Posted on 03/04/2010 4:30:23 PM PST by Kaslin
At the recent Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, the winner of the straw poll was Congressman Ron Paul. One of his best-known positions is support for a return to the gold standard. David Frum, a former speech writer for George W. Bush and a fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, responded by blaming the gold standard for the Great Depression.
"Threatened with the exhaustion of its gold supply," Frum said, "the government felt it had no choice: It had to close the budget deficit. So, in the throes of a severe downturn, the U.S. government did exactly the opposite of what economists would otherwise advise: It cut spending and raised taxes — capsizing the economy even deeper into depression."
But as the table below shows, that version of the history of the Great Depression is entirely fictional.
During every year of Hoover's administration, from 1929 to 1932, federal expenditure increased.
By 1932, expenditure had gone up 50% measured in dollars, almost doubled measured in purchasing power, tripled measured as a fraction of national income.
If a gold standard makes it impossible to increase federal spending in response to a downturn, Herbert Hoover didn't get the message. If stimulus is the solution to high unemployment, the Great Depression should have ended almost before it began.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
My claim to fame is that I was born in the worst year of The Great Depression.
Yep,I’m old.
The gold standard was done away with so Fascist FDR could print money. Which he promptly did.
Notice the unemployment rate in 1921. That’s when Coolidge cut taxes and deregulated. You will notice his actions worked. Hoover acted like a RAT so he got results like a RAT. Without the Internet to get the truth out FDR got away with his lies. FDR continues to be seen as a great leader of the Depression when in reality it was only after that commie lover died that America got better.
But it was a good year for the USC Trojans.
Yeah, if you watch Glenn Beck, this is old news. Still needs to be drummed into everyone’s head.
And that is good to hear !
Go B.U. :-)
Opps! That was Harding who cut taxes and spending. Coolidge became president Aug 1923 after Harding suddenly died.
Actually if you take a look, it had more then doubled from the year before, but went down the following year and was only 2.6% in 1924
At the time, there were some courageous writers such as John T. Flynn, author of The Roosevelt Myth (New York: Devin Adair, 1948), who told the truth about FDR. This book along with other good reads are available at http://www.rooseveltmyth.com.
My Grandfather on my mother’s side despised FDR. I would have liked to have met him but he died before I was born.
My parents, both liberal Democrats, were crazy about FDR. However, in the last few elections, my mother has been a ticket splitter and voted for Tom McClintock for governor.
I'll be 65 in June, I just reached metal age myself.
Silver in my hair, gold in my teeth and lead in my ass.
I have GOT to remember that one.
Very funny !
My old man hated FDR and Kennedy. As a kid I couldn’t figure that out. In school they were held up as heros. I wish he had talked more about it, even though I was young. (We talk politics with our kids and they get it.)
I’m glad he lived long enough for me to appreciate his conservative views!
In reality, I believe it is more accurate to describe the AEI as neo-conservative, and certainly David Frum fits that definition.
(And no, one does not have to be Jewish to be a neo.)
David Friedman (Milton's son) has done some outstanding work in areas that other economists won't touch. This area has been covered, though not in as much detail, by Prof. Thomas Woods, who I believe talked about the depression of 1920 on Glenn Beck's TV show last year.
I am unable to find the video of that show, but this YouTube video (:49 minutes), a talk he gave on the same subject last April, should cover all the bases.
Turns out that crook Warren G. Harding wasn't such a bad President after all. Better by far than either Hoover or FDR.
I will be 66 in June but I don’t have gold in my teeth.
Me either, it’s just a funny thing I heard a long time ago.
I do have fillings and crowns though.
“I do have fillings and crowns though.”
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Me too, and probably enough mercury to make a thermometer.
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