Quote:
Originally Posted by Flame Of Liberty
I looked up these numbers, and I need to ask you - care to provide your source? Because I found different numbers:
It needs to be recalled that at no time during the 1930s did the percentage of Americans unemployed drop below double digits. From 1933-1940 it averaged a whopping 18 percent. FDR’s best year was 1937, when the rate dropped temporarily to 14.3 percent, but by the end of the year the economy was nearly as bad as it had been when he entered office. By the time of American entry into World War II, unemployment was still at 18 percent – the same rate that obtained during Roosevelt's first year as President!
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/woods2.html
Numbers lifted from this book:
John T. Flynn, The Roosevelt Myth
50th anniversary edition, with a new introduction by Ralph Raico
San Francisco: Fox & Wilkes, 1998,
Further reading:
Jim Powell, FDR’s Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression
http://www.amazon.com/FDRs-Folly-Roo.../dp/0761501657
"Admirers of FDR credit his New Deal with restoring the American economy after the disastrous contraction of 1929-33. Truth to tell - as Powell demonstrates without a shadow of a doubt - the New Deal hampered recovery from the contraction, prolonged and added to unemployment, and set the stage for ever more intrusive and costly government. Powell's analysis is thoroughly documented, relying on an impressive variety of popular and academic literature both contemporary and historical."
Milton Friedman, Nobel Laureate, Hoover Institution
"Jim Powell draws together voluminous economic research on the effects of all of Roosevelt's major policies. Along the way, Powell gives fascinating thumbnail sketches of the major players. The result is a devastating indictment, compellingly told. Those who think that government intervention helped get the U.S. economy out of the depression should read this book."
David R. Henderson, editor of The Fortune Encyclopedia of Economics and author of The Joy of Freedom |
Well, my numbers didn't come from Lew Rockwell, I'll tell you that much. Rockwell, in case you're interested, has a B.A. in English from Tufts University and exactly zero credentials in economics.
My numbers came from Roosevelt's wiki page. There are two ways of calculating unemployment, that yield slightly different numbers. If you look consistently at one method, the trend is clear--my suspicion is that Rockwell is looking at the Derby numbers for his high end and the Lebergott for the low end to minimize the spread--not surprising--his reputation for "intellectual honesty" is... a little underwhelming.
But if you don't trust wikipedia, feel free to look up the original numbers at your local university library. Here's the source:
Historical Statistics US (1976) series D-86; Smiley 1983 Smiley, Gene, "Recent Unemployment Rate Estimates for the 1920s and 1930s,"
Journal of Economic History, June 1983, 43, 487–93.
Or if, like me, you're willing to trust that wikipedia has this one right, you can find the information here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt
EDIT: I also feel compelled to point out how seamlessly your argument went from "your facts don't mean what you think they do" to "your facts are wrong." I think you might revisit your original comment about "Wishful Thinking."