Abstract
In 1931, Hansen had seen the post-war maldistribution of gold as a major factor behind the depression. Counterfactually, without the drain of gold into France and the USA, the decline in world prices would have been gradual rather than precipitous. At the Chicago Harris Foundation meetings in both 1931 and 1932, Hansen remained sceptical about the efficacy of public works. Later, he characterised the mid-1930s recovery as being consumption-led. Whilst investment had increased, this had followed the rise in consumption. A full recovery had failed to materialise not because of capital shortage but due to a failure to develop adequate investment outlets. In retrospect, considering the depth of the recession, the New Deal had been a success, albeit that it could have been better if Congress had been bolder.
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Notes
- 1.
As an example, Rauchway (2015) quotes a tailoring company advert.
- 2.
ibid: 497.
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
See Harris (2021: 76ff).
- 6.
- 7.
See Keyserling in Colander and Landreth (1996: 226–7).
- 8.
See Nelson (2017: 277–8).
- 9.
ibid: 302–3.
- 10.
ibid: 306.
- 11.
Schwarz (1994: 73–4).
- 12.
See Nelson (2017: 157–8) and Schwarz (1994: 237–45). The EHFA’s activity roughly doubled in 1936–7 and by mid-1937 claimed 1102 retailers selling electrical appliances from 137 manufacturers in 20 states with a minimum 5% down payment and 5% interest. By the time it closed in 1941, it operated in 37 states through 5604 dealers. In 1940, some two-thirds of its customers had monthly incomes below $150 (Schwarz, 1994: 244–5).
- 13.
Hansen had briefly mentioned this approach in 1938a: 325–6.
- 14.
New York Times 1939-05-25: 13.
- 15.
Hansen referred to work on public budgets by Harvey Perloff, Spencer Thompson, Robert Rawson, and Charles Stauffacher in the 1941 Harvard Public Policy yearbook.
- 16.
- 17.
- 18.
Stein described the pamphlet as “Keynesian in analysis, stagnationist in diagnosis, and all-out in prescription, going beyond deficit spending to drastic measures of income redistribution for the purpose of stimulating consumption” (Stein, 1969: 165).
- 19.
Tarshis in Colander and Landreth (1996: 64).
- 20.
reported in The Providence Sunday Journal, 1944-06-04: 17, New York Times, 1944-06-04: 25.
- 21.
See also 1941a: 84ff.
- 22.
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Bigg, R.J. (2023). Hansen and the New Deal Policies. In: Alvin Hansen. Great Thinkers in Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42216-4_5
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