The rise and later persecution of Andrew Mellon, one of our greatest Treasury secretaries.
Over at Capital Matters, Amity Shlaes writes on the rise and later persecution of Andrew Mellon, one of our greatest Treasury secretaries:
To bring down Mellon was to bring down his policies and those of his favorite of his three presidents, Calvin Coolidge. It was to set the stage for a government that was the opposite of Mellon’s, a “new economic order,” large and intrusive. Though there was scant evidence Mellon caused the Great Depression, “post Mellon, ergo propter Mellon” was likely too good a slogan to bypass. If Roosevelt succeeded, he would cancel not only a “malefactor of great wealth” but also an entire era. Therefore, Roosevelt mounted what Steinmetz terms a “ruthless campaign.”
Ultimately, though, it failed (at least legally):
The damage to Mellon’s reputation proved real. Ever after, historians would treat the National Gallery and its pictures as Mellon’s attempt to bribe Roosevelt into leaving him alone. As for Mellon’s greatest legacy, his tax rates, they had long since become history themselves. In a panic over revenues, Hoover pushed through high rates, worsening the early years of the Depression. Roosevelt raised rates some more. The Depression abided. Indeed, in 1937, the year of Mellon’s death, joblessness stood at 15 percent. Inadvertently, Hoover and Roosevelt had provided fresh evidence for the validity of Mellon’s philosophy. Low taxes correlated to good times; high taxes to the Depression.
But of course no one said so at the time.
Please read the whole thing.