http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/02/time-for-a-new-%E2%80%9Cnew-deal%E2%80%9D/

The New Deal got us out of very hard times. Government intervention, through massive public works, generated dollars that built value throughout the economy from the bottom up.

http://agonist.org/numerian/20090220/why_the_banks_wont_lend

Right now, people live off off assets as well as personal income. We need to return to a time where people could save some of their money, so the banks know they are paying from personal income, not assets where the value isn't known.

The key here is that NO amount of Federal dollars will improve lending, because the banks have no incentive to actually lend, when people don't have the realistic ability to pay back.

And that happens when we put them to work and build jobs that pay living wages.

---Time for a New-New Deal.

I think I'm going to check out a copy of:

American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA: When FDR Put the Nation to Work.

This is what needs to happen. (again)

These are different times Missing, and honestly, history will probably show that the times we're in now can't hold the jockstrap of the Great Depression. The current stimulus won't be creating another Alphabet Soup that is government run, it's just government dollars going to infrastructure, up for bid by the private sector (and NO no-bid contracts!)

We truly weren't out of the Great Depression until the war machine started up, first for the British and Soviets via Lend-Lease (and our own actions in Iceland and other places prior to the declaration of war) ... and later for ourselves.

I think that in much that way that Barack Obama gained popularity and the presidency the way in which we approach this "new "new" deal" is maybe from a grassroots standpoint.

I like the calls for volunterism as I don't feel enough give of even small amounts of time. This is a good way to start in the right direction.

Brianl: FRD actually let up on the "economic" gas pedal in 1937. The economy was turning around by that year. (He let up only under Republican pressure.) War, almost always, slows an economy down. To claim that WWII was what propelled us out of the depression is a Republican talking point. Keynsian economics work. Friedman's model that this nation's economy has resembled over the past 28 years doesn't.

As far as populism goes, there could be a sea change in politics with the advent of the Internet. I have gone to http://www.whitehouse.gov/ and left comments like "If AIG, et. al., are too big to fail perhaps then, Mr. President, these companies are too big. Enforce the Sherman Anti-trust Act." A groundswell of comments flooding the White House would help get the popular support to move us in the right direction again.