United States History 1900-2016

As predicted by many, politicians have not controlled the printing press. Keynesians worry about employment while Monetarist lead by the Austrian School wanted stable money supply and resulting stable prices.

Editor's Note: MY PARENTS AND EVENTUALLY
THEIR CHILDREN BENEFITED.

The inflation of the 1970's hurt many retired people on fixed income. To help in1975 Social Security added annual cost of living adjustment. This would require a 1983 tax increase. As usually, there was an eight-year delay in paying for the new program.

An adjustment to tax collections is due to pay for Bush 2's Medicare D benefit. Obama Care will probably cause confusion and higher taxes. Income tax brackets were indexed to inflation so after 1985 so
there would be no bracket creep.

Early in the 1930's

Uncontrollable post war inflation was use to decrease the real value of reparations. Inflation finally broke and U.S. Banks wanting to increase
world trade during the 1920's with vast loans to Italy, Germany and Japan. Slow to accept their movement from liberal reform governments to dictatorial terrorists governments, the bankers would come under public distain. Their sin was not realizing that protecting individuals and even companies was much different than protecting rogue nations.

Image result for adolf hitler and Mussolini Adolph Hitler used German hatred caused by excessive WW I reparations and a long post WW1 economic depression to take political control of Germany. He created a strong nationalist government modeled after Mussolini's Fascisms. Using terror to take control of a weak unpopular government, Hitler using loans from bankers world-wide plus confiscated wealth to begin a military build-up. Russia uses propaganda to spread its form of socialism ideology called Communism. It required revolution rather than evolution. The Japanese invasion of Manchuria signaled the beginning of a new colonial building period based on nationalism. Western Europe had used capitalism and religion to colonize all the best areas.

"At the Versailles Peace Conference in 1919, Japanese diplomats had pushed for international recognition of the principle of racial equality (p. 165). This proposal was famously blocked by the British Empire delegation and by President Woodrow Wilson. Japan was also offended by the Immigration Act passed by the United States in 1924, which was even more racist than earlier US immigration laws. [Morgan's] Lamont patiently explained to officials in Washington that this law was likely to alienate Japan from the United States (p. 168). Despite the deterioration in relations between the two countries, Lamont continued to work with the Japanese government and banks to fund projects in Japan’s colonial empire such as the South Manchurian Railway. The invasion of China proper by Japan in 1937 led to the end of relations between Japan and J. P. Morgan." source Pictured are Japanese troops marching into
Mukden on September 18, 1931.

Hoover had trouble helping during the Great Depression. Tension increased when the U.S. Senate refused to agree with the House which had and move up the payment of a WWI veteran bonus. There was much distress from high unemployment. A 1932 Army of U.S, Veterans march on Washington for their bonuses. Shacks that members of the Bonus Army erected on the Anacostia Flats burned after
the Vets confrontation the military.

Trouble resulted. Over the years many have marched, some have died. FDR would bring change. Members of the Bonus Army camped out on the lawn of the Capitol building in mid 1932.

Liberals around the world said socialism was the economic answer to depression. The Share the Wealth movement was founded by Louisiana Governor Huey Long was one of many liberal social activists seeking political power throughout the U.S. and Western Europe. He would later be assassinated.

These activities would be countered by conservative banker and business leader oligarchs who backed Herbert Hoover’s use of laissez fair Classical economic policy.

Hoover's first policy mistake was to follow the Republican party against his own beliefs of those of many economists. Signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act caused many countries soon followed and the resulting decrease in world trade hurt everyone.
Willis C. Hawley (left) and Reed Smoot in April 1929, shortly before the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act passed the House of Representatives.

The Federal Reserve tried to maintain the Gold Standard with two discount rates increase of 1 point each.

Then there was the Revenue Act of 1932 which dramatically increased federal taxes. Both were right out of the Classical Economics toolbox. So was the $200,000,000 U.S. bank loans to keep Britan on the Gold Standard. All efforts failed.

Britain went off the Gold Standard first followed the U.S. in 1933. The economy hit bottom in 1933 and spending printed money was the only way out of deflation which made existing loans more expensive in real terms and also made business less apt to borrow.

Hover lost the 1932 election. as FDR promised to use liberal Keynesian economic government action to solve the continuing economic recession.

A 1936 impoverished
American family living in
a shanty. click to enlarge

His New Deal employment programs would be the first time U.S. government would use massive debt to solve a major non-military problem. Like the war debt from WWI and following wars, the debt would not be paid back. As debt was retired the funds came from new debt. Inflation and economic growth would ease the pain of interest payments. Major legislation included the Social Security Act which covered Old-Age, Survivors, & Disability Insurance, the Fair Labor Standards Act/1938 which set maximum work hours and minimum wages, the Agricultural Adjustment Act/1938 which provided fair price for farmers, and the Prohibition Discriminatory Employment related to federal employment .The Wagner Act along with other pro labor reforms were also passed.

Conservative fought back using a conservative Supreme Court which declared some New Deal legislation illegal. The battle over Keynesian vs. Classical Economics continues today. Many conservatives do not mind government action and debt for military problems but disagree with Liberals who want to use debt to solve economic problems. Both oligarchies to date have not believed that cost effectiveness applies to their perceived governmental responsibilities.

Politicians from both political parties act unhappy despite benefiting from an electorate that lives much better because of massive federal annual deficits. Also helping voters is the economic benefits of an annual balance of payments deficit amounting to $1,700 per person. The later represents cheap goods from abroad. Dollars accumulate and eventually return to the U.S. in the form of public and private US financial instruments, US travel and fixed assets.

Voters let politicians buy their vote with these debts disliking all members of Congress but their own! After Germany invaded Poland starting World War II President Roosevelt asks the Congress for a defense budget hike and the United States declares its neutrality. Many wanted the U.S. to stay out of the war and just as many profited as U.S. loans to Europe,, Loans were spent with US companies that supplied war arms and food to belligerents.

1940 had the U.S. Congress approving the first peacetime conscription draft. Most felt it was justified by Japan's December 7, 1941 attack on Hawaii's Pearl Harbor. 1944 the United States Supreme Court ruled the wartime internment of Japanese Americans on the West Coast was valid during a time of war. This type of subjugation of human rights began in the John Adams administration with the Alien and Sedition Acts. They limited citizen rights because of American paranoia over the French revolution. Some feel infringements continues today with Federal surveillance needed to fight the War on Terror.

USS Arizona (BB-39)
during the attack

Public school children pledged their allegiance to American in April of 1942 prior . Soon they would be interned of Japanese Americans.

End of war WW2 layoffs caused four hundred thousand mine workers to strike. Other industries followed their lead. Many associated union activities with Communism.

The 1947 Truman Doctrine pledged to contain Communism. It began with a $400 million loan to help Greece and Turkey. Loan was It was used to buy US military materials needed to fight Communism. Most U.S. foreign aid is used to buy U.S. armaments. Return to top.

Women Bus drivers at Fulwell
station in Twickenham in 1947

Credit:
TUC Collections,
London Metropolitan University

"Women workers continued to campaign for equal pay through the 1950s. Women teachers and some civil servants were the first to win equal pay in 1961 and 62 respectively. However, these early victories only applied where women and men were employed in exactly the same jobs. However, most women workers in the public sector had jobs which were ender gsegregated and where no men were employed in roles such as secretaries, cleaners and typists. Women in these workplaces remained excluded from any of the ongoing debates about equal pay, as did women who worked in the private sector. " Source

Not only were there no WW2 reparation payments for the losers, but the U.S. Marshall Plan loaned $12 billion to rebuild Europe. Loans were mostly spent with US contractors.

Congress over-rode President Truman's veto of the Taft-Hartley bill. It rolled back many of the advantages labor had gained with the 1935 Wagner Act. Many Democrats joined with Republican lawmakers to curb union power.

Truman uses an airlift to overcome Russia's "Berlin Blockade (24 June 1948 – 12 May 1949). It was a major international Cold War crisis.

The labeling used on aid packages created and sent under the Marshall Plan.

C-47 Skytrains unloading at Tempelhof Airport during the Berlin Airlift.

Congress attacks unions bosses with
Taft-Hartley Act.

1950 began with an enhanced battle between capitalism and communists. The Communist Chinese backed North Koreans began the Korean War and added fuel to Senator Joe McCarthy's communist witch hunts initiated a Second Red Scare. See Terror Episodes Since 1900

1955 USSR sponsored Warsaw Pact countered U.S. sponsored Western Europe NATO with an Eastern Europe eight communist nation mutual defense treaty.

Hundreds of thousands of South Koreans fled south in early 1950 after the North Korean army invaded South Korea. Click on most.

G.I. comforting a grieving infantryman

A "European Anarchist" attempts to destroy the Statue of Liberty as Communism tries to gains a US foothold. The US counters with the Marshal Plan and
NATO.

President Truman fired WW 2 Hero General Douglas MacArthur for not following a Presidential. It was big news. The maverick general wanted to be President and tries to use a red scare of Communism that gripped the nation to gather support to invade China. He wanted to use the Atomic Bomb.

Ike quickly ended the Korean War by telling South Korea they had to agree or US would shut off oil supplies.

Senator Joseph McCarthy conducted a made for TV witch hunt against many liberals because he felt they were Communist. This type of bulling became known as McCarthyism. It was allowed because of the Second Red Scare. Ike looked the other way until Joe went after the military. A few Ike phone calls and Joe was history

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and United States Vice President Richard Nixon debated the merits of communism versus capitalism. It took place on the set of a model American kitchen on display in Moscow. Known as the Kitchen Debate, it helped Nixon become President of the United States.

The 1956 Revolutions in Poland "which, while less dramatic than the Hungarian Revolution, might have had a deeper impact.

Russia needed a sphere of influence over satellite buffer nation as she their were 22,000,000 Soviet citizens during WW 2.

By decade's end, the cold war was even stronger as Cuban revolutionary Castro became a Communist dictator with close ties to the Soviet Russia. Click to enlarge pictures.

The 1959 Landrum-Griffin Act regulated labor union internal affairs and their officials' relationships with employers. It was a result of the post WW2 Red Scare because Communism was to the left and Labor was to the left and so labor was in trouble.

The Iranian Coup of 9/8/53 was orchestrated by the United Kingdom (under the name 'Operation Boot') and the United States (under the name TPAJAX Project). It overthrew the democratically elected government of Iran which was taking over British oil interests established in 1901. England has asked President Truman to help but he refused leaving the decisions to soon to be President Eisenhower. Ike felt it would help US national security so together these two Western democracy orchestrated the Iranian coup. The capitalistic Christian West kept control of Muslim Iranian Oil. On 9/11 an unintended consequence of controlling oil supplies made big news. see 20th Century Iranian History.

The Suez 1957 Crisis resulted when
Britan and France tried to keep control the Suez Cannel.
Ike was not a big fan of Colonialism and threatened to trashed
the pound. The crisis ended.

In a blow to conservative southern Oligarchs the Supreme Courts rules segregation illegal.
Public acceptance
would take many
years.

USA, Kansas, Topeka, White and Colored segregation signs - Walter Bibikow/ The Image Bank/ Getty Images

Little Rock Nine help Ike with desegregation. Click.

1961 ha

d a U.S. failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba. It was authorized by President Eisenhower. Planned by the CIA, V.P. Richard Nixon was the outgoing administration's liaison. The Kennedy brothers would never again trust the CIA. Failure resulted in a U.S. Trade Embargo on Cuba. President Obama ended the trade embargo but President Trump might bring back the embargo.

President Kennedy had set many goals and President Johnson fulfilled most of them with his government sponsored Great Society. Many blacks thought is too little to late.

President Eisenhower's early in 1961 Military Industrial Complex speech warned of the dangers of a dominate military. Collateral damage form the Vietnam War would lead to a revolt by draft age young people from the Baby Boomer Generation.

The large baby boom generation came of age at the end of the 1960's. The depression had caused a drop in the birth rate and the return of the WW2 troops had been away for a while did their part. The eventually economic recovery also contributed.

The Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) formed to takecontrol of power from the white silent generation Oligarchs. The 24th Amendment prohibited both Congress and the states from limiting the right to vote in federal elections with the payment of poll taxes and other limiting devices. This was the beginning of the latest round of liberal attempts to share societies benefits among all citizens. This included gays as the 1969 NYC Stonewall riots marked the beginning of a forty-five year U.S. gay rights movement.

Image result for baby boom generation

The New York Daily News photo on Sunday, June 29, 1969, showing the "street kids" who were the first to fight with the police over Gay Rights.

Woodstock Began a Baby Boomer Inspired Changing of the Guard

The decade ended with the White Lake NY Woodstock Festival, It was an enormously successful musical and cultural gathering which would become a milestone signifying how the young liberal baby-boom generation would move American ideals to the right.

OPEC formed in 1960 but more than a decade passed before these Middle East Oligarchs would show their mussel and raise oil prices. Two 1970's gas shortages resulted. Expensive oil energy would begin the end of a multi-decade WW II created competitive advantage of Western manufacturing Oligopolies. Unions workers would also be hurt.

Americans wanted small automobiles that limited pollution and this required a catalytic converter. By the end of the 1970's upstart Japan was much better at building these cars. Manufacturing and union oligarchs made decisions to maintain their own economic well-being as they delayed expensive capital investment and avoided salary reductions. Companies did their best to maintain profits.

Union agreed to giveback which hurt younger workers. The Midwestern American Rust Belt workers suffered as a result. A decades- long slide in worker economic well-being began and it continues today. From 1970 to 2006, Cleveland, Detroit, Buffalo, and Pittsburgh lost about 45% of their population and median household incomes fell: in Cleveland and Detroit by about 30 percent, in Buffalo by 20 percent, and Pittsburgh by 10 percent.

Education Oligarchs push increased education as the answer but data and some leaders have taken a different view and feel education needs to be completely restructured away from college for everyone.

In 1971 the Nixon Shock ended the partial Gold Standard for the United States. The Vietnam War deficits had caused inflation and the dollar's loss in value caused foreign governments to withdraw gold.	The 1970 Economic Stabilization Act froze prices for many items including wages and salaries. It also put a 10% tax on imports to slow inflation. Editor's Note: At the time I was due for a promotion so I got a raise!	Nixon Shock Ended Breton Wood's Agreement
Nixon visited China in 1972. The visit "opened the door to Sino-American foreign relations, and paved the way to the strong economic ties that bind the two countries today.	Richard Nixon meets with Mao Zedong in Beijing, February 21, 1972.	Nixon Shock Ended Breton Wood's Agreement
'The 1972 Watergate Brake-In began the fall of President Nixon who was a weak president because of disagreements over the Vietnam War. As if Watergate and the Cold War were not enough, oil cartel OPEC proclaimed a 1973 oil embargo. The embargo was targeted at nations perceived as supporting Israel during the recent Yom Kippur War. The 1973–1974 Arab Oil Embargo which lowered supply and caused energy prices to skyrocket didn't help.		Binge buying and toping off a an almost full take resulted in long gas lines. They ended with odd-even purchasing rules based on number plates. Click to enlarge most pictures.
Bank deregulation began when the Supreme Court ruled in Minneapolis vs. First of Omaha that states couldn't regulate interest rates of National Banks. The U.S. embassy Iran hostage crisis late of the decades was a politically catastrophe for President. Carter. Gasoline prices tripled to over $1 per gallon. It was the beginning of collateral damage from Western efforts to control Middle East oil. Many terror attacks would follow but 9 /11 would change history.	The Iran Hostage Crisis was collateral damage from GB and U.S. efforts to control oil supply and profits.	Chrysler's Bailout Gravy Train The decade ends with Chrysler receiving a $1.5 billion US government loan guarantees.
Stagflation and a Failed Hostage Escape Got Reagan Elected	Iran Hostages Freedom and RR Got the Decade Off on a Positive Note

The 1981 troubled economy greets President Reagan who took on a nation suffering from a new stagflation phenomenon. Increased unemployment and increased inflation had never simultaneous occurred in the U.S. It would be measured by the misery index which had gone through the roof. New President Reagan let FED Chairman Volker continue to tighten money to slow the economy and lower inflation. His efforts worked but two hard felt recessions resulted.

RR's attitude against government regulation was not swayed by the need for the FED and FDIC to rescue Continental Illinois. It begin the too big to fail banking policy by banking regulators.

The new president's had pledged to use Supply-Side Economics as the solution to slow economic growth. It didn't work though the economy improved during his second term.

Unless Your a Big Bank like Continental Illinois

The lower taxes and less government red-tape campaign promises were fulfilled with the Tax Reform Act of 1986. First up was the Kemp-Roth Tax Cut. It lowered taxes and significantly and simplified the tax code

The budget and trade twin deficits had everyone paranoid and Gramm Rudman Hollings Balanced Budget Act attempted to halt the recent massive increased federal deficits until the Great Recession GDP has outgrown the federal deficit.

The decade ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War.

Carter Appointee Volker Cured Inflation
But Two Recessions Increased Deficits

RR Began a Period of More Spending and Lower taxes
from The Economist Magazine

The 1992 election
went to Clinton because of a slow economy and Bush1's broken 1988 pledge of Read My Lips: No New Taxes. Some felt actions of the FED affected this and other elections.

Then a Republican sponsored lower taxes and less government "Contract with America" resulted in a 1994 Republican controlled congress. The North American Free Trade Agreement expanded trade and competition for America's middle class workers who at the time were in the second decade of a long-term wage stagnation. The cause was our new super competitive Flat World. Mexican Labor now competes with US labor for low level jobs as the real US Minimum Wage FellClinton's 1996 reelection was helped by a strong economy and a Republican sponsored 1995-96 Government Shutdown.

The 1999 Republican sponsored Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act repealed the depression caused Wall Street excesses outlawed by Glass Steagall Act

Financial derivatives were exempted from regulation. Derivative excesses were given by many as a major cause the 2007 Great Recession. Signed by outgoing President Clinton it continued the deregulation started thirty years earlier by President Reagan.

Attorney Brooksley Born was the 1996 to 1999 chairperson of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. It had oversight over the futures and commodity options markets. She lobbied Congress and the President to give the CFTC oversight of derivatives. CFTC regulation was strenuously opposed by FED

Editor's Note: Is it me or do Democratic Presidents sponsor free trade and then lose fights with Republicans to raise the minimum wage. Also the Great Society started just before the peak of stagnate wages. Did the cost of these programs postpone wage increases? Now Obama Care must fight for funds with an increase in the minimum wage which is 50 years too low!

In 2001 Bush 2 Began to Flfill His Dad's No New Taxes Pledge

Tax Cuts of 2001 and 2003 when combined with fighting two Wars on Terror in Iraq and Afghanistan fueled increased the debt increases. Proving he is not an exact copy of RR, Bush 2 signed the Medicare Act of 2003 which increased benefits. Cash would outflow by $400 billion over 10 years again proving voters can be bought.

The Global Financial Crisis of September 2008 began as the stock market crashes. In response, U.S. President George W. Bush signed the revised Emergency Economic Stabilization Act which created a 700 billion dollar Treasury fund to purchase failing bank assets.

The decade ended with a series of Tea Party Protests conducted across the United States. They wanted smaller government, increased fiscal responsibility, increased individual freedoms .

President Barack Obama obtained Congressional also approval for a $787 billion stimulus package which was the largest since President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

2010's Begin With Health Care and Financial Reform

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

The 2013 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act attempted to reregulate the financial markets and protect consumer from market excesses and replace protections lost almost twenty years earlier.

The 2013 government shutdown over appropriate spending was again led by Republicans but this time the economy was slow so the GOP won 2014 Mid-Term Election.

2016 Brought Donald Trump.

These actions insured an exciting political decade. Not sure exciting is the correct word?

Why Trump Won A Chronology of Our Latest President beginning with the election. Walter Antoniotti
Tea Party Protests

Unlike Europe where the Southern Poor Want Help from the Wealthy North, Rural America Votes Against Government Interference With Their Lives Concerning Healthcare, Education, Gun Violence. ...Click to enlarge.

Unlike Europe where the Southern Poor Want Help from the Wealthy North,
Rural America Votes Against Government Interference With Their Lives Concerning Healthcare, Education, Gun Violence. ...Click to enlarge.

Reading

The Presidential Election Cycle Theory and the Fed

Distinguished Historical Observations Applied to 21st Century America

United States History 1900-2016 An Interaction of Politics and Economics 1/8/20 Please link to, use to educate and Share!
Executive Summary by Decade 19th Century Ended with Monarchs in control, liberal economic thought expands See War With Spain Means Manifest Destiny Rides Again		1960-69 Vietnam War buildup powers economy, starts inflation, enrages many See Camelot, Vietnam and Race Riots Begin Twenty Turbulent Years
1900-09 A severe recession brings the need for a government take-over of central banking See Most Severe U.S. Recessions		1970-79 Nixon toke U.S. off gold plus oil embargos increased inflation, China opens See 1973 Finally Brings_ Fast Track Civil_Rights
1910-19 FED becomes Lender of Last Resort, few labor gains, war, 1st Red Scare See Growing an Empire: From Wild West to WW1		1980-89 FED recession solve inflations with pain, RR cuts taxes, regulation and increased the deficit. See From Evil Empire to The Axis of Evil and Liberal R. Wolff's Video On Reaganomics
1920-29 Recession, then Wall Street dominate, Probation, 23 Amendment See Jazz to Depression to Hiroshima		1990-99 Tax increase ended Bush reelection plans, free trade and capital markets expands See Profit Grow, Wages Stagnate
1930-39 Great Depression dominates, Keynes Wins, communism affects Western politics See Government Safety Net Deficits, Like War Deficits, Prove Attractive		2000-09 Two tax cuts, three wars and one health care acts expanded government debt
1940-49 War ends U.S. dominates, Truman Doctrine Marshal Plan to counter communism See 20th Century Wars Were Costly		2010-15 With Health Care and Financial Reform See Current U.S. Political Controversies
1950-59 U.S. vs. communists in Korean War, economy expands despite labor power See Hot War, Cold War and Race Relations Dominate the 50's		See US History Course 1900-2004 and Pass Fail Analysis of U.S. Recent Presidents Crash Course: U.S. History 48 ten to fifteen minutes videos Updated 8/9/17

The 1913 Federal Reserve Act solved the lender of last resort problem and its formation continued the battle for federal government involvement in society activities. Establishment of Federal Reserve banks was to furnish an elastic currency, to rediscount commercial paper and to establish a more effective supervision of banking brought the U.S. into the world economy. Decades of union strikes eventually resulted in Massachusetts and other states passing minimum wage laws. The Clayton Anti-Trust Act was made ineffective by our court system.
World War I began in 1914 because of territorial and economic conflicts among the European Monarchs.It was fueled by militarism, a complex web of alliances, imperialism, and nationalism all of which got out of control. Even England’s democratic constitutional monarchy was not immune because her vast colonial empire needed protection. "The U.S. with immigrants and citizens from many fighting nations was isolationist but people …” "… increasingly came to see the German Empire as the villain after news of atrocities in Belgium." In 1914, the sinking of the passenger liner RMS followed by the 1815 sinking of the Lusitania in were international law crimes." Soldiers from Fort Riley, Kansas, ill with Spanish influenza at a hospital ward at Camp Funston. Click for slides. 1/17/17
Still President Wilson kept the economy on a peacetime footing while allowing US bankers to make large-scale loans to Britain and France. Because England controlled the sea, she and her allies could use loans from US banks to buy US goods. US business made a substantial profit though most loans were not paid back and remain in “limbo." The 1918 flu pandemic killed more people than WWI and forshadowed a difficult 1919 as not only did the war end, but o did the large war demand with its low unemployment and hig wages. Worker strife after WW 1 caused Red Scare of 1919 A white gang looking for African Americans during the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 See Terror Episodes Since 1900
Soldiers spent months in trenches with rats, lice, feces, mayhem and death all around them. Russian forest trench at the 1914–1915 Battle of Sarikamish.	Russia did not suffer as much helping us in WW 1 as in WW 2 when 23,000,000 died. Source

The 1920’s brought post war prosperity after a year of turmoil but not before the 1920-21 recession. Monetary Policy was used for the first time as the FED tightened to stop post war caused inflation. A sharp short recession ensued. Before the coming boom there were troublesome times and much arguing over the banker supported League of Nations. At home the 1919 strikes, riots created a growing fear of radicals and terrorists who wanted labor reform. It was the first Red Scare in the United States. The reaction was part of a worldwide questioning of WWI which resulted from authoritarian central governments.

Harding easily won with an isolationist policy of the Republican Party conservative wing. A decade long battle with the liberal banker wing resulted, Bankers wanted U.S. dominance of International Trade Interestingly they easily accepted the pro business administration's insistence they approve foreign loans as it came with military support when countries defaulted of their bank loans
Morgan banker Thomas W. Lamont was the leading international banker of his day. He provided Benito Mussolini with a PR campaign to soften world opinion of his fascist strong-arm activities and got Washington to take Italy off the no loan list. A $100,000,000 Morgan loan to Italy followed and soon led to bankers making loans to Italian manufacturers. Lamont directed attempts to solve the German reparation problems that had bedeviled international politics after World War I and the Treaty of Versailles. Germany felt the 1924 Dawes Plan acceptable and another adjustment was made with the 1929 Young Plan but it also failed as fascists were taking over Germany. According to Benito Mussolini fascism politicizes everything spiritual and human: "Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state."
Both the Federal Reserve and Wall Street bankers supported England's return to the Gold Standard at a pre- war parity of $4.66 per dollar. FED chair Strong went against J. P. Morgan and supported the Sterling with both low US interest rates as the Bank of England kept rates high. Morgan did not want low U.S. rates. A run was expected and credits lines from the FED and Morgan totaled $300,000,000. Potential borrows paid one percent. As economist Keynes predicted the over- valued pound could not compete internationally in textiles and steel resulting in English worker real wage decreases. Both a Coal and a general strike resulted. Chancellor of the Exchequer W. Churchill later acknowledged this his greatest mistake. Politicians would soon learn that it's the economy, stupid. Later the low U.S. rate combined with a 10% margin requirement would help cause a bull market that some feel was brought down by an August of 1929 FED rate increase. Bankers did not want politicians to control the value of money fearing inflation as a cure for deSubsidized English Mine owner Poor Beggar! from the Trade Union Unity Magazine (1925)bt. By 1970, their fears came true and the age of inflation resulted. Eventually boom times returned and the stock market finally got back to 1907 levels.
Prohibition fostered by conservative religious oligarchs began its 13-year reign in 1920 brought. Liberal activities by unions, suffragettes and socialism brought government action, some good like 19^th Amendment and some not so good as “…intense government persecution of radical political dissidents in response to the postwar Red Scare…” that was sweeping the nation liberal oligarchs set up a Totalitarian state. Conservatives around the world feared the redistribution wealth effects of Communism and its antireligious component. Monarchies with the inherited wealth and the power that goes with being part of the nobility were particularly unhappy. Many, including England and the United States financed and fought in the failed in Russia’s anticommunist counter- revolution. Prosperity again brought banker excesses and the Wall Street Crash of 1929 brought down the much of the banking system and with it much of the US economy causing the Great Depression.

Credit: TUC Collections, London Metropolitan University

Credit:
TUC Collections,
London Metropolitan University