The New Deal Didn't End the Great Depression

[deacon blues]

And it won't now.

The Stock Market crashed in 1929. FDR was elected in 1932 and introduced the New Deal. Many believe that the New Deal ended the Great Depression. Consider that the Great Depression didn't end until our introduction into World War II that didn't happen in earnest until 1942. If all of those government programs and Democratic economic policies were the answer to the Depression, why did it take 10 years to get us out of it? Could we say that the New Deal PROLONGED the Great Depression versus ended it?

Unemployment in 1932 was 23.6%. Unemployment had only dropped to 17.1% by the end of the decade. The Dow didn't reach 1929 levels until 1954. The fact remains that the most aggressive presidency in our history with all of its central planning and government intervention into the market with its work programs and raising the top tax rate from 25% to 63%, didn't end the Depression. World War did.

Unfortunately, because FDR remained president during WWII (in which he did a wonderful job as commander in chief), he gets credit also for ending the GD because of all of his economic policies. The truth, when examined, says something else.

Government bailouts aren't going to work. Obama's infrastructure programs won't work. You have to allow failure in a capitalistic economy. Capitialism without failure is like Christianity without sin.