Bernanke and FDR

The Federal Reserve Bank chairman, Ben Bernanke was reappointed to second four-year term in a move that seemed unlikely a few short months ago. Although a holdover from the Bush administration, Bernanke has repeatedly earned the thanks of President Barack Obama as he has helped to steer the US economy through these troubled economic times. www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i7ZxXpevkTny0tqWCIgC5TZZqe7g

Bernanke is a noted scholar of The Great Depression, and although he has apparently kept the US from a repeat of that calamity, he might be the first to admit that it was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and not himself, who was mostly responsible for keeping the nation from reaching new depths in the economy. The modern reader may be unaware of the enormity of the programs of The New Deal as implemented by Roosevelt. Among other things, FDR created the Unemployment Insurance Act, which has helped keep the ravages of unemployment to manageable levels for millions of Americans. He also created the Social Security Act which has helped growing segments of today’s aging population from feeling the full wrath of another major depression. The FDIC, also a Roosevelt initiative, has protected the savings of millions of Americans and prevented far more damaging bank collapses. The domino effect in the absence of any of these three programs alone would have plunged the world into a far more severe recession.

In a way, the programs initiated by Roosevelt have created “stop losses” throughout the economy. His programs at the time were railed against as being socialistic, but it is hard to imagine how far last autumn’s economic free fall might have lasted without them.

I in no way want to diminish Bernanke’s achievements. It is a far more complicated and a far more global economy than the one that stared back at FDR. But certainly Bernanke understands the historical context of his actions far better than most. Seventy-five or eighty years later, Roosevelt’s programs still represent a new deal for millions of Americans. It’s just that today, few of them realize it.


By Myron Gushlak

The Fellowship

Has “The Fellowship” come across your personal radar yet? How about the C Street House? “The Chosen”? If none of these things have yet to make it into your world, drop your soap opera of the day, or your reality show du jour. This is “way more better” as the saying goes. You know all those republicans that feel it is their moral duty to instruct all of us mere humans about morality? You know the ones – The Governor Mark Samfords of the world, the Senator John Ensigns, the Chip Pickerings? Shall I go on? You know them either as the latest documented philanderers or you may know them as members of The Fellowship. It seems that many of the nation’s Christian Republicans hang out in (or live in) a boardinghouse in Washington, D.C. www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/opinion/19dowd.html?scp=4&sq=The%20Fellowship&st=cse where prayer and bible study are de rigueur. It is nicknamed the C Street House.

Often referred to as “The Family” because of their constant quest for power and control , conservative Republicans continue to pontificate from this particular perch about God and country, and yes, morality. When questioned about the seeming contradiction between what is preached and what is practiced, some of these lofty Republicans refer to the fact that they weren’t merely elected, they were “chosen.” If you need to read more, check out Jeff Sharlet’s “The Family,” available in paperback, or read his article in Harper’s. www.harpers.org/archive/2003/03/0079525

I’m a sucker for this sort of thing. I keep waiting for Roger Clemens and Manny Ramirez to co-author a book about the moral pitfalls of drugs in sports. Or Paris Hilton’s future tome extolling the virtues of a good education. This would all be hysterically funny if it wasn’t so damn scary.

By Myron Gushlak