Posted by
ApolloSpeaks on Monday, July 13, 2009 8:08:02 AM
In my piece Barack Obama: The Great Depressor I wrote that the profoundly confused and ill-starred man who is aspiring to be the New FDR, one of the worst economic illiterates in American presidential history (a model to be shunned), is slowly transforming himself into the next Herbert Hoover as his ill conceived war on free market capitalism, individual liberty and prosperity is turning a recession, that may have been over by now, into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
I wrote, and repeated from previous pieces written in February, that Obama and his party were ominously warned by unmistakable signs not to take the path of government activism, or Hoover/New Deal liberalism, in trying to fix and revive the economy. I noted that the Democratic leadership in Congress, Pelosi, Reid and Hoyer, were born during the Great Depression; that Obama’s kingmaker Ted Kennedy, his MC at the inaugural Dianne Feinstein and Republican turned Democrat Arlen Spector (who voted for the failed stimulus bill), were all born during the Depression. I also noted that Roland Burris and Ted Kauffman, who replaced Obama and Biden in the Senate, were also Depressopn born, and that Burris in particular was born in 1937 the ominous year that the bottom fell out of the New Deal with the stock market crashing and the economy losing millions of jobs (see
).
However, other signs materialized that the Hoover/FDR path to fixing the recession was the wrong way to go and would only worsen what was bad. On September 15th (Bloody Monday) the bankruptcy and crash of Lehman Brothers, which triggered the worldwide financial meltdown, was another such sign. What was the nexus between the Lehman crash and the Great Depression? Herbert Henry Lehman, the most politically prominent member of the Lehman family. For Herbert Lehman, son of one of Lehman’s founders, was the close personal friend and economic advisor of FDR and his successor as governor of New York.
Moreover, on September 17th, two days after Lehman crashed, President Bush met with economic advisors for an emergency meeting in the White House to discuss the growing financial meltdown. Ominously of the many White House rooms that could have been used for this meeting they met, of all places, in the Roosevelt Room (named after Teddy and Franklin). Ironically, it was there that Henry Paulson, Bush’s Treasury Secretary, warned of an economic debacle worst than the Great Depression if the government didn’t quickly intervene to rescue the U.S. banking system*. Since then the government has massively intervened in the economy bailing out banks, corporations anf financial institutions to a degree of recklessness and insobriety that would have shocked FDR and the New Dealers. And now with billions spent, a mountain of debt and the nationalizing of healthcare and massive tax hikes on the way we are headed toward disaster with Obama on course to go down in history as Herbert Hoover reborn.
*Oddly, Henry Paulson and Herbert Henry Lehman share the same birthday; both men were born March 28, in 1946 and 1878 respectively.
In The Great Depressor I noted several intriguing parallels linking Obama and Hoover; but I have since discovered others which are no less intriguing suggesting that Obama was fated for the destructive role he's now playing. These parallels are as follows:
> Obama and Hoover were the only presidents born in August to follow July born presidents into office (Bush and Coolidge were born in July)*.
*Hoover was born August 10, 1874; Obama August 4, 1961; Coolidge July 4, 1872; Bush July 6, 1946.
>Obama and Hoover are the only presidents sworn into office by a Chief Justice that botched the presidential oath. Chief Justice Taft used the word “maintain” instead of “protect” when swearing in Hoover. Obama stumbled on the word “faithfully“ which was misplaced by Chief Justice Roberts in the word order (
see).
>As Hoover became President in the 29th year of the 20th century Obama was sworn into office in 2009, the number 29 separated by two zeros*.
*Hoover was sworn in as President on Match 4, 1929.
Moreover, just as 2009 (29 separated by two zeros) was the year when Obama made history and achieved his life’s destiny so does the date of his birth, when we add up its numbers as single digits, give us the number 29, hence:
Obama was born 8-04-1961 which translates into 8+4+1+9+6+1=29
Even more interesting is the fact that Michelle Obama, who was born in the year of Herbert Hoover’s death*, also has a birth number of 29, hence:
Michelle Obama was born 1-17-1964 which translates into 1+1+7+1+9+6+4=29.
Now while the number 29 is a numeric symbol of the Great Depression and Hoover‘s first year in office-nearly all economists date the Depression from the stock market crash of 1929-29 is also the day in August when John McCain was born, the second of two presidential candidates of a major party born in the Depression*.
* McCain was born in 1936. The first presidential candidate born in the Depression was the Democrat Mike Dukakis born November 3, 1933.
And lastly, as Obama is haplessly turning himself into the new Herbert Hoover it is fascinating to note that Hoover died 47 weeks into the Johnson administration 44 years before the 47 year old Obama was sworn in as 44th President*.
*November 22, 1963 (start of Johnson’s presidency) to October 20, 1964 (Hoover’s death)=333 days or 47 weeks.
October 20, 1964 to January 20, 2009=44years, 3 months and 0 days.
As Hooverism means higher taxes, deficit spending and more government regulation to fix a recession the measures taken by the 31st president turned out to be depressionary worsening what was bad into a catastrophe-unnecessarily prolonged by FDR’s New Deal*. That is the truth; that is what happened; and now it is happening again with a President and Congress blindly driving the country into the economic abyss.
*Hoovernomics was the New Deal in embryo said Harry Hopkins, an FDR advisor.
APPENDIX: OBAMANOMICS: A SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY
It is simply incredible that the man who campaigned on the false premise that the Bush recession was "the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression," when it was hardly as bad as the stagflation-malaise economy of Jimmy Carter, should now be enacting policies that are depression bound. Obamanomics is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.