How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression The traditional view of Franklin D. Roosevelt is that he motivated and helped the United States during the “Great Depression” and was a great president, however, as time passed, economist historians began to analyze Roosevelt's presidency. Many have concluded that it did not help America during the Great Depression, but instead amplified and prolonged the depression. Jim Powell wrote about FDR's economic policies and did a great job explaining Roosevelt's incompetent initiatives. Roosevelt knew nothing about economics, and his advisors made matters worse by admiring the Soviet Union. Franklin D. Roosevelt attended Harvard University and then Columbia Law School, but did not graduate from law school. Roosevelt was the only president to be elected to four consecutive terms. He led the American government through the Great Depression and World War II until his death on April 12, 1945. He has been ranked as one of the greatest presidents in United States history. Franklin D. Roosevelt won the presidential election in 1932 against Herbert Hoover. In 1936 Roosevelt's political party, the Democrats, held congressional majorities in the House and Senate. The Great Depression isn't entirely Franklin D. Roosevelt's fault; Herbert Hoover made matters worse before Roosevelt took office. Hoover raised taxes and passed laws such as the Tariff Act of 1930, which was the perfect recipe for the Great Depression. Franklin D. Roosevelt followed the same policies as Hoover and made more laws to make things worse. Franklin D. Roosevelt was a lawyer, not an economist or businessman, and “FDR appeared to be completely unaware of econo... half of paper... d to provide some protection to the 8,750 acres in Chattanooga. » The general consensus is that this would negatively affect the economy. Franklin D. Roosevelt thought that greater government power and greater market involvement would help the economy. He mistakenly thought that the United States should represent the ideals of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union destroyed Russia, but fortunately the United States did not suffer the same fate. Roosevelt's "alphabet soup" did not help the US economy. Instead, it exacerbated and prolonged the Great Depression. The National Recovery Administration and the Tennessee Valley Authority were like the French and British colonies in Africa: you invest too much money but you get no profit from them. Ultimately, Roosevelt's policies harmed and prolonged the suffering of the American people in the name of promoting his ideals.