As great as Rothbard’s book is, he ends with the Hoover administration. So I extend the Austrian analysis to explain the failures of the New Deal. For example, the official unemployment rate in 1938 averaged 19 percent. Inasmuch as Roosevelt was sworn in five years earlier in 1933, this is a rather damning indictment of the New Deal as a recovery program. All previous US depressions (or “panics”) had been long gone five years after the trough, and yet here we have the unemployment rate at 19 percent under the alleged savior of capitalism. FULL ARTICLE
Source link: http://archive.mises.org/9953/i-wrote-the-guide-to-extend-rothbard/
I Wrote the Guide to Extend Rothbard
Previous post: Mises in Europe
Next post: Using the Web to Beat Back the State
{ 6 comments }
A few years ago I heard a story on the radio about a study of FDR’s spending that said with few exceptions it went to cronies. States with Republican congressmen or Democratic congressmen who opposed FDR were left out in the cold.
Although likely covered in Murphy’s book, Roosevelt’s vote buying with WPA funds is covered extensively by Burton Folsom Jr., in New Deal or Raw Deal?. This book is not strictly from the Austrian perspective, though (it blames the bust on the tightening of credit, whilst Rothbard proves that untrue).
“…my new book also draws on some of the truly shocking anecdotes that Burt Folsom and other historians have found. For example, there is a letter from a Democratic party boss telling a woman that if she wants to stay on the WPA rolls, she needs to make a campaign contribution.”
What exactly is shocking about that? I think we can not condone instances like this without being sanguine about it. Just comes off as faux-naif. Not really shocking. The Republicans, the glass houses, the stones, etc. I own your book, though, Robert, and like it lots. Well done.
The discussion of whether or not people participating in the WPA were “employed” made me remember a conversation I had with my Dad and one of his brothers when I was a teenager. I had a history assignment to do an oral history of relatives who had experienced the Great Depression.
My question about whether they regarded FDR as a great president was met with eye-rolling sarcasm. When I asked about the WPA the response was mocking laughter and jokes about men being paid to lean on shovels. It was an early eye-opener in my life; my first inkling that what my high school history texts told me was less than truthful.
So I’m looking forward to reading your book. I haven’t been able to find a copy in a book store; I suppose I will have to order it. I at first wondered if it were being kept off of shelves deliberately, but book store employees I asked about it said that they couldn’t keep them in stock; one asked wonderingly if I knew why. So in my neck of the woods, at least, your book may be having the same effect as my Dad’s knowing laughter.
Robert:
Thank you for writing this new book! I made somewhat of a logical error stating Rothbard showed some of the extension of FDR’s policy in his book in a Daily article here a while back; I was simply connecting dots in my own mind and thought it was pretty obvious. But, you’ve gone and written the extension! I will add it to my collection, thanks.
Thanks for this book, Mr. Murphy.
I can think of two reasonable distinctions that can be drawn between those employed by government in planting trees on the one hand, and those employed in filling out unemployment compensation claims on the other.
Namely,
1) unemployment benefits are ostensibly temporary, while tree planting can be sustained relatively indefinitely; and
2) unemployment benefits are merely supplementary in magnitude
Thus, it’s a bit of a stretch to argue that filling out unemployment compensation papers is comparable to employment in planting trees.
I like the metaphor, but think it’s not fully apt.
Comments on this entry are closed.