Five Myths About the Great Depression

Wall Street Journal ^ | 11/4/2008 | Andrew B. Wilson

[Ronzo]

The current financial crisis has revived powerful misconceptions about the Great Depression. Those who misinterpret the past are all too likely to repeat the exact same mistakes that made the Great Depression so deep and devastating.

Here are five interrelated and durable myths about the 1929-39 Depression:

[Ronzo]

Keep this one bookmarked for later reference....

[Ronzo]

Here are the five myths, you'll have to read the article to see them get debunked:

1. Herbert Hoover, elected president in 1928, was a doctrinaire, laissez-faire, look-the-other way Republican who clung to the idea that markets were basically self-correcting.

2. The stock market crash in October 1929 precipitated the Great Depression.

3. Where the market had failed, the government stepped in to protect ordinary people.

4. Greed caused the stock market to overshoot and then crash.

5. Enlightened government pulled the nation out of the worst downturn in its history and came to the rescue of capitalism through rigorous regulation and government oversight.

[Volunteer]

"...Hoover was an ardent believer in government intervention to support incomes and employment. This is critical to understanding the origins of the Great Depression. Franklin Roosevelt didn't reverse course upon moving into the White House in 1933; he went further down the path that Hoover had blazed over the previous four years. That was the path to disaster."

AIG is now claiming they need more money. The auto industry has its hand out. I even saw that the Mayor of Detroit is asking for part of the money.

[Lilpug15]

Yes more stimulus packages will surely improve the situation/sarc

[RightWhale]

Yes, and if the historical lessons are ignored, which they are, they will be learned again.

[B Knotts]

This is good, accurate summary of how conventional wisdom about the Great Depression is wrong.

This was one of those very common situations where government was not the solution; it was the problem.

[FFranco]

Roosevelt caused the Depression. All America’s problems are caused by Democrats.

[Smokin' Joe]

Even American Express pulled some sort of reorganization to feed at the taxpayer trough.

[ChowChowFace]

Bump

[TNoldman]

ping

[narses]

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Obama Says A Baby Is A Punishment

Obama: “If they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”

[frithguild]

Before Hoover:

Civilization and profit go hand in hand.
Calvin Coolidge

Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.
Calvin Coolidge

Don’t expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.
Calvin Coolidge

Duty is not collective; it is personal.
Calvin Coolidge

Economy is the method by which we prepare today to afford the improvements of tomorrow.
Calvin Coolidge

I have found it advisable not to give too much heed to what people say when I am trying to accomplish something of consequence. Invariably they proclaim it can’t be done. I deem that the very best time to make the effort.
Calvin Coolidge

If you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you.
Calvin Coolidge

Industry, thrift and self-control are not sought because they create wealth, but because they create character.
Calvin Coolidge

It is only when men begin to worship that they begin to grow.
Calvin Coolidge

Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. It may not be difficult to store up in the mind a vast quantity of face within a comparatively short time, but the ability to form judgments requires the severe discipline of hard work and the tempering heat of experience and maturity.
Calvin Coolidge

Little progress can be made by merely attempting to repress what is evil. Our great hope lies in developing what is good.
Calvin Coolidge

No enterprise can exist for itself alone. It ministers to some great need, it performs some great service, not for itself, but for others; or failing therein, it ceases to be profitable and ceases to exist.
Calvin Coolidge

No man ever listened himself out of a job.
Calvin Coolidge

Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business.
Calvin Coolidge

Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped.
Calvin Coolidge

The business of America is business.
Calvin Coolidge

The government of the United States is a device for maintaining in perpetuity the rights of the people, with the ultimate extinction of all privileged classes.
Calvin Coolidge

The man who builds a factory builds a temple, that the man who works there worships there, and to each is due, not scorn and blame, but reverence and praise.
Calvin Coolidge

The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten.
Calvin Coolidge

The right thing to do never requires any subterfuge, it is always simple and direct.
Calvin Coolidge

There is no dignity quite so impressive, and no independence quite so important, as living within your means.
Calvin Coolidge

They criticize me for harping on the obvious; if all the folks in the United States would do the few simple things they know they ought to do, most of our big problems would take care of themselves.
Calvin Coolidge

Those who trust to chance must abide by the results of chance.
Calvin Coolidge

To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race.
Calvin Coolidge

Ultimately property rights and personal rights are the same thing.
Calvin Coolidge

It is probable that a press which maintains an intimate touch with the business currents of the nation is likely to be more reliable than it would be if it were a stranger to these influences. After all, the chief business of the American people is business. They are profoundly concerned with buying, selling, investing and prospering in the world.
Calvin Coolidge

[VOA]

Added note from watching CNBC...
a few minutes ago (approx 7:35 PM Eastern) Larry Kudlow was pretty
excited when he read a breaking headline...
that said UK PM Brown said countries needed to reduce taxation
and tariffs in response to the current economic situation.

One of the other CNBC contributors (”talking heads”) asked if
Ronald Reagan was still alive!!!
(IIRC, Kudlow was a bit shocked and please as he noted that PM Brown
is a Socialist!)

[PhilDragoo]

Here is an online version of a book I found useful: The Roosevelt Myth© by John T. Flynn, 1948,

I have the fiftieth anniversary reprint hardback with foreword by Ralph Raico history prof at my alma mater back in the day (now transplanted to American Siberia).

One is indoctrinated that greedy speculation, read "eevil capitalism", met its inevitable catastrophic end, and our soupline misery was only redeemed by St. Delano and the Wise Men of his socialist Olympus.

Not exactly.

Now we are in a churning suds of flotsam and jetsam courtesy of the Carter CRA, the Gorelick-Raines Inquisition, the Barney Frank-Maxine Waters Everything's Fine Know-Nothing Resistance.

John Across-the-Aisle McCain had his shot in opposing the Paulson Coup but chose to join the frenzy feeding the boilers with our future.

The market will sort it all out--because Hussein's Five-Year-Plans won't do any better than any preceding Beschlossian Brainiac's.

[genghis]

Yes, and if the historical lessons are ignored, which they are, they will be learned again.

but not quickly

[LS]

I actually cover all of these, but consolidate them into ONE of my "48 Liberal Lies About American History."

48 Liberal Lies About American History (That You Probably Learned in School)

[randomhero97]

That’s some good Coolidge quotes.

[Norman Bates]

1. FDR was President in 1929.

2. FDR addressed the Nation on television...

[rabscuttle385]

Super-BUMP for Mr. Coolidge!

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[rabscuttle385]

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