| The More Government, The Longer and Deeper | | | | rates low)... and the recession of 1920 ended, |
| The Recession | | | | ushering in an era of rapid economic growth later |
| | | | dubbed "The Roaring Twenties." |
| If you listen to today's mainstream media, you | | | | The Roar ended in 1929 with the stock market |
| might think our current government has led us to | | | | crash. First liberal Republican Herbert Hoover, then |
| a "recovery" from a recession that is wholly the | | | | Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt, handled the crisis |
| fault of George W. Bush, although the recovery is, | | | | in a very different way. They grew government, |
| mysteriously, "weak." | | | | grew taxes, grew regulation... and grew the |
| Are we really in recovery in the United States, or | | | | Depression. Recent studies have shown that the |
| is this simply the eye of a large, frightening | | | | Great Depression would have been much less |
| storm? Some experts predict our social | | | | "great," and much shorter, without all the |
| programs, entitlements, big government and huge | | | | government "help." It's a fact that the stock |
| spending spell disaster... I've heard that conditions | | | | market took 25 years to regain its 1929 highs... |
| are ripe for a huge crash in the American stock | | | | that's 1954, two-and-a-half decades and two wars |
| market, with the rest of the world to follow in a | | | | later. |
| repeat performance of the Great Depression. | | | | In 1980, Ronald Reagan inherited a much worse |
| I have argued that there are two sorts of people | | | | economy than did Barack Obama. Unemployment |
| out there (and inside each of us): the | | | | and inflation were both in double digits, interest |
| Entrepreneur, who is self-reliant, personally | | | | rates were through the roof, and world events |
| responsible and lives by a sense of obligation to | | | | gave investors no comfort (the war those days |
| his fellow human... and the Victim, who relies on | | | | was "cold," but anyone alive back then will tell you |
| others to solve his problems, and lives by a sense | | | | that was not a trivial war... and more than a |
| of entitlement. If, as a society, we lean toward | | | | hundred hostages in Tehran will tell you the |
| Victimhood, we're in trouble. If we can give | | | | emergence of radical Islam was no picnic, either). |
| Entrepreneurship the upper hand, we might just | | | | Rather than sit around for years blaming the |
| solve this mess. | | | | Carter administration for all the nation's woes |
| "Progressives" in our governments play to the | | | | (which might've been more appropriate than |
| victims. They will promise you any amount of | | | | today's "blame Bush" recitals), Reagan cut taxes, |
| other people's money to get you to vote their | | | | cut government, and cut regulation. The result |
| way. Conservatives tend to appeal more to the | | | | was the biggest and longest growth of the |
| entrepreneur in each of us. They promise to get | | | | economy in world history. |
| government out of your way so you can chase | | | | Today, the government is ideologically wedded to |
| the "American Dream," and in the process, create | | | | intervention in the economy in a style and scope |
| a healthy and wealthy private sector that makes | | | | very like that of the federal intervention in the |
| everyone (from the top to the bottom of the | | | | Great Depression. You don't need a weatherman |
| economic scale) more happy and secure. | | | | to know which way this wind is going to blow. |
| Let's take a look at how previous U.S. | | | | Maybe it will all blow over. But if it doesn't, it's time |
| administrations have handled economic crises in | | | | now to think about how you're going to weather |
| the last century: | | | | the next great depression. Are you ready for the |
| In 1920, the country faced a huge recession | | | | stock market to be trading at around 3000? How |
| you've probably never heard of. That's because | | | | about hyper-inflation? Maybe the mythical |
| the government handled it by not really doing | | | | million-dollar loaf of bread won't happen. You willing |
| much, and it went away. It was an election year, | | | | to bet your family's livelihood on that, given |
| and incumbent Woodrow Wilson was bedridden | | | | history, and given the current government's |
| following a stroke (otherwise things might have | | | | proclivities? |
| turned out much differently). He never got around | | | | Start a business on the side. Save your money. |
| to implementing big spending and social programs. | | | | Get out of debt as soon as you can. Grow some |
| Instead, his short-lived successor Warren G. | | | | vegetables. |
| Harding and vice president Calvin Coolidge cut | | | | Yeah, maybe it's just fear-mongering paranoia. |
| federal spending by 50% and otherwise took no | | | | Good luck trusting this administration. |
| action (including the non-action of keeping tax | | | | |