Monday, October 12, 2015

Don't believe anything

With a presidential election coming, you should max out your skepticism.
No matter how good a politician's promises sound, he -- or she -- probably is lying.
The classic example of this is St. Franklin of Roosevelt, the liberal icon.
When he ran for president in 1932, he lambasted Herbert Hoover, saying that he was making the Depression worse by heavy-handed government intervention.
He was right!
Hoover and Congress, primarily through the disastrous Smoot-Hawley tariffs, turned a recession into a depression.
It was not the fall of the stock market because of speculation that caused the Depression, as most liberal history books teach.
There was not much speculation, and stupid Fed policy was the main cause of the market crash of 1929.
But, back to FDR. Not only did he correctly characterize Hoover's actions, he promised the correct remedies, vowing to slash taxes and spending.
Immediately after being elected on this sound platform, he began increasing government intervention, raising taxes and increasing spending.
The Depression worsened and continued until World War II began, Even though FDR had abandoned most of his first-term programs, during his second term he replaced them with equally bad policy.
In short, vote for someone you can believe and hope for the best.