Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 07/2008

The New Deal Jobs Myth

Amity Shlaes

January 2008

American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

Abstract

Democratic presidential candidates are invoking the New Deal as a model for addressing infrastructure, economic, and employment problems in the United States. But a careful look at New Deal spending suggests, in the words of Amity Shlaes, "not how much the public works achieved . . . [but] how little." Advocates for new federal government spending on highways, buildings, and roads should carefully weigh the need against the damage that comes from projects and jobs created for political reasons.