Latest Amity Shlaes Quotes from Interviews

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• Coolidge really hated government being in the power business. He thought it was wrong. He saw the potential for growth in the power business. He didn't want the federal government in it.

  Amity Shlaes

  Government, Growth, Want

  Source: www.mikechurch.com

• Coolidge thought budgets were virtuous. He had his econ straight. He didn't just cut taxes, he also cut the budget.

  Amity Shlaes

  Cutting, Taxes, Virtuous

  Source: www.mikechurch.com

• Economics are part of our life. We try to treat them separately, like over there is the economy and here is history. Econ affects history and history often doesn't get it right if it doesn't respect econ.

  Amity Shlaes

  Trying, Economics, Economy

  Source: www.mikechurch.com

• Right now we're concerned about budget. Right now we're concerned about the prospect of interest rate rise. We're concerned about government corruption, government handing out deals to specific groups. Coolidge fixed a problem like that. He came into a rough time and he, and Harding before him, fixed that by budgeting.

  Amity Shlaes

  Government, Groups, Budgeting

  Source: www.mikechurch.com

• Coolidge was a federalist. You go back and read him and it's almost intimidating to write about him because he writes better himself than anyone. He's one of the best writers as presidents go.

  Amity Shlaes

  Writing, President, Intimidating

  Source: www.mikechurch.com

• Coolidge liked the dignity of the presidency. He didn't get on the phone easily. It's possible that he banished the phone from his desk. He was known to use it from time to time. The person who was hilarious with the phone was Hoover. He was a real engineer. He made a closed circuit phone where he could call the important people and they could call him, a government hotline, but it was closed. He shut out the possibility of input from people he didn't expect to get input from.

  Amity Shlaes

  Real, Phones, Government

  Source: www.mikechurch.com

• Coolidge's stat was so low; he's ranked in the bottom half of presidents. What I found when I encountered this man was the leader I might like to see today.

  Amity Shlaes

  Men, Leader, President

  Source: www.mikechurch.com

• I'm not sure Roosevelt was quite a monster, he just did a poor job on the economics.

  Amity Shlaes

  Jobs, Monsters, Economics

  Source: www.mikechurch.com

• Fame is worth less than service.

  Amity Shlaes

  Fame

  Source: www.ruthfullyyours.com

• I think the Bushes would have liked President Coolidge, though I often wonder what nickname 43 would pick for 30. President Bush has great respect for his father, and so did President Coolidge, whose father was also in government, albeit in a smaller way.

  Amity Shlaes

  Father, Thinking, Government

  Source: www.ruthfullyyours.com

• Coolidge and his treasury secretary Mellon loved new technology. Like JFK, C.C. divined that a new technology could lift the nation out of its doldrums; the only difference was that JFK's new technology was space travel, and Coolidge's travel by airplane.

  Amity Shlaes

  Airplane, Technology, Differences

  Source: www.ruthfullyyours.com

• The lucky biographers find themselves drawn into a sort of friendship with their subject.

  Amity Shlaes

  Lucky, Subjects, Biographers

  Source: www.ruthfullyyours.com

• Anything can be done if you find friends to do it with.

  Amity Shlaes

  Done, Ifs

  Source: www.ruthfullyyours.com

• Our conscience, our faith, our local community, even our online hobby clubs - all civilize us.

  Amity Shlaes

  Community, Hobbies, Clubs

  Source: www.ruthfullyyours.com

• Laws must be justified by something more than the will of the majority. They must rest on the eternal foundation of righteousness.

  Amity Shlaes

  Law, Foundation, Majority

  Source: www.ruthfullyyours.com

• Today many politicians suggest that where the federal government does not act, there must be anarchy. That view is odd, blinkering out the work of state and towns, which until recently did much of our charitable and cultural work. That view also blinkers out the role of mutual societies and churches.

  Amity Shlaes

  Government, Views, Church

  Source: www.ruthfullyyours.com

• Coolidge believed that government officials who tell themselves that spending benefits the economy delude themselves and the citizens. Government budgets promote human freedom.

  Amity Shlaes

  Government, Citizens, Benefits

  Source: www.ruthfullyyours.com

• In a way, Calvin Coolidge is better than Reagan. His tax rates were lower, and he cut budgets.

  Amity Shlaes

  Cutting, Way, Taxes

  Source: www.ruthfullyyours.com

• Coolidge showed that the best government was the one that got out of the way. When he refrained, the economy grew, the Ku Klux Klan faded, and Americans got Model A's and automobiles.

  Amity Shlaes

  Government, Ku Klux Klan, Way

  Source: www.ruthfullyyours.com

• If Coolidge were a stock, he'd be a buy. The experts have historically ranked Coolidge in the bottom quartile or bottom half of all presidents. But his economic performance and his statesmanship suggest Coolidge belongs in the top quarter of presidents. The disparity between the Coolidge price and Coolidge value is huge. So revision is warranted.

  Amity Shlaes

  President, Experts, Half

  Source: www.ruthfullyyours.com

• Coolidge cut the budget, and even better, cut it during peace and prosperity. He left a federal budget lower than the one that greeted him when he arrived in office. He managed to freeze or cut the budget over more than five years in office. If you look at charts of presidents - Nixon, Ike, and Reagan - you see them failing on this score.

  Amity Shlaes

  Cutting, Years, Office

  Source: www.ruthfullyyours.com

• Coolidge was a pragmatist. He didn't start out with a tax theory. But he observed over time that lower tax rates sometimes brought in extra revenue. The success of his and Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon's experiment with rate cuts has been obscured by our modern history books.

  Amity Shlaes

  Book, Cutting, Sometimes

  Source: www.ruthfullyyours.com

• Today we care about budgets more than anything. Our American future hangs on the ability of government to cut budget.

  Amity Shlaes

  Cutting, Government, Care

  Source: www.ruthfullyyours.com