Andres Viglucci, The Miami Herald

January 11, 2009

Andres Viglucci
The Miami Herald
One Herald Plaza
Miami, Florida 33132-1693

RE: “Dawn of a New Deal” – Your Page One story of what never was maybe becoming never was again. As Churchill said, “This pudding has no theme”.

Mr. Viglucci

The sub-headline of your Page 1 story is “economic recovery”.

Laying aside the mostly bad art, the attempt to pack the Supreme Court, the shibboleth of fireside chats saving the nation, and the willing suspension of both belief and disbelief about 6y years of economic data, the one overwhelmingly large beyond belief elephant in the room about the New Deal is that it didn’t work.

Facts are hard things.

If we begin the timeline on March 4, 1933 and do a month by month, quarter by quarter, year by year, state by state, industry by industry comparison the country was in worse shape in 1938 then it was in 1933.

You cite Miami Mayor Diaz, a man who obviously never lets facts interfere with either an argument or a belief, who says “the New Deal is credited with millions of jobs if that’s what we want to do. It worked. It’s proven. It can work again.”

It did not. In fact, it made the problem worse.

Look it up.