What would FDR say about our current crisis? We can't ask him, but we can ask his grandson!
Frank Roosevelt, aka Franklin Delano Roosevelt III is a 70-year-old economics professor at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y., just north of New York City.
Frank Roosevelt, has Ph.D. in Economics from the New School for Social Research, an M.A. in Economics from Columbia University and a B.A. in Economics from Yale University.
Expanding on his grandfather's legacy, Frank became what Republicans feared in the 1930s: He's a socialist. From Wiki:
His work has primarily focused on combining Marxism and capitalism in an attempt to make modern economic systems more fair and less prone to the "winner takes all" scenario
I think that is a worthy goal.
Now, why isn't Frank on all of the talk shows? No research staff left, I guess. But The Journal News of White Plains, N.Y. stopped by his home and asked Frank what he thought about Obama, the new depression, his view on his grandfather's policies and what Obama should do now.
First of all, Frank is a big supporter of Obama. He contributed to Obama's campaign and his inaugural fund.
On his grandfather:
Roosevelt proudly welcomes the comparisons (to his grandfather), but did caution Obama to view FDR as a history lesson as much as a role model.
"He needs to take action," he said. "But I don't think he needs to do 15 different things, because FDR was just sort of flailing about, and they were trying this and trying that. They were in the right direction, but he had no theoretical knowledge that we have now."
Where we are now:
"We are in a crisis, but we're not in a depression. We do not have bread lines on the streets," he said. "The social scene and the economic world are entirely different today than the world in which Roosevelt operated."
What should Obama do:
Roosevelt's biggest gripe with his grandfather is that he didn't spend enough to jump-start the economy.
"I think Obama has to learn from that and forget about balancing the budget," Roosevelt said. "Spend, spend, spend until we've done enough to stop this decline."
"So if I could talk with him, I would say, 'Go for broke,'" he said. "Literally, go for broke."
See the whole story in The Journal News.