Roosevelt's Great Depression

[regent]

There are so many facets in economics and each facet has degrees and because of this economics might be considered the softest of the soft sciences. A tax cut at one time might result in an economic improvement and in another a downturn. To assume all depressions or recessions are the same in scope or in causes is nuts.

 

[Toro]

That Republicans created the Great Depression is well documented.

I don't think that's the case. The general consensus now is that the Fed's mistakes caused the Great Recession to turn into the Great Depression as it raised interest rates to stem the outflow of gold.

However, it is, of course, more complicated that that. Global deflation and imbalances in the gold system caused economic dislocations in the early 1930s, which lead to runs on banks, and money being withdrawn from the system.

 

[Dot Com]

Republican deregulation and hands off economic policies gave us the Great Depression

We didn't elect another Republican for 20 years

George Bushs deregulation and hands off economic policies gave us the Great Bush Recession

It will be over 20 years before we elect another Republican

Fannie and Freddie were "Deregulated"?

Really?

Stop w/ that Repub talking-point @Frank1400PennAve CrusaderFrank

FactWatch Fannie and Freddie were followers not leaders in mortgage frenzy Center for Public Integrity

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were victims not culprits - BusinessWeek

Start with the most basic fact of all: virtually none of the $1.5 trillion of cratering subprime mortgages were backed by Fannie or Freddie. That’s right — most subprime mortgages did not meet Fannie or Freddie’s strict lending standards.

The vast majority of those who defaulted were those that were taken-in by for-profit grifters AKA- CrusaderFrank's "job creators" lol CrusaderFrank

"Start with the most basic fact of all: virtually none of the $1.5 trillion of cratering subprime mortgages were backed by Fannie or Freddie. That’s right — most subprime mortgages did not meet Fannie or Freddie’s strict lending standards"

^ Absolute, total, 100% Grade AAA Bullshit.

of course you can back-up your subjective *cough* "opinion"?

You'd have to know what a "Sub prime" mortgage is first

is the above supposed to be a hyper-link? Maybe in Ayn Rand-world (college Repub dorm room) but not here on this board Frank1400PennAve

 

[Camp]

FDR's "results fell behind that of nations not ruled by the "great" FDR."

Yup, her heroes of Germany re-armed and drove the economy up, but it required going to war in order to not collapse.

Arresting people, sending them off to become slave labor and confiscating their wealth helped also.

You mean like FDR and the Japanese?

No, Japanese internment happened in the 40's after WW11 had begun with the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. Plus the interned Japanese were not used as slave labor the way those turned into slave labor by the Nazi's in the 30's. The people rounded up by the Nazi's were worked literally to death. They were forced to do dangerous and deadly jobs, starved and disposed of when their weakness and illness effected their work production. At that point they were executed or literally starved to death and replaced by newly arrested or otherwise obtained slave labor. In addition, the numbers do not compare. Nor does the amount of confiscated property.

 

[JakeStarkey]

Study up on it, Frank, causing you are showing stupid.

Factories were turned over to armaments, home products were greatly curtailed, savings greatly increased, and demand went sky high.

Do you understand basic supply and demand economics in war time?

Jake a wartime economy saved FDR from having a depression longer than his 7 years.

You should actually read, instead of just cutting and pasting reviews from fellow Progressives

Frank, we note your deflection to WWII now that you get your butt handed to you in the post WWI recession.

Everybody had a longer depression than those hero countries of yours (Germany, Italy, Japan) who began re-arming years before the Allies.

Why do you and PC come down on the size of the Nazis every time?

 

[JakeStarkey]

FDR's "results fell behind that of nations not ruled by the "great" FDR."

Yup, her heroes of Germany re-armed and drove the economy up, but it required going to war in order to not collapse.

Arresting people, sending them off to become slave labor and confiscating their wealth helped also.

You mean like FDR and the Japanese?

Slave labor? That's your action, Frank.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Finally, an admission of failure: " FDR built on the already failed agricultural policies of Herbert Hoover."

One can only await a similar announcement from a far greater failure: yourself.

 

[Dot Com]

Finally, an admission of failure: " FDR built on the already failed agricultural policies of Herbert Hoover."

One can only await a similar announcement from a far greater failure: yourself.

breaking the rules in your own thread PoliticalSpice?!!! A content-free ad hom?

 

[rightwinger]

That Republicans created the Great Depression is well documented.

I don't think that's the case. The general consensus now is that the Fed's mistakes caused the Great Recession to turn into the Great Depression as it raised interest rates to stem the outflow of gold.

However, it is, of course, more complicated that that. Global deflation and imbalances in the gold system caused economic dislocations in the early 1930s, which lead to runs on banks, and money being withdrawn from the system.

Wrong

The Republicans plotted for decades on how they could turn our economy over to the capitalists

Thankfully, FDR foiled their plans

 

[Dot Com]

That Republicans created the Great Depression is well documented.

I don't think that's the case. The general consensus now is that the Fed's mistakes caused the Great Recession to turn into the Great Depression as it raised interest rates to stem the outflow of gold.

However, it is, of course, more complicated that that. Global deflation and imbalances in the gold system caused economic dislocations in the early 1930s, which lead to runs on banks, and money being withdrawn from the system.

Wrong

The Republicans plotted for decades on how they could turn our economy over to the capitalists

Thankfully, FDR foiled their plans

^ that Toro

 

[regent]

[QUOTE= Well, when the smoke clears, FDR will still be rated as America's greatest president. and the Great Depression as occurring during a Republican administration. On these boards it is so easy to change history, to make Truman a Republican and Americas most noted historians communists with a few strokes on the keyboard but nothing has really changed.

 

[Toro]

That Republicans created the Great Depression is well documented.

I don't think that's the case. The general consensus now is that the Fed's mistakes caused the Great Recession to turn into the Great Depression as it raised interest rates to stem the outflow of gold.

However, it is, of course, more complicated that that. Global deflation and imbalances in the gold system caused economic dislocations in the early 1930s, which lead to runs on banks, and money being withdrawn from the system.

Wrong

The Republicans plotted for decades on how they could turn our economy over to the capitalists

Thankfully, FDR foiled their plans

I'm sorry. That's not a serious comment.

 

[rightwinger]

That Republicans created the Great Depression is well documented.

I don't think that's the case. The general consensus now is that the Fed's mistakes caused the Great Recession to turn into the Great Depression as it raised interest rates to stem the outflow of gold.

However, it is, of course, more complicated that that. Global deflation and imbalances in the gold system caused economic dislocations in the early 1930s, which lead to runs on banks, and money being withdrawn from the system.

Wrong

The Republicans plotted for decades on how they could turn our economy over to the capitalists

Thankfully, FDR foiled their plans

I'm sorry. That's not a serious comment.

Serious as a train wreck

Republicans conspired to destroy our economy

 

[Toro]

That Republicans created the Great Depression is well documented.

I don't think that's the case. The general consensus now is that the Fed's mistakes caused the Great Recession to turn into the Great Depression as it raised interest rates to stem the outflow of gold.

However, it is, of course, more complicated that that. Global deflation and imbalances in the gold system caused economic dislocations in the early 1930s, which lead to runs on banks, and money being withdrawn from the system.

Wrong

The Republicans plotted for decades on how they could turn our economy over to the capitalists

Thankfully, FDR foiled their plans

I'm sorry. That's not a serious comment.

Serious as a train wreck

Republicans conspired to destroy our economy

That's very silly.

That's the type of stuff you hear on Rush Limbaugh, except a left-wing Rush Limbaugh.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Fannie and Freddie were "Deregulated"?

Really?

Stop w/ that Repub talking-point @Frank1400PennAve CrusaderFrank

FactWatch Fannie and Freddie were followers not leaders in mortgage frenzy Center for Public Integrity

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were victims not culprits - BusinessWeek

Start with the most basic fact of all: virtually none of the $1.5 trillion of cratering subprime mortgages were backed by Fannie or Freddie. That’s right — most subprime mortgages did not meet Fannie or Freddie’s strict lending standards.

The vast majority of those who defaulted were those that were taken-in by for-profit grifters AKA- CrusaderFrank's "job creators" lol CrusaderFrank

"Start with the most basic fact of all: virtually none of the $1.5 trillion of cratering subprime mortgages were backed by Fannie or Freddie. That’s right — most subprime mortgages did not meet Fannie or Freddie’s strict lending standards"

^ Absolute, total, 100% Grade AAA Bullshit.

of course you can back-up your subjective *cough* "opinion"?

You'd have to know what a "Sub prime" mortgage is first

is the above supposed to be a hyper-link? Maybe in Ayn Rand-world (college Repub dorm room) but not here on this board Frank1400PennAve

No, it's a statement of fact. Neither you nor the author know what constitutes a "SubPrime" mortgage

http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/~cottrell/ecn272/cochrane.pdf

 

[rightwinger]

That Republicans created the Great Depression is well documented.

I don't think that's the case. The general consensus now is that the Fed's mistakes caused the Great Recession to turn into the Great Depression as it raised interest rates to stem the outflow of gold.

However, it is, of course, more complicated that that. Global deflation and imbalances in the gold system caused economic dislocations in the early 1930s, which lead to runs on banks, and money being withdrawn from the system.

Wrong

The Republicans plotted for decades on how they could turn our economy over to the capitalists

Thankfully, FDR foiled their plans

I'm sorry. That's not a serious comment.

Serious as a train wreck

Republicans conspired to destroy our economy

That's very silly.

That's the type of stuff you hear on Rush Limbaugh, except a left-wing Rush Limbaugh.

This is a Political Chic thread

Any similarity to reality is purely coincidental

 

[Dad2three]

My pal reggie keeps telling me that 'historians claim that Franklin Roosevelt was the greatest US President."

Yup, they do.....perhaps on reason may be that the vast majority of 'em are way Left Liberals...they know what their status and careers depend on!


1. Here are three looming debilitations of Franklin Roosevelt:

a. His attachment to Joseph Stalin, and, in large measure, acceptance of communistm

b. His monumental efforts to subvert the United States Constitution

c. His inept handling of the recession, turning into and extending the Depression.




2. Let's concentrate on the last one, his responsibility for the 'Great Depression.'
Don't take my word for the ineptitude, here is Roosevelt BFF, secretary of the treasury, expert on finance and compendium of statistics on the economy of the 1930's:

" “We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong…somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises…I say after eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started…And an enormous debt to boot!”
Morgenthau Diary, May 9, 1939, Franklin Roosevelt Presidential Library

a. In 1935, the Brookings Institution (left-leaning) delivered a 900-page report on the New Deal and the National Recovery Administration, concluding that “ on the whole it retarded recovery.” http://www.aei.org/article/26390




3. Now, our Leftist Liberals (redundant?) could have mentioned the very best of recession-fighters....but he was a Republican, and made no attempt to grow the size of government....so that makes him ineligible for praise. His name was Warren G. Harding.

a. The decline in the GNP price deflator from 1920 to 1921 is the largest one-year percentage decline in the series in the more than 120 years covered. Various estimates show that one-year deflation figures were 18 percent, 13.0 percent, and 14.8 percent, respectively. The closest comparator is the 11.5 percent deflation recorded for 1931-32, the third year of the Great Depression.
How to Create the Great er Depression II - Behind Blue Lines

b. Instead of bailing out failing businesses, expanding government, and redistributing taxpayer money with a "stimulus" plan, Harding responded by cutting spending and removing burdensome regulations and taxes. During his campaign, he argued, "We need vastly more freedom than we do regulation." In stark contrast with the Bush-Obama response of ever-more government spending and debt, Harding had federal spending cut in half between 1920 and 1922 and ultimately ran a surplus.
As a result, the recession that started in 1920 ended before 1923.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/02/obama_should_channel_harding_n.htm

I'll bet that the government school hid those facts from their captive audience, the Liberals-in-Training.
And they call it 'higher education.'


4.Under Franklin Roosevelt- "No depression, or recession, had ever lasted even half this long."

a. 8,020,000 Americans were unemployed in 1931. In 1939, after the excellent decisions by Franklin Roosevelt, there were 9,480,000 unemployed.
Folsom, "New Deal of Raw Deal," p. 3.


Now....where are the Roosevelt fans who are ready to explain the different results under Harding, as compared to those under Roosevelt?

And, while you are at it....why no mention of Harding by your Democrat stenographers, aka historians.

"I say after eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started…And an enormous debt to boot!”
Morgenthau Diary, May 9, 1939,"


Weird, you mean conservative Morgenthau , didn't know that FDR took office in 1933???? 6 years???

AND left out the tremendous gains the US had from the peak of the GOP great depression, UNTIL FDR listened to the like of conservatives like Morgenthau and cut spending by 10% in 1937 and took US back into a conservative depression? lol




Did the New Deal’s “massive government intervention prolong the Great Depression?”
Ummm … no.

On deeper examination, I discovered that the right bases its New Deal revisionism on the short-lived recession in a year straddling 1937 and 1938. But that was four years into Roosevelt’s term — four years marked by spectacular economic growth. Additionally, the fleeting decline happened not because of the New Deal’s spending programs, but because Roosevelt momentarily listened to conservatives and backed off them. As Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman notes, in 1937-38, FDR “was persuaded to balance the budget” and “cut spending and the economy went back down again.”




To be sure, you can credibly argue that the New Deal had its share of problems. But overall, the numbers prove it helped — rather than hurt — the macroeconomy. “Excepting 1937-1938, unemployment fell each year of Roosevelt’s first two terms [while] the U.S. economy grew at average annual growth rates of 9 percent to 10 percent,” writes University of California historian Eric Rauchway.

What about the New Deal’s most “massive government intervention” — its financial regulations? Did they prolong the Great Depression in ways the official data didn’t detect?

Nope.

According to Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, “Only with the New Deal’s rehabilitation of the financial system in 1933-35 did the economy begin its slow emergence from the Great Depression.”


In fact, even famed conservative economist Milton Friedman admitted that the New Deal’s Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was “the structural change most conducive to monetary stability since … the Civil War.”


OK — if the verifiable evidence proves the New Deal did not prolong the Depression, what about historians — do they “pretty much agree” on the opposite?

Again, no.

Did you hear FDR prolonged the Great Depression - Salon.com

 

[Dad2three]

Republican deregulation and hands off economic policies gave us the Great Depression

We didn't elect another Republican for 20 years

George Bushs deregulation and hands off economic policies gave us the Great Bush Recession

It will be over 20 years before we elect another Republican

Fannie and Freddie were "Deregulated"?

Really?

Stop w/ that Repub talking-point @Frank1400PennAve CrusaderFrank

FactWatch Fannie and Freddie were followers not leaders in mortgage frenzy Center for Public Integrity

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were victims not culprits - BusinessWeek

Start with the most basic fact of all: virtually none of the $1.5 trillion of cratering subprime mortgages were backed by Fannie or Freddie. That’s right — most subprime mortgages did not meet Fannie or Freddie’s strict lending standards.

The vast majority of those who defaulted were those that were taken-in by for-profit grifters AKA- CrusaderFrank's "job creators" lol CrusaderFrank

F/F set the standard for AAA rated paper. They gave AAA rating to sub-prime, no income no asset loans and they were never less than 1/4 of the mortgage market

No, the GSEs Did Not Cause the Financial Meltdown (but thats just according to the data)

1. Private markets caused the shady mortgage boom:
2. The government’s affordability mission didn’t cause the crisis

3. There is a lot of research to back this up and little against it: This is not exactly an obscure corner of the wonk world — it is one of the most studied capital markets in the world.


4. Conservatives sang a different tune before the crash: Conservative think tanks spent the 2000s saying the exact opposite of what they are saying now


MY FAV, THE ONLY DISSENTING MEMBER OIF DUBYA'S FIIN CRISIS COMM, WHO IS BLAMING F.F AND THE GOV'T TODAY:

(AEI'S) Peter Wallison in 2004: “In recent years, study after study has shown that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are failing to do even as much as banks and S&Ls in providing financing for affordable housing, including minority and low income housing.”

Hey Mayor Bloomberg No the GSEs Did Not Cause the Financial Meltdown but thats just according to the data The Big Picture

Wall Street, Not Fannie and Freddie, Led Mortgage Meltdown

Government data show Fannie and Freddie didn’t take the same risks that Wall Street’s mortgage-backed securities machine did. Mortgages financed by Wall Street from 2001 to 2008 were 4½ times more likely to be seriously delinquent than mortgages backed by Fannie and Freddie.

Wall Street Not Fannie and Freddie Led Mortgage Meltdown - The Daily Beast


SUBPRME RATED AAA??? LOL

The FBI correctly identified the epidemic of mortgage control fraud at such an early point that the financial crisis could have been averted had the Bush administration acted with even minimal competence.


To understand the crisis we have to focus on how the mortgage fraud epidemic produced widespread accounting fraud.

Don't ask; don't tell: book profits, "earn" bonuses and closet your losses

The first document everyone should read is by S&P, the largest of the rating agencies. The context of the document is that a professional credit rater has told his superiors that he needs to examine the mortgage loan files to evaluate the risk of a complex financial derivative whose risk and market value depend on the credit quality of the nonprime mortgages "underlying" the derivative. A senior manager sends a blistering reply with this forceful punctuation:

Any request for loan level tapes is TOTALLY UNREASONABLE!!! Most investors don't have it and can't provide it. [W]e MUST produce a credit estimate. It is your responsibility to provide those credit estimates and your responsibility to devise some method for doing so.

The Two Documents Everyone Should Read to Better Understand the Crisis William K. Black


F/F WERE AROUND FOR 70 YEARS, WHAT CHANGED BUBBA

Right-wingers Want To Erase How George Bush's "Homeowner Society" Helped Cause The Economic Collapse



Bush's documented policies and statements in timeframe leading up to the start of the Bush Mortgage Bubble include (but not limited to)

Wanting 5.5 million more minority homeowners
Tells congress there is nothing wrong with GSEs
Pledging to use federal policy to increase home ownership
Routinely taking credit for the housing market
Forcing GSEs to buy more low income home loans by raising their Housing Goals
Lowering Invesntment banks capital requirements, Net Capital rule
Reversing the Clinton rule that restricted GSEs purchases of subprime loans
Lowering down payment requirements to 0%
Forcing GSEs to spend an additional $440 billion in the secondary markets
Giving away 40,000 free down payments
PREEMPTING ALL STATE LAWS AGAINST PREDATORY LENDING


But the biggest policy was regulators not enforcing lending standards.

FACTS on Dubya s great recession US Message Board - Political Discussion Forum

 

[Dad2three]

Republican deregulation and hands off economic policies gave us the Great Depression

We didn't elect another Republican for 20 years

George Bushs deregulation and hands off economic policies gave us the Great Bush Recession

It will be over 20 years before we elect another Republican

Fannie and Freddie were "Deregulated"?

Really?

Stop w/ that Repub talking-point @Frank1400PennAve CrusaderFrank

FactWatch Fannie and Freddie were followers not leaders in mortgage frenzy Center for Public Integrity

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were victims not culprits - BusinessWeek

The vast majority of those who defaulted were those that were taken-in by for-profit grifters AKA- CrusaderFrank's "job creators" lol CrusaderFrank

Read " Reckless Endangerment" for 400 page account of Fan Fred causing housing collapse.

Yeah WEIRD, they used ALL of AEI's talking points but ended as Dubya came into office????

Q When did the Bush Mortgage Bubble start?

A The general timeframe is it started late 2004.

From Bush’s President’s Working Group on Financial Markets October 2008

“The Presidents Working Group’s March policy statement acknowledged that turmoil in financial markets clearly was triggered by a dramatic weakening of underwriting standards for U.S. subprime mortgages, beginning in late 2004 and extending into 2007.”



Q Did the Community Reinvestment Act under Carter/Clinton caused it?


A "Since 1995 there has been essentially no change in the basic CRA rules or enforcement process that can be reasonably linked to the subprime lending activity. This fact weakens the link between the CRA and the current crisis since the crisis is rooted in poor performance of mortgage loans made between 2004 and 2007. "

http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/20081203_analysis.pdf

FACTS on Dubya s great recession US Message Board - Political Discussion Forum


Sure Bubba, SURE, lol

 

[Dad2three]

Republicans Harding, Coolidge and Hoover conspired with capitalists to drive labor into poverty and create a permanent slave labor workforce willing to work for pennies

They created a Dust Bowl to destroy the farmers in the Midwest and force them from their homes

Can you really be this dumb????
I mean...really?

Assuming that you actually believe that, watch me show what a liar both you and Roosevelt are.

1. Here is that view from demagogue Roosevelt, himself:
"Now it is worth remembering, and the cold figures of finance prove it, that during that time there was little or no drop in the prices that the consumer had to pay, although those same figures proved that the cost of production fell very greatly; corporate profit resulting from this period was enormous; at the same time little of that profit was devoted to the reduction of prices. The consumer was forgotten. Very little of it went into increased wages; the worker was forgotten, and by no means an adequate proportion was even paid out in dividends--the stockholder was forgotten."
Roosevelt's Nomination Address, Chicago, Ill., July 2, 1932

This is Franklin Roosevelt presenting the 'underconsumption thesis' : "... corporate profit resulting from this period was enormous; at the same time little of that profit was devoted to the reduction of prices. The consumer was forgotten. Very little of it went into increased wages;..."


Every one of those statements was a lie.

2. In order for the FDR's 'underconsumption thesis' to be true, these criteria must be met:
a. During the 1920s the rich had to be getting a significantly larger proportion of the national income. "... corporate profit resulting from this period was enormous..."

b. Employees must have been receiving a smaller share of corporate income. "... Very little of it went into increased wages; the worker was forgotten,..."

c. Consumers must have been consuming less of the GNP in the late '20s than in 1920. "... there was little or no drop in the prices that the consumer had to pay... The consumer was forgotten....."

True or false?



3. Time to slice and dice the Liberal propaganda.

a. In 1921, the top 5% earned 25.47% of the nation's income...in 1929, the top 5%'s share skyrocketed all the way up to ......26.09%!!!!

b. Corporate profits? They averaged 8.2% from 1900 to 1920. But what about from 1920 to 1929??? They remained at 8.2%.
For those in Rio Linda, that means that there was no upsurge in said profits during the decade.

c. But what about employee wages during the decade of the '20s?? They rose...from 55% to 60% of corporate income.

d. Wait...what about the percentage of GNP that went to consumption? Bet it fell, huh? Wrong.
It rose from 68% in 1920 to 75% in 1927, 1928, and 1929.
"Coolidge and the Historians," by Thomas B. Silver, p.124-136, and Folsom, "New Deal or Raw Deal," p.34-35



So....while you Leftists fail 'reality 101,' you pass 'indoctrination 101' with flying colors!
You will be awarded your"Reliable Democrat Voter"pin.
Wear it with pride!

1921 and All That


Every once in a while I get comments and correspondence indicating that the right has found an unlikely economic hero: Warren Harding. The recovery from the 1920-21 recession supposedly demonstrates that deflation and hands-off monetary policy is the way to go.

But have the people making these arguments really looked at what happened back then? Or are they relying on vague impressions about a distant episode, with bad data, that has been spun as a confirmation of their beliefs?

OK, I’m not going to invest a lot in this. But even a cursory examination of the available data suggests that 1921 has few useful lessons for the kind of slump we’re facing now.


Brad DeLong has recently written up a clearer version of a story I’ve been telling for a while (actually since before the 2008 crisis) — namely, that there’s a big difference between inflation-fighting recessions, in which the Fed squeezes to bring inflation down, then relaxes — and recessions brought on by overstretch in debt and investment. The former tend to be V-shaped, with a rapid recovery once the Fed relents; the latter tend to be slow, because it’s much harder to push private spending higher than to stop holding it down.

And the 1920-21 recession was basically an inflation-fighting recession — although the Fed was trying to bring the level of prices, rather than the rate of change, down. What you had was a postwar bulge in prices, which was then reversed:

Money was tightened, then loosened again:

Discount rates are a problematic indicator, but here’s what happened to commercial paper rates:

And so there was a V-shaped recovery:

The deflation may have helped by increasing the real money supply — at least Meltzer thinks so (pdf) — but if so, the key point was that the economy was nowhere near the zero lower bound, so there was plenty of room for the conventional monetary channel to work.

All of this has zero relevance to an economy in our current situation, in which the recession was brought on by private overstretch, not tight money, and in which the zero lower bound is all too binding.

So do we have anything to learn from the macroeconomics of Warren Harding? No.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/01/1921-and-all-that/?_r=0