Power's Influence On The Visual Arts Of Germany

Scurlock presents the statement that the United States federal government defends the lending industry, which adds to their ability to have such high profits. He appeals a lot to logic when presenting this argument and supplies the audience with many facts that increase both the credibility and strength of the minor argument. For example, he gives information from when George Bush was president and how his second highest campaign contributor was a bank, and that same bank, MBNA, wrote a bill increasing the difficulty for middle-class families to have a second chance because they claimed that the option of bankruptcy was being abused; Bush passed this bill. Scurlock reveals the bias that the government has towards the lending industry with the use of this factual information. He also says that the Federal Governments top regulator rushed to the banks’ defense when there were complaints aimed at the credit industry, which is just another example broadcasting the bias of the government. Along with facts, Scurlock includes footage of consumer credit hearings that show how each bank was given the chance to discuss their

In a 2010 National Review article titled “Chris Dodd’s Big, Misguided Bill” Malpass argued against the value of creating the consumer financial protection bureau, writing that the Obama administration should “streamline and concentrate” existing consumer protection regulators, a step that he said “would result in a reduction of government jobs.”

In doing so, Bruner and Carr are better able to elucidate the ways in which individual actors caused the rapid decline of the American economy in late 1906. In this, Bruner and Carr begin the text by highlighting the influences and magnitude of the major players in the financial services sector in the early twentieth century. Perhaps the most notable of the those mentioned is that of J. Pierpont Morgan, the Wall Street Oligarch for which the contemporarily “too big to fail” financial services entity J.P Morgan-Chase is named. In highlighting these individuals and their over-inflated influence on the financial system, Bruner and Carr subtlety highlight one of the biggest problems facing the financial services sector during this time period—the lack of regulation. To further elucidate this point, the books opening chapter follows the interactions between J.P Morgan and his other colleagues in George F. Baker, president of the First National Bank of New York and James Stillman, president of New York’s National City Bank. Here, the text focuses on the ways in which they inconspicuously competed and colluded with each other to make their fortunes larger and more

When an economy is suffering, people will look for an entity or person to blame yes, but they also eagerly and sometimes blindly accept what they might justify as the lesser of two evils. In this case, Evil is identified and there is nothing lesser about it. In the early 1900’s what they found changed and also ended the lives of millions. World War II and the hardship it brought upon Germany was just the tool that one man in particular took advantage of for his own personal gain and ideology. Born in Australia in 1889, Aldoph Hitler came to be one of the most famed and later despised person’s in human history. Many have written about his life and what he accomplished or yet, what he did. Many have tried to explain the why in hopes that

Now, many of these banking groups are owned by foreign investors, despite attempted safeguards. This ownership has provided investors leverage and influence over the actions of the government because the government owes an exorbitant amount to these banks (Daniel Lederman). The same argument can be made about the United States’ government. This influence can be seen across the board as many decisions now seem to favor only a select few, forgetting about the ramifications for the many.

Before the advent of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in 1933 and the general conception of government safety nets, the United States banking industry was quite different than it is today. Depositors assumed substantial default risk and even the slightest changes in consumer confidence could result in complete turmoil within the banking world. In addition, bank managers had almost complete discretion over operations. However, today the financial system is among the most heavily government- regulated sectors of the U.S. economy. This drastic change in public policy resulted directly from the industry’s numerous pre-regulatory failures and major disruptions that produced severe economic and social

History has shown us again, and again that when power is left unchecked it becomes corrupt and out of control, that is the iron law of oligarchy. In the US we saw this happen recently in the 2008 economic meltdown. The banks and corporations should never have been aloud to become "to big to fail," and once they did grow to a point when they were there should have been more government oversight to make sure things did not get out of hand. After the great depression laws were put in place to try to prevent something like that from ever happening again, but we undid those restrictions and ended up in a place eerily similar to somewhere we had been before. In this paper I will cover a brief history of the great depression, and show how the situation in 2008 was all too similar. I will also discuss and analyze the factors that brought us to the tipping point in our most recent economic scare. And finally I will explain why the actions taken by the FED were necessary and kept us from an even more

Art can be expressed in many forms but one of the best has got to be political art, as it expresses art in a relevant form for many to understand, it doesn’t require knowledge in history. It puts out a statement in a bold way so that people may better understand what is trying to be expressed. Many artists use art in topics like reproductive rights, equality, gun control, human rights, the environment and war to express desire for change. One of the most outspoken political artists is Barbara Kruger, who has had her work installed in many well-known museums. Kruger has become even more known because of her relevance using art to criticize well-known public figures like Kim Kardashian and George W. Bush, she has also been a proud supporter of reproductive rights. One of her most known works is “Your body is a battleground” which was printed in 1989 in her support for the “March for Women’s Lives”. To show the positive and negatives sides of the inner struggle, the good and the evil. She has a reputation of supporting feminism ideas but she hasn’t stopped there, she’s even had her work put on display in the Hirshhorn Museum. She has gotten the attention of The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times because of her distinctive contemporary works. The beauty of her art is that it relates to many, her art ranges from domestic violence to compulsive shopping and everything in-between, it is also really easy

“The Choice of Wall Street,” is the title of the first chapter in William Greider’s 1987 book, “Secrets of The Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country.” This chapter is basically the story of how and why Paul Volcker was chosen to be the new Federal Reserve Chairman. It all started in 1979 when President Jimmy Carter took a trip to Camp David with his most trusted advisers, the purpose of which was to decide on the course of action that needed to be taken to regain popular support so that he had a chance to win the upcoming Presidential election. All of his advisers understood that the economy was his most pressing issue. Inflation was incredibly high and all attempts to

Germany in the 1930’s was still very deeply ashamed of its utter loss and mistreatment in and directly after the First World War. The high hopes for democracy and the Republic in Germany were tarnished and ultimately dashed first by the Treaty of Versailles, the flaws in the Weimar Constitution, political strife and stalemate, and deep economic hardship. “Before I understood the meaning of the word ‘Germany,’ I loved it as something mysteriously overshadowed with grief…,” (Maschmann). Melita Maschmann was a teenage girl from a wealthy, conservative family at the time Hitler became chancellor, and her family avidly supported him. Hitler was the one that would restore Germany’s soiled image and redeem her from economic, political, and other hardships, thereby removing the “shadow” of which Melita speaks. Her account is important especially because it evidences that the NSDAP had strong support among the wealthy as well, despite anti-capitalist sentiments in the party’s

The emergence of the financial oligarchs – post- modernity sets the momentum for the decline of Western Civilization. The financial oligarchs are the modern incarnation of the feudal lords of time past. The feudal lords extracted rent through their monopoly over land. Today the financial oligarchy extracts interest and other financial charges with the same result to keep the peasant class in a state of subsistence. They exercise control over social capital, commercial and industrial corporations, credit and financial institutions. They have a powerful influence on a country’s political system through financial inducements. They control politicians through legalised bribery, using campaign finance and lobbying to influence policies that allow

If society did not have artists that fought against the norm, then society would still be majorly oppressive and disallow free thought on one’s own originality. This oppressive stance can be shown in the Third Reich were degenerate artwork was not allowed due to how the artwork did not show the ideal man and woman (“Nazi Approved Art”). If this status quo was not kept, then the state’s ideal image could not be obtained. States such as the Third Reich viewed women more as objects of desire and how women need to keep family values of purity. Men were viewed as the sexual prowess of the state and were shown to be in strict guidelines of masculinity and power. These roles do not allow society to grow and forces a stalemate in creativity. Elaine de Kooning wanted to show how male privilege of gaze could be changed and proved this through her expressionist

Over the course of a decade, Weimar Germany went through a period of unprecedented economic chaos. Under the Treaty of Versailles, the Entente powers prohibited German weapons manufacturing, effectively muzzling military production, which was the engine of economic growth throughout WWI. In 1923, hyperinflation led to the hypertrophic growth of prices as the exchange rate reached $1 = 4.2 trillion marks. Climaxing with a catastrophic depression, unemployment in Germany soared to nearly 30% by 1932. As a result, the famous Potsdamer Platz was frequently filled with vociferous debate over all things financial. In his seminal economic history of the 1920s, Martin Geyer not only described Germany’s postwar economy as chaotic, but as a “world

World War II was a war that was forever etched in history as a result of it destruction and overwhelming body count. But who would have thought that this war would have found a way to impact art before it’s time. Before Hitler rose to power, he used the civil war in Spain around 1936 as his personal field test. In response, arts took to their trade to cope with their frustration and express their opinions. Then as war was on the verge of beginning, Hitler stole modern art from Jewish artists and put them in his own show. His show was titled “Degenerate Art,” and it portrayed the artist as demented people who were a hindrance to society. He felt sane people were incapable of producing such abstract art. He went on to sponsor another

Art, in essence, is one of the most crucial pieces of cultural history. It transcends language, emanates emotion, provokes thought, and stimulates imagination. In other words, art is of monumental value in its scope of what befalls under its umbrella. It was no wonder why during the Nazi regime from 1933 - 1945 that the Nazis would thieve some of Europe’s most treasured works but also those deemed “degenerate.” Egon Schiele’s Portrait of Wally is a perfect example as to what “degenerate” art would be considered and what the Nazis would have been interested in seizing, but why?