Happy Birthday, Mr. President

[yoyo]

Would have been 100 yo today.

Thank you!

[The Man]

Happy Birthday and thank you for your service. :usa: :toth:

[The President]

Yeah, Thanks!

[yoyo]

I knew the haterz would be here early.

[MathinTucson]

Reagan put troops in Lebanon, recognized that it was a mistake, and pulled them out. I'll give him credit for that. The bozos that we've had in Washington for the last 10 years could learn something from him.

[HatCapitol]

Not a Reagan fan. He started the whole explosion of the military budget, the acceptability of large deficits, and the deregulation of the financial sector that have become our biggest problems and structural difficulties now.

[Wigmeister General]

Not a Reagan fan. He started the whole explosion of the military budget, the acceptability of large deficits, and the deregulation of the financial sector that have become our biggest problems and structural difficulties now.

1. the increased military budget obliterated the USSR without firing a bullet.
2. the deregulation of the financial sector really occurred under Clinton (you know, the first black POTUS)

[Wigmeister General]

Not a Reagan fan. He started the whole explosion of the military budget, the acceptability of large deficits, and the deregulation of the financial sector that have become our biggest problems and structural difficulties now.

1. the increased military budget obliterated the USSR without firing a bullet.
2. the deregulation of the financial sector really occurred under Clinton (you know, the first black POTUS)
3. the first black POTUS "reduced" deficits by raiding the Social Security and Medicare tax revenues to pay for his pet projects.

[Len Myers]

I hate to be argumentative, but

1. Russia is the USSR. New name, same sloppy paint job. Same oppression. Same corruption.
2. What deregulation of the financial services sector?
3. SS and Medicare have been plundered for decades.

[Happy Skunk]

Clinton was white

[homeys66]

Greatest president in US history. Happy Birthday Gipper!

[Wigmeister General]

November 1, 1999:

An agreement between the Clinton administration and congressional Republicans, reached during all-night negotiations which concluded in the early hours of October 22, sets the stage for passage of the most sweeping banking deregulation bill in American history, lifting virtually all restraints on the operation of the giant monopolies which dominate the financial system.

The proposed Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 would do away with restrictions on the integration of banking, insurance and stock trading imposed by the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, one of the central pillars of Roosevelt's New Deal. Under the old law, banks, brokerages and insurance companies were effectively barred from entering each others' industries, and investment banking and commercial banking were separated.

The certain result of repeal of Glass-Steagall will be a wave of mergers surpassing even the colossal combinations of the past several years. The Wall Street Journal wrote, "With the stroke of the president's pen, investment firms like Merrill Lynch & Co. and banks like Bank of America Corp., are expected to be on the prowl for acquisitions." The financial press predicted that the most likely mergers would come from big banks acquiring insurance companies, with John Hancock, Prudential and The Hartford all expected to be targeted.

Kenneth Guenther, executive vice president of Independent Community Bankers of America, an association of small rural banks which opposed the bill, warned, "This is going to begin a wave of major mergers and acquisitions in the financial-services industry. We're moving to an oligopolistic situation."

One such merger was already carried out well before the passage of the legislation, the $72 billion deal which brought together Citibank, the biggest New York bank, and Travelers Group Inc., the huge insurance and financial services conglomerate, which owns Salomon Smith Barney, a major brokerage. That merger was negotiated despite the fact that the merged company, Citigroup, was in violation of the Glass-Steagall Act, because billionaire Travelers boss Sanford Weill and Citibank CEO John Reed were confident of bipartisan support for repeal of the 60-year-old law.

[Wigmeister General]

Russia is not the USSR

[The President]

November 1, 1999:

An agreement between the Clinton administration and congressional Republicans, reached during all-night negotiations which concluded in the early hours of October 22, sets the stage for passage of the most sweeping banking deregulation bill in American history, lifting virtually all restraints on the operation of the giant monopolies which dominate the financial system.

The proposed Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 would do away with restrictions on the integration of banking, insurance and stock trading imposed by the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, one of the central pillars of Roosevelt's New Deal. Under the old law, banks, brokerages and insurance companies were effectively barred from entering each others' industries, and investment banking and commercial banking were separated.

The certain result of repeal of Glass-Steagall will be a wave of mergers surpassing even the colossal combinations of the past several years. The Wall Street Journal wrote, "With the stroke of the president's pen, investment firms like Merrill Lynch & Co. and banks like Bank of America Corp., are expected to be on the prowl for acquisitions." The financial press predicted that the most likely mergers would come from big banks acquiring insurance companies, with John Hancock, Prudential and The Hartford all expected to be targeted.

Kenneth Guenther, executive vice president of Independent Community Bankers of America, an association of small rural banks which opposed the bill, warned, "This is going to begin a wave of major mergers and acquisitions in the financial-services industry. We're moving to an oligopolistic situation."

One such merger was already carried out well before the passage of the legislation, the $72 billion deal which brought together Citibank, the biggest New York bank, and Travelers Group Inc., the huge insurance and financial services conglomerate, which owns Salomon Smith Barney, a major brokerage. That merger was negotiated despite the fact that the merged company, Citigroup, was in violation of the Glass-Steagall Act, because billionaire Travelers boss Sanford Weill and Citibank CEO John Reed were confident of bipartisan support for repeal of the 60-year-old law.
Oh, the Gramm-Leach-Biley Act? None of those look like they are spelled C-L-I-N-T-O-N.

[Baron Von Raschke]

Who signed it into law?

[r. mutt]

Who signed it into law?

Who passed the budgets that supposedly destroyed the USSR?

[r. mutt]

Reagan put troops in Lebanon, recognized that it was a mistake, and pulled them out. I'll give him credit for that. The bozos that we've had in Washington for the last 10 years could learn something from him.

The bozos at the time in Washington said we shouldn't be in Lebanon. After pulling the Marines out, Reagan took responsibility while simultaneously blaming Congress. Good times, man...I miss 'em.

Christopher Hitchens recently wrote an article saying that he heartily disliked Reagan, but that Mondale was likely worse. As someone who voted for the Gipper that year, I still agree.

[yoyo]

Shook Reagan's hand at a campaign stop. That was fun.

Secret service guys are damn serious about their work. Interesting to witness.

[Baron Von Raschke]

Who passed the budgets that supposedly destroyed the USSR?

You'll never hear me give Reagan credit for Russia's unsustainable economic system.

[r. mutt]

You'll never hear me give Reagan credit for Russia's unsustainable economic system.

:iatp:

[Len Myers]

November 1, 1999:

An agreement between the Clinton administration and congressional Republicans, reached during all-night negotiations which concluded in the early hours of October 22, sets the stage for passage of the most sweeping banking deregulation bill in American history, lifting virtually all restraints on the operation of the giant monopolies which dominate the financial system.



Sure, the act allowed anyone to enter the banking industry, but the act didn't address the senseless regulations that forced banks to lend money to people who couldn't pay off loans.

This wasn't deregulation, it was :qunq: deregulation. :qunq:

[FAS158]

Reagan was only great because America was great back then. A leader is only good as the people.

[The President]

Who signed it into law?
Credit for everything in the 90s like surpluses and a good economy goes to the GOP, just ask remilard.

[Arthur Kade]

You'll never hear me give Reagan credit for Russia's unsustainable economic system.
This argument would carry more weight if liberals had been saying that there was no need to ramp up the military because the USSR was on the verge of economic collapse. But what I remember from that time was that the USSR economic system had many valuable benefits that we should emulate. You know, exactly the same way they are saying about China ... until China collapses and then all the idiots come out of the woodwork to explain why China was unsustainble.

Happy Birthday, Mr President. And Thank You for seeing what others did not see at the time.

[The President]

Happy Birthday, Mr President. And Thank You for seeing what others did not see at the time.
:rofl:

[The President]

We gotta make it through another decade of Reagan inspired deficit spending for our economy to not collapse if we are to match the post WWII life of the USSR.

[The Man]

I knew the haterz would be here early.


They're just jealous that their side will never have anyone with half the principles or cojones that Reagan did out there to front their misguided anti-American policies.

[The President]

They're just jealous that their side will never have anyone with half the principles or cojones that Reagan did out there to front their misguided anti-American policies.
I agree, Reagan had some serious cajones fronting those misguided American policies.

[johnny storm]

But what I remember from that time was that the USSR economic system had many valuable benefits that we should emulate.

Trying to visualize anybody, liberal or conservative, talking about how we should emulate the USSR and staying relevant after saying it. Hard to buy. Got a link or something?

[Len Myers]

there's free psychiatric care for dissidents.

[homeys66]

Trying to visualize anybody, liberal or conservative, talking about how we should emulate the USSR and staying relevant after saying it. Hard to buy. Got a link or something?

Its also pretty hard to imagine someone saying we should emulate Cuba's HC system or an American president saying we should emulate China's economic ideas in a SOTU speech or famous Americans lauding Hugo Chavez's great leadership. But it happened. Alot of today's "conventional wisdom" wasn't so obvious 30 years ago.

[NoName]

Trying to visualize anybody, liberal or conservative, talking about how we should emulate the USSR and staying relevant after saying it. Hard to buy. Got a link or something?
I don't have access to the full article, which may or may not bear out that description in this case, but here is John Kenneth Galbraith, writing in 1984.

http://www.aei.org/issue/8269

That the Soviet system has made great material progress in recent years is evident both from the statistics and from the general urban scene. . . . One sees it in the appearance of solid well-being of the people on the streets . . . and the general aspect of restaurants, theaters, and shops. . . . Partly, the Russian system succeeds because, in contrast with the Western industrial economies, it makes full use of its manpower.See more quotes there. Again, whether the article (or the others quoted there), in its entirety, was a call to "emulate" the USSR, I can't say. However, there were certainly many mainstream liberals whose opinion was that the USSR's economic system was working fairly well and was not demonstrably inferior to that of the West. Reagan disagreed.

[Deano]

Reagan was only great because America was great back then. A leader is only good as the people.

I laugh at so many things you say in political. Thanks!

[Guerilla poster]

I like when he fired the air traffic controllers. That was awesome.

[NoName]

I can't tell whether you are being sarcastic but that was awesome - to teach people they can't illegally abuse their monopoly over an essential public service by forcing it to shut down entirely merely because they can't agree on terms on which to provide it.

[Guerilla poster]

I can't tell whether you are being sarcastic but that was awesome - to teach people they can't illegally abuse their monopoly over an essential public service by forcing it to shut down entirely merely because they can't agree on terms on which to provide it.

I am not being sarcastic. It was a good lesson, I wish governors and Presidents would play hardball more often. I am not a haterz of everything GOP (only of W. and Cheney)

[bdschobel]

Greatest president in US history. Happy Birthday Gipper!Sorry, that title goes to Abraham Lincoln, without any doubt. But Reagan is the greatest president in my lifetime (which reaches back to Truman). And I actually met Reagan one-on-one in June 1987. I'll never forget that day.

Bruce

[Guerilla poster]

And I actually met Reagan one-on-one in June 1987. I'll never forget that day.


Bruce


I bet he did though.

Sorry, I couldn't resist. Dis-tasteful humor.

[bdschobel]

That's the nature of things. People remember meeting presidents; presidents seldom remember the people they meet (by the hundreds of thousands).

One of the things Reagan said to me was, "I hear you're doing great things at Social Security." That was true, of course! :)

Bruce

[Deano]

I bet he did though.

Sorry, I couldn't resist. Dis-tasteful humor.

That's the nature of things. People remember meeting presidents; presidents seldom remember the people they meet (by the hundreds of thousands).

One of the things Reagan said to me was, "I hear you're doing great things at Social Security." That was true, of course! :)

Bruce

Uhhmmm, I don't think that's where he was going with that.

[Baron Von Raschke]

Trying to visualize anybody, liberal or conservative, talking about how we should emulate the USSR and staying relevant after saying it. Hard to buy. Got a link or something?

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2010/01/soviet-growth-american-textbooks.html

In the 1961 edition of his famous textbook of economic principles, Paul Samuelson wrote that GNP in the Soviet Union was about half that in the United States but the Soviet Union was growing faster. As a result, one could comfortably forecast that Soviet GNP would exceed that of the United States by as early as 1984 or perhaps by as late as 1997 and in any event Soviet GNP would greatly catch-up to U.S. GNP. A poor forecast--but it gets worse because in subsequent editions Samuelson presented the same analysis again and again except the overtaking time was always pushed further into the future so by 1980 the dates were 2002 to 2012. In subsequent editions, Samuelson provided no acknowledgment of his past failure to predict and little commentary beyond remarks about "bad weather" in the Soviet Union (see Levy and Peart for more details).

Among libertarians, this story has long been the subject of much informal amusement. But more recently my colleague David Levy and co-author Sandra Peart have discovered that the story is much more interesting and important than many people, including myself, had ever realized.

First, an even more off-course analysis can also be found in another mega-selling textbook, McConnell's Economics (still a huge seller today). Like Samuelson, McConnell estimated Soviet GNP as half that of the United States in 1963 but he showed that the Soviets were investing a much larger share of GNP and thus growing at rates "two to three times" higher than the U.S. Indeed, through at least ten (!) editions, the Soviets continued to grow faster than the U.S. and yet in McConnell's 1990 edition Soviet GNP was still half that of the United States!

...



See more at the link.

[Guerilla poster]

Russia is dumber than China.

[Harry]

''Poor dear, there's nothing between his ears." - Margaret Thatcher

[twig93]

You'll never hear me give Reagan credit for Russia's unsustainable economic system.
If you ever read his biography, he pointedly doesn't take credit for it either.

What he does point out is that although Soviet communism was always destined to fail regardless of what was going on in the United States... it was not always destined to fail without the 'cold' war turning hot first.