The regulations put into place in the nineteen thirties by Franklin D. Roosevelt and his “Brain Trust” guided the marketplace for nearly fifty years. Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in the late nineteenth century, unregulated, out-of-control capitalism was known to periodically wreck havoc on the American economy. Every decade would experience at least one serious meltdown of the Stock Market and more than a few financial depressions. In that era it was widely accepted that in a robust and healthy economy these periodic calamities were inevitable and unavoidable.

Along came FDR. As far as anyone could tell there did not seem to be a hell of a lot of substance to the guy. The journalist Walter Lippman described him as a man in possession of a first class temperament and a second class intellect. His distant cousin, Alice Roosevelt Longworth (Teddy’s daughter) publicly dismissed him as a “feather duster”. The nation and the world would learn in due course, however, that there was more to this pampered squire of Dutchess County than met the skeptical eye.

Although it has become almost a cliche it is undeniable: Roosevelt saved capitalism by tempering its excesses. While it was not perfectly flawless, the rules put into place by by the New Dealers worked pretty well for almost fifty years – until the nineteen-eighties, that is. That was when the American voters (for reasons I still can’t figure out) overwhelmingly decided that sending Ronald Reagan to the White House would be a really neat idea. Reagan was a feeble-minded, failed “B” movie actor at the dawn of senility who should have been in an assisted living program somewhere, being spoon-fed oatmeal. Instead, January 20, 1981 saw him taking the oath of office as the fortieth president of the United States. Life is kind of funny that way, ya know?

Reagan and his team were hellbent on dismantling the legacy of FDR and the New Deal. “No!”, they told us. “The unprecedented economic expansion of the post World War Two era is not because of regulation, but in spite of it”, they assured us. “Let the market regulate itself and all will be well! There will be dancing in the street! It will be morning in America again!”

Nearly three decades later that philosophy has been forever exposed as the scam it obviously was to anyone who bothered to pay attention in the first place. The chickens have come home to roost with a vengeance. The economic carnage that we have experienced in the last year was bound to happen and had been predicted for years (including on my blog: December 31, 2007 and June 9, 2008 – TOOT! TOOT!). It was as inevitable as the sun setting in the west. Twenty-nine years ago, the fortieth president put his country in jalopy without a steering wheel. This is the road he sent us hurling down.

Here’s a promise, America: One day very soon you will wake up and realize what a complete fool Reagan was.

http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com

Tom Degan