What Can We Learn from FDR's Mistakes? The title and content of the last chapter of the book FDR's Folly illustrate the real purpose of Jim Powell through this book. It defended a laissez faire approach to today's economic problems. This aim led him to emphasize the downside of the New Deal and leave aside what doesn't meet his thesis and highlight the positive achievements of the New deal. Noticing the author's apparent refusal to include anything that might possibly reflect favorably on the thirty-second president, John Moser ironically asked how such a bad president managed to be reelected thrice, and each time by a convincing margin. It is true that the historians of the New Deal had long been overwhelmingly adulatory. Even amongst the New Deal's opponents, historians who criticized Roosevelt for tampering with the free market had long been outnumbered by historians from the Marxist left. FDR's Folly would have usefully balanced the traditional analysis of the New Deal if the book had not been so one-sided. Indeed, there is a large amount of truth in FDR's Folly and this paper doesn't aim to refute this large part of the book. On the other hand, Jim Powell has a very debatable analysis of some measures of the New Deal and even more important, he omits a lot of positive achievements of the leader and as a result, he concludes negatively on the New Deal.
[...] 416 fish hatcheries and 7,000 miles of firebreaks Source: US Federal Works Agency, Final Report on the WPA Program 1935-43. Washington: Government Printing Office (qtd. in Edsforth 226) Works Cited Droze, Wilmon H. New Deal's Shelterbelt Project, 1934-1942.” in Essays on the New Deal Ed. Hollingswoth, Harold M. & Holmes, William F. Arlington: The University of Texas Edsforth, Ronald. The New Deal: America's Response to the Great Depression. Malden: Blackwell Publishers Hamby, Alonzo L. For the Survival of Democracy: Franklin Roosevelt and the World Crisis of the 1930s. [...]
[...] it mean that the New Deal was a complete failure, that public works programs were a “disaster,” and FDR's legacy just a terrible debt as Jim Powell claims? This paper aimed to demonstrate that, instead, the New Deal did not only help tens of millions of Americans survive the Depression but also made tremendous structural reforms that had “surely played a role in determining the degree and the duration of postwar prosperity” (Kennedy p363). This paper is focused on two emblematic accomplishments of President Roosevelt reform of the banking and financial sectors, and the public works relief programs both vehemently criticized by Powell. [...]
[...] Jim Powell is vehement on this point and especially emphasizes on the inefficacity of the Federal Reserve System due to its decentralized features. The Federal Reserve Board, a committee of seven bank officials, each equal of the others, was generally unable to agree on bold actions and therefore tended to do nothing (35). Consequently, President Roosevelt should be credited for his reform of the Federal Reserve System, what Powell obviously does not admit. The Banking Act of 1935 authored by Marriner Eccles gave power to the President to appoint the seven members of the Board of Governors, including a chairman. [...]
[...] Powell criticism is really controversial all the more so that many principles such as securities issuers' obligation to provide information and accountability have been introduced by the New Dealers and are nowadays widely considered as essential for a well-doing financial system. Kennedy reminds the reader that “Wall Street before the 1930s was strikingly information-starved environment” (367). Indeed, many companies did not release regular reports or even just reliable information although their securities were publicly traded. In these circumstances, investment bankers like J.P. [...]
[...] This list to which it should be added the contribution of the other New Deal agencies especially the PWA shows the extent of the achievements of public works. Everywhere in the country and especially in the rural zones, construction or improvement of roads, bridges, parks, sewers, water system, schools, hospitals, dams, etc, made a real difference in people's everyday lives. Tens of million of rural Americans were offered the modern comforts of electricity. Thus, despite Powell's criticism, the New Deal public works relief programs were a successful way to help the Americans, especially the most vulnerable ones, to survive the Depression with dignity and in the same time to greatly improve public infrastructure everywhere but especially in the most needy regions. [...]
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