Comparing Roosevelt's First 100 Days to Obama's

It is possible to argue that 21 st century President Barack Obama is a student of his 20 th -century counterpart Franklin Roosevelt. President Roosevelt’s speech dubbed the government must act, issued in 1933 provides a major departure of common US politics. America has always been a capitalist society, which embraces limitations for government interference in the private sector. However, Roosevelt came to power after a monumental economic calamity in the USA, now called the Great Depression. At the beginning of the crisis, the leader embraced the capitalist approach of allowing market dynamics to control the economy. A combination of a hands-off approach and the economic crisis devastated the US economy and that of most of the developed world. In his featured speech, Roosevelt heralds an exponential change in policy by stating that the government must act and intervene in the private sector for the sake of common good.

A similar situation, but in a relatively milder scale faced newly elected US president Barrack Obama, the first person of color to assume the office of President of the United States. After an unprecedented bull-run, the US markets suddenly plummeted in the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis. As Obama took office, America was gradually leading the world into a major recession. Massive corporations erstwhile thought too grand to collapse fell in quick succession. Americans lost their savings and were rapidly losing their jobs too. In the Great Depression, the presidency continued with the hand-off approach from 1929 when the depression started, to 1933 when Roosevelt came to power. Perhaps due to the delay, the Great Depression lasted a decade. Obama was unwilling to wait and allow the situation to deteriorate further. Like Roosevelt, he acted immediately by using public money to rescue major corporations in America. His government also supported Congressional Acts that limited the discretion of investment bankers in America. Perhaps due to the Roosevelt-inspired timely intervention the US economy recovered faster after the 2008 crisis than it did after the 1929 event.