Fdr's Folly Jim Powell Summary

In FDR’s Folly: How Roosevelt and his New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression, Jim Powell argues that Franklin Delano Roosevelt prolonged the Great Depression through his actions as the President of the United States. Powell successfully shows that FDR extended the Great Depression during his presidency through his policies. Powell uses many court cases to help his thesis. Powell is also able to prove his thesis by using many prominent scholars in their respected fields. Powell does have some lacking qualities in his monograph. According to Jim Powell, FDR prolonged the Great Depression. FDR prolonged it by imposing taxes that were not helpful and only caused more harm than good. Powell uses the economist Benjamin M. Anderson’s Economics and the Public Welfare to successfully help his point. Anderson says that taxes imposed during the depression would have caused a working “fifty-five year old” man to look “paralyzing” because of the high taxes and low hope for investment. Anderson supports Powell’s argument because Anderson said …show more content…
The use of the court opinions helps support Powell’s thesis. This is because the court was trying to uphold the US Constitution. Yes the US Constitution was is not a document that shows the best way to run an economy. It did not help when the Supreme Court declared many of FDR’s executive orders unconstitutional and then caused more change in the government bureaucracy. One example of FDR’s overreach is how the National Industrial Recover Act was challenged in New York by Joseph Schechter. This case is dealing with intrastate commerce, Mr. Schechter bought, raised and sold his chicken all in the state of New York. This affects the depression because it helps show how FDR was trying to regulate and, more importantly, tax as much as he can to gain more money for his Federal programs. That were created to help jump start the