Tuesday, January 20, 2009

An Hystoricle Day

Well, I crapped myself today. I was walking through the break room when I glanced at the TV and B.H.O. was giving his inaugural speech. Before I could even process what was happening, my body had what can only be described as a visceral reaction, and my bowels completely evacuated. I sure hope I don't have to go through this for the next 4 years. Maybe I will over time learn to control this, or maybe just wear an adult diaper.

You see, history seems to be repeating itself, and it is like watching a train wreck, knowing beforehand it was going to happen but unable to stop it. Hoover was a meddling Republican president who felt he "had to do something" to help the economy of 1929 and 30. He consulted key business leaders and came up with the brilliant ideas of keeping wages high at a time of declining prices and profits for companies, ensuring increased unemployment. He increased taxes (top rate went to 63 percent) increased government subsidies to industry and agriculture, and increased tariffs. He was quoted as saying "We might have done nothing. That would have been utter ruin. Instead we met the situation with proposals to private business and to Congress of the most gigantic program of economic defense and counterattack ever evolved in the history of the Republic". (Not my kind of fiscally responsible conservative) That quote sounds awfully familiar... The came the great FDR (BHO)

FDR took the reigns and ran. The depression was largely an extent of the Hoover bungling combined with overreaching government entanglement by FDR. Not only did his NIRA (National Industrial Recovery Act) establish standard minimum wages (unemployment guaranteed), it also established minimum prices (increased hardship on those who actually worked). He subsidised farmers to destroy crops and kill livestock to artificially inflate ag prices and to increased farm incomes. (sounds very 5 year plan soviet to me). But in retrospect these policies were responsible for the unemployment of 2 million people (James Boyle, Cornell Univ) and made it harder on farmers to buy goods whose prices were artificially inflated.

The anti-business attitude of the White House kept investors away, not knowing what type of meddling or regulation would come next. This decimated the amount of available capital available for businesses and new development. The Gov't made itself the de facto savior by handing out "jobs". But in reality there is no "stimulus" because all you are doing is taking away money from some people(the ones who pay taxes) and giving it to others. Public works projects and that time ( and even more so now) and inherently wasteful and are not subject to the checks and balance and profit loss statements of private businesses and entrepreneurs (like me). Not to mention the fact that many of these WPA workers were, shall I say "encouraged" to vote for FDR because their very jobs depended on it. Many were even forced to change party allegiance (Rep. to Dem) to get hired by the gov't.

And when the Supreme court declared his big brother meddling unconstitutional, he attempted to just add more justices until got enough to have a more "flexible" view of the constitution. Even his Dem. colleagues thought this a stupid idea. Eventually, however, enough justices died or retired for him to stack the deck. They decided they could even regulate what and how much of a crop a private farmer could grow for his own family, even if he wasn't going to sell it. (Wickard v. Filburn, 1942). That kind of intrusion sounds great to me.

Needless to say, if either of these two had been more like Coolidge (1920-21) and hands off, we wouldn't need textbooks describing the Great Depression. They might describe the Recession of 29-30, but thanks to these bonehead and the Cult of Personality FDR (BHO?) we ate dirt for 15 years and gave the old folks something to talk about. I just hope my kids aren't the ones 30-40 years from now saying "Gather 'round kids, let me tell you about the Great Depression of the 2010s. It could have been avoided had people been taught history in school, but we did learn about alternative lifestyles and look how fast I can put this condom on a cucumber. I digress. But we elected someone because he said "change" 4789 times during the primary and election cycle (I counted). And I believe we're stronger for making sacrifices we really didn't have to. Would you like another bowl of dirt?"

Received this in a recent email:

Who worries about "the cow" when it is all about the "Ice Cream?" The most eye-opening civics lesson I ever had was while teaching third grade this year. The presidential election was heating up and some of the children showed an interest. I decided we would have an election for a class president. We would choose our nominees. They would make a campaign speech and the class would vote. To simplify the process, candidates were nominated by other class members. We discussed what kinds of characteristics these students should have. We got many nominations and from those, Jamie and Olivia were picked to run for the top spot. The class had done a great job in their selections. Both candidates were good kids. I thought Jamie might have an advantage because he got lots of parental support. I had never seen Olivia's mother. The day arrived when they were to make their speeches Jamie went first. He had specific ideas about how to make our class a better place. He ended by promising to do his very best. Everyone applauded. He sat down and Olivia came to the podium. Her speech was concise. She said, "If you will vote for me, I will give you ice cream." She sat down. The class went wild. "Yes! Yes! We want ice cream." She surely could say more. She did not have to. A discussion followed. How did she plan to pay for the ice cream? She wasn't sure. Would her parents buy it or would the class pay for it? She didn't know. The class really didn't care. All they were thinking about was ice cream. Jamie was forgotten. Olivia won by a landslide. Every time Barack Obama opened his mouth he offered ice cream and fifty-two percent of the people reacted like nine year olds. They want ice cream. The other forty-eight percent of us know we're going to have to feed the cow and clean up the mess.

And another thing. Stop all this "post-racial" election rhetoric. When 50% of blacks vote for a black Republican candidate, then come talk to me. But as long as 97% drink the liberal hand-out cool-aid and can't even describe his policies (see previous Howard Stern post) this isn't post racial, its all racial and he's half white for goodness sake. Nobody talks about the white mom who raised him while daddy flew the coop. I read The Audacity of Hope, and also The Audacity of Deceit. The later was a much better read.

43 comments:

  1. holy shit 'cat. was that off the cuff? quit thinking with your brain and think with your heart. hugs!

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  2. You're my new blog hero.

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  3. This...is one of the most beautiful posts I have ever seen. But yeah, BHO is doomed to fail. Sadly, being a soon to be graduating undergrad...I'll be most hurt by BHO's policies. Aww well, I'll find some way to survive this soon to be hell of a presidency.

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  4. So Why Didn't BHO pardon Stanley "Tookie" Williams???!!! Oh yeah, cause he was executed 3 years ago...well that never stopped ole J.C....

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  5. I'm not a debator but didn't our highway system come out of these public works.? What about the hoover dam and the TVA that brought water to areas that needed it? Wasn't that also part of those public works? And unless I've misunderstood it, isn't one of leading contributors to the current economy lack of regulatory oversight and people running amuck with othrer peoples' monies. I also pretty sure the trickle down theory didn't work...that faucet was pretty much plugged up as far as I can see. I hate big government and undeserved handouts but I also don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water. I want to live in a society where the TRULY disadvantaged are assisted. Oh well just some thoughts..I'll pass on the ice cream..I'm dieting anyway. love your blog.

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  6. Yeah Kris, it was a Republican that started the Interstate System and it was originally designed to transport thousands of Yankee Troops to quell all that violence that was gonna happen with integration. And don't forget the Pyramids...you'd never get one of those with free enterprise...

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  7. yeah frank you're right..what free enterprise gets us now is trump building highways to his casinos in atlantic city and cities bulding sport stadiums all on the back of the tax payer but for the benefit of the owners...everybody's got their hand in the till...that ain't free enterprise

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  8. No Chris, it's meddling. First of all this is the most generous country in the world when it comes to the downtrodden. We give 8-10 times more per capita than the Germans or French.

    GOV'T programs under Carter (CRA)(p) made it virtually impossible not to loan and even encouraged banks to loan money to people who should be renting. It was perhaps the greates Ponzi scheme ever, continuing to pass these loans on to other banks, mortgage lenders, bundling the loans to make them look better, etc. So for 30 years we polished a turd (although I think Barney Frank liked doing it) and finally in 2007-8 somebody said, look it's a turd.

    Re Franks comment, yes things were built, but at what cost. These people were conscripts (aka slaves) of the govt. Yes, you can go to Egypt and by a $5.00 plastic snow globe of Cheops, but I bet the builders weren't in on the take.

    FDRs policies re: labor cost millions of jobs. Social Security, shown to be a great program able to support people well into their later years without going bankrupt,(sarcasm), markedly increased labor cost and led to 1.2 million more unemployed-yeah. And his love of the unions and Wagner Act is estimated to have cost our economy trillions by distorting the labor market and discouraging efficiency.

    Re: public works programs: There is only a set amount of Capital. Unless the central bank prints money like Monopoly and devalues its currency leading to hyperinflation, public works projects divert capital
    form the private sector where real long term growth and job creation occurs. Not to mention the inherent waste in these projects with little or no oversight ( whered that billion go... I know I left it somewhere around here)

    Most of the people that complain about trickle down have never tried to climb the ladder. They are smoking pot in their mom's basement late for work at Blockbuster. Ask yourself this, How many job's have you gotten from a poor or lazy man. ZERO. I guess for the next 4 years we'll give trickle up a try. Our chant should be 4 YEARS OF MEDIOCRITY-DON'T TRY TO SUCCEED. Went to the mailbox this morning....still no check yet.

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  9. Praise Him!

    Praise The One!

    Praise Obama!

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  10. not trying to climb the ladder here...afraid of heights. just a middle class person making a decent wage. work for a large for profit medical corporation and we just got our cutbacks..401k contribution is now 1.5%, sick time comes out of vacation time, absoultely have to leave when shift over (hurry up start breathing or you're on your own..it's 7:10). all well and fine I just wish old trevor (CEO) had made mention of what the upper echelon was doing...oh he did...no longer reimbursing for gym memberships and blackberries...yes we are all in this together. people usually mispell my name but first time mispelled when it's been typed :)

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  11. I just think it's not so much a lack of historical knowledge, as it just is not human nature to remain, for extended periods of time, as cool as Coolidge. So, in reality, we've all been screwing ourselves since birth.

    And Cat, how about instead of changing party allegiance to keep your job, you just have to sleep with random female democrats. That wouldn't be so bad, huh?

    Meanwhile, I can really feel your anger in this post. Good writing.

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  12. Sigh. I never learned anything in college or high school about the Great Depression, other than it happened. They just cover the sensational crap. Not how it started or what led to it. My college history prof couldn't even get the reasons for the civil war right...north virtuous and good, south evil and oppressive. Sigh.

    Tell me a good book so I can read it for myself please.

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  13. The best would probably be FDR's Folly. I read it and it should be required reading in high school.

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  14. Cat, that was one hell of a post. Thank you.

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  15. Amy should consider Amity Schlae's, "The Forgetten Man."

    My father grew up during the Depression and revered Roosevelt. However, I was about the same age when my family moved to Jamaica, in 1973. A useful primer on where we are might come from reading Michael Manley's "The Politics of Change." Manley destroyed Jamaica, nearly completely. They are now trying to struggle out of 30 years of kleptocracy and socialism, leavened with hyperinflation. Last I saw, a typical lower bureaucrat or school teacher earned @ $400,000/year, Jamaican. When last I visited, my former house was surrounded by a 12-foot high wall, topped with broken glass. Worker's Paradise, indeed. Any citizen caught with a firearm was sentenced to the Gun Court, a red-painted monstrosity surrounded by barbed wire, out on the main road to the airport. Naturally, horrendous gun violence became the norm amongst the criminal class, whereas it was minimal when I was a kid.

    I can't believe my own home country, the last bastion of free-market capitalism, is willingly participating in it's own economic and social collapse. Sigh....

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  16. Maybe a dumb question, but isn't there some kind of filter that could deflect an inbound bird from the engine?

    I said it was dumb...

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  17. kris,
    enough with the false modesty! You are an advanced or master- debator right now!

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  18. John, good question. Can't cover intakes enough c grille to protect them w-out limiting air intake to critical degree. Many newer, stealthy jets have offset intakes, but planes will always hit birds.

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  19. Great post!

    I enjoyed all the inaugural news yesterday..until I learned Bush was disrespected (booed,chanted at, etc.)by a bunch of low class people. I know I shouldn't be surprised that these poor people are still suffering from Bush Derangement Syndrome. They couldn't just enjoy the day and witness an amazing, peaceful transition of power.

    I was impressed by the sea of people there. 2 million?

    And then it reminded me of how they shouted praises for the REAL messiah who was then crucified the next week. President Obama sure has a lot to live up to with all these high expectations.

    I am just not sure what exactly it is that they think, HOPE he will do. ?? It seemed that many people who were pressed to answer what exactly has he done that qualifies him to be president...couldn't offer anything. And so when I was watching them, the cheering, the tears, etc... and the news media fawning all over him... I did wonder if they drank the koolaid. ??? It was surreal.

    I understand having the first African American president is a big deal and I am happy about that and happy it moved so many people and gave them hope... and even around the world...they aspire to get rid of their prejudices like America did. That's all good.

    But I just want to know what qualified him?

    And I do hope he will be successful in making this a better and safer country for all. he is our president and I wish him well.

    But I am baffled I tell you...baffled... ???

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  20. You docs used to answer my dumb comments and call me sweetheart and stop by my blog to diagnose my itchy daughters photoshopped pics. What happened to us? Where's erdoc69?

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  21. erdoc85? good question. and oldfart and etotheipi and quixxote. friends? let's help greta out.

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  22. Etotheipi probably hooked up with one of those hot chicks from his last post.

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  23. Greta Sweetheart,
    you can send any medical questions and/or hot photos of you and/or friends to my blog, hold off on your daughter's rashes though.

    Frank, M.D.

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  24. Yup. Public works programs do work so well.

    (Warning... dry history lesson follows)

    Take the Hoover dam. It was supposed to be built 8 miles upstream but the wizards of the Bureau of Reclamation Service screwed up and the private engineers said it would fail at that site, so it was moved. Initial funding failed twice in Congress, and signed by Calvin Coolidge in 1928 -- a little before the depression.

    It was contracted out to 6 private contractors. It killed 112 workers (probably more), took 5 years and one strike to build. After it was built it became a political football of naming... initially called Boulder dam, changed Hoover dam by Congress. Roosevelt became president and renamed the dam in 1932 (4 yr before completion) to Boulder Dam, then back to Hoover in 1946 (10 yr after completion) by another act of congress (because congress has so many important things to do.)

    There were no environmental lawsuits, because there were no environmentalists. But the Huggers of Trees have been making up for it since, with numerous suits for water releases to protect the endangered (fill the the fish name here), as well as numerous water redistribution/rights lawsuits. There is even a movement to remove the dam (and all the dams along the Colorado).

    Sorry for the dry history lesson, but unless we look at history, we are doomed... well, you know.

    So go ahead and build, my new Government. The lawyers need the work. And my children really don't need the money. And congress needs to debate on whether to name the project "Obama the Great" vs "Obama the Magnificent" for ... oh about 10 years.

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  25. I think this sums it up.


    Obama's Victory

    A victory for the hysterical Oprah Winfrey, the mad racist preacher Jeremiah Wright, the mainstream media who abandoned any sense of objectivity long ago, Europeans who despise America largely because they depend on her, comics who claim to be dangerous and fearless but would not dare attack genuinely powerful special interest groups. A victory for Obama-worshippers everywhere. A victory for the cult of the cult. A man who has done little with his life but has written about his achievements as if he had found the cure for cancer in between winning a marathon and building a nuclear reactor with his teeth. Victory for style over substance, hyperbole over history, rabble-raising over reality.

    A victory for Hollywood, the most dysfunctional community in the world. Victory for Streisand, Spielberg, Soros and Sarandon. Victory for those who prefer welfare to will and interference to independence. For those who settle for group think and herd mentality rather than those who fight for individual initiative and the right to be out of step with meager political f ashion.

    Victory for a man who is no friend of freedom. He and his people have already stated that media has to be controlled so as to be balanced, without realizing the extraordinary irony within that statement. Like most liberal zealots, the Obama worshippers constantly speak of Fox and Limbaugh, when the vast bulk of television stations and newspapers are drastically liberal and anti-conservative. Senior Democrat Chuck Schumer said that just as pornography should be censored, so should talk radio. In other words, one of the few free and open means of popular exp ression may well be cornered and beaten by bullies who even in triumph cannot tolerate any criticism and opposition.

    A victory for those who believe the state is better qualified to raise children than the family, for those who prefer teachers' unions to teaching and for those who are naively convinced that if the West is sufficiently weak towards its enemies, war and terror will dissolve as quickly as the tears on the face of a leftist celebrity.

    A victory for social democracy even after most of Europe has come to the painful conclusion that social democracy leads to &nbs p; mediocrity, failure, unemployment, inflation, higher taxes and economic stagnation. A victory for intrusive lawyers, banal sentimentalists, social extremists and urban snobs.

    Congratulations America!


    http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/michael_coren/2008/11/08/7344746-sun.html

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  26. Cynic - thanks for sharing that and the link. Alarming and depressing...and FRUSTRATING.
    Did anyone see the video of Jay-z (sp?)using the f word repeatedly against Bush and the R-A-C-I-S-T statements and people cheered him?

    I am trying to be supportive and optimistic and then to here/see this stuff...well... I have to back away from the computer now..right now!

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  27. ok..back for a minute... thanks to igloo doc for the history lesson...which is always interesting. You would hope we learn from history... but time and again... when things are going well, and they haven't been taught and so people aren't knowledgeable...history can repeat itself.

    The *mindless* adoration is what stuns me..seriously!

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  28. "The *mindless* adoration is what stuns me..seriously!"

    Kind of reminds you of Hitler doesn't it? He had no qualifications either, but he was a gifted speaker. Oh well, since I have to I am willing to give Obama a try. He'd better rise to the occasion. I hope he will. I hope...

    Have you read the theories about how the Great Depression, et al, bank failures and those repercussions in Europe Germany in particular led to the rise of Hitler and that without those conditions he couldn't have pulled it off.

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  29. Amy: I'm not inclined to agree. In the first place, what was referred to as the Great Depression in the U.S. was merely the Depression elsewhere and relatively short-lived. A study released from UCLA indicated that the Hoover policies, then their extension and expansion under Roosevelt led to the deeper economic problems here. They estimate that those policies extended the Great Depression by approximately 7 years and only WWII pulled us out of it.

    Second, Hitler did use economic trouble to springboard him to Chancellor, but he needed someone/something to blame. So he blamed the Treaty of Versaille (end of WWI), and, of course the Jews. In this fashion, he was able to get a broke country to spend a fortune on arms. The Depression helped, but he needed a target to focus his scathing speeches on and irrational stock speculation didn't make a good target!

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  30. CJrun,

    WW2, contrary to popular wisdom and lazy professors, did NOT, I repeat, did not bring us out of the depression. The manufacturing and construction figures the plaid coat wearing profs point to were due to military expenditures and payments to personell. Not making things the average man needed. In fact resources were further drained and capital was further diverted from the private sector and were not used to make capital goods. 60 percent of the contry was taxed to fund the 40 percent directly or indirectly involved with the war, with no net gain in wealth. If war was the answer to pulling a country out of economic downturns, then lets ramp it up and invade Costa Rica, the Maldives, and the Azores (I don't know why I chose those). No it was a return to normalcy AFTER the war and a removal of the uncertainty (due to gov't meddling) in the capital markets that had shaken investors for 14 years that pushed this country to enconomic superpower status.

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  31. Watch this or else. Please forward this link. Your socialist friend will say "great", but the ones who don't realize they have been duped need to see it.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opxuUj6vFa4

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  32. ... I much preferred when this was a medical blog...

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  33. but we love the fact that you remain, anonymous, a douchebag. strivve for more douche-bagness, there may be a bit more you can do to fully emulate the douchebag but only you can tell. all praise him! obamalot!

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  34. 4 Years... 4 long years. The whole video is scary but that sneaking it past the middle class...unbelievable!

    Checks and balances?

    How can they?

    I am feeling DISCRIMINATED against. :(

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  35. Is this a medical blog or a political blog? I can't remember anymore.

    I used to read medblogs to get away from the political overload on the internet/t.v., dammit! C'mon you guys, I'm not saying you shouldn't write what you want to but...maybe separate it out or something? Make your own little M.D.O.D political junkie blog? Pretty please?

    But, maybe I'm just pissy 'cause I am, apparently, the only one who reads medblogs who LIKES the guy.

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  36. Well, folks, it's looking like we're in for a rough ride. Socialism with all it's tentacles has been slowly invading our nation. And now, in spite of the fact that we fought the "Cold War" for so many years against it (ok. Communism--same/same.) Our elected officials are not only embracing it but have evidently convinced (duped) a huge majority of folks into thinking it will solve every problem on every corner and in every strata of society. Scary business. Kind of reminds me of the snake eating its own tail.

    Guess this all makes me more determined to become as self-sufficient as possible and invest in food storage, and the like! History--the reality of history--hasn't been taught well in our "screwls" and Rush refers to them. And we've known for a long time why. It's gonna be a bumpy ride. Reckon we can make our elected officials comprehend our displeasure?

    I like George Bernard Shaw's comment: "Liberty means responsibility. that is why most men dread it."

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  37. http://www.readthestimulus.org/

    The dem's stimulus package as of 01/15/09, broken down into a spreadsheet if you click the link. Oh dear.

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  38. All you youngins'....bunch of knee jerk...why when I was young we stood up to dem 'publicans....ya you betchya...
    Actually, now that I am older; I can see the folly of the movement we felt back in the 60's.
    all of the pandering and slobbering over the big "O"...it reminds me so much of the Kennedy years. It's Camelot all over again. It's all about poof and mirrors and smoke and taking away your rights because it feels good!!! Oh my!!!!

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  39. ' cat, laziness does apply. I believe the numbers indicate that things didn't really improve until the mid 50s.

    WW2 didn't so much end the Great Depression as it eliminated the attempted cure by leeching (<--- see, medical!). Under FDR wage supports and price supports were put in place that exagerated the problem and prolonged it. During and after the War, there was no longer too little money chasing after too many goods.

    I just took a short cut to get to the differing situations in the U.S., versus Germany.

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  40. Actually, I believe that Hitler's goal was to blame the Republic. I thought he was trying to steer the blame away from reparations and France (who had occupied a part of Germany to force reparations to continue) to blame the Republic so that he could destabilize the government. The people were basically screaming for a dictatorship because they felt so betrayed by the Repbulic. Their main sources of that feeling were the Treaty of Versaille as you stated but also very much the deinflation of the mark which had fallen to a value of basically nothing. Was it not for this, I don't think they would have accepted him nearly as easily.

    Sorry that was entirely off the original topic.

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  41. Amy, are you my Dead Nazi Grandfather in Drag?? Y'all must have read the same book...and Everyone's Wrong, the Economy didn't pick up till 1983' not for me anyway,

    Frank

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  42. Well, I'll be deleting this blog off my list.

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