|
Timeline of American Socialism |
|
|
Saturday, 31 May 2008 |
|
A view of political history that ignores partisan propaganda and focuses instead on actual government actions helps build the conclusion that America has never strayed so far from free markets and capitalism. While the political left rallies and attacks the right for the perceived failures of the "market economy," do they really have a plan other than more of the same? Now that Bush and Reagan have co-opted the federal fine-tuning machine, how will the left really differentiate itself in economic policy?
1907 - D.C. first provides "emergency relief" for the banking system
1913 - The Federal Reserve displaces market discovery of interest rates
1913-1917 - First permanent Income tax and WW1
1920-1929 - Growth fueled by artificially low interest rates,
international military expansion, and government spending (strong
economic correlation to 1999-2007)
1929-1937 - Government consumption of GDP grows rapidly, as do taxes. Lowest growth on the chart.
1965-1975 - Great Society and Vietnam, beginning of the end of
the dollar. Government stops counting debt like it used to because the
old system would clearly show the coming collapse
1981-1993 - Conservatives learn to spend like liberals, debt spikes, wages sink. A goldilocks economy is built on the back of a mirage
1993-1998 - Partisan deadlock shuts down D.C. - workers see their first gains in a long time
1999-2007 - Growth fueled by artificially low interest rates,
international military expansion, and government spending (strong
economic correlation to 1920-1929)
2008: Government economic intervention reaches levels unseen
since the 1930s. The Federal Reserve blows through a $800 billion
balance sheet and the federal government includes a $200 billion
consumer/tax-payer bailout. Economic fine-tuning approaches 10% of GDP
- and coincidentally, so does the inflation rate.
- dollar reaches an all-time low
- federal spending outpaces the height of the pre-WW2 New Deal by 3:1 as a % of GDP
If you want to call that capitalism to fit your pre-set paradigm,
that's fine. To me, its an era of massive government spending, debt,
and micro-management of the markets. I know Bush and Reagan love the
"c" labels but they also loved using the government to influence the
economy and they loved spending.
|
|
Last Updated ( Saturday, 31 May 2008 )
|
