Within a few months of the Harding economic reform plan passing Congress, the economy began to revive. By 1922, the GDP had jumped to $74.1 billion and would continue its dramatic rise every year until 1930. Unemployment plunged to 6.7 percent and continued to drop. In 1926, the unemployment rate reached 1.6 percent, a record unmatched in peacetime. The Roaring '20s were on.
President Obama and others of a social Democrat cast of mind tend to remember the '20s only by the way they closed. But that period of prosperity was a remarkable achievement for any nation. As Jim Powell, author of "FDR's Folly," noted (quoting historians Richard Vedder and Lowell Galloway): "'The seven years from the autumn of 1922 to the autumn of 1929 were arguably the brightest period in the economic history of the United States. Virtually all the measures of economic well-being suggested that the economy had reached new heights in terms of prosperity and the achievement of improvements in human welfare. Real gross national product increased every year, consumer prices were stable (as measured by the consumer price index), real wages rose as a consequence of productivity advance, stock prices tripled. Automobile production in 1929 was almost precisely double the level of 1922. It was in the twenties that Americans bought their first car, their first radio, made their first long-distance telephone call, took their first out-of-state vacation. This was the decade when America entered 'the age of mass consumption.'"
As President Obama continues his midnight stroll in the White House, he can ponder the fact that his economic policies have or promise to: a) increase taxes on the job-creating sectors of the economy; b) increase energy costs to businesses and individuals; c) increase the size and expense of government; d) increase health care spending (don't kid yourself); e) increase union power and thus the cost of labor; and f) double the national debt over the next 10 years.
It's looking like he cannot touch Warren Harding.