MSNBC has become Democratic Fox News

I've been saying for years that MSNBC was turning into Democratic Fox News. There are numbers out now suggesting that MSNBC is even more biased than Fox. ( Read more... )

Proto-communism in 1786

Interesting link: Rhode Island after the Revolutionary War actively sought to redistribute the wealth of the city merchants by forcing merchant creditors to accept paper money that was then printed in such volume that it would depreciate. On that matter of forcing, merchants who refused to accept paper money had their property seized and their citizenship revoked after being tried in "special courts without juries and without the right to appeal". These policies were popular because there were more farmers with debts than merchants lending credit. There were also proposals in the Legislature to require everyone to swear an oath to the paper money system and for the State to simply seize all merchant assets, but these proved unpopular and were defeated.

Just as interesting are the responses from educated outsiders, as there was talk of forcibly invading Rhode Island and annexing it to Connecticut and Massachusetts to stop these policies. This sounds similar to the anti-Communist reactionary movements of the 20th century.

As for the effect that these policies had on the economy, the policy seems not to have had any significant deleterious effect. At least, none is mentioned in the essay. With its wartime debts paid off, Rhode Island may have come out the other end of these policies healthier than when it started.

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via a Republican who is trying to argue that this is what Democrats are doing right now.