FDR on the Banking crisis: March 31 1933

[bushmeister0]

"We had a bad banking situation. Some of our bankers had shown themselves either incompetent or dishonest in their handling of the people's funds. They had used the money entrusted to them in speculations and unwise loans. This was of course not true in the vast majority of our banks but it was true in enough of them to shock the people for a time into a sense of insecurity and to put them into a frame of mind where they did not differentiate, but seemed to assume that the acts of a comparative few had tainted them all. It was the Government's job to straighten out this situation and do it as quickly as possible -- and the job is being performed."

http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/031233.html

Up to the government? What is this guy a freakin' commie? Everybody knows anything government can do the market can do 100 times better, right? What's all this talk of a government bail out of these major banks? They got themselves into this mess, they can get themselves out.

[JDPriestly]

1. It is sound currency because it is backed by actual, good assets.

http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/031233.html

Wow! What a different approach. Compare Bush and Roosevelt.

Roosevelt immediately acknowledged the cooperation of both Republicans and Democrats in Congress. Bush sees the world in us versus them -- his greatest weakness.

Here is more from Roosevelt's speech:

After all there is an element in the readjustment of our financial system more important than currency, more important than gold, and that is the confidence of the people. Confidence and courage are the essentials of success in carrying out our plan. You people must have faith; you must not be stampeded by rumors or guesses. Let us unite in banishing fear. We have provided the machinery to restore our financial system; it is up to you to support and make it work.

It is your problem no less than it is mine. Together we cannot fail.

[bushmeister0]

2. Yeah, I used that in a previous post today.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3016967&mesg_id=3019096

He was ablsolutly the perfect tonic for what ailed this country back then, too bad we're stuck with Herbert Hoover Jr.