Five Ways to Wreck a Recovery

Amity Shlaes offers lessons from Hoover and FDR on how to extend a recession and make it worse (hint: do the opposite):

1) Give in to protectionism
2) Blame investors
3) Increase taxes
4) Rely on bigger government to bring back growth
5) Be inconsistent (e.g. bailouts)

This should be on Governor Rendell’s reading list, since he cites FDR as the model for his economic development schemes, but according to the Inquirer, someone will have to print it out and hand deliver it to him.