The New Deal Was the Real Deal

The Repiglicans just can't stand it, and they're trying to revive the meme that FDR's New Deal never worked.

Via Brad Delong, the data don't lie:

...The interruption of the Roosevelt Recovery in 1937-1938 is, I think, wel understood: Roosevelt's decision to adopt more "orthodox" economic policies and try to move the budget toward balance and the Federal Reserve's decision to contract the money supply by raising bank reserve requirements provide ample explanation of that downturn. And once those two factors had run its course the continuation of Roosevelt's policies was no obstacle to an investment recovery driven by war-related exports monetary expansion produced by capital flight from Europe...

The New Deal was the real deal. It sounds like Obama is gearing up to do a lot of the same things: a national jobs program to rebuild infrastructure and tackle alernative energy development. This is wise, but it may be the sons of Prescott Bu$h do they same thing they did with FDR and try to throw a wrench in the machinery of recovery.