Lawrence W. Reed Quote

Some defenders of FDR, such as economist Paul Krugman, blame the 1937–38 collapse on a reduction in government spending. In typical Keynesian fashion, they claim that the economy tanked that year because the president, after nearly doubling federal spending in his first term, caved to GOP demands to rein in expenditures. But in real terms, the reduction was puny — less than 1 percent of GDP. Even by Keynesian standards, this blip could hardly have produced the ensuing one-third decline in industrial production.

Lawrence W. Reed

Some defenders of FDR, such as economist Paul Krugman, blame the 1937–38 collapse on a reduction in government spending. In typical Keynesian fashion, they claim that the economy tanked that year because the president, after nearly doubling federal spending in his first term, caved to GOP demands to rein in expenditures. But in real terms, the reduction was puny — less than 1 percent of GDP. Even by Keynesian standards, this blip could hardly have produced the ensuing one-third decline in industrial production.

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About Lawrence W. Reed

Lawrence "Larry" W. Reed (born September 29, 1953), also known as Larry Reed, is president emeritus of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), where he has served as the Humphreys Family Senior Fellow since May 2019. Before joining FEE, Reed served as president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a Midland, Michigan-based free-market think tank. To date, he remains Mackinac's president emeritus.