July 8, 2007 (LPAC)--The release of a new attack on President Franklin
D. Roosevelt's policy for dealing with the Great Depression, in
the form of the book "A New History of the Great Depression: The
Forgotten Man,'' has been picked up by major Establishment
columnists in the U.S. Could they be afraid that the FDR reflex
is indeed about to be reasserted, as the financial breakdown
crisis reaches the crucial stage?

Exemplary of the way the book, released mid-June 2007, is
being used, is the July 8th column by George F. Will, who states
that, according to book author Amity Shlaes, FDR's New Deal made
"interest group politics systematic and routine," created "a
new forgotten man," and left it to the World War II mobilization
to defeat the Depression. According to Will, Shlaes' target is
the use of Federal government power to defend the forgotten
man. Will fails to note that FDR's legacy has been eviscerated
over the last 40 years, and is desperately needed to be restored
today.
  Author Shlaes has a long pedigree with the radical anti-FDR
crowd, including stints at the Financial Times and Wall Street
Journal, as well as having won the Frederic Bastiat Prize, and
serving on the honorary committee which awards the Prize.
Bastiat, a rabidly reactionary economist from mid-19th century
France, is the poster-boy for the financial oligarchy's anti-FDR
offensive after his death. His book "The Law" was published by
a Mt. Pelerin front group in 1950, and has been printed in more
than 450,000 copies since that time. Shlaes, now a columnist for
Bloomberg news, is also a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign
Relations.
  LPAC will soon provide its own review of Shlaes' book.