Institute for Research on Labor and Employment

The New Deal had a central theme: economic security. But it lacked an economic model for achieving it. Although New Deal remedies are sometimes described as Keynesian, they were not based on Keynes and his macroeconomic model. Rather, there was a hodge-podge of theories and approaches, shifts in direction, contradictions, and a lack of timely empirical data on which to base policy. In contrast, the Obama administration, facing the Great Recession, has a (new) Keynesian model, but no central theme. The current agenda is diffuse, perhaps a reflection of a broader range of economic problems and social issues.