Obama emulating FDR
Obama hasn't been sworn in yet, yet he's already being referenced in contrast to FDR, like on this ontd_political post.
My personal hope is that Obama will be at least a watered-down FDR. Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman, who criminally is not on Obama's economic advisory team, says Obama "should be bolder, not more cautious" than FDR!
The New York Times
November 8, 2008, 3:37 pm
New Deal economics
by Paul Krugman
Everybody’s talking new New Deal these days - and, predictably, the FDR-haters are out in force, with all the usual claims about FDR having actually made the Great Depression worse. (To the right, way back when, FDR was “That Man.” Now Obama is “that one.” Interesting.)
Eric Rauchway is all over this. Basically, the anti-FDR argument on the data is based on (a) considering people employed by the WPA “unemployed” (even though they were getting paid, and building public works that are in use to this day) plus (b) always focusing on 1938 - the year in which the economy suffered a serious setback from the progress of the previous four years.
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[More charts and policy wonk stuff at article's original site, here.]
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Implications for Obama: be inspired by FDR, but don’t imitate him slavishly. In particular, your economic policy should be bolder, not more cautious.
Source: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/08/new-deal-economics/
And here is one of my favorite FDR quotes of all time, hard to imagine being made by a President today, and why FDR was called a "traitor to his class" by big business:
"FDR: Business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, [and] war profiteering had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage of their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand against me today.
They are unanimous in their hate for me - and I welcome their hatred. I should like to have it said of my first Administration that in it the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met their match. I should like to have it said of my second Administration that in it these forces met their master.”
-- Franking Delano Roosevelt campaign speech, 1936, vs. Republican Alf Landon
