tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31671374.post557797771080013944..comments2023-10-30T07:10:34.610-07:00Comments on Underbelly: David Graeber Spins some Threads out of His Own GizzardBucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16452321114185736762noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31671374.post-51948362193032420222011-09-16T13:33:22.072-07:002011-09-16T13:33:22.072-07:00Well I suspect the proposition that "all atte...Well I suspect the proposition that "all attempts to impose prohibition were rejected" might raise an eyebrow down at the tenure committee. But I have a better idea: let's you and me write a book on Germany in the 1900s entitled "The Democratic Century." Okay? Huh, okay?<br /><br />Your Hayes-Tilden point is interesting but the reality is, I suspect (as with bankruptcy policy) more complex. This was, after all, the age of the greenback ("fiat money!") and he first great age of securities fraud. And recall that what kicked off the Panic of '73 was a bank failure in Vienna. And we shouldn't forget the equine influenza epidemic of 1872, now should we?Bucehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16452321114185736762noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31671374.post-51966047246108639962011-09-16T09:53:06.559-07:002011-09-16T09:53:06.559-07:00Your own examples--laws lasting two periods of 2-3...Your own examples--laws lasting two periods of 2-3 years, followed by one that was Reconstruction Era-specific--demonstrate the veracity of Graeber's argument.<br /><br />If you look at the Enumerated Powers, all of the other ones--war declaration and its supporting facets, national guard/militia, post offices and roads, coinage and counterfeiting, patents, control and maintenance of publicly-owned buildings--are clearly established and defended from the beginning on a national level.<br /><br />The only Federal bankruptcy law that is not immediately rejected is the not-a-time-coincidence one, which goes away as quickly as you can say Hayes-Tilden. You know that effort much better than I do, but I would give odds it was much more about Southerners who had worthless scrip than with people who went bankrupt during the 69+ months of recession during which it was in effect.<br /><br />Putting it simply: except as a way of punishing traitors that didn't involve killing them, bankruptcy law was less popular than Prohibition. (Come to think of it, 1920-1933 > 1867-1878, so that period applies to.) Would you call it a "fiction" to say that prohibition was rejected??Ken Houghtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01440837287933536370noreply@blogger.com