Market Correction

14 June 2006

Editor, The Washington Post
1150 15th St., NW
Washington, DC 20071

Dear Editor:

E. J. Dionne longs for a new New Deal, believing that the original one saved capitalism and secured prosperity ("In Search Of a New New Deal," June 13). Although widely believed, this myth is belied by the evidence. In a book* released last week by Oxford University Press, economic historian Robert Higgs presents data showing that New Deal policies worsened America's investment climate, both deepening and prolonging the Great Depression. Not until after WWII - when Congressional elections signaled Americans' rejection of the socialist policies that many level-headed people in the 1930s feared would curse us far in to our future - did Americans again enjoy widespread prosperity.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University

* Robert Higgs, Depression, War, and Cold War (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).