The Autobiography Of Calvin Coolidge And The Great Depression

In April 1929, Calvin Coolidge first published his autobiography, by October of that year the stock market would crash, the economy would collapse, and the Great Depression would begin. Many would and have been quick to leap to the idea that Coolidge is to blame for the crash, often stating that his lack of intervention into the economy and loose economic policy caused the crash, but in this essay, Coolidge’s policies will be explored and from those policies, a key value will be explored.

Like any great analysis, this one will start at the root, childhood. Coolidge’s first interaction with basic economic came through his father, who as a prominent local politician was charged with collecting the taxes. It was through that lens that Coolidge

Starting from a young age, Coolidge was shown that when debts ran high someone had to pay them eventually, the entire community of Plymouth Notch recognized that idea, “[i]f any debts were contracted they were promptly paid” (The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge, 17). The community and the experiences with his father painted a clear picture to young Coolidge, that debt was to be avoided at all cost and if it was incurred it ought to be paid off promptly. He soon gained some personal experience with this as a young adult when he first left Amherst to be independent he found himself struggling to pay rent, and he applied the lessons of his

Here many may be quick to point out that was all anecdotal and that he should have conducted proper policy, but even there Coolidge did follow the accepted paradigm. Prior to Keynes introducing his great work in 1936, the dominant economic theory would have been what we now call classical economics, classical economist David Ricardo proposed that “[e]very tax ought to be so contrived as both to take out and to keep out of the pockets of the people as little as possible” (On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Chapter 12). The commonly accepted position in classical economics was that lower tax rates allowed households to spend more money and not just that but to save more money as to negate the effects of future deficits. Coolidge’s economically conservative position would have been in following with the economic policies of the time. Not only did the follow the economic norm, but they proved the model too, as taxes dropped, and expenditures dropped “large payments [were] made on the national debt” (The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge, 180), the economy was doing quite well and coming out of debt. The American Gross National product had increased by 9% between the