This book by James Grant is the best on this "forgotten depression" which was reversed in a year - by Government doing nothing.
Posted on 11/19/2023 7:29:31 PM PST by RandFan
Someone commented that Milei in Argentina is perhaps the MOST libertarian elected figure in the WORLD since Calvin Coolidge was elected president.
Can any FR historians tell me about Mr. Coolidge and his administration?
I want to know where I can get an unbiased account as you know from the usual sources it's impossible.
Coolidge was a favorite of Reagan. Simply did his job without abusing his power. He did not talk much. Once during a State Dinner a woman seated next to him remarked ‘I have a bet with a friend that I can get you to say three words or more’
‘You lose’ was all he said.
That is why his nickname was ‘Silent Cal’
Harding, like Coolidge, was Republican.
Therein lies the problem.
Coolidge was a GOOD President and the more I learn of him, the more I like him.
It wasn't good. It was outstanding. Probably the most comprehensive look at Calvin Coolidge and his highly successful administration available.
The man actually was paid $1,000 by a national magazine for each article he wrote for them post presidency. Only three of his many articles were not published. He sent them back a check for $3,000. They told him the contract was for articles written, not articles published.
He tersely told them to keep the money because if they weren't good enough to publish, he didn't earn the money. Such was the integrity of the man.
When she was told that Coolidge had died, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, TR’s daughter, feigned astonishment and said, “But how could they tell?”
It went way beyond that.
Harding’s cabinet was strong: Mellon in Treasury, Hughes in State, and Hoover in Commerce.
Harding released political prisoners jailed by Wilson’s Red Scare, Eugene V Debs and others.
Harding gave the first civil rights speech since the Civil War to a biracial audience in Birmingham Alabama.
Harding created the Bureau of the Budget, the predecessor of today’s Office of Management and Budget.
Harding’s naval disarmament treaty cut military spending while maintaining an edge over Japan.
And Harding did it all in less than 2 1/2 years.
Harding is mostly remembered for the Teapot Dome and other scandals, but he was actually an unusually effective President, who put the roar in the Roaring Twenties.
Well, Ron Paul was a truly libertarian elected figure - only a Congressman, of course.
Miliel’s time in office will be REALLY interesting, because he’s taking charge of a country that has been governed since Peron like the AOC and the Democrat Party teamed up with the Mafia.
This book by James Grant is the best on this "forgotten depression" which was reversed in a year - by Government doing nothing.
My favorite history book of all time, Modern Times by Paul Johnson, has an excellent chapter on Harding-Coolidge America (and its subsequent misrepresentation by historians and the media) called “The Last Arcadia.”
You're the top!
You're an arrow collar
You're the top!
You're a Coolidge dollar...
To be honest, from 1920 to 1929, there were literally a dozen boom/bust situations that came and went. Lot of property speculation (Florida/California) and stock trades. It’s rare if anyone ever goes out and tells the whole story of the 1920s. I would agree Schlaes books (Great Society and Forgotten Man) ought to be read (very interesting insight to the era).
Here is a list of "The Best Books on Calvin Coolidge. Some of the are what you probably don't want, though.
I don't know about Coolidge the libertarian. He was the kind of president we had in the 19th century, but didn't have in the 20th.
That site lists his “presidential pets”: “Several Dogs, Raccoons, Donkey, Canaries, Goose, Bobcat, Lion Cubs, Pygmy Hippopotamus, Wallaby, Black Bear, etc.”
It must have been quite an interesting White House.
Warren Harding. Coolidge merely continued his policies (although Coolidge was responsible for putting an awful left-winger on SCOTUS that FDR thought was so great, he made him Chief Justice, despite being a RINO).
When people complain about "evil progressive Republicans" allegedly including Teddy Roosevelt, the answer is Harding. Coolidge & the Roaring 20s.
They were the conservative Republican ideal for the modern industrial age.
Their policies worked and the country thrived.
Taxes were reduced and the national debt was paid down.
Military spending percent of GDP was reduced back to the prewar levels of Teddy Roosevelt and Howard Taft, roughly 20% of today's levels.
The objection, of course, is always the 1929 stock market crash and the 1930s Great Depression, somehow blamed on 1920s Republican policies.
But the 1929 crash wasn't Coolidge's fault and conservative policy prescriptions would have made the Great Depression both shallower and shorter.
Democrats learned the opposite lessons and they now see every economic hiccup as yet another excuse to add more $trillions in spending to our national debt.
And that's were we are today, sadly.
Amity Shlaes did a really good biography on Coolidge. I’d highly recommend picking it up.
For many years, I too was of the impression that Coolidge was successful doing little. Then I read Murray Rothbard’s book “America’s Greatest Depression.” The author mostly goes after Hoover for all the “fix its” as you note, but Coolidge evidently had some fix its also that aggravated the economy.
Oh well, we are all imperfect beings.
For now, I would suggest the book that it seems most are already suggesting - Amity Schlaes' Coolidge book. Alternatively, there is a bio of Coolidge which was published in 1924 that should now at this time be in the public domain.
https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Life_of_Calvin_Coolidge/XR53AAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0
"When people complain about "evil progressive Republicans" allegedly including Teddy Roosevelt"
Well, to be fair, TR's response was "I am a progressive Republican." And it is true that he was so interested in oppressive national government at the expense of the states that he took a bullet to the chest and kept on speaking about how evil the states/federalism was. Yeah. THAT speech. Now that's progressive determination for big government.
This "allegedly" you used would be like saying allegedly BroJoeK and allegedly progressingamerica are FReepers. TR was fully as "allegedly" progressive as you are "allegedly" FReeping. I don't know about you, but I simply state it. I am a FReeper. Perhaps you are not?
I ran across a quote from Calvin Coolidge once about Herbert Hoover, to the effect that “that man has offered me unsolicited advice for six years, all of it bad.”
He was wise not to run again in 1928 although he probably would have won. If he had been elected, he would have died in office (he died in January 1933--but perhaps would have died soon if dealing with the pressures of the office). His son had died while he was President from an infection caught while playing tennis.
President Coolidge crushes PROGRESSIVISM 4 July 1926 - If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions.
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