When America Went Wrong

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Started going downhill when politics became the choice of "the lesser of two evils" rather than "who's best for the job", as has been alluded to.

Started going RAPIDLY downhill on about January 20, 2001.

[Joeaksa]

Originally posted by Porsche-O-Phile
Started going downhill when politics became the choice of "the lesser of two evils" rather than "who's best for the job", as has been alluded to.

Started going RAPIDLY downhill on about January 20, 1993.

Sorry but I had to adjust things a bit for you to make it realistic instead of political.

[fastpat]

Originally posted by Porsche-O-Phile
Started going downhill when politics became the choice of "the lesser of two evils" rather than "who's best for the job", as has been alluded to.

Started going RAPIDLY downhill on about January 20, 2001.

March 3rd, 1861.

[bigchillcar]

lol..pat.

[Spin City]

It's been going downhill since the early 1800's but it started picking up speed in 1913 with the introduction of the Federal Reserve Act which put America's monetary policy squarely in the hands of a banking cartel called the Federal Reserve (which is neither Federal nor in possesion of any reserves). The Cartel (The Fed) has five objectives:

1) Stop competition from other banks.

2) Obtain a franchise to create money out of nothing (the fiat money in your wallets right now) for the purpose of lending.

3) Get control of all the reserves in all banks (AKA the Fed's prime rate) so that the more reckless ones wound not expose the banking industry to currency drains and bank runs.

4) Get the taxpayer to pick up the tab for cartel's invevitable losses (disquised by the acronym "FDIC").

5) Convice members of congress that dealing with the cartel is in their best interest. This is an easy argument since fiat money (money created on demand from nothing) makes it childishly simple for congress to raise vast amounts of money without the unpopular task of raising taxes-- where do you think the 100s of billions of dollars spent on recent wars comes from. Ultimately the taxpayer picks up the tab by means of a hidden tax called "inflation" as ever increasing amounts of money flood the market. Think about it for a while and you'll realize that government has an ingenious way of transfering your personal wealth into their coffers and you don't even know you've been taxed. No one even complains until it takes a wheel barrow full of cash to buy gallon of milk.

That's certainly not our country's only problem, but it's a big one.

SC

[tabs]

Spin City is Pats alter ego....Hmmm FDIC was created in 1913 huh...taxpayer picks up the burden...yep U know what your talking about allright.

Ohhh...before there was any such thing as a Federal Reserve it was left up to a guy named JP Morgan to do the job.

[Spin City]

I didn't state that the FDIC was created in 1913 I stated that the Federal Reserve act was. The government has always been more than willing to bail out the Cartel since its inception with your great grandparents tax money. The FDIC was created as a sort of marketing gimmick to offset the resentment towards banks creatd by the Great Depression.

Believe me or don't. Better yet, pick up some historical economic textbooks and read about it for yourself.

[hardflex]

So, it used to be pegged to the gold standard, now it's not. What mechanism is there to keep the Fed from just printing money ?

[Spin City]

Originally posted by hardflex
So, it used to be pegged to the gold standard, now it's not. What mechanism is there to keep the Fed from just printing money ?

The Cartel doesn't print money, the Treasury does. The Cartel issues the debt, our government monetizes it. So if I replace "printing" with "lending" in your question above, the answer is - Nothing. The amount of debt/money (the astute reader will see that it's the same thing) in circulation is only regulated by borrower. Cheap money (low prime rate) equals a rapid expansion of the money supply. Expensive money (high prime rate) equals a slower expansion of the money supply (rarely do we see deflation, or actual contraction of the supply. Deflation is not in the best interest of business that creates wealth through debt). The prime rate, of course, is left entirely to the discretion of the chairman of the Fed.

The Fed can and will lend money to the US Government any time -- no questions asked. That's where politician’s out-of-control deficit spending enters the scene. Of course our government also borrows money from other sources to fund it's endeavors, but it's still borrowed money, repayable with interest.

As I said earlier, the Fed/Cartel is not our country's only problem.

Please guys, read, read read. And I don't just mean Yahoo and Pelican OT. Politicians love of an uninformed constituency. All the easier to pull the wool over your eyes. That's why I really worry when I see a guy with
9000 posts imply that I don't know what I'm talking about.

[fastpat]

Originally posted by hardflex
What mechanism is there to keep the Fed from just printing money ?

There is no mechanism to prevent that (printing by the fedgov), and that's just what they're doing these days.

[on-ramp]

many years ago, the US government converted money into a currency... and they can print it faster than you can save it. that's the problem.

[hytem]

Tough question.

I believe a high point was the boom following WWII... jobs, housing developments, drive-in movies, etc. Middle class expansion.The 1950s were great--at least for white people. Segregation was still the norm in the South.

Some say the country hasn't been the same since the JFK assassination. That was a great shock--nobody dreamed that could happen to a President--though it had before.

Vietnam killed the Treasury, and probably lowered the standard of living for Americans for 20 years after. The same may happen with Iraq.

The rapid rise in college tuitions begun in the Reagan era has dampened the American dream. Working class people used to be able to send their kids to elite Ivy league schools--and actually pay the tuitions. Not any more. You have to either be very poor minority, very rich white, or have your house mortgaged to the hilt. Middle class squeeze.