Chapter 844: Fighting for the South Atlantic (Part 2, Additional Chapters After 5,800 Votes)
When Roosevelt received the news that the German fleet had successfully arrived at the Falkland Islands and launched a trade raid, he was giving a speech in Congress for the issuance of a special 50 billion US dollar national debt. At this point in the world war, from an economic perspective, the United States is undoubtedly the biggest loser. Not only can the pre-war investment and loans in Europe not be recovered, but the Lend-Lease materials provided to Britain and the Soviet Union are also almost completely consumed. The United States has also spent a huge price to rearm. The results achieved by Teikichi Mitsuhori are equivalent to several times the number and tonnage of warships abandoned in the Washington Naval Treaty and the London Treaty.
In addition, investments in the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia and even half of South America have almost all gone down the drain - this part of the explicit and potential losses is estimated to be more than 100 billion US dollars. The Ministry of Finance has made statistics, and the total losses of materials, expenses and capital levels, including the government and the private sector, may have reached 500 billion US dollars. This is an appalling figure. Before the war (1940), the gross domestic product (GNP) of the United States was only more than 200 billion US dollars. Even considering the inflation rate, it was less than 280 billion US dollars (1944 US dollars). 500 billion US dollars is equivalent to the total loss of one year's GNP of the United States, Britain, France, Germany, the Soviet Union, Japan, and Italy.
Of course, if you really want to calculate, you can't say it's a complete loss - at least the United States has built a powerful army with a total of 10 million soldiers and modern equipment from scratch. Even the German side admits that the United States has a higher degree of mechanization. After all, American soldiers never walk for more than 5 miles, and for any other country, infantry marching on foot is the most basic military requirement.
In order to raise war funds, the United States not only raised the federal tax rate of high-income individuals to a sensational figure of more than 90%, but also the corporate income tax rate of each enterprise exceeded 50%. If it were peacetime, this tax rate could overthrow the US government several times, but it was obviously a miracle that it could be maintained during wartime. Of course, the capitalists do not have such a high patriotic consciousness. They have made serious calculations. Although the marginal tax rate has increased, due to the expansion of domestic demand and the credit support of the federal government, even such a tax system is still profitable. In order to reduce the income tax base, the capitalists have come up with a lot of tricks, such as expanding losses, accelerating depreciation, and increasing financing rates.
If the US domestic price index is 100 in 1940, it has reached 139 in 1944, which is equivalent to a depreciation of 40% in 4 years. It looks shocking, but this is not the worst among the major warring countries. Japan's price index soared to 234 in the same period, Britain's 198, and the Soviet Union's figures have always been distorted due to price and currency controls. Observers believe that it is at least more than 300. The most exaggerated is China. If it is based on 1937, it has reached more than 900 by 1944. In other words, it has shrunk to only one-tenth in just 7 years.
Even in Germany, a country that has suffered enough from inflation and whose head of state has repeatedly stated that he would not over-issue currency after taking office, the real price index has reached nearly 150. It is nothing more than Germany's continuous victories, coupled with the influx of Middle Eastern oil and materials from various countries, that has maintained a strong economic pattern. In fact, ordinary Germans can easily find that although they have more marks, the market commodities are subject to strict material rationing control. Money alone cannot buy things, and if you want to break the rationing system to get extra materials, the price will go up.
Take the simplest gasoline as an example. Usually, before the war, an ordinary family car is equivalent to the price of 20 tons of gasoline. Now two tons of gasoline can be exchanged for a car! A Tiger or an Fw-190 will burn 2-3 tons of fuel in a battle. The situation of advancing majestically is at the cost of almost all private cars in Western Europe being stopped! Now it is very simple to judge whether a person is a real rich man or a fake rich man. See if his car can still be driven!
Since inflation is an inevitable reality, the capitalists know this and try every means to borrow money to expand production, and then repay the loans with the shrunken currency. Its essence is that the state uses the right to coinage to collect excess taxes. Looking at the stock market, we can see that since the United States went to war, except for the attack on Pearl Harbor and the attack on New York, which caused a sharp drop in stock prices for a few days, the rest of the time has been steadily rising.
But even so, the normal fiscal expenditure and war bond issuance of the United States have come to an end. If you want to raise war capital in a short period of time, you must issue a special bond of 50 billion US dollars. It is easy for Roosevelt to make a statement to continue fighting and continue to assist allies such as Britain and the Soviet Union after his comeback, but it is not easy to actually come up with something. The replenishment of military supplies and the allocation of funds for warship construction may get a credit period of 2-3 months, but it is impossible to rely on delayed payment for a long time. There must be a systematic package solution. Under the premise that taxation can no longer be expanded, issuing special bonds (actually over-issuing currency) has become a helpless choice.
The consortiums (financial sponsors) obviously have many concerns about this special bond, because this bond is issued on a targeted basis, that is, the US government no longer pays for the purchase of materials, but uses bonds (IOUs) to pay, and the IOUs can be used to offset future federal taxes, or to purchase assets and materials at federal auctions, and of course, can also be used as a means of payment in mutual trade. It is not impossible to endorse and transfer at a discount on the exchange, but in order to prevent an impact on the existing bond system, it is agreed that such discount transfers will not exceed US$5 billion per month.
In fact, the Roosevelt administration has always been known for its fiscal deficits. It relied on fiscal deficits to stabilize the situation during the New Deal period. However, when it initially engaged in deficit finance, it was intended to slowly repay and reduce related deficits after the economy recovered. How could it be like this special national debt? Likewise, they do not consider repayment at all, but only intend to eliminate it by overissuing currency. In the final analysis, it is because the Federal Reserve is not an official agency controlled by the U.S. government. Otherwise, there would be no need to engage in such a complicated design and just start printing money to get $50 billion out.
The plutocrats are not worried about the 50 billion figure and future repayment methods. They can completely absorb the amount. The key lies in the United States's thoughts on subsequent wars and considerations of ending the war. If this special national debt comes again several times, the oligarchs will not be able to bear it. .
"...Some people will say, why should the United States provide assistance? Shouldn't it be the people of Great Britain or the Soviet Union to resist German aggression? This is of course right. Resisting aggression is indeed the unshirkable obligation of every country, but countries vary in size, There are levels of national power, and we must treat them objectively. For example, at a crime scene, the villain is forcibly raping a weak woman with weak resistance. This weak woman is still your friend. Can we say to the side, "Miss, resist this illegal behavior?" Is it your own business?
What's more, this villain is not only invading Great Britain and us, but is also supporting his accomplice Japan to invade us. Aren’t the planes used by the Japanese produced in Germany? Didn't the Japanese fleet rely on German bases to launch attacks in the Atlantic Ocean? Is it possible that the German army was not involved in the massive invasion of India? Could it be that the tanks and artillery used by the Japanese army in Southeast Asia were not provided by the Germans? "
Many people laughed at Roosevelt's playful metaphor, but a few oligarchs did not laugh. How easy would it be to continue fighting with Germany? Their old friends in Europe, the oligarchs of the European consortium, have sent letters and phone calls expressing their hope to mediate the war, so they want to ask Roosevelt what his real bottom line is? Of course, business is business, war is war, and there is also competition between the American consortium and the European consortium.
"Many people have this idea that the Germans and we are both white, and there is no deep hatred and we should be able to come to an understanding. People who say this simply don't understand the aggressive ambitions of Hitler's gang. His goal is to eventually How can it be possible for the ruler of the world to come to an understanding with us? If he really wanted to understand, he would have already retreated to the border lines of 1939 or even 1941. Now the Germans occupy the Falkland Islands, cutting off the connection between the east and west coasts of the United States. And it extended its claws of aggression to South America. I just received a telegram that the German break-up fleet attacked our fleet in South American waters...
If the Germans say that the condition for reconciliation is that they occupy the entire Europe, Africa and the Middle East and oppress hundreds of millions of free people, the United States would rather not accept this evil reconciliation;
If the Germans say that the condition for reconciliation is that they invade the Americas and unscrupulously squeeze our country's power, the United States would rather not have such a bastard reconciliation;
If the Germans say that the condition for reconciliation is that we give up all our allies, but they continue to maintain a gang of villains including Japan, Italy, etc., this is a despicable reconciliation that the United States would rather not have;
If the Germans say that the condition for reconciliation is that they continue to support Japan with guns, aircraft, tanks and other equipment and various strategic materials to continue fighting with us, the United States would rather not have such a shameless reconciliation! "
Although Roosevelt said a series of no, the oligarchs still heard the bottom line of the negotiation from his long speech:
1. The situation in South America has returned to what it was before 1941, with the four major British Dominions under substantial control by the United States;
2. Germany will not interfere with the United States’ handling of the Japanese issue. Even if it must sell supplies, it must notify the United States;
3. Acquiesce to Germany's control of the European continent, but the British problem cannot be solved by force. In exchange, the United States promised not to use force to solve the Peron regime;
4. U.S. capital must get a share of Middle East oil;
5. Require the European market to be partially opened to the United States. In exchange, the Far East market will be reciprocally opened to Germany in the future.
After exchanging opinions, several oligarchs including Morgan, Rockefeller, Ford and others said: "We agree to issue 50 billion special treasury bonds, and we will subscribe to most of them."