New Deal u praksi

Fantastičan članak Georga Willa počinje ovako:

The crime scene at 138 Griffith St. has changed in 76 years. Today it is a barber shop. In 1934, it was a tailoring and cleaning establishment owned and run by Jacob Maged, 49.

With his responsibilities as a father of four, Maged should have shunned a life of crime. Instead, he advertised his criminal activity with a placard in his shop window, promising to press men's suits for 35 cents. This he did, even though President Franklin Roosevelt's New Dealers, who knew an amazing number of things -- his economic aides were not called a "Brains Trust" for nothing -- knew that the proper price for pressing a man's suit was 40 cents.

Neke Ruzveltove politike danas deluju suludo bez obzira na vaše ideološko opredeljenje -- namerna kartelizacija ekonomije, naredbe o obaveznom podizanju cena ili pokolj svinja radi podizanja cene mesa (mada ovo poslednje liči na Obamin cash-for-clunkers program) -- ali i dalje se perpetuira mit o New Dealu i njemu kao spasiocu ekonomije. To je čovek kome je Kejns, današnji simbol intervencionizma, pisao pisma da mu kaže da prestane da se meša u ekonomiju i ostavi biznis na miru. Ovaj članak je o jednom tipičnom slučaju iz tog vremena, krojaču koji je završio u zatvoru jer je jeftino peglao odela.