Reflections of a stormy petrel

I dealt with this point elsewhere, pointing out that between 1931 and 1940 the real freedom to move of any head of state was probably zero, since there was no international cooperation of any kind and growing intimations of war. What has kept the crisis today from spiralling out of control has been massive foreign buying into US stocks and businesses, carried out with real uninflated money and often by sovereign funds. IN 1932, foreign powers kept their money at home and, in the worst cases, financed pseudo-recoveries with massive military spending financed by uncontrolled state debt. Poor Mr. Roosevelt could do little except try to raise the US by its own diminished resources - effectively, by its own bootstraps. And you might remember that the US' own contribution to the widespread atmosphere of international ill-will and beggar-thy-neighbour, Smoot-Hawley, predated Roosevelt. The importance of Roosevelt is not so much in single inititatives (honestly, when the best you can think of is the Tennessee Valley Authority, you have a problem), but with the never-say-die, if-at-first-you-don't-succeed-try-try-and-try-again mood he instigated. Have you ever heard one of his speeches? They are remarkable, but they are to be heard from his living voice, because the sense of unconquerable energy and courage they convey dies on the printed page.