Herbert Hoover on tariffs

The sole purpose of protective tariffs is to protect the wages of the American worker and the farmer’s income from being dragged down to the level of cheap foreign wages and standards.

~ President Herbert Hoover, October 1929

Lawrence Reed on how FDR campaigned against the big spending policies of Hoover in 1932

Did Hoover really subscribe to a "hands-off-the-economy" free-market philosophy?  His opponent in the 1932 election, Franklin Roosevelt, didn't think so.  During the campaign, Roosevelt blasted Hoover for spending and taxing too much, boosting the national debt, choking off trade, and putting millions on the dole.  He accused the president of "reckless and extravagant" spending, of thinking "that we ought to center control of everything in Washington as rapidly as possible," and of presiding over "the greatest spending administration in peacetime in all of history."  Roosevelt's running mate, John Nance Garner, charged that Hoover was "leading the country down the path of socialism."  Contrary to the conventional view about Hoover, Roosevelt and Garner were absolutely right.

~ Lawrence W. Reed, "Great Myths of the Great Depression," Mackinac Center for Public Policy, 1981

Rex Tugwell on the origins of the New Deal

We didn't admit it at the time, but practically the whole New Deal was extrapolated from programs that Hoover started.

~ Rexford Guy Tugwell, economist who served in FDR's administration until 1936

June 25, 1934

Kevin Duffy rates modern day presidents and Hoover

Hoover - Inherited the Roaring '20s bubble, made it 10x worse when the bubble burst with all kinds of big government solutions. He also added fuel to a global trade war... not good. 

Reagan - Talk about luck. Debt levels had fallen from 100% of GDP after WWII to 25%. Fed chairman Paul Volcker had already started to rein in inflation with has high interest rate policy. Carter had begun the deregulation wave. The Soviet Union was falling apart. If anything, Reagan squandered much of this bounty and set the nation on a course of debt (he was the first president to see the national debt go over $1 trillion). Overrated. 

Clinton - Another lucky president. He inherited the peace dividend as Soviet socialism unraveled. That was largely squandered. The Greenspan Fed would later blow a dot-com bubble on his watch. This fattened the government's coffers with capital gains tax receipts, leading to a surplus. The economic numbers were an illusion, not nearly as good as they appear. 

Bush II - Inherited a bursting tech bubble. Made things worse with his aggressive military response to 9/11. Then he allowed the Greenspan/Bernanke Fed to blow another bubble, this time in housing and credit. Bush II was a typical big government RINO who admired the big government FDR. He wanted to be a war president: mission accomplished. 

Obama - Good timing, coming in AFTER the Bush II housing bubble burst. He reacted with big government "stimulus" and an aggressive Fed, blowing the current everything bubble. 

Trump - Inherited the everything bubble, allowed the Yellen/Powell Fed to blow it even bigger. The Bush II/Obama bailouts/stimulus paled next the those in 2020 to fight state government lockdowns in the face of a bad case of the flu. Trump was a big spender, but pretty good on regulations. 

Biden - Inherits the mother of all messes. Debt/GDP is over 100%. Boomers are now tapping into entitlements. For 40 years, politicians kicked the can down the road on debt, deficits and social security. Now the bills are coming due and they're landing right in Biden's lap. Of course he was in DC nearly all of those 40 years. All he can do is prove, again, the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Biden could very well go down as Hoover II. 

~ Kevin Duffy, Facebook post, November 8, 2020

Herbert Hoover on crisis and collectivism

Every collectivist revolution rides in on a Trojan horse of "Emergency."

~ Herbert Hoover

Herbert Hoover: "We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land" (1928)

Unemployment in the sense of distress is widely disappearing…We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land. The poor-house is vanishing from among us. We have not reached the goal, but given a chance to go forward with the policies of the last eight years, and we shall soon with the help of God be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this nation. There is no guarantee against poverty equal to a job for every man. That is the primary purpose of the economic policies we advocate.

~ Herbert Hoover, from his speech accepting the Republican Party nomination for President, August 11, 1928

Herbert Hoover on public debt

Blessed are the young, for they will inherit the national debt.

~ Herbert Hoover

Irving Fisher endorses presidential candidate Herbert Hoover (1928)

Mr. Hoover is a practical economist and one to whom is due more largely than to any other one man improvement in our prosperity...  Mr. Hoover knows as few men do the terrible evils of inflation and deflation, and the need of avoiding both if business and agriculture are to be stabilized.

~ Irving Fisher, July 29, 1928

Herbert Hoover on lessons from the 1920-1921 crisis

Some of you will recollect that following the great boom and slump of 8 years ago, as Secretary of Commerce, I initiated a series of conferences and investigations by representative men into the experiences of that occasion and to make therefrom recommendations for the future. It is worth a moment to examine our conclusions at that time as tested in this present crisis.

The first of the conclusions at that time was that our credit machinery should be strengthened to stand the shock of crash; that the adjustment of interest rates through the Federal Reserve System should retard destructive speculation and support enterprise during the depression.

Our credit machinery has proved itself able to stand shock in the commercial field through the Federal Reserve System, in the industrial field through the bond market and the investment houses, in the farm mortgage field to some extent through the Farm Loan System; and in the installment-buying field through the organization of powerful finance corporations.

But if we examine the strains during the past 6 months we shall find one area of credit which is most inadequately organized and which almost ceased to function under the present stress. This is the provision of a steady flow of capital to the home builder.

From a social point of view this is one of the most vital segments of credit and should be placed in such a definitely mobilized and organized form as would assure its continuous and stable flow. The ownership of homes, the improvement of residential conditions to our people, is the first anchor in social stability and social progress. Here is the greatest field for expanded organization of capital and at the same time stimulation to increased standards of living and social service that lies open to our great loan institutions.

The result of the inability to freely secure capital has been a great diminution in home construction and a large segment of unemployment which could have been avoided had there been a more systematic capital supply organized with the adequacy and efficiency of the other segments of finance. We need right now an especial effort of our loan institutions in all parts of the country to increase the capital available for this purpose as a part of the remedy of the present situation.

~ President Herbert Hoover, speech to the Chamber of Commerce, May 1, 1930

President Herbert Hoover on the 1929 Crash (1930)

While the crash only took place six months ago, I am convinced we have now passed the worst, and with continued unity of effort, we shall rapidly recover.

~ President Herbert Hoover, May 1, 1930

Herbert Hoover on the fascist roots of Roosevelt's New Deal

Among the early Roosevelt fascist measures was the National Industry Recovery Act (NRA) of June 16, 1933. The origins of this scheme are worth repeating. These ideas were first suggested by Gerard Swope (of the General Electric Company) at a meeting of the electrical industry in the winter of 1932. Following this, they were adopted by the United States Chamber of Commerce. During the campaign of 1932, Henry I. Harriman, president of that body, urged that I agree to support these proposals, informing me that Mr. Roosevelt had agreed to do so. I tried to show him that this stuff was pure fascism; that it was merely a remaking of Mussolini's "corporate state" and refused to agree to any of it. He informed me that in view of my attitude, the business world would support Roosevelt with money and influence. That for the most part, proved true.

~Herbert Hoover, The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover: The Great Depression 1929-1941 (New York: Macmillan, 1952), p. 420

Herbert Hoover denies laissez-faire credentials

Those who contended that during the period of my administration our economic system was one of laissez faire have little knowledge of the extent of government regulation. The economic philosophy of laissez faire, or "dog eat dog," had died in the United States forty years before, when Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Sherman Anti-Trust Acts.

~ Herbert Hoover, The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover: The Cabinet and the Presidency 1920-1933 (London: Hollis and Carter, 1952), p. 300

Herbert Hoover jawboning business to keep people employed and factories running

Gentlemen, when you go back home to your factories and your offices, here's what I want you to do. I want you to keep all your workers. Don't lay any off! I want you to keep your factories going. Don't shut any down! I want you to invest more, spend more, even borrow more if you have to. Just don't do any cutting. So we can keep this economy going.

~ President Herbert Hoover, shortly after the '29 crash

(Quote sited by Martin D. Weiss, "Why Washington Cannot Prevent Depression," Money and Markets, November 10, 2008.)