Rating: 
Summary: A fair and objective assessment of failed policies
Review: Many will say that Jim Powell's status as a senior fellow at the CATO institute creates an inherit bias that prohibits a fair and objective analysis of the Roosevelt area. The type of resources utilized and the depth of research employed can measure objectivity, in my opinion. "FDR's Folly" stands up well to an objective reader. Jim Powell has heavily researched this work, and provides a litany of sources ranging from forensic accountants and reputable economic sources. Moreover, he bases his conclusions on accepted economic principles that he applies to the historical facts that can be independently verified.This book demonstrates that the policies promulgated by Roosevelt and his advisors exacerbated an economic disaster. It is a fact that economic systems experience growth and recession in the same manner that natural systems experience periods of abundance and scarcity. How we "weather these conditions" is often impacted more by our remedial approaches to address them rather then the events themselves. Powell proves that the New Dealers "...overestimated the importance of their knowledge, as opposed to the knowledge of millions of ordinary people spending their own money and running their businesses." In fact, " The New Dealers really came to believe that their knowledge, combined with political power, could cure the problems of the world. They thought that by issuing executive orders, passing laws, raising taxes, and redistributing money, they could make society better." It turns out that most of these policies did more to reduce the standard living, increase unemployment, and actually prolong the depression. A clear case of where less would have been more. In chapter after chapter, Jim Powell presents conclusions around these themes and then provides clear and plain evidence for his conclusions. Of greater importance, this book destroys the myth of Roosevelt as a great savior during the depression. Moreover, it appears that every president since Roosevelt, whether Democrat or Republican, continues to utilize governmental intervention to solve economic policies despite the proven failures of Roosevelt's administration. In making these points, Powell uses a writing style that is concise yet detailed, and he presents a potentially boring subject in an interesting and thought provoking manner. The lessons from this book should be studied, debated, and followed.
Rating: 
Summary: Fuel for the neocons
Review: Nothing draws buzzing, heartless neocons like a book ripping a liberal leader. Jim Powell has done an admirable job of research - but he has seemingly ignored any information that contradicts his predetermined premise: FDR was a bumbling socialist who wanted to suppress the American people. Reviewers like Michael Gordon and Weston Kathman are much worse than Powell. Like President Bush, they seem determined to depict the most successful government program in our country's history as an enormous failure hurtling toward bankruptcy. These are the kind of people that see compassion and communal goodwill as character flaws. I only wish FDR were here to address their petulant whining.
Rating: 
Summary: Not so much "folly" as "malicious idiocy"
Review: Other reviewers have made the comparison with John T. Flynn, particularly his priceless "Roosevelt Myth." It's an obvious comparison, but also a very apt one. In "FDR's Folly," Jim Powell does for FDR's economics what Flynn did for his politics. Combine these two books with Thomas Fleming's "The New Dealers' War" and you'll have the ultimate "revisionist" trilogy for deconstructing the most unjustly inflated reputation in American history (and that's without anyone even mentioning the words "Pearl Harbor"...). Admittedly, Powell's book may not be for everyone. It's about economics and economic policy. Discussions of monetary policy and the Federal Reserve, consumer confidence, antitrust theory, and the like can have a very high MEGO ("my eyes glaze over") factor for many readers. But I encourage them to motor through the rough parts anyway. Powell notes at one point that many New Dealers acted as if they believed all the economy needed to get back on track in the 1930s was enough bureaucrats in Washington ordering it to do so. Amid the economics are interesting and educational insights on politics, personalities, and -- most importantly -- the high costs of bad policy. Obviously, there is a lot of applicability here. The lessons the 1930s taught so painfully about government intervention in the economy are far from universally understood today. On everything from minimum wage and forced-unionism laws to government restraints on competition and attempts to punish the successful though litigation and taxation, echoes of New Deal nostrums still echo today. But even if you're less interested in modern debates, and are just searching for a worthwhile historical study, this title has much to recommend it. Powell has not, perhaps, blazed new trails in historical research. But he has done a remarkable job of synthesizing economic and political evidence and making a strong case for the high price "That Man" and his woefully-misnamed "brain trust" extracted from the American people. Repeat to yourself that cliché about "the lessons of history," and then study this book closely.
Rating:
Summary: Economic Illiteracy + Severe Constitutional Contempt = FDR
Review: REVISED:
My original review highlighted the positive aspects of this recently published tome. In my original remarks, I basically summarized the main themes of the book: FDR initiated the tremendous boondoggle known as Social Security, his Administration expressed constant hostility for the Constitution, his economic policies (as well as those of Herbert Hoover, before him) only further exacerbated and extended the Great Depression, etc. I also mentioned that this work was written by Mr. Powell, whose involvement with the Cato Institute should indicate to knowledgable readers that this was not a balanced version of events, but instead, one laissez-faire economist's objections to the New Deal.
In this new critique, I have taken the unusual step of completely deleting the original because it appears the esteemed reviewer Marc A. York has written his own review of FDR'S FOLLY which, coincidentally, attacks yours truly. My natural reaction was to write a response to Mr. York, but Amazon won't let anyone write a second review of the same book or film. So, I decided to scrap the original and start anew, to correct my fellow reviewer's mischaracterizations of me.
Mr. York is certainly entitled to express his opinion and he may even have a good point or two to make concerning the positive aspects of Social Security (although he fails to mention any). Instead of actually addressing what I said in my original review of this book, York resorts to a familiar leftist tactic by assailing my morality -- or lack thereof. He says that people like me see "compassion and communal goodwill as character flaws." That charge will be addessed momentarily.
York's first mistake is assuming that anyone who finds the tyrannical FDR regime repulsive must be a Bush-ite Neocon. To set the record straight, I am actually a classical liberal and constitutional purist whose libertarian leanings put him constantly at odds with the current Republocrat leadership in Washington. I find many of Bush's expansionist foreign and domestic policies, some of which are nearly as destructive of our Constitution as FDR's famous initiatives were, quite disturbing. I am an extremist who very much believes in the Barry Goldwater adage that "extremism in defense of liberty is no vice." I am aware of only one member of our current Congress (Representative Ron Paul), Republican or Democrat, who actually supports upholding our constitutional fabric.
As to the common allegation that people like me villify or denounce "compassion," it would be nice if more politicians, including the president, as well as all the world's self-important crusaders, would give up the whole phony "altruism" racket. Mr. York may believe that big government programs are somehow indicative of some idealistic notion of compassion, as his frivolous hit piece seems to suggest. However, spending other people's money, as politicians and bureaucrats so love to do, is never a sign of legitimate sympathy for the less fortunate among us. Socialistic schemes like the New Deal, the Great Society, Bush's "compassionate conservatism," and other quasi-despotic movements severely hamper personal liberty and often threaten the very rule of law that protects the individual from arbitrary government intrusion. What is most distressing about Social Security -- more so than the fact that it is a fraudulent, government-sanctioned pyramid scheme -- is that it represented a complete departure from this nation's traditional ideals of federalism, as illuminated and preserved by the 10th Amendment. I am aware of no American president who demonstrated more outright contempt for the Constitution than the much-beloved FDR.
If there is one thing we should face up to, it's that government is a coercive tool that is almost always inferior to the voluntary exchange embraced in the free market. It matters not whether "freedom-loving" Republicans or "compassionate" Democrats run the system; the operations of the state will always be invasive and destructive of our liberties. This is no call for anarchy or any other such ridiculous system (or non-system). We should simply be extremely skeptical of all government actions, as well as heroic crusaders (like Ralph Nader) who claim to be serving the public's interests while, in fact, lining their own pockets and making big names for themselves in the process. The rank partisanship that has such a deep impact on our current national debate has obscured an important lesson: it is not Republicans or Democrats we should fear, but government in general. It is not Reps vs. Dems, conservatives vs. liberals, or any other popular conception of modern-day political battles; it is we the people vs. a whole twisted conglomerate of truth-challenged politicians, out-of-control special interest groups, constitutionally hostile judges, and power-hungry bureaucrats who collectively threaten the very ideals this nation holds dear. With that in mind, I note finally that the silly notions captured in Mr. York's review only further indicate that "critical analysis" has fallen almost entirely out of favor with certain people who have substituted petty character attacks in its place.
Rating: 
Summary: Creating the Middle Class, Stability and Prosperity was Bad!
Review: Sigh... What a disaster it was for FDR to build the middle class while saving capitalism for future generations! The leisure-class should be playing cards all day while Americans slave away in the sweat shops for 60 hours a week. This book is rubbish. When he took office, almost a third of the work force was idle. The farm industry was wiped out, 80% of factory capacity was unused, and civil strive was brewing. Other parts of the world fell to the temptation of communism and fascism. Democracy and capitalism fell out of favor around the world. In the U.S., leftist demagogues like Huey Long and Father Coughlin stirred discontent, and communism was eager to pounce on "failed capitalism." Roosevelt saved capitalism from these leftist radicals. Hoover and the Republicans tried the mild-medicine approach, and it did nothing. Things got much worse. There was no natural impetus for economic recovery built into the economy (read Keynes' General Theory) because there was less wealth and money among consumers to create demand for products. Less demand overall means less economic activity. GDP is essentially a measure of the total demand in the economy. An economic depression means less investment, and less investment means less money in the economy. Nobody is going to invest money on business ventures that will fail. Nobody will invest in more jobs when you know there is no demand for your products. Businesses invest based on expected demand. If demand is low, investment money stays on the sidelines. There was no impetus for the economy to pull out of the Great Depression without government help, and it was getting worse. The economy was in a liquidity trap. Millions of people were discontented, and radical economic ideas swept across the globe. Hitler came to power in this environment. The economy was spiraling deeper into the abyss when FDR finally took office. Most of the banks in the country had failed; 9,000 banks failed! Thousands of people scrambled for their deposits. Loans were called in. Money was kept in reserve. That caused a MULTIPLE CONTRACTION OF THE MONEY SUPPLY, a total drop of 25% of the money supply, the worst economic catastrophe in American history! The economy was bombed out. The do-nothing classic economists stood by stating that it would all take care of itself. What a bunch of garbage! The economy was heading deeper into the abbys. Then Roosevelt stepped in and called for a "national bank holiday," putting a stop to it all. With great leadership he calmed the nation. "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." In his first fireside chat he reassured Americans into trusting the banking system and sweet-talked them into keeping their money at the bank. It worked. The meltdown stopped. Then he created the FDIC to insure deposits. We have never had a panic like that since! The ideas of this book are reckless and with a hidden agenda. Imagine a country with no FDIC! Oh my God... By 1936 the economy was doing much better. After his landslide election in 1936, the biggest electoral win ever, things looked really good. Then the conservative Supreme Court struck down Roosevelt's recovery programs, one after another! Disaster! This was the worst example of judicial activism ever. The conservatives struck down the recovery plan. So FDR went after the conservatives on the court by trying to add justices, and it backfired on him politically. The Court got the message, though. They went along with his plans after that. But it cost FDR dearly. He lost the support of the conservatives in Congress and was forced by the conservatives to agree to a balanced budget. That balanced budget, along with the beginning Social Security deductions, caused a contraction of the money supply. Now here it is fair to call this the 1937 Roosevelt Recession, and FDR learned a hard lesson from this. But it was the conservatives who originally killed his recovery plan and then forced his stimulus contraction. The good news is that that unemployment was back down again by 1939 and the economy turned around. If you really want to get an economy going, massively tax the leisure class so their idle money gets pumped into the economy as stimulus. These sensible policies of FDR have resulted in great prosperity and stability for the nation, shared by working people and rich people (even more so), which is fair.
Rating:
Summary: Creating the Middle Class, Stability and Prosperity was Bad!
Review: Sigh... What a disaster it was for FDR to build the middle class! The leisure-class should be playing cards all day while Americans slave away in the sweat shops for 60 hours a week. This book is rubbish. Look at the history of economics. Prior to FDR, there were wild swings in the business cycle leading to severe depressions and panics. After FDR, the economic downturns were more mild for decades and going. This has led to the greatest boom in American prosperity. FDR's policies ensured that this prosperity was shared with a middle class, which he expanded. Prior to that, the leisure class controlled most of the wealth while most Amercans were barely educated and impoverished by today's standards. The FDR economics were sound. His New Deal turned the economy around. When he took office, almost a third of the work force was idle. The farm industry was wiped out, 80% of factory capacity was unused, and civil strive was brewing. Other parts of the world fell to the temptation of communism and fascism. Hoover and the Republicans tried the mild-medicine approach, and it did nothing. Things got much worse. There was no natural impetus for economic recovery built into the economy (read Keynes' General Theory) because a lot of people had little money to buy anything and create demand for products, so there was less economic activity. You sell much less when much fewer people are buying. In return, you can buy much less from other people, and it's a viscious cycle. Nobody is going to invest even more money on business ventures and jobs when you know there are no buyers for your product. The economy was spiraling deeper into the abyss when FDR finally took office. Thousands of banks failed. Thousands of people scrambled for their deposits. Loans were called in. Money was kept in reserve. That caused a massive contraction of the money supply - an economic catastrophe never before seen! The do-nothing classic economists stood by stating that it would all take care of itself. What a bunch of garbage! The economy was heading deeper into the abbys. Then Roosevelt stepped in and called for a bank holiday, putting a stop to it all. With great leadership he calmed the nation. "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." In his first fireside chat he reassured Americans and sweet-talked them into keeping their money at the bank. It worked. The meltdown stopped. Then he called for emergency legislation, creating the FDIC to insure deposits. We have never had a panic like that since! The people behind this book are morons with a hidden agenda. But there's much more. By 1936 the economy was doing much better. After his landslide election in 1936, the biggest electoral win ever, things looked really good. Then the conservative Supreme Court struck down Roosevelt's recovery programs, one after another! Disaster! This was the worst example of judicial activism ever. The conservatives struck down the recovery plan. So FDR went after the conservatives on the court by trying to add justices, and it backfired on him politically. The Court got the message, though. They went along with his plans after that. But it cost FDR dearly. He lost the support of the conservatives in Congress and was forced by the conservatives to agree to a balanced budget. That balanced budget, along with the beginning Social Security deductions, caused a contraction of the money supply. Now here it is fair to call this the 1937 Roosevelt Recession, and FDR learned a hard lesson from this. But it was the conservatives who originally killed his recovery plan and then forced his stimulus contraction. The good news is that that unemployment was back down again by 1939 and the economy turned around. Finally, it was the massive tax increase (largely on the rich) and massive spending on World War Two that pulled the U.S. out of the depression with a roar, which fully proves the recovery plan FDR originally implemented (though to a smaller scale) that was killed by the conservatives. If you really want to get an economy going, massively tax the leisure class so their idle money gets pumped into the economy as stimulus. The long-term effect of Roosevelt's economic policies has been long-term stability and great prosperity for America. Prior to Roosevelt, the American economy had been very unstable. Just look at a graph of American economic activity for the period from 1800 to today. It's showed a very unstable economy until FDR put his economic policies into place. It has been stable ever since. These very basic, sensible policies have also resulted in great prosperity for the nation, shared by working people and rich people (even more so), which is fair. But for some rich people, that prosperity is not good enough. They are greedy. Little do they realize that unregulated greed leads to drpessions and, in the long-run, less wealth. The Bible says that the love of money is the root of all evil. I say it leads to stupidity and depressions. These people do not want basic Social Security or unemployment insurance. This book is a fact-filled con job.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent for the target audience
Review: There is some truth to the reviewers' assertions that there isn't much new information in this book. The more important issue, though, is whether the existing information -- well presented by Powell -- is known by the public. The answer is a resounding no, and this book is a good corrective for a general audience. Unlike Milton Friedman's or John Flynn's books, this one is likely to find some audience in a land where "new" is a powerful word. Jim Powell is a capable writer, and he knows his stuff. This a book you can comfortably give to a friend who might read a history book, but isn't a hard core politico. It is unreasonable for highly informed political junkies to knock it because it doesn't suit them. They aren't the target audience. It deserves to be recommended and read. Somebody should send copies to Arthur Schlessinger, jr. and virtually all current historians. Everything in the book will be news to them. Don't overestimate how little most people know, especially if they have tenure.
Rating:
Summary: Rubbish
Review: This book is revisionist nonsense. If you want a treatment of the New Deal, warts and all, but done by a competent historian, check out Leuchtenburg, Badger, McElvaine, Bernstein, etc.
Rating:
Summary: Conservative Smut
Review: This book really has nothing to do with FDR. It is all about bringing down any good done by a democratic President. These are the same people that wanted to put Reagan on the Nickel before he was even dead. At the risk of being redundant, many reviews, explain why his book is only good for toilet paper. Read those books.
Rating:
Summary: FDR's Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Gr
Review: This groundbreaking book pulls back the shroud of awe and the cloak of time enveloping FDR to prove convincingly how flawed his economic policies actually were, despite his good intentions and the astounding intellect of his circle of advisors. In today's turbulent domestic and global environment, eerily similar to that of the 1930's, it's more important than ever before to uncover and understand the truth of our history, lest we be doomed to repeat it
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