Politics

Obama's New New Deal: As Bad as the Old New Deal

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Despite trying "real hard," President Obama is dealing with another round of anemic job numbers. If only he had paid attention back in 2008 when we expalined how his new New Deal policies were destined to fail.

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On the cusp of a deep economic recession, and with a staggering amount of bailout money being offered to struggling industries, pundits and political advisers are advocating that the incoming Obama administration construct a new New Deal.

But is the popular narrative about the old New Deal-that Keynesian economics and top-down planning rescued America from the Great Depression-accurate? Reason.tv's Michael C. Moynihan talks to UCLA economist Lee Ohanian, who argues in work written with colleague Harold Cole, that the New Deal's massive intervention into the economy actually prolonged the economic crisis by seven years.