New Deal or Raw Deal?: How FDR's Economic Legacy Has Damaged America [Hardcover]

Burton W. Jr. Folsom (Author)

Book Description

Release date: November 4, 2008

A sharply critical new look at Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency reveals government policies that hindered economic recovery from the Great Depression -- and are still hurting America today.

In this shocking and groundbreaking new book, economic historian Burton W. Folsom exposes the idyllic legend of Franklin D. Roosevelt as a myth of epic proportions. With questionable moral character and a vendetta against the business elite, Roosevelt created New Deal programs marked by inconsistent planning, wasteful spending, and opportunity for political gain -- ultimately elevating public opinion of his administration but falling flat in achieving the economic revitalization that America so desperately needed from the Great Depression. Folsom takes a critical, revisionist look at Roosevelt's presidency, his economic policies, and his personal life.

Elected in 1932 on a buoyant tide of promises to balance the increasingly uncontrollable national budget and reduce the catastrophic unemployment rate, the charismatic thirty-second president not only neglected to pursue those goals, he made dramatic changes to federal programming that directly contradicted his campaign promises. Price fixing, court packing, regressive taxes, and patronism were all hidden inside the alphabet soup of his popular New Deal, putting a financial strain on the already suffering lower classes and discouraging the upper classes from taking business risks that potentially could have jostled national cash flow from dormancy. Many government programs that are widely used today have their seeds in the New Deal. Farm subsidies, minimum wage, and welfare, among others, all stifle economic growth -- encouraging decreased productivity and exacerbating unemployment.

Roosevelt's imperious approach to the presidency changed American politics forever, and as he manipulated public opinion, American citizens became unwitting accomplices to the stilted economic growth of the 1930s. More than sixty years after FDR died in office, we still struggle with the damaging repercussions of his legacy.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"I have been proud to support research for this book." -- William F. Buckley, Jr.

"History books and politicians in both parties sing the praises for Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidency and its measures to get America out of the Great Depression. What goes unappreciated is the fact that many of those measures exacerbated and extended the economic downturn of the 1930s. New Deal or Raw Deal? is a careful documentation and analysis of those measures that allows us to reach only one conclusion: While President Roosevelt was a great man in some respects, his economic policy was a disaster. What's worse is that public ignorance of those policy failures has lent support for similar policies in later years. Professor Burt Folsom has produced a highly readable book and has done a yeoman's job in exposing the New Deal." -- Walter E. Williams, John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics, George Mason University

About the Author

Burton W. Folsom, Jr. is a professor of history at Hillsdale College in Michigan. He is a regular columnist for The Freeman and has written several books, among them The Myth of the Robber Barons, as well as articles for The Wall Street Journal, American Spectator, Policy Review and Human Events. He is a former senior fellow at the Mackinac Centery for Public Policy and associate at the Free Enterprise Institute. He has appeared on television frequently, including Glenn Beck and other FOX shows. He lives in Hillsdale, Michigan. Anita Folsom has pursued a career in both politics and the teaching of history. She attended Mississippi State University for Women and completed two degrees at Murray State University in history. She has assisted with the editing of Burton Folsom's first book and several of his later manuscripts on economic history. Anita served as county chairman for the Reagan/Mitch McConnell campaigns in 1984, and she worked for U. S. Senator Mitch McConnell for two years after he was elected. Her publications include a book review of William Manchester’s The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Alone, 1932-1940 in Continuity and a biography of Andrew Mellon for the Encyclopedia of the American President. She currently blogs at BurtFolsom.com. She and her husband have one son, Adam.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Threshold Editions; First Edition edition (November 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416592229
• ISBN-13: 978-1416592228
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (190 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #232,524 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Burton W. Folsom is a professor of history at Hillsdale College in Michigan and senior historian at the Foundation for Economic Education in Irvington, New York. He is a regular columnist for The Freeman and has written articles for The Wall Street Journal and American Spectator, among other publications. He lives in Michigan.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

257 of 301 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Definitely a Raw Deal December 7, 2008

By Doug

Format:Hardcover

Burton Folsom's New Deal or Raw Deal? is a timely, informative and captivating read on the destructive economic policies on the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Administration. This book is a valuable addition to the growing number of books on how government intervention, not free markets, plunged the United States deep into the Great Depression.

Folsom corrects many common misconceptions about the New Deal and the Great Depression in this book. The first misconception is that President Hoover was a principled advocate of laissez-faire capitalism. In fact, Folsom argues, Hoover was a big government Republican. Consider the Smoot-Hawley Act, which imposed unprecedented tariffs on thousands of imported items. Not only did this drastically increase the prices of U.S. imports (hurting U.S. consumers), but it also encouraged European nations to impose retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports (hurting U.S. producers.) Furthermore, Hoover responded to the early onset of the Great Depression with disastrous economic regulations. He endorsed the Federal Farm Board, which issued over $500 million in cotton and wheat subsidies only to have the massive surpluses dumped on an oversaturated world market. Hoover also supposed the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which spent over $1.5 billion on bailouts to failing banks and industries.

Another major point of Folsom's book is that many of FDR's programs were struck down as unconstitutional. These include the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) and the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA). The NIRA imposed economy-wide price controls and production regulations on domestic manufacturing. The AAA was similar in spirit, except it focused on price and production controls on agriculture. The extent of the controls evidently became so detailed where, for example, the purchasers of a live chicken were required by law to blindly reach into the coop to randomly choose a chicken. Customers were not free to choose whichever chicken they fancied. Recognizing the absurdity of this, one of the Supreme Court justices quipped "what if the chickens are all on the other side?" before the Supreme Court unanimously ruled the NIRA unconstitutional.

Folsom also emphasizes the crushing tax burdens imposed by the New Deal. Under FDR, the highest income tax rate was 79%, meaning that four out of five earned dollars was confiscated by the government! According to Folsom, FDR also seriously entertained the idea of imposing a 99.5% income tax rate on all who earned over $100,000 in income. Flippantly justifying this, FDR joked that nobody in his administration would ever make that kind of money. Under FDR, the national debt grew more in the 1930s than it grew in the previous 150 years of the existence of the United States. Putting it in other words, Folsom indicates that if $100/minute was deposited into an account the day Columbus discovered North America up until FDR took office, there would not be enough money in this account to fully defray the costs of the New Deal.

The last major point that I will reiterate is the extensive level of corruption of the FDR administration. According to Folsom's research, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) offered large government handouts to whichever lobbyists ingratiated themselves most with the administration. FDR used the WPA to make or break the careers of public officials, depending on whether they supported him. This corruption rose to such an overt and perverse level that officials at the WPA used to cheerfully greet callers with "Democratic headquarters!" The Hatch Act, which forbids government employees from using their office for political activity, was passed in response to these activities.

If you like FDR, reading this book will shock you. If you already despise FDR, reading this book will reveal how truly appalling his administration was and how in many respects, FDR was like a gangster. In addition to the above, you will learn about how FDR used the IRS to intimidate political opponents, such as the esteemed banker Andrew Mellon as well as FDR's unscrupulous court-packing scheme. You will learn about the sheer arbitrary nature of FDR's economic controls. This cannot be better exemplified than how, when advised to increase the unit price of gold from 19 cents to 22 cents, FDR proposed 21 cents since it was his "lucky number".

Anyone interested in politics and economic history should read this book, before history repeats itself.

202 of 237 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Should be Mandatory Reading for Every Citizen! January 24, 2009

By Liberty4all VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

I'll confess to not being a fan of big government so I was prepared to be receptive to a harsh assessment of the New Deal. However, I was not prepared for the scathing indictment armed with facts, logic, primary source quotes and data that constitute this powerful book.

The book is hard to put down even as you recoil in horror at the lunatic economic policies of the era and the blatant turn to fascism. If you tried to design a program to extend the Great Depression indefinitely, you could have done little better than FDR did. The economic incompetence and unintended consequences which are detailed in all their frightening glory is mind boggling, but it is only part of the story.

The book also demonstrates the endemic political patronage and vote buying that resulted from the concentration of money and power in the hands of the federal government. State and local politicians who supported Roosevelt were rewarded with a cascade of federal dollars, those who opposed him were frozen out and inevitably lost subsequent elections.

Citizens who opposed FDR were set upon by the IRS or the NRA. The use of government power to persecute and intimidate dissension is chilling. There are several quotes or diary entries from even Roosevelt's supporters and cabinet members that point out both the insanity of the policies and the dangers of FDR's abuse of power.

With our government setting out on what's been called the "New New Deal", this book should be required reading for every citizen so they can understand both the failure of the New Deal as an economic cure and the abuse of power and vote buying that the huge transfer of money and independence from the private sector to the public sector caused and will undoubtedly cause again.

PS- As of the writing of this review, it appears you either love this book or you hate it as there are only 5 star reviews and 1 star reviews. However, if you read the reviews, you'll notice that those who have given it 5 star reviews have clearly read the book as they either quote from it or recount specific stories or facts mentioned in the book. On the other hand (again, as of this writing) the 1 star reviews don't mention a single specific point in the book and attempt to refute it. It seems pretty clear that they haven't actually read the book. If they have read it (which I doubt), they choose to review it with ad-hominem attacks, claims of bias (a historian with a world view??!!...I'm shocked!)and irrelevant rants about Bush etc. Please, do us all a favor.. if you want to attack a book at least read it and make specific logical refutations, don't simply pile on trite cliches and emotional appeals that have nothing to do with the author's scholarship.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Work for the General Reader Demolishing Many New Deal Myths March 21, 2009

By David M. Dougherty VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Although this work is scholarly, it is written in prose more suitable for the general reader who is not heavily into New Deal and economic history. There is much more that could have been added to reinforce the author's points, but undoubtedly the necessity to keep the book under 300 pages and hold down the cost and length for the general reader came into play to render the book a little less than totally satisfying. The problem which lowers my rating from five to four start comes from that aspect -- namely when there were (for example) five points to be made on a subject, three supporting the author's viewpoint and two that didn't, the author cut one of the points opposing his viewpoint. Allow me to hastened to add, however, that one should not accept these ratios as given in every case -- merely as an illustration.

In another book review I took the author to task on a subject with very contradictory evidence where the author had included two items supporting his viewpoint and none for the opposition. This work is much, much better -- but still suffers a little from incompleteness and a lack of fully developing both sides. An example is the figures on unemployment -- during the thirties the unemployment figures were always less than accurate -- sometimes due to not being able to collect proper data, and sometimes during the New Deal when there was an attempt to lower the numbers for political purposes. For example even today when a worker has been out of work for 18 months his status is changed from "unemployed" to "discouraged" and unemployment goes down. Neat huh? What a way to cook the books.

At any rate, the author's discussion of the glorification of the New Deal by Commanger, Morris, Schlesinger and Leuchtenburg is dead on, and this is how the New Deal has been taught to schoolchildren since World War II. If you want to see examples of the impact of challenging what has been accepted uncritically in school (& in universities), read the two and one star reviews. Above all, they should convince the reader to read this book. The other factor is that the current administration likewise believes in the leftist take on the New Deal, and we are seeing many of Roosevelt's mistakes and unsuccessful policies being resurrected. Like what, you ask? Like spending by the Federal Government will lift the US out of a depression. It didn't work under Roosevelt, it didn't for the Japanese in the 90s, and it won't work this time.

Morgenthal made many mistakes, most notably the scheme to confiscate bullion gold from all American citizens, but most of his economic views in the 30s have stood the test of time. The author's presentation of the opposing viewpoints of Roosevelt and Morgenthal are illuminating, with Roosevelt ALWAYS being incorrect (the plan to turn Germany into a pastoral state notwithstanding -- one could not give Germany's best agricultural land to Poland and Russia and then attempt to rebuild their economy on agriculture.)

The NRA was, of course, a disaster and ultimately unconstitutional, and the WPA was used essentially for political purposes. The AAA hardly helped agriculture, and the idea of a minimum wage, so loved by labor unions, can be seen to be hinder employment even today. It has all but eliminated employment of America's youth and has replaced those jobs with ones given to illegal immigrants under the table. One can simply not legislate wages or prices in spite of the vested interests that moe to raise the minimum wage every few years.

So what did Roosevelt do that was right? The repeal of the Smoot-Hawley Act was a terrific boon, as was the bank holiday. The formation of the SEC was positive although we have found that it has become a dumping ground for incompetent bureaucrats that don't do their job, and so was the elimination of the gold standard. Pretty much everything else was negative, and within the next twenty years we will be faced with the collapse of the most horrible Ponzi scheme ever concocted by man -- Social Security. Roosevelt promised that Social Security taxes would never rise above one percent of income. Tell that to a self-employed person who pays a self-employment tax (both sides of Social Security and Medicare) today of 15.3%. The government doesn't even try to hide the fact that it's just a tax whose revenue is spent every year by Congress. There is no lock box, no social security trust fund, no nothing -- it's all spent (and more) every year.

With respect to income taxes, read carefully Roosevelt's attempt to tax individuals making over certain amounts ar rates of 100% and 90% for all of their income over those amounts. Sounds rather like Congress today taking the AIG bonuses at 90%. The problem is that what we think we know from the New Deal is wrong.

In short, read this book for an idea -- and an incomplete one at that -- of what you think you know that is dead wrong. And then give the whole subject some thought -- don't simply scream that these points are not what you know from school of even things you know from what your parents told you. Roosevelt didn't take office and eliminate unemployment the next day, week, month or year. That was Hitler, and his ideas on how to take a country out of a depression were even worse than Roosevelt's.

I recommend this book to all -- I only wish the author had been more thorough and served up more information on the issues so that the far-left today couldn't dismiss the book as simply "lies." And remember, Roosevelt's administration was thoroughly penetrated by Soviet agents like Hiss and White who did the best they could to move the US into the socialist/communist camp.

Other good books include "The Road To Serfdom", "The Forgotten Man", "FDR's Folly" and "Pride, Prejudice and Politics: Roosevelt Versus Recovery."