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.
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.
Yes more stimulus packages will surely improve the situation/sarc
Yes, and if the historical lessons are ignored, which they are, they will be learned again.
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.
Roosevelt caused the Depression. All America’s problems are caused by Democrats.
Bump
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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.”
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
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!)
48 Liberal Lies About American History (That You Probably Learned in School)
1. FDR was President in 1929.
2. FDR addressed the Nation on television...
bookmark
/mark
bump and bookmarked
The author is so right. Thank you for posting this. Mr. Wilson does one heck of a job in synopsizing that which tomes have been written. Makes those lines really clear.
Good article but it really needed to explain—when debunking the crash misconception—about the enormous monetary contraction, which is what actually destroyed the economy (while New Deal policies prolonged the depression).
this was a most excellent article.
thanks.
BOOKMARK.