Coolidge, by Amity Shlaes

"Debt takes its toll."  Could a book with that as its opening sentence have been published at a more opportune time?   Well, yes, it probably could have.  A few years ago, before it was too late.

It is difficult to imagine a President less likely to stir the interests of modern readers than Calvin Coolidge. He was a reticent man with a non-flamboyant personality, and, therefore, inherently less interesting to read about than say, Theodore Roosevelt.  He presided during times in which nothing of great historical significance occurred: no depressions or world wars or civil wars or major social movements.  And, so, I'll admit that, at times, this new Coolidge biography by Amity Shlaes was pretty dry stuff.  Nevertheless, after learning more about him, he might just be one of my favorites.

Utilizing the theory of "scientific taxation" (which we would recognize today as essentially supply side economics) he was able to improve the economy and the government's ledgers.  Coming into office at a time when the country was not doing well economically, and the government was in debt, he embraced a philosophy that was the opposite of our current President's, who came into office under similar circumstances.  Instead of doubling down on debt through massive Keynesian stimulus packages, Coolidge reduced taxes, and let the citizens of the United States, with more of their own money in their own hands, improve the economy.  At the same time, he reduced government spending.  The result?  The economy improved, and government revenues increased.  Reaganomics without the (needed and appropriate cold war- ending) military spending increases.

Coolidge was slow to heed calls for federal aid to disaster stricken regions of the country, believing that State governments should be primarily responsible for their own citizens' well being, and that private, rather than governmental, welfare should be drawn upon first.  And he insisted on maintaining tight control over budgets in the executive offices and its departments.  In short, he may very well have been the last President of the United States who actually believed in the Constitutional notion of a Federal Government of limited and enumerated powers, and, though I haven't looked it up, it must certainly be the case that federal spending per year during his Presidency was lower than it has ever been since.

Alas, his successors did not heed his example.  As economic clouds erupted a few years after he left office, his predecessors, such as Hoover and FDR, met those crises with a new deal of unprecedented governmental spending and ever more intrusive federal governmental involvement in the affairs of the economy.  And, despite the many ways in which that federal intervention likely prolonged the agony of the depression, we have never looked back.

But, if we ever do look back, and if (in some far distant future generation, when the Obama era's debts have finally been paid down) we seek to understand how it was that, once upon a time, we were able to live within our means and not mortgage our entire economy to China, Calvin Coolidge would be a good place for us to start.