US Presidency
1930

The commercial banks particularly were sufferers from a large volume of frozen credits and enjoyed nothing to compare with the comfortable liquidity that prevails today. We then had overexpansion and large stocks in most commodities; today with one or two exceptions we are free from this deterrent. But we led the world in recovery. It was our independent recuperation from that depression, and the economic strength which we so liberally and largely furnished to other countries, that was the very basis for reconstruction of a war-demoralized world. We are able in considerable degree to free ourselves of world influences and make a large measure of independent recovery because we are so remarkably self contained. Because of this, while our economic system is subject to the shock of world influences, we should be able, in large measure, to readjust ourselves. Our national production is over one-third of the total of the whole commercial world. We consume an average of about 90 percent of our own production of commodities.