Business of Government

Calvin Coolidge once said, “The business of government is business.” Meaning that the economy drives individuals independence. One is not strong, if one is not prosperous and one is not able to help others, if one is economically and politically powerless. In the 1920’s the shift to the right, on economic policies occurred when Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert administrations allowed Big Business to take over the United States government. Through Harding’s “return to normalcy” policy, the pro-business ethos of the Harding-Coolidge administration and the Stock Market crash, became the turning points of the 1920’s, each leading up to the Great Depression.

I. The Harding-Coolidge administration adopted a “return to normalcy” in order to fit the needs of individuals after the war. a. Andrew Mellon, Secretary of State, proposed balancing the United States budget, and tax-cutting policies for wealthy Americans. b. “Normalcy” considered higher levels of federal spending and taxes, even more than the Progressive era before World War I. c. Harding’s get-rich-quick administration became one of the most corrupt. i. Get-rich-quick became the new American dream defined by possessions and the stock market. 1. More Americans taking loans that they were not able to pay off, causing problems with banks and also the stock market itself. II. Harding- Coolidge administration and pro-business policies. a. He vetoed the McNary-Haugen Bill. It wanted to have the government purchase agricultural products for sale overseas to raise farm prices that were declining. i. Coolidge fated it as government interference with the free market. b. With help from the Harding-Coolidge administration, New York bankers extended loans to European countries and gave billions of dollars to Germany. i. These foreign policies were done through private economic relations