Presidency Of Calvin Coolidge



Presidency of Calvin Coolidge

Introduction

Despite of what people believed about Coolidge's contribution in the economic depression, one might not charge him with the entire responsibility. The grounds for the recession were prepared mainly after the World War I. The unprecedented industrial growth resulted in people adopting an extravagant life style. This abrupt change served as basis of recession. Coolidge followed Harding's policies under which the stock exchange saw a five years boom. It was not Coolidge but Herbert Hoover, who followed him in the president's office, who could be partially held responsible for the stock market crash. “It was during the first seven months of Hoover's administration that the stage was set for what to as, "Black Tuesday," Oct. 29, 1929. The signs of the impending Crash were clear through the history of the time”. This was Coolidge who laid the cornerstone of America to become a super power. He was quite aware of the economic challenges the US economy faced at time he left. May he remained in the office for another term and continues with his economic policies that scenario would have been quite different1.

Discussion

Coolidge's successful mix of skill and luck continued in the presidency. He managed his public image through a paradoxically rhetorical strategy, becoming famous for speaking few words cleverly--"Silent Cal." As well, Coolidge identified and craftily eliminated potential opponents for the Republican 1924 presidential nomination, Amos Pinchot, Frank O. Lowden, and Henry Ford. Yet Coolidge's overall success in office depended more on luck than skill. With the exception of some agricultural sectors, the 1920s boomed after the brief depression of 1920-212.

Coolidge prospered politically, and he resisted calls from the middle west for McNary-Haugenism, a program of federal aid to farmers. Using the agricultural economy to illustrate Coolidge's frequent failure to understand the full import of issues, Ferrell writes: "His outlook on the farm problem was based on his Vermont experience, which of course had made him leave the farm".

To the extent that there was a federal economic policy of the 1920s beyond promotion of business and nonintervention, it was the Federal Reserve's management of the rediscount rate and open market activities along with Treasury's policies on taxation. Ferrell provides a good account of economic policy in the period, showing its successes in dealing with slight downturns in 1924 and 1927 and describing its declining policy leverage in a rising tide of speculative credit. Ferrell argues that Federal Reserve policymakers deeply misunderstood the dangers of underconsumption combined with overproduction in the economy. Thus, Fed policy became an added source of instability in 1928 and 1929. Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon dominated the fiscal side of Coolidge administration economic policy, and his great aim was sharp reduction in personal income taxes. In Ferrell's account, Coolidge seems a secondary figure in economic policy, benignly approving of the actions of the Fed and Secretary Mellon, despite occasional warning signs in the economy. Coolidge's aim was reduction of government ...