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Proof That The US Peaked During Ronald Reagan's Presidency
Submitted by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,
On March 16, 1936, the government of the United States published the very first edition of the Federal Register.
President Roosevelt had been taking a lot of heat over the previous year; under his New Deal program, dozens of government agencies were passing new rules, regulations, and codes at an absolutely feverish pace.
It became impossible for anyone to keep track of them—even the other agencies within the government.
So in the summer of 1935 they created a new law requiring every executive agency to publish a daily, official record of their activities.
This official record was called the Federal Register. And it would contain a complete set of every rule, regulation, code, and proposal issued by each of the executive agencies.
The first edition was published on March 16, 1936. It was sixteen pages.
Every single work day since then, without fail, the government has published the Federal Register.
Its first full year (1937) contained a total of 3,450 pages. By 1942, the Federal Register had grown to over 10,000 pages.
It passed 20,000 for the first time in 1967. More than 30,000 in 1973. And more than 40,000 the following year in 1974.
The Federal Register exploded during the 1970s, in fact, touching nearly 90,000 pages by the end of the Carter administration.
During Reagan’s time, the publication shrank to under 50,000, only to rise again under subsequent presidents.
The longest edition ever published was logged at 6,653 pages in a single day, during the administration of Bush II.
President Obama has averaged nearly 80,000 pages per year, far and away the highest of any President in US history.
This morning’s edition, in fact, is a whopping 358 pages full of new rules, regulations, and proposals.
Did you read it? Neither did I. But as the old saying goes, ignorance of the law is not an excuse.
This is absurd. Every single one of those regulations makes people less free.
They criminalize the most innocent behavior and make it impossible for the average person to know what’s legal and what’s not as if we all have some some civic duty to read and memorize 80,000 pages per year of government regulation.
4,500 criminal statutes now exist under US Code. That’s 1,500 times more than the three crimes outlined in the Constitution– piracy, treason, and counterfeiting.
(Ironically, the Federal Reserve and commercial banks commit the latter on a daily basis…)
We’ve seen this theme countless times throughout history.
Under Diocletian’s reign, the Roman Empire’s body of laws and regulations multiplied like rabbits.
He centralized all aspects of the economy, controlling wages, prices, commerce, and agricultural activity. Violations in many cases were subject to the death penalty.
And when people complained, he told them that the barbarians were at the gate, and that individual liberty needed to be sacrificed for the greater good of security.
By Diocletian’s time, Rome was already bankrupt. His regulations pushed the Empire over the edge.
It’s not much different today. Each and every one of these obscure regulations COSTS MONEY.
So it’s not surprising that as the number of pages in the Federal Register has increased, so has the US federal debt.
In order to pay for all of this bureaucracy, every citizen has become subject to an increasingly complex and punitive tax system, enforced at the point of a gun by a bankrupt government desperate to keep the party going.
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If the world had no limits, we would drown in it.
ive tried to have some light hearted discussions with others that we peaked as a nation in the 70's....my perspective was based on the amount of quality boxers for instance, ali, frazier, foreman etc...the music, rock bands...sports teams brooks robinson, mantle etc.... muscle cars....and you cn go on....sadly im just looked at as a goof....but im just saying....is this info why things became so meh??????
he governs best, who governs least
Yes, you are correct.
There are NOT 80,000 Pages of rules.
There are Only 10 rules.
And you can find them in "The Bible".
Live by the ten, and you need not "Man Laws".
you forget the most important one, the 11th: "Don't get caught". it is important because it's the only one weasels try to follow
the US did not "peak" in any way during Ronald Reagan's Presidency, imho. The US "peaked" on one exact date: August 15th, 1971. That was under President Nixon
but yes, the amount of legislation reaches the exact opposite of the reasoning why we have written laws
the ancient Plebeians of Rome fought for the right to have written law. Eventually, we will have to fight for the right of having written law that is actually humanly possible to read and understand and remember
force legislators to recite the law by heart. what they can't hold in their memories and they can't explain... can't be regarded as The Law, period
Exactly Stacking12321, if you do it right, it's as if you've done nothing at all. The american public servant-in-chief is pure celebrity. If he had any conscience, he would be unable to show his face.
Never thought of it like that. Very interesting comment. I was born in 1974 and I think around the time I was 5 - 6 years old, it was like a paradise here. Now it's....Not.
A nation is an area under government control. The US hasn't reached peak government yet.
So the nation hasn't peaked yet.
Everybody tends to agree that the best music was in the '80s, although some of the rock bands born in the '70s got really exceptional...
"Everybody tends to agree that the best music was in the '80s"
stop hanging around with shitheads....
'50s: Great.
'60s: Awesome.
'70s: Almost awesome.
'80s: Great.
'90s to present: Meh.
So that's the best way to figure out how old are the people reading this site... OK !
Sorry, Simon, the US peaked before Reagan and GHW Bush were elected, possibly long before. The country has been in sharp decline at least since the assassination of JFK, and the decline accelerated when Reagan and Bush came in.
Actually, our best year was 1986. Google the movies and music from that year.
CIABS: Agreed.
The USA came out of WW2 with the largest GDP of any nation in the World, with a huge manufacturing sector. The Dollar was backed by Gold, and the Bretton-Woods Agreement made the Dollar the World reserve currency, against which all other currencies were traded in agreed bands. Under BW, nations were not to increase their money supplies unduly. Other nations could trade the Dollars they held for Gold from the US Gold reserves.
With the rise of the expenses of the Military-Industrial complex, the Cold War against the USSR, the hot war in Viet Nam, and the space race, other nations suspected that the US was printing money beyond the BW limits, and running budget deficits, thus impairing the value of the Dollar. So many nations started to trade their Dollars for Gold. Alarmed at the draining of Gold reserves, Nixon closed the Gold window in 1971. From then on, the Dollar and all other currencies were effectively fiat paper, backed only by reputation. Nations could print currency without limits.
The OPEC oil cartel then hit America and the rest of the World with their dramatic oil price increases, helping push the US into recession. But Kissinger worked a deal with the OPEC nations that they would sell oil only for Dollars, and recycle those Dollars through Western investment markets. This Petrodollar Arrangement guaranteed the need for Dollars to buy oil, and maintained New York and London as leading financial centers.
But the US suffered seriously from "stagflation" in the 1970s, as government's share of GDP consumption increased and the economy stagnated. The Federal Reserve under Volker "tamed" inflation and pushed up the value of the Dollar by driving up interest rates through the roof, hitting prime rates over 20%. The Dollar was firmed up, but Main Street went up in flames as businesses crashed and houses foreclosed. The manufacturing, mining, lumbering, and other sectors have been in decline ever since 1970.
In all this, Reagan is viewed by many as having saved America by "Reaganomics". Reaganomics was sold as a combination of lowered taxes and increased military and other government expenditures from which prosperity would "trickle down" to the public.
History has shown us that "trickle down" has not happened, unless it is yellow water running down your leg.
In the Reagan years, US debt grew enormously. American appeared prosperous, but it is easy to appear prosperous if you are willing to spend all the borrowed money you can get. By the time Reagan left office, the US had gone from the World's leading creditor nation to the World's leading debtor nation.
In the 1990s, whenever there was a downturn in the World economy (often as the result of a bursting bubble), the Federal Reserve flooded the World with money-printing, re-inflating bubbles everywhere. This practice continued into the 2000s, and accelerated after 2008 with TARP and other bail-outs, and then QE. Other central banks have done the same, in equally-misguided attempts to print wealth out of thin air.
International Trade Agreements - NAFTA, GATT, WTO (and soon TPP and TTIP) allow multinational corporations to move their factories from 1st-world nations with high wages and strong regulatory regimes to 3rd-world nations with low wages and weak regulations, but sell their products in the 1st world. The multinationals pay less in wages and business expenses but the 1st world workers lose their wage incomes. The 1st world compensated for the lack of incomes by increasing the availability of credit and has saturated governments, businesses, and individuals with debt. Now we are reaping the debt whirlwind.
Excellent. Couldn't agree more.
Which makes the whole "Reagan & GOP fiscal conservatism" mantra such a bald-faced LIE -- a lie that the MSM and the (increasingly) gullible Public accepted.
WTo defend Ronnie; he was no match for the real US govt. Took a bullet to the lung from Bush 41's friends son. We dont know who or what exactly is running this country.
Even Ike hadto play ball with the shadows.
Greetings brother of the foil. Superb summary of the waning superpower.
"But the US suffered seriously from "stagflation" in the 1970s, as government's share of GDP consumption increased and the economy stagnated. The Federal Reserve under Volker "tamed" inflation and pushed up the value of the Dollar by driving up interest rates through the roof, hitting prime rates over 20%."
Wow, I remember those days vividly. People buying houses and mobil homes in the town where I was in Florida at 22%-24% 30 year mortgages. I thought they were crazy. Bad enough that the rent on the house I was in increased from $75 to $110 a month over a two year period.
I held out and bought house in Panama City from an old lady that wanted a steady retirement income. $100 a month at 10% was doable and it was a direct payment to an individual. Then she got smart and sold her note to a bank. I forget who it was...it was sometime in 87/88.
Put the house up for sale and moved back to California. It sold for a whopping $35K (it's the now empty corner lot at 15th and Lake...check out the neighborhood http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/42783791_zpid/30.176102,-85.703271,30.174971,-85.705889_rect/18_zm/1_fr/?view=map), I got a check for $500.
That house was built with cinder block filled with concrete. Huricane proof in all aspects except the roof (Hugo put a micro-burst clean through it into the family room). Tearing that down had to have taken a small bundle. Now it's an empty fenced lot and the address doesn't show up on zillow.com.
A side note. One night my wife and I took a walk down the street to just get out a bit. On our return, as we crossed the bridge, I looked down and saw an obviously dead woman floating in the water...had on a dress with panty hose and panties at her ankles. Sent my wife to go call the cops and ambulance. I stayed to flag them down. (I was locally famous, I had just put on a Womanless Beauty Pageant to benefit the elementary school, and the contestants were the area police chiefs, sheriff, fire chiefs, judges included local congress vermin and news anchors...that and being a debit insurance peddler while working the all volunteer county ambulance).
So, anyway, police and sheriff deputies arrive and I point over the bridge to the dead lady. They shine lights down and we can see little fish nibbling enough at her crotch to turn her in the water. We go to the other side and discover a huge harley parked at the waters edge.
Deputies go down one side, police on the other, and they scanning flashlights back and forth. Meantime, my wife shows back up. We're leaning over the rail watching the approach to the dead lady. From the back she looked maybe mid-20's or early 30's.
All the cops gather on the sand next to the woman, who is within arms reach of them. One of the deputies grabs her arm and pulls. As he does she rolls over.
"She" has a full beard on "her" face.
My wife said something similar to "Eeep!" and started stomping back to the house. As I remember, my reaction was more of a "Ha! Holy shit!"
The country peaked before the tyrant Lincoln. It's been on a downward trajectory ever since.
Absolutely, Reaganomics was just one of the nails in the coffin.
But long before the Cowboy was Abraham _Lynncohen_ . And the North/Union were not the Good Guys either; the Civil War had nothing to do with the proclaimed slavery ending, and "started" (on its own, as usual) for American goyim/gentiles to exterminate themselves. The war is not over yet -- ever since, there has been a war on the lower/working classes/ethnicities ("police brutality/shootings" is just one episode of it). John F. Kennedy tried to stop it, and now Kennedy's clan is doomed.
PS
The South were not any better than the North, but that had nothing to do with slavery.
Jewish Involvement In Black Slave Trade To The Americas
http://www.rense.com/general69/invo.htm
PPS
The official "History" is one big B/S. And most people have nothing between their ears but swarms of myths created by someone else. Those myths can't be dispelled easily, there is nothing else an average person can offer but myths at different levels.
E.g. "Titanic": http://www.henrymakow.com/was_sinking_the_titanic.html
Was Titanic Sinking an Insurance Scam?
The Olympic, damaged in a collision and destined for the scrapyard, may have been disguised as its sister ship, the Titanic. This raises questions about the true nature of the "accident" which took place 100 years ago today.
by John Hamer(Reprised from July 2011)
[...]
Another Hollywood-related example is assassination of Stanley Kubrick for his involvement in the Moon Hoax and secret (i.e. non-human) societies exposed in Eyes Wide Shut. Check out Van Allen belt: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Allen_radiation_belt -- manned missions are impossible in principle.
I'm making over $7k a month working part time. I kept hearing other people tell me how much money they can make online so I decided to look into it. Well, it was all true and has totally changed my life. This is what I do... www.globe-report.com
I have to work full time. So go fuck yourself.
Very well put, Chilli Sauce. A typical Reagan job.
"That’s 1,500 times more than the three crimes outlined in the Constitution– piracy, treason, and counterfeiting." (Ironically, the Federal Reserve and commercial banks commit the latter on a daily basis…)
Actually Wall Street and the Fed commit all 3 on a daily basis. With weekends off of course.
Not even sure I understand the point of the article. The US peaked under Reagan because that's when the FedReg was the longest? Or now that we have only slightly less, things are slightly better?
Reagan was not perfect, but I'd pay real cash money to have him back over the current fucking bozo occupying 1600.
We'z gots sum Bozo lovahs, Massah
I believe the point they were trying to make is that the FedReg was longest at the Carter-Reagan transition and Reagan then took an enormous lump out of it, far more than any other President.
Reagan was an actor.
it's what I find hardest to believe abt ppl who long for 'the good ol' days.' its like they think all of the corruption, statism, and currency debauchery began after their hero Reagan died. Iran-Contra? lets overlook that 1 off little thing. it wasn't as systemic and common as WBush-Obama funding ISIS. no way, no how our hero would do that.
you're a victim of the time period in which you were brainwashed, and it won't be until your way of thinking becomes timeless, once you see yourself as the speck in world history, that you'll finally open your eyes to ALL of the realities that will outlive us both.
A few, or even 12!
Not sure if this has made the rounds yet...
"India has essentially annulled it gigantic arms contract with France for the purchase and combined construction of 126 Rafale fighter planes; the Indian Prime Minister agreed to buy only 36 of them during his visit to Paris last week, a responsible government source stated. Instead, India will buy 127 fifth generation Russian fighter jets."
India for some reason thinks France may be an unreliable supplier...
http://russia-insider.com/en/washingtons-mistral-fiat-flattens-french-ar...
Au, mon dieu! So we include a tin of pate wiz each, no? Zat not good, eh?
I'll go ahead & say I peaked during Reagan's Presidency...
Had fucking nothing to do with Reagan though...
I never really got into blow, but I was in my 20's & DJ'd in clubs in So Cal at the time... Most all the hard partying chicks [patrons], did it & thus it was hard for a 20 something'er to NOT to take advantage of their, cough, 'ENTHUSIASM'... So ~ I suppose, IN REALITY this article should be titled...
How I peaked during POPPY BUSH's 'VICE' PRESIDENCY... If you didn't know... Now you know...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRw8cBratM4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a9tzTlwyKk
Burn it.
Burn it.
Definitely burn it.
Makes sense.....The 80's fucking rocked, literally.
The country has expanded in populaton. As human societies get bigger, they get more complex. Ours is blessed with "technology" that feeds the compexity.
We can't keep up. Period.
Like the deer population thriving on a big corn crop, there will be a die back at some point.
In 1959, the highest personal satisfaction with with life was recorded for the USA.
The USA peaked in 1959 coasted to the 90's, and has been in decline since that time, now in severe decline.
In 1959 a one earner family could support a house in the burbs with a 2 car garage, with healthcare and a guaranteed retirement.
Today in America the middle class is a mirage. What's left of it are modern chattel slaves.
In 1959 the US was the world's predominant manufacturer, not dependent on fabricating cash to buy products made elsewhere while the quality of jobs for its own people continuously declined.
The USA peaked in 1959 coasted to the 80's, and has been in decline since that time, now in severe decline.
FIFY
Niall Ferguson, the historian, says that there have been 48 empires in the history of mankind, 47 of them have fallen.
America is the 48th empire.
but we're an autonomous collective...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8bqQ-C1PSE
Same as it ever was...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIJNQLI6KwY
"And I may ask myself
Who is punching me
And I may ask myself
Wo is that invisible boxing midget"?
Its different this time.
If you look at divorce rates, you'd realize that that is not true...
But then, there's always the VESPER Martini
http://nerdynothings.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/vesper.jpg
If you assume everything I say is satire, you will be right most of the time.
You take satire on Wednesday nights and I'll take dry cynicism on weekends, OK? I been going to the dry cynicism meetings since inception.
Dibs on post modernism!
Edward Gibbon, himself wedded to liberty, went to the heart of the matter:
"A more unjust and absurd constitution cannot be devised than that which condemns the natives of a country to perpetual servitude, under the arbitrary dominion of strangers."
Gibbon's admonitions are for the ages, but they seem peculiarly pertinent at a time when American and British leaders have fatally succumbed to the lure of neo-imperial adventure. The first sentence he ever published, in his Essay on the Study of Literature (1761), epitomised his immortal work:
"The history of empires is the history of human misery."
How many were taken over by a banking mafia in the decades before they fell?
Yea well that was long before lover pâténted moved into my bed mockingly to rig the world for Kiki's evil voodoo dollhouse as dolls do not talk back in perfect hell for hypocritical judgement day! But not that Kiki Hillary and bill weren't in my bedsheets back then as that's when they were getting Henry Cisneros (in between HUD jobs runs failed predatory loan bank for the community renuwal act in response to peeps buying houses on their own and leaving HUD) and Henry B Gonzales. But u know before they mock rape u economy as mandates where mandates should never go..... In the two way mirrored two faced box they keep u ya in..... And think i can't short that shit baby ... Even they finally fess up against my rattlesnake portfolio rattle so but some pretends can't last forever and ever and ever but do give me a little more pretend so that I can get my shit together more on lower no fear volatility among other yummies.... Mmm mmm eat them up yum watch those who crated this mess or rather ignore it do the same. How low can the estimate go on stuffed channels w economic recessionary contraction. Well as long as the truth too crazy or too real to be spoken by those who can't pretend enough fuck me profit economy.
Wait. What?
I...can't.
He probably did a lot of drugs when he was younger. Don't try to understand. Just smile and nod as he walks by.
-1 for squaring this forum up, go git some drink inya ya sick cunt.
Gotta keep them goddamned paper pushers busy.
Just one small example of how rules and regulations designed with good intentions inc costs...
In 2008 our school district purchased school buses for $95,680 each. This year they cost $126,300. Increases caused by emission changes, cameras (back up and interior), accelerator lockout if a backpack is caught in a door (? - this happened like twice and suddenly became a recommended feature), etc.
$126k for a fucking piece of corrugated aluminum and an engine from 1964?
Reminds me of a company I did business with that made doors for garbage trucks. Each door was $12k and had about $15 worth of steel in it.
nothing kills a society faster than bureaucracy
long paper
Sounds like youns folk over there in the orion arm of the galaxy gots yourself a bad case of lawyer and bankster infestation. We can send someone out and take care of it but its going to cost ya. Them legal types is messy and ain't worth the eatin. Now if ya decide to take it upon younselves what you gots to do is to get them to start a jumpin. Once one or two start in this city and that ah usually it will spark up some nerve amongst them and they'll be off the tops like Saturnight popcorn a poppin. We have to haul tem all the way out to the q99x2 pyramids and it hardly be worth it. Good luck with your bankster problems. As you can tell I gots my own.
Resist any and all things Federal;
Refuse to participate in any and all things Federal;
Ridicule any and all Federal enforcers;
Arrest ALL Bank Executives & Employees for Counterfeiting;
Arrest ALL Federal Reserve Officials, Executives & Employees for:
• Counterfeiting (Unconstitutional paper currency); &
• Treason (for swearing allegiance to Bank of International Settlements over U. S. Constitution);
Everyone shouild read the last line in this article again!!
This article and resulting comment thread are hilarious. Clearly Tyler and the commenters here have no fucking idea what the 70's were all about.
As one who actually was alive in the planet at the time, I'll try to clear up the "70's was the greatest decade" misunderstanding.
Inflation was double digits, there were two different Arab oil embargoes and there was a stretch in the mid-70's when you could only get gas every other day, even and odd depending on the last digit of your license plate. Interest rates went up massively as Paul Volcker raised the Fed Funds rate to combat inflation. The Dow was in the triple digits, and unemployment was double digits.
Much like the writers and readers of this site, many Americans believed the U.S. was done for, and there were survivalist letter writers (anybody remember Howard Ruff ?) who had extensive followings. You know, guns, canned food, the same shit you read day after day here at ZH.
So, for those who look back at the 70's with fondness, you have no idea what the 70's were really all about.
my dad told me about this shit
the difference is they didnt have globalization back then
ZH commentariat clueless? You don't say!
The oil embargo was an external shock. External shocks are a fact of life. The current situation is the result of the banking mafia betraying the interests of their fellow citizens.
Interesting and exponential rise in government bullshit after the Nixon Shock!
My dad worked in aerospace defense in the 1980s. Ronnie bought me a lot of BMX dirt bikes and REDDAWN was my favorite movie.
Course, now its the US Federal Government that is plotting to wipe out Americans.
DHS TO PURCHASE 62 MILLION MORE ROUNDS OF AR-15 AMMO Feds attempting to control the market, dry up supply? Purchase in addition to billions of bullets previously bought by fedshttp://www.infowars.com/dhs-to-purchase-62-million-rounds-of-ar-15-ammo/
Bankers have demonstrated why un-regulated free markets are a utopian fantasy.
We de-regulated banks and trusted bankers and they rigged every market they could.
We removed the 1930s legislation designed to prevent another 1929 and they did it again in 2008.
We can thank the bankers for reminding us of the necessity of legislation and why it was enacted in the first place.
There is lots of financial regulation because bankers are incompetent, unscrupulous and entirely without morals.
It has taken Governments around the world to abolish slavery and child labour.
Businessmen, with their eye on the bottom line, would never do such things.
Apple, one of the most profitable companies in the world, has chased around the world to find an environment with the least regulation possible and makes it's products in factories with suicide nets.
This is the free market in action and why legislation is required.
This is nonsense. Child labor exists wherever the choice is between child labor and starvation. As soon as an economy has accumulated enough capital, child labor ends because it makes no economic sense anymore. Government is a cancer.
You are in error. In its so-called "deregulated" form, the banking sector was still the most regulated sector in the economy by far. The banking industry has been light years away from being a free industry for about 150 years (it started already before the Fed was established). Without the government privilege of fraudulent fractional reserve banking and without a government-directed central bank backstopping the cartel, banking would be "deregulated" - everything else is a sham.
Philosophically this is how elites create an economic system because there can be no risk for them.
So lets create the Keynes mechanism and we will inflate it 2% YOY but hmmmm... I cannot lose so I will have 2%+x where x is more than the mechanism needs and that x% removed all risk for those who created the mechanism. Now run the system for a number of decades so 2+x% YOY starts accumulating and you wonder why they own everything if you rely on a fiat currency.
The flaw in the system is allowing an economic mechanism to be created by elites that ensures little to no risk for those at the highest level compared to 100% risk for the opposite end of the spectrum.
By the 70's this mechanism had run its course flat out stagnated because they owned everything you have borrow to pretend you have something.
This x% is crucial for the length of time if set really, really low like 0.0000001% you still win but the compound effect is many centurues. Set it too high and the game ends much quicker and the x% they used actually made it end in 70 years or so.
Whatever new is decided or created it follows the same concept and unavoidable when Democracy is a sham for minority rule.
A new EPA regulation took effect yesterday making it illegal to produce electrical water heaters over 50 gallons unless they have a heat pump. This effectively makes your $1000 replacement water heater into a $3000 unit.
Why? Because the bureaucrats can do it and they know we won't say or do anything.
It will all collapse under its own weight one day - it is just a matter of when.
If you need large capacity, just buy 2 electric water heaters.