2016 elections - because it's never too early

[MadImmortalMan]

Lincoln and FDR redistributed a lot of wealth and they were two of our best presidents.

How did Lincoln redistribute wealth?

He transferred a lot of property from wealthy landowners to poor black people.

It was something like 40% of the South's capital. Lincoln was a Marxist's dream. 

[The Minsky Moment]

Marx was a fan of Lincoln, wrote him a letter of congratulations on his re-election.

[Berkut]

Lincoln and FDR redistributed a lot of wealth and they were two of our best presidents.

How did Lincoln redistribute wealth?

He transferred a lot of property from wealthy landowners to poor black people.

A good chunk of which was those poor black people.

[Berkut]

Actually, that is an interesting economics question/thought.

Freeing a slave is a huge hit to the paper wealth of the society, since you are not transferring the wealth, you are destroying it.

A slave has an economic value as an asset, a free person has zero capital value, right?

[Malthus]

Marx was a fan of Lincoln, wrote him a letter of congratulations on his re-election.

Ownership of the means of production. 

[MadImmortalMan]

Actually, that is an interesting economics question/thought.

Freeing a slave is a huge hit to the paper wealth of the society, since you are not transferring the wealth, you are destroying it.

A slave has an economic value as an asset, a free person has zero capital value, right?

Yeah. The reason I know that is from Piketty's book. The US lost a couple years' worth of national income just from freeing the slaves.

[Berkut]

As a banker, I wonder how banks handled that?

I am sure loans were secured against the value of slaves, for example.

What happens when that value basically just disappears?

[Barrister]

Actually, that is an interesting economics question/thought.

Freeing a slave is a huge hit to the paper wealth of the society, since you are not transferring the wealth, you are destroying it.

A slave has an economic value as an asset, a free person has zero capital value, right?

A free person has no capital value, but they have tremendous productive value do they not?

[Barrister]

As a banker, I wonder how banks handled that?

I am sure loans were secured against the value of slaves, for example.

What happens when that value basically just disappears?

Pretty sure they had bigger problems than that, since their entire currency that those loans were denominated on was now worthless.

[MadImmortalMan]

A free person has no capital value, but they have tremendous productive value do they not?

Yeah, but they can't be collateral anymore.

I expect the bankers did what anyone does when they make a bad investment. Suck it up, take the loss and move on.

[Berkut]

Actually, that is an interesting economics question/thought.

Freeing a slave is a huge hit to the paper wealth of the society, since you are not transferring the wealth, you are destroying it.

A slave has an economic value as an asset, a free person has zero capital value, right?

A free person has no capital value, but they have tremendous productive value do they not?

Of course, I am not arguing that slavery was economically good, just that from a capital measurement perspective, freeing them would be a huge loss of the "book" wealth of the country.

[Berkut]

As a banker, I wonder how banks handled that?

I am sure loans were secured against the value of slaves, for example.

What happens when that value basically just disappears?

Pretty sure they had bigger problems than that, since their entire currency that those loans were denominated on was now worthless.

Well, more to the point that the entire slave holding part of the country was mostly demolished in general due to war.

I am sure there were plenty of bank loans written with slaves as collateral prior to the secession.

[lustindarkness]

And they expected those loans to put the banks into the black.

[alfred russel]

Well, more to the point that the entire slave holding part of the country was mostly demolished in general due to war.

I am sure there were plenty of bank loans written with slaves as collateral prior to the secession.

Well, the value of the slaves fell during the war--it isn't as though people weren't aware of what was possibly going to happen. Presumably during the war, banks would have anticipated this as well when giving loans.

For the antebellum loans that continued into the civil war, I doubt it mattered. If issued by a northern bank, at least some southern states (can't speak for all of them) had laws prohibiting the repayment of the loans. If issued by a southern bank, well I can't imagine too many of those banks survived.

[dps]

Lincoln and FDR redistributed a lot of wealth and they were two of our best presidents.

How did Lincoln redistribute wealth?

He transferred a lot of property from wealthy landowners to poor black people.

A good chunk of which was those poor black people.

I don't think you really needed to explain the joke.