Chapter 556 Underground

It is said in Exodus in the Old Testament: "If you lend money to a poor man of my people who lives with you, do not charge him interest like a moneylender."

It is also recorded in Leviticus: "When you lend money to a person, do not ask him for interest; if you lend him food, do not ask him for more."

However, in fact, the reason why the subprime mortgage crisis broke out is largely due to the greed of human nature.

The 1% interest loan released by the Federal Reserve stimulates economic development. Normal credit will not cause a crisis. The Federal Reserve lowers the interest rate to reduce the repayment cost and improve the repayment ability.

But the greedy nature of people makes people who do not have the ability to repay loans borrow money, so even if you want to lend money to others, you can't set the interest rate too low, let alone have no interest.

Having interest will create a sense of urgency, so that borrowers will not open their mouths and ask friends or relatives to borrow an astronomical figure.

It's just that in the eyes of the debtor, the creditor appears stingy and stingy. How can friends and relatives negotiate interest on borrowing money? So the best way is not to publish your financial information, and don't show off your wealth, so that others will not ask you to borrow money if they don't know that you are rich.

Slytherin is evil and high-profile, Gryffindor is brave and reckless, Ravenclaw is smart and egotistical, Hufflepuff is rich and foolish, but everyone is very low-key, you can’t see it easily, a little high-profile It was the Smith family, who called themselves descendants of Helga Hufflepuff.

In many knowledge classes, teachers don’t talk about it, but they talk about it at parties or at the dinner table. Hufflepuff likes to spread gossip and is also very good at keeping secrets. Fupafu's life will also improve.

Many people, whether they are wizards or Muggles, live in a world of "carrying buckets": one day's work gets one day's wages, and one month's work gets one month's salary, no matter your annual income is less than 10,000 Whether it’s a dishwasher with an annual salary of more than one million yuan, or a white-collar worker with an annual salary of more than one million yuan, you are exchanging a piece of time for a piece of money. If you are laid off or unable to continue working due to illness or injury, your income will stop immediately. No buckets, no income.

With Arthur's income, he couldn't afford the high medical expenses after being bitten by Nagini. It was Lucius Malfoy's donation that saved his life.

How ironic, but the reality is that there are only two economic classes in the world: the rich class and the poor class. The so-called middle class still lives on wages and lives on "carrying buckets" every day.

What do you do if you are fired and you have outstanding loans?

What would you do if a medical treatment depleted your savings?

What about the child's school expenses?

What about alimony for a divorced wife?

There is no guarantee for "carrying buckets", and only "pipelines" are the stable lifeline.

There were two young men who lived by carrying water and selling it to the townspeople. They were called John and Bob. These two young men were young and vigorous, and they worked hard and got income. They were also very happy. So they kept carrying water from the river to the village like this, day after day, year after year.

One day, Bob felt that this was not a long-term solution. What if he was old one day? So he stopped "carrying buckets" and turned to repairing pipelines. In order to repair pipelines, he carried a lot less buckets than John every day.

Everyone in the village laughed at him. John earns more than Bob every day. He is a very optimistic and cheerful person. He often invites the villagers to drink. Everyone likes John very much, but Bob still implements his plan.

While John spent his evenings and weekends in his hammock, Bob kept digging his pipes. For the first few months, Bob's effort ratio didn't make much progress. He worked hard—harder than John, because Bob worked nights and weekends, too.

"Short-term pain brings long-term rewards," Bob always reminded himself as he stumbled back to his humble cabin, exhausted, after a day's work. He measures his effectiveness by setting daily goals. He has persisted in this way, because he knows that one day, the reward will greatly exceed the effort at this time.

Days and months passed. One day, Bob realizes that his pipeline is halfway done, which means he only has to carry the bucket half way. Bob also used this extra time to build the pipeline. The date of final completion is getting closer. While he was resting, Bob saw his old friend John was still carrying water. John's piggyback got worse. And due to long-term fatigue, the pace began to slow down. John looked angry and sullen, as if resentful that he himself was doomed to carry water all his life. He spends less time in the hammock and more time in bars. The bar regulars whispered when he came in, and the town drunks giggled as he imitated John's stooped posture and his shuffling. John stopped buying drinks and telling jokes. He would rather sit alone in a dark corner, surrounded by a pile of empty wine bottles.

Finally Bob's big moment came, the plumbing was done! The villagers flocked to watch the water flow from the pipes to the gutters! Now the village has a steady stream of fresh water. People from other nearby villages also moved to this village one after another, so the village developed and prospered. Once the plumbing is finished, Bob no longer has to carry buckets. Whether he was working or not, the water kept flowing in. Water was flowing in as he ate. Water was flowing in while he was sleeping. When he went to play on the weekend, the water was still flowing. The more water that flows into the village, the more money goes into Bob's pocket.

The vast majority of people like the feeling of spending money and enjoy the benefits of water flowing out of the pipes in advance, but they are unwilling to endure the hardship of repairing the pipes, let alone the 20 years of repairing the pipes.

Bob doesn't want to enjoy a meal at a top restaurant?

Don't want to laugh and laugh out loud with people over a drink?

Some patience is necessary. I enjoy it in advance when I am young, and I will not have that energy when I am old and want to fight again.

The plumber who is dreaming of the "American Dream" and fixing the plumbing for the Wall Street elite is a person carrying a bucket. He pours the water into the pool with the bucket. The water in the pool flows along the "pipes", and the water may flow into In the fountain, it is also possible to flow into the swimming pool, but once the plumber stops carrying the bucket, the fountain will have no water to spray. It needs water to continue spraying, so it asks the person in the swimming pool to ask for water. If the person in the swimming pool refuses to provide it, the fountain will It was completely cut off.

Those who admired the fountain and marveled at its exquisite design left one after another. Only then did the plumber clearly see that the mermaid stone sculpture hidden under the fountain did not look as hazy, dreamy, or even poorly carved as it looked through the water.

When analyzing historical issues, many countries are accustomed to using a single country as the unit of analysis, including the United States. Due to special reasons, many historical issues between Britain and the United States are related.

The victory of the War of Independence in 1776 and the Second War of Independence in 1812 made Americans more confident in themselves. They defeated a powerful opponent, and domestic newspapers tried their best to promote it. People believed that the immediate prosperity was due to the wise and decisive president.

The Victorians believed that the prosperity of the time was due to the inventions of people and the entrepreneurial spirit of entrepreneurs, but the weather also played a big role.

From 1832 to 1835, there were four consecutive bumper harvests of British wheat, and the price of wheat dropped by 40%. At that time, two-thirds of the income of the working class was used to buy food. Increased demand for finished products has indirectly affected US cotton production.

The United States was in chaos in the early days of the founding of the country. In Nevada, Mark Twain was a reporter in Virginia City. This city is also an area rich in gold and silver in Nevada. Mark Twain was not immune to the "gold rush," and he was sensitive to rumors and new opportunities. At that time, many mine owners who had discovered gold and silver mines were selling their stocks in New York City to raise funds, so Mark Twain invested all his savings and even all his royalties in buying the stocks of silver mines. .

Americans like to speculate very much, and the risk of stock trading is the greatest. Some people become rich overnight, but they may also become poor overnight or even heavily in debt. Although the risks are great, to this day, the trading halls of the stock markets in New York, London and other places are always crowded. Just like entering a casino, it is commonplace for winners to laugh and losers to cry.

In addition to stock speculation, there is another more profitable way of speculation, which is land speculation.

Land speculators were mainly a special group of merchants formed in the 18th century. They came from different social classes, and many of them were military officers, congressmen or officials, including famous revolutionary leaders such as Washington and Franklin. Of the 55 delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention, 14 were land speculators.

They combine political and economic power, and their influence is insignificant. After independence, land speculators were more closely integrated with official agencies, and many "land bureaus" set up by the government were controlled by land companies, so "for many years, most of the work of land bureaus was handled by private land companies." . This combination of government and business made land speculation itself uncontrollable. When the Westward Expansion Movement was about to rise or just started, a large number of public lands in the west had already been preempted by land speculators. Taking a certain place in Mississippi as an example, 1.4 million acres of land were purchased by a 62-member speculative group, another 1.3 million acres were owned by a 57-member speculative group, and 2.6 million acres were divided up by other speculative groups. From President Washington to before the American Civil War, there were almost a handful of American politicians who had nothing to do with the western land speculative market. President George Washington himself had a close relationship with the Ohio Partnership. He purchased 32,373 acres of land in the Ohio area at one time, and appointed Rufus Putman, the general representative of the Ohio Company, as the first federal surveyor. Other Founding Fathers such as Benjamin Franklin, Patrick Henry, Robert Morris, George Morgan, and others joined the ranks of the big land speculators. A passage from Washington shows the mentality of these people at that time: "Anyone who ignores this good opportunity to pursue high-quality land will lose it forever."

The dignitaries in Washington and the dignitaries on Wall Street make use of each other, and the integration of government and business makes the government's land policy more conducive to land speculation.

In 1800, the number of public lands sold in the United States was only 68,000 acres, which increased to 3.491 million acres in 1818, a sudden increase of more than 50 times. By 1819, when the financial crisis broke out, the first wave of land speculation ended.

Beginning in 1830, due to the Westward Movement and the Monroe Doctrine, a large number of European immigrants came to the west, and the second land speculation began. The frenzy of infrastructure construction and the laissez-faire behavior of speculation, land prices skyrocketed and the transaction volume also increased. It was too late to mint money, and paper money was needed to meet market demand.

Printing can not only print books, but also banknotes, but President Jackson is not a person who likes banknotes. The one-dollar banknote is printed with George Washington, the founding father of the United States, and the US national emblem is printed on the reverse. The banknote material is made of 75% A blend of cotton and 25% linen.

It is difficult for every American patriot and politician to admit that their trade and economy are still dependent on their defeated rival Britain.

The British Reserve Bank has a rule that when the grain harvest is good, gold does not need to buy grain imports, and loans are relatively easy. When there is a bad harvest and you have to import food, the Bank of England will be full of protection for gold, and it will be very difficult to get a loan. American land speculators are not only Americans, but also the British. In 1833, the United States owed only 110 million to the United Kingdom. By 1833, it was 220 million. The funds from the United Kingdom to the United States have exceeded the total cash of the federal government in state banks. quantity.

This kind of problem cannot be solved by printing money. The gold reserve has not changed. This problem was not solved until the discovery of gold mines in California in 1848 and the start of the gold rush.

State banks, with easy credit and less stringent requirements, were preferred to the Bank of the Second United States, which preferred to reject people, and to maintain its own stability by refusing to accept the notes of banks it thought to be badly run.

The legislation of many state banks was very hasty, and there were many hidden dangers in the operation of many state banks. Jackson was elected as the president of the United States. He believed that the credit problem of the Bank of the Second United States had affected the development of the American economy.

Jackson decided to close the Bank of the United States. As part of a strategy to destroy the Bank of the United States, Jackson withdrew government deposits from the bank and placed them in state banks.

At the same time, the United States promulgated and implemented the Free Banking Act. The Free Banking Act allows anyone with a minimum capital of $100,000 to establish a bank, without any other requirements; and state application procedures have been greatly simplified. Banks sprung up like mushrooms after rain, and the hasty start of banks led to rampant fraud and poor quality banking.

Because of the increased deposit base, the state banks, which did not place a premium on credit policy, could issue more banknotes and make more loans secured by real estate, the most illiquid of all investments. In 1836, the British grain production decreased. The weather of this year was wet and cold, which was not suitable for the growth of wheat. There are no permanent enemies, only permanent interests," Lord Palmerston's world.

Palmerston managed to draw some of the influential people of The Times into minor positions in the Cabinet, and comforted others by admitting others into his circle. From this time on, the activities of The Times in respect of the foreign policy of the British Empire have been entirely directed at creating public opinion in keeping with Lord Palmerston's foreign policy. The Times must prepare public opinion for what Lord Palmerston wants to do, and force it to go along with what he has done.

The paper did its best to turn British and Americans against each other when discussing American issues. It did so, however, neither out of sympathy with the British cotton magnates, nor out of concern for any real or possible British interests.

He loves warships, especially warships that can go to the East. Stamp duty is a tax on newspapers implemented in Britain in 1712, with the purpose of increasing national income and fighting against opposition newspapers. Stamp duty increased the cost of newspapers, restricted the spread of newspapers, and made newspapers unaffordable for the general public. In 1836, Parliament lowered stamp duties, so reading newspapers became cheaper.

In 1839 the British Parliament published a Blue Book containing diplomatic documents on Anglo-Persian and Anglo-Afghanistan relations, including letters from the British representative in Kabul, A. Burns, concerning the Anglo-Afghan war. The letters had been carefully selected and forged by the Foreign Office to conceal Britain's provocative role in waging the war.

In 1836, China began to discuss the issue of smoking ban.

It was also in that year that the India and China Association was established, which gathered 109 large companies related to the invasion of India and China, including giants in import and export trade, shipping, finance and other fields. The association often keeps in touch with various departments of the British government, especially the Foreign Office, providing written or oral information to urge the British government to intensify its aggression against China.

British funds stopped the loan easing policy, and Jackson's response to land speculation was to cut off speculation. He signed the "Coin Circulation Order" as an executive order, requiring that, except in rare cases, all future purchases of land must be paid in gold or silver coins.

The capital chain was broken, and a large number of land speculators found that they could not bear the amount of land they held. In the late autumn of 1836, the bubble burst, and public land speculation stagnated. The land in Illinois used to be $10 per mu, and then fell to $3. Financial institutions became shaky.

The interests of many British investors have been damaged. At this time, only the United Kingdom can save the United States and continue to use loose policies.

Many newspapers condemned the protection measures of the Bank of England, but the Times did not speak out. They are the "slaves" of Lord Cupid. The reasons they gave are also very good. Since 1836, the British grain harvest has been poor. In 1839, the price of wheat was 80% higher. Many British textile mills had to reduce production, which also led to a decrease in the demand for cotton, from 15 cents per pound to 10 cents.

When it is profitable, Britain and the United States will have fun together, and when it is not profitable, they will go their separate ways, like a couple who have turned their faces, and their faces will grow old when they hear each other's name.

In addition to the precipitous drop in land prices, the United States still has a large amount of cotton that cannot be sold. The currency reserves of the Bank of England have dropped from 9 million pounds to 3 million pounds, but they still do not move their gold reserves. Instead, they borrow from French banks.

When the war machine is in full swing, all livelihood issues can be ignored. Just at this time, the news of Humen's opium sales came, and the first Opium War broke out.

The sense of national honor will affect people's understanding of complex issues. The great empire on which the sun never sets defeated the Qing Dynasty, and the silver brought in solved the financial pressure in Britain. As for the United States, industry and agriculture were completely stagnant, and banks stopped cash payments. The government began to default.

How can the government default? Of course the government could renege on its debts, and it wasn't until the Civil War that Lincoln signed the Homestead Act that land speculation ended.

Prior to this, because of the gold rush, the westward movement began again, and land speculation began again.

Generally speaking, capitalists build railways after the factory is built, and the United States does the opposite. Everyone knows that the land where the railway passes will definitely increase in value. The US builds railways to go to the gold mines. This time, speculators rushed to buy. The most important thing is the land along the railway, but how can the route of the railway be determined?

One speed, at that time it was a competition between two companies who could repair the road faster.

Second, terrain. Every transportation upgrade means a big agricultural opening. The barren land will become valuable farmland. Because of the size and perishable characteristics of agricultural products, only the land along the railway line will be used as agricultural land. Agriculture needs water, and there are deserts in the west, so canals need to be built for irrigation.

The large ranch grazing industry in the United States is distributed in the western mountains of the United States. There are many plateaus and basins here. Due to the closed terrain, the climate is dry; in the west of the Central Great Plains, because it is located on the leeward slope of the westerly wind and is far away from the eastern ocean, the precipitation is relatively low. few. The arid climate makes agricultural production inseparable from irrigation; the pasture resources are relatively rich, and it is the main animal husbandry area in the United States.

The commercial grain agriculture in the United States is distributed in the central Great Plains of the United States. The plains are suitable for agricultural mechanization. In order to encourage agricultural developers in the west, the U.S. federal government has formulated flexible and diverse land development policies. Western Tree Planting Act and other laws. In the form of laws and policies, it is clarified that as long as a certain area and a certain period of time are planted with trees, grass or irrigation ditches in the western region, a certain area of ​​land can be obtained for free or at a low price. The implementation of these laws and policies promoted the development of land reclamation and agriculture in the western United States, and some large farmers began to appear.

They don't need to "carry buckets" and can hire people to work. They have also experienced land reclamation, but they have repaired their "pipelines", and they don't need to continue to bend over to work when they are old.

Hufflepuff's students take care of plants, till the land, and get rid of meat-eating slugs, but that doesn't stop them from learning other things.

When there are too many leeks, it looks like a grassland. The farmer starts the machine to harvest, and quickly pours out a piece.

The strange thing is that leeks like to hold their heads high and look up at the sky, while farmers bend their backs and look down at the earth.

In the end, who is the more inhumane?

In 1845, there was a great famine in Ireland. To import cheap food, tariffs had to be lowered. The reduction of tariffs reduced fiscal revenue. The railway was a government project. If the income was less, the payment to the railway company would be less. The stock price fell, and the bubble burst again. The order was chaotic, and the British financial crisis also came.

These materials and data are taken from "The Great American Crisis in 1837", which is available at Xinhua Bookstore. The United States was killed by the British and almost became the second Spain. Fortunately, a gold mine was discovered.