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The Harding/Coolidge Prosperity of the 1920's (http://www.calvin-coolidge.org/html/the_harding_coolidge_prosperit.html - broken link)
On April 12,1921, President Harding went before a contentious Congress and presented his program for economic recovery which he called "A Return to Normalcy". Harding's normalcy program consisted of the following measures.
1) A call for a national budget program (which was vetoed by his predecessor).
2) National debt reduction
3) Tax reduction
4) An emergency tariff to protect American industry and farm commodities.
5) Farm relief legislation (farm bankruptcies were up 20% from 1914).
6) Immigration restrictions to protect American jobs.
President Harding pushed hard for his program and got it passed by Congress in 1921. By late 1922, the economy began to turn around. Harding did not live to see it, but his normalcy program proved to be the foundation that Coolidge prosperity was built on. Harding's successor, Calvin Coolidge had the wisdom to stay the course and build on Harding's program. The American people were the beneficiaries of the unprecedented prosperity of the 1920's. Unemployment was pared from its high in 1921 of 20% to an average of 3.3% for the remainder of the decade. The misery index which is a combination of unemployment and inflation had its sharpest decline in U.S. history under President Harding. The Gross National Product averaged 7% from 1924 to 1929. Wages, profits, and productivity all made substantial gains during the 1920's. Harding slashed federal spending by two billion from Wilson's last year and Coolidge maintained that spending level of 3.3 billion per year for the rest of the decade. The Harding-Coolidge tax cuts produced increased revenue that went to cut the national debt left by Wilson by one-third.
Too late..they are pulling FDR tactics. Expand the social programs.
Only this time there's too much greed and most of the money is disappearing before it gets to Main Street.
Probably because it was a recession, and not a depression, and because it was caused primarily by demilitarization (by all countries) after WW I.
I'd question the unemployment numbers, since no data exists, because there was no need to maintain such data, because there was no unemployment insurance at that time, not to mention the federal and state agencies who maintain that data now did not exist then.
Numbers from the Great Depression do not exist for the same reason, but the unemployment rate has been able to be reconstructed by scouring local newspapers for information on shift eliminations, plant closing and plant reductions and applying statistics.
Harding had a decent plan and it worked then (at that time) I mean they don't call it the Roaring '20s for nothing, but that doesn't mean it would necessarily work now.
The Harding/Coolidge Prosperity of the 1920's (http://www.calvin-coolidge.org/html/the_harding_coolidge_prosperit.html - broken link)
On April 12,1921, President Harding went before a contentious Congress and presented his program for economic recovery which he called "A Return to Normalcy". Harding's normalcy program consisted of the following measures.
1) A call for a national budget program (which was vetoed by his predecessor).
2) National debt reduction
3) Tax reduction
4) An emergency tariff to protect American industry and farm commodities.
5) Farm relief legislation (farm bankruptcies were up 20% from 1914).
6) Immigration restrictions to protect American jobs.
President Harding pushed hard for his program and got it passed by Congress in 1921. By late 1922, the economy began to turn around. Harding did not live to see it, but his normalcy program proved to be the foundation that Coolidge prosperity was built on. Harding's successor, Calvin Coolidge had the wisdom to stay the course and build on Harding's program. The American people were the beneficiaries of the unprecedented prosperity of the 1920's. Unemployment was pared from its high in 1921 of 20% to an average of 3.3% for the remainder of the decade. The misery index which is a combination of unemployment and inflation had its sharpest decline in U.S. history under President Harding. The Gross National Product averaged 7% from 1924 to 1929. Wages, profits, and productivity all made substantial gains during the 1920's. Harding slashed federal spending by two billion from Wilson's last year and Coolidge maintained that spending level of 3.3 billion per year for the rest of the decade. The Harding-Coolidge tax cuts produced increased revenue that went to cut the national debt left by Wilson by one-third.
Because 1929 was the GREAT Depression. Same thing with the depression of 1889.
Probably because it was a recession, and not a depression, and because it was caused primarily by demilitarization (by all countries) after WW I.
I'd question the unemployment numbers, since no data exists, because there was no need to maintain such data, because there was no unemployment insurance at that time, not to mention the federal and state agencies who maintain that data now did not exist then.
Numbers from the Great Depression do not exist for the same reason, but the unemployment rate has been able to be reconstructed by scouring local newspapers for information on shift eliminations, plant closing and plant reductions and applying statistics.
Harding had a decent plan and it worked then (at that time) I mean they don't call it the Roaring '20s for nothing, but that doesn't mean it would necessarily work now.
We will never know whether Harding's methods would work since Obama and his Congress are looking to do something other than bring the nation out of this very near depression. They have done everything Roosevelt did and avoiding everything Harding did, so we will never know.
I think that much of what we don't know about the 20s is because of the way that progressives rewrote the history of the period. I am sure that some here would know why I think that but may not see it, either.
Probably because it was a recession, and not a depression, and because it was caused primarily by demilitarization (by all countries) after WW I.
I'd question the unemployment numbers, since no data exists, because there was no need to maintain such data, because there was no unemployment insurance at that time, not to mention the federal and state agencies who maintain that data now did not exist then.
Numbers from the Great Depression do not exist for the same reason, but the unemployment rate has been able to be reconstructed by scouring local newspapers for information on shift eliminations, plant closing and plant reductions and applying statistics.
Harding had a decent plan and it worked then (at that time) I mean they don't call it the Roaring '20s for nothing, but that doesn't mean it would necessarily work now.
It was a depression. Unemplyment doubled. Manufacturing Production was slashed 27%. It was certainly a depression.
So getting out of war hurt the economy? Interesting. So killing millions of people and blowing up cities helped the economy? What about other times we demilitarized? There was no depression after WWII? After Vietnam? After Desert Storm? After Korea?
And you don't trust numbers from 1920 but you do from 1930?
It wouldn't work now? Economics is economics. People can say things are more complicated now, but they aren't. The laws of economics never change. Never. It worked then. It will work now.
Harding depression lasted about 18 months. FDRs lasted 15 years.
But Bush/Obama are following the FDR "solution"
Brilliant.
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