Barack Obama, Cory Truax, Economics, Uncategorized Comments (3)
The narrative is an established and popular one. President Herbert Hoover was a deregulation-crazed proponent of laissez faire, Austrian School economics who saw the economy crashing around him, and because he subscribed to a hands-off theory of government, the economy came crashing down into the Great Depression. Then along came the economic knight in shining armor, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, to the rescue of our Gross Domestic Product and the soundness of the dollar.
FDR created government program on top of government program, and in doing so, we’re told, created jobs and restored the American economy. Indeed, FDR’s spending lifted America out of the Great Depression, and established once and for all that government can be a catalyst for creating economic well-being and wealth.
But that narrative and its underlying philosophy are glaringly and manifestly false. The following analysis will establish that claim with statistics and quotes from the period itself.
HERBERT HOOVER: FREE-MARKET CAPITALIST?
Our first task in correcting the record on what happened in the Great Depression is getting to the truth about what policies were in place leading up the Black Tuesday, October 29th, 1929.
The established account is that President Herbert Hoover and his Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon were well aware of the market’s coming crash and the resultant mass unemployment. But that, due to strict and ideological adherence to the derisively used “invisible hand economics,” they did either nothing or did too little too late.
That’s simply not true.
Just a month after the crash, the Hoover Administration began its tinkering with wages, employment, income taxes, and tariffs. Hoover first tried to manipulate the labor market by a forced migration of Mexican workers back to Mexico. In early Summer 1930, Hoover drastically rose the tariff on imported goods in an attempt to create more demand for American products. By 1932, we saw the creation of a brand new government “public works” program in the Emergency Relief and Construction Act. This was the first “New Deal” — made up government projects that “provided employment.”
Moreover, Hoover signed the Revenue Act of 1932, which raised income taxes across the board. And finally, the free-market capitalist President Hoover created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to enable the government to insure loans to banks and big businesses. More on page 280
Cory Truax @ July 18, 2010
The discouraging economic news has been plenteous — and worse, completely predictable.
Unemployment numbers are absolutely dismal. The demand for manufactured goods is constricting. Existing and new home sales are plummeting. Even auto sales are plunging. The Dow Jones Industrial average has declined for six days in a row, dipping that economic indicator back below its powerfully symbolic 10,000 mark.
This is all bad news for America, and calls into question the Veep’s odd and precocious thoughts of a Summer of Recovery.
All the while, we have Speaker Pelosi positing the economic theory that UNEMPLOYMENT CHECKS are an ECONOMIC STIMULUS. Morever, and hold your laughter, UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS are a JOB-CREATOR. Read it again. No, I promise she said it. Don’t believe me? Watch the video.
PROVIDING ANSWERS
Honestly, where’s the media on this. Here are some questions I want people to ask various government officials — especially Robert Gibbs, Speaker Pelosi, and Harry Reid.
- Just in theory, how does taking money out of the private economy through taxes or borrowing money from a foreign source, and then re-injecting that money through unemployment benefits add net value to the economy? Even if it isn’t WORKING pragmatically, what’s the theory?
- We can see that spending isn’t a stimulus. It didn’t work for FDR in the New Deal, and it isn’t working here as indicated by all the bad numbers. All the stimulus is doing is ARTIFICIALLY propping up bankrupt state governments. Can we admit that?
- Does government debt have practical consequences on our economy right now or in the future?
- Where is Area 51?
- Wait, what? Nevermind.
- Have you even thought about any of these questions before?
Cory Truax @ July 2, 2010
Hello all,
On the radio show I often host, I recently brought to the fore a business in my town who uses aggressive, sexually suggestive imagery to advertise their business. Those that listen know the drill and what I’ve asked. Below is the letter I mentioned on the air this morning.
June 16, 2010
Pandora’s Box
6121 Calhoun Memorial Highway
Easley, SC 29640
To the ownership and management of Pandora’s Box,
I am writing in regards to the recent introduction of the panel van, featuring suggestive advertising images, in front of your store in Easley.
First, I wish not to cast judgment or aspersions on you, your business, your employees, or your customers. Simply, my objective is to present a concern of public space and our responsibility to each other in the local community. More on page 278
Cory Truax @ June 16, 2010
