An FDR Reader

Thanks to John Ray for bringing my attention to these items:

"How FDR Made the Depression Worse," by Robert Higgs (Feb 1995)
"Tough Questions for Defenders of the New Deal," by Jim Powell (06 Nov 2003)
"The Real Deal," by Amity Shlaes (25 Jun 2007)

Related posts at Liberty Corner include:

"Getting it Perfect" (04 May 2004)
"The Economic Consequences of Liberty" and an addendum, "The Destruction of Income and Wealth by the State" (01 Jan 2005)
"Calling a Nazi a Nazi" (12 Mar 2006)
"Things to Come" (27 Jun 2007)
"FDR and Fascism" (30 Sep 2007)
"A Political Compass: Locating the United States" (13 Nov 2007)
"The Modern Presidency: A Tour of American History since 1900" (01 Dec 2007)

Our descent into statism didn't begin with FDR. (His cousin Teddy got the ball rolling downhill.) But FDR compounded an economic crisis, then exploited it to put us firmly on the path to the nanny state. The rest, as they say, is history.

Thus we now have a "compassionate conservative" as president, and several "Republican" candidates for president who would have been comfortable as New Deal Democrats. Calvin Coolidge must be spinning in his grave at hypersonic speed.