Saturday, March 3, 2018
RE DK CURRENT POST 80 YEARS WHO DISDAINS EXPERTISE?
"..."Trump Proclaims Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum and Stocks Sag in Reply." Once again we have a President who prides himself on being an economic innovator, but one who, unlike FDR, disdains expertise and relies completely on his own instincts. Those stories illustrate a big difference in our political situation. 6 years into his presidency, FDR had definitely got the nation onto a new path, and although the economy was once again in a severe recession, he and the Congress were grappling with it together..." DK
So much one might say about this passage.
Reagan was an economic innovator...
Nixon was an economic innovator...
Clinton was an economic innovator...
And so on.
FDR was an economic innovator, but he had an enormous political mandate.
He did not conspicuously benefit the lower class much, as he has been touted to have done, but rather the middle class.
He was a great stimulus to free trade, which has ultimately proven catastrophic since 1932 for us. In fact, that was in part how he sold his liberal domestic programs.
He blamed Smoot Hawley for the Great Depression which he claimed, wrongly, to have been getting us out of.
More importantly, no good economist, especially someone like Kindleberger, even of that time, thought that Smoot Hawley caused the Great Depression, but they have almost all, later, nevertheless, paid lip service to this ridiculous account.
So when Professor Kaiser now contrasts FDR to Trump, as someone who disdains expertise, just be aware...FDR knew very well that there was very capable expertise on this issue which he was frankly ignoring.
Here is FDR's speech, 1932 , Sioux City Iowa:
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