Is Coolidge better than Reagan? On fiscal policies, perhaps. As president, Coolidge served five and a half years. When Coolidge left office, in 1929, the federal budget was lower than when he came in. Few other peacetimes presidents, not even Reagan, can boast this. In addition, the thirtieth president cut the top income tax rate to 25%, below Reagan’s storied 1986 rate of 28%. Where does Coolidge rank compared to other presidents, such as Lincoln, who also lost a son while in the White House? Watch the video and rate the chief executives yourself.
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See also at PJ Media: Ed Driscoll’s interview with Amity Shlaes about Coolidge
Amity Shlaes has been a syndicated columnist for more than a decade. Bloomberg View carries her column. She directs the economic project at the Bush Center, the Four Percent Growth Project. Amity is committed to economic education. This department sponsors a national economic presidential debate program for varsity and new debaters. Watch footage here.
For the past five years, Miss Shlaes has taught the economics of the 1930s in the MBA program at New York University/Stern. Until 2000, Miss Shlaes was member of the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, specializing in economics. In the early 1990s she served as the Journal's features, or "op ed" editor. Prior to that she followed the collapse of communism for the Wall Street Journal/Europe. Over the years she has published in the National Review, Forbes, the New Republic, Foreign Affairs (on the German economy), the American Spectator, the Suddeutsche Zeitung and Die Zeit. In 2002 she contributed an article on the US tax code to the thirtieth anniversary anthology of Tax Notes, the scholarly journal.
Miss Shlaes is winner of the Hayek Prize and currently chairs the jury for the prize, sponsored by the Manhattan Institute. She has twice been a finalist for the Loeb Prize in commentary. In 2002 she was co-winner of the Frederic Bastiat Prize, an international prize for writing on political economy. In 2003, she was JP Morgan Fellow for finance and economy at the American Academy in Berlin. In 2004, she gave the Bradley lecture at the American Enterprise Institute. Her lecture, titled "The Chicken vs the Eagle" looked at the effect of the National Recovery Administration on the entrepreneur in the New Deal.
Miss Shlaes is the author of The Forgotten Man (2007), a national bestseller that National Review called "the finest history of the Great Depression ever written." The Forgotten Man is available in German, Italian, Japanese, Chinese and Korean. She authored The Greedy Hand (Random House/Harvest paperback), a U.S. national bestseller on America's experience with its tax code. She is also the author of Germany: The Empire Within (Farrar, Straus), a book about German national identity. In 2004, she was, with the late Robert L. Bartley, co-author of the contribution on tax philosophy to "Turning Intellect to Influence," an anthology chronicling the progress of free-market ideas as advanced by the Manhattan Institute.
Miss Shlaes is a trustee of the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation.
Hoover continued in protectionism as President, and it was he who truly began the Great Depression. Hoover was a Progressive. FDR kept getting re-elected despite his mismanagement by campaigning against Hoover for years and years.
Obama got re-elected the same way, by campaigning against Bush. "It was worsse than we thought." "No one could have done any better." Notice how these are the statements of losers. Whine, whine, whine.
Hoover continued in protectionism as President, and it was he who truly began the Great Depression. Hoover was a Progressive. FDR kept getting re-elected despite his mismanagement by campaigning against Hoover for years and years.
Obama got re-elected the same way, by campaigning against Bush. "It was worsse than we thought." "No one could have done any better." Notice how these are the statements of losers. Whine, whine, whine.
He's also the guy who's supposed to have said that the Army Air Corps ought to just have one plane... (show more)
He's also the guy who's supposed to have said that the Army Air Corps ought to just have one plane and take turns flying it. "Limited" government thinking should have some limits of its own as well. :-) (show less)
Now, this is my specialty so don't be quick to dismiss me here. Despite what Coolidge said, the Army Air Corps was in fact formed under his presidency. Coolidge gets a bad rap because he wanted Mitchell punished, but the truth was that Mitchell brought his court martial upon himself.
Many fuss because Coolidge didn't pursue the creation of an independent air force, but that simply wasn't practicable at the time. Even Hap Arnold, the father of the USAF, notes in his autobiography that keeping the air force in the Army was a logistical God-send throughout his entire period in the service. Remember that military funding - a Congressional measure - was dictated by the... (show more)
Now, this is my specialty so don't be quick to dismiss me here. Despite what Coolidge said, the Army Air Corps was in fact formed under his presidency. Coolidge gets a bad rap because he wanted Mitchell punished, but the truth was that Mitchell brought his court martial upon himself.
Many fuss because Coolidge didn't pursue the creation of an independent air force, but that simply wasn't practicable at the time. Even Hap Arnold, the father of the USAF, notes in his autobiography that keeping the air force in the Army was a logistical God-send throughout his entire period in the service. Remember that military funding - a Congressional measure - was dictated by the level of threat that the US faced, which in the 1920s, was quite small. (show less)
Yet, his use of radio made him more popular than Will Rogers, and he pioneered cultivation of the media.
It is unfortunate that Ms. Shlaes focuses on the Federal budget as a sign of greatness. When I wrote my short bio in 2004, I was most impressed by how Coolidge kept the USA out of war with Mexico, and how his 1924 speeches DID calm what was a very nasty electorate split by the Northern Klan.
Yet, his use of radio made him more popular than Will Rogers, and he pioneered cultivation of the media.
It is unfortunate that Ms. Shlaes focuses on the Federal budget as a sign of greatness. When I wrote my short bio in 2004, I was most impressed by how Coolidge kept the USA out of war with Mexico, and how his 1924 speeches DID calm what was a very nasty electorate split by the Northern Klan.
We get all excited about a proposed Ryan budget that balances in 10 years when we should be demanding a balanced budget every year, starting THIS year. We need people like Coolidge who act now, not 10 years from now.
We get all excited about a proposed Ryan budget that balances in 10 years when we should be demanding a balanced budget every year, starting THIS year. We need people like Coolidge who act now, not 10 years from now.