When most people here the word "corporation" they think of giants like Microsoft and GM. There are many corporations in the US that are literally tiny "Mom and Pop" shops.
I have a different view on corporations. I don't see them all as gargantuan evil empires (most corporations are but not all). My peculiar view on corporations is due to the fact that my parents own a corporation.
A very small corporation.
The corporation my parents own has no employees. It's just Mom, Dad and two spoiled cats.
For over thirty years Mom has worked a full time job because the corporation usually doesn't make enough to support itself let alone provide a living for Mom and Dad.
They keep the corporation, even though Dad's business is a financial failure. Despite his considerable manual skills Dad is unemployable because of his age and because he lacks formal training and fancy, high priced, college degrees.
They also keep the corporation because it provides some tax and legal protection.
No, Mom and Dad aren't doing anything illegal. A corporation is basically just a legal document that changes how you are taxed and protects your personal stuff from being taken in a lawsuit.
If anyone tries to sue the business, and wins, they can only take what the business owns. They can't touch Mom and Dad's house, anything Mom and Dad bought with their own money nor can they garnish Mom's wages.
If I had any assets worth protecting I'd start a corporation for myself.
Comments
Please, keep your comments clean, civil and relevant. Cussing with foul language just for the sake of using foul language only proves the person to be an obnoxious, dull-witted fool.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Friday, December 2, 2011
Bank Bailouts, Impossible Debt and Global Meltdown
The global economy has been in a slow motion crash since 2008. The major banks of the world have conjured up such a massive debt burden that now the global financial systems are imploding, accelerating the speed of the global economic crash.
Every time the Federal Reserve, the central bank for the US, loans out money it is essentially creating more US dollars out of thin air. Every US dollar in existence represents a unit of debt that must be repaid. That's how our debt-based monetary system works.
Before 1933, every US dollar in existence represented a certain amount of physical gold or silver. Since 1933, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt confiscated US citizens gold to revalue the US dollar, and then later in 1971, when President Richard Nixon took the dollar completely off the gold standard, the US dollar has been backed by nothing but the promise that the US Government (i.e. the US taxpayer) would work to produce goods or services in exchange for that dollar.
Every US taxpayer has to work to pay off the debt that every US dollar in existence represents. Every time the Federal Reserve loans (prints) money it is creating more debt that the US taxpayers have to work to pay off.
The Federal Reserve is not a US Government institution. It is a privately owned bank. The US taxpayers, who are also voters, have absolutely no control over the Federal Reserve or say in its actions but the Federal Reserve controls the fruits of every US taxpayers' labors (and anyone elses' in the world who uses US dollars). The more US dollars (debt) the Federal Reserve prints, the longer you have to work to pay off those newly, mass-created debt dollars.
For banks, other people's debt owed to the banks is an asset. Debt is the banks' wealth. Wealth equals power. The greater the wealth, the greater the power. Since debt is wealth for the banks, the more debt that exists the more power the banks have. The greater the debt, the greater the banks' power.
Power corrupts.
With the advent of computers, complex financial derivatives, high frequency trading and other hi-tech chicanery the banks were able to "book" profits (other people's debt) faster and faster to the point where the most powerful banks could generate millions of debt dollars in a mere second. Blinded by near instant profits the banks forgot that it takes time for people to pay off their debts.
Banks have fallen into their own greedy trap and leveraged (took on debt themselves) their wealth in pursuit of ever increasing profits and power. When the banks' own debts came due (in massive amounts of high speed margin calls, credit default swaps and many other shady deals gone bad) the banks were unable to pay those debts because the banks' wealth, other people's debt, takes time to pay back. Even though the banks "booked" instant profits in the billions and trillions, their real wealth, the assets they actually had on hand and in reserve were all tied up in other people's debt - debt that takes time to pay off.
In real time, in the real world minutes-and-hours time, the banks are, technically and genuinely, insolvent. The major banks of the industrialized world are all broke because their profits, though claimed instantly on their books, are based on debt that will take an incalculable amount of years to pay off.
Because of the banks' insanely excessive and greedy leveraging and gambling, the derivatives liabilities (the banks' gambling debts) are estimated in the quadrillions of debt dollars. There will never be enough people and lifetimes of labor on this earth to pay off that much debt.
The major banks of the world are broke and each and every of them know it.
Back in 2008, at the precipice of the global economic collapse, the banks refused to lend to one another. This was dubbed a "liquidity crisis". The big banks weren't lending to each other because they all "knew" (it takes a shyster to know a shyster) that they were all broke.
This wasn't a liquidity crisis, it was an insolvency crisis. If it had been called what it really was, a global insolvency crisis, the major banks of the world would have to publicly admit they were broke. To admit they were broke would mean admitting the banks had no wealth. No wealth means no power and to the power mad oligarchy of the banks that was absolutely unthinkable.
To save the world's banking systems' face (and power) the central banks of the world opened up lines of ridiculously cheap credit to the major banks. In effect, the central banks of the world, especially the Federal Reserve, were creating trillions of debt dollars out of thin air to preserve the power of the major banks. The massive amounts of debt dollars created by the Federal Reserve will steal the blood and sweat of tax payers for generations to come.
Oh, yes, it's stealing. Theft. Grand larceny on a global scale.
The more debt dollars that are created out of thin air, the less valuable the existing debt dollars become. The less valuable the debt dollars are the more of them it takes to buy stuff. The more debt dollars it takes to buy stuff the longer you have to work to accumulate those debt dollars.
Get it?
Going slightly off track here to better illustrate this last point I made...
Currently the national debt of the US is $15 trillion. There are about 7 billion people in the world as of late 2011. Divide the national debt of the US, $15 trillion, by the number of people living on this earth, 7 billion, and the result is $2,142 dollars of debt for every man, woman and child on this planet.
That's just the national debt of the US.
The combined derivative exposure of Bank of American and JP Morgan-Chase is estimated to be over $150 trillion. Those two American mega banks have a debt load ten times greater than the entire, super-power-nation-of-the-world, United States of America!
Just two freaking banks!!
A trillion is a thousand, billions. A quadrillion is a million, billions. The major banks of world have conjured up over a quadrillion of derivative debt dollars and burdened us with all of it.
Returning now to liquidity/insolvency crisis of 2008...
In the fall of 2008 the US Federal Government passed the T.A.R.P. (Troubled Asset Relief Program) to bail out the major US banks and corporations to the tune of $700 billion (then later nudged up to $800 billion).
The US taxpayers/voters were against this and the bill didn't pass the first time. Then the banks pressured their puppet politicians and, against the will of the people, the TARP, bankster bail-out, bill was passed.
US taxpayers were justifiably outraged. However, it turns out that the US taxpayers (and the politicians) were being kept in the dark about much, much bigger bail-outs.
With last summer's passage of the Dodd-Frank Bank Reform and Consumer Protection bill, a small piece of legislation was attached to the end of the bill that granted a one-time-only audit of the Federal Reserve for the specific period of December 1, 2007 through July 21, 2010. (Wikipediea - "Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodd–Frank_Wall_Street_Reform_and_Consumer_Protection_Act)
After several months of going through thousands of scattered documents begrudgingly released by the Federal Reserve, very disturbing revelations are coming to light.
For years the Federal Reserve has been vehemently fighting inquiries by the US Congress and private institutions for an accounting of its actions. The small glimpse gained by the Dodd-Frank bill shows why the Federal Reserve is so amendment about it's secrets.
Unbeknownst to the US taxpayers and even the US politicians, the Federal Reserve, between December 2007 and July 2010, had doled out over $16 trillion, US taxpayer obligated dollars to the major banks of the US and the world.
On December 5, 2008, over $1.2 trillion dollars where handed out to the major banks by the Federal Reserve. $400 billion more than the US Federal Government had given the banks just a couple months earlier. (Bloomberg - "Wall Street Aristocracy Got $1.2 Trillion in Secret Loans" http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-21/wall-street-aristocracy-got-1-2-trillion-in-fed-s-secret-loans.html)
By March 2009, the supposed lowest point of the Great Recession (baloney, we are in a Greater Depression, folks), the Federal Reserve had given the banks almost $8 trillion. The $700 billion TARP that everyone was screaming over was merely chump change compared to what the Federal Reserve was secretly doling out. (Bloomberg - "Secret Fed Loans Gave Banks $13 Billion Undisclosed to Congress" http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-28/secret-fed-loans-undisclosed-to-congress-gave-banks-13-billion-in-income.html)
The TARP funds doled out by the US Government at least had some strings attached (some, not much but some). The egregious amounts the Federal Reserved lavished on its friends had basically no strings attached to them.
Here's a few names you might recognize and how much they received from the Federal Reserve over a two year period.
Citigroup - $2.513 trillion
Morgan Stanley - $2.041 trillion
Merrill Lynch - $1.949 trillion
Bank of America - $1.344 trillion
Barclays PLC - $868 billion
Bear Sterns - $853 billion
Goldman Sachs - $814 billion
Royal Bank of Scotland - $541 billion
JP Morgan Chase - $391 billion
Deutsche Bank - $354 billion
UBS - $287 billion
Credit Suisse - $262 billion
Lehman Brothers - $183 billion
Bank of Scotland - $181 billion
BNP Paribas - $175 billion
Wells Fargo - $159 billion
Dexia - $159 billion
Wachovia - $142 billion
Dresdner Bank - $135 billion
Societe Generale - $124 billion
"All Other Borrowers" - $2.639 trillion
All that in just two years. It's unknown how much they've received in the past and are currently receiving! (GAO Federal Investigation Audit Report, document page 131/webpage 144, http://www.scribd.com/doc/60553686/GAO-Fed-Investigation#outer_page_144 - It's a 266 page report. If you have slow Internet you may want to get up and make a pot of coffee while you wait for the page to load.)
Free money for the banksters that caused a global economic collapse, no strings attached, mega bonuses and profits for the banksters while at the same time totally screwing over the US taxpayer.
Nice.
But, hey, that's all ancient history, way back in 2008 through 2010, right?
Last week bank liquidity seized up in the Eurozone (the parts of Europe that use Euro as their currency).
On Wednesday of this week (November 30, 2011), the Federal Reserve along with the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, and the Swiss National Bank, in coordinated efforts, provided open-ended credit to Eurozone banks.
In more specific terms, the US Federal Reserved gave out unlimited loans to the European Central Bank to bail-out the European banks.
The bulk of the European bank bail-out has been dumped on the US taxpayer, once again, for an unlimited amount of debt dollars for US taxpayer to pay for countless generations to come. (Zero Hedge - "Here Comes The Global, US-Funded Liquidity Bail Out" http://www.zerohedge.com/news/here-comes-global-liquidity-bail-out)
The Federal Reserve bailed-out the major European banks because all the big banks are interconnected - European and American big banks.
If any of the major European banks failed (and it is suspected a major French bank was on the verge of going under Tuesday night) then all other major banks of the world, including the US mega-banks would be dragged under in a chain reaction if financial implosion.
Remember, wealth is power. The banks must maintain the illusion of wealth (debt created out of thin air) to retain their global power. This isn't about home mortgages. This is about global power.
Ok, another step-aside to illustrate my "banksters global power" point.
The mega bank Goldman Sachs has been called a "Vampire Squid" for good reason. (Rolling Stone - "The Great American Bubble Machine" http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american-bubble-machine-20100405) The mega bank has its tentacles embedded into many levels of financial and political power throughout the world.
For example, Greece's new prime minister, Lucas Papademos, ran the Central Bank of Greece when Goldman Sachs was doing some shady derivatives deals to hide Greece's debt in order to facilitate Greece's entry into the Eurozone. Greece's head of debt management, Petros Christodoufou, is a former Goldman Sachs employee.
The newly elected prime minister and financial minister of Italy, Mario Monti, is an international adviser to Goldman Sachs. Other former international advisers to Goldman Sachs who have held high positions of power and influence are Germany's Otmar Issing and Belgium's Karel Van Miert.
The new head honcho at the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi - former managing director of Goldman Sachs International. Some other Goldman Sachs International alumni: Antonio Borges was the former vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International before becoming the (former) head of the IMF's European Department and Ireland's former Attorney General, Peter Sutherland is now a non-executive director of Goldman Sachs International.
Let's not forget the home team here in the good ol' US of A.
Former Secretaries of Treasury Robert Rubin and Hank Paulson (of TARP infamy) and our current Secretary of Treasury (and former head of the New York Federal Reserve), Timothy Geithner and Mr. Geithner's chief of staff, former Goldman Sachs lobbyist, Mark Patterson.
For more disgusting details on the history and far reaching influence of Goldman Sachs read this Wikipedia page on the vampire squid: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldman_Sachs
Oh, and as an additional side note, did any of you read about how our illustrious former Secretary of Treasury, Hank Paulson, leaked insider information to his Goldman Sachs bankster buddies about the bail-outs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac seven weeks in advance? (Zero Hedge - "Hank Paulson Tipped Off The Goldman-Led "Plunge Protection Team" About Fannie Bankruptcy 7 Weeks In Advance" http://www.zerohedge.com/news/hank-paulson-tipped-goldman-led-plunge-protection-team-about-fannie-bankruptcy-7-weeks-advance)
Now returning to my frothing at the mouth rant about the Federal Reserve and debt dollars...
The banking crisis of 2008 is happening all over again and will happen again even sooner the next time until eventually no amount of debt dollar printing will stave off the total and complete collapse of the global financial system.
The fundamental problems were never fixed. All that these massive bail-outs have accomplished is to "kick the can down the road", to paper-over, cover-up, hide the un-payable debts the banks have conjured into being. Debts the rest of us are expected to pay off.
But there's nothing any of us can do about this, right?
You couldn't possibly learn about this stuff, talk about it, write about it, tell others about it or educate others about any of this.
Nah, you couldn't do that.
If more and more people knew about the stuff the banksters are doing to them then these people would still not be able to do anything about it.
It's not like people could get so fed up that they grabbed hold of their elected representatives by the short hairs and commanded those representatives to reinstate the Glass-Steagal Act which separated the gambling casino-like investment banks from the safe-haven-for-consumers commercial banks.
Nope. Can't do it.
People also can't possibly command their elected representatives to abolish the Federal Reserve and return the creation of US currency to the US Congress (as it was intended to by the US Constitution). That would mean the people, the voters who have hold of the Congress critters by the short hairs, could have a say in matter; could actually do something about how many debt dollars were created out of thin air.
What?
Voters having a say in their government? A government of the people, by the people, for the people?
That's patently ridiculous.
There's absolutely nothing voters can do about it. That's doctrine.
Why, such silly notions of doing something about it might lead to people voting to instate a different monetary system that wasn't debt based.
Barter?
Quaint, old-fashioned, time honored but quite impractical and difficult to tax into oblivion.
Tangible asset backed currency like the gold standard?
Hogwash. That would severely limit how much the politicians can overspend because gold can't printed out of thin air. And the politicians will overspend because there is nothing you can do about it.
A different kind of monetary system? What utter nonsense!
There can be no other type of viable monetary system because the banks say so!
Just because the banks are broke and have collapsed the entire global economy doesn't mean they aren't experts in money.
Phht!
Alternative monetary systems are not allowed by the banks just as fuel efficiency technology is not allowed by oil and automotive companies. Remember, it's all about retaining profits and power. (Global Economic Intersection - "Solve Debt Problems with Non-Debt Money" http://econintersect.com/b2evolution/blog2.php/2011/08/09/solve-debt-problems-with-non-debt-money)
Another thing that voting people couldn't possibly do is yank our Congress critters short hairs hard enough to use existing anti-trust and anti-monopoly laws to break up the "too big to fail" banks and corporations.
No, you can't do any of this because you couldn't possibly find out who your elected representatives are. Online resources like USA.gov's "Contact Elected Officials" http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml don't exist because there is nothing you can do about it.
And even if you did know who your elected officials were, you wouldn't know how to properly communicate with them (grabbing them by the short hairs is just a metaphor - sorry) because that kind of information doesn't exist here http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/uscongress/a/letterscongress.htm either.
Even if you did contact your elected representatives they would never listen to you. Your just one person.
If you helped to educate ten of your friends and relatives and they did the same for ten of their own or maybe a bunch of voting constituents just got hopping mad and demanded their elected representative do something, their elected representative still wouldn't notice because there is nothing these voters can do about it.
Nothing at all.
Not at the federal level, not at the state level and certainly nothing at the local level. Voting constituents leveraging political pressure from the local and state levels against their representative at the federal level will do absolutely no good because there is nothing voters can do about it.
C'mon, don't be silly. The banks have successfully trained you to drop your pants, bend over, spread your butt-cheeks wide open and obediently and willing take whatever they shove up your backside.
You know darn well that there is nothing you can do about it so just learn to accept it.
Now drop your pants and bend over!
If this literary image offends you, I apologize. I'm trying to drive home a very significant point.
If you are not offended, by any of this, then I am saddened.
The reason things have come to this is because we've allowed it to. We have been told, over and over so many times that we've come to believe it, that there is nothing we can do. To just accept things as they are.
We can do something about what's happening. If not for ourselves then for our friends and loved ones.
You don't have to commit acts of valor and great heroism. You just have to communicate with people about these things.
Don't just talk about football and Lady Gaga but also talk about the things that are robbing your children of any chance of prosperity. Brag about your grandchildren and how many times you've written your house representative. While your boasting and kvetching about your gall bladder surgery also one-up your fellow suffers with how many times you've complained to your senator.
If you are a real nut-job, get involved with a political movement. Occupy Wall Street, the Tea Party, the Beer Party (yup, there's one of those http://officialbeerparty.com/wp/about/) or the I-Love-Chocolate-Sundaes Party (Ok, I made that one up).
The Occupy Wall Street movement is right. Wall Street, big corporations and the financial sector in general have thoroughly screwed America and other countries around the world.
The Tea Party movement is right. Big government is too oppressive and too invasive. The federal government should be very limited. The individual states should have more political power, customized to their unique needs and situations, as it was intended by the US Constitution.
Occupy Wall Street movement is against big corporations.
The Tea Party movement is against big government.
If the grassroots people of both Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party movements ever realized that big corporations and big government are one and the same here in the US then a righteous reckoning would come against the banksters and their puppet politicians.
Oh, mentioning Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party just made me think of another supplemental tangent to this rant.
Stepping aside again for a moment...
If you talk to folks inclined to the Occupy Wall Street movement you'll probably hear the word "fascism" tossed about. For those of the Tea Party bent, "socialism" is the epithet of choice or "communism" if they are a really old farts.
Me, I'm kind of leaning more towards "corporatism" and "kleptocracy" at this point of my study of this mess we are going through. At least from the "step back and look at the bigger picture" point of view. Delve into the finer details and you can find all kinds of "-isms".
If you would like to read some opinions on corporatism and kleptocracy here are two web articles for your pleasure:
Huffington Post - "American Kleptocracy: How Fears of Socialism and Fascism Hide Naked Theft" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-j-astore/american-kleptocracy-how_b_547708.html
and...
The American Dream - "Corporatism Is Not Capitalism: 7 Things About The Monolithic Predator Corporations That Dominate Our Economy That Every American Should Know" http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/corporatism-is-not-capitalism-7-things-about-the-monolithic-predator-corporations-that-dominate-our-economy-that-every-american-should-know
Alright, back to what we can do about this festering mess...
Many are looking towards the 2012 US Presidential election for the cure-all for what ails America.
Folks, no one person, not even the President of the United States is going to be able to set things back on the right track.
Here's a little heads up. Mitt Romney will be the Republican candidate for President. Not because of any of his policies or stances on any thing but because Wall Street has given him more money than any of the other Republican candidates combined. (The American Dream - "The Big Wall Street Banks Are Already Trying To Buy The 2012 Election" http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/the-big-wall-street-banks-are-already-trying-to-buy-the-2012-election)
Wall Street has already bought the 2012 US Presidential election and the world is going to pay for it.
Whatever your political bent, set your target sites on Congress.
Where do most of the presidential candidates come from?
Congress.
Who can impeach a sitting US President?
Congress.
Who approves the appointment of Supreme Court Judges and can impeach those same judges? (Wikipedia - "Supreme Court of the United States" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States)
Congress (the Senate approves the judges).
Who authorizes national spending?
Congress.
Who writes the tax code, trade policies, and business laws that either benefit, regulate or abolish banking and corporate practices?
Congress.
Who is the Congress directly responsible too?
Us, the American voters.
It is through Congress that we can force the much needed changes and enforce existing laws against the unrepentant, criminal banksters that have destroyed this country and other nations around the world.
Unfortunately it's too late to stop the economic, financial, political and social devastation that is coming.
In the very near future we will have to make decisions that will result in very difficult consequences for generations to come. The damage is already done. There is no quick, easy or painless way to fix things.
The more we know, the better we understand, of what has happened, what is happening and what will happen, the better our decisions will be when the time comes.
I've laid out, in a very general scope, just some of the major problems we face. Some of you may already heard these problems repeatedly from your own news sources, family or friends. Many people are starting to talk about out the problems but few have any workable solutions.
I don't have any concrete solutions either but I do know how to start working on them and above I've laid that process out for you. Learn. Educate others by talking to them about what you have learned. Work the politicians, leveraging them from the local level, through the state level and on up to the federal level.
The global economy is crashing, the global financial system is imploding, due in large part by the insane and reckless machinations of big banks across the globe.
This is going to be one for the history books folks.
Stop believing that we have to drop our pants and bend over because there is nothing we can do about it.
There is a lot that we can do about it... and keep our pants up.
No, I don't care if letting you underwear show is the style, pull your pants up!
Comments
Please, keep your comments clean, civil and relevant. Cussing with foul language just for the sake of using foul language only proves the person to be an obnoxious, dull-witted fool.
Every time the Federal Reserve, the central bank for the US, loans out money it is essentially creating more US dollars out of thin air. Every US dollar in existence represents a unit of debt that must be repaid. That's how our debt-based monetary system works.
Before 1933, every US dollar in existence represented a certain amount of physical gold or silver. Since 1933, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt confiscated US citizens gold to revalue the US dollar, and then later in 1971, when President Richard Nixon took the dollar completely off the gold standard, the US dollar has been backed by nothing but the promise that the US Government (i.e. the US taxpayer) would work to produce goods or services in exchange for that dollar.
Every US taxpayer has to work to pay off the debt that every US dollar in existence represents. Every time the Federal Reserve loans (prints) money it is creating more debt that the US taxpayers have to work to pay off.
The Federal Reserve is not a US Government institution. It is a privately owned bank. The US taxpayers, who are also voters, have absolutely no control over the Federal Reserve or say in its actions but the Federal Reserve controls the fruits of every US taxpayers' labors (and anyone elses' in the world who uses US dollars). The more US dollars (debt) the Federal Reserve prints, the longer you have to work to pay off those newly, mass-created debt dollars.
For banks, other people's debt owed to the banks is an asset. Debt is the banks' wealth. Wealth equals power. The greater the wealth, the greater the power. Since debt is wealth for the banks, the more debt that exists the more power the banks have. The greater the debt, the greater the banks' power.
Power corrupts.
With the advent of computers, complex financial derivatives, high frequency trading and other hi-tech chicanery the banks were able to "book" profits (other people's debt) faster and faster to the point where the most powerful banks could generate millions of debt dollars in a mere second. Blinded by near instant profits the banks forgot that it takes time for people to pay off their debts.
Banks have fallen into their own greedy trap and leveraged (took on debt themselves) their wealth in pursuit of ever increasing profits and power. When the banks' own debts came due (in massive amounts of high speed margin calls, credit default swaps and many other shady deals gone bad) the banks were unable to pay those debts because the banks' wealth, other people's debt, takes time to pay back. Even though the banks "booked" instant profits in the billions and trillions, their real wealth, the assets they actually had on hand and in reserve were all tied up in other people's debt - debt that takes time to pay off.
In real time, in the real world minutes-and-hours time, the banks are, technically and genuinely, insolvent. The major banks of the industrialized world are all broke because their profits, though claimed instantly on their books, are based on debt that will take an incalculable amount of years to pay off.
Because of the banks' insanely excessive and greedy leveraging and gambling, the derivatives liabilities (the banks' gambling debts) are estimated in the quadrillions of debt dollars. There will never be enough people and lifetimes of labor on this earth to pay off that much debt.
The major banks of the world are broke and each and every of them know it.
Back in 2008, at the precipice of the global economic collapse, the banks refused to lend to one another. This was dubbed a "liquidity crisis". The big banks weren't lending to each other because they all "knew" (it takes a shyster to know a shyster) that they were all broke.
This wasn't a liquidity crisis, it was an insolvency crisis. If it had been called what it really was, a global insolvency crisis, the major banks of the world would have to publicly admit they were broke. To admit they were broke would mean admitting the banks had no wealth. No wealth means no power and to the power mad oligarchy of the banks that was absolutely unthinkable.
To save the world's banking systems' face (and power) the central banks of the world opened up lines of ridiculously cheap credit to the major banks. In effect, the central banks of the world, especially the Federal Reserve, were creating trillions of debt dollars out of thin air to preserve the power of the major banks. The massive amounts of debt dollars created by the Federal Reserve will steal the blood and sweat of tax payers for generations to come.
Oh, yes, it's stealing. Theft. Grand larceny on a global scale.
The more debt dollars that are created out of thin air, the less valuable the existing debt dollars become. The less valuable the debt dollars are the more of them it takes to buy stuff. The more debt dollars it takes to buy stuff the longer you have to work to accumulate those debt dollars.
Get it?
Going slightly off track here to better illustrate this last point I made...
Currently the national debt of the US is $15 trillion. There are about 7 billion people in the world as of late 2011. Divide the national debt of the US, $15 trillion, by the number of people living on this earth, 7 billion, and the result is $2,142 dollars of debt for every man, woman and child on this planet.
That's just the national debt of the US.
The combined derivative exposure of Bank of American and JP Morgan-Chase is estimated to be over $150 trillion. Those two American mega banks have a debt load ten times greater than the entire, super-power-nation-of-the-world, United States of America!
Just two freaking banks!!
A trillion is a thousand, billions. A quadrillion is a million, billions. The major banks of world have conjured up over a quadrillion of derivative debt dollars and burdened us with all of it.
Returning now to liquidity/insolvency crisis of 2008...
In the fall of 2008 the US Federal Government passed the T.A.R.P. (Troubled Asset Relief Program) to bail out the major US banks and corporations to the tune of $700 billion (then later nudged up to $800 billion).
The US taxpayers/voters were against this and the bill didn't pass the first time. Then the banks pressured their puppet politicians and, against the will of the people, the TARP, bankster bail-out, bill was passed.
US taxpayers were justifiably outraged. However, it turns out that the US taxpayers (and the politicians) were being kept in the dark about much, much bigger bail-outs.
With last summer's passage of the Dodd-Frank Bank Reform and Consumer Protection bill, a small piece of legislation was attached to the end of the bill that granted a one-time-only audit of the Federal Reserve for the specific period of December 1, 2007 through July 21, 2010. (Wikipediea - "Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodd–Frank_Wall_Street_Reform_and_Consumer_Protection_Act)
After several months of going through thousands of scattered documents begrudgingly released by the Federal Reserve, very disturbing revelations are coming to light.
For years the Federal Reserve has been vehemently fighting inquiries by the US Congress and private institutions for an accounting of its actions. The small glimpse gained by the Dodd-Frank bill shows why the Federal Reserve is so amendment about it's secrets.
Unbeknownst to the US taxpayers and even the US politicians, the Federal Reserve, between December 2007 and July 2010, had doled out over $16 trillion, US taxpayer obligated dollars to the major banks of the US and the world.
On December 5, 2008, over $1.2 trillion dollars where handed out to the major banks by the Federal Reserve. $400 billion more than the US Federal Government had given the banks just a couple months earlier. (Bloomberg - "Wall Street Aristocracy Got $1.2 Trillion in Secret Loans" http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-21/wall-street-aristocracy-got-1-2-trillion-in-fed-s-secret-loans.html)
By March 2009, the supposed lowest point of the Great Recession (baloney, we are in a Greater Depression, folks), the Federal Reserve had given the banks almost $8 trillion. The $700 billion TARP that everyone was screaming over was merely chump change compared to what the Federal Reserve was secretly doling out. (Bloomberg - "Secret Fed Loans Gave Banks $13 Billion Undisclosed to Congress" http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-28/secret-fed-loans-undisclosed-to-congress-gave-banks-13-billion-in-income.html)
The TARP funds doled out by the US Government at least had some strings attached (some, not much but some). The egregious amounts the Federal Reserved lavished on its friends had basically no strings attached to them.
Here's a few names you might recognize and how much they received from the Federal Reserve over a two year period.
Citigroup - $2.513 trillion
Morgan Stanley - $2.041 trillion
Merrill Lynch - $1.949 trillion
Bank of America - $1.344 trillion
Barclays PLC - $868 billion
Bear Sterns - $853 billion
Goldman Sachs - $814 billion
Royal Bank of Scotland - $541 billion
JP Morgan Chase - $391 billion
Deutsche Bank - $354 billion
UBS - $287 billion
Credit Suisse - $262 billion
Lehman Brothers - $183 billion
Bank of Scotland - $181 billion
BNP Paribas - $175 billion
Wells Fargo - $159 billion
Dexia - $159 billion
Wachovia - $142 billion
Dresdner Bank - $135 billion
Societe Generale - $124 billion
"All Other Borrowers" - $2.639 trillion
All that in just two years. It's unknown how much they've received in the past and are currently receiving! (GAO Federal Investigation Audit Report, document page 131/webpage 144, http://www.scribd.com/doc/60553686/GAO-Fed-Investigation#outer_page_144 - It's a 266 page report. If you have slow Internet you may want to get up and make a pot of coffee while you wait for the page to load.)
Free money for the banksters that caused a global economic collapse, no strings attached, mega bonuses and profits for the banksters while at the same time totally screwing over the US taxpayer.
Nice.
But, hey, that's all ancient history, way back in 2008 through 2010, right?
Last week bank liquidity seized up in the Eurozone (the parts of Europe that use Euro as their currency).
On Wednesday of this week (November 30, 2011), the Federal Reserve along with the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, and the Swiss National Bank, in coordinated efforts, provided open-ended credit to Eurozone banks.
In more specific terms, the US Federal Reserved gave out unlimited loans to the European Central Bank to bail-out the European banks.
The bulk of the European bank bail-out has been dumped on the US taxpayer, once again, for an unlimited amount of debt dollars for US taxpayer to pay for countless generations to come. (Zero Hedge - "Here Comes The Global, US-Funded Liquidity Bail Out" http://www.zerohedge.com/news/here-comes-global-liquidity-bail-out)
The Federal Reserve bailed-out the major European banks because all the big banks are interconnected - European and American big banks.
If any of the major European banks failed (and it is suspected a major French bank was on the verge of going under Tuesday night) then all other major banks of the world, including the US mega-banks would be dragged under in a chain reaction if financial implosion.
Remember, wealth is power. The banks must maintain the illusion of wealth (debt created out of thin air) to retain their global power. This isn't about home mortgages. This is about global power.
Ok, another step-aside to illustrate my "banksters global power" point.
The mega bank Goldman Sachs has been called a "Vampire Squid" for good reason. (Rolling Stone - "The Great American Bubble Machine" http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american-bubble-machine-20100405) The mega bank has its tentacles embedded into many levels of financial and political power throughout the world.
For example, Greece's new prime minister, Lucas Papademos, ran the Central Bank of Greece when Goldman Sachs was doing some shady derivatives deals to hide Greece's debt in order to facilitate Greece's entry into the Eurozone. Greece's head of debt management, Petros Christodoufou, is a former Goldman Sachs employee.
The newly elected prime minister and financial minister of Italy, Mario Monti, is an international adviser to Goldman Sachs. Other former international advisers to Goldman Sachs who have held high positions of power and influence are Germany's Otmar Issing and Belgium's Karel Van Miert.
The new head honcho at the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi - former managing director of Goldman Sachs International. Some other Goldman Sachs International alumni: Antonio Borges was the former vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International before becoming the (former) head of the IMF's European Department and Ireland's former Attorney General, Peter Sutherland is now a non-executive director of Goldman Sachs International.
Let's not forget the home team here in the good ol' US of A.
Former Secretaries of Treasury Robert Rubin and Hank Paulson (of TARP infamy) and our current Secretary of Treasury (and former head of the New York Federal Reserve), Timothy Geithner and Mr. Geithner's chief of staff, former Goldman Sachs lobbyist, Mark Patterson.
For more disgusting details on the history and far reaching influence of Goldman Sachs read this Wikipedia page on the vampire squid: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldman_Sachs
Oh, and as an additional side note, did any of you read about how our illustrious former Secretary of Treasury, Hank Paulson, leaked insider information to his Goldman Sachs bankster buddies about the bail-outs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac seven weeks in advance? (Zero Hedge - "Hank Paulson Tipped Off The Goldman-Led "Plunge Protection Team" About Fannie Bankruptcy 7 Weeks In Advance" http://www.zerohedge.com/news/hank-paulson-tipped-goldman-led-plunge-protection-team-about-fannie-bankruptcy-7-weeks-advance)
Now returning to my frothing at the mouth rant about the Federal Reserve and debt dollars...
The banking crisis of 2008 is happening all over again and will happen again even sooner the next time until eventually no amount of debt dollar printing will stave off the total and complete collapse of the global financial system.
The fundamental problems were never fixed. All that these massive bail-outs have accomplished is to "kick the can down the road", to paper-over, cover-up, hide the un-payable debts the banks have conjured into being. Debts the rest of us are expected to pay off.
But there's nothing any of us can do about this, right?
You couldn't possibly learn about this stuff, talk about it, write about it, tell others about it or educate others about any of this.
Nah, you couldn't do that.
If more and more people knew about the stuff the banksters are doing to them then these people would still not be able to do anything about it.
It's not like people could get so fed up that they grabbed hold of their elected representatives by the short hairs and commanded those representatives to reinstate the Glass-Steagal Act which separated the gambling casino-like investment banks from the safe-haven-for-consumers commercial banks.
Nope. Can't do it.
People also can't possibly command their elected representatives to abolish the Federal Reserve and return the creation of US currency to the US Congress (as it was intended to by the US Constitution). That would mean the people, the voters who have hold of the Congress critters by the short hairs, could have a say in matter; could actually do something about how many debt dollars were created out of thin air.
What?
Voters having a say in their government? A government of the people, by the people, for the people?
That's patently ridiculous.
There's absolutely nothing voters can do about it. That's doctrine.
Why, such silly notions of doing something about it might lead to people voting to instate a different monetary system that wasn't debt based.
Barter?
Quaint, old-fashioned, time honored but quite impractical and difficult to tax into oblivion.
Tangible asset backed currency like the gold standard?
Hogwash. That would severely limit how much the politicians can overspend because gold can't printed out of thin air. And the politicians will overspend because there is nothing you can do about it.
A different kind of monetary system? What utter nonsense!
There can be no other type of viable monetary system because the banks say so!
Just because the banks are broke and have collapsed the entire global economy doesn't mean they aren't experts in money.
Phht!
Alternative monetary systems are not allowed by the banks just as fuel efficiency technology is not allowed by oil and automotive companies. Remember, it's all about retaining profits and power. (Global Economic Intersection - "Solve Debt Problems with Non-Debt Money" http://econintersect.com/b2evolution/blog2.php/2011/08/09/solve-debt-problems-with-non-debt-money)
Another thing that voting people couldn't possibly do is yank our Congress critters short hairs hard enough to use existing anti-trust and anti-monopoly laws to break up the "too big to fail" banks and corporations.
No, you can't do any of this because you couldn't possibly find out who your elected representatives are. Online resources like USA.gov's "Contact Elected Officials" http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml don't exist because there is nothing you can do about it.
And even if you did know who your elected officials were, you wouldn't know how to properly communicate with them (grabbing them by the short hairs is just a metaphor - sorry) because that kind of information doesn't exist here http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/uscongress/a/letterscongress.htm either.
Even if you did contact your elected representatives they would never listen to you. Your just one person.
If you helped to educate ten of your friends and relatives and they did the same for ten of their own or maybe a bunch of voting constituents just got hopping mad and demanded their elected representative do something, their elected representative still wouldn't notice because there is nothing these voters can do about it.
Nothing at all.
Not at the federal level, not at the state level and certainly nothing at the local level. Voting constituents leveraging political pressure from the local and state levels against their representative at the federal level will do absolutely no good because there is nothing voters can do about it.
C'mon, don't be silly. The banks have successfully trained you to drop your pants, bend over, spread your butt-cheeks wide open and obediently and willing take whatever they shove up your backside.
You know darn well that there is nothing you can do about it so just learn to accept it.
Now drop your pants and bend over!
If this literary image offends you, I apologize. I'm trying to drive home a very significant point.
If you are not offended, by any of this, then I am saddened.
The reason things have come to this is because we've allowed it to. We have been told, over and over so many times that we've come to believe it, that there is nothing we can do. To just accept things as they are.
We can do something about what's happening. If not for ourselves then for our friends and loved ones.
You don't have to commit acts of valor and great heroism. You just have to communicate with people about these things.
Don't just talk about football and Lady Gaga but also talk about the things that are robbing your children of any chance of prosperity. Brag about your grandchildren and how many times you've written your house representative. While your boasting and kvetching about your gall bladder surgery also one-up your fellow suffers with how many times you've complained to your senator.
If you are a real nut-job, get involved with a political movement. Occupy Wall Street, the Tea Party, the Beer Party (yup, there's one of those http://officialbeerparty.com/wp/about/) or the I-Love-Chocolate-Sundaes Party (Ok, I made that one up).
The Occupy Wall Street movement is right. Wall Street, big corporations and the financial sector in general have thoroughly screwed America and other countries around the world.
The Tea Party movement is right. Big government is too oppressive and too invasive. The federal government should be very limited. The individual states should have more political power, customized to their unique needs and situations, as it was intended by the US Constitution.
Occupy Wall Street movement is against big corporations.
The Tea Party movement is against big government.
If the grassroots people of both Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party movements ever realized that big corporations and big government are one and the same here in the US then a righteous reckoning would come against the banksters and their puppet politicians.
Oh, mentioning Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party just made me think of another supplemental tangent to this rant.
Stepping aside again for a moment...
If you talk to folks inclined to the Occupy Wall Street movement you'll probably hear the word "fascism" tossed about. For those of the Tea Party bent, "socialism" is the epithet of choice or "communism" if they are a really old farts.
Me, I'm kind of leaning more towards "corporatism" and "kleptocracy" at this point of my study of this mess we are going through. At least from the "step back and look at the bigger picture" point of view. Delve into the finer details and you can find all kinds of "-isms".
If you would like to read some opinions on corporatism and kleptocracy here are two web articles for your pleasure:
Huffington Post - "American Kleptocracy: How Fears of Socialism and Fascism Hide Naked Theft" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-j-astore/american-kleptocracy-how_b_547708.html
and...
The American Dream - "Corporatism Is Not Capitalism: 7 Things About The Monolithic Predator Corporations That Dominate Our Economy That Every American Should Know" http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/corporatism-is-not-capitalism-7-things-about-the-monolithic-predator-corporations-that-dominate-our-economy-that-every-american-should-know
Alright, back to what we can do about this festering mess...
Many are looking towards the 2012 US Presidential election for the cure-all for what ails America.
Folks, no one person, not even the President of the United States is going to be able to set things back on the right track.
Here's a little heads up. Mitt Romney will be the Republican candidate for President. Not because of any of his policies or stances on any thing but because Wall Street has given him more money than any of the other Republican candidates combined. (The American Dream - "The Big Wall Street Banks Are Already Trying To Buy The 2012 Election" http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/the-big-wall-street-banks-are-already-trying-to-buy-the-2012-election)
Wall Street has already bought the 2012 US Presidential election and the world is going to pay for it.
Whatever your political bent, set your target sites on Congress.
Where do most of the presidential candidates come from?
Congress.
Who can impeach a sitting US President?
Congress.
Who approves the appointment of Supreme Court Judges and can impeach those same judges? (Wikipedia - "Supreme Court of the United States" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States)
Congress (the Senate approves the judges).
Who authorizes national spending?
Congress.
Who writes the tax code, trade policies, and business laws that either benefit, regulate or abolish banking and corporate practices?
Congress.
Who is the Congress directly responsible too?
Us, the American voters.
It is through Congress that we can force the much needed changes and enforce existing laws against the unrepentant, criminal banksters that have destroyed this country and other nations around the world.
Unfortunately it's too late to stop the economic, financial, political and social devastation that is coming.
In the very near future we will have to make decisions that will result in very difficult consequences for generations to come. The damage is already done. There is no quick, easy or painless way to fix things.
The more we know, the better we understand, of what has happened, what is happening and what will happen, the better our decisions will be when the time comes.
I've laid out, in a very general scope, just some of the major problems we face. Some of you may already heard these problems repeatedly from your own news sources, family or friends. Many people are starting to talk about out the problems but few have any workable solutions.
I don't have any concrete solutions either but I do know how to start working on them and above I've laid that process out for you. Learn. Educate others by talking to them about what you have learned. Work the politicians, leveraging them from the local level, through the state level and on up to the federal level.
The global economy is crashing, the global financial system is imploding, due in large part by the insane and reckless machinations of big banks across the globe.
This is going to be one for the history books folks.
Stop believing that we have to drop our pants and bend over because there is nothing we can do about it.
There is a lot that we can do about it... and keep our pants up.
No, I don't care if letting you underwear show is the style, pull your pants up!
Comments
Please, keep your comments clean, civil and relevant. Cussing with foul language just for the sake of using foul language only proves the person to be an obnoxious, dull-witted fool.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Debt is the Source of the Banksters Power
Though we may not always be affected directly by the actions of the banksters their strangle hold on the world is killing us.
Yesterday the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the US, bailed out all of the major banks in the Eurozone.
Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, lost their homes, almost 50 million are on food stamps, small American businesses and Mom and Pop shops are dying, millions of unemployed have been out of work for more than a year, millions more are so under-employed that they have to depend on welfare for survival.
The central bank of America saves the major banks of Europe but continues to do nothing for average Americans.
Nothing beneficial that is.
The Federal Reserve's actions result in a massive stealth tax on every American citizen for countless generations to come.
What most people don't realize is that the financial system of most of the industrialized world is hanging on by a thread.
The financial system is based on debt. The problem is that the banksters and politicians have leveraged that debt into near incomprehensible proportions. Everybody owes everybody more than can ever be paid back. Ever.
The debt exists only on paper and in computer databases. The debt is entirely made up from thin air, multiplied by computer algorithms, convoluted and twisted by shady deals.
For the banksters, this debt is an asset. For them it is wealth - and wealth is power.
If the debt were forgiven, wiped-out, restructured, diminished the banksters would lose their wealth and their power.
And there in lies the reason for so much suffering that has been and that will continue to be.
In order for the average person of the industrialized world to prosper the banksters must lose their power.
The banksters will do everything thing they can to remain in power and the rest of us will suffer for it.
Comments
Please, keep your comments clean, civil and relevant. Cussing with foul language just for the sake of using foul language only proves the person to be an obnoxious, dull-witted fool.
Related Links:
Here Comes The Global, US-Funded Liquidity Bail Out
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/here-comes-global-liquidity-bail-out
Yesterday the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the US, bailed out all of the major banks in the Eurozone.
Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, lost their homes, almost 50 million are on food stamps, small American businesses and Mom and Pop shops are dying, millions of unemployed have been out of work for more than a year, millions more are so under-employed that they have to depend on welfare for survival.
The central bank of America saves the major banks of Europe but continues to do nothing for average Americans.
Nothing beneficial that is.
The Federal Reserve's actions result in a massive stealth tax on every American citizen for countless generations to come.
What most people don't realize is that the financial system of most of the industrialized world is hanging on by a thread.
The financial system is based on debt. The problem is that the banksters and politicians have leveraged that debt into near incomprehensible proportions. Everybody owes everybody more than can ever be paid back. Ever.
The debt exists only on paper and in computer databases. The debt is entirely made up from thin air, multiplied by computer algorithms, convoluted and twisted by shady deals.
For the banksters, this debt is an asset. For them it is wealth - and wealth is power.
If the debt were forgiven, wiped-out, restructured, diminished the banksters would lose their wealth and their power.
And there in lies the reason for so much suffering that has been and that will continue to be.
In order for the average person of the industrialized world to prosper the banksters must lose their power.
The banksters will do everything thing they can to remain in power and the rest of us will suffer for it.
Comments
Please, keep your comments clean, civil and relevant. Cussing with foul language just for the sake of using foul language only proves the person to be an obnoxious, dull-witted fool.
Related Links:
Here Comes The Global, US-Funded Liquidity Bail Out
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/here-comes-global-liquidity-bail-out
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Zero Jobs, Another Recession and Economic Terrorists
The greatest domestic threats America has ever faced are the economic terrorists of Wall Street and Washington DC who have successfully driven the US into zero job growth and yet another recession!
What I read in recent news only makes my jaded cynicism even more acidic.
The end-of-month BLS's (Bureau of Labor Statistics) NFP (Non-Farm Payroll) figures came out and the "official" number of jobs created in the month of August - ZERO!
Despite all of the government's manipulated, fudged and fluffed-up numbers to make things look better than they really are the best they could come up with is zero!?!
Each and every month at least 100,000-150,000 new jobs must be created just to keep up with population growth. With zero job growth... that means the real job losses for last month were in the hundreds of thousands!!
And then there's this little nugget of information that makes the chances of finding a job even worse.
The "official" rate of inflation is around 3.6% (the real rate of inflation is around 11%). The "official" rates of GDP growth for the first quarter and second quarter of 2011 are 1.9% and 1%, respectively. Subtract the "official" rate of inflation from each of the two quarters' "official" rate of GDP growth and you have two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth - the very definition of a recession!
Take a closer look at these charts in USInflationCalculator.com, BEA (Bureau of Economic Analysis) and even including the White House's own figures and it looks very possible the recession may have started in the third quarter of 2010!
But you won't "officially" hear anything about the US being in another recession, especially not from the NBER (National Bureau of Economic Research), until after the election because it's just too damned politically inconvenient!
For the past three years the politicians have only paid lip-service to the jobs issue - the core structural problem of the US economy!
Oh, but now that it's an election year the jobs issue has suddenly become the campaign holy grail.
Obama's campaign speech - sorry, "bold jobs plan", later this week had to be rescheduled because the Republicans threw a hissy-fit!?
(It seems the Republicans would feel threatened if the President made his speech same night that wanted to have their presidential-candidate debate. Yet again, making it painfully obvious that there are absolutely no statesmen left in the US government.)
Now the big, stinking conflict is Obama's speech has been rescheduled to be on at the same time as the NFL's New Orleans Saints and the Green Bay Packers season-opener.
Whoa, whoa. Wait.
A sitting President of the United States, supposedly the world's most powerful man, is allowing himself to be pushed around by a bunch of campaigning wannabes and a stupid football game!?
Excuse me if I have absolutely no confidence in whatever "bold plan" this kind of president may have!
Geesh! These are the bozos that have been entrusted with the stability and well-being of the United States of America!?!
Here's a simple jobs/consumer-driven-economy truth that seems to escape all the highly educated and overpaid policymakers in DC: consumers are people who have jobs - people who have jobs are consumers. But these DC clowns just don't get it!
We're so screwed.
Washington DC and Wall Street seem hell-bent to make things worse for the rest of us.
The government is starting to sue the big banks for damages caused during the mortgage meltdown. If the government sues for too much then the banks will need another bailout.
Do you see the perverse irony in this?
First, the US taxpayer has been stuck with bailing out the banks since 2008. Now if the government sues the banks too much then:
The banks have also made it clear to their bought-and-paid-for political puppets that the US government is not to pursue any criminal prosecutions of the "too big to fail" banks or else the banksters will crash the entire US economy into oblivion.
What do the banksters care? The entire US could burn to the ground but the banksters will be fat and happy because they have all their fortunes stashed away in offshore accounts.
Folks, we've been sold a load of crap. The biggest terrorist threats to America aren't radical Muslims, "towel-heads" or "hay-rabs".
The biggest terrorist threats to America are the Wall Street slimeballs and their political lackeys who, in one hand, are holding a financial gun to the head of every man, woman and child in this country while, in the other hand, they have a tight grip on a noose around our necks! If we don't let them do as they damn well please they'll pull the trigger. If we do let them have their way they'll slowly strangle us till none are left!
Here's a short, recent history lesson on how to handle banksters.
Back around 2007-2008 when things were starting to go to hell here in the US, Iceland was having similar problems with their banks. The US coddled and rewarded the banksters while the people and government of Iceland told the banksters to kiss off!
The Icelandic banks failed, the country defaulted, and now, three years later, Iceland's economy is recovering and has healthy economic growth. The US, once you get past all the bravado and BS, during the same period of time has been sliding into an intentionally prolonged economic depression!
Zero job growth in spite of spin and manipulated employment numbers; most likely the US is well into another recession (as if we ever got out of the first one) and the perpetrators of all of this, the economic terrorists of Wall Street and Washington DC, are the greatest domestic threats America has ever faced.
Comments
Please, keep your comments clean, civil and relevant. Cussing with foul language just for the sake of using foul language only proves the person to be an obnoxious, dull-witted fool.
Related Links:
US Inflation Calculator - Current Inflation Rates: 2011-2011
http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates/
John Williams' Shadow Government Statistics - Alternate Inflation Charts
http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts
Eye On Housing - Real GDP Growth – 2011 First Quarter, Third Estimate: Revised Slightly Higher, But Still Weak
http://eyeonhousing.wordpress.com/2011/06/24/real-gdp-growth-2011-first-quarter-third-estimate-revised-slightly-higher-but-still-weak/
BEA Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce - GDP GROWS 1.0 PERCENT IN SECOND QUARTER
Second Estimate of GDP
http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/gdp/gdphighlights.pdf
WhiteHouse.gov - Advance Estimate of GDP for the First Quarter of 2011
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/04/28/advance-estimate-gdp-first-quarter-2011
About.com - Recession
http://economics.about.com/od/economicsglossary/g/recession.htm
Wikipedia - Recession
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recession
About.com - What Is an Economic Recession?
http://useconomy.about.com/od/grossdomesticproduct/f/Recession.htm
NBER - National Bureau of Economic Research
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Bureau_of_Economic_Research
Bloomberg - Iceland Is No Ireland as State Free of Bank Debt, Grimsson Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-26/iceland-faring-much-better-after-permitting-banks-to-fail-grimsson-says.html
Seeking Alpha - Ireland, Iceland and Letting Banks Fail
http://seekingalpha.com/article/240617-ireland-iceland-and-letting-banks-fail
Bloomberg - Iceland Shows Ireland Did ‘Wrong Things’ Saving Banks
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-01/iceland-proves-ireland-did-wrong-things-saving-banks-instead-of-taxpayer.html
What I read in recent news only makes my jaded cynicism even more acidic.
The end-of-month BLS's (Bureau of Labor Statistics) NFP (Non-Farm Payroll) figures came out and the "official" number of jobs created in the month of August - ZERO!
Despite all of the government's manipulated, fudged and fluffed-up numbers to make things look better than they really are the best they could come up with is zero!?!
Each and every month at least 100,000-150,000 new jobs must be created just to keep up with population growth. With zero job growth... that means the real job losses for last month were in the hundreds of thousands!!
And then there's this little nugget of information that makes the chances of finding a job even worse.
The "official" rate of inflation is around 3.6% (the real rate of inflation is around 11%). The "official" rates of GDP growth for the first quarter and second quarter of 2011 are 1.9% and 1%, respectively. Subtract the "official" rate of inflation from each of the two quarters' "official" rate of GDP growth and you have two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth - the very definition of a recession!
Take a closer look at these charts in USInflationCalculator.com, BEA (Bureau of Economic Analysis) and even including the White House's own figures and it looks very possible the recession may have started in the third quarter of 2010!
But you won't "officially" hear anything about the US being in another recession, especially not from the NBER (National Bureau of Economic Research), until after the election because it's just too damned politically inconvenient!
For the past three years the politicians have only paid lip-service to the jobs issue - the core structural problem of the US economy!
Oh, but now that it's an election year the jobs issue has suddenly become the campaign holy grail.
Obama's campaign speech - sorry, "bold jobs plan", later this week had to be rescheduled because the Republicans threw a hissy-fit!?
(It seems the Republicans would feel threatened if the President made his speech same night that wanted to have their presidential-candidate debate. Yet again, making it painfully obvious that there are absolutely no statesmen left in the US government.)
Now the big, stinking conflict is Obama's speech has been rescheduled to be on at the same time as the NFL's New Orleans Saints and the Green Bay Packers season-opener.
Whoa, whoa. Wait.
A sitting President of the United States, supposedly the world's most powerful man, is allowing himself to be pushed around by a bunch of campaigning wannabes and a stupid football game!?
Excuse me if I have absolutely no confidence in whatever "bold plan" this kind of president may have!
Geesh! These are the bozos that have been entrusted with the stability and well-being of the United States of America!?!
Here's a simple jobs/consumer-driven-economy truth that seems to escape all the highly educated and overpaid policymakers in DC: consumers are people who have jobs - people who have jobs are consumers. But these DC clowns just don't get it!
We're so screwed.
Washington DC and Wall Street seem hell-bent to make things worse for the rest of us.
The government is starting to sue the big banks for damages caused during the mortgage meltdown. If the government sues for too much then the banks will need another bailout.
Do you see the perverse irony in this?
First, the US taxpayer has been stuck with bailing out the banks since 2008. Now if the government sues the banks too much then:
- the banks will pass the lawsuit costs onto their US-taxpayer customers and...
- the US taxpayer will be stuck with bailing-out the banks again and...
- the politicians will vote and approve pay raises for themselves; the banksters will pay themselves outrageous bonuses; both politicians and banksters richly rewarding themselves for screwing over the US taxpayer with this colossal, catch-22 clusterfart!
The banks have also made it clear to their bought-and-paid-for political puppets that the US government is not to pursue any criminal prosecutions of the "too big to fail" banks or else the banksters will crash the entire US economy into oblivion.
What do the banksters care? The entire US could burn to the ground but the banksters will be fat and happy because they have all their fortunes stashed away in offshore accounts.
Folks, we've been sold a load of crap. The biggest terrorist threats to America aren't radical Muslims, "towel-heads" or "hay-rabs".
The biggest terrorist threats to America are the Wall Street slimeballs and their political lackeys who, in one hand, are holding a financial gun to the head of every man, woman and child in this country while, in the other hand, they have a tight grip on a noose around our necks! If we don't let them do as they damn well please they'll pull the trigger. If we do let them have their way they'll slowly strangle us till none are left!
Here's a short, recent history lesson on how to handle banksters.
Back around 2007-2008 when things were starting to go to hell here in the US, Iceland was having similar problems with their banks. The US coddled and rewarded the banksters while the people and government of Iceland told the banksters to kiss off!
The Icelandic banks failed, the country defaulted, and now, three years later, Iceland's economy is recovering and has healthy economic growth. The US, once you get past all the bravado and BS, during the same period of time has been sliding into an intentionally prolonged economic depression!
Zero job growth in spite of spin and manipulated employment numbers; most likely the US is well into another recession (as if we ever got out of the first one) and the perpetrators of all of this, the economic terrorists of Wall Street and Washington DC, are the greatest domestic threats America has ever faced.
Comments
Please, keep your comments clean, civil and relevant. Cussing with foul language just for the sake of using foul language only proves the person to be an obnoxious, dull-witted fool.
Related Links:
US Inflation Calculator - Current Inflation Rates: 2011-2011
http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates/
John Williams' Shadow Government Statistics - Alternate Inflation Charts
http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts
Eye On Housing - Real GDP Growth – 2011 First Quarter, Third Estimate: Revised Slightly Higher, But Still Weak
http://eyeonhousing.wordpress.com/2011/06/24/real-gdp-growth-2011-first-quarter-third-estimate-revised-slightly-higher-but-still-weak/
BEA Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce - GDP GROWS 1.0 PERCENT IN SECOND QUARTER
Second Estimate of GDP
http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/gdp/gdphighlights.pdf
WhiteHouse.gov - Advance Estimate of GDP for the First Quarter of 2011
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/04/28/advance-estimate-gdp-first-quarter-2011
About.com - Recession
http://economics.about.com/od/economicsglossary/g/recession.htm
Wikipedia - Recession
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recession
About.com - What Is an Economic Recession?
http://useconomy.about.com/od/grossdomesticproduct/f/Recession.htm
NBER - National Bureau of Economic Research
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Bureau_of_Economic_Research
Bloomberg - Iceland Is No Ireland as State Free of Bank Debt, Grimsson Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-26/iceland-faring-much-better-after-permitting-banks-to-fail-grimsson-says.html
Seeking Alpha - Ireland, Iceland and Letting Banks Fail
http://seekingalpha.com/article/240617-ireland-iceland-and-letting-banks-fail
Bloomberg - Iceland Shows Ireland Did ‘Wrong Things’ Saving Banks
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-01/iceland-proves-ireland-did-wrong-things-saving-banks-instead-of-taxpayer.html
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Help Wanted - Active DoD Top Secret Clearance Required
When reading through help-wanted ads sometimes I shake my head in wonder at the job requirements listed.
From an actual help-wanted ad:
(In hind sight I should have taken a screenshot of the help-wanted ad because the online link would eventually be replaced with current help-wanted ads. The best I could find now is an expired Google search result. "Expired" because the Google link went to the updated page where the ad had since been replaced. Oh, well. Blog and learn.)
"IT Specialist Position. Active DoD Top Secret Clearance with SCI Eligibility Required. US Citizens Only. EOE. Full Time Position, Immediate opening. Salary Range: Dependant [sic] on Capabilities and Exp. IT Specialist position requires a minimum of 5 years of experience in the following areas: A) Windows 2003/2008; Exchange 2007/2010 C) VM WARE; LINUX/UNIX E) Network Components F) DISA IA Compliance Abilities which are a plus: A) Former Military Experience B) CISSP; Security+ D) Training and other certifications..."
"Active DoD Top Secret Clearance" is required?
Really?
Why is a job that requires "Active DoD (Department of Defense) Top Secret Clearance" posted on a local rag's help-wanted page with all the less-than-top-secret job postings?
Wouldn't the "Active Department of Defense Top Secret Clearance" database contain, oh, I don't know, all conceivable and inconceivable background information (including job qualifications way beyond what are normally posted in help-wanted ads) on each and every person who is in the Active Department of Defense Top Secret Clearance database?
Why would some one even bother posting a help-wanted ad for any job that requires "Top Secret Clearance"? Just pick the job candidates from the Active DoD Top Secret Clearance list. Wouldn't people in the position of hiring top secret clearance personnel have access to such a list of prospective job candidates?
Given the job's "Active Department of Defense Top Secret Clearance" nature, wouldn't that sort of thing be something that's promoted from within those types of organizations? You know - a closed network of who's-who in the clandestine world of "on a need to know only basis" type of jobs.
Top secret clearance, eh?
Is there on-the-job training for that and does it come with a dental plan?
Comments
Please, keep your comments clean, civil and relevant. Cussing with foul language just for the sake of using foul language only proves the person to be an obnoxious, dull-witted fool.
Related:
A screenshot of the Google search result. I was hoping Google had cached the page but that turns out to not be the case.
From an actual help-wanted ad:
(In hind sight I should have taken a screenshot of the help-wanted ad because the online link would eventually be replaced with current help-wanted ads. The best I could find now is an expired Google search result. "Expired" because the Google link went to the updated page where the ad had since been replaced. Oh, well. Blog and learn.)
"IT Specialist Position. Active DoD Top Secret Clearance with SCI Eligibility Required. US Citizens Only. EOE. Full Time Position, Immediate opening. Salary Range: Dependant [sic] on Capabilities and Exp. IT Specialist position requires a minimum of 5 years of experience in the following areas: A) Windows 2003/2008; Exchange 2007/2010 C) VM WARE; LINUX/UNIX E) Network Components F) DISA IA Compliance Abilities which are a plus: A) Former Military Experience B) CISSP; Security+ D) Training and other certifications..."
"Active DoD Top Secret Clearance" is required?
Really?
Why is a job that requires "Active DoD (Department of Defense) Top Secret Clearance" posted on a local rag's help-wanted page with all the less-than-top-secret job postings?
Wouldn't the "Active Department of Defense Top Secret Clearance" database contain, oh, I don't know, all conceivable and inconceivable background information (including job qualifications way beyond what are normally posted in help-wanted ads) on each and every person who is in the Active Department of Defense Top Secret Clearance database?
Why would some one even bother posting a help-wanted ad for any job that requires "Top Secret Clearance"? Just pick the job candidates from the Active DoD Top Secret Clearance list. Wouldn't people in the position of hiring top secret clearance personnel have access to such a list of prospective job candidates?
Given the job's "Active Department of Defense Top Secret Clearance" nature, wouldn't that sort of thing be something that's promoted from within those types of organizations? You know - a closed network of who's-who in the clandestine world of "on a need to know only basis" type of jobs.
Top secret clearance, eh?
Is there on-the-job training for that and does it come with a dental plan?
Comments
Please, keep your comments clean, civil and relevant. Cussing with foul language just for the sake of using foul language only proves the person to be an obnoxious, dull-witted fool.
Related:
A screenshot of the Google search result. I was hoping Google had cached the page but that turns out to not be the case.
Eliminating Redundant Regulations and Job Growth
The Obama administration wants to eliminate redundant regulations to improve job creation.
Seems to be a bit of a long-shot to me.
Eliminating redundant regulations to spur job growth is sort of like the picking out a few grains of sand will turn the Sahara Desert into fertile farm land.
Eliminating redundant regulations is a good start in any bureaucracy but don't be so naive to think by eliminating some redundant regulations job growth will be greatly improved. The structural problems this country has are just too messed up.
Don't be fooled into believing the only reason businesses aren't hiring is because of too many regulations. Businesses may complain about regulations but the bottom line is that they just don't have enough customers. Whatever regulatory concerns businesses may have would be overcome if businesses were more worried about keeping up with customer demand and the resulting increased positive cash-flow.
(Below is a comment I posted on a related, Marketplace.org news article with a few, afterthought revisions)
Equating the elimination of redundant regulations to an increase in job creation is a stretch. Just like giving multinational corporations tax breaks for bringing their foreign profits back to the US was supposed to spur job growth. The corporations claimed they would use the repatriated money to create more jobs but instead they funneled most of the money back into their own company stock.
Setting that aside, eliminating redundant regulations to reduce paperwork and confusion is a good thing so long as it doesn't weaken the protections and safe guards those redundant regulations provide.
Redundant regulations were built into our property rights laws as fail-safe measures to ensure the protection of our property rights. The banks by-passed some of those redundant regulations resulting bank perpetrated foreclosure fraud and perjury, bank perpetrated mortgage fraud and perjury, and bank robo-signer scams (more bank perpetrated fraud and perjury).
Banks aren't the only guilty parties but they are among the biggest of the crooks.
Other redundant regulations that are involved with safety measures are also a good idea. Eliminating some redundant regulations may actually increase hazards and safety concerns.
Yes, common sense would prevent a lot of accidents but humans have proven too many times not to have common sense. As a former employer told me once, "You gotta make it idiot proof."
Eliminating the redundant regulations that require gas vapor valves on fuel pumps may work with modern cars but not everyone is driving a car made within the last five years, let alone the last fifty years. (Four-on-the-floor, suicide-doors, classic, hot-rod, muscle-cars come to mind.)
I originally come from fly-over country. There, twenty and thirty year old vehicles are not uncommon. (My dad just recently upgraded from a beat-up, 1984, straight-6, 4x4, F-150 with 2-50 air-conditioning - 2 windows rolled down while going 50mph - to a 1992, F350 diesel, 4x4, dually, flat-bed with real air-conditioning.)
Not all farm equipment is diesel powered; cars and trucks are not the only vehicles used. (Tricked-out, rider-lawn-mower races and dear ol' Dad frequents the local eateries by pulling into the parking lots on his gas powered, 1940's Farmall B tractor. They're a different breed out there in fly-over country.)
Not all fuel pumps are at convenience stores (500gal fuel tanks are not uncommon on farms) and not all things filled with gas have any equipment more sophisticated than a tank and a cap - and even a cap may be optional.
Here's a little secret. A lot of equipment "modifications" are made by the people who own or operate the equipment.
That vehicle, at one time, may have had a feature required by redundant regulations but that particular feature has long since been by-passed, cut out, torched off, smashed in, rerouted or re-purposed. Never underestimate the ingenuity of people with tools.
So even as redundant as it may seem to have a gas vapor valve on fuel pumps, those fuel pump valves are a safety precaution against un-safe (and all too frequent) "custom modifications". Sometimes redundant regulations are put in place to protect ourselves from ourselves. ("You gotta make it idiot proof.")
The Obama administration should eliminate regulation redundancies where it won't open up loop holes to be exploited and where no safety measures will be compromised. But don't be fooled into believing the BS that eliminating these redundant regulations will increase job growth by any significant amount. The structural problems of this country are too great and too unstable to create any real job growth anytime soon.
Comments
Please, keep your comments clean, civil and relevant. Cussing with foul language just for the sake of using foul language only proves the person to be an obnoxious, dull-witted fool.
Related Links:
Marketplace.org: White House says removing redundant regulations will grow jobs
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/08/23/am-white-house-says-removing-redundant-regulations-will-grow-jobs/
TractorData.com - Farmall B
http://www.tractordata.com/farm-tractors/000/2/8/286-farmall-b.html
Seems to be a bit of a long-shot to me.
Eliminating redundant regulations to spur job growth is sort of like the picking out a few grains of sand will turn the Sahara Desert into fertile farm land.
Eliminating redundant regulations is a good start in any bureaucracy but don't be so naive to think by eliminating some redundant regulations job growth will be greatly improved. The structural problems this country has are just too messed up.
Don't be fooled into believing the only reason businesses aren't hiring is because of too many regulations. Businesses may complain about regulations but the bottom line is that they just don't have enough customers. Whatever regulatory concerns businesses may have would be overcome if businesses were more worried about keeping up with customer demand and the resulting increased positive cash-flow.
(Below is a comment I posted on a related, Marketplace.org news article with a few, afterthought revisions)
Equating the elimination of redundant regulations to an increase in job creation is a stretch. Just like giving multinational corporations tax breaks for bringing their foreign profits back to the US was supposed to spur job growth. The corporations claimed they would use the repatriated money to create more jobs but instead they funneled most of the money back into their own company stock.
Setting that aside, eliminating redundant regulations to reduce paperwork and confusion is a good thing so long as it doesn't weaken the protections and safe guards those redundant regulations provide.
Redundant regulations were built into our property rights laws as fail-safe measures to ensure the protection of our property rights. The banks by-passed some of those redundant regulations resulting bank perpetrated foreclosure fraud and perjury, bank perpetrated mortgage fraud and perjury, and bank robo-signer scams (more bank perpetrated fraud and perjury).
Banks aren't the only guilty parties but they are among the biggest of the crooks.
Other redundant regulations that are involved with safety measures are also a good idea. Eliminating some redundant regulations may actually increase hazards and safety concerns.
Yes, common sense would prevent a lot of accidents but humans have proven too many times not to have common sense. As a former employer told me once, "You gotta make it idiot proof."
Eliminating the redundant regulations that require gas vapor valves on fuel pumps may work with modern cars but not everyone is driving a car made within the last five years, let alone the last fifty years. (Four-on-the-floor, suicide-doors, classic, hot-rod, muscle-cars come to mind.)
I originally come from fly-over country. There, twenty and thirty year old vehicles are not uncommon. (My dad just recently upgraded from a beat-up, 1984, straight-6, 4x4, F-150 with 2-50 air-conditioning - 2 windows rolled down while going 50mph - to a 1992, F350 diesel, 4x4, dually, flat-bed with real air-conditioning.)
Not all farm equipment is diesel powered; cars and trucks are not the only vehicles used. (Tricked-out, rider-lawn-mower races and dear ol' Dad frequents the local eateries by pulling into the parking lots on his gas powered, 1940's Farmall B tractor. They're a different breed out there in fly-over country.)
Not all fuel pumps are at convenience stores (500gal fuel tanks are not uncommon on farms) and not all things filled with gas have any equipment more sophisticated than a tank and a cap - and even a cap may be optional.
Here's a little secret. A lot of equipment "modifications" are made by the people who own or operate the equipment.
That vehicle, at one time, may have had a feature required by redundant regulations but that particular feature has long since been by-passed, cut out, torched off, smashed in, rerouted or re-purposed. Never underestimate the ingenuity of people with tools.
So even as redundant as it may seem to have a gas vapor valve on fuel pumps, those fuel pump valves are a safety precaution against un-safe (and all too frequent) "custom modifications". Sometimes redundant regulations are put in place to protect ourselves from ourselves. ("You gotta make it idiot proof.")
The Obama administration should eliminate regulation redundancies where it won't open up loop holes to be exploited and where no safety measures will be compromised. But don't be fooled into believing the BS that eliminating these redundant regulations will increase job growth by any significant amount. The structural problems of this country are too great and too unstable to create any real job growth anytime soon.
Comments
Please, keep your comments clean, civil and relevant. Cussing with foul language just for the sake of using foul language only proves the person to be an obnoxious, dull-witted fool.
Related Links:
Marketplace.org: White House says removing redundant regulations will grow jobs
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/08/23/am-white-house-says-removing-redundant-regulations-will-grow-jobs/
TractorData.com - Farmall B
http://www.tractordata.com/farm-tractors/000/2/8/286-farmall-b.html
Friday, August 19, 2011
Why is Gold the Standard for Money
Dollars. iPads. Gold.
You can't eat dollars or iPads and you can't eat gold.
Well, actually... some people do eat gold.
Huh. Maybe they also ate lead-based paint chips when they were kids.
Back to the post topic...
You can trade dollars for a hamburger at McDonalds.
You might be able to trade an iPad for several hamburgers at McDonalds (if you're trading with one of the better paid higher-ups).
You won't be able to trade gold for a hamburger at McDonalds. Most people working at McDonalds (and most people in America, for that matter) don't understand the value of gold as wealth protection nor the purchasing power of gold.
Why is gold worth anything anyway?
After all it's just another metal that's dug out of the ground. Right?
The answer lies in history.
Lots of history.
Over two thousand years of history.
I'm talking before the Bible, before the ancient Egyptians, Romans and Greeks.
For thousands of years gold has been accepted, all over the known, civilized world, as a form of currency; as a medium of trade.
I say "known, civilized world" because over thousands of years man discovered more and more unknown parts of the world (known versus the unknown and undiscovered) and because the less civilized parts of the world valued other things more highly than gold. (Imagine trading your iPad for fur pelts and a mate.)
No one, single, government, nation, or people made gold important or valuable. But, strangely enough, the majority of people in all the corners of the known, civilized world, considered gold to be important and valuable. Some traded with it; others fought wars over it.
So gold, a shiny yellow metal dug up from the ground, is valuable and universally accepted as currency just because that's the way it's been for thousands of years.
Now other things are considered valuable and are used in trade but none have had the universal acceptance for so many thousands of years as gold has.
Who knows, maybe in the future something else will become more valued than gold. What ever it is, gold already has a head start of a couple thousand years of proven acceptance.
Comments
Please, keep your comments clean, civil and relevant. Cussing with foul language just for the sake of using foul language only proves the person to be an obnoxious, dull-witted fool.
Related Links:
Can You Eat Gold?
http://quezi.com/14485
Askville: Is Gold Toxic As a Heavy Metal?
http://askville.amazon.com/gold-toxic-heavy-metal/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=1526589
You can't eat dollars or iPads and you can't eat gold.
Well, actually... some people do eat gold.
Huh. Maybe they also ate lead-based paint chips when they were kids.
Back to the post topic...
You can trade dollars for a hamburger at McDonalds.
You might be able to trade an iPad for several hamburgers at McDonalds (if you're trading with one of the better paid higher-ups).
You won't be able to trade gold for a hamburger at McDonalds. Most people working at McDonalds (and most people in America, for that matter) don't understand the value of gold as wealth protection nor the purchasing power of gold.
Why is gold worth anything anyway?
After all it's just another metal that's dug out of the ground. Right?
The answer lies in history.
Lots of history.
Over two thousand years of history.
I'm talking before the Bible, before the ancient Egyptians, Romans and Greeks.
For thousands of years gold has been accepted, all over the known, civilized world, as a form of currency; as a medium of trade.
I say "known, civilized world" because over thousands of years man discovered more and more unknown parts of the world (known versus the unknown and undiscovered) and because the less civilized parts of the world valued other things more highly than gold. (Imagine trading your iPad for fur pelts and a mate.)
No one, single, government, nation, or people made gold important or valuable. But, strangely enough, the majority of people in all the corners of the known, civilized world, considered gold to be important and valuable. Some traded with it; others fought wars over it.
So gold, a shiny yellow metal dug up from the ground, is valuable and universally accepted as currency just because that's the way it's been for thousands of years.
Now other things are considered valuable and are used in trade but none have had the universal acceptance for so many thousands of years as gold has.
Who knows, maybe in the future something else will become more valued than gold. What ever it is, gold already has a head start of a couple thousand years of proven acceptance.
Comments
Please, keep your comments clean, civil and relevant. Cussing with foul language just for the sake of using foul language only proves the person to be an obnoxious, dull-witted fool.
Related Links:
Can You Eat Gold?
http://quezi.com/14485
Askville: Is Gold Toxic As a Heavy Metal?
http://askville.amazon.com/gold-toxic-heavy-metal/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=1526589
Fact-Checking Links Conundrum
I'm trying to figure out what would be the best way to include fact-checking links in posts.
One thought is to use the relevant words in the posts as the thing to click on to go to where ever I found the information I'm referring to. But I've noticed a lot of websites use this for ads instead of fact-checking.
(You know - you move your mouse pointer over the different colored words in the paragraph you are reading and up pops an ad for something that may or may not even be relevant. Those ads annoy me so I avoid them. Unless I'm fact-checking, then I'll hover over the link to see what happens.)
There are a couple web sites that I frequent that actually use the linked words for fact-checking or as links to other related posts on their web site. Because I frequent those web sites so often I know what to expect.
On the other hand, someone new to the web site (or blog in this case) may have the same aversion I have to the ad word links. They might not click on the link words to continue learning by reading the linked-to related posts, news articles or documents (pdf files, images, charts, graphs, etc).
Another thought is to just dump all the fact-checking links at the bottom of the page and have a number assigned to them that matches the numbers scattered throughout the blog post. Kind of like footnotes in a reference book.
I hate footnotes. I'm constantly going back and forth between what I was reading and the footnotes clear at the bottom of the page (or worse, at the back of the book). But then, other folks may prefer this.
Before I click on a link I check out it's URL to see where it comes from. If the URL has "wsj", or "reuters" in the beginning I know it comes from a big-name news source. If the URL begins with a web site or blog I frequent I'm even more likely to click-through (actually, open in another web browser tab for later).
Not everyone who uses the Internet may be savvy enough to know how to check the URL without actually clicking through. Having fact-checking and/or topic related links listed at the bottom, in full-length, may prove useful, maybe even desirable, to some because then they can see where that link may take them before clicking on it.
So a link dump at the bottom of the page could be useful to some.
Hmm...
Maybe... some combination of both ideas?
I could put a short message near the end of each post saying something like, "The colored words in the above post are links to related news articles, posts or documents. They are not ads.".
That would let new or infrequent visitors know, in general, what those colored words are linked to.
Instead of just dumping a bunch of links at the bottom I could put a meaningful description next to each one.
That might help folks determine if the link is interesting enough to investigate further or not.
Hmm...
Comments
Please, keep your comments clean, civil and relevant. Cussing with foul language just for the sake of using foul language only proves the person to be an obnoxious, dull-witted fool.
One thought is to use the relevant words in the posts as the thing to click on to go to where ever I found the information I'm referring to. But I've noticed a lot of websites use this for ads instead of fact-checking.
(You know - you move your mouse pointer over the different colored words in the paragraph you are reading and up pops an ad for something that may or may not even be relevant. Those ads annoy me so I avoid them. Unless I'm fact-checking, then I'll hover over the link to see what happens.)
There are a couple web sites that I frequent that actually use the linked words for fact-checking or as links to other related posts on their web site. Because I frequent those web sites so often I know what to expect.
On the other hand, someone new to the web site (or blog in this case) may have the same aversion I have to the ad word links. They might not click on the link words to continue learning by reading the linked-to related posts, news articles or documents (pdf files, images, charts, graphs, etc).
Another thought is to just dump all the fact-checking links at the bottom of the page and have a number assigned to them that matches the numbers scattered throughout the blog post. Kind of like footnotes in a reference book.
I hate footnotes. I'm constantly going back and forth between what I was reading and the footnotes clear at the bottom of the page (or worse, at the back of the book). But then, other folks may prefer this.
Before I click on a link I check out it's URL to see where it comes from. If the URL has "wsj", or "reuters" in the beginning I know it comes from a big-name news source. If the URL begins with a web site or blog I frequent I'm even more likely to click-through (actually, open in another web browser tab for later).
Not everyone who uses the Internet may be savvy enough to know how to check the URL without actually clicking through. Having fact-checking and/or topic related links listed at the bottom, in full-length, may prove useful, maybe even desirable, to some because then they can see where that link may take them before clicking on it.
So a link dump at the bottom of the page could be useful to some.
Hmm...
Maybe... some combination of both ideas?
I could put a short message near the end of each post saying something like, "The colored words in the above post are links to related news articles, posts or documents. They are not ads.".
That would let new or infrequent visitors know, in general, what those colored words are linked to.
Instead of just dumping a bunch of links at the bottom I could put a meaningful description next to each one.
That might help folks determine if the link is interesting enough to investigate further or not.
Hmm...
Comments
Please, keep your comments clean, civil and relevant. Cussing with foul language just for the sake of using foul language only proves the person to be an obnoxious, dull-witted fool.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
The Fiscal Folly of Fools
 |
| Our future is not in good hands. |
The US debt ceiling deal was done and the shortly there after debunked as nothing but an utter joke by the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO came up with pretty much the same conclusion when Congress was farting around with the federal budget and risked a federal government shutdown earlier this spring.
Well, in a few short weeks the whole charade will begin again. September 30, 2011, is when the federal budget for 2012 is due and Congress hasn't even started on it yet. Like last year they will most likely pass a series of temporary resolutions instead of a real budget. The strategy will be to push the debate as close to next year's presidential election as possible; then make a big stink of it.
The way the US government is burning through money there is a good chance that the debt ceiling could be breached, again, sometime near the 2012 presidential election. Given the politicians' childish behavior so far, it is almost certain that the Republicans will do what ever they can to make sure the debt ceiling is breached during the next campaign cycle for their own petty, political gains - what's best for the country be damned.
S&P downgraded the US's credit rating to AA+ (with a negative outlook) less because of the fiscal policy and more because of the ludicrous behavior of the policy makers! The politicians' shenanigans got so bad that not only did the international community get fed up with the damn fools but so did Joe and Jane Sixpack-American. Losing international confidence is one thing; losing it at home is even worse.
In the last election cycle the voters were voicing a growing disdain for all incumbents. This next election cycle may see that anger come to fruition.
Last week the markets went through violent convulsions unlike any time before. Down 500 points one day, up 400 points the next, then down 600 points another day followed by another several-hundred point upswing. These were not flash-crashes.
Flash crashes have been occurring more frequently. In March of last year the markets crashed by 1,000 points instantly and then just as fast, instantly recovered. Flash crashes are caused by the computers that are running thousands of trades per second. "SkyNet", "H.A.L." and even "Johnny-5" are running the stock market now. But once in a while the humans reclaim control and override the computers.
That's what happened last week; the humans took control and proceeded to panic. The crashes and recoveries each took an entire day, from start to close of the markets, instead of the mere milliseconds that it would take for a computer algorithm to process.
What is curious is that the recoveries were greater than the typical market "dead-cat-bounce". There is speculation that the government stepped in and covertly manipulated the markets into a false recovery. The government openly manipulates markets every day through regulations, tariffs, and other, known regulatory policies but something about the rebounds of last week smells fishy.
Gold shot up more than $200 in two week's time to over $1,800 per ounce. Only a few years ago gold was priced around $500 per ounce. That was when the US economy and the dollar were strong and stable. The price movements of gold have long been an indicator of bigger things going on. Margin hikes have put a damper on the price of gold for the moment but the reasons for it's rapid price ascent are still very much present. Big moves in gold mean big problems - those, the world economies have in spades.
The Eurozone looks like it is on the verge of it's own "Lehman Brother's" moment. It's not the governments that are (directly) in trouble, it's the banks that are sinking; particularly German and French banks. All the big banks are interconnected through deals and credit default swaps. When the big banks go down they take everyone with them. The big banks are all interconnected - even the big American banks are tied to the European banks.
When Lehman Brother's went under in 2008 it was the main economic trigger for the cascading financial implosion that occurred across the globe (all big banks are interconnected). Since Lehman Brothers was an American-based bank, the US was at the epicenter of the 2008 collapse. Now it is big European banks that are putting the Eurozone at the epicenter of the next global banking crisis.
Or not...
Over on this side of the pond, one of the six, American mega-banks that could take down the entire country (and the rest of the global economy with it - things are that precarious around the globe), Bank of America might turnout to be the next Lehman Brothers.
Already $118 billion of Bank of America's toxic assets have been guaranteed by the US Government (read: bought by the US taxpayer) and now it looks like another $73 billion of Bank of America's toxic assets will be dumped into Fannie Mae (read again: bought and paid-for by the US taxpayer). If that doesn't work maybe JP Morgan-Chase will take over Bank of America. JP Morgan-Chase can afford to do this (even though they had to be bailed out too) because JP Morgan-Chase sits on the board of directors of the Federal Reserve. This grants JP Morgan-Chase direct access to the money-printing presses (read yet again: bought, paid-for and bailed-out by the US taxpayer).
It's a race to the bottom. Which to-big-to-fail bank will scuttle the global economy next?
Oh, and the $800 billion dollar TARP, bank bailout of 2008... seems not all of the money has been paid back... and during the same time period the Federal Reserve was quietly shoveling out trillions of US taxpayer dollars to foreign banks and foreign corporations.
Look at page 205 (page 218 in Adobe Reader page search) of the GAO (US Government Accountability Office) Fed Investigation Report. See that $10,057 total at the bottom of the table 24 and the upper left corner of the table state that the figures are "Dollars in billions"? That means the $10,057 isn't ten thousand, fifty-seven dollars... it means the amount is ten trillion, fifty-seven billion dollars! ($10,057 x 1 billion)
$10,057 dollars in billions?
No wonder the government can't figure out a budget! It sees $10,057 when the figure is really $10,057,000,000,000!
How many American taxpayers would think it's OK to bail out foreign banks with $10 trillion US taxpayer dollars while millions American taxpayers have lost their jobs and lost their homes? (Oh, and don't forget that America is in an additional $15 trillion dollars of debt.)
How many American taxpayers, jobless, homeless, or otherwise, would think it's OK to bail out the Central Bank of Libya with US taxpayer dollars? (Which the Federal Reserve did.)
A misallocation of US capital?
A misrepresentation of the American people's will?
A big mistake?
Oh, yeah. Definitely.
Comments
Please, keep your comments clean, civil and relevant. Cussing with foul language just for the sake of using foul language only proves the person to be an obnoxious, dull-witted fool.
Related Links:
Zero Hedge - Bank Of America Continues Firesales To Shore Up Liquidity, Sells Canadian Credit Card Business To TD Group
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/bank-america-continues-firesales-shore-liquidity-sells-canadian-credit-card-business-td-group
The Stock Market Watch - Bank of America is the 2011 Lehman Brothers (Debt Man Walking)
http://thestockmarketwatch.com/newsletters/2011/08/10/bank-of-america-is-the-2011-lehman-brothers-debt-man-walking/
Wikipedia - Troubled Asset Relief Program (T.A.R.P.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troubled_Asset_Relief_Program
Bernie Sanders, US Senator for Vermont (I) - The Fed Audit
http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=9e2a4ea8-6e73-4be2-a753-62060dcbb3c3
Wikipedia - Government Accountability Office (GAO)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Accountability_Office
Bernie Sanders, US Senator for Vermont (I) - (pdf file of Fed Investigation) GAO Report to Congressional Addressees, FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM, Opportunities Exist to Strengthen Policies and Processes for Managing Emergency Assistance
http://sanders.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/GAO%20Fed%20Investigation.pdf
Bernie Sanders, US Senator for Vermont (I) - Release: Why Did the Fed Bail Out the Bank of Libya?
http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=ece720e4-d5d6-4eff-937c-dcada784c3f9
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Debt Ceiling, Downgrade, and Drunk Monkeys
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| A drunk monkey could do better. |
Hasty?
Really?
For the past year the credit rating agencies have been warning of downgrade potential if Washington didn't clean up its act.
Our illustrious United States Secretary of the Treasury, Tim Geithner, said of Standard & Poor's decision, "They've handled themselves very poorly. And they've shown a stunning lack of knowledge about the basic US fiscal budget math."
Right. As if the politicians in Washington DC have handled themselves so much better. Does anyone remember Representative Anthony Weiner's sexting escapade during all the debt ceiling negotiations? He was certainly "handling" himself. The rest of the lot in DC are no better.
If anyone has shown a stunning lack of knowledge about basic US fiscal math no one has proven themselves more incompetent than Congress itself. The CBO (Congressional Budget Office) debunked Congress' fantasy math last spring after the Federal Budget for 2011 was passed and yet again after the debt ceiling deal was done and signed off.
Most Americans who have been watching the news over the past decade have had a sense that something is really wrong with the way this country handles its finances. Just how badly mismanaged the nation's finances are and how ridiculously, ludicrously, incomprehensibly huge the national debt has become is finally coming to light for the average American.
The big investors who do their own homework figured out long ago that the US wasn't worth a AAA rating. These investors couldn't rely on the credit ratings agencies assessment of anything because it was the same ratings agencies that had been slapping solid gold seals of approval on all the toxic asset, sub-prime mortgages that had nuclear meltdowns in 2008.
Jim Rogers, American billionaire investor, said that the markets have priced things six months to a year in advance. If that's so, then the markets actions this past week would indicate a really crappy six to twelve months to come.
The big movers and shakers may have priced into the market the mess that's coming but a whole lot of smaller investors were probably needing a clean change of underwear several times a day this week.
So what are we to do if things are going to get much worse over the next six to 12 months? Trust that our leaders will do their jobs and fix things?
Those in charge have been lying, cheating and stealing openly.
Why delude ourselves into thinking they will do anything even remotely close to honestly clearing up this monumental mess?
According to recent polls, the majority of Americans want to throw the bums out, each and every one of them. No politician would be safe if elections were to be held right now, today.
Much of this angst can be attributed to the pathetic circus and clown show the politicians put on during the debt ceiling debate. The whole spectacle made it abundantly clear, to even Joe and Jane Six-pack, that a room full of drunk monkeys could have done a better job.
Losing the full faith and credibility of the United States government in the eyes of the international community is one thing, losing it at home is much worse.
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