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"Entrance to Cavern Craighead Caverns is an extensive cave system located in between Sweetwater and Madisonville, Tennessee. It is best known for containing the United States' largest and the world's second largest non- subglacial underground lake, The Lost Sea. In addition to the lake, the caverns contain an abundance of crystal clusters called anthodites, stalactites, stalagmites, and a waterfall. History Located in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, the caverns are named after their former owner, a Cherokee native American, Chief Craighead. The caverns were formerly used by the Cherokee as a meeting place and later they were mined by Confederate soldiers for saltpeter, a commodity necessary to the manufacture of gunpowder. It was also used as a hideout for moonshiners https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-lost-sea-exploring-americas-largest- underground-lake-tennessee/ In 1939, explorers found the remains of a Pleistocene jaguar. The persons who made the discovery were cave guides Jack Kyker and Clarence Hicks, who were exploring in the cave during their off hours. They reported their find to Dr. W. J. Cameron and W. E. Michael of Sweetwater, who were the current owners of the cave. The owners submitted the bones to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, where they were identified as bones of a very large jaguar and an elk fawn. George Gaylord Simpson, a vertebrate paleontologist at the museum, subsequently visited Craighead Caverns in May 1940. During his visit, he recovered additional jaguar bones and made casts of several jaguar footprints in the mud floor of the cave. His excavation and findings are reported in American Museum Novitates, No. 1131 (August 6, 1941) on pages 1–12. The report includes photographs of the bones and footprints. A mushroom farm was operated in the cave from 1939 to 1940. The manure for this operation was supplied from Fort Oglethorpe, where many horses were stabled. The mushroom beds were located in the Big Room, a few hundred feet northeast of the Historic Entrance. In 1947, a wooden dance floor was built in this same area of the cave, and a nightclub, known as the "Cavern Tavern", was operated in the cave. Craighead Caverns was added to the National Park Service list of National Natural Landmarks in 1974. The Lost Sea Visitor's Center The lake was discovered in 1905 by a thirteen-year-old boy named Ben Sands. As the story goes Sands, who often played in the cave, happened upon a small opening and crawled through. The room was so large he was unable to see the ends of the room with his lantern, so he threw balls of mud in all directions and heard splashes. When he went back home and told people of his discovery they were hesitant to believe him. By the time Ben convinced his father to go back down with him to explore it further, the water level had risen, hiding the cave entrance from them. It was rediscovered by local explorers several years later. The visible surface of the lake measures long and wide () at normal "full" capacity. Cave divers have explored several rooms that are completely filled with water, without reaching the end of the cave. This exploration was conducted in the 1970s. For many years The Lost Sea was considered the world's largest underground lake and is still recognized as the world's second largest non-subglacial underground lake after Dragon's Breath Cave, Namibia. Boat tours of the lake are still given and for many people are the highlight of the tour. In times of extreme drought (such as 2007-08) the lake recedes significantly and the management had to extend the walkway and the boat dock in order to be able to provide the boat tours. According to the management of the Lost Sea, the water level in the lake dropped 28 feet below its normal level at the height of the drought. At such times visitors see a much larger cavern above the lake surface. The sea was featured on CBS's America Wonders series. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-lost-sea-exploring-americas-largest- underground-lake-tennessee/ References Further reading * * Larry E. Matthews, Caves of Knoxville and the Great Smoky Mountains, 2008, Published by the National Speleological Society, 296 pages, . Chapter 10 - The Lost Sea, pp 181–210. External links * The Lost Sea website * America's Little-Known Natural Wonders: Spectacular destinations you may not know about, By Christopher Vourlias, Forbes Traveler via Yahoo Traveler, 9/1/09. * Jim Wyatt's account of his underwater exploration, By Jim Wyatt on http://www.thedecostop.com 08/24/2005 Category:Caves of Tennessee Category:East Tennessee Category:Tourist attractions in Monroe County, Tennessee Category:National Natural Landmarks in Tennessee Category:Underground lakes Category:Show caves in the United States Category:Landforms of Monroe County, Tennessee "
"War finance is a branch of defense economics. The power of a military depends on its economic base and without this financial support, soldiers will not be paid, weapons and equipment cannot be manufactured and food cannot be bought. Hence, victory in war involves not only success on the battlefield but also the economic power and economic stability of a state. War finance covers a wide variety of financial measures including fiscal and monetary initiatives used in order to fund the costly expenditure of a war. Such measures can be broadly classified into three main categories: * levy of taxes - Taxation * raising of debts - Borrowing * creation of fresh money supply - Inflation Thus these measures may include levy of specific taxation, increase and enlarging the scope of existing taxation, raising of compulsory and voluntary loans from the public, arranging loans from foreign sovereign states or financial institutions, and also the creation of money by the government or the central banking authority. Throughout the history of human civilization, from ancient times until the modern era, conflicts and wars have always involved the raising of resources and war finance has since remained, in some form or the other, a major part of any defense economy plan. For example, economics played a key role in the Roman Empire. The brutal wars between the Roman empire and the Carthage proved to be very costly so much that Rome even ran out of money altogether at one stage. The Roman economy during this period were a pre- industrial economy which meant the majority of workers up to 80% of them were involved in the area of agriculture. Virtually all the taxes that would be collected by the government were spent on the military operations which turned out to be about also 80% of the entire budget in c. 150. Due to the huge financial burden that the maintenance of the military operations would have on the economy, techniques were thought up to help solve the burden. One such technique was the process of debasing the coinage. This was used in many countries that used coins from precious metals and they would debase the coins. This however didn't last very long as inflation started to increase. Various governments in charge attempted to curb the high cost of inflation through new reforms but some of their attempts just got steadily worse with the increasing bureaucracy that the government had to maintain as well as the huge amounts spent on welfare payments to the growing population worse. Loot and plunder - or at least the prospect of such - may play a role in war economies. Compare: This involves the taking of goods by force as part of a military or political victory and was used as a significant source of a revenue for the victorious state. During the first World War when the Germans occupied the Belgians, the Belgian factories were forced to produce goods for the German effort or dismantled their machinery and took it back to Germany – along with thousands and thousands of Belgian slave factory workers. Taxation Taxation can be one of the more politically contentious ways to finance war. Raising taxes is often domestically unpopular, as people know that higher taxes reduce their individual abilities to invest and consume. As a consequence, raising taxes on a tax-averse population in order to fund a war might result in widespread anti-war sentiment. Moreover, taxes confiscate a part of the labor and the capital of the population. During World War 1, the United States and Great Britain financed approximately one quarter of their war costs via increased taxation, while in Austria the contribution of taxation towards the expenditure was zero. [3] The British government felt that they were an exception to this general rule and they saw their wealth and financial stability as one of their strongest warfighting assets. The income tax was therefore increased from 5.8% in 1913 to just over 30% in 5 years in 1918. The threshold was reduced in order for millions more people to be liable to pay the income tax. Borrowing For the government another possible solution to finance war was for the government to increase its debt. It could thus transfer the war costs to future generations. The government can issued bonds that are bought by creditors, usually the Central Banks. The sacrifices are as a result differed, the government would need in the future to pay it back with some interests. There are many examples in war history, referred to as War bond. The economic consequences of this method of finance is less direct for the population, but equally important. The interests paid can be seen as pure wealth redistribution. Moreover, an accumulation of debt, which is too important, can affect the economy of a country, through its ability of refunding its debt. It can alter the confidence of people in the country's economy. by H.A. Scott Trask in: MisesInstitute Austrian Economics, freedom, and peace, "War Finance : Theory and History" World War 1 War Bond Poster For the government another solution to finance war is for the government to increase its debt. When the Great War began, the majority of countries assumed that the war would be short especially in the eyes of the most powerful ally countries United States, Great Britain and France. They saw no need to raise taxes as it would have been politically difficult. It turned out however that it came at an extraordinary financial expense and as such thought it was best to pay for it by borrowing money and could thus transfer the war costs to future generations. The government can issue bonds that are bought by creditors, usually the Central Banks. The sacrifices are as a result differed, the government would need in the future to pay it back with some interests. There are many examples in war history, referred to as War bond. The economic consequences of this method of finance is less direct for the population, but equally important. The interests paid can be seen as pure wealth redistribution. Moreover, an accumulation of debt, which is too important, can affect the economy of a country, through its ability of refunding its debt. It can alter the confidence of people in the country's economy. The war bonds were debt securities that would be issued by the government to finance the military operations and defense mechanisms during the time of a war. In practice, war can be financed through the creation of a fresh money supply adding additional money to the financial system and the function of these bonds were to help to control the increase of inflation and to keep it stable. The United States government during World War 1 spent over $300 million which converts to over $4 billion in today's financial market. People would then buy these bonds which looked like stamps for 10 or 15 cents each from the government and the government promised to return them with an interest after a period of 10 years or more. During a war especially during World War 1, governments needed all the extra money they could get their hands on to help pay for the war equipment and supplies. The advertisement of these bonds were carried out through many media outlets and through propaganda materials on radio, cinema adverts and newspapers in order to convince the large multitude of the countries population. Inflation The government can also use a monetary tool to finance war, it could print more money in order to pay for troops, military complex and arms. But inflation is created, which reduces the purchasing power of people and can be thus seen as a form of taxation. However, it distributes the war costs in an arbitrary manner, especially on people with fixed incomes. At some point, such inflation could even reduce the production level of a country. During the great war, countries decided to turn on the printing presses with almost every country abandoning the gold standard in 1914 and started to inflate their individual currencies by printing more banknotes. E.g., in Britain money supplied was multiplied by almost 1151% and 1141% in Germany. Much of the extra money supply was absorbed by the war loans fortunate for the western countries while rationing out the controlled prices. Borrowing vs. Taxing When a conflict leads to higher governmental expenditures, the population financing the war is either paying directly (and immediately) or indirectly (and maybe delayed). Hence, war finance is can be divided into two categories: Direct or indirect financing. The former comprises taxes through which the population bears directly the burden, the latter includes borrowing or increasing the money supply. Empirical studies have established a connection between a leader's tax policy and subsequent punitive electoral consequences as they represent a permanent transfer of purchasing power by the taxpayer to the government. From a political perspective, borrowing is a more convenient way to finance wars because it can minimize the potential electoral consequences. Levying higher tax rates has an immediate effect on the population, whereas borrowing goes along with delayed repercussions. The advantage of borrowing is that it likely transfers the financial burden to a future government and consequently does not affect the current leader's prospects of a potential re-election. Second, borrowing itself is an accepted tool for the state to carry out its duties such as exerting expansive fiscal policies. That means because borrowing affects people only indirectly and is an accepted measure in general, it makes war a more diffuse target for critics, because it will be just one of the government's numerous debt sources. Of course, borrowing contributes to the increase of debt that causes also contentious debates. But particularly in the case of the United States, it can be observed that the hazard of a government shutdown is politically an undesirable outcome, even for the opposition. Having no alternatives, the Congress invariably passes legislation to increase the debt ceiling. This certainty guarantees that borrowing minimalizes any political costs. To conclude, wartime borrowing is politically advantageous relative to war taxation: It is just an - although often a significant one - additional source of debt, which blurs the traces of the initiator as the ultimate repayment takes place long after the leader who started the war has stepped down. These characteristics reduce the political costs for the current leader and causes borrowing to generally be more attractive and politically viable than introduction of war taxes. History of different perspectives on War finance in the US Financing a war requires the government to seek for additional revenue sources because government expenditures increase significantly during war or when a war is about to break out. The consequences of policies that focus to secure enough income sources have tremendous impact on the economy and often go even beyond the war itself. The determinants of how to provide financial funds are therefore driven by political interests giving different parties the opportunity to conceptualize and secure certain fiscal interests of their core constituencies. In the United States, the Republicans and their predecessors - the Whigs and Federalists - favoured to impose taxes, when the taxation was introduced as an ad valorem tariff or excise tax. These tax modes favoured manufacturing and business interests, the Republican base. The Democrats, however, traditionally tended to abstain from taxes because their support came from the South, a strong exporting region that would suffer from tariffs and excise taxes. With the constitutionality of income taxes in 1913, the Democrats advocated a progressive income tax due to the important role of labour in their political base. With the business sector being its main political base, the Republicans opposed higher income taxes, rather favouring less fiscal policy, including on war taxation. The high repercussions and redistribution effects of taxes lead to various political interests. Thus, different lobby groups formed trying to have determining influence on the tax mode, when political leaders tried to generate revenues from taxing or other alternatives. Case Study: War costs of Afghanistan and Iraq Not surprisingly, instrumental politicians tend to avoid war taxes, especially when the reasonableness of a war is publicly challenged or when the real cost of a war a difficult to calculate. This was also confirmed in the case of the Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003) war. Both wars were financed through heavy borrowing. In 2003, the Bush-Administration reckoning with a fast conquering expedition estimated the cost of the Iraq war at $50 billion to $60 billion. This turned out to be a severe miscalculation, when it became clear that the conquering of Iraq was much more complicated and that stability of Iraq required a long-term engagement of the US military. Three years later, in February 2006, a working paper authored by economists Linda Bilmes and Joseph Stiglitz already believed the true cost to be more than one trillion dollars, taking a conservative approach and supposing a troop withdrawal by 2010, not even including costs borne by other countries. A subsequent paper, published in March 2013, figured that the cost of the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts will be at least $4 trillion. However, taking into consideration macroeconomic costs such as higher oil prices would be likely to raise the cost to $5 or $6 trillion. References External links * Collection of documents relating to war finance available on FRASER Category:National accounts "
"Kentucky Highway 44 and Kentucky Highway 55. Kentucky Route 55 (KY 55) is a state highway in the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky. The route originates at a junction with U.S. Route 127 in Freedom, Russell County. The route continues through Columbia in Adair County to U.S. Route 68 in Campbellsville, Taylor County, where KY 55 joins US 68 east to Lebanon in Marion County. In Lebanon, KY 55 separates from US 68 and proceeds northward through Springfield in Washington County, Bloomfield in Nelson County, and Taylorsville and Elk Creek in Spencer County. In Shelby County it passes through Finchville and Shelbyville and continues north through Eminence in Henry County. Roughly three miles south of New Castle, KY 55 intersects U.S. Route 421. The two routes run concurrent for eight miles (13 km) before splitting near Campbellsburg. KY 55 continues north to Prestonville, where it ends at an intersection with U.S. Route 42 and Kentucky Route 36 on the bank of the Ohio River. Route description =Russell County through Taylor County= The route originates at a junction with U.S. Route 127 in the southern Russell County community of Freedom. The route continues into Adair County through Columbia. In the 2010s, KY 55 was rerouted onto the Columbia Bypass, while the original KY 55 alignment, which went through town and provided Cumberland Parkway access, was re-designated as KY 55 Business. The route continues northward, bypassing the Green River Lake State Park, and on to U.S. Route 68 in Campbellsville, Taylor County, where KY 55 joins US 68 east, and also runs concurrently with KY 70 for the remaining of that route's concurrency with US 68. US 68 and KY 55 continues north into Marion County. =Marion County through Spencer County= At Lebanon, KY 55 splits from US 68 and continues to Springfield, Washington County, running into downtown Springfield and crossing US 150. It continues north-northwestwardly into eastern Nelson County, providing access to the Bluegrass Parkway and US 62 at Bloomfield. KY 55 goes further north to Spencer County, and goes through Taylorsville. =Shelby County through Carroll County= From Spencer County, KY 55 runs northeast into Shelby County. The route runs through open fields with occasional houses lining the road. into Shelby County, KY 55 intersects with KY 148 and enters the community of Finchville. In Finchville the route is lined with houses and a few businesses, and the speed limited is reduced to 35 MPH. After meeting the eastern terminus of KY 1848, KY 55 leaves Finchville and heads north toward Shelbyville. In Shelbyville, KY 55 crosses Interstate 64 at Exit 32. Currently, KY 55 widens to 4 lanes with a center turning lane a few tenths of a mile north of the Interstate. However, construction is currently going on to widen the road to 4 lanes starting just south of the interstate as part of the I-64 widening project. North of I-64, many businesses line KY 55 as well as 3 industrial parks. north of the interstate, KY 55 intersects with US 60 / KY 55 Business and becomes the Shelbyville Bypass (Freedom's Way). The Shelbyville Bypass opened up in November 2010, and is a 4.5 mile 4-lane divided highway. The Shelbyville Bypass runs north then curves east, crossing KY 53 near Shelby County West Middle School. The route continues east, crossing over Clear Creek and ends north of Shelbyville at an intersection with KY 55 Business. North of the Shelbyville Bypass, KY 55 becomes Eminence Pike and narrows to two-lanes as it heads north passing open fields and houses before entering into Henry County roughly further north. In Henry County, KY 55 enters the city of Eminence and forms a concurrency with KY 22 for . It continues north out of town and forms a concurrency with US 421 north of KY 22. After passing by Henry County High School and traveling through New Castle, US 421 and KY 55 split in Campbellsburg. Roughly north of US 421, KY 55 passes over Interstate 71 and enters into Trimble County, where it travels for a short distance. The route intersects KY 316 at its eastern terminus and continues northward into Carroll County just over from the Trimble County-Henry County line. In Carroll County, KY 55 curves toward the northeast, passing KY 549 and KY 389 in rural sections of the county. After the intersection with KY 389, the route turns toward the northwest and travels along the Kentucky River on the east, with mainly woods on the west. As it nears Presntonville, KY 55 turns toward the west, then northeast, then north at New Castle Pike. In Prestonville, it passes by a few homes before it ends at an intersection with US 42/KY 36, just west of the Kentucky River and south of the Ohio River. The entire route remains two-lanes throughout Henry, Trimble, and Carroll counties. Major intersections Special routes =Columbia business route= Kentucky Route 55 Business (KY 55 Business) is a business route of KY 55 in Columbia. The highway runs between junctions with KY 6177/KY 55 south of Columbia and KY 55 north of Columbia. The route runs north from its southern terminus and passes over the Louie B. Nunn Cumberland Parkway as it enters Columbia. from KY 55 south of Columbia, the route forms a concurrency with KY 80 and turns northwest as it passes through the heart of town. At an intersection with KY 80 and KY 439, it turns toward the north. KY 55 Business intersects KY 206 as it continues its northward path out of Columbia. A little over north of KY 206, KY 55 Business ends at an intersection with KY 55 (Columbia Bypass). =Lebanon spur= Kentucky Route 55 Spur (KY 55 Spur) in Lebanon is long and connects KY 55 to US 68 in the heart of downtown Lebanon. =Shelbyville business route= Kentucky Route 55 Business (KY 55 Business) is a business route of KY 55 in Shelbyville. The highway runs between junctions with US 60/KY 55 west of Shelbyville and KY 55 north of Shelbyville. The route was formed in 2010 with the completion of the Shelbyville Bypass (Freedom's Way), which re-routed KY 55 around Shelbyville. The old route that passed through Shelbyville became KY 55 Business. For the first 3.074 miles, the route forms a concurrency with US 60 and is a four-lane highway. From its origin, it passes through a commercial area of Shelbyville with many businesses and shopping centers lining the roadway. Roughly from its origin, KY 55 Business splits into two one-way routes, Main Street going west to east, and Washington Street going east to west. Here it also forms a concurrency with KY 53. The route passes through downtown Shelbyville and the one-way routes join together just east of downtown. The route then departs with US 60 and KY 53 and turns north and becomes a two-lane highway, passing by multiple businesses and subdivisions. After intersecting KY 43 and KY 2268, it continues north for roughly before ending at KY 55 north of Shelbyville. References External links *KentuckyRoads.com KY 55 0055 0055 0055 0055 0055 0055 0055 0055 0055 0055 0055 0055 "