Public radio's "Stateplace" lived up to its moniker this morning with a nostalgic bit on New Deal Keynesianism pulling the U.S. out of the Great Depression:

Sarah Gardner: It all started in the 1930's. Franklin Roosevelt might have been the first president to think of Americans as "consumers" as well as citizens.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt: If the average citizen is guaranteed equal opportunity in the polling place, he must have equal opportunity in the marketplace.

The Great Depression had ravaged the American economy, and the White House saw hope in a bold new economic theory.

Harvard historian Lizabeth Cohen:

Lizabeth Cohen: FDR, and many who advised him, felt that the best route out of the Depression was putting money in consumers' pockets so they could, in a sense, buy us out of the Great Depression.

So-called "Keynesian economics" took hold -- a theory that promoted spending, both private and public, as a way to stimulate the economy.

Newsreel voice-over: Tens of thousands of men on one single payroll have money for themselves and for their families to spend . . .

As America mobilized for World War II, spending became downright patriotic:

Newsreel voice-over: Fresh buying power floods into all the stores of every community . . .

By 1950, Harry Truman proudly told Americans the medicine was working.

President Harry Truman: In the last 50 years, the income of the average family has increased so greatly that its buying power has doubled.

Here's some recommended reading for the "Stateplace" folks:
Couch and Shughart, The Political Economy of the New Deal

Powell, FDR's Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression

Higgs, Depression, War, and Cold War

Shlaes, The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression