Depression Survivor: "It was much worse."

[del]

Politicians, historians and economists are quick to compare today’s recession to the Great Depression. But for one local man who’s lived through it all, Bay State life during the ’30s was far more grim.

“I think it was much worse then,” said Russell Jalbert, 90, of Hingham, who was an 11-year-old living with immigrant parents in Springfield when the stock market crashed on Oct. 29, 1929.

“I remember vividly,” he said. “It was typical for five, six or seven of us to gather around a lamppost at night and talk. That night, even though Halloween was two days away, there was a sense of gloom. We talked about how our parents reacted to the news of the day.”

Depression survivor: ‘It was much worse’ - BostonHerald.com

 

[Truthmatters]

And though his parents tried to shield their kids from the troubles, Jalbert said FDR loomed like a father figure - or rather a God-like figure - in all their lives.

“I thought he was a hero, and my family did, too. And they had been Republicans. Oh yes, I remember that very well. I guess we talked about him as we talked about Babe Ruth.”

 

[Jon]

Yes, but what FDR did was nothing like what Obama is doing. Sorry.

 

[Midnight Marauder]

And though his parents tried to shield their kids from the troubles, Jalbert said FDR loomed like a father figure - or rather a God-like figure - in all their lives.

“I thought he was a hero, and my family did, too. And they had been Republicans. Oh yes, I remember that very well. I guess we talked about him as we talked about Babe Ruth.”

FDR was a great con man and self-marketer, The "fireside chats" were brilliant. He was able to dupe millions into thinking what a great guy and father figure he was, while screwing up the economy far worse than it would have been, and extending the depression 7-8 years by most estimates.

 

[Truthmatters]

revisionist history.

Your plan to rewrite history will fail

 

[Gunny]

revisionist history.

Your plan to rewrite history will fail

Your accusation is ass-backwards, as usual.

 

[DiveCon]

revisionist history.

Your plan to rewrite history will fail

you fail all the time

 

[manu1959]

revisionist history.

Your plan to rewrite history will fail

history is written....fdr was a domestic policy failure......not to mention jailing millions of american citizens ..... suspending due process.......

 

[Truthmatters]

Bullshit.

only hacks say he failed with the economy.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Bullshit.

only hacks say he failed with the economy.

Hey, anybody read Studs Turkel, or Dos Passos? Great for this period.

FDR was great as a wartime President, what we needed during such tough times. Who can now imagine a day when America offered no Social Security, no unemployment compensation, no food stamps, no Federal guarantee of bank deposits, no Federal supervision of the stock market, no Federal protection for collective bargaining, no Federal standards for wages and hours, no Federal support for farm prices or rural electrification, no Federal refinancing for farm and home mortgages, no Federal commitment to high employment or to equal opportunity - in short, no Federal responsibility for Americans who found themselves, through no fault of their own, in economic or social distress?

But-
No less an authority than FDR's Treasury secretary and close friend, Henry Morganthau, conceded this fact to Congressional Democrats in May 1939: "We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong ... somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises ... I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started ... And an enormous debt to boot!"

But his Keynesian spending certainly didn't solve the depression.

 

[manu1959]

Bullshit.

only hacks say he failed with the economy.

ya......the economy did so well from 33 to 41......what was i thinking.....ya gotta love obama implementing some of hoovers economic solutions and ideologies don't ya.....

 

[Truthmatters]

Hoover did way to little, FDR went big and it worked.

 

[Truthmatters]

Bullshit.

only hacks say he failed with the economy.

Hey, anybody read Studs Turkel, or Dos Passos? Great for this period.

FDR was great as a wartime President, what we needed during such tough times. Who can now imagine a day when America offered no Social Security, no unemployment compensation, no food stamps, no Federal guarantee of bank deposits, no Federal supervision of the stock market, no Federal protection for collective bargaining, no Federal standards for wages and hours, no Federal support for farm prices or rural electrification, no Federal refinancing for farm and home mortgages, no Federal commitment to high employment or to equal opportunity - in short, no Federal responsibility for Americans who found themselves, through no fault of their own, in economic or social distress?

But-
No less an authority than FDR's Treasury secretary and close friend, Henry Morganthau, conceded this fact to Congressional Democrats in May 1939: "We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong ... somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises ... I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started ... And an enormous debt to boot!"

But his Keynesian spending certainly didn't solve the depression.

Unemployment During the Depression - Chart - MSN Encarta


Looks like to me it worked until FDR had to stop the stimulus in 1937 fro a year. The effects where so bad they reinstated it the next year.

 

[Gunny]

Bullshit.

only hacks say he failed with the economy.

Only hacks say he succeeded with the economy.

 

[Gunny]

Hoover did way to little, FDR went big and it worked.

Wrong. War worked. Get a clue.

 

[Truthmatters]

The war was government spending wasnt it?

 

[mash107]

Hoover did way to little, FDR went big and it worked.

Hoover did little, and that's what caused the depression.

FDR went big, and that's what made it last 12 years longer.

WWII didn't even end it. It was ended in 1945 by the huuuuge decrease in spending and tax cuts.

Spending does not help an economy to recover. Period. It didn't work for us in the depression, or during the 1970s, or for Japan in the lost decade, etcetc. It simply doesn't ever work, because it's a redistribution of wealth from those that produce to those that consume. The people that produce get laid off -- see the unemployment headlines, if you don't believe this, and those that consume (government) get fatter checks.

 

[Truthmatters]

So money put into the economy by the government doesnt work yet money put in by individuals does?


Do you see the stupidity of that one?

the numbers show it worked.

 

[manu1959]

Hoover did way to little, FDR went big and it worked.

unless you were ...... Henry Morganthau....as political chic posted:

No less an authority than FDR's Treasury secretary and close friend, Henry Morganthau, conceded this fact to Congressional Democrats in May 1939: "We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong ... somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises ... I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started ... And an enormous debt to boot!"

 

[Truthmatters]

Year Unemployment rate
1923-29............. 3.3

1930............. 3.3

1931............. 15.9

1932 ............. 23.6

1933 ............ 24.9

1934 ........... 21.7

1935 .......... 20.1

1936 .......... 17.0

1937........... 14.3

1938........... 19.0

1939 .......... 17.2

1940.......... 14.6

1941 ........... 9.9

1942 ........... 4.7