The latest is that FDR did not get us out of the Great Depression. I just heard another economist claim that it was actually Eisenhower that led us out of the Depression when he cut taxes. Now, never mind that Eisenhower didn't cut the top tax rate, and Eisenhower saw very low job creation.
But, what the hell, "We didn't actually get out of the Great Depression until Eisenhower, when he cut taxes" is an English sentence, so why not?
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Yeah, there's been a lot of conservative pushback against the Obama-FDR comparison. Just for the record, I think the analogy is imperfect, but I can see where it comes from. Politically, it's a great narrative, though: "If this is 1932 and Bush is Hoover, then we're all fucked unless we let FDR/Obama enact a New Deal and end the New Great Depression."
Never mind that it's not a Depression, and that unemployment is like 6% instead of 25%, etc etc. Still, it gives impetus to Obama's legislative priorities (WE GOTTA DO SOEMTHIGN!!!!) and that's an advantage for the dems.
Just today, Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman (I get almost as much pleasure typing that as I do "President-elect Barack Obama) fired back his latest salvo about whether FDR and the New deal ended the Great Depression. (He says no, BTW, but WWII did.)
Unemployment is 6% and on the rise; I believe NPR has reported expected it to peak next year at 10%. That's nothing to scoff at. But, no, it is not a Great Depression.
Cutting taxes, particularly for the top tax brackets, did not get us out of the Great Depression. It has never created jobs. Well, only since 1920.
Unemployment and wage growth are real measures of our economic health. Whether the comfortably wealthy are more or less comfortable is not an important measure of the nation's economic health.
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