[lbo-talk] Cristian Science Monitor: "Was New Deal too Small?"

[B.]

[On a recent Thanksgiving trip to see relatives in Dallas, TX, I took a walk around the large, man-made White Rock Lake, and noticed for the first time a statue of a muscular, shirtless young lad, looking sternly into the horizon, armed with a pick axe and shovel -- a monument, it said, to the CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS, who helped with the area. The statue was very homoerotic.  -B.]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1209/p01s03-usgn.html

Was the New Deal too small?

A lesson from Great Depression, historians say, is that Roosevelt didn't spend enough to jolt economy into recovery.
By Alexandra Marks | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the December 9, 2008 edition

New York - In announcing the biggest public works spending in 50 years, President-elect Obama takes a page from the Great Depression that is both model and cautionary tale.

Model, because the programs put paychecks into workers' pockets and laid a concrete and electrical foundation for America's postwar boom. Cautionary tale, because the effort did not jolt the Depression economy back to health.

One big reason is that President Roosevelt didn't spend enough to really boost the economy, historians say. But US history offers no guide on how much stimulus is too much, especially since the timing of today's crisis and the Depression are so different.