My friend Thomas E. Woods, Jr., with his usual excellent insight, recently posted a column on LewRockwell.com titled “Warren Harding and the Forgotten Depression of 1920.”
You’re probably thinking, “That must be a typo; the Depression was in 1929.” Yes, there was a depression in 1929; but Tom and I are talking about the depression of 1920-21. It had the makings of a great depression; by year’s end unemployment had jumped from 4% to 12%. But by 1922 unemployment had fallen to 6.7%, and it fell further to 2.4% in 1923.
You may be wondering, “Depression of 1920? Why haven’t I ever heard of this?” Perhaps because it ended quickly—and with government taking exactly the opposite approach of President Roosevelt in the 1930s and President Obama today.
WARREN G. HARDING
President Warren Harding didn’t propose stimulus funds, TARPs, or multi-trillion-dollar debts and deficits. He did the opposite: he slashed federal spending almost in half. Accepting the Republican presidential nomination in 1920, Harding promised:
“We will attempt intelligent and courageous deflation, and strike at government borrowing which enlarges the evil, and we will attack high cost of government with every energy and facility which attend Republican capacity. We promise that relief which will attend the halting of waste and extravagance, and the renewal of the practice of public economy, not alone because it will relieve tax burdens but because it will be an example to stimulate thrift and economy in private life.
Let us call to all the people for thrift and economy, for denial and sacrifice if need be, for a nationwide drive against extravagance and luxury, to a recommittal to simplicity of living, to that prudent and normal plan of life which is the health of the republic. There hasn’t been a recovery from the waste and abnormalities of war since the story of mankind was first written, except through work and saving, through industry and denial, while needless spending and heedless extravagance have marked every decay in the history of nations.”
Harding saw the 1920 depression as a necessary corrective in the economic process. He let it take its course, and soon it was over.
By contrast, President Franklin D. Roosevelt instituted massive government spending, government regulation of the economy, public works, etc. And while many today credit FDR with ending the depression, the facts are that the depression continued throughout the 1930s and came to an end only with America’s entry into World War II.
In response to today’s recession, President Obama’s spending, credit expansion, deficit, debt, and government regulation dwarf anything FDR attempted. And if history is an accurate predictor, it will fail.
That doesn’t mean the recession will last forever. A recession is a corrective to economic imbalances, and it will end of its own accord. Obama’s policies will only exacerbate and prolong the recession. But when we do come out of the recession, you can be sure Obama will claim the credit.
But in fact, when the recession ends, it will be in spite of, not because of, Obama’s policies. And the precedent for irresponsible spending and heavy-handed regulation will have been set, to be followed and exceeded in the future. As Roger Garrison says, “Savings gets us genuine growth; credit expansion gets us boom and bust.”
Meanwhile, your grandchildren may well ask: “Who’s going to pay off all this debt?”
One of the reasons for the “great depression” is ethics. Moral hazzard affected not only the economy but peoples lives.
I stood against “Forced Arbitration” in 2003 at the risk of 33 years service and personal financial loss, because it went against my ethics.
Now my grandchildren are at risk of being forced to say Jesus is a common person not the King of A.D. (anno Domini).
Who is to blame? POGO said it best “We are”!
Our faith should guide us to follow the constitution of the founders intent.
Hello;
I am James E. Reeves
I have written Dr. Richard Land about the issue of his picture and his statements along with other evangelicals praising Rabbi Eckstien in support of scare-tactics and misinterpreted scriptures. Rabbi Eckstien would take money from the targeted elderly population but would never agree to the ethical standard of A.D.(anno Domini).
So has Dr. Land become so pluralistic that he can’t correct the issue of A.D. being deleted from Christian childrens textbooks and c.e. installed as a normal dating for America’s schools by Jews and Muslims?
History should teach us !
This is one of my attempts to get Dr. Land’s attention. I write to his board of directors.
Dr. Lemke,
Thank you for your promptness, are you confirming that A.D. means Jesus rules over all other religious or spiritual kingdoms as Revelation 1:5 ?
The CIA has records that validate census taken all over the world confirming Christianity affirmation of over 33% and still growing.
Should that fact encourage my ethical view of A.D.(anno Domini) as a tool for belief ethics under Hebrews 11:1?
James
—– Original Message —–
From: Lemke, Dr. Steve
To: James Reeves
Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 8:51 AM
Subject: RE: Christian ethics
James,
Yes, it seems to me that the use of “BCE” (before common era) is as much an attempt to eliminate any obvious reference to Christianity as “Xmas” is to take the Christ out of Christmas. I don’t know how to address this issue with your adult students except to note the continuing secularization of our society, and the attempt to marginalize Christianity to the extreme periphery of society. It is interesting to see the Biblical quotations in public buildings in Washington for various government groups who would now pale if they made any reference to Scripture at all. We have denied our heritage, and for that we are the poorer.
swl
Dr. Steve Lemke, Provost
New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary
3939 Gentilly Boulevard
New Orleans, Louisiana 70126
Phone: 504-282-4455, ext. 3216
Fax: 504-816-8428
From: James Reeves [mailto:jamesereeves@bellsouth.net]
Sent: Monday, October 26, 2009 10:07 PM
To: Lemke, Dr. Steve
Cc: ROGER SNOW; Kitt Barrett; Jill Waggoner; dhawkins@sebc.edu; CBN Partner Rep Elaine; Bobby Reed; Argile Smith
Subject: Christian ethics
Dr. Lemke, I am concerned with the watering down of the term (anno Domini) A.D., because it is the one ethical high-ground in all previous founding congressional dating and has now been taken out of school textbooks.
Can you help me teach my adult students the ethics of our apathy?
James E. Reeves
195 Phillips Ridge. Rd.
Empire, Al 35063
jamesereeves@bellsouth.net
For religious, or humanitarian or philosophical or imperialist motives, prominent Britons learned Hebrew, wrote novels about restoration of the Jewish commonwealth, began settlement and exploration societies and advocated restoration of the Jews in public and in private. Among the advocates we may include Lord Lindsay, Lord Shaftesbury Lord Palmerston, Disraeli, Lord Manchester, George Eliot, Holman Hunt, Sir Charles Warren, Hall Caine and others.
Lord Lindsay wrote:
The soil of “Palestine still enjoys her sabbaths, and only waits for the return of her banished children, and the application of industry, commensurate with her agricultural capabilities, to burst once more into universal luxuriance, and be all that she ever was in the days of Solomon. ( Crawford, A.W.C. (Lord Lindsay), Letters on Egypt, Edom and the Holy Land, London, H. Colburn 1847, V II, p 71).
Charles Henry Churchill, a British resident of Damascus, also became a zealous propagator of the creation of a Jewish State in Palestine. In 1841 he wrote a letter to the Jewish philanthropist Moses Montefiore in which he stated: “…I consider the object to be perfectly obtainable. But, two things are indispensably necessary. Firstly, that the Jews will themselves take up the matter unanimously. Secondly, that the European powers will aid them in their views…”
*from Wikipedia
This exerpt from British historians prove that a cohersive force was at work in England and may be responsible for scare tactics to distort ethical scripture reading of that time even until now.
The only hope for our republic is the freedoms that come from a constitution of words that were intended and are preserved by the 80% Christian majority.
Just as Joshua took the land by intent Christians today have an obligation to become the land of moral thought where freedoms flows down in everlasting abundance.
I hope these efforts to explain a victorious Kingdom exist today encourage others to participate.
Jews and Muslims continue to distort our children’s textbooks and fight each other over land but freedom exist here because of God’s Word as in John chapter 1.
Jesus is the “anno Domini” of the founding fathers as all government documents were dated to prove Him Providentially so.
James E. Reeves