Saturday, January 14, 2012

READY, SHOOT, AIM! Part 2

The general misunderstanding that has been taught as history is that the “Roaring Twenties” and Republican laissez faire policies led to the stock market crash of 1929 and caused the depression of the 1930’s before the 4 term (1933 until death 1945) presidency of FDR and the Democrat controlled congress were able to save the country by the policies of expanding the role of the Federal Government through the “New Deal”. Slobberknocking Hogwash!!!
First, the stock market crash was caused by fear and speculation. It was more of an investor disaster than an economic collapse. The fear was two-fold; Banks were weak, due to monetary supply decisions by the Federal Reserve (which was exerting more influence), and a growing nationalism that was dominating thought on a global scale, this was combined with the short-sightedness of investment speculator’s fantasy of a never bursting bubble. Even with the crash, unemployment rose from 3+% in 1929 to 8+% in 1930; not enough to crash the economy. Economists like Milton Friedman and historians who lay blame on the Smoot-Hartly Tarriff Act of 1930 have given different damage causing weight to the effect of varying political decisions. My contention is that Republican President Herbert Hoover’s  decision to abandon laissez faire restraint and to initiate market interference by federal policy and manipulation created an upheaval, from which, our country has never returned. He used misguided persuasion to insist that companies maintain their wage levels and as much of their employment numbers as possible. He signed into law the Smoot-Hartley Act in 1930 and more than doubled the income tax during his one term 1928-32. These government policy moves crashed the American economy! Smoot-Hartley initially created a sharp increase in factory production and employment before its devastating effects (unforeseen consequences) were understood. Starting with bank failures in Europe, the law triggered a trade war. US imports fell 66% while exports fell 61% and world trade fell by 66% between 1929 and 1934. Unemployment and business failures exploded; by 1932 unemployment was above 23%.

Depression Era Unemployment Statistics
Year
Population
Labor
Force
Unemployed
Percentage of
Labor Force
1929
88,010,000
49,440,000
1,550,000
3.14
1930
89,550,000
50,080,000
4,340,000
8.67
1931
90,710,000
50,680,000
8,020,000
15.82
1932
91,810,000
51,250,000
12,060,000
23.53
1933
92,950,000
51,840,000
12,830,000
24.75
1934
94,190,000
52,490,000
11,340,000
21.60
1935
95,460,000
53,140,000
10,610,000
19.97
1936
96,700,000
53,740,000
9,030,000
16.80
1937
97,870,000
54,320,000
7,700,000
14.18
1938
99,120,000
54,950,000
10,390,000
18.91
1939
100,360,000
55,600,000
9,480,000
17.05
1940
101,560,000
56,180,000
8,120,000
14.45
1941
102,700,000
57,530,000
5,560,000
9.66
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1957 (Washington, D.C., 1960), p.70.


The income tax increase was more than doubled at the top and bottom. In 1931 the bottom rate was 1.5% on income $0 - 4000 and the top was 25% on $100,000. In 1932 the bottom rate was 4% $0- 4000 and the top was moved to 63% on $1 million. $100,000 was now taxed at 56%. Considering that the average income throughout the 30’s was less than $2,000 per year, who was nearly destroyed by these increases? Let me help:
EVERY BUSINESSMAN/EMPLOYER IN AMERICA!  Click on link to compare 1931 rates to 1932. Follow the comparison through 1945 to see Roosevelt’s salvation (lol).


With the election of 1932 Franklin D. Roosevelt (the “Savior”) swept into office surrounded by a ‘Brain Trust’ of young intellectuals who were the new wave of academic progressives. Some  wishing, with jealousy,  for the ambitious transformation that was taking place worldwide; Stalin’s communist Russia, Mussolini’s fascist Italy and the new rising star Adolf Hitler’s national socialism (Nazis) were all held in high esteem by intellectuals and progressives in the early 30’s.

To be continued...

Friday, January 13, 2012

READY, SHOOT, AIM!



And so it has begun…

Two hoots for Newt; you are confirming my political analytical   genius. You are a very intelligent teacher and speaker who knows history well. However, you are far removed from the character of the men you claim as role models. Instead, the pettiness of your fragile ego is your driving force. It is that pettiness that has often placed you in direct contradiction to the principles you claim as your over used ‘fundamental’ foundation. A special award to Governor Perry for taking your foot out of your mouth long enough to stick your head into a permanent sub-orbital exploration of Uranus. The attacks of these two men and their ad men, which sound more like Occupy Wall Street slogans than conservative principle, is inexcusable. As far as I am concerned, it is permanently disqualifying; rendering anything else that they say as meaningless! Let me make this easier for the republican voters who are trying to determine the ‘true’ conservative from among this field of candidates. HE IS NOT HERE! (Sweater vests confirm dorkiness; not principle) Many of my friends, who know from even a cursory conversation that I am a fit-to-be-tied constitutional conservative, were surprised by my endorsement of Mitt Romney. Evidently, I did not make it clear that my pick of Romney is based on political realities of demographics, not his adoption of my personal (correct) philosophy.
Let’s return to the basics: Defeat Obama Period
He, after all, as leader of the Democratic Party is the culmination of one hundred years of the self defeating, misguided, nonsensical, and empirically wrong stew of errant philosophies of progressivism/communism/socialism. Spread and supported by the so-called ‘enlightened’ academics, aided by the creation of mass media, that has brought our country to the brink of bankruptcy. Despite the misdirection of media idiocy, a class system was first introduced into the American culture through Franklin Roosevelt’s administration successful transformation of thought & law from individualism (rights & responsibilities) to the collective “people” who look to government as the provider of jobs, subsidies and protection benefits, as well as the arbiter of rights and economic management. This system divided the country into only two classes: the Rulers & the Ruled. The dumbing down of America through revisionist’s history or the complete lack of teaching history for nearly two generations has left the country gullible enough to elect an incompetent ideologue who is asking for another $1.2 Trillion to add to the $5 Trillion debt he has already saddled our country with in only 3 years in office.  Fortunately, we now have Republicans in congress that support fiscal austerity. So they say all the right things first, before giving him the $1 Trillion as in 2011. Furthermore and probably worse, is the thinking that “Wall Street” as construed today, with privatized gain and socialized risk, is free enterprise.
By now, some may be asking: Are you going to tell us what you really think about all of this? Why yes, Bunky, I will.
From 1789-1930 a mere total of 2700 pages of law were written by the federal government. During that time America changed the world, by becoming the most prosperous nation the world has ever known. Thereby, attracting millions of people from every other country on earth to legally immigrate, becoming a part of liberty and opportunity in a classless society.  While the rest of the world wrestled with the changes from Monarchies to letting those same ‘enlightened’ philosophies come to their inevitable fruition as totalitarian regimes enslaving and killing people by the millions and threatening the entire world by warring for domination. It was the prosperity of America and the commitment of its organically diverse people to liberty that saved the world in the 20th century.
The greatest percentage of rise in the standard of living for the largest number of ‘average’ Americans came about through a combination of technology (electricity, affordable automobiles, modern ovens, indoor plumbing, radio, low cost home building, increased wages in new businesses and corporations) and a supposedly ‘do nothing’ president, Calvin Coolidge; who with the best Secretary of the Treasury, Andrew Mellon this country has known, left the economy alone. An economic recession was ended in 16 months, gaining nearly full employment, allowing taxes to be increased to a top rate of 25% through his term1921-28.  Known as the “Roaring Twenties” it has been condemned by progressive historians ever since. It flies in the face of their ‘enlightened philosophy’ of a managed economy, consolidated and centralized power.
                  
TO BE CONTINUED… http://youtu.be/DyLmru6no4U