What took place in Washington over the past two weeks with the repeal of Dodd Frank and then the effective repeal of the Volcker Rule sounds strikingly familiar to at least three previous periods in American History that led to total disaster. There were of course the Northern “carpetbaggers”, whom many in the South viewed as opportunists looking to exploit and profit from the region's misfortunes following the Civil War.The “carpetbaggers” would play a central role in shaping new southern governments during Reconstruction period who were joined by Southerners who saw economic gain in joining the Northerners in the exploitation of the South. There were called “scalawags”.
Then there were the Silver Democrats who were bought and paid for by the mining industry. William Jennings Bryan's red-hot emotional speech at the 1896 Democratic Convention will forever live on in history. The shenanigans of the Democrats and Republicans who tried to overvalue silver led to the near bankruptcy of the nation and made JP Morgan famous thanks to the Panic of 1896 when he had to arrange a gold loan to save the country.
Then there was what people called the First Gilded Age more than a century ago, when senators and representatives were owned by Wall Street and big business. This culminated in the 1929 Crash.
What did all three of these period have in common with the last two weeks? Then, as now, those who footed the bill for political campaigns were richly rewarded with favorable laws. This is standard operating procedure in Washington and why we are in such desperate need of political reform.
In all three such periods there was a rising underbelly of rising tension and rebellion against the powers that be. Today, people are increasingly becoming fed up with Washington and the rebellion unfolds ONLY when the economy turns down. There was Charles Dazey's Broadway Play The War of Wealth (February 10, 1896). This 51.6 year ECM Wave that peaked in 1929.75 (#919-924) was a Private Wave that began with the death of Karl Marx and the previous 51.6 year Wave peaked in 1878. In 1882, because of anti-monopoly laws, Standard Oil is organized as a trust, which would become the target of all time.
