- With good reason, progressive economists reflect positively
on Roosevelt's New Deal even though:
-
- -- it failed to end the Great Depression;
- -- had many flaws;
- -- did too little for blacks, women, immigrants, small
farmers, agricultural workers, and the poor;
-
- -- let blacks be persecuted, discriminated against, and
in the South denied their voting rights and lynched;
-
- -- 10 weeks after Pearl Harbor, he signed an Executive
Order interning loyal Japanese American citizens because of their ethnicity;
smaller numbers of German and Italian Americans as well;
-
- -- despite popular discontent with US broadcasting, he
signed the 1934 Communications Act establishing permanent broadcasting
law that handed the public airwaves to entrenched interests and laid the
foundation for today's corrupted media; he called it a "New Deal in
Radio Law," indeed for the broadcasters that profited;
-
- -- his main task was to save capitalism, not remake America
into a social democracy beyond what was necessary at the time;
-
- -- like all elected officials, Roosevelt was above all
a politician who wanted to be re-elected; and
-
- -- it took a world war to restore prosperity.
- Nonetheless, his achievements were impressive, and the
differences between then and now are stark - during the two gravest economic
periods in US history. Obama embraces the Money Trust. Roosevelt, rhetorically
at least, confronted "the unscrupulous money changers."
-
- The problem is what he did, how, what he didn't do; what
he could have done better; and if he had, maybe the Great Depression might
not have been as Great or, in fact, Great at all.
-
- He failed to do what Jackson and Lincoln did - return
money-creation power to the people, as the Constitution mandates, instead
leaving it in private hands - the very "moneychangers" he denounced
with the Federal Reserve atop its pyramid.
-
- Rather than finance New Deal programs with interest-free
money, he chose debt obligations to private bankers, left the Fed's power
unchanged, and turned deep recessionary years into the Great Depression.
-
- Government-created money would have eliminated the national
debt, income taxes, and most important given the gravity of the crisis,
would have produced stable growth and prosperity without needing a world
war to get it. Lincoln did it, the Civil War notwithstanding, and so did
early colonists with interest-free money. Their decision to break free
from the Bank of England (run by bankers) sparked the War of Independence.
Britain wanted its power back, colonists resisted, hence the war.
-
- A future article addresses this topic and much more.
This one focuses on Roosevelt's first 100 days v. Obama's and the differences
in their approaches - helping people, not bankers, the above comments notwithstanding;
curbing speculation, not protecting it; imposing regulations and enforcing
them, not disdaining them; establishing social services, not ignoring public
needs; and much more.
-
- In all, 15 landmark laws were enacted that (imperfections
aside) set a standard for dealing with a troubled economy - so grave in
March 1933 that (except for the Civil War period), machine guns protected
government buildings because the nation's financial system had collapsed,
peoples' life savings and jobs were being lost, and it was feared they'd
react violently as a result.
-
- The Emergency Banking Act
-
- Roosevelt took office on March 4, 1933. The next day
(through a special congressional session), he declared a four-day bank
holiday. On March 9, the Emergency Banking Act passed that closed insolvent
banks, then reorganized and reopened viable ones under Treasury supervision,
with federal loans available if needed.
-
- By mid-March, one-half of all banks with 90% of deposits
were judged solvent and reopened. Forty-five percent of the others were
reorganized under "conservators." The rest were shut down. By
mid-April, over 12,800 banks were operating, 4000 fewer by year end after
closures and mergers, and by 1935 one-third were nationalized, an idea
the Obama administration rejects, but sooner or later will have no alternative
but to embrace for the large most troubled ones.
-
- The Bank Act of 1933 - Glass-Steagall
-
- On June 16, the Bank Act of 1933 (Glass-Steagall) created
the FDIC insuring bank deposits up to $5000 and separated commercial from
investment banks and insurance companies, among other provisions to curb
speculation. Senator Carter Glass was its prime mover and got Senator Henry
Steagall to go along by attaching his amendment to protect deposits. For
years, Glass believed bankers should stick to their knitting, not deal
in or hold corporate securities. He blamed them for the 1929 crash, the
subsequent bank failures, and Great Depression that followed. The Bank
Act of 1933 passed quickly to curb them.
-
- Much more as well and largely people-oriented, not Obama's
agenda to reward banksters with trillions of public dollars. More on that
below.
-
- Other economic measures enacted were:
-
- The Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC)
-
- In 1932, Herbert Hoover created it, but Roosevelt streamlined
its bureaucracy and increased its funding to recapitalize troubled banks
and corporations. Under Hoover, it had $500 million in capital with authorization
to borrow up to $1.5 billion more. In its first six months, it loaned banks
over $800 million but didn't halt the crisis. Like today, they retained
their reserves, shunned lending, and, besides, public trust was lacking.
-
- Roosevelt's New Deal changed things. Under the 1933 Emergency
Banking Act, RFC could buy bank equity and within a year bought more than
$1 billion, or about one-third of total banks' capital. At the same time,
government measures and oversight restored public confidence enough to
attract hundreds of millions in deposits that pumped life into troubled
banks if only for starters.
-
- During his tenure, Roosevelt used RFC funding for agencies
like the Home Owners' Loan Corporation, Farm Credit Administration, Rural
Electrification Administration, Public Works Administration, and others
as well as emergency relief loans to states, something Hoover never did,
let alone establish New Deal policies to let him.
-
- The Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 - Following the
Securities Act of 1933
-
- The 1933 law (enacted May 27, 1933) required that offers
and sales of securities be registered, pursuant to the Constitution's interstate
commerce clause. Previously, they were governed by state laws, known as
"blue sky laws" to protect against fraud.
-
- The 1934 law (enacted June 6, 1934) regulates secondary
trading of financial securities and established the SEC under Section 4
to enforce the new Act, then later the Trust Indenture Act of 1939, the
1940 Investment Company Act and Investment Advisers Act, Sarbanes-Oxley
of 2002, and the 2006 Credit Rating Agency Reform Act.
-
- Overall, it's to enforce federal securities laws, the
securities industry, the nation's financial and options exchanges, and
other electronic securities markets unknown in the 1930s along with derivatives
and other forms of speculation. Then and now, it's charged with uncovering
wrongdoing, assuring investors aren't swindled, and keeping the nation's
financial markets free from fraud. At least that was the idea. Eventually,
the fulfillment fell far short of the promise.
-
- In the 1930s, regulation worked by requiring that salesmen
and brokers be licensed, prospectuses be used, full disclosure provided,
and enough enforcement as well to cut fraud significantly. In addition,
Glass-Steagall eliminated many 1920s shenanigans, a decade, like today,
when Wall Street did as it pleased, created speculative excesses, and caused
the inevitable crash.
-
- Reforms were simpler to implement at a time fewer than
5% of the public owned stocks compared to 50% today, and most were sophisticated
enough to know what they were doing or thought so. Also, there were no
401ks, IRAs, or a proliferation of mutual and hedge funds like today let
alone:
-
- -- securitization/structured finance asset-backed securities
(ABSs), mortgage-backed securities (MBSs), collateralized mortgage obligations
(CMOs), collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), collateralized bond obligations
(CBOs), credit default swaps (CDSs), and collateralized fund obligations
(CFOs) - combined, sliced, diced, packaged, repackaged, and sold in tranches
to sophisticated and ordinary investors, many to mutual fund buyers, never
knowing they owned any, let alone were being swindled; and
-
- -- derivative futures, options, forwards, swaps, warrants,
leaps, baskets, swaptions, and whatever else Wall Street minds can invent,
package, and sell in various ways and forms - too much of it not on the
up and up as the current crisis revealed.
-
- Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC)
-
- It was established in 1933 under the Homeowners Refinancing
Act to refinance homes and prevent foreclosures, something largely missing
in Obama's Homeowners Affordability and Stability Plan, the so-called mortgage
bailout. It mainly helps lenders, does nothing for homeowners under water
or those with second mortgages. Nor does it address plunging property valuations
and its affect on millions.
-
- In contrast, HOLC extended short and longer-term loans
for up to 30 years and prevented the loss of over a million homes (about
one-fifth of those owned with mortgages, the equivalent of 10 million today)
at a time half were in default, and annual mortgage lending and residential
construction was down 80%.
-
- States began enacting foreclosure moratoriums at a time
the average owner was two years in delinquency and three years behind on
property taxes. In today's dollars, relative to current GDP, HOLC was initially
authorized to issue $200 billion in bonds, acquire defaulted properties
in exchange for them from lenders and investors, then refinance mortgages
at lower rates (at a maximum 5%) to keep owners from losing their homes.
-
- An essential HOLC element was for lenders and investors
to take losses to provide more affordable mortgages for their holders -
something missing in Obama's plan that lets issuers add unpaid balances
to principal in return for lower rates and term extensions, meaning defaults
are delayed, not stopped, and as valuations keep falling, millions more
may lose their homes.
-
- HOLC was hugely successful but not perfect. Given the
dire conditions of the times, around 200,000 owners eventually defaulted
but 80% were saved, far different from today with over four million foreclosures
and 2009 estimates ranging from three million more to much higher numbers,
plus many more in 2010.
-
- The Economy Act
-
- It was enacted on March 14, 1933 to deliver on Roosevelt's
campaign promise to balance the "regular" non-emergency budget,
be fiscally prudent, and do it by cutting government employees' salaries
and veterans pensions by 40% for a $500 million savings at the worst possible
time to do it. As a candidate, Roosevelt said deficit spending impaired
recovery and hurt business confidence. However, as president, New Deal
spending took precedence. By 1936, even four million veterans got their
$1.5 billion bonus, in Bonus Bill cash and welfare benefits over Roosevelt's
veto.
-
- The Beer-Wine Revenue Act
-
- On February 17, 1933, a dismal experiment ended when
the Blaine Act repealed Prohibition, the Constitution's 18th Amendment,
then formally adopted iti in December under the 21st Amendment.
-
- On March 22, passage of the Beer-Wine Revenue Act levied
a $5 tax on every barrel of beer and wine and reenacted parts of the Webb-Kenyon
Act to protect states with laws prohibiting alcoholic beverages in excess
of 3.2%. States also were left in charge of the sale and distribution of
spirits.
-
- The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
-
- The March 31, 1933 Emergency Conservation Work Act (CCC)
put unemployed men to work on numerous projects - building roads, bridges,
parts of dams, developing state parks, planting trees, and various forestry
and recreational programs for the Forest Service, National Park Service,
Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Land Management,
and Soil Conservation Service.
-
- Reportedly, it was FDR's favorite initiative. On April
5, Executive Order 6101 launched it by appointing a Director of Emergency
Conservation Work "By virtue of the authority vested in me by the
(CCC) Act of Congress...." It had great public support. By year end
1935, it employed over 600,000 in 2650 camps (including supervisors and
administrators) in every state engaged in more than 100 kinds of work.
-
- Civilian Works Administration (CWA)
-
- On May 12, 1933, enactment of the Federal Emergency Relief
Act established the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) to provide
funds to states (from May through December 1935) to reduce unemployment.
It set up CWA, supplied over $3 billion for various work and transient
projects, created temporary jobs for over 20 million, then was gradually
ended in favor of the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
-
- Before it did, it was considered a significant initiative
with Washington taking responsibility for the welfare of millions, both
employable and unemployable, at a time of desperate need. Its flexibility
and high administrative standards made it a model for later relief efforts.
-
- The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)
-
- Passed on June 16, 1933, Roosevelt called it "the
most important and far-reaching (law) ever enacted by the American Congress."
It established the National Recovery Administration (NRA) as an initiative
to revive economic growth, encourage collective bargaining, set maximum
work hours, minimum wages, at times prices, and forbid child labor in industry.
-
- Business response was mixed. GE helped write it, and
the Chamber of Commerce said it was "a most important step in our
progress towards business rehabilitation." In contrast, the National
Association of Manufacturers and Henry Ford, among others, opposed it.
-
- So did the Supreme Court unanimously in its Poultry Corp.
v. United States (May 1935) ruling that NIRA/NRA "lay outside the
authority of Congress," infringed on states' rights, unreasonably
stretched the Commerce Clause, and gave legislative powers to the president
in violation of the Nondelegation doctrine. It added that "extraordinary
conditions do not create or enlarge constitutional powers."
-
- By then, the Act was increasingly unpopular, and many
doubted its effectiveness. Some economists called it counterproductive
and damaging to economic stability by weakening antitrust laws and allowing
collusion.
-
- Public Works Administration (PWA)
-
- It was created by NIRA for PWA-initiated projects to
provide jobs, increase purchasing power, improve public welfare, and help
revive the economy. Some called it designed to prime the pump and spend
"big bucks on big projects," including electricity-generating
dams, airports, schools, hospitals, affordable housing, even aircraft carriers.
-
- While it operated, it spent over $6 billion but did little
to lift the economy or reduce unemployment because it didn't do enough
toward for either. When the nation moved toward war production, PWA became
irrelevant and was ended.
-
- Works Progress Administration (WPA)
-
- It was a post-first 100 day initiative funded by the
April 1935 Emergency Relief Appropriation Act and launched by Roosevelt's
May 6 Executive Order 7034 "to move from the relief rolls to work
on (various) projects or in private employment the maximum number of persons
in the shortest time possible."
-
- It replaced FERA, CWA and PWA to became the largest New
Deal agency, employing millions in every state, especially in rural and
western areas - those able to work, not the aged, handicapped or otherwise
unemployable to be helped mostly at state and local levels. It and other
programs eventually found jobs for about 60% of the nation's unemployed,
paying around $50 a month (on WPA jobs) that went a lot further then than
now.
-
- WPA focused heavily on construction and developmental
programs but also in areas of education, the arts, health, and other community
projects for professional and white collar workers as well as efforts to
feed children and redistribute food, clothing and provide housing.
-
- Most observers called WPA a success. Others, however,
objected to its competing unfairly with business, dispensing jobs as
political favors, undercutting prevailing wages, and letting social protest
themes be part of various arts projects. Once war production began, WPA
shifted focus in that direction. By mid-1943, most alphabet soup agencies
ended in favor of business as usual taking over post-war.
-
- The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
-
- On May 18, 1933, the Tennessee Valley Authority Act became
law creating TVA as a federally-owned corporation to provide navigation,
flood control, electricity generation, economic development, and promote
agriculture in the depression-impacted Tennessee Valley area covering most
of Tennessee as well as parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia,
North Carolina, and Virginia. It was the federal government's largest regional
planning agency and remains so.
-
- From 1933 - 1944, it built 16 dams and a steam plant,
produced electricity cheaply, and by 1941 was its largest producer in the
country. It also established the Electric Home and Farm Authority (EHFA)
to help farmers buy major electric appliances with EHFA low-cost financing.
-
- In Ashwander v. TVA (February 1936), the Supreme Court
ruled it constitutional, noting that regulating interstate commerce includes
doing it for streams. They require flood control for navigability, and
electricity generation is a by-product of this effort.
-
- Today, TVA remains America's largest public power company,
with over 34,600 megawatts in generating capacity serving about 8.5 million
customers.
-
- The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)
-
- Enacted on May 12, 1933, it restricted production by
paying farmers to reduce and/or destroy crops and kill livestock at a time
millions were impoverished and hungry. The idea was to decrease supply
and raise prices (at the worst possible time) with farmers getting government
payments for agreeing not to plant specific crops, not produce milk and
butter, nor raise pigs and lambs. In addition, the Agriculture Secretary
had exclusive powers to license food processors to control supply and raise
prices.
-
- In United States v. Butler (January 1936), the Supreme
Court ruled that the tax underwriting AAA was unconstitutional because,
among other reasons, it assessed one farmer to pay another. Congress later
achieved part of AAA's goals through the 1935 Soil Conservation and Domestic
Allotment Act until enactment of the second AAA in February 1938. It was
funded through general taxation and thus constitutionally acceptable to
the High Court.
-
- AAA was conceptually flawed. It ran counter to vitally
needed policy to produce low-cost food, make it affordable for millions,
and relieve hunger. It also subsidized owners, not tenant farmers or sharecroppers,
and ended up depressing incomes and increasing unemployment at the worst
possible time.
-
- The Farm Credit Act of 1933
-
- Enacted on June 16, 1933 (the last of FDR's first 100
days), it was established to help farmers refinance mortgages over an extended
time at below-market rates, and by so doing, helped them stay solvent and
survive. It also created the Farm Credit Administration to make loans for
the production and marketing of agricultural products as well as regulate
and examine banks, associations, and related Farm Credit System entities
- a network of borrower-owned financial institutions to provide credit
to farmers, ranchers, and agricultural and rural utility cooperatives.
-
- The May 1933 Emergency Farm Mortgage Act, established
during the time of the Dust Bowl, provided refinancing help for farmers
facing foreclosure.
-
- An Overall Assessment
-
- Despite its flaws and failures, FDR's New Deal was remarkable
in what it accomplished. It helped people, put millions back to work, reinvigorated
the national spirit, built or renovated 700,000 miles of roads, 7800 bridges,
45,000 schools, 2500 hospitals, 13,000 parks and playgrounds, 1000 airfields,
and various other infrastructure, including much of Chicago's lakefront
where this writer lives. It cut unemployment from 25% in May 1933 to 11%
in 1937, then it spiked before early war production revived economic growth
and headed it lower.
-
- The Great Depression was, in fact, two severe recessions:
-
- -- from summer 1929 - March 1933;
-
- -- followed by a 1933 - 1937 recovery; impressive enough
for the Dow Industrials to rise from a July 1932 low of 43 to 187 in February
1937 for a near-335% gain; however, the rally followed an 89% decline so
even the new top ended up 50% below the 1929 peak of 385, a level it took
25 years to regain; then
-
- -- from May 1937 - June 1938, another slump followed
(and a 47% Dow average decline) in response to reduced government spending
before early war preparations produced recovery.
-
- It might have been stronger and quicker had Roosevelt
embraced all of Keynes' advice in a December 31, 1933 New York Times "Open
Letter" (republished on November 25, 2008 in the London Guardian)
to:
-
- -- "spend, spend, spend;"
-
- -- supply "cheap and abundant credit;"
- -- stress "speed and quick" recovery over reform
that can come later;
-
- -- hold back on recovery-impeding reforms initially;
-
- -- direct recovery to "increas(ing) the national
output," increasing purchasing power, and "put(ting) more men
to work;"
-
- -- let rising output, not government policies, produce
price increases; "increasing aggregate purchasing power is the right
way to get prices up and not the other way around;"
-
- -- undertake "a large volume of Loan-expenditures
under Government auspices" but work cooperatively with business; and
-
- -- concentrate on projects that "can be made to
mature quickly on a large scale, as for example the rehabilitation of the
physical condition of the railroads."
-
- Roosevelt did much of the above, but not enough of it,
then in 1937 declared victory too early and precipitated another downturn.
Nonetheless, he deserves praise for what he accomplished during the gravest
ever economic period to that time. He confronted it head-on with emergency
first 100 days measures and vital reforms, Keynes advice notwithstanding,
including:
-
- -- the above-cited "first 100 days" legislation,
then later
-
- -- the National Labor Relations Board with the passage
of the 1935 Wagner Act, that, for the first time, let labor bargain collectively
on equal terms with management - something very much eroded in today's
environment;
-
- -- the 1935 Social Security Act that to this day is the
single most important federal program responsible for keeping seniors and
others eligible out of poverty;
-
- -- unemployment insurance in partnership with the states;
by 1935, nearly all the unemployed got social benefit payments;
-
- -- the Revenue Acts of 1934 and 1935, so-called "Soak
the Rich" ones to make high income earners pay their fair share;
-
- -- the Revenue Act of 1936 that established an "undistributed
profits tax" on corporations;
-
- -- the Revenue Act of 1937 that cracked down on tax evasion;
-
- -- a minimum wage, a 40-hour week, and time-and-a-half
for overtime guarantees under the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA);
-
- -- public housing under the 1934 National Housing Act
(creating the Federal Housing Administration - FHA) to make housing and
mortgages more affordable through FHA and Federal Savings and Loan Insurance
Corporation (FSLIC) financing;
-
- -- the May 1935-established Rural Electrification Administration
(REA) to bring electrical power to rural and remote areas;
-
- -- the 1937 Housing Act (Wagner-Steagall Act) providing
subsidies to local public housing agencies;
-
- -- the Railroad Retirement System, separate from Social
Security, administering a social insurance program for railroad workers
and their families;
- -- the National Youth Administration (NYA) under WPA
to help youth unemployment through grants to high school and college students
in return for work; it also aided unemployed young people not in school
with on-the-job training in federally-funded work projects to provide marketable
future skills; and
- -- more initiatives in an effort to reform and revive
the economy.
-
- Obamanomics - Obama's Bad Deal
-
- As stated above, Roosevelt confronted "the money
changers," even though mostly through rhetoric. Obama, like Bush,
embraces them openly to the tune of $12.8 trillion "spent, lent or
guaranteed," according to Bloomberg on March 31 while people needs
go begging at a time they're most essential. He leads:
-
- -- an imperial enterprise presided over by a war cabinet
engaged in unbridled militarism, aggressive wars and occupation with a
budget well above $1 trillion annually;
- -- a bogus democracy under a homeland police state apparatus;
- -- an anti-labor job destruction offensive, from 800,000
- one million a month since his inauguration, compared to FDR creating
employment for most workers and reviving the national spirit; and
- -- a criminal cabal in charge of the greatest ever wealth
transfer in history - from the public to the top 1%, mainly powerful corrupt
Wall Street institutions.
- As Michel Chossudovsky explains, his budget reflects
"the most drastic curtailment in public spending in American history."
It's a "War Budget (affecting) all major federal (programs except):
1. Defense and the Middle East War(s and whatever new ones are planned);
2. the Wall Street bank bailout, (and) 3. Interest payments (approaching
$500 billion annually) on a staggering (growing) public debt."
-
- People needs don't matter. They get little more than
lip service, and in his April 14 Georgetown University economic policy
speech, Obama promised disappointment. When he should have been Rooseveltian,
he defended bank bailouts, suggested more are coming, championed "free
market" rubbish, and presented "five pillars (to) make the new
century another American (one):"
-
- -- no-teeth financial regulations;
-
- -- education reform, meaning the Bush agenda to end public
education;
-
- -- renewable energy and technology investments, likely
to be far less than needed and for the wrong things;
- -- health care reform minus Medicare-for-all to assure
profits trump human need; and
-
- -- "restoring fiscal discipline (by) reduc(ing)
discretionary spending for domestic programs" at the same time it's
been recklessly abandoned for bankers and militarism....we (cannot solve
this problem by trimming a few earmarks; (the) biggest (budget costs) are
entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security all of
which get more expensive every year....So if we want to get serious about
fiscal discipline - and I do - we will have to get serious about entitlement
reform" - meaning phase them out in future years, or something close
to that.
-
- Unless policies like these are reversed, this agenda
is heading the nation toward insolvency, tyranny and ruin with ordinary
people hurt most.
-
- Simon Johnson is a former IMF chief economist, now teaching
at MIT's Sloan School of Management. His article in the Atlantic's May
issue, titled "The Quiet Coup," suggests that Wall Street (a
"financial oligarchy") is turning America into a "banana
republic," given the depth, similarities and shock "reminiscent
of" earlier crises in Southeast Asia, Russia, Latin America, and other
developing countries.
-
- His analysis is long and detailed, concluding as follows:
-
- "The conventional wisdom among the elite is still
that the current slump 'cannot be as bad as the Great Depression.' This
view is wrong. What we face now could, in fact, be worse than the Great
Depression - because the world is now so much more interconnected and the
banking sector so big. We face a synchronized downturn in almost all countries,
a weakening of confidence among individuals and firms, and major problems
for government finances. If our leadership wakes up to the potential consequences,
we may yet see dramatic action on the banking system and a breaking of
the old elite."
-
- So far policy is mirror-opposite, hugely destructive,
publicly papered over but evident in divergent G 20 views, raging on London
and other European streets, to a lesser degree in America, and openly stated
by Czech prime minister/EU president Mirek Topolanek calling Washington's
stimulus "a way to hell (that will) undermine the stability of"
global finance.
-
- Obama is wrecking America. Roosevelt determined to revive
it and help people as the way to do it.
-
- He had his "Brain Trust," notable figures like
Felix Frankfurter, (a future Supreme Court justice), Justice Louis Brandeis,
consumerist/labor supporter Frances Perkins, economist Rexford Tugwell,
educator/author Adolph Berle, and close personal confidant Louis Howe,
among others - officials and advisors dedicated to reviving the economy
by putting people back to work. One other was prominent as well, his wife
Eleanor.
-
- Rexford Tugwell said this about her:
-
- "No one who ever saw Eleanor Roosevelt sit down
facing her husband, and, holding his eye firmly, say to him, 'Franklin,
I think you should....or, 'Franklin, surely you will not....' will ever
forget the experience....It would be impossible to say how often and to
what extent American governmental processes have been turned in new directions
because of her determination."
-
- At first, she worried she'd be marginalized as first
lady, unable to speak publicly about causes she championed. But it didn't
stop her. She held press conferences for women reporters only; pressed
FDR to appoint more women and much more:
-
- -- she urged the creation of the National Youth Administration;
-
- -- became a civil rights champion and pushed for including
blacks in government programs;
-
- -- supported the Southern Tenant Farmer's Union;
-
- -- worked with the PWA's Housing Division for planned
communities ("greenbelt towns") and slum clearance;
-
- -- backed Federal Arts Projects, even ones with "controversial"
themes;
-
- -- supported worker rights and lobbied for the Wagner
and Fair Labor Standards Acts;
-
- -- visited coal mines, migrant camps, homes of sharecroppers
and slum-dwellers;
-
- -- wrote articles, spoke publicly and on radio;
-
- -- traveled widely to see firsthand how the Depression
affected the most vulnerable; and
-
- -- displayed an unmatched spirit, passion and dedication,
and, by so doing, set a standard never matched by another first lady; few,
in fact, even tried.
-
- That Was Then, This Is Now - A Different Time, A Different
President, A Different Agenda
-
- The differences between FDR and Obama are stark during
the two gravest economic crises in our history. Obama chose a financial
coup d'etat "dream team" to address it. It includes a rogue's
gallery of 1990s and earlier retreads, many of them proteges of former
Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin who plundered world economies during his
tenure, then led Citigroup close to collapse - disciples like Treasury
Secretary Timothy Geithner, former New York Fed president who partnered
with Ben Bernanke and Hank Paulson's Treasury-looting under Bush.
-
- Reportedly he was also one of the architects behind the
Bear Stearns bailout and various others, including Fannie, Freddie, AIG,
Merrill Lynch, Washington Mutual, and Lehman Bros.' suspicious collapse
that shocked financial markets globally. He now runs the Treasury and continues
looting on a grander scale on the pretext of reviving the economy. Instead,
he's wrecking it - by design.
-
- Others like Lawrence Summers, a former Reaganite and
World Bank chief economist before becoming Clinton's Under-Treasury Secretary
for International Affairs, then Treasury Secretary from 1999 - 2001. He
helped deregulate financial markets and played a key role in the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley
Act that repealed Glass-Steagall and opened the door to the kinds of rampant
speculation, fraud, and abuse that created today's crisis.
-
- He was also instrumental in the passage of the 2000 Commodity
Futures Modernation Act (CFMA). It legitimized "swap agreements"
and other "hybrid instruments" at the heart of today's problems
by preventing regulatory oversight of derivatives and leveraging that turned
Wall Street into a casino.
-
- Now he's do for Obama what he did earlier - as Director
of the National Economic Council where he's part of a criminal cabal triumvirate
in charge of economic policies along with Geithner and Bernanke.
-
- Another Rubin protege, Peter Orszag, heads the Office
of Management and Budget. Earlier he was on Clinton's Council of Economic
Advisors, then was Congressional Budget Office Director from early 2007
to late 2008. He's for destroying Social Security through a combination
of payroll and "benefits adjustments" as a way of cutting retiree
payouts.
-
- Also close to Rubin and for Social Security privatization
is Jason Furman, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council. In the
Clinton administration, he served as Special Assistant to the President
for Economic Policy and on the Council of Economic Advisors.
-
- UC Berkeley economist Christina Romer chairs the Council
of Economic Advisors where she's close to the president but with less clout
than Geithner, Summers and Bernanke. Her idea of good government - the
less the better, except for handouts to the rich. In praise of Ronald Reagan
she once wrote: "The costly wrong turn in ideas and macropolicy of
the 1960s and 1970s has been set right, and the future of stabilization
looks bright," meaning, of course, to take from the many for the few.
-
- That's also true for Paul Volker (former Fed chairman,
Trilateralist, corporatist and no friend of working people), now serving
as 1st Chair of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, a position
with lots of bark and little bite, but enough to pay attention to nonetheless,
especially when he differs on public policy.
-
- Former Washington governor Gary Locke is the new Commerce
Secretary, hailed as "safe (and) strait-laced," but his record
shows otherwise. He skirted campaign finance laws; handed Boeing a $3.2
billion tax break; paid Boeing's private consultant and outside auditor
$715,000; and arranged favors for his brother-in-law's business above and
beyond what's ethical.
-
- Former Colorado senator and rancher Ken Salazar heads
the Interior Department. He backed the worst of Bush administration appointments,
including Alberto Gonzales for Attorney General and right-winger Gale Norton
for Interior. He's an anti-environmentist and is staunchly pro-business,
clearly why he was appointed in the first place.
-
- That's true as well for Tom Vilsack, former Iowa governor,
chair of the right wing Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), now new Agriculture
Secretary. Agribusiness loves him. He's for ethanol and other biofuel production,
big subsidies for the giants, and the proliferation of harmful GMO seeds.
-
- As new Education Secretary, Arne Duncan will do for the
nation what he did to Chicago - preside over public education's destruction
by privatizing it for profit, and in the process, destroy the futures of
millions of youths in the country.
-
- The 1934 Securities and Exchange Act created an SEC with
teeth and, for a while, it worked. At least since the 1980s, it hasn't,
and under George Bush it became a travesty of non-enforcement.
-
- Mary Schapiro is its new head, hand-picked by the industry
she'll regulate so there's no doubt where her allegiance lies. She's a
high-level insider, former FINRA and NASD head and earlier CFTC chairperson.
In each job, she was a facilitator, not a regulator, credentials making
her perfect for SEC where industry interests matter, not enforcing the
nation's securities laws.
-
- Other Obama officials are as tainted - his top team and
their underlings. Roosevelt promised change and delivered. So did Obama
- for his Wall Street backers and beneficiaries.
-
- Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre
for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
-
- Also visit his blog site and listen to The Global Research
News Hour on Republic Broadcasting.org Monday - Friday at 10AM US Central
time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on world and
national issues. All programs are archived for easy listening.
-
- http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13326
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