Visual Quiz-- Confederate Flag: Yes or No

~ Black Confederate soldiers (1861)

Its the last Monday in September.. couldn't bring ourselves to waste a moment of time or brainpower addressing the impending government shutdown starting tomorrow..

Its much like a parent telling their teenager that as punishment he/she can't use the car except for going to school and work and to pick up the parents' dry cleaning...

Until the shutdown affects people receiving Social Security, food stamps or military pay which would provoke genuine public wrath, its all a big silly game no matter how you feel on Obamacare.

So instead, we're going to do a visual quiz and we call it 'Confederate Flag: Yes or No'

The inspiration for this was reading an AP article over the weekend that a giant Confederate battle flag was to be displayed along I-95 in Richmond.

Some say the flag represents hate.. to others its Southern pride and honoring Confederate Civil War dead.

~ Private Louis Napoleon Nelson, CSA.. rode with Gen. Forrest;  member of Company M of the 7th Tennessee Cavalry

The flag was co-opted in the early 20th century by the modern Klan and ultimately other hate groups so in a way it takes on that power much like the swastika has been around as a symbol since times of antiquity but of course it was taken over by monsters in the 1930s and now that symbol only possesses one meaning..

Now if those who flew the stars n bars decided to fly the flag just above, no one would have known its meaning even though it was the Confederate flag of the 3rd Kentucky Mounted Infantry which served in the Army of Tennessee then under command of General N.B. Forrest for the duration of the war...

Little piece of interesting trivia:  The Confederate Army in the Western theater called themselves the Army of Tennessee in reference to the state.  The Union called themselves the Army of the Tennessee in reference to the river..

~ Polk Arnold who served with Gen Forrest's Escort Cavalry

Its all about perception, the meanings we give symbols and the power we allow others to control how such symbols are to be interpreted.

And its so much simpler to brand the Confederate flag as evil while looking upon the US flag naively as noble and pure..  We don't recall Jim Crow, the Native American Wars and internment of Japanese Americans during WWII to to under the Stars & Bars...

So let's start with a few flags..  Decide- is this a Confederate flag or not?

The first flag was the first Confederate Naval Jack which was eventually replaced by the middle flag until 1863 when the Stars & Bars represented both Southern Army and Navy.

The last flag is of the current EU (European Union).

OK, let's try some others:

The first flag is the governmental flag of the Confederacy.  This was the flag flown over the Southern capitol at Montgomery, AL and then Richmond, VA for the war's duration.

The 2nd flag is the state Confederate flag of Louisiana (1861-65)

The bottom flag is the current flag of Mississippi flown currently over their capitol building.  The state is now as loyal to the United States as any other.

So how are you doing?  Ready for some more??

The first flag represented those of the Native American Choctaw tribe who fought on the side of the Confederacy.  The Cherokees also fought for the South.

The middle flag is that of the 10th Tennessee Irish Infantry Brigade who fought for the South and suffered heavy losses by war's end.  The bottom flag is that of the 28th Massachusetts Irish Brigade.

Are you starting to get the point?

Here's more.. Confederate or not?

Here all three are Confederate flags.  The top is that of 4th Missouri Infantry Regiment under Gen Van Dorn and was used until their surrender after the fall of Vickburg, MS on July 4th, 1863.

The middle flag is of the 39th North Carolina under major-general John McCown .  He was of Scottish descent which explains the use of the cross of St Andrews.

The bottom flag is of the 39th Georgia Brigade which fought for the Army of Tennessee during the Vicksburg campaign against General Grant (Union).

Here's a couple more to round things out:

So which if any are Confederate flags?

The top flag is that of the 16th Tennessee Infantry Confederate volunteers under General Polk used until they surrendered to the Union in 1863

The middle flag is the naval flag of Estonia and the bottom flag is the naval flag of Russia..

So how did you do?

Flags are merely that... flags.

We create the symbolism and meaning whether it be positive or deviant and worse.  And like certain 'words', we allow others the power to control its definition as well as delineation based on ignorance, guilt and or/cowardice.

Trapped.. like a Bernanke Rat

For the next few months, speculation will be whether the Fed will start tapering back its $85 billion/monthly QE securities purchases which will be akin in significance to a fat person eating one less cookie per day..

Personally we expect it to occur at earliest in January 2014 when a new Fed chair is in charge who will take the fall for the truly F'd up policies of Bernanke the past 4.5 years..

In addition, tapering now would wreck havoc on the Christmas shopping season and by extension throw Investor rats into a tizzy.

The Financial Times explained in an article written in January, 2010 the dilemma the Fed is in; a quandary of their own creation (to financial laypeople, what is written will be a little bit technical so just follow the gist):

"No matter how bulled up the equity market becomes, should data improve, the Fed is likely to remain very cautious, mindful that it needs to keep the bond market happy. Becoming the buyer of last resort in the past year (2009) resulted in the Fed crossing an important line in the bond market... 

The exit from QE is always going to be messy, unlike the relatively simple act of raising the overnight target interest rate. It leaves policymakers hoping that talk of extending QE will help contain rates from rising too quickly and save them the trouble of actually buying more bonds.

The danger, however, is that the bond market seeks a resumption of buying. A lot of easy money was made on Wall Street bond desks last year thanks to the Fed's buying. Can you blame dealers for not wanting to see that party end?

This potentially leaves the Fed trapped, for any sign of a recovery in the economy will be accompanied by rising rates, which in turn threaten sustainable growth and could well shake the equity market.

To prevent such a scenario, it is very likely that the Fed will reinforce its role as the buyer of last resort...

All which entails that the eventual end of QE will be a messier affair than perhaps many investors care to think. And one that bodes ill for the dollar and US fiscal policy down the road."

The comments written above referred to QE1..  we're now at QE 4&5, otherwise known as QE infinity.  
And for the record we Do blame the greedy soulless dealers and market profiteers for putting themselves and their financial best interests over the nation's..

I know.. we can be so naive sometimes.

So as stated before Bernanke has enjoyed all the love and kisses from his Investor and Banking buddies and isn't going to put himself in a position where he has to accept any deserved scorn..  Not while in office.

Let it wait until after the memoirs are released..

So we'd be surprised if any tapering is done this year beyond maybe breadcrumbs.

Victoria Justice Pictures

Better Now or Then? (2013 vs 1913)

For today's posting, we're going to do some comparing between 1913 and the present, and not just because its fun or interesting to compare different points in time that are separated by 10, 25, 50 or 100 years of space..

1913 is also the origin year for the Federal Reserve.

Took 5 years for those bedbug banking elites to convert their secret Jeckyl Isl, Ga. meeting into irreversible law..

But A Lot of campaign contribution dough to Presidential candidate Woodrow Wilson going up against a fat yet weak incumbent (William H Taft) and a 'Bull Moose' in Teddy Roosevelt the previous year (1912) goes a long way..

So was life better then or presently?

Oh sure today we enjoy great advances in technology and creature comforts that we take for granted which the world never heard of..

Who can rightly argue against the advent of central air conditioning/heating, machines that wash clothes and dishes and heat up meals in fractions of time..

Of course there were no such things as nuclear weapons,  patriot missiles, stealth fighters and unarmed drones either..

And in 1913, there was yet to be a savage bloody "Great" war that needlessly took tens of millions of lives for absolutely nothing while sewing the seeds for a sequel a generation later

People also socialized face to face and actually acknowledged others vs today where the young in particular do everything humanly possible to ignore all living breathing life around them to bury noses in texting devices

So we call the whole technological debate a 'push'.

But we asked if life was better.. Not if the technology was..

In 2013, most women work because they Have to.   In 1913, most those who worked did so because they Chose to.

Feminism propaganda aside, it is a hell of a lot Better in life to do something by freedom of choice then the necessity of survival.

A man usually was the sole wage earner in a home of 4 and supported all quite well and without second mortgages, credit cards or other forms of debt acquisition to keep the family afloat.

The average salary back then was $585 which interestingly only comes to $12,929 today.

Think about that...

The average salary today is around $47,000 and most families need both adults to be working and contributing to make the house run efficiently.  In 1913, one breadwinner earning just under $13k in today's money was sufficient...

A lot of it has to do with the rise in inflation.

$20 in purchasing power then equals 85 cents today. Yes... $0.85    And if you had $20 in your pocket back in 1913, it would be like carrying $472.28 at present.

That's a cumulative rate of inflation of 2262.4%

Here's a little perspective to understand how dramatically our purchasing power has fallen in 100 years thanks to the Federal Reserve and their continual never-ending policy of weakening the US dollar...

The average new car in 1913 cost $600 which would be like someone purchasing a brand new Camry or Altima today for $13,261.

If you took that $13,261 and transported yourself back in time to 1913, you'd have over $313k in purchasing power which would allow you to feel like a Mr (or Ms) Monopoly as you gobble up property (average new home in 1913 was $5,935)

It boggles the mind today but all these figures are based on the Fed's inflation calculator.

See its not simply about how much $$ you make in the year you live in vs what you can buy and its price point at that time.  There's also a comparable inflation adjustment that must be made that people often forget.

So yes, theoretically, you could take $13k, transport yourself back in time to 1913 and have enough capital in your possession to buy 52 new homes or 521 Model T automobiles.

Conversely, an average wage earner in 1913 would have to work over 37 years to be able to afford a new mid-sized car if he/she ever teleported to the present.

See why we never have any time travelers from the past?

To be fair, the Federal Reserve is not the only reason we've seen a dramatic fall in the quality of living in this nation and inability for one wage earner to support a growing family.

The 16th Amendment has something to do with it too--  the institution of an income tax to be collected which was ratified in early 1913.

Prior to the tax with the exception of wartime, government revenue was collected through customs duties and excise taxes.

When the law was in place, originally it was one tax rate-- 2% on incomes over $4,000 ($106,000 today).  They poor, working class and what would generally be considered 'middle' class did not pay a penny...

Today we collect 10% from the poorest of the poor worker and 50% from the top wage earner.  And what we can't take from the everyday person via income tax, we do in consumption taxes, 'sin' taxes and turnpike/bridge tolls.

One can argue on the merits of the modern tax code or even argue in today's society its not enough...

But in plain math, you take someone working today earning $75k and not take 1/3 or more of their livelihood to give to the government, that's an additional $25,000 in purchasing power to perhaps use toward buying a home with less down or buy a new car out the door...

And poor banks... however could they make excessive profit off the people if they now have the discretionary spending to buy what they wish without need for credit and loans?

See how this all works?

So the depreciable standard of living we feel today is based on a multitude of reasons.. the Fed essentially 'F'ing with our currency and devaluing the dollar, the institution of the Federal income tax in all its unfairness, the fact US workers had jobs-a-plenty in 1913 vs this outsourced world we live in today..

It all adds up.. And the only reason most survive.. and we do mean ONLY reason is because credit i.e. debt acquisition fills in the void and changes people from once planning for the future, to living year to year, paycheck to paycheck

So yes we may have computers, cellphones, iPods and all that..  but we also work much much harder to just keep in place on the economic treadmill of life and many are slipping under...

Are we truly better now or then?

P.S.   Today (Thursday) the Dow closed at 15,328

Do you know what the Dow was in 1913?

88.

Yes..   Eighty-Eight.   The Dow would not reach 100 for the first time Ever until late 1919.