In retrospect, Strong made the right decision in resisting the pressure from Miller and Hoover to tighten credit in late 1925 and 1926. In their enthusiasm to save the country from overspeculation, they had fallen into the first trap of financial officials dealing with complex markets—an excessive level of confidence in their own judgments. Miller, the academic economist, and Hoover, the engineer, were both insulated from doubt by their ignorance of the way markets operate. In their zeal to burst a bubble that did not exist, they would have damaged the economy without any tangible benefit.
