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Look at an economic chart pre and post New Deal. Not only did FDR's policies help the US recover from the depression, it set the framework for the strongest ec
by Mikeb85 11y ago
Look at an economic chart pre and post New Deal. Not only did FDR's policies help the US recover from the depression, it set the framework for the strongest economic growth of the US' history (pre-1930s growth was much slower than it has been post 1945).
Furthermore, your source is as partisan as they come. 'Austrian' economics exists pretty much only on the internet. Mainstream economics has progressed since 1930.
- AnimalMuppet 11y agoBut post 1945, Europe had been bombed nearly to destruction, as had Japan. Even Russia had been devastated. The US was exporting to the whole world as everybody else tried to rebuild. You can't take 1945-1970 US economic growth as a measure of the quality of FDR's economic policies.
- Amezarak 11y agoThat's a common narrative, but it doesn't make sense when you look at the facts on the ground. And putting some thought into it, bombed-out economies are not good customers. http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/11/19/opinion/111912krugman3/111912krugman3-blog480.jpg http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/11/19/opinion/11191... As you can see, there was nothing more than a brief spike in the general upward trend in exports. The "Europe bought tons of stuff from us, fueling our economy" story is simply not true. Exports as a share of GDP briefly peaked at 8% and then rapidly returned to prewar levels by the early 1950s.
- AnimalMuppet 11y agoOK, but what about imports? I'd bet that the US didn't import much until 1970 or so - at least, not in the form of finished goods (and apart from imports from Canada).
- Amezarak 11y agoThe graph shows both. They track pretty closely until the 1980s, with the exception being that brief couple year export spike which was not matched by imports.