Okay, I guess we’re going to be a little political this fall. At least where New York history serves as a convenient backdrop.
Here’s Eric Rauchway (EOTAW and UC-Davis) on McCain’s uncanny channeling of Herbert Hoover:
Responding to the collapse of several major investment banks this
week, John McCain reassured us, “I think still — the fundamentals of
our economy are strong.” That move comes from an old playbook: On Oct.
25, 1929, Herbert Hoover declared, “The fundamental business of the
country, that is the production and distribution of commodities, is on
a sound and prosperous basis.”The day before Hoover insisted that the fundamentals were
strong was the day that came to be known as Black Thursday, when in
heavy trading the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost about 9 percent of
its value. And while, in endless stock-footage documentaries showing
images of dumbfounded traders over a soundtrack of mournful jazz
clarinets, the crash is supposed to begin the Great Depression, it
wasn’t quite so. The real cause was the collapse of the banking system,
which followed the crash in part because Hoover believed strong
fundamentals would protect the economy from disaster.
More here.
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