Thursday, February 14, 2019

Lincoln’s Broad Economic Revolution

Image result for The North Fights the Civil War: The Homefront, J. Matthew Gallman, Ivan R. Dee, 1993

In the four prewar years 1856-1860, total federal expenditures were a mere $274 million, and financed by tariffs (disproportionately paid by the South), and the sale of public lands. The direct costs of the Northern war effort 1861-1865 is estimated at $2.3 billion; when indirect costs such as outright destruction and soldier pensions are included the estimate rises to $8 billion. “[The] Union’s expenditures on the war were equivalent to more than 70% of the North’s share of the 1859 gross domestic product. Lincoln’s war economy enabled Philip Amour to make $2 million selling pork to the Northern army; Clement Studebaker amassed a fortune providing wagons to Northern forces, and Andrew Carnegie grew rich as an iron merchant.
Bernhard Thuersam, www.Circa1865.org  The Great American Political (and Economic) Divide

Lincoln’s Broad Economic Revolution

“First . . . the [Northern] citizenry remained passionately resistant to any form of federal income tax. A second option was to turn to borrowing. The great advantage of this choice was that it would pass some of the cost of the war on to future generations (in the form of interest and debt). A final choice was to print money and declare it legal tender – a policy not without cost. The printing of currency not backed by specie would raise prices, thus financing the war through inflation.

As soon as the war began, President Lincoln ordered Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase to begin taking steps to fund the war. Chase faced an economy that had barely recovered from the Panic of 1857 before being thrown into recession by the secession crisis. Chase initially turned to increase import fees, excise taxes and the sale of government land, but he soon shifted his attention to the sale of [war] bonds [hoping] to fund its war effort through a form of borrowing.

Congress [passed] the revolutionary Legal Tender Act [in] February 1862 [which] provided for the issuance of $150 million in non-interest bearing notes. Although not backed by gold or silver, these “greenbacks” were legal tender for all debts except import duties and interest on government loans. By issuing notes without the backing of specie, the government risked serious inflation.

In August 1861 Congress passed a 3 percent tax on incomes of more than eight hundred dollars, but it was a year before those funds were collects. The following July a new revenue measure expanded income taxes and added an assortment of other levies.

In late summer 1862 bond sales had dwindled [and] Secretary Chase turned to Philadelphia broker Jay Cooke to orchestrate a massive campaign to stimulate them. This strategy [of 2500 agents nationwide] anticipated the patriotic war bond drives of World Wars I and II. [Roughly] one in four Northern families [purchased them,] Yet it appears most war bonds ended up in the hands of banks and wealthy investors.

The final piece of Chase’s financial program did not fall into place until midway through the war. The National Banking Act of February 1863 (and legislation of June 1864) established a new system of banks. Finally, in March 1865, Congress passed a 10 percent tax on all notes issued by State banks [which was sufficient to] drive most State banks into the new banking system.

When all was said and done bond sales funded two-thirds of the North’s military expenses. Various forms of wartime taxation funded 21 percent of the war’s cost, and the remaining costs were financed through inflation. By printing greenbacks the federal government caused an increase in prices, which had a measurable impact on the Northern economy. At their peak, prices rose to 80 percent above antebellum levels.

The funding legislation passed by the war Congress raises a broader issue. How did wartime measures reshape the American economy?

One long-standing interpretation is that the war was a triumph of industrial capitalism. With for decades the intellectual heirs of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton had battled over the constitutionality of federal measures to assist economic development.

With the [Southern] congressmen safely out of the way [in 1861] – so the interpretation goes – Republicans were free to pursue an agenda which features protective tariffs and strong banking legislation. The Civil War provide the perfect excuse for imposing a broad economic revolution.”

(The North Fights the Civil War: The Homefront, J. Matthew Gallman, Ivan R. Dee, 1993, excerpts pp. 96-99)

Schumer Furious That Republicans Are Granting Green New Deal a Senate Vote

Via Billy

Image result for senate Schumer Furious ding dong
“I would rename the Green New Deal, the Red New Disaster because that’s exactly what it would be.It’s embarrassing for those who put that out and appear to be serious about it. For anyone to suggest that you can undo clearly a century-plus of fossil fuel development on a ten-year timeline and not to have a decimated economy is just strictly insanity.”
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer took Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to task for his pledge to schedule a vote on the Green New Deal, calling the move a “cheap, cynical ploy.”

On Tuesday, McConnell told Capitol Hill reporters, “I’ve noted with great interest the Green New Deal,” adding, “And we’re going to be voting on that in the Senate. Give everybody an opportunity to go on record and see how they feel about the Green New Deal.”

More @ WJ

I’m Not Breaking Up with America This Valentine’s Day, and Neither Should You

Via Greg

Memes, Period, and Banging: "How we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would
 things have been like if every Security operative, when he
 went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain
 whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye
 to his family?"
 "Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in
 Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city,
 people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with
 terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every
 step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing
 left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an
 ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers,
 or whatever else was at hand?.."
 "The organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage
 of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's
 thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt!"
 "If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more we
 had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and
 simply deserved everything that happened afterward."
 Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn "The Gulag Archipelago"
“There’s absolutely no evidence to support the statement that [America is] the greatest country in the world. We’re 7th in literacy, 27th in math, 22nd in science, 49th in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, 3rd in median household income, number 4 in labor force and number 4 in exports. We lead the world in only three categories: number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real and defense spending, where we spend more than the next 26 countries combined, 25 of whom are allies…

“[America] sure used to be [the greatest country in the world ]… We stood up for what was right.

Hilarious! 'Coming Out' in 2019

My college aged sons had their girl friends over the other night and “you gotta see this “ was said. And they showed me this, they follow this young youtube group. Interesting stuff to say the least. These kids get it. Maybe we can all learn something from this generation.
Your Northern Copperhead Friend
--Greg

Congressman's Brilliant Video Compares “Green New Deal” To The Legendary Disastrous Fyre Festival

Via Gleason Long

Thumbnail

The left has never really learned how to meme, they're so caught up in anger. We on the right just see the world through a different set of lenses, and the results can sometimes be absolutely brilliant. Case in point, a video comparing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “Green New Deal” to the now legendary fraud, The Fyre Festival.

For those not familiar with the Fyre Festival, it can be summed up as a brilliantly marketed scam that promised millennials the concert event of a lifetime, filled with models, private islands, five-star foods, and all the things that would make your Instagram quiver.

The promo itself was a marvel to behold.

Parkland anniversary

Image result for david hogue little shit

Today, we mark the anniversary of the slaughter of Parkland students. It was caused by many things. We all can admit the school district really failed. The sheriff failed even bigger. The cowardice shown by the resident security people...well, what can one say about cowards. Of course then there is the shooter.

The biggest failure must be laid upon the heads of voters and parents who consciously chose to not provide their children with security and also chose to not allow anyone to defend their children in their absence.

I realize I sound harsh in light of all those young dead children. It is why I AM harsh about it. They had all the right tools to use to help allow their young children to reach adulthood and they denied their use. They denied the school district the ability to defend their kids. They denied the sheriff's office the ability to defend their kids. They denied it all, and yet. they, the voters and parents deny any culpability in the deaths of their children. Where were each and every one of the parents and voters and what were they doing while their kids were being executed by a little shit who should have been in jail? Their own liberal attitudes towards the "basically good but misguided offender" contributed the most to their own children's deaths. But, oh no! Their hands are clean. It is all someone else's fault. Not theirs.

And yeah! Its all the gun's fault. Right. Guns are tools. More people are killed with hammers and knives,than guns. Go figure. Guns do not pull their own triggers.

I am sad for the dead kids, but I am really angry with the parents and voters in Florida. Defend your children. so that they may grow up. and defend their children.

End of rant. If I offend anyone out there, tough shit.

--capt fast

Soros Confirms He is Losing in Europe

Via Billy

Image result for Soros destroys greece

Last month at Davos, George Soros turned around completely on China, echoing the Trump administration (of all things) in warning the world against the rise of China versus his previous stance.

The main reason for this shift in Soros’ attitude on China stems from his fear that the European Union will not achieve its goals of becoming the next great world power and subjugate the Chinese, but rather dissolve like the Soviet Union on which it is based.

He finally aired those fears in another of his infamous op-eds over at Project Syndicate (link through RT here). In sum, they are simply that Europeans must chuck off that which makes them individuals for the sake of Mother Europe.

More @ Tom Luongo

Trump to sign border deal, declare national emergency

Image result for Trump to sign border deal, declare national emergency

President Trump will declare a national emergency to fund his demand to build a border wall, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced on the Senate floor Thursday.
 
"I had an opportunity to speak with President Trump and he, I would say to all my colleagues, has indicated he's prepared to sign the bill. He also [will] be issuing a national emergency declaration at the same time. I indicated I'm going to support the national emergency declaration," McConnell announced shortly after 3 p.m. Thursday. 

More @ The Hill

This n' That: Long Binh, Bien Hoa and Saigon

Via Khiet Nguyen

Image may contain: 1 person, child, outdoor and water

I done, did that. :) Carrying water to the first little place I rented on the weekends.


One Monday, it didn't go like clockwork. As my friend and I were walking with large glasses of hot Vietnamese coffee, a MP jeep suddenly appeared around the corner. We dropped our glasses and took off down side alleys until we were out of breath, but got away. More @ Link above.

The Stunning Statistical Fraud Behind The Global Warming Scare



Dated

Global Warming: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration may have a boring name, but it has a very important job: It measures U.S. temperatures. Unfortunately, it seems to be a captive of the global warming religion. Its data are fraudulent.

What do we mean by fraudulent? How about this: NOAA has made repeated "adjustments" to its data, for the presumed scientific reason of making the data sets more accurate.

Nothing wrong with that. Except, all their changes point to one thing — lowering previously measured temperatures to show cooler weather in the past, and raising more recent temperatures to show warming in the recent present.

This creates a data illusion of ever-rising temperatures to match the increase in CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere since the mid-1800s, which global warming advocates say is a cause-and-effect relationship. The more CO2, the more warming.