Jack was born on the second floor of a house in Stone Harbor, New Jersey. His parents ran a hotel and bar, traveled to Europe, and summered in Miami. Jack would later be the Captain of the Lifeguards in Stone Harbor. He would go to the Miami Military Academy and Miami Edison High. He would later graduate from the University of Miami with a degree in business. He was an only child.
Grace was born in Moultrie, Georgia, as the second of four children. She would go to school in Fitzgerald, Georgia, before her father abandoned her mother. Her mother would move the children to California. The two girls and their mother would live with her mother’s sister in Southern California. The two boys would be sent to live with their uncle outside Sacramento.
Both Jack and Grace, from different vantage points, would experience the Great Depression. This period was brought on by the stock market crash of 1929 (Grace was ten), bank failures, the drought of the Dust Bowl, and tariffs. Yes, tariffs. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act was a contributing factor to the Great Depression that saw bank panic, job losses, bread lines, and widespread misery.
The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 was enacted to protect American farmers and businesses. It enforced tariffs averaging 20% on a wide range of imported products. This led to a decline in international trade and retaliatory tariffs from other countries. What was supposed to help matters associated with the sudden drop in stock prices, brought on by speculation and shattered investor confidence, added gasoline to the already burning economic fires. The tariffs disrupted international trade and exacerbated the overall economic downturn.
It took World War II to end the Great Depression. The war, which created massive industrial production, was coupled with the New Deal programs which pulled America out of its economic crisis. The Great Depression lasted for the decade following the crash of 1929. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and WWII was underway. War demands for equipment and supplies mobilized production in America.
It should be known that the Smoot-Hawley Act never officially ended. Seeing the gross error in judgement of these tariffs, we enacted the 1934 Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act to reduce tariffs through negotiation. The U.S. moved toward more liberal trade policies in the post-war period. America’s protectionist period was over, at least for the next 91 years.
During the Great Depression and the ensuing war years, all Americans suffered shortages and certain hardships. The Great Depression was partially addressed with the New Deal that focused on relief for the unemployed, recovery of the economy, and reform of the financial system. When war broke out, America fed both Americans and much of Europe. There were shortages and rationing.
In the middle of all of this, Jack and Grace met in Miami, moved to Norfolk, Virginia, got married at St. Mary’s Star of the Sea Catholic church in Virginia Beach. Jack joined the US Navy. He saw action in North Africa, Sicily, and southern Italy. Sometime before May 8, 1945, when the war in Europe officially ended, my father made it back to Norfolk before Christmas of 1944. I know this because I was conceived around that time. I would be born in the Norfolk Naval Hospital.
It was a good time to grow up. The U.S. moved from a wartime to a peacetime economy. The veterans returned with GI Bill benefits that provided education and housing. Jack and Grace would eventually move back to Miami and buy a small two-bedroom home on a quiet residential street in Biscayne Park. The kids played in that street. The parents would get together for barbecues and play bridge and canasta. My brother would join the family in 1950. Life was good. The U.S. became the world's greatest economy. The GDP would grow from $229B when I was born to $1.7 trillion by 1975.
Fast forward to modern times. Since the early 70s we have seen several recessions. We had the dot com bubble of 2001 and the global recession of 2007-2009 with the subprime mortgage debacle. We suffered through the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 that impacted the global economy with US losses estimated at $16 trillion.
During the Biden administration, we came out from under the shadow of the Covid damaged economy to see unemployment drop to 4.1% which was a jobless rate lower than under any president since the 60s. When Biden left office the inflation rate was below 3%. In this post-Covid period, the US fared better than the UK, France, Germany, and the other G7 nations. Under Biden, the US added 16.6 million jobs, the most of any four-year presidential term.
Now, under the guidance of Donald John Trump, we have seen many of those gains wiped out. He took an economy well on its way to a strong recovery and he yanked the rug out with tariffs and bad decisions and indecision. If he had heard of the economic damage done by the Smoot-Hawley Act of 1930 that precipitated the Great Depression, he might have thought twice about using tariffs as a solution to anything. Of course, history was never his strong suit. He thinks the Declaration of Independence was a “declaration of unity and love and respect.”
All of this assumes this president is doing anything to benefit the nation that doesn’t help his bottom line first. Donald Trump has never shied away from bankruptcy. During the four bankruptcies of his Atlantic City casinos, Trump personally made money ($3.2M in salary each year for 4 years) while employees and investors lost money. He has two other bankruptcies to his credit. He calls them a “business tool.” America is about to become his seventh.
For me, now fast approaching my 80th birthday, I have had a great life and have lived through a great period of history. It would be a shame to see it all end at the hands of an ignorant sociopath with no sense of history and no empathy for others.
I avoided the crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. Will I see the crash of 2029 and Great Depression-The Sequel? I just know that sequels are almost never as good as the original. With Donald J Trump as producer, director, and lead character, this sequel will surely rank right up there with Plan 9 from Outer Space, Reefer Madness, and They Saved Hitler’s Brain.
As a casting director, Trump has gathered a line-up unfit for a low-budget exploitation flick. He misses only Daniel Baldwin, David Hasselhoff, any Kardashian, and Carrot Top. His only problem will be finding a suitable theme song. Any suggestions?
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