why is the American economy deteriorating?

[amanda more]

Then there's what Hoover actually believed/espoused in his writings:

American Individualism by Herbert Hoover

[/size][/font]"In our individualism we have long since abandoned the laissez faire of the 18th Century—the notion that it is "every man for h. We have also learned that fair division can only be obtained by certain restrictions on the strong and the dominant.…"

Memoirs; The Origins of the Depression

"Two schools of thought quickly developed within our administration discussions. First was the 'leave it alone liquidationists' headed by Secretary of the Treasury Mellon, who felt that government must keep its hands off and let the slump liquidate itself.

 

But other members of the Administration...believed with me that we should use the powers of government to cushion the situation. To .

 

The record will show that we went into action within ten days and were steadily organizing each week and month thereafter to meet the changing tides—mostly for the worse. In this earlier stage we determined that the Federal government should use all of its powers:

 

 

 

And there's his acutal record, which contradicts many of the statements you quote:

• Hoover advocated a strict laissez-faire (hands-off) policy dictating that the federal government should not interfere with the economy - Nope, rejected by his administration rather early, and he is on the record as early as 1922 in denouncing laissez-faire policy. With his industrial labor program he convinced business leaders to maintain or raise wages and provide for work-sharing by promising them safety from union pressure in return. He proposed a new department of education, a monthly stipend for seniors, and provided an enormous increase in farm subsidies. Then there's that massive tax increase I mentioned earlier. I could go on. These are not the actions of someone who advocated a strict laissez-faire policy.
• Hoover might have been able to dampen the effects of the depression by using the federal government's authority to establish financial regulations and provide direct relief to the unemployed and homeless.However, Hoover continued to adhere rigidly to his hands-off approach. - From wiki: He advocated tax reduction for low-income Americans (not enacted); doubled the number of veterans' hospital facilities; wrote a Children's Charter that advocated protection of every child regardless of race or gender; proposed federal loans for urban slum clearances (not enacted); advocated $50-per-month pensions for Americans over 65 (not enacted); chaired White House conferences on child health, protection, homebuilding and home-ownership.

 

Hoover was a progressive Republican, whose policies had more in common with today's Democratic party than those you would call "Hooverists"

 

 

So Hoover wasn't a Hooverist?

 

a) to avoid the bank depositors' and credit panics which had so generally accompanied previous violent slumps;

Bush did this

(b) to cushion slowly, by various devices, the inevitable liquidation of false values so as to prevent widespread bankruptcy and the losses of homes and productive power;

Cushion slowly- in a plummeting market

© to give aid to agriculture;

this was now what 30% of the economy?

(d) to mitigate unemployment and to relieve those in actual distress;

except he kept believing being strong would do the trick

(e) to prevent industrial conflict and social disorder;

Many places became a police state over riots over bread

(f) to preserve the financial strength of the United States government, our credit and our currency, as the economic Gibraltar of the earth—in other words, to assure that America should meet every foreign debt, and keep the dollar ringing true on every counter in the world;

Again, wait for a war to spend because I am only the measure of my bank account

(g) to advance much-needed economic and social reforms as fast as could be, without such drastic action as would intensify the illness of an already sick nation;

drastic oooh G. forbid

(h) to sustain the morale and courage of the people in order that their initiative should remain unimpaired, and to secure from the people themselves every effort for their own salvation;

constantly tell people it was their own fault

(i) to adhere rigidly to the Constitution and the fundamental liberties of the people.

we hear this especially from the oligarchy

 

I suppose the discomfort of great grandfathers got passed down to the current crop of believers. Far be it from me to particularly disparage your honored ancestor but it isn't any better than the "old wives tales" except "old husbands tales" History says different