Him paying off the national debt caused the longest and deepest (by percentage not dollar value, great depression wins there) depression in US history.

We were founded as a country of traders, and by paying off the national debt, we removed the dollars that other countries had to buy stuff from us. This crippled our economy for well over a decade. I wouldn’t call that effective, unless you think he was actually trying to sabotage the country, which I wouldn’t put past him.