Are there similarities between the current recession and the FDR New Deal era? The folks at Reason put this video together arguing so much.
Statists and enthusiasts of excessive control of the market enthusiastically liken Obama to FDR, the premise of their enthusiasm being FDR's hyper intervention saved the country from a crushing depression.
The comparison of Obama with FDR, however, is not be a flattering one. As Jim Powell amply illustrates in his book FDR's Folly
, government control and manipulation of nearly all aspects of the economy--and therefore society--turned a not uncommon to American history depression into a deep and abiding depression, lasting over a decade. If President Obama is the new FDR, we have worse economic times ahead, and for a long time.Hence, the great depression.
Put another way, why was this one depression bad enough to be remembered our only great depression?
A market economy runs primarily on freedom: cooperation among individuals, contractual agreements, entrepreneurship, pursuit of respective self interest, and marginal business growth require free society. In order to create wealth, employment, and standard of living for a diverse population of millions, capital and limited resources with alternative uses must be efficiently allocated and utilized. Controlled and over regulated markets have never been up to this task and create the uncertainty in market condition-- lack of freedom, that is--that stagnates growth. Government destruction of the freedom required by the market and regulation beyond its proper role (and there is a good role for government) inevitably brings about economic stagnation and high unemployment.
Remember to ask, what and who is "the free market," or what is more commonly tossed around, "the private sector"? It is nothing less than you, me, and other individuals freely and responsibly pursuing our respective self interest. Demand more regulation of "the private sector" and you're demanding more control of your own lives!
Of course, it's never ourselves and our own liberty we don't trust; it is always the other guy.
