Warren G Harding may have not have been such a bad President after all

Warren G. Harding is considered the worst President of the previous century. James Grant's The Forgotten Depression shows, however, an executive who saw the great threat to the economy was to leave in place the spending and government controls put in place during The Great War, World War I.  His command to the newly formed budget bureau, its director, Charles Dawes, and 1200 of his minions on June 20, 1921 right in the thick of the depression of 1920 was to "restore something like prewar order and balance in the nation's finances."

"The administration is committed to economy in government. This statement is not with any thought of criticizing has gone before.  Its made with in anew realization of the necessity of driving out the loose, unscientific expenditures of government. There is not a menace in the world today like that of a growing public indebtedness and mounting public expenditures.  There has seemingly grown up an impression that the public treasuries are inexhaustible things, and with it a conviction that no efficiency and no economy are ever to be thought of in public expense.  We want to reverse things."