Word: hoover
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...ideas. Buffeted by conflicting advice, he lamely tried to split the difference. His speeches were a study in contradiction, combining hints of bold spending programs with cries for a balanced budget. If Franklin Roosevelt's approach was inconsistent, even intellectually dishonest, it helped produce a landslide victory over Herbert Hoover and ultimately the New Deal...
...recession next year. And that is the wrong time to slash away at the deficit; tax boosts and cuts in Government spending would deepen any slump, because they would reduce the amount of money in consumers' hands. Some worriers go so far as to raise the ghost of Herbert Hoover, who slashed federal spending and persuaded Congress to raise income tax rates sharply in the wake of the 1929 Crash. Says University of Tennessee Economist Paul Davidson: "Cutting the deficit at this particular time would be the worst thing we could do. It would be Hooverism all over again...
...only problem with this plan is that it is precisely what Herbert Hoover did back in 1929. The economic chaos in the world rolled right on over him, and then history kicked him once he was down...
Ronald Reagan, fumbling around for a hold on the current mess, has been shouted at not to be a Herbert Hoover. But one has to wonder if neo-Hooverism wouldn't be just what is needed now. Hoover, a hands-on President, was arguably the most intelligent, experienced, compassionate and diligent President of the century. He was all the things Reagan is not. But Hoover's problems were different, his Government far less powerful than today's, and his ability to warm and win people was almost...
Reagan has a dramatically limited grasp of events, but he heads a powerful central Government and retains a remarkable hold on people's affection. And the message out of Black Monday is that he could be buried by history just like Hoover...