Oh thank goodness. I was thinking I meet need to withdraw my support of your future candidacy. 😉 And I see where you are coming from.about leadership but Pelosi was born in '40 and McConnell and Biden were born in '42 so are technically not boomers. Trump barely is having been born in '46. Clinton I concede is and he is a disgra…
Oh thank goodness. I was thinking I meet need to withdraw my support of your future candidacy. 😉 And I see where you are coming from.about leadership but Pelosi was born in '40 and McConnell and Biden were born in '42 so are technically not boomers. Trump barely is having been born in '46. Clinton I concede is and he is a disgrace. I actually remember thinking when he was elected, finally my generation has a say. That did not last long though. Maybe that is when I realized you cannot go by the cover of the book so to speak. I was a Bush fan largely out of patriotism over 9/11 but I now see how misplaced that was. It was the creation of the Department of Homeland Security that created the situation where American citizens are considered terrorists. And the FBI and DoJ are able to place their thumbs on the electoral scale. As for everything else I am in complete agreement. As I have opined before the federal government is like the plant in the Little Shop of Horrors screaming "[F]eed me!!!!]. If this is not stopped I can try see a world where the citizen is assigned a job on the federal plantation while a feudal "elite" dictates terms and conditions for all. That is not what the forefathers lived and died for. But let's examine what has happened historically. At the inception of the nation economics were discussed. A national currency and a federal bank were rejected. We rocked along pretty well for awhile with a very limited federal government. If you have never read DavyCrockett's speech on the floor of the Senate with regard to giving funds to victims of a devastating fire in Baltimore you should. It is elegant. It also addresses federalism beautifully in terms of how what happens in DC affects the states and the individual citizen and why that matters. Then we had erosion of those values. We had lands to defend and Indians to crush (that is sarcasm, my great grandmother was full-blooded Cherokee) so of course monies had to be raised. That was largely accomished through tariffs. Arguably the beloved north had waged a tariff war against the demon south for decades (that is also sarcasm as I am a native of the deep south and the land of cotton was the economic backbone of the antebellum nation). Well we began to not rock along so well and the Civil War broke out. Up until this point a variety of currencies were used but gold was king. It was universally accepted. During the war "greenbacks" were issued, the Treasury Seal first appeared, legal tender notes were issued (these notes used fine-line engraving, intricate patterns, the Treasury seal, and engraved signatures), an Office of the Comptroller and National Currency Bureau were created, a national banking system was established and the Department of Treasury was authorized to oversee the notes and in1862 the first income tax was passed. The south was crushed and reconstructed with the help of carpetbaggers. The nation continued to develop its fiat currency. In 1867 the income tax was repealed and from 1868 until 1913 90% of all revenue came from taxes on liquor, beer, wine, and tobacco. But things were not rocking along seamlessly. There were panics and alas the rich struggled to get richer. The Golden Age was threatened. But "[T]he inherently fragile unit banking structure coupled with an inelastic currency for a crisis prone system. Finding a political solution was difficult, however, because it pitted the INTERESTS OF LARGE. ITY BSNKS AGAINST THOSE OF BANKS IN SMALLER CITIES AND RURAL AREAS." [emphasis added]. federalreservehistory.org/essays/federal-reserve-history The solution, if you can call it that, was the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 which established the nation's first central bank and established a national banking system. This established a system of Reserve banks in geographic districts. Of course those Reserve banks were regional but they were in cities. So much for the small town and rural banks. And NYC was established as the banking capitol of the nation. Also in 1913 the income tax was revived. 110 years ago. But there was still that pesky gold issue. People distrustful of federal government tended to hoard it. Then there was another panic followed by WWI and as always Wars are good for business. Then heaven help us the Federal Reserve failed in its mission and the Great Depression occured. The greenback collapsed. Times were grave for many but some lucky ones still had gold. Even small amounts. The hero of the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, then seized all gold bullion and coins via Executive Order 6102 in April 1933. Owners were compensated at below market rates. A new, much higher, official rate for gold was established as part of the Gold Reserve Act of 1934. Thus enriching the federal government. Now for those of you who are going to lament the suffering during the Depression please understand that the enrichment of the federal government by nationalizing the gold of the citizenry did nothing to alleviate that and most likely increased the suffering of small stakeholders whose gold was seized, I mean nationalized. But at least we were on the gold standard. All that gold was safely stored in Ft. Knox guaranteeing all those greenbacks.
And many survived the Depression which ended largely as a result of WWII (and there is some nasty speculation about dear old FDRs advance knowledge about Pearl Harbor but that is a different story) but as always, war is good for business. We rocked along until the 1970s when Richard Nixon removed the US from the gold standard, thus establishing the greenback as a true fiat currency. Which is why in the modern era the Fed can fire up the printing presses at will. To enable reckless spending at Congress' will and the President's whim. And then to fix things the Fed can raise interest rates allegedly to disincentivize spending. ( Which works for me but Congress has not received the memo.) Which leaves the federal government spending in the area of $250 billion a quarter to service its $32,000,000,000,000 debt. But hey, how about reparations? I hear it is the newest thing on Disney, so it must be a good idea.
Oh thank goodness. I was thinking I meet need to withdraw my support of your future candidacy. 😉 And I see where you are coming from.about leadership but Pelosi was born in '40 and McConnell and Biden were born in '42 so are technically not boomers. Trump barely is having been born in '46. Clinton I concede is and he is a disgrace. I actually remember thinking when he was elected, finally my generation has a say. That did not last long though. Maybe that is when I realized you cannot go by the cover of the book so to speak. I was a Bush fan largely out of patriotism over 9/11 but I now see how misplaced that was. It was the creation of the Department of Homeland Security that created the situation where American citizens are considered terrorists. And the FBI and DoJ are able to place their thumbs on the electoral scale. As for everything else I am in complete agreement. As I have opined before the federal government is like the plant in the Little Shop of Horrors screaming "[F]eed me!!!!]. If this is not stopped I can try see a world where the citizen is assigned a job on the federal plantation while a feudal "elite" dictates terms and conditions for all. That is not what the forefathers lived and died for. But let's examine what has happened historically. At the inception of the nation economics were discussed. A national currency and a federal bank were rejected. We rocked along pretty well for awhile with a very limited federal government. If you have never read DavyCrockett's speech on the floor of the Senate with regard to giving funds to victims of a devastating fire in Baltimore you should. It is elegant. It also addresses federalism beautifully in terms of how what happens in DC affects the states and the individual citizen and why that matters. Then we had erosion of those values. We had lands to defend and Indians to crush (that is sarcasm, my great grandmother was full-blooded Cherokee) so of course monies had to be raised. That was largely accomished through tariffs. Arguably the beloved north had waged a tariff war against the demon south for decades (that is also sarcasm as I am a native of the deep south and the land of cotton was the economic backbone of the antebellum nation). Well we began to not rock along so well and the Civil War broke out. Up until this point a variety of currencies were used but gold was king. It was universally accepted. During the war "greenbacks" were issued, the Treasury Seal first appeared, legal tender notes were issued (these notes used fine-line engraving, intricate patterns, the Treasury seal, and engraved signatures), an Office of the Comptroller and National Currency Bureau were created, a national banking system was established and the Department of Treasury was authorized to oversee the notes and in1862 the first income tax was passed. The south was crushed and reconstructed with the help of carpetbaggers. The nation continued to develop its fiat currency. In 1867 the income tax was repealed and from 1868 until 1913 90% of all revenue came from taxes on liquor, beer, wine, and tobacco. But things were not rocking along seamlessly. There were panics and alas the rich struggled to get richer. The Golden Age was threatened. But "[T]he inherently fragile unit banking structure coupled with an inelastic currency for a crisis prone system. Finding a political solution was difficult, however, because it pitted the INTERESTS OF LARGE. ITY BSNKS AGAINST THOSE OF BANKS IN SMALLER CITIES AND RURAL AREAS." [emphasis added]. federalreservehistory.org/essays/federal-reserve-history The solution, if you can call it that, was the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 which established the nation's first central bank and established a national banking system. This established a system of Reserve banks in geographic districts. Of course those Reserve banks were regional but they were in cities. So much for the small town and rural banks. And NYC was established as the banking capitol of the nation. Also in 1913 the income tax was revived. 110 years ago. But there was still that pesky gold issue. People distrustful of federal government tended to hoard it. Then there was another panic followed by WWI and as always Wars are good for business. Then heaven help us the Federal Reserve failed in its mission and the Great Depression occured. The greenback collapsed. Times were grave for many but some lucky ones still had gold. Even small amounts. The hero of the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, then seized all gold bullion and coins via Executive Order 6102 in April 1933. Owners were compensated at below market rates. A new, much higher, official rate for gold was established as part of the Gold Reserve Act of 1934. Thus enriching the federal government. Now for those of you who are going to lament the suffering during the Depression please understand that the enrichment of the federal government by nationalizing the gold of the citizenry did nothing to alleviate that and most likely increased the suffering of small stakeholders whose gold was seized, I mean nationalized. But at least we were on the gold standard. All that gold was safely stored in Ft. Knox guaranteeing all those greenbacks.
And many survived the Depression which ended largely as a result of WWII (and there is some nasty speculation about dear old FDRs advance knowledge about Pearl Harbor but that is a different story) but as always, war is good for business. We rocked along until the 1970s when Richard Nixon removed the US from the gold standard, thus establishing the greenback as a true fiat currency. Which is why in the modern era the Fed can fire up the printing presses at will. To enable reckless spending at Congress' will and the President's whim. And then to fix things the Fed can raise interest rates allegedly to disincentivize spending. ( Which works for me but Congress has not received the memo.) Which leaves the federal government spending in the area of $250 billion a quarter to service its $32,000,000,000,000 debt. But hey, how about reparations? I hear it is the newest thing on Disney, so it must be a good idea.