We've been here before?

The Adam Smith Institute Blog, in a brief contribution today by "Wordsmith", gives a quotation, made many years ago in the light of experience of the 1930s, by Henry Morganthau, the Secretary of the Treasury under President Roosevelt.

"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 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."

The Democrat Party in the USA likes to think that Roosevelt solved the problem of unemployment. He didn't. As Morganthau admitted, unemployment remained stubbornly high until the depression was finally ended by the needs of the WW II.

We have been here before. Let us hope that we can find a solution without resorting to war. It begins to look as if Brown's nostrum will merely lead to ever more massive national debt.