Up until the 1930s there was freedom of contract between workers and employers by which they could make, accept, or reject any offers of remuneration. With the 1930s comes the idea of exclusive bargaining agents decided upon by a majority of workers, and compulsory to all.
FDR’s stated New Deal purpose was to keep work weeks short and to extend minimum wages which were extremely high. But, production is what makes demand possible and what increases purchasing power, not federal mandates.
No President should leave a citizen in doubt about his person or property. However, this original comforting view is contrasted with more modern theory of the Presidency in which Wilson held the President to be the “unifying force of the country”. He represents no constituency, but the “whole people”.
Chris Westley explains that the only thing new about New Deal policies was their name and the people administering them.
Murray Rothbard, in this classic essay originally published in 1991, offers the most "pure" proposal of all: private mintage, 100 percent reserve banking, circulating coins, full convertibility.
For interesting stuff, see MarketWatc
Like FDR, George Bush got his war, writes Joseph Potts, but Bush went his Democratic predecessor one better—a big one better.
Presented at the San Jose State Workshop in Applied Political Economy; 2 May 2005.
People apparently are not supposed to fret that gas is relatively more expensive, writes Robert Murphy, because in an absolute sense, it is still cheaper than other commodities. Well, this leaves out a rather important fact.
The economy is not depression proof, writes Lew Rockwell. If the government and the Federal Reserve are willing to work hard enough, they can kill off even the most robust economic expansion.
