Changes

At the peak of [[Stalin]]'s [[Holodomor|Terror Famine]] (during which the [[USSR|Soviets]] killed some 14 million<ref>Robert Conquest, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=Bp31GmfH-6YC The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine]'' (Oxford University Press, 1987) ISBN 0195051807, p. 306</ref>  people through collectivization of agriculture),<ref>Peter Finn, "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/26/AR2008042602039_pf.html Aftermath of a Soviet Famine]," ''Washington Post'', April 27, 2008</ref> the AAA curtailed U.S. farm production<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/9551/Agricultural-Adjustment-Administration Agricultural Adjustment Administration], ''Encyclopedia Britannica''</ref> in order to drive up food prices<ref>James D. Hamilton, [http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2007/01/the_new_deal_an.html The New Deal and the Great Depression], Econbrowser.com, January 10, 2007</ref> in the depths of the [[Great Depression]]. According to ex-Marxist<ref>Ray Sawhill, "[http://www.salon.com/books/int/1999/11/10/sowell Black and right]," Salon.com, November 10, 1999</ref> economist Thomas Sowell:

At the peak of [[Stalin]]'s [[Holodomor|Terror Famine]] (during which the [[USSR|Soviets]] killed some 14 million<ref>Robert Conquest, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=Bp31GmfH-6YC The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine]'' (Oxford University Press, 1987) ISBN 0195051807, p. 306</ref>  people through collectivization of agriculture),<ref>Peter Finn, "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/26/AR2008042602039_pf.html Aftermath of a Soviet Famine]," ''Washington Post'', April 27, 2008</ref> the AAA curtailed U.S. farm production<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/9551/Agricultural-Adjustment-Administration Agricultural Adjustment Administration], ''Encyclopedia Britannica''</ref> in order to drive up food prices<ref>James D. Hamilton, [http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2007/01/the_new_deal_an.html The New Deal and the Great Depression], Econbrowser.com, January 10, 2007</ref> in the depths of the [[Great Depression]]. According to ex-Marxist<ref>Ray Sawhill, "[http://www.salon.com/books/int/1999/11/10/sowell Black and right]," Salon.com, November 10, 1999</ref> economist Thomas Sowell:

{{cquote|During the Great Depression of the 1930s, agricultural price support programs led to vast amounts of food being deliberately destroyed at a time when malnutrition was a serious problem in the United States.... For example, the federal government bought 6 million hogs in 1933 alone and destroyed them. Huge amounts of farm produce were plowed under, in order to keep it off the market and maintain prices at the officially fixed level, and vast amounts of milk were poured down the sewers for the same reason. Meanwhile, many American children were suffering from diseases caused by malnutrition.<ref>Thomas Sowell, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=gbfTLG_HmGEC Basic Economics]'' [New York: Basic Books, 2007] 3rd Ed., ISBN 0465002609, p. 56</ref>}}

{{cquote|During the Great Depression of the 1930s, agricultural price support programs led to vast amounts of food being deliberately destroyed at a time when malnutrition was a serious problem in the United States.... For example, the federal government bought 6 million hogs in 1933 alone and destroyed them. Huge amounts of farm produce were plowed under, in order to keep it off the market and maintain prices at the officially fixed level, and vast amounts of milk were poured down the sewers for the same reason. Meanwhile, many American children were suffering from diseases caused by malnutrition.<ref>Thomas Sowell, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=gbfTLG_HmGEC Basic Economics]'' [New York: Basic Books, 2007] 3rd Ed., ISBN 0465002609, p. 56</ref>}}

As Gene Smiley, emeritus professor of economics at Marquette University, writes in ''The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics'': "Reduced production, of course, is what happens in depressions, and it never made sense to try to get the country out of depression by reducing production further. In its zeal, the administration apparently did not consider the elementary impossibility of raising all real wage rates and all real prices."<ref>Gene Smiley, [http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/GreatDepression.html Great Depression], The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics (econlib.org)</ref> One study found that such [[New Deal]] policies prolonged the [[Great Depression]] by about seven years.<ref>Meg Sullivan, [http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/FDR-s-Policies-Prolonged-Depression-5409.aspx FDR's policies prolonged Depression by 7 years, UCLA economists calculate], ''UCLA Newsroom'',  August 10, 2004. Cf. Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian, "[http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/421169 New Deal Policies and the Persistence of the Great Depression: A General Equilibrium Analysis]," ''The Journal of Political Economy'', Vol. 112, No. 4 (August 2004), pp. 779-816; Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian, [http://www.economics.hawaii.edu/research/seminars/02-03/02-21.pdf [http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/421169 New Deal Policies and the Persistence of the Great Depression: A General Equilibrium Analysis] (Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Research Department Staff Report XXX), February 2003</ref>

As Gene Smiley, emeritus professor of economics at Marquette University, writes in ''The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics'': "Reduced production, of course, is what happens in depressions, and it never made sense to try to get the country out of depression by reducing production further. In its zeal, the administration apparently did not consider the elementary impossibility of raising all real wage rates and all real prices."<ref>Gene Smiley, [http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/GreatDepression.html Great Depression], The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics (econlib.org)</ref> One study found that such [[New Deal]] policies prolonged the [[Great Depression]] by about seven years.<ref>Meg Sullivan, [http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/FDR-s-Policies-Prolonged-Depression-5409.aspx FDR's policies prolonged Depression by 7 years, UCLA economists calculate], ''UCLA Newsroom'',  August 10, 2004. Cf. Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian, "[http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/421169 New Deal Policies and the Persistence of the Great Depression: A General Equilibrium Analysis]," ''The Journal of Political Economy'', Vol. 112, No. 4 (August 2004), pp. 779-816; Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian, [http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/421169 New Deal Policies and the Persistence of the Great Depression: A General Equilibrium Analysis] (Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Research Department Staff Report XXX), February 2003 (Archived copy [http://web.archive.org/web/20110722041438/http://www.economics.hawaii.edu/research/seminars/02-03/02-21.pdf here])</ref>

By reducing farm production, according to Cornell University agricultural economist James E. Boyle, the AAA was responsible for throwing some two million American farm workers out of work.<ref>James E. Boyle, "The AAA: An Epitaph," ''The Atlantic Monthly'', Vol. 157, No. 2 (February 1936), pp. 217-225. In the case of cotton, "the 1933 plow-up of the crop would aid many Arkansas cotton growers but slighted and ultimately displaced large numbers of the state's tenant farmers and sharecroppers." Keith J. Volanto, "[http://www.pccua.edu/keough/aaa_cotton_plow_up.htm The AAA cotton plow-up campaign in Arkansas]," ''Arkansas Historical Quarterly'' (Fayetteville: Arkansas Historical Association, Department of History, University of Arkansas) Vol. 59, Iss. 4 (Winter 2000),  pp. 388</ref> While the AAA raised the prices farmers could charge for food, the [[National Recovery Administration]] raised the price farmers had to pay for manufactured goods even more; as a result, farmers actually lost ground under these New Deal programs, becoming on net worse off.<ref>For farmers, "the net loss from the pre-recession level was greater among prices received than among prices paid." (Frederick C. Mills, ''[http://www.nber.org/books/mill36-1 Prices in Recession and Recovery: A Survey of Recent Changes]'' [National Bureau of Economic Research, 1936] ISBN 0-87014-030-2, p. 239) Cf. "Although overall farm incomes increased, farmers actually found themselves worse off because FDR’s NRA had been even more successful in forcing up the prices that consumers, including farmers, had to pay for manufactured goods." (Jim Powell, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=HDLgbQ38v_wC FDR's Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression]'' (Random House Digital, Inc., 2004) ISBN 140005477X, pp. 136-137) </ref>  

By reducing farm production, according to Cornell University agricultural economist James E. Boyle, the AAA was responsible for throwing some two million American farm workers out of work.<ref>James E. Boyle, "The AAA: An Epitaph," ''The Atlantic Monthly'', Vol. 157, No. 2 (February 1936), pp. 217-225. In the case of cotton, "the 1933 plow-up of the crop would aid many Arkansas cotton growers but slighted and ultimately displaced large numbers of the state's tenant farmers and sharecroppers." Keith J. Volanto, "[http://www.pccua.edu/keough/aaa_cotton_plow_up.htm The AAA cotton plow-up campaign in Arkansas]," ''Arkansas Historical Quarterly'' (Fayetteville: Arkansas Historical Association, Department of History, University of Arkansas) Vol. 59, Iss. 4 (Winter 2000),  pp. 388</ref> While the AAA raised the prices farmers could charge for food, the [[National Recovery Administration]] raised the price farmers had to pay for manufactured goods even more; as a result, farmers actually lost ground under these New Deal programs, becoming on net worse off.<ref>For farmers, "the net loss from the pre-recession level was greater among prices received than among prices paid." (Frederick C. Mills, ''[http://www.nber.org/books/mill36-1 Prices in Recession and Recovery: A Survey of Recent Changes]'' [National Bureau of Economic Research, 1936] ISBN 0-87014-030-2, p. 239) Cf. "Although overall farm incomes increased, farmers actually found themselves worse off because FDR’s NRA had been even more successful in forcing up the prices that consumers, including farmers, had to pay for manufactured goods." (Jim Powell, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=HDLgbQ38v_wC FDR's Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression]'' (Random House Digital, Inc., 2004) ISBN 140005477X, pp. 136-137) </ref>