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"Nine days into his presidency, FDR had closed the banks."

Thu, 02/05/2009 - 1:56pm — lambert

Case closed on the whole FDR bit? Damn near. What Avedon said:

Nine days into his presidency, FDR had closed the banks. Obama, by contrast, seems to be letting the right-wing lead with their usual message of "No we can't!"

Well, let's be reasonable, here. Everybody knows the FDR had his problems.

Not being Machivellian enough, one. Not being bipartisan enough, two. Need I go on? I think not!

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Pedantic point

By CMike on Thu, 02/05/2009 - 3:11pm

Avedon makes it sound like FDR was dragging his feet. Six days into his presidency Roosevelt was reopening banks:

On March 5--the day after being sworn into office-- Roosevelt stepped into the breach and declared a "bank holiday," which, for four days forced the closure of the nation's banks and halted all financial transactions. The "holiday" not only helped stem the frantic run on banks, but gave Roosevelt time to push the Emergency Banking Act through the legislative chain. Passed by Congress on March 9, the act handed the president a far-reaching grip over bank dealings and "foreign transactions." The legislation also paved the path for solvent banks to resume business as early as March 10. Three short days later nearly 1,000 banks were up and running again.

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Uh oh ...

By CMike on Thu, 02/05/2009 - 3:26pm

I did not intend to make a tasteless remark but that is what I did in my first sentence. My bad, sorry.

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No matter how he used his feet, FDR saved the economy.

By cg.eye on Thu, 02/05/2009 - 3:30pm

'Nuff said.

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