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rulemylife -> RE: Under what circumstances would you consider Obama a success? (3/4/2009 12:22:45 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: corysub
Henry Morganthau was a close, personal friend of FDR, his Secretary of the Treasury from 1934 to 1945, probably the record, and a highly respected figure in the world of finance in his day. He chaired the Bretton Woods meetings that established the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank).
The link below is the U.S. Treasury bio on Morganthau and might be helpful.
http://www.ustreas.gov/education/history/secretaries/hmorgenthaujr.shtml
From DK's link: http://eyeonwilliamson.org/?p=3987
Bishop: An economic crisis requires spending - fast
Sherwood Bishop, TEXAS STATE UNIVERSITY-SAN MARCOS Wednesday, February 11, 2009
In a recent column, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, stated her opposition to the economic stimulus bill being considered by the Senate. She began by writing "In one of history's more candid reflections, Henry Morgenthau Jr., Treasury Secretary under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, confessed, 'We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before, and it does not work.' "
Though Morgenthau was Roosevelt's treasury secretary, he was an orthodox economist who opposed Keynesian economics and New Deal spending, consistently calling for a balanced budget and reducing the national debt, even during the depression. In 1937, Morgenthau and other conservatives, claiming that the country's economic crisis had ended, convinced Roosevelt to cut many New Deal programs. As a result, the country fell into another recession, and unemployment rates, after falling rapidly for several years, began rising again.
Morgenthau also fought (unsuccessfully) against the veterans' bonus (for World War I vets), the precursor of the World War II GI Bill. Considering that he was against the New Deal spending programs from the start, it's not surprising that he would claim they hadn't worked.
His claim about unemployment was entirely incorrect. The unemployment rate in 1933, when Roosevelt took office, was 24.9 percent. By 1937, it had fallen to 14.3 percent. After the premature cuts in New Deal spending, unemployment quickly rose to 19 percent in 1938. Government spending was increased again and unemployment fell to 17.2 percent in 1939, when Morgenthau spoke, 14.6 percent in 1940 and 9.9 percent in 1941. The drops in unemployment rates were actually much larger than the numbers indicate, because in the 1930s, the millions of workers employed in rural electrification, highway construction and other federal projects were officially considered unemployed, since they did not work for private firms.
...........................................................................Bishop teaches economics at Texas State.
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