# New Deal or Raw Deal - FDR's legacy



## Eoghan (Jan 16, 2012)

New Deal or Raw Deal - How FDR's economic legacy has damaged America.
Written by Burton Fulsom Junior and published by Simon and Schuster 
ISBN 978-4165-9237-2 

This is the second of my Christmas books (only two to go) and it was probably the book I was looking forward to most. I got side tracked by the easy to read “How an economy grows and why it crashes”.

FDR’s presidency is instructive for two things. What he did during his presidency and what he set in motion. He came into power to deal with an unemployment problem and a recession. His strategy was to spend (classic Keynesian economics) and to centralise power and planning. The basic idea was to give people what they wanted. This however can be at odds with what they needed. 

The book explains some of the key policies which contributed to the depression and then goes on to detail how FDR tried to treat it. The programmes were not administered dispassionately they were distributed for political gain. 

In his personal life he was unfaithful to his wife. I know this is something modern society overlooks but I disagree. It gives an insight into what used to be called ‘character’. 

The final chapters ask the question how successful was FDR and conclude he was not - in dealing with the depression. In another sense he was successful in making the man on the street feel that someone was doing something for him (even if it was in reality making the depression longer).

His centralising of power did worry America and there was a feeling he was leading America into a dictatorship, perhaps not him but a successor. Perhaps most telling is a discussion of his inauguration when he was sworn in to defend the American Constitution. He apparently wanted to shout “Yes, but it is the Constitution as I understand it…” This brings us to the concept of the “Living Constitution” that is a malleable and flexible understanding of the constitution. Those of us outside of the US might struggle a little with the concept but it is not dissimilar to arguments about scripture. I tend to think the Founding Fathers knew what they were writing in American Constitution and that it should be defended “as is”.

Does it have meaning for us in the UK – yes I think it does. The issues of state intrusion in business, hard currency, trade tariffs and the corrosive effect of welfare benefits affect us both.

It is not a light read but I do think it an important read. That said I did laugh out loud when I read of American farmers being paid to reduce production and being paid not to farm some of their acreage. In the law of unintended consequences many farmers set aside their worst land and used the cash to buy fertiliser to boost production on the remaining acreage. 

The book is well researched and includes 40 pages of references and an index.


----------



## Bill The Baptist (Jan 16, 2012)

I don't think there is any question that FDR's New Deal policies only served to prolong the depression and it was only WWII and the subsequent ramp up in manufacturing that ended it.


----------



## Rich Koster (Jan 16, 2012)

The Raw Deal. That describes it. Does it touch on the Marxist elements that were introduced to America?


----------



## Somerset (Jan 18, 2012)

This takes me back to 1976 when I had to write a paper for my degree on "Was the New Deal New?" Can't remember what I came up with.


----------



## Backwoods Presbyterian (Jan 18, 2012)

It is instructive that the vast majority of America is unaware unemployment was in the double-digits into 1941.


----------



## rbcbob (Jan 18, 2012)

I would also recommend the recent book THE FORGOTTEN MAN, A New History of The Great Depression by Amity Shlaes. Excellent!


----------

