THIS IS MY 135TH BLOG ON UNDERSTANDING MONEY
TOOLS
July, 2018
understandingmoneytools.blogspot.com
We left our last blog on “America” capturing history of past
wars with the understanding that wars create debt, and debt kills! We ended the blog after WWII when our
country had a debt of $241.86 billion.
Now, we will carry you forward from that time with wars that I may refer
to as “fiasco” wars exponentially growing debt while wasting our time and
effort with hegemony/imperialism/expansionism. I must admit I am truly fascinated by history and this
stuff.
Let us start with the Korean War, June 25, 1950 until July
27, 1953. (The Forgotten War, Conflict?)
In brief, the North Korean Communists quickly crossed the 38th
Parallel and came into the South.
General Douglas Macarthur, a major US general in Japan was brought in
and pushed the North Koreans back to the river between China and Korea within a
few weeks. The Chinese entered a
defensive position as we closed in on the border, and the rest is history; about
33, 600 men lost and no final resolve after 3 years in war. At that point our
US debt rose to $271 billion and a debt to GDP ratio of 70%.
We entered Viet Nam on March 8, 1965, and we retreated in
April 1975. This was one of my
biggest wars on the fiasco list.
Again, a war with no real end.
These fiasco wars make defense contractors, politicians and some wealthy
people wealthier! We took over
this area from France. France has
its history in the Indochina area starting in 1887. In 1976 our US debt was now up to $620 billion. You get the drift of where this is
going I hope!
Until 1980 and President Reagan gained office not much in
terms of war happened except for the start of OPEC in October, 1973. This consolidation and unification of oil producing
countries caused oil prices to significantly rise, thus effecting
inflation. Interest rates spiked
the end of the 1970’s. With
concerns about Russia, President Reagan led us into a multi-year Cold War. First country to go broke?! As you know, we won or did we? The 1986 Tax Reform Act greatly helped
the wealthy, as has been the norm, mainly dropping passive income tax
rates. Anti-Trust was going down
rapidly while interstate banking to hold and big business gained. In 1988, because of tax cuts for the
wealthy along with the Cold War spending, our US debt now was standing at $2.6
trillion.
I’ll consolidate the 1990s a bit. Desert Storm, August 2, 1990 until February 28, 1991, was
the war of the 1990s. Saddam
Hussein invaded Kuwait. Here was a
guy who was our “boy” in Iraq. He
was a Sunni and mitigated concerns with Iran, a Shiite country.
From what I know we had promised Saddam an oil pipeline and we backed
out on the deal. He was no longer a “happy camper”. You know how that fiasco ends. The US debt by 1999 had risen to $5.6 trillion. To note, in years 1997 to 2000 we
essentially had a balanced budget with the debt remaining at $5.6
trillion. Last time in our history
this low debt and balancing a budget will happen!
Who were my favorite presidents since WWII and why? I have selected three. All three had humble roots, desired no
more than to serve this nation and had no desire to make $100 million from
being president and then buying 5 or more expensive homes. They are:
- Harry
S. Truman. President April 12,
1945 until 1953. Undertook the
position because President Franklin D. Roosevelt died. He had the huge moral obligation of
whether or not to drop the bomb on Japan August 6th, 1945 and end
the second World War with Japan.
He retired with his wife
Bess in a very humble home in Independence, MO.
- Dwight
D. Eisenhower. President 1953 – 1961.
Past famous General of WWII and Commander of the Allied Forces in
Europe. Warned Americans of
mistakes having overly powerful large businesses, big banks, politicians and
big military that would control America.
- Jerry
Ford. President December 6th, 1974 until January 20th,
1977. A simple, down to earth man
who inherited the position after the impeachment of President Nixon. I met him several times along with his
family when I lived in Vail, Colorado.
He had a home there and loved to ski.
OMG! Let’s talk
about presidential decision making from 2000 on. Enter diminutive minds, greed and corruption. Another movie, “Dumb and Dumber IV”
should be made. We could have some
fun with this if it wasn’t so sad, and what has happened to this country. Presidents should be required to study
the failings of the Greek Empire, Roman Empire, French Empire (especially under
Napoleon I), and the German Empire under Hitler. George W. Bush became president on January 20th,
2001. (By the way, January 20th of the year following elections is
when all presidents are sworn in.)
There are 3 books I would recommend you read in relation to this
tenure. One, the Biography of
George W. Bush (I doubt if he read the book let alone wrote it!) In his biography he admits to some drug
usage, having been an alcoholic, and not doing anything in life until 1992 when
he expected his father, George, to remove Saddam Hussein from power in
Iraq. Book two would be Bob
Woodward’s very well documented book on George W. Bush and book three, ex-
Treasure Secretary Paul O’Neill’s book on Dick Cheney, Vice-President of the
US. (This book could have been called “How to Take the US Taxpayers for over
$100 million Using my Company, Halliburton”!)
Okay, let’s move on into material issues. On September 11, 2001 a few Muslims
from Saudi Arabia and Syria flew planes into the twin towers in NYC. We all should know and remember
this. George and Dick (Cheney)
decided to invade a country, or perhaps two that had nothing to do with this
horrific act; these being Afghanistan and Iraq. Afghanistan is a nothing country, but through growing
poppies 90% of the world’s heroin/opium and morphine come from there. I guess we thought we could have the
local farmers give up billions of dollars in trade for growing corn! A little more depth here on
involvement. We wanted the
Russians out of Afghanistan, which they occupied since 1979, so we went to our
then buddy, Osama Bin Laden for help with the understanding that upon
conclusion we would leave Afghanistan; this never happened.. We seemed to like it there and we are
there today.
Then the duo of George and Dick thought we would go in and
get Saddam and take over Iraq.
Cheney overestimated the oil reserves in Iraq, as one mistake. Number two mistake was that once we
invaded the relative Sunni nation it would become a “free for all” including
from Iran. As you are aware we
finally did get Saddam, but at what expense above human life. I have heard figures close to one
million lives, in one fashion or another, at a total and eventual cost of over
$4 trillion as were are still in Iraq and paying the bills.
When Barack Obama won the election and took charge the US
debt now stood at $10.6 trillion.
I will keep Barack’s presidential reign short. We did some damage in countries like Libya and Syria,
however the debt and interest clock kept clicking. When Obama turned over the office to Donald Trump the US
debt stood at $19.95 trillion.
For the fun of it Google the “US Debt Clock.org”. It gives you a current accounting to
the dollar of the US debt. We are now in debt $21.2 trillion and counting.
We will continue in the next blog with “America”.
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