Book Review: "Coolidge" by Amity Shlaes

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For the second book this month, I'll be doing Coolidge by Amity Shlaes. The summary on the back of the book:

Calvin Coolidge never rated high in polls, and history has remembered the decade in which he served as an extravagant period predating the Great Depression. Amity Shlaes provides a fresh look at the 1920s - triumphant years in which the federal deficit was replaced with a surplus - and the little-known president behind them. Perhaps more than any other president, Coolidge understood that doing less could yield more, reducing the federal budget even as the economy grew, wages rose, taxes fell, and unemployment dropped.

In this illuminating, magisterial biography, Amity Shlaes captures the remarkable story of Calvin Coolidge and the decade of extraordinary prosperity that grew from his leadership.

Calvin Coolidge has always been one of my favorite Presidents to study, and not too long ago @IMPress Polly and I had a minor discussion about him. It didn't get far, as we didn't want to derail the thread, but I found this book at Barnes & Noble not long after that discussion and decided that eventually, Coolidge would be an interesting figure to discuss.

[Peter1469]

I am interested in your views on the book. I have not read it.

[The Sage of Main Street]

Coolidge is the one really responsible for the Depression, with his laissez-faire negligence letting Greedhead looters suck the economy dry all during the 20s. The hapless Hoover got stuck with paying for Coolidge's crimes, though he, too, believed in this lopsided system and was incapable of fixing it anyway.

[Peter1469]

Coolidge is the one really responsible for the Depression, with his laissez-faire negligence letting Greedhead looters suck the economy dry all during the 20s. The hapless Hoover got stuck with paying for Coolidge's crimes, though he, too, believed in this lopsided system and was incapable of fixing it anyway.

Incorrect. Had Hoover followed Coolidge's policies, the market would have corrected itself quickly, as it had in the past. Government intervention took a normal recession and turned it into the Great Depression.

[The Sage of Main Street]

Incorrect. Had Hoover followed Coolidge's policies, the market would have corrected itself quickly, as it had in the past. Government intervention took a normal recession and turned it into the Great Depression.

When it corrected itself without government intervention, it was a different situation. New resources came in to bail out a looted market. The frontier was being developed all during the 19th Century, and the 1920 recession was solved by all the new inventions reaching the point where they could re-supply the market.

[Peter1469]

When it corrected itself without government intervention, it was a different situation. New resources came in to bail out a looted market. The frontier was being developed all during the 19th Century, and the 1920 recession was solved by all the new inventions reaching the point where they could re-supply the market.

Wrong. The market was self correcting. Then Hoover got a lot of legislation passed to fix it. Great Depression was the result.

[The Sage of Main Street]

Wrong. The market was self correcting. Then Hoover got a lot of legislation passed to fix it. Great Depression was the result.

Yeah, that Commie Herbert Hoover, who said that people selling apples were probably making more money than they did during the Boom (which was all a typical Capitalist Ponzi scheme anyway).

[Bob]

For the second book this month, I'll be doing Coolidge by Amity Shlaes. The summary on the back of the book:

Calvin Coolidge has always been one of my favorite Presidents to study, and not too long ago @IMPress Polly and I had a minor discussion about him. It didn't get far, as we didn't want to derail the thread, but I found this book at Barnes & Noble not long after that discussion and decided that eventually, Coolidge would be an interesting figure to discuss.

I am happy that this time you are reading a very good book. She is amazing.

[Bob]

Incorrect. Had Hoover followed Coolidge's policies, the market would have corrected itself quickly, as it had in the past. Government intervention took a normal recession and turned it into the Great Depression.

Hoover had not changed a thing until the market crashed. Then he imposed tariffs. Amity Shlaes and others mention a particular bank in NY that had a run on it. It had plenty of cash but the word was out it was near failing. Bankers rushed to the bank to keep if floating but the damage was done. This really is when the depression started.