Taxes and the Depression

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/08/taxes-and-the-depression

During a congressional debate between candidates in New York's 20th District, the candidates clashed over taxes, according to a report by the Albany Times-Union's Jimmy Vielkind. The Republican candidate, Chris Gibson, said letting the Bush tax cuts expire would be a bad idea:

It's not a good idea. You know what happened in 1929? They raised taxes twice and went from 6.5 percent unemployment to 13 percent unemployment, and then to 25 percent unemployment. That's the real truth of what happened. All that, by the way, was a year after the crash of the stock market."

When Mr. Vielkind asked Mr. Gibson about it after the debate, Mr. Gibson answered:

I think that government intervention had a lot to do with exacerbating the situation. You know, there's some great books if you want to take a look at. The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes and actually, Thomas Sowell has got a book on intellectuals in society. These are two wonderful books but take a look at what actually happened, because there needs to be some clarity as far as the history as to what occurred. So I point you to those. I think that exacerbated the situation in that government intervention actually created the situation. You know, it's not well known.

I don't know much about Mr. Gibson (his campaign Web site is here), but it's a good sign for the Republican Party when its candidates are going around quoting Miss Shlaes and Mr. Sowell.

Thanks to reader-participant-community member-watchdog-content co-creator T. for sending the tip.

by Ira Stoll  |  Aug 30, 2010 at 11:04 pm Related Topics:  Politics, Press, Taxes receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list