Right before Herbert Hoover was elected president in 1928 he said: "We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land." Many Americans believed his election would surely bring prosperity to the country.
As these things tend to go it didn't quite work out that way. In 1929 Black Thursday ended the Roaring Twenties and Hoover steered the nation into The Great Depression.
It was in those days that an empty pocket worn inside out got known as a "Hoover flag" and newspapers were known as "Hoover blankets".