Patterns of Force

Today on NBC News:

"Robert Redford: America is in crisis. It's time to rid ourselves of Trump."

I can't think of anything more ridiculous I've heard today. Or yesterday.

America has been in "crisis" for a long time.

I don't know what those guys are getting all worked up about.

Maybe his undocumented workers are charging more now to clean his mansions.

The United States is now in debt up to 23 trillion dollars.

Will the adults today be negatively affected by that?

What happens if there is a large increase in the interest rates?

That debt becomes a lot more threatening. Threatening to the people who didn't cause it.








From 9/11/2001 to 2/6/2004 ( as Kerry Burgess my final day full-time employment Microsoft Corporation in Seattle beginning 12/07/1998 ) is 878 days








https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Versailles

Treaty of Versailles

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Treaty of Versailles (French: Traité de Versailles) was the most important of the peace treaties that brought World War I to an end. The Treaty ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919 in Versailles

Of the many provisions in the treaty, one of the most important and controversial required "Germany [to] accept the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage" during the war (the other members of the Central Powers signed treaties containing similar articles). This article, Article 231, later became known as the War Guilt clause. The treaty required Germany to disarm, make ample territorial concessions, and pay reparations to certain countries that had formed the Entente powers. In 1921 the total cost of these reparations was assessed at 132 billion marks (then $31.4 billion or £6.6 billion, roughly equivalent to US$442 billion or UK£284 billion in 2019). At the time economists, notably John Maynard Keynes (a British delegate to the Paris Peace Conference), predicted that the treaty was too harsh—a "Carthaginian peace"—and said the reparations figure was excessive and counter-productive, views that, since then, have been the subject of ongoing debate by historians and economists. On the other hand, prominent figures on the Allied side, such as French Marshal Ferdinand Foch, criticized the treaty for treating Germany too leniently.

The result of these competing and sometimes conflicting goals among the victors was a compromise that left no one satisfied, and, in particular, Germany was neither pacified nor conciliated, nor was it permanently weakened.

Reparations

Main article: World War I reparations

In Article 231 Germany accepted responsibility for the losses and damages caused by the war "as a consequence of the ... aggression of Germany and her allies." The treaty required Germany to compensate the Allied powers, and it also established an Allied "Reparation Commission" to determine the exact amount which Germany would pay and the form that such payment would take.

Violations

Reparations

The German economy was so weak that only a small percentage of reparations was paid in hard currency. Nonetheless, even the payment of this small percentage of the original reparations (132 billion gold marks) still placed a significant burden on the German economy. Although the causes of the devastating post-war hyperinflation are complex and disputed, Germans blamed the near-collapse of their economy on the treaty, and some economists estimated that the reparations accounted for as much as one-third of the hyper-inflation.

In March 1921, French and Belgian troops occupied Duisburg, Düsseldorf, and other areas which formed part of the demilitarized Rhineland, according to the Treaty of Versailles. In January 1923, French and Belgian forces occupied the rest of the Ruhr area as a reprisal after Germany failed to fulfill reparation payments demanded by the Versailles Treaty. The German government answered with "passive resistance", which meant that coal miners and railway workers refused to obey any instructions by the occupation forces. Production and transportation came to a standstill, but the financial consequences contributed to German hyperinflation and completely ruined public finances in Germany.








https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation_in_the_Weimar_Republic

Hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hyperinflation affected the German Papiermark, the currency of the Weimar Republic, between 1921 and 1923, primarily in 1923. It caused considerable internal political instability in the country, the occupation of the Ruhr by France and Belgium as well as misery for the general populace.

The cause of the immense acceleration of prices seemed unclear and unpredictable to those who lived through it, but in retrospect, it was relatively simple. The Treaty of Versailles imposed a huge debt on Germany that could be paid only in gold or foreign currency. With its gold depleted, the German government attempted to buy foreign currency with German currency, equivalent to selling German currency in exchange for payment in foreign currency, but the resulting increase in the supply of German marks on the market caused the German mark to fall rapidly in value, which greatly increased the number of marks needed to buy more foreign currency.

That caused German prices of goods to rise rapidly, increasing the cost of operating the German government, which could not be financed by raising taxes because those taxes would be payable in the ever-falling German currency. The resulting deficit was financed by some combination of issuing bonds and simply creating more money, both increasing the supply of German mark-denominated financial assets on the market and so further reducing the currency's price. When the German people realized that their money was rapidly losing value, they tried to spend it quickly. That increased monetary velocity and caused an ever-faster increase in prices, creating a vicious cycle.

The government and the banks had two unacceptable alternatives. If they stopped inflation, there would be immediate bankruptcies, unemployment, strikes, hunger, violence, collapse of civil order, insurrection and possibly even revolution. If they continued the inflation, they would default on their foreign debt.

However, attempting to avoid both unemployment and insolvency ultimately failed when Germany had both.








http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/52.htm

Patterns Of Force [ Star Trek television series episode ]

Original Airdate: 16 Feb, 1968

(from internet transcript)

[Main room]

MELAKON: Note the low forehead, denoting stupidity. The dull look of a trapped animal. You may take him now for interrogation, but I want the body saved for the Cultural Museum. He'll make an interesting display.

(The viewscreen comes alive, and Gill is speaking for himself.)

GILL: People. People of Ekos.

MELAKON: Go to the booth. See to the Fuhrer at once. He's ill. Turn off that camera.

GILL: Hear me.

MELAKON: I suggest we leave and let our Fuhrer rest.



- posted by Kerry Burgess 10:02 AM Pacific Time Spokane Valley Washington USA Tuesday 11/26/2019