Eric Rauchway counters McArdle:
Sullivan was talking about "the New Deal," and McArdle immediately starts talking about "the NRA." You see this a lot, anti-New Dealers reducing the New Deal to the NRA. That’s because if you’re an anti-New Dealer, you have a big problem: the New Deal was, and remains, popular. Its most important elements have endured. The New Deal included the SEC, FDIC, TVA, Social Security, TVA, innumerable public works projects and the minimum wage, as well as the right to unionize… McArdle decries the record of the New Deal in promoting economic improvement. To which I can only ask those of you who are serious readers to look at the [above] graph, and a whole lot of related posts on this blog.
The Dish 