History Sometimes Does Repeat Itself

For an interesting look at how past Presidents have tried (and failed) to bully business into doing their bidding, read this article in the Wall Street Journal about FDR's response to the double-dip recession of 1937.  (For those who weren't around back then, industrial production fell by 1/3, stocks by 50%, payrolls by 35% and unemployment reached 20% - all 5 years AFTER the recovery began).  

Some interesting portions: 

"Privately, FDR told Robert Jackson, head of the Justice Department's antitrust division (and a future Supreme Court justice), "Bob, I'm sick of sitting here kissing [businessmen's] asses to get them to" invest and increase employment. Publicly, Jackson agreed in a December 1937 speech that the country faced a "strike of capital" by business in order to get New Deal legislation repealed. He denounced the notion that the president's program was antibusiness. Given the "astounding profits under the present administration," he said, "big business will never be able to convince the American people that it has been imposed on, destroyed, or even threatened. It has merely been saved from ruin and restored to arrogance."

FDR told former speechwriter Rex Tugwell late in 1937 that he "wanted to scare these people into doing something." It was an odd strategy, trying to vilify business into creating jobs. And it didn't work well.

The full article can be found here.