New Deal or Raw Deal?
New Deal or Raw Deal?: How FDR's Economic Legacy Has Damaged America
Burton W., Jr. Folsom,
Publisher: Threshold Editions
ISBN: 1416592229
DDC: 973.917
Edition: Hardcover; 2008-11-04
Summary:
A sharply critical new look at Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency
reveals government policies that hindered economic recovery from the
Great Depression -- and are still hurting America today.In this
shocking and groundbreaking new book, economic historian Burton W.
Folsom exposes the idyllic legend of Franklin D. Roosevelt as a myth
of epic proportions. With questionable moral character and a vendetta
against the business elite, Roosevelt created New Deal programs
marked by inconsistent planning, wasteful spending, and opportunity
for political gain -- ultimately elevating public opinion of his
administration but falling flat in achieving the economic
revitalization that America so desperately needed from the Great
Depression. Folsom takes a critical, revisionist look at Roosevelt's
presidency, his economic policies, and his personal life.Elected in
1932 on a buoyant tide of promises to balance the increasingly
uncontrollable national budget and reduce the catastrophic
unemployment rate, the charismatic thirty-second president not only
neglected to pursue those goals, he made dramatic changes to federal
programming that directly contradicted his campaign promises. Price
fixing, court packing, regressive taxes, and patronism were all
hidden inside the alphabet soup of his popular New Deal, putting a
financial strain on the already suffering lower classes and
discouraging the upper classes from taking business risks that
potentially could have jostled national cash flow from dormancy. Many
government programs that are widely used today have their seeds in
the New Deal. Farm subsidies, minimum wage, and welfare, among
others, all stifle economic growth -- encouraging decreased
productivity and exacerbating unemployment.Roosevelt's imperious
approach to the presidency changed American politics forever, and as
he manipulated public opinion, American citizens became unwitting
accomplices to the stilted economic growth of the 1930s. More than
sixty years after FDR died in office, we still struggle with the
damaging repercussions of his legacy.
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