Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Kazakhstan

2009-04-08T14:31:48Z

Battletoads: /* Economy */

{{Country
|name =''Қазақстан Республикасы''
|map =Kazakhstan rel01.jpg
|flag =Flag of Kazakhstan.png
|arms =Arms of Kazakhstan.png
|capital =Astana
|capital-raw =
|government =Presidential republic
|government-raw =
|language =Kazakh, Russian
|king =
|queen =
|monarch-raw =
|president =Nursultan Nazarbayev
|president-raw =
|chancellor =
|chancellor-raw =
|pm =Karim Masimov
|pm-raw =
|area =1,052,085 sq mi
|pop =15,217,711
|pop-basis =2006
|gdp =$161 billion
|gdp-year =2007
|gdp-pc =$10,658
|currency =Tenge
|idd =
|tld =
}}
'''Kazakhstan''' (Republic of Kazakhstan), is a country in Central [[Asia]]. Its capital is Astana.

==Geography==
It is a former member of the [[USSR]]. With an area of approximately 2.7 million square kilometers, Kazakhstan is the ninth largest country in the world. It is a landlocked nation, bordering [[China]], [[Russia]], [[Kyrgyzstan]], [[Uzbekistan]], [[Turkmenistan]], and the [[Caspian Sea]]. The [[Aral Sea]] is also partially contained within Kazakhstan's borders, and the country's government has made recent efforts to save the Aral Sea from environmental disaster [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6538073.stm].
*Area: 2.7 million sq. km. (1.05 million sq. mi.); ninth-largest nation in the world; the size of Western Europe.
*Major cities: Astana (capital, June 1998), Almaty (former capital), Karaganda, and Shymkent.
*Terrain: Extends east to west from the Caspian Sea to the Altay Mountains and north to south from the plains of Western Siberia to the [[oasis]] and desert of Central Asia.
*Climate: Continental, cold winters and hot summers; arid and semi-arid.
*Border lengths: Russia 6,846 km., Uzbekistan 2,203 km., China 1,533 km., Kyrgyzstan 1,051 km., and Turkmenistan 379 km.

==People==
Kazakhstan is very ethnically diverse, with only a slight majority of Kazakhstanis being ethnic Kazakh. Other ethnic groups include Russian, Ukrainian, Uzbek, German, and Uyghur. Religions are Sunni Muslim, Russian Orthodox, Protestant, and other. Kazakhstan is a bilingual country. The Kazakh language has the status of the "state" language, while Russian is declared the "official" language. Russian is used routinely in business; 64.4% of the population speaks the Kazakh language. Education is universal and mandatory through the secondary level, and the literacy rate is 98.4%.
*Population (July 2006 est.): 15.2 million--down from 16.2 million in 1989; second most-populated country in Central Asia.
*Population growth rate (2006 est.): 0.3%. Population distribution: 56.4% of population lives in urban areas. Twenty-six cities had approximate populations of more than 50,000 in 1999--Astana (capital) 529,000, Almaty (former capital) 1.2 million, Karaganda 440,000, Shymkent 370,000, Taraz 340,000, Ust-Kamenogorsk 310,000, Pavlodar 300,000.
*Large scale emigration of ethnic Russians, Germans, and Ukrainians accounts for most of the population decrease since 1989.
*Population density: 14.5 people per sq. mi. (U.S. density 2000: 79.6 people per sq. mi.).
*Ethnic groups (2002): Kazakh 55.8%, Russian 28.3%, Ukrainian 3.3%, Uzbek 2.6%, German 1.8%, Uyghur 1.5%, other 5.0%.
*Religion: Sunni Muslim 47%, Russian Orthodox 44%, Protestant 2%, other 7%.
*Language: Kazakhstan is a bilingual country. Kazakh language has the status of the "state" language, while Russian is declared the "official" language. Russian is used routinely in business; 64.4% of population speaks the Kazakh language.
*Health (2006 est.): Infant mortality rate--28.3/1,000. Life expectancy--66.89 years (male 61.56 yrs.; female 72.52 yrs.). *Health care (2005 est.)--30.3 doctors and 68.2 hospital beds per 10,000 persons.
*Education: Mandatory universal secondary education. School system consists of kindergarten, primary school (grades 1-4), secondary school (grades 5-9), and high school (grades 10-11). Literacy rate--98.4%.
*Work force (2005, 7.85 million): Industry and construction--18.1%; agriculture and fishing--32.9%; services--49%.

==Government and Political Conditions==
Kazakhstan is a constitutional republic with a strong presidency. It is divided into 14 oblasts and the two municipal districts of Almaty and Astana. Each is headed by an akim (provincial governor) appointed by the president. Municipal akims are appointed by oblast akims. The Government of Kazakhstan transferred its capital from Almaty to Astana on June 10, 1998.

The president is the head of state. The president also is the commander in chief of the armed forces and may veto legislation that has been passed by the Parliament. President Nursultan Nazarbayev has been in office since Kazakhstan became independent. In 1995, President Nazarbayev called for a referendum that expanded his presidential powers: only he can initiate constitutional amendments, appoint and dismiss the government, dissolve Parliament, call referenda, and appoint administrative heads of regions and cities. The prime minister, who serves at the pleasure of the president, chairs the Cabinet of Ministers and serves as Kazakhstan's head of government. There are three deputy prime ministers and 16 ministers in the Cabinet.

Kazakhstan has a bicameral Parliament, comprised of a lower house (the Mazhilis) and upper house (the Senate). Single mandate districts popularly elect 67 seats in the Mazhilis; there also are 10 members elected by party-list vote. The Senate has 39 members. Two senators are selected by each of the elected assemblies (Maslikhats) of Kazakhstan's 16 principal administrative divisions (14 regions, or oblasts, plus the cities of Astana and Almaty). The president appoints the remaining seven senators. Mazhilis deputies and the government both have the right of legislative initiative, though the government proposes most legislation considered by the Parliament.

Elections to the Mazhilis in September 2004 yielded a lower house dominated by the pro-government Otan party, headed by President Nazarbayev. Two other parties considered sympathetic to the president, including the agrarian-industrial bloc AIST and the Asar party, founded by President Nazarbayev’s daughter, won most of the remaining seats (Asar and Otan subsequently merged in July 2006 to form the new Otan party). Opposition parties, which were officially registered and competed in the elections, won a single seat during elections that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said fell short of international standards. The opposition party Ak Zhol refused to take the seat in protest of the flawed elections.

In December 2005, President Nazarbayev won a new 7-year term in an election that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said fell short of international standards. Official results gave the president 91% of the vote, although independent exit polls found this figure to be somewhat inflated. Opposition candidates Zharmakhan Tuyakbay (For a Just Kazakhstan) and Alikhan Baymenov (Ak Zhol) were able to compete freely in this election.

===Principal Government Officials===
*President--Nursultan Nazarbayev
*Head of Presidential Administration--Adilbek Dzhaksybekov
*Prosecutor General--Rashid Tusupbekov
*National Security Committee (KNB) Chairman--Amangeldy Shabdarbayev
*Prime Minister--Karim Masimov
*Deputy Prime Minister--Aslan Musin
*State Secretary--Oralbay Abdykarimov

===Foreign Relations===
Kazakhstan has stable relationships with all of its neighbors. Kazakhstan is a member of the United Nations, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and North Atlantic Cooperation Council. It also is an active participant in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Partnership for Peace program. Kazakhstan also is a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization along with Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan established the Eurasian Economic Community in 2000 to re-energize earlier efforts at harmonizing trade tariffs and the creation of a free trade zone under a customs union. Kazakhstan is the founding member of the Conference for Interaction and Confidence in Asia. Kazakhstan also engages in regional security dialogue with ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations).

==Economy==
Kazakhstan's economy grew by 8.5% in 2006. Gross domestic product (GDP) grew 9.4% in 2005, 9.1 % in 2004, 9.2% in 2003, 9.5% in 2002, and 13.2% in 2001.

Kazakhstan's monetary policy has been well managed. In 2006, inflation remained relatively steady at 8.6%, up from 7.5% in 2005. Inflation from 2001-2003 was 6.4%, 6.6%, and 6.8%, respectively. Because of its strong macroeconomic performance and financial health, Kazakhstan became the first former Soviet republic to repay all of its debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2000, 7 years ahead of schedule. In March 2002, the U.S. Department of Commerce graduated Kazakhstan to market economy status under U.S. trade law. The change in status recognized substantive market economy reforms in the areas of currency convertibility, wage rate determination, openness to foreign investment, and government control over the means of production and allocation of resources.
*GDP (2007): $102.5 billion.
*Exchange rate (period average): 122.55 KZT/U.S. $1 in 2007.
*GDP growth rate: 9.5% (2002); 9.2% (2003); 9.6% (2004 est.); 9.7% (2005 est.); 10.7% (2006); 8.5% (2007).
GDP per capita (2007, purchasing power parity): $11,100.
*Inflation rate: 6.6% (2002); 6.8% (2003); 6.7% (2004 est.); 7.5% (2005); 8.4% (2006); 18.8% (2007 year-over-year); 10.8% (2007 average).
*Trade: Exports (2007 est.)--$44.88 billion. Imports (2007 est.)--$29.91 billion.
*Gross external debt: $18.2 billion (2002); $22.9 billion (2003); $32.71 billion (2004); $43.40 billion (2005); $73.46 billion (2006); $96.37 billion (2007).
*Central Bank's foreign exchange reserves: $4.96 billion (2003); $7.07 billion (2005 est.); $19.04 billion (Feb. 2008).
*National (oil) fund reserves: $3.6 billion (2003); $5.1 billion (2004); $10.1 billion (2006); $22.6 billion (Feb. 2008).
*Officially recognized unemployment rate: 8.7% (2003); 8.4% (2004 est.); 8.1% (2005 est.); 7.4% (2006 est.); 7.1% (2007 est.).
*Population below poverty line: 13.8% (2007).

In September 2002, Kazakhstan became the first country in the former Soviet Union to receive an investment-grade credit rating from a major international credit rating agency. Estimated level of external debt in 2005 was $41.66 billion. In 2004, Kazakhstan's gross foreign debt was about $26.03 billion. Kazakhstan has been successful in reducing the ratio of debt to GDP in recent years. In 2005, total governmental debt was $5 billion, which amounts to 8.9% of GDP. In 2000, total government debt equaled 21.7% of GDP.

The upturn in economic growth, combined with the results of earlier tax and financial sector reforms, dramatically improved government finances from the 1999 budget deficit level of 3.5% of GDP to a deficit of 0.5% of GDP in 2005. Government revenues grew from 19.8% of GDP in 1999 to 22.6% of GDP in 2001 to 25.7% of GDP in 2005. In 2000, Kazakhstan adopted a new tax code in an effort to consolidate these gains. On November 29, 2003 the Law on Changes to Tax Code was adopted, which reduced the value added tax (from 16% to 15%), the social tax (from 21% to 20%), and the personal income tax (from 30% to 20%). Kazakhstan furthered its reforms by adopting a new land code on June 20, 2003 and a customs code on April 5, 2003.

Oil and gas is the leading economic sector. Production of oil and gas condensate in Kazakhstan amounted to 61.9 million tons in 2005, which was 4.3% more than in 2004. Kazakhstan exported 52.4 million tons of oil and gas condensate a year in 2004 and 2005. Natural gas production in Kazakhstan in 2005 amounted to 14.5 billion cubic meters, a 25% increase from 2004. Kazakhstan holds about 4 billion tons of proven recoverable oil reserves and 3 trillion cubic meters of gas. Industry analysts believe that planned expansion of oil production, coupled with the development of new fields, will enable the country to produce as much as 3 million barrels per day by 2015, lifting Kazakhstan into the ranks of the world's top 10 oil-producing nations. Kazakhstan's 2005 oil exports were valued at $17.4 billion, representing over 70% of overall exports. Major oil and gas fields and their recoverable oil reserves are Tengiz (7 billion barrels); Karachaganak (8 billion barrels and 1,350 billion cubic meters of natural gas); and Kashagan (7-9 billion barrels). Starting in 2004, the Government of Kazakhstan increased its take of oil deals by increasing taxation of new oil projects.

Kazakhstan instituted an ambitious pension reform program in 1998. There are 14 saving pension funds, one of which is state controlled. The National Bank oversees and regulates the pension funds. The pension funds' growing demand for quality investment outlets triggered rapid development of the debt securities market. Pension fund capital is being invested almost exclusively in corporate and government bonds, including Government of Kazakhstan Eurobonds. The Kazakhstani banking system is developing rapidly. Its capitalization now exceeds $1 billion. The National Bank has introduced deposit insurance in its campaign to strengthen the banking sector. Several major foreign banks have branches in Kazakhstan, including ABN-AMRO, Citibank, and HSBC.

====Agriculture====
Agriculture accounted for 10.3% of Kazakhstan's GDP in 2005. Grain (Kazakhstan is the seventh-largest producer of wheat in the world) and livestock are the most important agricultural commodities. Agricultural land occupies more than 220 million hectares, about 68% of which consists of pasture and hay land. Chief livestock products are dairy goods, leather, meat, and wool. The country's major crops include wheat, barley, cotton, and rice. Wheat is the leading agricultural commodity in Kazakhstan's export trade. Kazakhstan harvests 14-15 million tons of wheat per year.

====Natural Resources====
Oil, gas, and mineral exports are key to Kazakhstan's economic success. Since 1993, Kazakhstan’s extractive industries have attracted $30.7 billion in foreign investment, which represents almost 76% of the total foreign direct investment in Kazakhstan for that period. Kazakhstan has significant deposits of coal, iron ore, copper, zinc, uranium, and gold.

===In my country, there is problem===
In my country there is problem,
And that problem is transport.
It take very very long,
Because Kazakhstan is big.
Throw transport down the well,
So my country can be free.
So my country can be free!
We must make travel easy,
Then we have a big party.
In my country there is problem,
And that problem is the jew.
They take everybody money,
They never give it back.
Throw the jew down the well,
So my country can be free.
So my country can be free!
You must grab him by his horns,
Then we have a big party.
If you see the jew coming,
You must be careful of his teeth.
You must grab him by his money,
And I tell you what to do.
Throw the jew down the well,
So my country can be free.
So my country can be free!
You must grub him by his horns,
Then we have a big party.
Throw the jew down the well,
So my country can be free.
So my country can be free!
You must grab him by his horns,
Then we have a big party.

==History==
Nomadic tribes have been living in the region that is now Kazakhstan since the first century BC, although the land has been inhabited at least as far back as the Stone Age. From the fourth century AD through the beginning of the 13th century, the territory of Kazakhstan was ruled by a series of nomadic nations. Following the Mongolian invasion in the early 13th century, administrative districts were established under the Mongol Empire, which eventually became the territories of the Kazakh Khanate. The major medieval cities of Taraz and Turkestan were founded along the northern route of the Great Silk Road during this period.

Traditional nomadic life on the vast steppe and semi-desert lands was characterized by a constant search for new pasture to support the livestock-based economy. The Kazakhs emerged from a mixture of tribes living in the region in about the 15th century and by the middle of the 16th century had developed a common language, culture, and economy. In the early 1600s, the Kazakh Khanate separated into the Great, Middle and Little (or Small) Hordes--confederations based on extended family networks. Political disunion, competition among the hordes, and a lack of an internal market weakened the Kazakh Khanate. The beginning of the 18th century marked the zenith of the Kazakh Khanate. The following 150 years saw the gradual colonization of the Kazakh-controlled territories by tsarist Russia.

The process of colonization was a combination of voluntary integration into the Russian Empire and outright seizure. The Little Horde and part of the Middle Horde signed treaties of protection with Russia in the 1730s and 1740s. Major parts of the northeast and central Kazakh territories were incorporated into the Russian Empire by 1840. With the Russian seizure of territories belonging to the Senior Horde in the 1860s, the tsars effectively ruled over most of the territory belonging to what is now the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The Russian Empire introduced a system of administration and built military garrisons in its effort to establish a presence in Central Asia in the so-called "Great Game" between it and Great Britain. Russian efforts to impose its system aroused the resentment of the [[Kazakh people]], and by the 1860s, most Kazakhs resisted Russia's annexation largely because of the disruption it wrought upon the traditional nomadic lifestyle and livestock-based economy. The Kazakh national movement, which began in the late 1800s, sought to preserve the Kazakh language and identity. There were uprisings against colonial rule during the final years of tsarist Russia, with the most serious occurring in 1916. The destruction of the nomadic life, prior to and during the Communist period, created a Kazakh diaspora in neighboring countries, especially western China. Since independence in 1991, the government has encouraged the return of ethnic Kazakhs by offering subsidies for returnees.

Although there was a brief period of autonomy during the tumultuous period following the collapse of the Russian Empire, the Kazakhs eventually succumbed to Soviet rule. In 1920, the area of present-day Kazakhstan became an autonomous republic within Russia and, in 1936, a Soviet republic.

Soviet repression of the traditional elites, along with forced collectivization in late 1920s-1930s, brought about mass hunger and led to unrest. Soviet rule, however, took hold, and a communist apparatus steadily worked to fully integrate Kazakhstan into the Soviet system. Kazakhstan experienced population inflows of thousands exiled from other parts of the Soviet Union during the 1930s and later became home for hundreds of thousands evacuated from the Second World War battlefields. The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) contributed five national divisions to the Soviet Union's World War II effort.

The period of the Second World War marked an increase in industrialization and increased mineral extraction in support of the war effort. At the time of Soviet leader Josif Stalin's death, however, Kazakhstan still had an overwhelmingly agricultural-based economy. In 1953, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev initiated the ambitious "Virgin Lands" program to turn the traditional pasturelands of Kazakhstan into a major grain-producing region for the Soviet Union. The Virgin Lands policy, along with later modernizations under Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, sped up the development of the agricultural sector, which to this day remains the source of livelihood for a large percentage of Kazakhstan's population.

Growing tensions within Soviet society led to a demand for political and economic reforms, which came to a head in the 1980s. In December 1986, mass demonstrations by young ethnic Kazakhs took place in Almaty to protest the methods of the communist system. Soviet troops suppressed the unrest, and dozens of demonstrators were jailed. In the waning days of Soviet rule, discontent continued to grow and find expression under Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of glasnost. Caught up in the groundswell of Soviet republics seeking greater autonomy, Kazakhstan declared its sovereignty as a republic within the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) in October 1990. Following the August 1991 abortive coup attempt in Moscow and the subsequent dissolution of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan declared independence on December 16, 1991.

The years following independence have been marked by significant reforms to the Soviet command-economy and political monopoly on power. Under Nursultan Nazarbayev, who initially came to power in 1989 as the head of the Kazakh Communist Party and was eventually elected President in 1991, Kazakhstan has made significant progress toward developing a market economy, for which it was recognized by the United States in 2002. The country has enjoyed significant economic growth since 2000, partly due to its large oil, gas, and mineral reserves.

{{License|license = This work is in the [[public domain]] in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code.| source = [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5487.htm]}}

[[Category:Asian Countries]]
[[Category:Former Soviet Countries]]

Warren G. Harding

2009-04-08T14:25:12Z

Battletoads: /* Scandals */

{{President
|image=Jgftyr.jpg
|seq=29
|term_start=March 4, 1921
|term_end=August 2, 1923<ref>http://home.comcast.net/~sharonday7/Presidents/AP060301.htm</ref>
|party=Republican
|vp=Calvin Coolidge
|previous=Woodrow Wilson
|next=Calvin Coolidge
|birth_date=November 2, 1865
|birth_place=Near Blooming Groove, Ohio
|death_date=August 2, 1923
|death_place=San Francisco, California
|spouse=Florence Kling Harding
|spouse2=
|religion=[[Baptist]]
}}

'''Warren G. (Gamaliel) Harding''' (November 2, 1865 - August 2, 1923) was the 29th [[President of the United States of America]], elected in a [[Republican Party|Republican]] landslide in 1920 and serving from 1921 until his sudden death in 1923. After the [[First World War]]. His conservative presidency was marked as a "return to normalcy", with an end to strikes and race riots, broad-scale prosperity, and peace abroad. He looked like a president, and was highly popular; after his deaths any number of scandals were blamed on him, by Democrats and by his Republican successor [[Calvin Coolidge]], so that his reputation among both conservative and liberal scholars is near the bottom.

==Career==
Harding's undeviating Republicanism and vibrant speaking voice, plus his willingness to let the machine bosses set policies, led him far in Ohio politics. He served in the state Senate and as Lieutenant Governor, and unsuccessfully ran for Governor. He delivered the nominating address for President [[William Howard Taft|Taft]] at the 1912 Republican Convention. In 1914 he was elected to the U.S. Senate. An Ohio admirer, Harry Daugherty, began to promote Harding for the 1920 Republican nomination because, he later explained, "He looked like a President." <ref>http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/wh29.html</ref>

==1920 Election==
Harding won a sweeping landslide victory over fellow Ohioan James Cox (with [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] as the defeated nominee for Vice President). Harding succeeded by promising to end the highly emotional debates of the Wilson years, and promising realism instead of idealism in foreign policy. Irish Catholics, angry at Wilson for not promoting the independence of Ireland as he had promised, were in control of the Democratic party in most large cities. They sat out the election allowing the GOP sweep all the major cities.

Morello (2001) shows that advertising genius [[Albert Lasker]] sold candidate Harding to the American people by using new advertising strategies and techniques, borrowed from business and from the wartime bond campaigns. Lasker used the three pillars of consumer advertising: "reason why" selling, which compared products directly--aided especially by Harding's photogenic image; testimonial advertising, using endorsements by famous people; and "preemptive advertising," which rushed to claim common characteristics as unique features of the advertised commodity. Lasker used new technology such as movies. He adjusted the front porch campaign style used by [[William McKinley]] in 1896 to shield his weak candidate from uncontrolled public scrutiny. Lasker launched a sharp, relentlessly negative campaign against the policy failures of incumbent Democrat [[Woodrow Wilson]]. The result, Morello concludes, was a triumph of modern advertising technique which propelled the Republicans back into the White House and furthered the commodification of candidates in modern electoral contests.

==Presidency==
=== Key Accomplishments ===
*Eliminated wartime controls
*Slashed taxes
*Established a Federal budget system,
*Restored the high protective tariff
*Imposed tight limitations upon immigration
*Ended the Depression of 1921
*Launched the Roaring Twenties
*Fought the KKK.

=== Immigration Control ===

Mr. Harding signed into law the [[Emergency Quota Act]]<ref>http://tucnak.fsv.cuni.cz/~calda/Documents/1920s/QuotaAct1918.html</ref> which sought to control immigration following [[World War I]] and preserve the distinctive American culture by ensuring the majority of immigrants came from the historically compatible cultures of Northern Europe. This law aimed to bring wages of hard working Americans under control by limiting immigration to 3% of the 1910 census. It was followed on by a similar act in 1924, after Mr. Harding's death.<ref>http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/faculty/hodgson/Courses/so11/Race/quota_acts.htm</ref>

=== Justice ===

Harding pardoned the [[socialist]] [[Eugene Debs]] who was imprisoned in 1918 for inciting resistance to the draft during World War I. Despite their political differences, Harding was cordial to him and met with him in the [[White House]], "I have heard so damned much about you, Mr Debs, that I am very glad to meet you personally."<ref>http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/vodebs.htm</ref>

Harding defined the [[Supreme Court]] for two decades, appointing four solidly conservative justices. Harding's appointments included former President [[William Howard Taft]] to be Chief Justice (1921), [[George Sutherland]] (1922), [[Pierce Butler]] (1923) and [[Edward Terry Sanford]] (1923). Two of these justices (Taft and Sanford) served until 1930. The other two (Sutherland and Butler) served until the late 1930s and stood up to the liberal policies of President [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]].

In selecting Pierce for the bench, Harding broke with tradition by picking a conservative Democrat even though Harding was a Republican.

Harding sought to calm race relations during the 1921 [[Tulsa Race Riot]]. <ref>see [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3812/is_199911/ai_n8854233 online]</ref>

=== Economics ===
Harding cut federal spending, lowered taxes, and began paying off the wartime national debt. He restored prosperity by 1921, opening a decade of rapid growth known as the ''Roaring 20s''.

Harding created the Bureau of the Budget to allow the White House to monitor all federal spending. Shortly after taking office, Harding also successfully passed promotion of US Agriculture, repeal of the wartime "excess profits" tax and reduction of rail rates.

Rader (1971) challenges the view that the tax policies of Harding's Treasury Secretary [[Andrew Mellon]], reversed the progressive policies of the Wilson years and allowed the wealthy to become wealthier. A congressional coalition of Democrats and insurgent Republicans shared responsibilities with Mellon for the tax legislation of that period, which was written by civil servants in the Treasury. The new rates were very low for most people, and yet were high enough to retire the war debt and generate a budget surplus. The net effect of this legislation, Rader argues, was to "impose more progressivity on the federal income tax structure than has existed in any other peace-time period of American history."

Winters (1990) examines Harding's farm policies and those of Henry Cantwell Wallace, the Secretary of Agriculture (1921-24). Wallace's handling of the postwar collapse of land values and the weakening of the farm economy was inconsistent and largely ineffective because of conflicting views of the value of agriculture in society. On one hand, he saw farming as a business that needed to improve its efficiency; on the other hand, he saw farmers as "yeoman," a special group, embodying republican virtues of independence, which deserved to be subsidized. Programs based on one view often negated those based on the other. Hoover meanwhile argued that the long-term solution lay in modernizing agricultural machinery, seeds, animal breeding and, especially, business practices.
===Foreign and military affairs===
Grant (1995) shows that during World War I the U.S. loaned ove $4 billion to Britain. This British war debt was not part of the agenda of the Paris Peace Conference or the 1921 settlement of the Reparation Commission. In response to an appeal by President Harding in his 1921 state of the union address, Congress passed the World War Foreign Debt Commission Act in 1922. The commission was mandated to determine each European nation's debt and negotiate payment over a period up to 25 years. In 1923 the British government agreed to pay $4.6 billion, with an initial payment of $4.1 million, the remainder to be paid over 62 years at 3% interest for the first ten years, 3.5% thereafter. Britain was able to pay because it received large war repoarations annually from Germany. Germany in turn borrowed the money from the U.S. During the [[Great Depression]] President [[Herbert Hoover]] suspended all payyments, and they were never resumed.

Irwin (2003) shows that the Harding Navy department oversaw or initiated the development of fleets of aircraft carriers, the strengthening of submarine forces and naval aviation, and the Marine Corps' adoption of amphibious assault strategies, all of which contributed significantly to US naval success in World War II.

=== Labor and economic issues ===
Labor unions were very weak in the Harding years. Under [[Andrew mellon]] the Treasuty systematically reduced federal income taxes, which had soared during the war, and sumultaneously paid off most of the wartime debt. Harding today has come under criticism by both liberal economists and free trade advocates for [[protectionist]] policies--high tariffs.

==Scandals==
=== Teapot Dome Scandal===
Harding appointed a close friend anddrinking partner Senator Albert B. Fall of New Mexico as his Secretary of the Interior. Fall had charge of valuable oil lands known as "Teapot Dome" that were for the long-term use of the Navy. Fall secretly leased oil rights to an old friend, who paid bribes to Fall of over $400,000. The scandal was discovered after Harding's death by Harding's enemies in Congress in late 1923. Fall had entangled other businessmen and politicians into his wrongdoing which lead to other indictments of both Democrats and Republicans and continued into the Coolidge administration. Harding did not know about these dealings until shortly before his death.
===Interpretation===
Fine (1990) explains why Harding's reputation took a nose dive, as the new president Calvin Coolidge blamed the troubles of the day on his dead predecessor. "Reputational entrepreneurs" attempt to control the memory of historical figures through motivation, narrative facility, and institutional placement, says Fine. Men remembered as great heroes or great vilains or evil are explained by the Durkheimian theory of consensus and cohesion, but this does not explain the memory of the "incompetent" like Harding. Reputational politics is an arena in which forces compete to control memory. Reputations are grounded in a social construction of character, subsequently generalized to policy and the character of the society. In the case of Harding, the president rated lowest by historians and the public, political opponents set the agenda, while potential supporters did not defend him, given their political interests, structural positions, and a lack of credible narrative.
===He was a nigger!===
Unbeknownst to most people, warren harding was actually the first nigger president. In the early 1920s, William Estabrook Chancellor helped assemble a controversial biographical portrait accusing President Warren Harding of covering up his family’s “colored” past. According to the family tree Chancellor created, Harding was actually the great-grandson of a nigress. Harding’s father-in-law, Amos Kling, was one of the richest men in Harding’s adopted hometown of Marion. When Harding married his daughter, Florence, in 1891, Kling supposedly denounced her for polluting the family line.

== Strange Death ==
Harding appeared to be in good health until his collapse and death. The surprise soon gave rise to a savage case of character assassination by insinuations of murder, all thoroughly unfounded. <ref>Ferrell, Robert H. (1996), The Strange Deaths of President Harding, University of Missouri Press p.31</ref>

Shaken by the talk of corruption among the friends he had appointed to office, he began a tour on June 20, 1923 of the West and Alaska. Although suffering from high blood pressure and an enlarged heart, he seemed to enjoy himself and the food -- especially the seafood in Alaska. On his return journey, he became ill with food poisoning. The Presidential train rushed to [[San Francisco]], where his condition worsened. He developed [[pneumonia]], and complicated by his heart ailment, died suddenly on August 23, he suffered a [[heart attack]] in the evening, while his wife was reading to him. He died quietly and instantaneously.

After Harding’s death, the reputation of his administration was ruined by revelations of scandal, primarily the Teapot Dome scandal and a scandal in the [[Veteran’s Administration]] which was particularly distasteful in that post World War I period. The scandals were pushed forward by congressional hearings, but were greeted by the public with what historian Frederick Lewis Allen concedes was brief resentment at both scandals and scandalmongers, followed by apathy.<ref>see [http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/ALLEN/ch6.html Allen, ''Only Yesterday'']</ref>

In 1926, author [[Samuel Hopkins Adams]] published the novel “Revelry”, with characters which appeared to be thinly disguised members of the Harding administration. The president in the novel, “Willis Markham” poisons himself by accident, but does not take an available antidote, because he realizes that his death “will wipe out the whole score” of soon to be revealed scandals involving oil and the Veteran’s Administration. The novel was later dramatized .<ref>Ferrell, ''The Strange Deaths of President Harding,'' p.33</ref>.

In 1928, Nan Britton published a book entitled "The President's Daughter" claiming that she and Harding had been lovers and had conceived a child in 1919. According to her, the affair continued for six years, and the lovers' meeting-places included a coat closet in the executive offices of the White House. Historians generally agree she was indeed his lover.

In 1930, Gaston B. Means, who served briefly as an FBI agent during the Harding administration, published ''The Strange Death of President Harding, by Gaston B. Means as told to May Dixon Thacker'', in which he alleged that Mrs. Harding murdered her husband out of jealousy of Ms. Britton, and out of fear of the soon to be revealed Teapot Dome and Veteran’s Administration scandals. Means, who had a long criminal record, provided no evidence and historians dismiss his outlandish claims.

No evidence has ever been found to suggest that Harding had been poisoned by anyone, let alone his wife. The suggestion that she had a motivation to kill the president because of Florence Harding’s jealousy over an affair with Nan Britton makes little sense since she had long known her husband was a womanizer. The suggestion that she would murder the President to somehow deflect scandals that would be met by public apathy is similarly unlikely. Yet despite the source of these charges, their utter lack of factual support, and the unlikeliness of the alleged motives of the First Lady, Frederick Lewis Allen repeated these charges in his very successful book ''Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s'' in 1931. Coming as it did in the deepest part of the [[Great Depression]], Allen’s book, which depicted all of the Republican presidents of the 1920s as bumbling incompetents, was eagerly accepted by a public looking for someone to blame.

== Trivia ==
* Out of all of the Presidents of the U.S. he had the largest feet.
* He was the first president to visit Alaska.
* He was the first President to speak on the radio and the first to have a radio in the White House.
* Harding, [[John F. Kennedy]] and [[Barack Obama]] are the only three sitting United States Senators elected to the Presidency.

==Bibliography==
* Anthony, Carl S. ''Florence Harding: The First Lady, the Jazz Age, and the Death of America's Most Scandalous President.'' (1998)
* Downes Randolph C. ''The Rise of Warren Gamaliel Harding, 1865-1920.'' (1970), standard biograpohy to 1920
* Fine, Gary Alan. "Reputational Entrepreneurs and the Memory of Incompetence: Melting Supporters, Partisan Warriors, and Images of President Harding." ''American Journal of Sociology'' 1996 101(5): 1159-1193. Issn: 0002-9602 Fulltext: in Jstor and Ebsco
* Grant, Philip A., Jr. "President Warren G. Harding and the British War Debt Question, 1921-1923." ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 1995 25(3): 479-487. Issn: 0360-4918
* Grieb, Kenneth J. ''The Latin American Policy of Warren G. Harding'' [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=2970223 1976 online]
* Irwin, Manley R. "Harding Policies Foster Future Naval Success." ''Naval History'' 2003 17(4): 28-31. Issn: 1042-1920 Fulltext: at Ebsco
* Malin, James C. ''The United States after the World War'' [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5260560 1930. online] detailed analysis of foreign and economic policies by a conservative historian
* Morello, John A. ''Selling the President, 1920: Albert D. Lasker, Advertising, and the Election of Warren G. Harding.'' Praeger, 2001. [http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=201811039533562 online review]
* Murray, Robert K. ''The Harding Era 1921-1923: Warren G. Harding and his Administration.'' (1969), the standard academic study; by a conservative historian
* Payne, Phillip. "Instant History and the Legacy of Scandal: the Tangled Memory of Warren G. Harding, Richard Nixon, and William Jefferson Clinton." ''Prospects'' 2003 28: 597-625. Issn: 0361-2333
* Rader, Benjamin G. "Federal Taxation in the 1920s: a Re-examination." ''Historian'' 1971 33(3): 415-435. Issn: 0018-2370
* Russell, Francis. ''The Shadow of Blooming Grove'' , 1968. biography
* Sinclair, Andrew. ''The Available Man: The Life behind the Masks of Warren Gamaliel Harding'' (1965) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=8550753 online full-scale biography]
* Winters, Donald L. "Ambiguity and Agricultural Policy: Henry Cantwell Wallace as Secretary of Agriculture." ''Agricultural History'' 1990 64(2): 191-198. Issn: 0002-1482
===Primary sources===
* Warren G. Harding, ''Our Common Country: Mutual Good Will in America.'' 2003; essays written in late 1920; [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=109794562 online edition]

==References==
<references/>

{{USPresidents}}
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[[Category:Republican Party]]
[[Category:United States History]]
[[Category:1920s]]
[[Category:Conservatives]]
[[Category:Corruption]]