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Improvising our way out of the recession                                                                                    

Posted at: Mar/06/2009 : Posted by: mel

Related Category: Economics,

Any historian or reader of history will tell you there is a lot to be learned from history. Sometimes reading history presents us with a previous cause and effect that can be applied with great similarity to a current situation enabling us to predict a reasonable expectation. Sometimes the lessons of history are much more vague and need a broader interpretation.

The depression of the 1930’s brought FDR to office as our 32nd president. FDR’s “New Deal” is given a lot of credit for putting people back to work. You can debate indefinitely whether the “New Deal” alone, or the industrial war economy ultimately pulled the U.S. out of the depression. Looking at FDR’s “New Deal” it is important to note that there was no great master plan. FDR and his economic architects tried many things effectively “improvising” as the went. The depression of the 1930’s was an unprecedented event and many of the pieces of the new deal helped, others simply did not work or were fought in the courts.

Our current recessions only real similarity to 75 years ago is that a great deal of personal wealth has been lost and many people are now out of work. Entering into uncharted waters is an exploration fraught with risk and unforeseen obstacles. If there is a historical lesson to be learned here, it is not about copying the programs of 75 years ago. The Obama administration and their key advisors will most likely be trying many things to ultimately turn this recession around. Some of these things will fail, some may have no effect, and some will help. Any realistic vision of how we move forward needs to respect the fact that despite the desire for a master plan and the comfort that comes with that vision, much of what will work will come from improvising at all levels of the economy towards prosperity.

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