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United States History
1900-2016 |
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Executive Summary by Decade |
1960-69 Vietnam War buildup powers economy, starts inflation, enrages many See Camelot, Vietnam and Race Riots Begin Twenty Turbulent Years |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 | |
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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 |
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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 |
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| The 19th Century ended with conservative Oligarchs from business, finance plus European Monarchies in control of the world's political economy. Liberalism first inspired by the English Civil War of the 1640’s began to take a more economic slant. It's i would influence increase dramatically and during the mid-19th century philosophy of Friedrich Engels gave liberalism a big push. His ideas concerning worker well-being morphed into Marxism and Leninism. Elsewhere, the worker caused Union movement would last well into the next century. |
19th century portrayal of Emperor Jimmu, the first Emperor of Japan The 20th century brought 50 years of Japanese military oligarchs. England and other Western countries would control world trade through colonies with Germany and Japan wanting to join their exclusive club. War resulted. Click to enlarge most pictures. |
The Great Southwest Railroad Strike of 1886 was against Jay Gould. He was one of the most ruthless industrialists of the day. The strike involving more than 200,000 workers. Click to enlarge. 1/17/17 |
Cartoon depicting Wall Street as "Jay Gould's Private Bowling Alley" |
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Century begins with
President Teddy Roosevelt going after J.P. Morgan and banking sponsored
trusts. In 1906 Congress passing the
Meat Inspection Act and the
Pure Food and Drug Act. "Even his friends occasionally wondered whether
there wasn't any custom or practice too minor for him to try to regulate,
update or otherwise improve." The Banker’s Panic of 1907, so named because it started on Wall Street, soon “spread throughout the nation when many state and local banks and businesses entered bankruptcy.” Banker J. P. Morgan led a group of Wall Street bankers to saved the day with a large shot of bank liquidity. The U.S. Treasury also helped. This was a major change from conservative laissez-faire capitalism. Many thought it was required as the economy had become too big for private banker Oligarchs to be the lender of last resort. |
TR takes on big business.
Wall Street during the bank panic in October 1907. Click to enlarge |
Banker J.P. Morgan was center stage in the Political Economy With Treasury's help he overcame 1907 liquidly crisis. Click to enlarge. 1/17/17 |
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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. 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."
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."
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.svg) Establishment of Federal
Reserve banks 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. |
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Worker strife after WW 1 caused
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 A white gang looking for African Americans during the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 |
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Russian forest trench at the
Soldiers spent months in trenches with rats, lice, feces, mayhem and death all around them. Russia did not suffer as much helping us in WW 1 as in WW 2 when 23,000,000 died. Source |
Soldiers from Fort
Riley, Kansas,
ill with Spanish influenza at a hospital ward at Camp
Funston. Click for slides.
1/17/17 |
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| The 1920’s brought post war prosperity 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. |
Representatives attending the 1921 Conference on Unemployment held in Washington, D.C. Click to enlarge some pictures. |
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| 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 |
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| 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." |
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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 debt. 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.
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Subsidized English Mine owner Poor Beggar! from the Trade Union Unity Magazine (1925) |
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| 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 19th 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. |
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| 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.
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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. MY PARENTS AND EVENTUALLY THEIR CHILDREN BENEFITED. An adjustment
for Bush 2's Medicare D benefit is due. 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.
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Early in the
1930's
Uncontrollable post war inflation was use to decrease the real value of reparations/ 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.
U.S. Banks wanting to
increase |
From 1925, Mussolini styled himself Il Duce (the leader). |
"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
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Japanese troops marching into |
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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. Trouble resulted. Over the years many have marched, some have died. FDR would bring change. 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. 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. Britan 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. |
Members of the Bonus Army camped out on the lawn of the Capitol building in mid 1932.
Shacks that members of the
Willis C. Hawley (left) and
A 1936
impoverished
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Hover lost the
1932 election. as FDR promised to use liberal Keynesian economic
government action to solve the continuing economic recession.
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.
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| 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. |
_burning_after_the_Japanese_attack_on_Pearl_Harbor_-_NARA_195617_-_Edit.jpg)
USS Arizona (BB-39)
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Public school children pledged their allegiance to American in April of 1942 prior . Soon they would be interned of Japanese Americans. |
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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.
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station in Twickenham in 1947 Credit:
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| "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 | gender segregated 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 |
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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.
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 Congress attacks unions bosses with
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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
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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
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| 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 |
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 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. |
Russia needed force to keep control the satellite buffer
countries she want because WW 2 had killed 22,000,000 Soviet citizens
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By decade's end the cold war was
stronger as Cuban revolutionary
Castro became a dictator with close ties to Communist Russia. Click
Congress passed the 1959 Landrum-Griffin Act which regulated labor union internal affairs and their officials' relationships with employers. Communism was to the left and Labor was to the left and so labor was in trouble.
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 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 |
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In a blow to conservative southern
Oligarchs the Supreme Courts rules
segregation illegal. Public acceptance would take many years. |
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Little Rock Nine help Ike with desegregation. Click. |
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1961 had
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 trade 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. |
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 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.
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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 take
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.
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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.
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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. |
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 A1971 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
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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
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| 'The 1972
Watergate Brake-In began the fall of President Nixon who was a weak
president because of disagreements over the Vietnam War. The 1973–1974
Arab
Oil Embargo which lowered supply and caused energy prices to skyrocket
didn't help.
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 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. |
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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. |
Stagflation and a Failed Hostage Escape Got Reagan Elected
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Iran Hostages Freedom
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Unless Your a
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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. |
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Volker Cured Inflation But Two Recessions Increased Deficits
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Poor Record on Deficit Reduction from The Economist Magazine
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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 Fells. |
Clinton's 1996 reelection was helped by a strong economy and a
Republican sponsored
1995-96 Government Shutdown.
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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 |
chairman Alan Greenspan, and by T. Secretaries Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers. |
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 at a 60 year low! |
| 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. |
Bush 2 Fulfill His Dad's No New Taxes Pledge
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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. |
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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 Republicans won 2014 Mid-Term Election These three insured an exciting political decade. 2016 Brought Donald Trump. Not sure exciting is the correct word?
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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.
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Reading
The Presidential Election Cycle Theory and the Fed
Distinguished Historical Observations Applied to 21st Century America
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