The 1930s were an interesting time period. Joan Crawford and Clark Gable were the biggest stars in Hollywood, Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw were tearing up the jazz scene and “Dick Tracy” was one of the most popular series on radio. Yep, the 1930s were sure interesting.
Of course, the United States was engulfed in the Great Depression thanks to the initiatives of Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the policies of the Federal Reserve. FDR had prolonged the Great Depression with his Keynesian economic endeavors that saw the U.S. government try to stimulate the economy with an array of make-work projects, new bureaucratic behemoths and interference in commerce.
If you listen to the mainstream media, the academics and Keynesian economists, you will be told that it was because of FDR and the Second World War that the U.S. was able to end the Great Depression. This is a common fallacy because it was the end of WWII that helped end the depression.
The big question that must be asked: will the next four years be like the 1930s (without the talented actors and musicians)? That’s what could happen, says Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s top strategist.
Speaking in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Bannon explained the Trump administration is “going to build an entirely new political movement” over the next four years. He denied being a white nationalist. Instead, he referred to himself as an “economic nationalist.”
According to Bannon, the next four years could see the Trump White House emulate the policies of FDR, which should be terrifying for Trump supporters who wanted to slash spending, balance the budget, shrink the government, “drain the swamp” and tackle the $20 national debt.
“It’s everything related to jobs. The conservatives are going to go crazy. I’m the guy pushing a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan. With negative interest rates throughout the world, it’s the greatest opportunity to rebuild everything. Ship yards, iron works, get them all jacked up. We’re just going to throw it up against the wall and see if it sticks. It will be as exciting as the 1930s, greater than the Reagan revolution — conservatives, plus populists, in an economic nationalist movement.” (emphasis ours)
By simply aping the New Deal, Trump is taking money out of the private sector and putting it in the hands of government bureaucrats. By imposing the 21st century version of the New Deal, Trump is practicing Napoleon economics of simply hiring workers to move a pile of dirt from his left side to his right side.
The U.S. is still paying for the policies of New Deal. And, if Trump moves ahead with New Deal 2.0, the next generation will be paying for it until their old age.
Robert Higgs is right: FDR has indeed left a lasting legacy that stays in the political consciousness of both Republicans and Democrats.
“Even more tragic is the lasting legacy of Roosevelt. The commitment of both masses and elites to individualism, free markets, and limited government suffered a blow in the 1930s from which it has yet to recover fully. The theory of the mixed economy is still the dominant ideology backing government policy. In place of old beliefs about liberty, we have greater toleration of, and even positive demand for, collectivist schemes that promise social security, protection from the rigors of market competition, and something for nothing.”
The next question: will the Keynesians and the liberals who have demanded such government intervention be pleased? They should be. This is what they have demanded for years.
Unfortunately, the next four years don’t seem too bright. It appears that Trump will be some hybrid of FDR and Richard Nixon.
If Trump wants to spend money like the 1930s, can he at least try to bring back William Powell and Myrna Loy from the dead?
This entire article is total bull shit. Trump is not going to do anything remotely close to FDR. Everything written here is so flawed I suggest you retract this moronic crap.
This article does give a plausable senario. That is unless the People demand that the Illegal Federal Reserve is abolished and the Gold and Silver standard is put back in place.
For that to occur, the People have to demand it loudly and publically; the return of Constitutional Currency.
The Fed has to be exposed for the scam (and the biggest Lie) that it has been for the past 100 years.
But, it is up to the People.
An election, by itself solves nothing if the People do not stay engaged.