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The 1839–1843 crisis was similar, but with the boom and bust each longer and larger.The initial Democrats had a fundamental program to move to constitutional full-reserve money. But they didn’t make this change fast enough to limit the boom, and they then also didn’t equitably restore loans’ original purchasing-power terms to relieve borrowers,so their fundamental hard-money program stalled politically and ultimately never came to fruition. Overall, though, the initial Democrats, like Jefferson’s Republicans before them, mostly didn’t interfere with people’s recovery. Despite this crisis’s increased severity, production and employment both continued.Given the Democrats’ fundamental error and punishing error, the enduring toll, and stronger opponents, the Democrat president, Martin Van Buren, didn’t win subsequent elections. But his Democratic Party kept competing strongly as the smaller-government party through 1894.
The 1919–1921 crisis started under the politicians’ new Fed. Here and subsequently, the politicians further increased money inflation, which increased the frequency and severity of malinvestments and corrections and eliminated the former healthy recoveries to money being more valuable again. In this crisis, the malinvestment boom did less for the people and instead was used by politicians to fuel war, unduly depriving persons of lives, liberty, and property. The corrective bust gave borrowers less money destruction, but now at the cost of hastening the next malinvestment boom. The Republican congressional majority was complemented by a new Republican president, Warren Harding. The Republicans did less to interfere with recovery than politicians did subsequently, and people again recovered quickly. The Republicans remained in control.
The 1980–1982 crisis was similar, but the boom and bust were larger and more inflationary. The malinvestment boom was again used by politicians to fuel war. The corrective bust now proceeded with money inflation, although later the money inflation was reduced further. The Democrat congressional majority was confronted by a new Republican president,Ronald Reagan, and under his leadership, the 1970s Great Inflation of consumer prices was cooled. People recovered quickly. Reagan was re-elected by an overwhelming electoral majority.
The Stanford marshmallow test is now thought to indicate ability to delay gratification only because thetest reflects that this ability is supported by a child’s cognitive functioning and environment.
A politician’s ability to delay gratification and soon enough receive the reward looks analogously linked to his knowledge of the benefits of delaying, and to his choices of advisers, politicians, activists, and media.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2026/03/politicians_fail_the_marshmallow_test.html
James Anthony is a chemical engineer and the author of The Constitution Needs a Good Party and rConstitution Papers. For more information, see jamesanthony.us.