Question

What were the critisisms of the new deal?

Answer 1

This is one of the more complicated questions you could ask, the answer is going to come from a particular point of view, that of the free market, monetarist, economist.

In the eyes of that view point, the so-called "New Deal", or the legislative agenda of President FDR in response to the so-called "Great Depression" of 1929, was not effective in stimulating the economy, but rather caused a second depression. The real cause of economic stimulation came with the necessary industrialization explosion of WWII.

The New Deal was based upon many ideas of economist John Maynard Keynes, who believed that the government should use deficit spending to stimulate the economy when it was weak, Many economists now believe many of Keynes core ideas have been discredited, or proven not true.

This is an issue with current implications, because essentially those who believe in bigger government, bigger social programs, so-called "tax and spenders", are really simply following many of the core principles of the New Deal. This is in oppotition to the so-called "free marketers", who believe in lower taxes and less government intervention leads to a stronger economy.