How Government Prolonged the Depression

Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian, two Economists, argue in an WSJ op ed that FDR's New Deal extended the Great Depression rather than providing the "cure".

The main lesson we have learned from the New Deal is that wholesale government intervention can -- and does -- deliver the most unintended of consequences. This was true in the 1930s, when artificially high wages and prices kept us depressed for more than a decade, it was true in the 1970s when price controls were used to combat inflation but just produced shortages. It is true today, when poorly designed regulation produced a banking system that took on too much risk.

FDR's statetist bullshit wasn't the solution in the 30's and isn't the best template for an economic recovery today. Unfortunately Obama is a statetist, and I doubt he is listening.