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JFK on taxes and the economy...link below. (Original Post) clarice Jul 2015 OP
JFK battled Wall Street and Big Business Octafish Jul 2015 #1
Good stuff. nt clarice Jul 2015 #3
JFK is one of my heroes but he wasn't a cookie cutter saint./nt DemocratSinceBirth Jul 2015 #2

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
1. JFK battled Wall Street and Big Business
Mon Jul 13, 2015, 06:32 PM
Jul 2015
"If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich"
-- Inaugural Address of John F. Kennedy, Friday, January 20, 1961




So, in the short time he had, President Kennedy did what he could to balance the interests of concentrated wealth with the interests of the average American -- necessary for the good of the country.

Professor Donald Gibson detailed the issues in his 1994 book, Battling Wall Street: The Kennedy Presidency.

From the book:



"What (J.F.K. tried) to do with everything from global investment patterns to tax breaks for individuals was to re-shape laws and policies so that the power of property and the search for profit would not end up destroying rather than creating economic prosperity for the country."

-- Donald Gibson, Battling Wall Street. The Kennedy Presidency



More on the book, by two great Americans:



"Gibson captures what I believe to be the most essential and enduring aspect of the Kennedy presidency. He not only sets the historical record straight, but his work speaks volumes against today's burgeoning cynicism and in support of the vision, ideal, and practical reality embodied in the presidency of John F. Kennedy - that every one of us can make a difference." -- Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez, Chair, House Committee on Banking, Finance, and Urban Affairs

"Professor Gibson has written a unique and important book. It is undoubtedly the most complete and profound analysis of the economic policies of President Kennedy. From here on in, anyone who states that Kennedy was timid or status quo or traditional in that field will immediately reveal himself ignorant of Battling Wall Street. It is that convincing." -- James DiEugenio, author, Destiny Betrayed. JFK, Cuba, and the Garrison Case --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.



Had he lived to serve a second term, I'd bet on JFK and Labor over The Fed and Goldman Sach's Too Big To Fail chums.

As the great DUer zeemike noted, it's a good bet he'd have been re-elected were not for what John McCain called "the intervention in Dallas."
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