Jim Devine writes: >> The Supreme Court, at the time still packed with laissez-faire >> conservatives left over from previous eras, knocked down the NRA in >> 1935.
The Supreme Court was unanimous, including Brandeis. "Speaking to aides of Roosevelt, Justice Louis Brandeis remarked that, 'This is the end of this business of centralization, and I want you to go back and tell the president that we're not going to let this government centralize everything.'" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schechter_Poultry_Corp._v._United_States >> By the way, it's interesting that after an abortive pro-fascist coup >> (which was supposed to be led by General Smedley Butler), FDR went for >> pseudo-fascist economics (the NIRA). I guess fascism was in the air. >> Of course, wasn't Mussolini seen as a "statesman" at the time? I don't think fear of a fascist coup had much to do with the NRA. The early Roosevelt administration was intellectually divided between those who thought the problem with capitalism was irrational/chaotic competition (too little profit), and those who thought the problem with capitalism was that evil monopolists were cheating the little guy (too much profit). Roosevelt attempted to solve both alleged problems at the same time. >> for a long time, the Civil Aeronautics Board limited competition in >> air fares, while the Interstate Commerce Commission limited price >> competition in trucking and trains. The Pentagon also restricts >> competition among arms manufacturers. I'm sure there are other >> examples. The deregulation of air and trucking fares occurred precisely because there was no intellectual support for the notion that either (1) industry health should trump consumer welfare, or (2) consumers benefited from industry health. As I have discussed before on this list, deregulation was supported by a broad spectrum of opinion that included Edward Kennedy and Ralph Nader. The fact that price (and entry) regulation lingered until the 1970s was a testament to regulatory capture, not intellectual support. David Shemano _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
