History Repeating Itself
This cartoon was originally published in the Chicago Tribune in 1934.
It shows a bunch of bureaucrats “depleting the resources of the soundest government in the world” as they implement their plan for economic recovery.
What does the plan consist of?
“Spend! Spend! Spend! Under the guise of recovery – bust the government – blame the capitalists for failure – junk the constitution and declare a dictatorship.”
The cartoon was drawn by Carey Orr, a native Ohian and former professional baseball player who went on to win the Pulitizer Prize for his work at the Tribune.
Here’s a larger version of Orr’s cartoon …
S.O. - By the way, our “always-on” brother-in-arms D’Bricka$haw took a break from defending Plax up in NYC to send us this.
Comments
By Pat Hendrix on April 9th, 2009 at 10:19 am
1929 – 1933, GDP contracts by 25 percent. Unemployment at 25 percent. Personal income drops from 90 billion to 50 billion. 20 percent of banks fail. Industrial output is halved. There is a Republican president and Congress.
1934 the New Deal begins. In four years, all losses from the crash are recovered and GDP has recovered to pre-depression levels. Industrial production had also recovered. Economy grows by 10.8 percent in 1934, 8.9 percent in 1935, 13 percent in 1936 and 5.1 percent in 1937. Unemployment had dropped below 10 percent.
Facts versus cartoons. I’ll go with the facts.
By Eric on April 9th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Pat, maybe you need some more facts. Hoover was a big spender and here is a quote from him in 1932.
“We might have done nothing. That would have been utter ruin. Instead we met the situation with proposals to private business and to Congress of the most gigantic program of economic defense and counterattack ever evolved in the history of the Republic.”
Another Fact: Unemployment was 17% in 1939
Gov’t spending = decade of poor performance. You can’t deny those facts.
By Pat Hendrix on April 9th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Eric,
The idea that Hoover was a “big spender” is so ridiculous it’s laughable. He would never have conceded that. I could give you rea facts, not wimpering campaign excuses from Hoover to prove my point, but I’m guessing you can look them up on your own.
Second, the rise in unemployment in 1937 coincided with – now hold your hat – a downturn in government spending and drastic scaling back of the New Deal to counter deficits. There were also some other things going in 1939 if you remember. Some of our biggest trading partners were preoccupied with something other than fiscal policy. In any event, it was war mobilization that finally ended the Depression. Guess what – that was government spending, too.
Face it, nearly all of the recovery of the U.S. economy prior to 1942 was due to monetary expansion. The New Deal was an enormous success. Hoover’s policies, which you can find right here in SC, were a failure. Those are facts.
By Eric on April 10th, 2009 at 9:33 am
Pat,
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/data/budget.php
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2008/sheets/hist01z1.xls (raw data)
His first year in office he had 3.6 billion in expenditures and by the time he left office it was 6.5 billion in expenditures (81% increase over 4 years). Not to mention that this gov’t growth was while the economy was shrinking.
Prove to me otherwise.
The facts are this: If gov’t spending could simply fix the economy we would NEVER see recessions and depressions because the gov’t would just spend money. And if gov’t spending was so great, why not tax Americans 100% and just let the gov’t spend all the money.