speaking of anecdotal evidencemissmurchisonMarch 31 2009, 14:13:22 UTC
My mother is 90 years old, and she hasn't forgotten Hoover. A few years ago, we drove past a Hoover Elementary School and she said, "I can't believe they'd name a school after that man. He did nothing for us back in the Depression. Nothing!" I don't think Shales could convince her.
Re: speaking of anecdotal evidencemaryjane7547March 31 2009, 16:33:00 UTC
Oh man, my grandmother HATED Hoover. I used to love when she'd get started on him because there is nothing cuter than a little old lady at her angriest. I'd laugh so hard on the inside while nodding solemnly on the outside.
Re: speaking of anecdotal evidencemissmurchisonMarch 31 2009, 17:36:13 UTC
My mom was lucky because her parents kept her house. (I think this was mostly because the local banker was afraid of my grandmother.) But you just have to watch the way she handles her money and how she refuses to waste food (even carrots that have been reheated so many times they are orange mush) to know that it was not fun during the Hoover administration. And it was years, not months, after the crash before FDR took office.
You couldn't get another review of the book than the New York Times ?
People today are so of the mind set that clear answers exit, either black or white. Economics as an industry of thought just doesn't work that way. Yes. New Deal spending created work, and projects (like the Hoover dam) and thus put food on he table for some, but a broad cure all ?
FDR understood (unlike Bushie) that you have to go out and sell hope and make people think their fears are being addressed, and something is being done. This bought time and kept American from sliding into a situation of unrest like Italy and Germany.
Actually, about comparing to Keynes to FDR, what Krugman is t Obama - that is good, I never thought of that.
Keynes wrote to FDR twice, I think. The longest letter was in 1936, and he enclosed a manuscript of his groundbreaking General Theory. From what I have read, FDR basically filed it under "unsolicited egghead advice" at that time.
FDR, for all the ideological hatred he has gotten from the right recently, was not tailoring his econ. policies to conform them to Keynes', or any particular theoretician's, ideology. He had a good team around him that he instructed to go out and basically do field experiments, and whatever decreased unemployment, etc., keep it (like Works Progress Administration), and if it didn't work, it was closed down (like that Nat'l Recovery Act).
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The big time revisionist history on the right re: FDR is a huge chore to deal with. When reality doesn't go their way they just make shit up.
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People today are so of the mind set that clear answers exit, either black or white. Economics as an industry of thought just doesn't work that way. Yes. New Deal spending created work, and projects (like the Hoover dam) and thus put food on he table for some, but a broad cure all ?
FDR understood (unlike Bushie) that you have to go out and sell hope and make people think their fears are being addressed, and something is being done. This bought time and kept American from sliding into a situation of unrest like Italy and Germany.
Reply
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Keynes wrote to FDR twice, I think. The longest letter was in 1936, and he enclosed a manuscript of his groundbreaking General Theory. From what I have read, FDR basically filed it under "unsolicited egghead advice" at that time.
FDR, for all the ideological hatred he has gotten from the right recently, was not tailoring his econ. policies to conform them to Keynes', or any particular theoretician's, ideology. He had a good team around him that he instructed to go out and basically do field experiments, and whatever decreased unemployment, etc., keep it (like Works Progress Administration), and if it didn't work, it was closed down (like that Nat'l Recovery Act).
WWII basically rpvoed Keynes right.
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