Inflation propaganda infomercial MGM - 1933

[WarrivarNeo]

So...the cost of living increases (by my perspective a hell of alot more than the income level than when deflation being mentioned.) the stock market rallys and...the average person buys less with more money...HOLY SHIT I CANT WAIT FOR INFLATION! I CAN BUY A WHOLE LOT OF NOTHING! YIPPIE!

[WarrivarNeo]

The Doctor on the weather and time of day: I cant tell you shit-head you're filming in monochrome!

[chrissy1095]

Doesn't mention what it did to savers, does it?

[MarkProffitt]

@chrissy1095 Also doesn't say what happened next. Inflation skyrocketed world wide leading to Hitler being elected and WWII. Millions of people had there standard of living dropped to nothing not to speak of the millions of people killed. With Europe in ruins millions of people worked for nothing for decades just to rebuild.

Inflation is great if you can hide the suffering people who are being robbed.

[wbradss]

Directed by=Zion Meyers-perfect jewery

[jamesspeculator]

Another question...name one 12 year period in American History worse than 1933-1945?

Go ahead. Make my day.

[slimhwo]

@jamesspeculator

I'll do you one better. I'll name you a 4 year period in American history far worse than the twelve years under FDR and in fact, worst than any period in history of capitalism: 1929-1933.

[jamesspeculator]

@slimhwo Since you feel unemployment rates are so important, here are the highest trailing four year umeploment rates in US history and who was president 1935 FDR 3 years; Hoover 1 1934 FDR 2 years; Hoover 2 1936 FDR 1937 FDR 1938 FDR 1933 Hoover 3 years; FDR 1 1939 FDR 1940 FDR

[slimhwo]

@jamesspeculator

Again, the unemployment rate quickly went DOWN every single year of FDR's New Deal, excepting 1937 when he cut spending and tried to balance the budget on the bad advice of some deficit hawks in his Administration, mainly his Treasury Secretary. He quickly learned his lesson as GDP collapsed and unemployment skyrocketed again, and we reverted back to spending and continuing the rapid ascent out of the extremely deep ditch he had inherited from Hoover.

[slimhwo]

@jamesspeculator

When FDR was inaugurated in March of 1933, unemployment was at 25%. By 1941 it was at 9.9%. It never went up a single year in his administration excepting the fateful 1937 when he reverted back to fiscal conservatism. Laissez-faire goldbug Herbert Hoover was inaugurated in March of 1929 with 3.1% unemployment. It rose every single year of his administration to a high of 25% before FDR entered office. That's why FDR was re-elected 4 times in landslides.

[jamesspeculator]

Hey dude...what about FDR"s debt? Are you just going to pretend it didn't happen?

[slimhwo]

@jamesspeculator

FDR's debt is what allowed him to take an economy in tatters, roves of starving people, breadlines, idle workers, shut-down factories,and a country on the verge of violent revolution as was happening all throughout the West as global capitalism collapsed, and grow GDP by a stunning average of 10% per year and put tens of millions of unemployed Americans to work at living wages allowing them to support their families and contribute infrastructure, parks, conservations, schools

[jamesspeculator]

@slimhwo Well at least you got that right. FDR achieved his "accomplisments (average unemployment 13.5% whoopee!) by going into DEBT!

[jamesspeculator]

We can sit here all time...but here is the BOTTOM LINE.

FDR took office and Debt/GDP was 39.96%.

He left it was 121.25% which is the all-time record to this very day.

That is all that matters.

[slimhwo]

@jamesspeculator

No that is not what matters to anyone but yourself. People care about jobs, everyday life, standard of living, economic security. They do not care about the Government's debt-to-GDP ratio which is meaningless. Only GDP and unemployment rate and CPI (core inflation) have any relevance to the quality of daily existence. Japan has over a 200% debt-to-GDP ratio, but that tells you nothing about the level of economic security and prosperity the average Japanese citizen enjoys.

[jamesspeculator]

@slimhwo Hey dude..in case you haven't heard...things aren't so great over their in your Shangra Lai Japan.

They have called it the "Lost DecadeS".

For some reason you think that you can just spend money like a damn fool and go into debt without consequences.

Let me ask you 1 question. Why cannot you see that debt matters?

[slimhwo]

@jamesspeculator

Japan has 5% unemployment, universal healthcare, high wages even for service sector employees, excellent pensions, excellent educational system, almost the lowest inequality of wealth in the world (the U.S. has the highest, worse than China and Brazil), low crime, low levels of mental illnesses, a trade surplus, excellent public transport, and on and on and on. I doubt a single Japanese citizen could give a hoot about their Government's 200%+ debt-to-GDP ratio.

[jamesspeculator]

@slimhwo And my friend has a brand new $40,000 car, nice house, jacuzzi in the back, big screen TV, mint stereo system active social life. A Harley.

And $125,000 in credit card debt.

And if you think Japan is doing so great...you are living in fantasyland. Their standard of living is NOT what it was in 1989. It has dropped.

[slimhwo]

@jamesspeculator

I wasn't speaking of the Japan of yesteryear during the property bubble. I am speaking of Japan today. On every measure I named above at least, Japan trounces the United States in their standard of living. Your friend doesn't issue his own credit card so the analogy is dubious. The federal Government issues its own bonds and issues the dollars that are used to purchase those bonds. It's equivalent to having its own credit card with an unlimited balance. Plus cashback (taxes).

[slimhwo]

@jamesspeculator

Thomas Edison said it best, "If our nation can issue a dollar bond, it can issue a dollar bill. The element that makes the bond good makes the bill good....It is absurd to say that our country can issue $30,000,000 in bonds and not $30,000,000 in currency. Both are promises to pay; but one promise fattens the usurer, and the other helps the people." Private debt has meaning and consequences. Public debt in a nation like the U.S. that issues its own fiat currency is meaningless

[jamesspeculator]

FDR's great "trend" for reducing unemployment was much the same as B.O.'s.

Very, very, very slow.

There have only been two recoveries in the history of the US which were horrendous. The 1930s and now.

[slimhwo]

@jamesspeculator

Obama and FDR are not remotely comparable. Obama has been a complete failure, and unemployment stands at 9.2% two and half years into his administration. In four years FDR had reduced unemployment from 25% to 15%, a stunning 40% reduction. For Obama to achieve the same stunning success from the the low in 2009 of a 10.1% unemployment rate would require unemployment to be down to 6% by 2012 election. There is no chance in hell of that happening.

[jamesspeculator]

And don't forget the only reason FDR's unemployment was "only" 12.95% is he forced a bunch of guys to go get killed and maimed for practically nothing.

Nice job.

[slimhwo]

@jamesspeculator

Um no, we were attacked at Pearl Harbor, and fighting the Japs and Hitler was not for "practically nothing." But unemployment was down to 9.9% in 1941, so obviously we would have exited the Depression without the war with the trend going rapidly in that direction anyway. What the war did was allow FDR to spend alot more than would have otherwise been politically feasible which allowed him to get unemployment down to 4.7% by 1942, and by 1943 as low as 1.2%, or full employment.

[jamesspeculator]

@slimhwo If being in office for 8.5 years and having your best year be 9.9% is your definition of a great performance, then you are wrong.

Also let's talk about FDR's debt. All that debt for 8.5 years for 9.9% unemployment? Oh and that debt was BEFORE the war.

Any jackass can spent billions of dollars and have a hell of a party. FDR increased the debt EVERY SINGLE ONE of his 14 years in office.

FDR was a piece of dogshit.

[slimhwo]

@jamesspeculator

People care about employment and avoiding starvation and homelessness Jamie, not how many bonds the U.S. government issues. Economic activity had come to a standstill when FDR entered office, and he grew the economy at the most rapid pace in all American history. Look, the economy was in the deepest hole EVER, so of course even moving an an extremely fast pace in the right direction it will take a good while to recover. Think about driving for a moment.

[jamesspeculator]

@slimhwo "People care about employment and avoiding starvation and homelessness Jamie, not how many bonds the U.S. government issues."

Yeah. Unti the bill comes due. Like now. Then everybody is standing around scratching their heads wondering what went wrong. We spend hundreds of billions in interest each year servicing the debt. That sucks the money from the US and gives it to China.

Just like credit cards are a transfer of wealth from the frivolous spender to the lender.

[slimhwo]

@jamesspeculator

We spend $200 billion a year on interest on the publicly held debt (over $4 trillion is held by the Government). That is like 1.6% of GDP Even with interest rates as high as 17% on the 10 year bonds in the early 80s, we never paid more than 3.2% of GDP in interest. If the Fed keeps interest rates near zero for the next 10 years, like Japan, we will save over $5 trillion in interest over the next decade.

[jamesspeculator]

@slimhwo More lies

Total interest on our national debt in fiscal 2010 was $395 billion.

This is 2.69% of GDP.

Our GDP g is about 1.9%.

So instead of having a mediocre 1.9% g in GDP, we would have a more respectable 4.59%.

That is why our economy is having such a subpar recovery. Interest.

You may not think $395 B is a lot of money. But a few hundred billion here and there and it makes all the difference in the world.

[slimhwo]

@jamesspeculator

You're woefully mistaken. The amount of debt held by the public is $9.39 trillion. The interest paid on this debt in 2010 was $196 billion. That comes out to 1.33% of 2010 GDP. Debt held by the Government itself is obviously meaningless.

[jamesspeculator]

@slimhwo "Debt held by the Government itself is obviously meaningless."

On that note, I am not wasting any more of my time arguing with you since it has been officially confirmed that you are a damn fool.

[slimhwo]

@jamesspeculator

When the Government owes money to itself, how is that not meaningless? Is name-calling all you can do when you've been checkmated in a discussion, jamie?

[Shpira]

@slimhwo save money..stimulate an equity bubble (which is where we are now) and get inflation over 5% which is where we are fast headed. Now what do you think happens when a nation that holds around 3 trillion of US debt sees that the value of the US dollar is decreasing due to inflation?? It dumps the debt...and that causes the dollar to be effectively worthless as that that's just under a third of US debt. It doesn't stop there because oil and gold would not be traded in USD any longer...etc

[slimhwo]

@jamesspeculator

If I have to drive 2,500 miles from New York to California, even if I'm hitting the pedal to metal and flooring it at 90 miles an hour and resting as little as possible, it will STILL take a long time (over 27 hours of driving) to get to California. Asking me after 8 hours of driving why is it taking long for me to get to my destination would be preposterous. The key is I am moving in the right direction at an extraordinary speed. That is why FDR won re-election 4 times.

[jamesspeculator]

Average Unemployment

Harding 6.73%

Coolidge 4.92%

Hoover 12.95%

FDR 12.95%

The US led House had a surplus every single year it ran the show from 1920-1930. The Dems took over in 1930 and proceeded to run a deficit for 16 years in a row. Finally in 1947 the Republicans took over the house for the first time since 1930 and guess what happened? Surpluses for the 2 years they ran the show.

Anybody noticing a pattern?



[slimhwo]

@jamesspeculator

How is comparing average unemployment even a remotely fair comparison? FDR inherited the worst economy in American history during a GLOBAL Depression and collapse of capitalism. Comparing the average unemployment of the Depression years to the massive speculative bubble of the "Roaring 20s" is completely bonkers. The fact is, the bubble burst and ended in Depression, while FDR's New Deal led to sustained growth, low unemployment, and financial stability for the next 35 years.

[jamesspeculator]

@slimhwo FDR was in office for 14 years. This was, bar none, the worst 14 years in the history of the US.

Your arguments are the same as Obama-blame the predessor. Funny...it was the Democrats who ran the house.

Also he was in office for 14 years and he blamed Hoover for being in office for 4 years (2 of which had Dems in the house)?

If you want to know how to handle a Depression, study Harding. He came in the middle of Depression and cut spending by 45%. It set up the Roaring 20s.

[jamesspeculator]

FDR had the worst recovery from a recession in the history of the US. The country did not have a single "good" year his entire 14 year term.

[slimhwo]

@jamesspeculator

That is blatantly false. He inherited the worst economy in American history. Do-nothing, laissez-faire Hoover who said "the sole function of government is to bring about a condition of affairs favorable to the beneficial development of private enterprise," let unemployment rise every year from 3.3% in 1929 to 25% by the time he left office in 1933, while GDP collapsed 30% in the same period. FDR GREW the economy every single year at the fastest pace in U.S. history.

[jamesspeculator]

@slimhwo More lies from the Commie. Hoover was NOT laissez fairre by any stretch of the imagination. Coolidge was.

This is one of the great commie propaganda mantras.

So GDP went up during FDR's time. Same with Obama. Who the hell cares? Any damn fool can go into debt. It takes no skill.

He was in office for 14 years and the whole time it was blame Hoover for 4 years (2 of which Dems controlled the House). People are more educated now then they were then. That shit ain't going to work anymore.

[Wazabooz]

If you look at the first graphs, they go from 0 to .50 to 1.00 to 1.50, but the last graph goes from .90 to 1.00 to 1.10. Changing the scales, tricky stuff

[GA4WI]

A grand ponzi scheme in which we are the last ones in.

[Wazabooz]

The big disconnect is at 4:24 when he says "wages will be increased to meet the higher cost of living" - oh yeah? Increased by whom?

[Voluntarian]

Awful. How did these people sleep at night? How do the people who feed us lies today about the "recovery" sleep at night?

[jamesspeculator]

For those curious on how all this turned out Unemployment Rates: 1933 21.07 1934 20.44 1935 16.44 1936 12.78 1937 15.91 1938 16.36 1939 15.19 1940 13.41 The average employment rate in the free market 1920s was 4.56%. The average inflation rate in the 1920s was -0.94% (i.e. deflation).

[slimhwo]

@jamesspeculator

The bubble economy of the free market 20s directly led to the Great Depression of the 30s which FDR spent the latter half of the 30s digging us out of. GDP grew by an average rate of 10% over the period of 1933-1941, and unemployment declined from a high of 25% in 1932 to a low of 9.9% by 1941 which is unprecedented growth in American history. Your unemployment numbers conveniently leave out the millions of Americans employed by the New Deal public employment programs.

[jamesspeculator]

@slimhwo FDR was the worst president in US history. His AVERAGE increase in the Debt/GDP was 12.12% per year. This is ranked #44 out of 44 presidents. Who is #43? Barack Hussein Obama. Any jackass can go in debt and improve GDP and unemployment. Big deal. If his GDP gains were impressive the Debt/GDP would go down (like during Truman's reign). When he took over the Total Debt/GDP was 39.96%. When he died it was 121.25% which was the all time highest in U.S. history to date.

[slimhwo]

@jamesspeculator

Debt to GDP is an irrelevant measure, particularly because it compares a stock (debt) with a flow (GDP), but generally because it doesn't tell you anything about the economic well-being of persons in a society. GDP growth and unemployment judge the success or failure of economic policy, and the fact is FDR took an economy that was in tatters at 25% unemployment and -13% GDP and grew it EVERY single year, excepting 1937, by an avg. of 10% and put millions back to work.

[jamesspeculator]

@slimhwo

"The well-being of persons in society."

Yeah I can go into credit card debt for $200,000 and have a very, very, very well being.

Then die and stick the bill to my kids.

The funniest thing of all is Debt/GDP DOES deal with GDP growth. In other words, if the president can grow the GDP more than the debt, the ratio drops. For example...Truman increased the debt but the GDP grew faster. Therefore, it was "easier" for his successors to pay off.

Not with FDR. His spending was inefficient.

[jamesspeculator]

For those curious on how all this turned out Unemployment Rates: 1933 21.07 1934 20.44 1935 16.44 1936 12.78 1937 15.91 1938 16.36 1939 15.19 1940 13.41 The average employment rate in the free market 1920s was 4.56%. The aveage inflation rate in the 1920s was -0.94% (i.e. deflation).

[ReactionShot]

The problem with this little bit of propaganda fantasy...the value of the dollar did go down and the prices of everything did in fact go higher and higher and higher...except, of course, wages. they never quite made it up to that mythical level of harmony.So people ended up working harder for less to by less for more. ...On any mathematical scale...that SUCKS for the working man.

[slimhwo]

@ReactionShot

That's utter B.S. People were not working at all when the dollar what at its strongest in 1932. There were no jobs and no income. The living wage incomes of the New Deal is by definition greater than the $0 income earned by tens of millions of Americans prior to FDR. The standards of living improved every single year during the New Deal, excepting 1937-1938 when FDR slashed spending and tried to balance the budget.

[Jilly4Liberty]

DOWN WITH KEYNESIANISM! DOWN WITH CORPORATISM! DOWN WITH CRONY CAPITALISM! We need REAL FREE MARKETS!!!!!!!!! VOTE RON PAUL 2012!!!

[johnjen5321]

Keynesian NONSENSE!

[circuitdesign]

Yes, inflation is wonderful and easy to do. Just print more currency and de-value the dollar. All economic problems will be cured. Hey! I have a great idea. Let's de-value the dollar to zero. Can you imagine the incredible prosperity we will have? I just hope the Europeans don't get the same idea with the Euro. Then it will be a race to the bottom. Hmmm. I wonder who would win that race? Woohoo! We all lose!!!! Yea!!! We will all sing "Symphony of Destruction!" Yee hawww!!!!

[circuitdesign]

Ask a 100-year old German man or woman what they think of inflation. You may get a different answer than the propaganda that this film is trying to shove down the throats of the masses.

[brinklemoose]

The problem with this kind of government fiddling is that the pendulum can easily swing too far without some sort of solid basis (precious metals) to anchor paper money. Even a partial gold standard would help. We may laugh at this corny 1933 presentation but what's happening today is both laughable and terrifying.

[honestann]

Every time the predators and manipulators mess around with things, they totally screw up everyone and everything... except their own insider scams. It is way past time to eliminate:

predators DBA government

predators DBA corporations

predators DBA central banks

[craigmason84]

Well that was obviously pretty much bull shit...but a suit that doesn't show gravy stains is legit

[Leobons]

8:00 "now you must be wondering: oh that sounds great in theory"

hmmm NOT

[Leobons]

Damn! It's almost impossible to believe this video is serious! No wonder the depression lasted for 15 years...

[whataburgerchicken]

@xanas3712

Plus his statistics are bad. Unemployment in 1933: 24.9%. Down to 14% in 1937, 17.0% in 1939. 1940 it was 14.9%. It was 1941 was 10%. Incidentally 1940 was the year the draft was established.

(Which should strike most people as odd. Conventional history ignores the fact that the

USA started to mobilized for war well in advance to the attack on Perl Harbor.)

Inflation hawks spouting GDP stats illustrates the 2nd most common economic fallacy: The 'Money is Wealth' fallacy.

[chrisrenaissance]

what insane asylum did this theory come out of?

[SpontanenOrdnung]

"The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design."

[myrelative]

it worked before? when?

[slimhwo]

@myrelative

During the Civil War with the Greenbacks.

[kellerj0]

What goes down stairs, alone or in pairs? Inflation, Inflation, it's one those wonderful things! Yay!!!

[uhtacca]

(Part 1)

Yep, That'll teach that evil banker to lend money!

He lent $1,000 to the farmer for a new barn and silo knowing that the 1/2% interest he would receive every month would be able to help pay his employee’s wages - but now, what will he do? The farmer received dollar bills that were worth a dollar and will now be able to pay the evil banker back with dollars that are worth half of that. Hooray for the debtor! Too bad for the lender that risked his capital.

[uhtacca]

(Part 2)

The evil banker's employees are not happy anymore because their wages are worth half of what they were before inflation and so they either quit or DEMAND a raise - the evil banker does not have the income necessary to give all of them a raise so he lets some employees go.

[slimhwo]

@uhtacca

The only problem with your story is that the evil banker would have otherwise been looking at a default on the loan that the farmer could ill afford to pay and would have been forced to lay off all of his employees and file for bankruptcy as all the bad loans wiped out his capital.

[uhtacca]

(Part 3)

Evil banker man must now raise the interest rates to make sure that he can hire more people at the "new" salary level they demand. The farmer can no longer afford to borrow, so he must raise his prices. EVERYTHING costs more and more and more as time goes by!

[slimhwo]

@uhtacca

He won't need to raise interest rates. The demand for credit will be much higher as firms expand production and credit-worthy consumers take out loans to finance auto purchases and homes, thus generating massive profits for his usury enterprise. And as long as the Fed keeps the interest rates near zero, he will make a huge return on capital even at relatively low interest rates. Borrow reserves from the Fed at 0.1% lend it out a 4% and he makes out like a bandit.

[uhtacca]

(Part 4)

The banker thinks to himself, I'm tired of this - I have saved for the last 50 years, so I think I will retire. The problem is, the value of his life's saving is half of what it was before inflation, so now, he will have to wait to retire or settle for oatmeal and hamburger the rest of his life.

[uhtacca]

(Part 5)

From there, it all spirals into a hellish mess where peoples entire life's saving are inflated away to nothing and prices rise so fast that nobody can afford anything because wages ALWAYS lag price increases.

Thanks Mr. Keynes!!!!

[slimhwo]

@uhtacca

I don't see how that is possible. If prices are increasing and demand remands the same or increases, then somebody is receiving higher income from the higher prices. Higher income means higher savings. As long as the distribution of income is fair, as it has not been during the past 35 years, workers will see higher wages and greater ability to save as a result.

[slimhwo]

@uhtacca

Besides, there is no need for this hypothetical. We can see what happened after 1933 as a result. Unemployment dropped from 25% to a little over 10% by 1940, and GDP growth averaged an unimaginably high 10% during the entire New Deal period with the exception of 1937 when FDR cut back spending (against the advise of Keynes) to balance the budget.

[xanas3712]

@slimhwo Oh the tale of 1937... mises.org/daily/4039 and your point about 25%-10% unemployment in a "mere" 7 years is hardly impressive. "GDP" is a nonsense figure that doesn't have anything to do with real wealth growth. If you have inflation GDP will go up. GDP also goes up when the government increases it's spending and debt. GDP also goes up when your car gets demolished in a wreck because you will now have to spend money replacing the car. But are you better off? Hardly.

[PrepareForChaos]

What a bunch of mealy mouthed double talk. Give us back the gold you confiscated!

[cbybee20]

YAY! Let the government arbitrarily deplete the value of your savings! Everybody wins!

[TheJacolyte]

The video makes sense in some ways. Basically the government is encouraging spending by threatening to devalue your dollars in the future. If you hold on to them indefinitely, it's a waste of money, because the government will just slowly devalue them over time. This does stimulate the economy in some respects, but it's a system that is so incredibly and easily taken advantage of by those who print the money. This sounds dodgy to me, and I suspect that it isn't sustainable and will collapse.

[zicofirol]

The scary thing is Helicopter Ben believes that video!

[SansAuthoritas]

Well yeah. The money supply is like a gallon of milk. Pour a gallon of water into it to simulate an increase in the money supply, and there's more milk to go around! Thank you, gubmint!