Thursday, March 24, 2016

On President Hoover's Wage-Controls of 1930

Hoover did a lot of dumb things in his four years (the Smoot-Hawley tariff, a massive tax increase, an increase in federal spending of close to 50%, the Federal Farm Board, the Reconstruction Finance Department, etc.) but this was BY FAR the dumbest. The fact of the matter is that the U.S. economy was in a tailspin with significant deflation and so the last thing that anybody would ever want to do would be to increase the cost of labor and make it harder to hire folks (yes, the wage-controls were voluntary but most businesses adhered to them 'cause the President asked).......Of course, being that Mr. Hoover (he of the "beneficent hand") was a progressive.......   

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