Obama, In Channeling Roosevelt, Ignores What Has Really Worked

By PATRICK J. BUCHANAN | Posted Friday, January 09, 2009 4:20 PM PT

Barack Obama, it is said, will inherit the worst times since the Great Depression.

Not to minimize the crisis we are in, but we need a little perspective here.

The Great Depression began with the Great Crash of 1929. By 1931, unemployment had reached 16%.

By 1933, 89% of stock value had been wiped out, the economy had shrunk by one-third, thousands of banks had closed, a third of the money supply had vanished, and unemployment had reached 25% — among heads of households. And in those days, there was no unemployment insurance, no Medicare, no Medicaid, no Social Security, no welfare.

FDR's answer: vast federal spending,>>>