Economic histories tell us that a principal difference between Herbert Hoover and FDR, in responding to continuing unemployment in the early 1930s, is that the latter believed that the federal government should directly support individuals working on public projects. This Hoover refused to do, instead bankrolling institutions with the expectation that such largesse would “trickle-down” to those unemployed. It didn’t work then.
So far Barack Obama has been redoing Hoover, not FDR, contrary to what some of his thoughtless admirers claim. For those still unemployed, statistics reveal that Obama’s “stimulus” ain’t working now.
