"Spending" instead of revenue would make an interesting chart. Also, going back to cover the pre WW-I time period, to see the spending growth and post-war reductions.
Another possible observation from your chart is that post WW-II, the spending never retreated anywhere close to pre-war level. Income tax witholding might be one of the big culprits, there.
If net present value of federal commitments were also included, I think Bush-II would win the prize for the largest growth, what with the gigantic medicaid commitment that was added during his term.
As for all time worst presidents, I think Wilson or Lincoln are even worse than FDR. Lincoln destroyed our federal republic form of government, and Wilson had the triple-threat: Income Tax (redux), direct election of senators, and (of course!)... the Federal Reserve. Without these, FDR would have been largely de-fanged.
Abe Lincoln is one dead white man who
still gets worshipped by the statist
sheeparati at large. The thirteenth
amendment was a dead letter until Mr.
Lincoln went to the theater. It passed as
part of the overall pact with the devil
called reconstruction. The amendment
was incomplete. It did not grant full
equality under the law for all Americans
regardless of race. It took another
assination nearly one hundred years
later to finsh the job. Even so, the
enslavement of prisoners remains legal.
It is important for Libertarians to grasp
the tradgedy which is Abraham Lincoln.
600,000 people died in the civil war. It
was not about slavery. It was about
preserving the Union and the democratic
form of government. Lincoln contended
that a house divided against itself could
not stand, and then proceeded to fight
the bloodies war in our history in the
name of unity. Where was Al Frankin
when we really needed him. Slavery
would have died a natural death in short
order as it did in all of the civilized world.
AS for the emancipation proclamation, it
freed only the slaves in the confederacy,
not the slaves in the border states under
Union Control. It was a mititary tactic,
not a humanitarian action. Lincoln's
address at Cooper Union College during
the campaign of 1860 was absolutely in
your face sword rattling.Dick Cheney is
more Lincoln's kinda guy than anybody
else I can think of on the scene today.
My x is Slovak and lucky for her and her
country the Czechs and Slovaks have
no Lincoln. They quietly decided to
divide into two countries in 1993 and
barely a grumble was heard. Had the
contry divided maybe we would not be
the great empire, but instead a loose
confederation. Once again, I look to
The Austrian empire which was basicaly
a weak confederation. Prague,
Budapest, Bratislava and all the cities
and towns in between stand as evidence
even today of the prosperity in Central
Europe under a regime of weak
government and strong currency fro the
fall of Napolean to World War I.
David Souterasserted on c span a few
monts back that the constitution is all
about Democracy. No Justice Souter,
the founders were clear, a Democratic
Republic was the means to defend
individual libery. This confusion may
have led to Souter's infortunate
decision in Kelo v New London. Fighting
for Democracy is also Bush's latest
excuse for the Iraq war.
I have been thinking about Lincoln and
the Civil War of late in part because my
zillioaire brother in law has retired to
become a civil war buff. This is the guy
who misused his genious for anumber
of years by managing the planning and
initial implementation of the
modernization of the IRS's IT. I was not
very polite, and would remind him on all
family occasions that he was the Lex
Luthar of the family, using his genious
for evil. Anyway, when taling about
Lincoln and the Gettysberg address at
Thanksgiving he pontificated about the
importance of maintainig the Union to
preserve Democracy. You can't just let
the losers is a democracy take the ball
and go home to a new field, because
them it isn't a democracy anymore. It is
important that the majority get to rule.
When he was saying this he was
animated in that dreamy way that all my
liberal frinds are when they talk about
the royal We, such as, We have
deciced to rescue the people of New
Orleans."
Mike Denny got me good the other day
when I suggested that readily available
abortions lower crime a generation later.
He said he didn't think I was the kind of
guy who thought the end justified the
means. It the civil war was about slavery
and it could not have been ended any
other way, well than maybe the ends
justified the means. But it wasn't, it was
about Lincoln's dreamy vision of
Keeping Us together. Funny how us and
U.S. are so similar. 600,000 people
died, and the aftermath of misery and
hatred lives on even today.
Libertarians need to understand the
horror of Abraham Lincoln in order to
grasp the importance of individual liberty
as the only path for a civilized people to
follow.
Unfortunately dizzen Lincoln is as
outside of the mainstream delusions as
is disrespectin the Fed. The topic is best
left alone until the audience is patient
and receptive.
Here is a good
article on the 13
amendment. http://tinyurl.
com/6
Derek, please use tinyurl.com,
otherwise yahoo
breaks your links.
As for the chart,
it shows gold way
behind the other
metals. It is also
way behing oil, in
fact it is three
standard
deviations below
it's normal ratio
of gold to oil, or
it was a few
months ago. Gold
will go up as
monetary inflation
is recognized.
Gold has just
barely begun to
reflect monetary
demand. If the fed
alows the housing
bubble to bust,
wealth will seek
the only asset
that has no debt
attached to it. If
the
fed monetizes the
housing bubble,
gold will be
sought by those
seeking shelter
from inflation.
Either way,
holders of gold
win and of premium
gold stocks win
big. Meanwhile, I
still like
Molybdenum, up
from 2 to 30 bucks
in the last
several years.
No one can predict the timing of markets. The
developing countries have a need for oil and
other natural resources. that combined with the
cyclic underinvestment in commodities has led
the commodity rise. Now as more and more
people recognize the inevitability of monetary
inflation and the poor performance of real estate
bonds and stocks they will start to migrate out of
paper assets. As that migration continues and
as central bank money creation continues, more
and more people will start to look for avenues to
protect thier wealth that do not carry any
corresponding debt. Many will gravitate to gold
and silver for that purpose bbecause of historical
precedence, and because of convenience,
portability, industriveness,and divisibility. Copper
is difficult to store in large quantities, silver is
more easily stored, but gold holds the most value
and is easy to wiegh and determine purity. It
certainly is behaving well lately. Gold has been
so thouroughly trashed by the APPARENT
success of the Bretton Woods systems and the
manipulation and dishoarding of the worlds
central bankers, that it is just taking a while for
the metal to be considered money again. There
have been a lot of reasons for the run gold has
had over the last six months, but among my
favorites is Putin's announcement that Russia
will souble it's gold reserves, Katrina undressing
the emperor in front of the whole world, the
turnoil in Europe, and the large trade and
government deficits in the US, plus concern that
housing bubbble will either bust or be held
togethar by money creation. Bush's fall in the
polls have a little to do with it too, as the dollar is
faith based, and faith in the management fades,
trust in the dollar and all other paper currencies
backed by dollar reserves also fades. Almost all
bull markets last waaay longer than any
reasonable analysis would allow for. I suppose
the 65 year bull in the dollar since Bretton
Woods is also holding on longer than
reasonable. Gold is at 513.80 in Asia tonight.
Notice the massive year after year 'official sector
sales'. Without this false injection of supply of
$500B each year, there would be a significant
shortfall of actual mine production. Hard to say if
this gap would correct over time without the added
distortion.
As for the basket of commodities question, steel,
copper, etc. are all major building materials in
demand due to the housing boom, China and others -
fuelled by credit expansion. Industrial gold use is
quite small and gold for jewelry is up only 12% (still
a small number). Gold use as currency is also small -
at present. So I think the nominal difference between
steel and gold could be taken into account due to
demand differences. But in absolute terms, it shows
how much the dollar has depreciated.
I know most mainstream economists harp on 'how poor an
investment gold is' but that's the whole point - it
should be. That characteristic makes it an excellent
base currency. We really need to stop thinking about
the $ as base for assessing value for trade in our
lives. Only then is the thievery apparent for all to
see. (to reiterate Phil's comments as well as those of
Rothbard)
d.
BTW - check out this article. He makes some
interesting points-