Calvin Coolidge: the Best President You Don’t Know
February 3, 2016
2 Responses to “Calvin Coolidge: the Best President You Don’t Know”
Fred
If I may make some points: One of FDR’s men is on record writing that Hoover had already implemented most of FDR’s policies. Recessions tend to bring deflation, the 25 pct deflation raised the real value of labor but if $75 would buy what $100 once would, it takes 33.3 pct inflation to restore the dollar to its pre-deflation value. FDR addressed this to some extent by his gold standard change, but by then there was 25 pct unemployment and countless business had been ruined and their jobs permanently lost. FDR’s attacks on employers only discouraged them from attempts to expand and rehire. And last, there is an interesting paper http://www.nber.org/papers/w16350 which asserts that France and the US, afraid of inflation, hoarded a large portion of the world’s gold reserves but did not use it to create new money, this caused a shortage of gold and money in the rest of the world, choking their economies and combined with Smoot-Hawley to kill US imports and by revenge by exporters our exports. http://www.britannica.com/topic/Smoot-Hawley-Tariff-Act
By Jerry L. Wallace An excerpt from Mr. Wallace’s full article, accessible in the Coolidge Virtual Library: Essays, Papers & Addresses. This March 4th marked the 100th anniversary of Calvin Coolidge’s inauguration as Vice President of the United States. He, as Warren G. Harding’s running mate, had been elected in a landslide victory for the […]
In 1918, while Calvin Coolidge was Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, the outbreak of Spanish Influenza hit the United States and wreaked havoc across the nation. Massachusetts was hit hard. By late September of that year, there had been an estimated 50,000 cases of flu in the Bay State. Within two weeks, 850 Bostonians had died. […]
By Daniel Wright The Coolidges had been eager to travel since leaving public life in 1929. Invited numerous times to see sunny Florida, this was their first opportunity to visit as private citizens but it came with obligation: the request to deliver a speech. Coolidge spoke on “The Economics of Life Insurance” at Vinoy Park […]
We are pleased to announce The Real Calvin Coolidge periodical series is now available free in digital format online. The Real Calvin Coolidge is a series of booklets published by the Coolidge Foundation from 1983 to 2005. Comprised of eighteen volumes, The Real Calvin Coolidge offers insights into the life of our thirtieth president, and features a variety of articles written […]
If I may make some points: One of FDR’s men is on record writing that Hoover had already implemented most of FDR’s policies. Recessions tend to bring deflation, the 25 pct deflation raised the real value of labor but if $75 would buy what $100 once would, it takes 33.3 pct inflation to restore the dollar to its pre-deflation value. FDR addressed this to some extent by his gold standard change, but by then there was 25 pct unemployment and countless business had been ruined and their jobs permanently lost. FDR’s attacks on employers only discouraged them from attempts to expand and rehire. And last, there is an interesting paper http://www.nber.org/papers/w16350 which asserts that France and the US, afraid of inflation, hoarded a large portion of the world’s gold reserves but did not use it to create new money, this caused a shortage of gold and money in the rest of the world, choking their economies and combined with Smoot-Hawley to kill US imports and by revenge by exporters our exports. http://www.britannica.com/topic/Smoot-Hawley-Tariff-Act
Wikipedia has a great article on US recessions that includes dates, interval, etc, and characteristics. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recessions_in_the_United_States. You need to see the employment ratio to see the real impact of post war unemployment. Note the Reagan Recovery vs the 2007 Recession and non-recovery. https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/EMRATIO