I'm currently taking entry level economics in order to satisfy a requirement in order to add History to my teaching certification. The class has its faults- lazy TAs, poor attendance-tracking methods, Captain Tangent as our professor...

But the real problem I have with this class is the professor's unabashed and unapologetic love for socialism. The professor never outright says he's a socialist, but he agrees with socialist policies. He uses this view to justify FDR's big government policies, and now Obama's policies as well.

The class has gone pretty well up until now- most of the early content I have already learned and it pretty basic for Economics. Now that we've turned to the Great Depression, the professor has begun to heap praise for "the greatest economist of the 20th Century," John Maynard Keynes. Keynesian(pronounced Canes-ian) economics is roughly described as using government(public) spending to make up for the slowdown of private spending during a depression or a recession. The idea is that the government, with its massive power, can spend money to create jobs and thus giving people the confidence in the capitalist system. FDR took this idea and ran with it as part of his "New Deal" policies, creating new entitlements like Social Security, and setting the stage for more entitlements in the future.

Despite my professor's laudatory attitude towards Keynes and FDR, he stated clearly in class that FDR's Keynesian policies didn't work- because he didn't spend fast enough. It wasn't until the government stepped up spending for World War II did the economy start picking back up again. So was it Keynesian economics that got the economy going again? I doubt it.

In an earlier discussion, our class talked about how early capitalism was helped along by reducing taxes and reducing regulations in order to give people more opportunity to spend on business. Entrepreneurs(good ones at least) want to reinvest their money back into the business so that they can grow. This is a fundamental element to understanding capitalism, and my professor agreed that it can make an economy grow. Presidents John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush had each proven that lowering taxes and reducing regulation can pull the economy out of a recession with their policies as well. So, why have the government spend like crazy if reducing taxes/regulation could achieve the same effect of creating growth?

The answer is simple: If the government gets out of the way and reduces taxes and regulation, business picks up and reinvests that money back into business again, reinvigorating the economy. The average Joe American entrepreneur gets the credit for growing the economy, and ending the recession. However, if government follows Keynesian economics, and spends the money to create jobs and pushes make-work programs, government gets the credit! And with that credit comes power- people will become beholden to that power.

My economics professor stated that Keynesian economic policies were used at every recession since the Great Depression, and gave complete credit for the victory over the recession to those policies, and not the tax-lowering policies of the presidents mentioned above. I reject this claim.

So this discussion brings us to today. People are equating Obama's policies to FDR's, and believe Obama is trying to apply Keynesian policies. Despite my disagreement with Keynesian economics, I can't even say Obama is trying to follow such a doctrine. The "stimulus" package he signed doesn't do what he claims it will. Argue with me about that and I can say you didn't read the bill! In fact, no one did! Not even the people who signed it! The "stimulus" bill does not have the make-work ideas that FDR put forward, it has 8500 earmarks and pet spending projects that have nothing to do with stimulating the economy. Didn't Obama say something about no earmarks?

Suffice it to say, Obama was voted in and now we have to deal with him for two more years until we can do something about him. Let's hope the damage he's done can be mitigated or delayed. He said he was about hope and change, Well I hope he fails, or changes his path towards socialism.

PS: UCLA Economists say FDR Prolonged Great Depression