At the White House, Coolidge exploded. To give intellectual credence to the idea that a government could permit a deficit, he deemed folly. Intentionally lowering interest rates to ease European recovery was one thing. That was what the Federal Reserve, with Mellon’s blessing, was doing. But a deficit of the federal government was a signal to the market that the United States was not a good investment. And countries that were not good investments lost control of their money; if the United States looked as though it was heading toward insolvency, dollars and gold would go to Europe, whatever
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