The Man Who Did Too Much/Little

Herbert Hoover, folks - a "uniter", if ever there was one. This, I'm saying, in that, think about it. Here's the one individual who liberals and conservatives BOTH seem to despise. The liberals hate him because they feel that it was him (more than anybody) who 1) caused the Great Depression and 2) once it got rolling, didn't do damn near enough to help us get out of it. The conservatives hate him because they think that he actually did TOO MUCH and, yes, because of this, made the Depression worse - much, much worse. The guy can't frigging win, in other words..............................................................But what about it, though? Was he as bad as historians and others have made him out to be? Possibly, but I don't know. To take a line from our present president, that's a wee-bit "beyond my pay-scale". What I will say, however, is that the caricature of Hoover as strictly a free-marketeer/a person who sat idly by during the Depression - that assessment is totally off the mark..................................................................One, he worked with the Chamber of Commerce to set up the National Business Survey Conference (an entity that sought to obtain pledges from business that they maintain wages/undertake new investments). Two, he set up a new division in the Commerce Department to speed up federal construction projects (infrastructure, Rachel Maddow). Three, he pushed through a temporary tax reduction. Four, he worked with Congress to increase, by 400 million (probably a lot of money for back then), public works expenditures (yes, Rachel Maddow, MORE infrastructure!). Five, he authorized the establishment of the Federal Farm Board (this, to make low interest loans and to purchase grain when prices were falling). Six, he advocated for and signed (bone-headedly, in the opinion of most economists) the Smoot-Hawley tariff bill. Seven, he established the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (the attempt being to stabilize the banking system). I could definitely go on here but I think I've gotten my point across.................................................................Now, clearly, one could be highly critical of each of these measures, Hoover's overall approach to the economy, etc.. But to say that the guy was a Nero, fiddling as the economy was burning, that, me-buckos, is demonstrably wrong. I mean, just read a history book, for Christ.