“While the crash only took place six months ago, I am convinced we have now passed through the worst — and with continued unity of effort we shall rapidly recover. There has been no significant bank or industrial failure. That danger, too, is safely behind us.”
– Herbert Hoover, President of the United States, May 1, 1930
“All safe deposit boxes in banks or financial institutions have been sealed… and may only be opened in the presence of an agent of the I.R.S.”- President F.D. Roosevelt, 1933
Here’s a list of fatuous and scary comments from political and financial figures, circa 1929-1933.
Any of it sound familiar?
Compare and contrast:
“We will not have any more crashes in our time.”
– John Maynard Keynes in 1927
Robert Lucas, AEA Presidential address, 2003:
“…My thesis in this lecture is that macroeconomics in this original sense has succeeded: Its central problem of depression-prevention has been solved, for all practical purposes, and has in fact been solved for many decades…”
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