What the President had to say about the credit crisis

[fpb]

True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence.

Only the President in question is FD Roosevelt, and the credit crisis in question is the Great Depression. Are you, however, going to tell me that "stimulus packages" and the like are any cleverer than what he calls "the lending of more money"?

Comments

[bdunbar.livejournal.com]

I don't know anyone who things the idea is sound. I also don't know anyone who said they were refusing to cash it.

If I could, I'd plug in the majority of it into a CD. However the state insists that the property taxes are behind so it's going to pay those.

[superversive.livejournal.com]

It’s worth noting that FDR’s own policies weren’t any better, and in fact probably retarded the recovery that would otherwise have occurred naturally. When it came to dealing with the Depression, in substance he was just Herbert Hoover with a smiling face.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I dealt with this point elsewhere, pointing out that between 1931 and 1940 the real freedom to move of any head of state was probably zero, since there was no international cooperation of any kind and growing intimations of war. What has kept the crisis today from spiralling out of control has been massive foreign buying into US stocks and businesses, carried out with real uninflated money and often by sovereign funds. IN 1932, foreign powers kept their money at home and, in the worst cases, financed pseudo-recoveries with massive military spending financed by uncontrolled state debt. Poor Mr. Roosevelt could do little except try to raise the US by its own diminished resources - effectively, by its own bootstraps. And you might remember that the US' own contribution to the widespread atmosphere of international ill-will and beggar-thy-neighbour, Smoot-Hawley, predated Roosevelt. The importance of Roosevelt is not so much in single inititatives (honestly, when the best you can think of is the Tennessee Valley Authority, you have a problem), but with the never-say-die, if-at-first-you-don't-succeed-try-try-and-try-again mood he instigated. Have you ever heard one of his speeches? They are remarkable, but they are to be heard from his living voice, because the sense of unconquerable energy and courage they convey dies on the printed page.

[stigandnasty919.livejournal.com]

The Credit Crisis is something we are going to have to thole, and work our way through. Bad lending decisions and bad investment decisions were made, all in the name of short-term gain with the intention of driving up share-prices. I believe that our economic system was driven into an unending boom and bust cycle when the value of shares ceased to be related to the value of the companies and became a large game of Poker with numerous card sharps, in the shape of speculators.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Agreed.

My soapbox clogs your lj again.

[norwyn.livejournal.com]

But you see, there is no-one at this point with the fortitude to express the can-do notion of "try, try again" or "get up off thy arse and pay thy own way". I'll even defer to the Jamestownian "you don't work, you don't eat" mentality.

We are in a blasted welfare state, where people can stay at home and "earn" far more from their draw off the dole that they could ever make at legitimate employment.

And now, we are slammed with stories of the poor saps who overstated their incomes to get into homes they cannot afford to impress friends they don't like, and how we as a nation should feel sorry for these people who got themselves into this mess through their misrepresentations (a nice word for lies), caused by their pride and not a small amount of self-indulgence and feeling of entitlement. Now, we are expected to bail these folks out. I'm sorry, but home ownership is not a Constitutional right. I do not have a problem with helping others; Jesus and John Wesley support this notion for me, and I do have compassion for the poor, much compassion for them...but I cannot abide by the notion that we OWE these egocentric people a handout!!!

I got myself into a mess with credit...married a man who could not manage to get a twenty from his hand to his pocket without making a purchase. His bad decisions and overspending destroyed us financially. He charged whatever he wanted, because he thought he deserved to have...what an idiot, and me more so for not standing up and trying to put a stop to the whole thing. Nice that I was taught the archaic notion of submission to the husband at a tender age. Fortunately, I have gotten past that stuff and nonsense. Furthermore, he very politely abandoned me with this mess to clean up, and two small children to feed. I had to file bankruptcy after he moved out, because there was no way to pay his bills and feed and clothe my children on my teaching salary. I tried. God knows I tried. I managed to scrape together the money for legal fees, and went to court a broken woman, because I had been taught to pay my bills and not do the things that had been done in my home, certainly to never file for bankruptcy or divorce, which came the same month. I suppose at least I had the decency to feel bad about the whole thing, which is something sorely lacking in those-who-continue-to-hold-their-hands-out.

Re: My soapbox clogs your lj again.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Hm. Sounds like you have more of a right than I to the title of the post I just might make one of these days about debt - that is, THINGS I LEARNED THE HARD WAY.

Re: My soapbox clogs your lj again.

[norwyn.livejournal.com]

*snerk* Sorry, I got started, and got carried away here. But yes, I did learn the hard way.

Re: My soapbox clogs your lj again.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Please, any time. I love getting long and thoughtful responses. A suggestion, however: this would not look bad on your own LJ - suitably edited, perhaps, to be a stand-alone post - so that your own f-list might get the benefit of it and perhaps a debate of your own.