John Tyler, the tenth President of the United States, is often remembered as one of the most controversial and divisive leaders in American history. Born on March 29, 1790, in Charles City County, Virginia, Tyler was a member of the Democratic-Republican Party and served as the Governor of Virginia before being elected Vice President in 1840.
However, Tyler’s political career took a turn when he became the first Vice President to assume the Presidency upon the death of the President. The situation happened the first time and no one thought about it, whether he should accept the role of president or the duties of president as Vice president. This occurred just one month into the term of William Henry Harrison, who died of pneumonia on April 4, 1841.
Upon assuming the Presidency, Tyler faced significant challenges and opposition. Many members of his party, the Whigs, were unhappy with his policies and refused to support him. They start calling him his Accidency. This led to a series of conflicts with Congress and eventually resulted in Tyler being expelled from the party.
Despite these challenges, Tyler is credited with making important contributions to the expansion of the United States. During his tenure, he oversaw the annexation of Texas, which added a significant amount of territory to the country and sparked a heated debate over the expansion of slavery.
Additionally, Tyler strengthened the country’s financial system by reducing the national debt and stabilizing the economy. He also supported the construction of the Washington Monument, completed during his presidency.
However, Tyler’s legacy is not without controversy. Many opposed his decision to annex Texas which ultimately led to the Mexican-American War. Additionally, his conflicts with Congress and his expulsion from the Whig Party damaged his political standing and left him a largely unpopular figure in American politics.
Overall, John Tyler’s presidency was marked by controversy and conflict, but he made important contributions to the expansion of the United States and left a lasting impact on the country.
So what can you learn about finance from this president who also said ” Wealth can only be accumulated by the earnings of industry and the savings of frugality”
His most iconic decision was the annexation of texas. The situation becomes so dire for texas in Mexico that texas requested the US, annex us. It was Tyler who sent the military toward Mexico and took Mexico, California, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, and Oklahoma. This was land that was claimed by Mexico under texas. That is not important. What is important is he took a difficult decision. I am sure his predecessor maybe not be up to annexation.
In our financial life also we need to take some big and important decisions which have long-lasting impacts for a lifetime. I don’t want to go into detecting whether texas annexation was right or wrong. But it shows something which was the last straw on the camel’s back for civil war. California was not interested to join as a slave state. It was interesting to join a free state. After a few years, Texas was among the big economy among southern states. which was largely dependent on slave and their work.
Black swan events can easily explain this. A black swan event is a highly unpredictable and unforeseen event that can have significant consequences. The term was popularized by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable.” Black swan events are often associated with risk and uncertainty and can have major impacts on businesses, markets, and societies. Some examples of black swan events might include natural disasters, technological disruptions, or political revolutions.
Florida’s purchase and the Louisiana purchase were like a deal. like the US Government paid in currency. it wasn’t war. John Tyler did the right thing but his actions did support something which already existed. This is also right about your finance.
What I saw here is sometimes we expect something else and the outcome will be something else, or our actions increased some of our already existing issues. Like You have debt but you were servicing it and so the bank didn’t have any problem with it. Then somehow Jerome Powell or someone who was thinking that inflation is transitory, all of sudden realize that it is not and sticky. all of a sudden they decided to reduce their balance sheet and increase rates at a fast pace. Your debt which was not making any big issue all of sudden become a big issue.
This was a reality for many people in 2022. We all are having debt in one format or another everyone used borrowed funds and there is nothing wrong with it. Even I used it. But when you took it, take into consideration that in the future, uncertain events may occur. it will affect the profile of debt. This is not about only debt. many other decisions. Lease, Hire Purchase, and Contracts are great ways. They didn’t change your liability. But some difficult situations which you didn’t see coming maybe increase intensity in some cases become biggest because of that. Like Pandemic. Before the pandemic, hardly anyone realizes what will happen if the government declare a shutdown for like months. What I am saying is we can’t see some risk which is existed. So when n we are taking any decision, always take into account that type of risk.
The possibility of that event is very low, like 2-3% but if that happened, his one event can easily be destroyed. Forget everything. Just thought, that the area which was annexed is still largely not populated. big size of land with less number of people living on it. If I am not wrong, If You ignore California, hardy there is any big city in this area? So can I say that sometimes we may be forced to pay a big price for something which is not that worth it? today Texas is one big point of trade and many ports are in texas, Oil was found in texas. But we can’t ignore that after a couple of years, the situation was difficult and texas joined to the same Washington DC which took the fight with Mexico to help them. and on some front, was ready to ignore some of their people like California?
Yes. some of your decisions are having way more consequences than you think.
Oh By the way want to say, he was also president with most sons. so he is having grandchildren still alive while I am writing this.
