Sunday, September 28, 2008
"Largest intervention since Depression"
All the news reports are describing the Great Nation Robbery as "the largest intervention since the Great Depression."
Most likely pure ignorance, but if not, it's an attempt to paint Bush in the same light as FDR, for reasons that I can't quite figure out! (The Left wouldn't want to sully FDR's name by associating with Bush, and the Right wouldn't want to sully Bush's name vice versa.)
Unfortunately it's just plain wrong. FDR didn't engage in large bailouts. He did use lots of Federal money to build dams, roads, buildings, and power plants, but that's not the same thing at all, and it's not an "intervention" by any normal definition.
The only bailouts I can find, using this PBS timeline:
May 1933: The Emergency Farm Mortgage Act allots $200 million for refinancing mortgages to help farmers facing foreclosure.
Jan 1935: The federal government forms a Drought Relief Service to coordinate relief activities. The DRS bought cattle in counties that were designated emergency areas, for $14 to $20 a head.
From another source, this totalled $108 million.
April 1935: FDR approves the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act, which provides $525 million for drought relief
So FDR used $833 million for bailouts or buyouts, most of which went directly to poor people. Multiplying by 15 for inflation gives about $14 billion in today's dollars. Every bailout in the last few decades [Chrysler, Lockheed, S&L] has been larger, and the current Grand Theft Nation is 50 times as large. ¶ 8:59 PM
Most likely pure ignorance, but if not, it's an attempt to paint Bush in the same light as FDR, for reasons that I can't quite figure out! (The Left wouldn't want to sully FDR's name by associating with Bush, and the Right wouldn't want to sully Bush's name vice versa.)
Unfortunately it's just plain wrong. FDR didn't engage in large bailouts. He did use lots of Federal money to build dams, roads, buildings, and power plants, but that's not the same thing at all, and it's not an "intervention" by any normal definition.
The only bailouts I can find, using this PBS timeline:
May 1933: The Emergency Farm Mortgage Act allots $200 million for refinancing mortgages to help farmers facing foreclosure.
Jan 1935: The federal government forms a Drought Relief Service to coordinate relief activities. The DRS bought cattle in counties that were designated emergency areas, for $14 to $20 a head.
From another source, this totalled $108 million.
April 1935: FDR approves the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act, which provides $525 million for drought relief
So FDR used $833 million for bailouts or buyouts, most of which went directly to poor people. Multiplying by 15 for inflation gives about $14 billion in today's dollars. Every bailout in the last few decades [Chrysler, Lockheed, S&L] has been larger, and the current Grand Theft Nation is 50 times as large. ¶ 8:59 PM
