I was watching that moron Bill Maher last night and he had Ron Paul on. They were discussing the current crisis and Dr. Paul was questioned as to what he would do in this situation. And he said he would do nothing and let the banks fail and the market balance itself out. He said we did the same in 1921 and it turned out well.
What was this depression of 1921?
Tom Woods covers it in Meltdown. Check his recent articles on LewRockwell.com. I’m sure he addresses it.
Look here.
It’s a sad shame that there aren’t more politicians like Warren G Harding these days. FDR was the end of the Old Right, and it’s goodness hasn’t been spread throughout the world since Coolidge.
It is sad that a good and effective President like Warren G. Harding is maligned and ridiculed by modern historians, while abusive failures like FDR are celebrated.
Warren G. Harding is the shining example of the correct way to handle a financial panic.
Herbert Hoover is the opposite example.
Actually, Van Buren is probably the best President the United States has ever had in its young existence.
Agreed.
The depression of 1921 was a reaction against the post WW1 boom.
Actually, the depression of 1921 was more severe (but shorter in duration) than the Great Depression from 1929 in some European countries, like Sweden (which btw was neutral during the war)!
(Normally when I say things like this, I get hit in my face by besserwissers around here. But hey, I’m slap happy enough to like mises.org precisely because of that!) So, feel free to correct me if I’m ever wrong.
What your average man in the street doesnt know is that the US also faced contractions in 1923 and 1925-1926. Coolidge was an even better example of laissez-faire than Harding, and that’s why you never hear about these recessions today. They dissappeared rapidly with practically no action by the Fed and no notice from the government.
The 1929 crash could have been the same, perhaps (though it would still have been more severe), had the media not encouraged panic over stocks. The crash was in fact neccesary to correct 4 years of wild speculation and artifical growth in stock prices.