"You get the feeling President Obama is girding for battle with the financial sector. In last week's State of the Union address, he promised to regulate the industry. On Jan. 21, he was blunter, warning that he would not let companies that enjoyed 'soaring profits and obscene bonuses' block his financial reforms. 'If these folks want a fight,' he said, 'it's a fight I'm ready to have.'
This declaration of war echoes that of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In 1936, late in his campaign for a second presidential term, FDR spoke of the challenges of 'business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking.' Wall Streeters and businessmen hated him, he said, adding that 'I welcome their hatred.'"
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"The result of it all was the Depression within the Depression of 1937 and 1938, when industrial production plummeted and unemployment climbed back into the higher teens. Even John Maynard Keynes chided FDR for his attitude about businessmen: "It is a mistake to think they are more immoral than politicians."
Among themselves, the New Dealers acknowledged failure. FDR's second Treasury Secretary, Henry Morgenthau, eventually determined that the problem was lack of what he labeled "business confidence." Late in the decade, Morgenthau dared to call for tax cuts. He even placed a sign on his desk asking, "Does it contribute to recovery?" Roosevelt told him the sign was "very stupid."
