Obamanomics = Hoovernomics

Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Democrats are gunning for a bailout of the US automakers. They simply can’t wait to get their paws on the US Treasury and start intervening in the economy like we haven’t seen since 1929. If you think Bush was bad, just wait, because you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Jeffrey Lord recalls the disastrous consequences of government intervention on the economy in his The American Specator article The New Adventurs of Wonderboy.

Indeed, the recent sight of President-elect Obama stepping in front of reporters for his first post-election press conference backed by a small horde of summoned “economic advisors” is nothing if not Hooveresque. Ranging from the recession-inducing Governor of Michigan Jennifer Granholm to one-time Bush SEC chair William Donaldson (labeled by the Wall Street Journal editorial page as “a case study in feckless regulation,” the team and Obama’s emphasis on his consultations with them recalls Hoover’s whirlwind activity in the days following the 1929 crash. In Hoover’s case he feverishly consulted with everyone from the heads of Ford (Henry Ford himself) to Sears to the U.S. Chamber. Far from issuing lectures on individualism, Hoover repeatedly intervened in the economy in a fashion Obama seems determined to emulate.

SEVENTY-NINE YEARS distant from the 1929 kick-off of the Great Depression, it is increasingly apparent that the policies of both Hoover and FDR failed to derail the economic chaos that repeated intervention in the economy brought about in both the United States and the world. In the case of FDR, his efforts backfired further in 1937, causing yet another depression-within-the-Great Depression. Contrary to liberal myth generated by liberal historians, the Depression never was ended until World War II put an end to the trauma that began on Hoover’s watch. Yet consciously or not, Obama has already signaled his consideration of Hoover and FDR’s favorites, policies that we now know to have failed when they weren’t busy making things worse. Read full article.

Gird your loins, folks!