Friday, October 10, 2008

Lessons From the Great Depression

We have been here before, and we should learn from the past.

On March 4, 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt took the oath of office and told Americans, "(T)he only thing we have to fear is fear itself...nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance...

"Values have shrunken to fantastic levels, taxes have risen, our ability to pay has fallen, government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income, the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade, the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side...the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone."

But FDR came to the White House ready to take action, and he did. When the next president moves into the White House in January, it may be too late to start.

What made the Great Depression a catastrophe, a leading economist points out, was "that some of the worst shocks occurred right before the 1932 presidential election. There then followed an extended interregnum between the election and inauguration of the new president when no one was in charge."

As Barack Obama and John McCain spend these next weeks trolling for votes, it would be comforting to see each of them set up a council of economic advisors to work on a set of specific measures that the winner would announce on November 5th to start putting a 21st century New Deal into motion.

As Hillary Clinton used to say in another context, the new President has to be ready to move on Day One.

2 comments:

RepubLiecan said...

Franklin D. Roosevelt took office as president in 1933.

Anonymous said...

This is the beginning of the "mark of the beast," a global currency that will bring about a control over the masses of the world, and slavery never before seen through credit debt, and other debt; no one can buy or sell with out it, and it will be made to sound so good at first: doing away with global crime, and anyone refusing to be part-of, must be a criminal to be eliminated...until the eyes are opened to the absolute control over all, and the slavery it will entail. The econemy has puposly been brought to this state, to enact the "cure" for your own good; like the "cure in Afghanastan for the heroin, freedom and democracy,(for their own good in Iraq)to take over oil, and the concouring of the whole middle east for Israel, for the end deception that "god" is presenting it to them. Not to mention the money from cocaine, which the U.S. took control over long ago. The secret economy is bigger than anyone could ever imagine, netting TRILLIONS a year, from its own citizens, and the world...then locking up it's own who supply them this money. Does anyone know that the Taliban were against heroin, and since we have been there, production rose 300%? The info here won't matter, because the blind, ignorant, and brainwashed will never believe it, and those that know have an answer for it. The fact is this incredible income is good for America, for National security, and for control of the planet to keep us all safe, and #one