Walter Lippmann and the American Century — 24 A Reluctant Convert

1. 1. Lippmann told FDR in February 1933 that he might have no alternative but to assume dictatorial powers due to the crisis.
2. 2. Lippmann urged Congress to give Roosevelt a free hand by suspending debate and amendment for a year, arguing that denying him powers was the real danger.
3. 3. After FDR's inauguration, Lippmann reversed his earlier criticism and praised Roosevelt as an inspirational leader who wisely used the crisis as an opportunity.
4. 4. Lippmann defended his call for concentrated authority to Felix Frankfurter, arguing that the evil in society works up from the bottom as well as down from the top.
5. 5. Lippmann backed the entire New Deal package, including the National Recovery Administration, despite his earlier opposition to government intervention.
6. 6. Lippmann wrote a column calling for abandonment of the gold standard, arguing that no nation could defend both gold and its internal price level.
7. 7. FDR took the US off the gold standard on April 18, 1933, after Lippmann's column, leading to a stock market surge and praise from J.P. Morgan.
8. 8. Lippmann met Keynes in London in June 1933 and was convinced by his argument for a managed currency and countercyclical spending.
9. 9. Lippmann supported FDR's rejection of currency stabilization at the London Economic Conference, calling it a wise rejection of old fetishes.
10. 10. Lippmann drew a line between recovery and reform, arguing that once the emergency passed, the extraordinary powers granted to FDR should be withdrawn.
11. 11. In his Godkin Lectures, Lippmann advocated for a 'compensated economy' where the government counteracts private sector errors through spending, taxation, and interest rates.
12. 12. Critics like Lewis Gannett and Clifton Fadiman attacked Lippmann's distinction between 'free collectivism' and 'directed economy' as arbitrary and unconvincing.