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image of FDR and impoverished Americans
"Here is my principle: Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay.
That is the only American principle."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt


Liberty Links
America's Great Depression
Bureaucrash
FDR: Pacific Warlord
Foundation for Economic Education
The Future of Freedom Foundation
LewRockwell.com
Mises Institute
Strike the Root

Also see...
Agricultural/Farm Welfare
Emperor Lincoln: The Great Butcher
The Problems with the Federal Reserve
Social Security Tax


Americans generally pick Franklin Delano Roosevelt as one of the greatest U.S. Presidents.

Why?

People usually say it is because he presided over two crises in American history - the Great Depression and World War II.

I contend that the limousine liberal FDR not only presided over these events, but was responsible for: 1) decimating the U.S. economy through government intervention; and 2) lying to the American people about their so-called interests in World War II.

FDR's meddling wasn't confined to 1933-1945. After his death, the New Deal programs continued (and continue) to destroy wealth and prevent growth. Unfortunately, modern-day Democrats worship FDR's socialist programs and modern-day Republicans glorify the destructive statism of "the Good War."

I divided this page into two sections:

  • From bad to worse - FDR uses the State to redistribute and destroy

  • Deadly games - FDR promotes U.S. involvement in World War II, ultimately resulting in 405,399 American casualties and a stronger U.S.S.R.





From bad to worse
FDR uses the State to redistribute and destroy [top]
  • The Nightmare of the New Deal
    If you ask a random sample of Americans who know (or think they know) something about U.S. history to discuss the twin subjects of the Great Depression and the New Deal, most will say something like this: “The Depression hit the country because capitalism has a tendency to sometimes collapse, but luckily Roosevelt was elected and his brilliant New Deal policies got the economy moving again.” - George C. Leef, April 3, 2008 [LewRockwell.com]

  • Our Economic Past ~ Death by Public Works
    What the historians omit are the high taxes levied for these projects, the sometimes inept construction, and the behind-the-scenes politics where votes were traded to bring projects to the districts of powerful congressmen. - Burton W. Folsom, Jr., March 2007 [FEE]

  • The New Deal and Roosevelt’s Seizure of Gold: A Legacy of Theft and Inflation
    The presidency of Franklin Roosevelt was characterized by arrogance and outright fraud. Unfortunately, much of the Roosevelt legacy stands. Many historians and economists continue to insist that his economic programs “saved capitalism” when, in fact, they were based on confiscation of property and on the false notion that inflation is the source of prosperity. - William L. Anderson, Ph.D., December 9, 2006 [LewRockwell.com]

  • Three New Deals: Why the Nazis and Fascists Loved FDR
    FDR The Nazi press enthusiastically hailed the early New Deal measures: America, like the Reich, had decisively broken with the "uninhibited frenzy of market speculation." - David Gordon, September 22, 2006 [Mises]

  • The New Deal in One Lesson
    FDR embraced policies that aimed to stop prices and wages from correcting and embarked on the boldest federal intrusion of the private sector in the history of the U.S.—all justified by a crisis made worse by previous attempts to stop prices and wages from correcting. - Christopher Westley, May 26, 2005 [Mises]

  • Roosevelt’s Phony Rights
    - Tibor R. Machan, April 19, 2005 [LewRockwell.com]

  • The New Deal Debunked
    - Thomas J. DiLorenzo, November 2004 [Mises]

  • Republicans praise New Deal socialism
    - March 22, 2004 [The Liberty Committee]

  • How FDR's New Deal Harmed Millions of Poor People
    - Jim Powell, December 29, 2004 [CATO]

  • Greatest Heroes Who Fought FDR’s New Deal
    - Jim Powell, December 9, 2003 [LewRockwell.com]

  • Why Did FDR's New Deal Harm Blacks?
    - Jim Powell, December 3, 2003 [CATO]

  • Should We Try Another New Deal?
    - Jim Powell, November 26, 2003 [CATO]

  • Tough Questions for Defenders of the New Deal
    This year marks the 70th anniversary of the launching of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal, so it's a good time to debate his policies, which have had an immense influence and which remain controversial. - Jim Powell, November 15, 2003 [LewRockwell.com]

  • Plum Deal
    - P. Gardner Goldsmith, July 2002 [FEE]

  • The Roosevelt Nobody Knows
    Review of The New Dealers’ War: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the War Within World War II by Thomas Fleming. "Presidents assume near dictatorial powers during wars, and FDR was able to manipulate World War II to provide moral legitimacy to his domestic agenda." - Christopher Westley, October 31, 2001 [Mises]

  • FDR and crisis
    "The crisis-mongering Roosevelt, like Lincoln and Wilson before him, aided in paving the way for the czarism that was to permeate our modern executive branch of government." - Karen De Coster, August 27, 2001 [LewRockwell.com]

  • Great Myths of the Great Depression
    "Many volumes have been written about the Great Depression of 1929-1941 and its impact on the lives of millions of Americans. Historians, economists, and politicians have all combed the wreckage searching for the 'black box' that will reveal the cause of this legendary tragedy. Sadly, all too many of them decide to abandon their search, finding it easier perhaps to circulate a host of false and harmful conclusions about the events of seven decades ago. Consequently, many people today continue to accept critiques of free-market capitalism that are unjustified and support government policies that are economically destructive."

  • The Truth about FDR
    "At the end of my lecture on FDR, one of my students raised her hand and said, 'I'm confused. Are we supposed to like this guy? I' d always been told he was great.'" - Thomas E. Woods, Jr., June 2001 [Mises]

  • FDR, Thief of America's Gold
    - Patrick Chkoreff, March 1, 2002 [Strike the Root]

  • Our Slickest President
    "He was a very successful example of a phenomenon most people seem to regard as a contradiction in terms: the popular tyrant." - Joseph Sobran, August 17, 2000 [LewRockwell.com]

  • Private Banks and Preventing Another Great Depression
    The underlying cause of the business cycle is money and credit expansion that is artificial, that is, prompted by political manipulation of interest rates and bank reserve requirements. - Lawrence Reed, January 6, 2000 [Mackinac Center for Public Policy]

  • Money: The Great Gold Robbery
    - James Bovard, June 1999 [FEE]

  • The Mythology of Roosevelt and the New Deal
    - Robert Higgs, September 1998 [FEE]

  • Michigan Resists the New Deal
    President Roosevelt tried to pressure the recalcitrant Ford into signing the code. - Dr. Burton W. Folsom, March 1, 1998 [Mackinac Center for Public Policy]

  • The Gold Standard and the Great Depression
    Blaming the gold standard for the Great Depression ignores the substantial monetary manipulations of the Federal Reserve System in the 1920s and 1930s—manipulations that would have been utterly impossible if the country had not already abandoned major elements of the gold standard and bestowed wide discretionary powers upon government monetary authorities. - November 1, 1997 [Mackinac Center for Public Policy]

  • How FDR Made the Depression Worse
    "Roosevelt's revolution began with his inaugural address, which left no doubt about his intentions to seize the moment and harness it to his purposes. Best remembered for its patently false line that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself," it also called for extraordinary emergency governmental powers." - Robert Higgs, February 1995 [Mises]

  • FDR and the End of Economic Liberty
    "For it was during this time that the welfare-state, planned-economy way of life replaced the private-property, market-economy way of life which had existed up to that time." - Jacob G. Hornberger, August 1991 [Future of Freedom Foundation]





Deadly Games
FDR promotes U.S. involvement in World War II, ultimately resulting in 405,399 American casualties and a stronger U.S.S.R. [top]
"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass."
- Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, 1941


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Mark Valenti's Liberty Page created and updated by Mark D. Valenti from
September 1999 through