Democrat Genevieve Salvatore on Wednesday called for "zero-based budgeting," saying that as mayor she would allocate money only when justified.
Rather than use each previous year's city budget as a starting point and then consider incremental increases, she said, the zero-based method allows an in-depth analysis of how money is being spent.
"We don't want to re-invent the wheel every year, but we want to rethink how we budget,'' said Salvatore, a lawyer in private practice here. "Department heads know what they are doing and know best how to do it.
Economist William K. Black of the University of Missouri appeared in an interview on PBS last week with Bill Moyers. He pulls no punches in spelling out who is really responsible for our current economic disaster, and why our own Treasury Secretary is leading the charge to protect U.S. "zombie" banks.
Willian K. Black is the author of "The Best Way To Rob A Bank Is To Own One."
Hard to believe that today we are at the 9th year of a very fast moving decade, but 2009 promises lots of "change" or new and unprecedented challenges. The biggest "change" come 2009 is going to be our first interracial President. This alone is a testament to the great achievement of minority tolerance and acceptance by America and Americans. But race alone, will be not enough to quell the unparallelled and daunting challenges facing our country in the coming years.
As we look to our future here in Milford and Connecticut, we see massive multi-billion dollar deficits at the state levels, our major cities in default on paying their bills and a rash of business closings. UI our biggest local electrical provider, and vital business resource is relentlessly reaching deeper in the pockets of those businesses on the verge of failure.
Blumenthal our AG personally joined me and others at Bridgeport City Hall where we along with 70 other people openly spoke to the DPUC about the negative impact UI continues to have on business here in CT. While our newly elected State Rep. Barbara Lambert recommends we purchase solar panels, none are seen on her house or that of any local businesses. She along with others recommends incurring more debt and loans to combat the high cost of energy, a prevailing "looney" philosophy that is now being reiterated at all levels of government.
2008 will forever be remembered as the year of the TARP, or the year America was threatened with Marshall law if we did not give massive loans to big banks, the same then has gone for the Automakers, and the FED now has cut interest rates to near zero the lowest ever by my memory.
All this to combat the symptomatic "bubble economy" the pop after pop could be heard still today, as the energy bubble burst from $150+ dollars a barrel down to as low as $35, to the real estate bubble, the Internet bubble, the derivatives bubble, etc. etc. etc.. A good friend of mine and an economic adviser told me that if Americans paid off all their debt the economy would fail in its entirety. This is simply because we built a Fractional Reserve system. What this means to the layman, is that money today is real easy and cheap to make its simply paper and ink, but more importantly than that our country passed a law making it "legal Tender" and your willingness, or unwillingness to accept it is what gives it value. More disconcerning is the 10-1 deposit to loan ratio, where by a $1,000.00 deposity allows a bank to lend $10,000.00. This system allows loans that default to also default at 10 to 1.
The kicker going into 2009 is that emergency economic circumstances caused the government to panic and hence printed and created far more than the Congressional allowed 700 Billion. MSNBC and Bloomberg are both now litigious demanding that the FED and the Treasury reveal who they gave Two Trillion Dollars to, and what assets were secured on behalf of the taxpayer. Our leaders at both these institutions have refused to hand over the records, their tenacity over these records are an eerie reminder of the Nixon administration and his unwillingness to hand over the Watergate tapes.
Meanwhile Americans are contributing vast sums of money in taxes so we may have good roads, good schools, social security, health care, and economic development but so far the only thing that appears to happening is greater cries for stalled, delayed, and underfunded projects that are desperately needed. On the larger note, Richard Roy our local state Rep. in Milford uses the word "total meltdown" when speaking about the burgeoning federal and state deficits and the impact they will have on our state.
As comical as he may sound to some ignorant people, He his not alone in his assertion, David Walker former Comptroller General of the GAO warns that "hard choices" have to be made now or we risk the collapse of Social Security and Medicaid in the not so distant future. Nancy Wyman our state Comptroller is also struggling with nightmarish state deficits, deficits so large that as much as 1/4 of the entire state budget may have to be eliminated.
One would think that with all this bleak news and expert advice that our leaders would dare to challenge or reverse the very policies that got us here. Unbelievable as it may be, no one is encouraging Americans to save money, quit borrowing beyond their ability to pay. None are condemning NAFTA, GAFTA, and those American job killing trade agreements, none are calling for impeachments or criminal arrests of the perpetrators of these economic crimes. None dare condemn the two party system for not more aggressively challenging one another on matters of illegal wars, torture, theft of taxpayer resources, corporatism, and greed.
Whatever the cowardly reasons are, fear, intimidation, insurrection, spineless leadership, or conspiracy none of it matters, what matters are the immutable laws of history and the arrogance of decadent people who fail to act, care, or understand the nature and gravity of things to come. History may have to repeat itself yet again, as it did in Germany.
Right here in our own town we can see the early patterns of economic implosions, as Linens and Things, Bic, KB Toys, Milford Furniture, Steve and Barry's, The Blue Turtle, and yes many others too numerous to name are all out of business or GONE. Yet our leaders still remain complacent, cavalier and refuse to act against those tyrants that got us into this mess. We are yet to have a leader come forth and declare independence from a nation that has proved its incompetence beyond a reasonable doubt. We have instead misplaced our faith in a new President who by his own words promised "unpopular choices" coming during his tenure.
The constitution makes it clear for the states to defend them selves during these challenging times. Mainly the 10Th Amendment, and Article 1 section 10 of the constitution. What I believe our state needs to do is declare as much independence as it can from the Federal Level and institute a Platinum, Gold and Silver intrastate denominated barter system. This will shield us from the excesses of the "weimar-Fiat" over printed dollar. And one last point, gun sales and ownership are breaking all records.
Who is the man featured in this picture? If there was ever a single warrior fighting the Federal Reserve System and George Bush Sr. proclamation of a New World Order. This man Alex Jones is the the titan, the defender of the American Republic and a bastion of the old style Constitutional Freedom we demand.
Alex Jones has said that our government, has become "illegitimate" that evil global bankers are robbing the country of trillions as it slides toward a complete and total collapse. On his radio show ALex has said that our Congressmen and Senators are threatened for not going along with the looting of Americans under the duress of and threats of violent acts against them and their families.
These bold claims, under normal circumstances would be ludicrous insane, crazy, but our own leaders in increasing numbers are telling us that this is the case that America is rapidly losing its power to a group of Evil Oligarchs that have marginalized our entire political system. The amazing increase in Arms sales in America is a testament that Americans are fearful, and looking to protect them selves from God only knows. But the reality is that Alex, in his often angry and yet passionate tone really has millions convinced that the threat is real. His evidence as presented on his radio show located at www.rfrank118.com slide 5 is powerful. He is building an "information war" that is causing millions to flock to his radio show. Alex warns of a coming depression and a concerted attack against the middle class to weaken it so that a global government ruled by bankers can gain control much like the divine right of kings.
As funny and insane as this sounds, this is exactly what appears to be going on as the Federal reserve loots the taxpayers treasury in preparation of their boldest act ever the surreal monetary challenge of our system of Democracy.
Chairman Christopher Dodd of the Senate Banking Committee offered an alternative Monday to the financial rescue plan of the administration of President George W. Bush aimed at giving the U.S. Treasury an equity stake when it helps companies burdened by debt.
Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, was circulating a draft of his bill as Congress sought to deal with a financial crisis that has been called the worst for the United States since the Great Depression.
The Bush administration is proposing a $700 billion plan to buy devalued assets from investment firms to keep the financial system from coming to a halt.
Democrats have pledged to act quickly on the measure, even as they seek to create an oversight structure, limit the compensation of executives at the companies benefiting from the rescue and provide mortgage relief for struggling borrowers.
"We cannot just turn over $700 billion in taxpayer money and not insist that that taxpayer is going to be protected in this," Dodd told reporters Sunday.
"We need this to be clean and quick, and we need to get it in place," Paulson said Sunday in an interview with ABC News.
The legislation would require Treasury to take an equity stake equal to the purchase price of the assets being bought. If the company is not publicly traded, the government would take senior debt instead, placing it in the front of the line of debt holders for repayment in the event of a bankruptcy.
Dodd's proposal also would create a five-member oversight board to supervise the Treasury secretary's purchase and sale of distressed mortgage debt.
It would consist of the chairmen of the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as two members from the financial industry designated by congressional leaders.
The board would be authorized to set up a so-called credit review company consisting of Treasury employees to study the soundness of the purchases. Under the plan, the government would be required to obtain an equity stake equal to the value of the debt that is purchased from the companies, including those whose shares are not publicly traded. The Treasury secretary would also be required to issue weekly public reports on the amount of assets bought and sold by the U.S.
Dodd is proposing to penalize executives who take "inappropriate or excessive" risks. The executive compensation and severance packages could be reduced if that is "in the public interest," the proposal says. It would also force executives to give back profits they earned that were based on company accounting measures that are later found to be inaccurate.
The Republican presidential candidate, Senator John McCain, who has supported giving shareholders a bigger say in executive compensation in the past, said Monday that taxpayers should not pay for "golden parachutes" for officers of companies that have crumbled in upheaval on Wall Street.
"The senior executives of any firm that is bailed out by Treasury should not be making more than the highest paid government official," McCain said at a campaign event in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
The president is the highest paid federal official, with a salary of $400,000 a year.
This sounds Eerily familiar, this was the line that Congress gave to moveon.org last year when they voiced concern over the war in Iraq. It would appear that Congress is getting a taste of its own medicine, as two of Americas most powerful Titans hand out yet again more billions to their corporate buddies. First there was the Bear Sterns Bailout, next the Fannie and Freddie Mac Bailout, and Now the AIG Bailout.
The taxpayers have guaranteed these executives not only a "golden parachute" as they received millions in executive bonuses for failure, but most have also evaded criminal charges and investigations. Disgracefully our leaders just rewarded crooks with counterfeit and/or taxpayer money.
This staggering multi company bailout could cost into the trillions, no one knows for sure and will not know the massive cost for years to come. These two men effectively are now engaged in full scale plunder of the U.S. Treasury and and all its associated accounts including the FDIC Insurance that insures the money in your bank account.
How two men that no one voted for were allowed to plunder every American citizen in favor of the global corporate elite is not only unconstitutional but a public disgrace, and mocks the freedom and democracy that we are told exists here in America.
Ultimately we all a pay price, and Congress knows this, but unfortunately what two men decided in 24 Hrs. Congress could not decide in six months. Ron Paul warned us of the propensity of these kinds of malevolent actions and some six months from today we can expect a magnification and localization of these massive problems. In other words expect your personal bailout of these companies to occur through inflation. Every Time you buy Milk, Gas, Food, or the basics of life notice the rapid inflationary increases, also notice everything you own (your home, your cars, your stocks) to be worth less as no one will be able to invest.
What you will not see on future 2009 receipts is the line next to the state sales tax that says "AIG & Friends Bailout inflation tax 50% of total bill." Put into perspective, and truly bringing home your share of the impending national economic disaster the numbers just make a mockery out of our perception of reality. But your personal share of all combined Federal Debt has just increased from $350,000 per Person to an Est. $450,000 to $500,000 per person overnight.
David Walker a former U.S. Accountant and head of the Government Accountability office indicated that we have hard choices ahead of us, but what he failed to mention is that Congress has exposed itself as arbitrary and powerless over the actions of the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve who just essentially pushed America to total and complete bankruptcy. They did this without approval from Congress or a vote from the American people. They just told our elected leaders to "sit down and shut up" as they stealthily wrote massive checks out of your bank account to their friends.
Many of the companies involved in this federal Ponzi scheme are in fact the very banks and corporations who own the Federal Reserve. This is one major reason why the FED steps in to help their owners avoid prosecution and provide them with taxpayer money to clean up their mess by absorbing these criminals into the basement of other Federal Reserve Companies. For those not in the know the Federal Reserve is no more Federal than Federal Express and they just demonstrated this week that they have more power than Congress.
This is something to sleep on as continuing to live a local illusion that "because things are under control in our yard that there is no cause for alarm." I believe that in given time there will be a mass rude awakening in America. The time for countless millions to come forth is now not after being sobered by the fact that we gave some of the greediest and most evil people on the planet control over our lives. This did not work in Germany back in 1938 and will not work in America.
There is no doubt, and all respected economists agree, that we are in a recession that is likely to last for the next several years. The question on my mind is what led up to this recession? The answer comes simply as 9/11 combined with a "sub prime crisis," or a policy of lending money to people with marginal credit. This type of lending became a generally accepted practice because banks believed that home equity would grow according to the historical trends of the late 1990's. Risk was also minimized because the loans were sold off on Wall street and often conspicuously re-packaged in investment funds that small investors owned as part of their stock portfolios.
Mortgage brokers had a banner year due to Alan Greenspan's (Former FED Chief) keeping U.S. interest rates very low, loans were also restructured to allow high "loan to value ratios" and "interest only" payments. This made it possible for Americans with the most limited incomes be able to purchase a home of their own. The real estate market started to tumble after the questionable attacks of 9/11.
This was the first massive loss in real estate due to the free-fall collapse of five Manhattan buildings hit by two planes. The losses paralyzed the economy and sent stocks plummeting on Wall Street. 9/11 resulted in massive increases in all types of insurance, from home owners to car insurance to many other types of insurances netting billions in additional revenue to the insurance industry.
As volunteers at "Ground Zero" were heroically working in an environment full of pulverized concrete and the airborne Asbestos that insulated the lower floors of the World Trade Center Buildings. The Real Estate calamity was already set in motion.
The first warning came a few short years later on February 8, 2007 when HSBC - Europe's biggest bank blamed the U.S. sub prime defaults for its first-ever profit warning.
On April 2, New Century Financial Corp. filed for bankruptcy, their stock plummeted under 35.1 Billion in debt. The company was liquidated with court approval sending a "Red Alert" on Wall Street.
July 30, HSBC loses $6.35 billion due to bad U.S. loans in the first half of the year, up 63 percent from $3.89 billion in the same period last year.
October 15, CITIGROUP, the largest U.S. bank, says Q3 profit fell 57 percent due to sub prime losses. Their income down to a mere $2.38 billion from $5.5 billion the previous year.
October 19, WACHOVIA CORP - The fourth-largest U.S. bank posts a 10 percent decline in Q3 profit, to $1.69 billion from $1.88 billion a year earlier, having suffered $1.3 billion of write downs due to credit market turmoil.
October 24, MERRILL LYNCH stuns Wall Street by writing down $8.4 billion in bad investments related to sub prime lending.
December 19, MORGAN STANLEY posts a $3.59 billion Q4 loss and $9.4 billion of mortgage-related write downs.
January 15, 2008 CITIGROUP - The largest U.S. bank posts its first quarterly loss since Citigroup's creation in 1998, hurt by $18.1 billion of subprime-related write downs.
Jan 17, MERRILL LYNCH reports its worst-ever quarter, revealing around $16 billion in mortgage-related write downs.
February 14, UBS says it is writing down $18 billion in bad loans.
February 19, CREDIT SUISSE marks down the value of asset-backed investments by $2.85 billion.
October 26, U.S. mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp posts a $1.2 billion third-quarter loss after writing down $1 billion in sub prime loans.
Jan. 16, JPMorgan Chase boosts its provisions for loan losses by $2.54 billion during the third quarter.The investment bank's profit plunges 88% to $124 million.
March 3, HSBC's investment banking arm takes a $2.1 billion write down on assets tarnished by the sub prime crisis.
March 17, Bear Sterns collapses without warning or provocation. Federal reserve rushes to organize an emergency merger with J.P. Morgan to avoid bankruptcy.
April 1, UBS doubles its write downs to $37.4 billion.
April 8, Washington Mutual Inc, battered by mortgage delinquencies and defaults, obtains a $7 billion capital injection from private equity firm TPG Inc and other investors, but projected a $1.1 billion quarterly loss and set plans to eliminate 3,000 jobs.
April 15, JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s profit fell 50 percent in the first quarter after the bank took a provision of $5.1 billion to strengthen its reserves by $2.5 billion and account for $2.6 billion in losses in its loan portfolio.
April 18, 2008 Citigroup Inc. said it will eliminate about 9,000 more jobs, after poor bets on defaulting loans and the tumultuous credit markets lopped $14 billion in value from its investments during the first quarter.
So far the Federal reserve has created an estimated three Trillion in new currency to bail out the global economy. This creation of money is called M3 and is the worst economic indicator for inflation and the devaluation of the dollar uder the simple premise of "supply and Demand."
These losses also do not take into consideration those incurred by banks overseas, nor due they reflect the true nature of derivative losses, or losses based on real estate assets being worth less than what they are stated as being worth in a big banks portfolio.
The Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernake has grappled with the doomed economy by once again following in the footsteps of his predecessor Alan Greenspan and lowering interest rates accelerating the demise of the U.S. dollar.
As of today, the devalued U.S. dollar has created high inflation in food and energy, and quietly taxed the investments of every American whose savings are being depleted by way of its loss in purchasing power.
Tent cities trends of displaced Americans have propped up in Southern California, Florida, Detroit, and many other cities around America as top investors continue to flee the falling dollar.
The situation is becoming increasingly dire, and as the value of the dollar continues to plummet it will eventually set off an "alarm." This will result in more major Dollar holders like China, and Japan to make the dreadful decision of having to divest from it to limit their losses.
In the near future, America could be facing a crisis that combines both the public hardships of high interest rates seen in the 1970's, inflation, and the bank failures and joblessness of the great depression.
In conclusion, it is important to note that the American founders pegged the value of the dollar to gold and silver because they knew central banks, through abuse of their authority, would do exactly this to our economy. When Richard Nixon took America off the gold standard in the 1970's he doomed the entire country to exactly this kind of malaise.
What could be worse than having $4.00 per gallon gas, soaring foreclosures, bank failures, spikes in natural gas and electric bills, food inflation a stagnant economy, property and state tax increases and massive debt? Perhaps the title give the answer away, but yes it is high taxes!
Last night on Glenn Beck I was "floored" when I discovered an irresponsible plan to continue the taxing and plundering of Americans. Our local taxes already created concern for those on fixed incomes, but the federal taxes are not yet upon us. As it stands the Bush tax cuts are set to expire soon, and if Congress or the President fail to address these new charges to the already economically decimated public we will see even more aggressive public looting of the average Americans bank accounts.
According to a Quote From Hat tip – Attack Machine, "By historical standards, federal revenues relative to GDP, at 18.8% last year, are high. In the past 25 years, this level was only exceeded during the five years from 1996 to 2000. Still, we stand on the verge of a very large tax increase, one that will occur unless the next Congress and president agree to rescind it. Letting the Bush tax cuts expire will drive the personal income tax burden up by 25% – to its highest point relative to GDP in history."
These new burdens are being met by even more radical methods of enforcement, the IRS is planning an all out offensive against what it labels "tax defiers" A tax defier, according to a Justice Department statement, is someone who “seeks to deny and defy the fundamental validity of the tax laws.” Click HERE to see this article.
One would think that with all this economic hardship on the table, it would be a "wake up call" to our leaders in Washington. Unfortunately, even with advanced knowledge and strong public criticism our leaders have feverishly and irresponsibly spent America into debt, with this quarters trade deficit even larger than anytime before. Our leaders and especially the Federal reserve system has abused our monetary system through excessive runaway inflation, twisted true and accurate economic figures to void paying true and accurate COLA'S (Cost of Living Adjustments)to retirees and entitlement holders, and over promised and under delivered on our nations health care needs.
Secretary Paulson of the Treasury expressed grave concern over entitlement funding, as did Americas former Chief accountant Walker at the GAO. The message is being loudly reverberated through all levels of Government and still there is no fiscally responsible plan to pull us out of the current recession. Some economists, including former Labor Secretary Robert Reiche indicated that under the current economic conditions there is "a 20% chance" of our recession, becoming a depression. Click HERE for this story.
It is not too unbelievably hard to understand how it is that we got into such an economic crisis. This problem began as a result of poor economic policy dating back to Woodrow Wilson who created the Federal Reserve, to Roosevelt outlawing large public gold ownership, to ultimately former Pres. Nixon abolishing the gold standard.
This left America with a monetary system that was out of public control and wide open for abuse. Thanks to our past and present leaders capitulating to the "robber baron bankers" our nations unending and relentless printing and spending addiction, in tandem with countless wars and a 9.5 trillion in debt is now forcing us to "pay the piper."
And "paying the piper" is not only Americas problem, it is a global problem as U.S. consumers spoiled the world with our insatiable desire for cheap foreign goods. Countries producing these goods have built their entire economies based on U.S. consumption and American retailers have become too dependent on manufacturing overseas.
Should Americans stop consuming these cheap products, the backlash of unemployment in China may lead to wars revolutions or overthrows of governments. This makes the U.S. power exuberance of the global financial woes even more grave.
Today, it is becoming increasingly clear that America cannot and will not ever be able to repay the national debt, and that sustained pressure is mounting by foreign economies to implement an alternate currency that the U.S. has no control of. The global consensus is moving toward an ideal that America's comeuppance will be the loss of its currency and ultimately dependence on Non U.S. Central banks to keep order and balance in the global economy.
America appears to be given one last chance to "get its act together" should our nation fail, than America is at risk of coming under the economic monetary control of a foreign central bank. Tough decisions lie ahead, and our leaders are being faced with their "greatest moment of truth."
Video explains the current decline of our FIAT monetary system and its resulting expansion of poverty and economic woes.
The next two years certainly will tell, and experts today have called this time the best time to take advantage of the liquidity crisis in the markets. If Turkey is any indicator of how inflation affects the stock markets than we could expect an inflationary surge in the price of commodities as an adjustment to the expansion of (M3)or the massive money supply, money the Federal Reserve injected into the banking system to solve the ongoing saga of the liquidity crisis. (Liquidity crisis is the "Big Word" for "I'm Broke.")
This call for investment appears to be based on sound advice but some caution still exists, economic concern still is omnipresent in the form of Inflation, a stagnant economy and the credit crisis that has been created by an abundance of foreclosures and credit card debt obligations. Americans still have relatively strong employment despite massive job exoduses to Mexico, India and China however, our devalued dollar has been somewhat helpful in aiding America's tourism industry and spurred corporate investment into what foreign corporations have embraced as an opportunity to buy up undervalued U.S.companies.
Donald Trump has called these hard pressed times "Exciting" as they present a tremendous opportunity to make investments in real estate and the stock market. He is counting on the downward volatility, high risk, and fear of a crash as a selling point to acquire assets. Other, experts believe that our fiat currency system will eventually fail, but others have now agreed that this has been put off for the short term making the likely hood of continued market rallies more common in the coming months.
Anyone out there who bought a hybrid, turned down their thermostat, and conserved energy give yourself a "pat on the back" it was millions of people like you all across America that succeeded in driving down the price of oil by a one day record amount; therefore making you partially responsible for this short term recovery.
In conclusion I will say as always, that I am not a financial expert and my advice is based on optimistic opinion and personal observations rather than an expert analysis of true market conditions. Always consult you financial advisor before making any investments.
The large scale banking failures that rocked the entire financial sector has forced many American's out of their homes and into foreclosure. Forclosure, eventually leads to forced eviction and homelessness. California has had a terrible time in relocating families.
Some families having no relatives to live with, or any other plan became part of a growing trend called "Tent Cities." The video below is of not chronically poor, menatlly ill, lazy or indignant people, but rather common American's like me and you that once had good jobs, a home and a stable lifestyle. The only mistake they made was to fall victim to a banking scam many have labled "Predatory Loans" or loans that go from very affordable payments to re-adjusted un-affordable payments.
How did this happen many may ask? The simple word is "Greed" the real-estate market took a straight-up seemingly endless appreciation year over year. This was accompanied by low interest rates and the idea that every American can become a home owner. Most believed their mortgage brokers and took the deals they were offered, banks counted on the continued gains of the real-estate marked and sold loans to other banks on Wall Street on the open market. Everybody expected to get rich, what they did not know is what eventually would hurt us all, and that is the real-estate market was a "bubble" that still continues to "burst."
There is one irony in this story that most American's will not like. That is the story about the Federal reserve and it's private owners. Some not so discreet but many are big banks, the same banks that gave the predatory loans to common Americans. The Federal Reserve has saved all of it's friends and owners by letting them keep their billions in bonuses, and handing them hundreds of billions more in cash printed off the public press.
The moral of the story is the "crooks" got saved, you and me the "little people" got our stock portfolios robbed, others put on the street, and the rest of us pay through inflation on all the money the bankers printed for their friends. Perhaps Thomas jefferson was correct when he said:
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs." Thomas Jefferson, Letter to the Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin (1802)
This has been a topic that refuses to go away, every time I check the financial markets, turn on CNBC, listen to Glenn Beck, David Walker (GAO) or Lou Dobbs the message is always alarming. The most upbeat and positive commentators are now beginning to have a hard time with this issue, even after they paint the best economic picture they can to keep our hope alive in America the continual burden of "in your face" problems and bad news is widespread.
Jim Rogers is the latest hard hitter and brilliant economist to step forward and say "enough is enough" let the banks "fail." The Fed in his opinion has not only removed any and all consequences of their banking friends egregious criminal actions but has gone further and sweetened the deal with taxpayer printed money totalling in the hundreds of billions. This not only saved the big banks, but entitled the top brass at those institutions to keep their multi-million dollar bonuses, lucrative personal empires and guaranteed their future employment in the next generation of investing, banking and lending.
Rogers has called for the Federal Reserve to be abolished, and said that Bernanke was not elected by anyone but has taken matters upon himself to spend billions of taxpayer money... your money without your consent. Well how is it your money their taking? After all there is no one at your house or in your bank accounts right? Wrong! You are paying at the gas pump, you are paying through your property taxes, you are paying at the supermarket, and you are paying in your retirement accounts. Essentially they are stealing the value of your money by printing more of it as fast as they possibly can making it worth less under the basic principle of supply and demand.
Watch the video today it is yet another dire warning from a notable market expert and American investor concerned for the only thing left holding the middle class together in America... "The Almighty Dollar."
Over the last several years I have taken part in watching countless documentaries on everything from Genetically engineered foods to the casualties caused by fast food and the tobacco industry. In todays blog I decided to compile some statistics for everyone to see. This is because we all know that there are greedy profiteers out there that will feed us and sell us anything for a buck regardless of the impact it has on our lives.
Most people being naive, believe the claims made by these big industries, who despite the facts have told us their products are safe, wonderful, and urged you to become part of the growing trend. As you watch every cheeseburger, cheap foreign product, medicine and widget come across your television to the tune of about 20-30 commercials per hour, your mind is being shaped for the benefit of the big corporations who care not a damm about anything other than selling you.
The way these companies sell you is by making their products as delicious, and addictive as possible. The aim is to keep you coming back again and again as a customer until eventually over a prolonged exposure to the plethora of health damaging products lands you sick in a hospital. The big corporations do not care about your health, but rather their bottom line... how much have they sold and how much money is there in profit. In summary they get rich, you get indebted, jobless, sick and then prematurely die, hopefully this helps you get the picture.
Something to think about while you are at home (fat and in debt), watching a foreign made T.V. with a bag of fast food on your lap.
A: Tobacco Products Kill Apx. 500,000 people every 364 Days.
B: Obesity Related Deaths Apx. 400,000 people every 364 Days.
C: American's Owe Apx. 1,000,000,000,000.00 On their Credit cards alone.
D: There are 250,000 new cases of Diabetes each year 8 Million may have it already.
E: The average Kid watches T.V. 24 hours a week.
F: America Lost Apx. 3 Million Jobs overseas.
G: Nutrasweet Discovered To Cause Brain Cancer.
H: Apx 60% Of All Marriages Ended In Divorce.
And the biggest of them all, last year the American dream of owning a home resulted in foreclosures jumping upward to a 75% increase.
America is now in your hands, this country can only be saved from the bottom up. And in the words of a famous other. "Seek to become the change you want to see in the world."
To learn more about this epidemic, read Peter Strupp's hilarious book. Fat Dumb And Ugly
As a young kid I grew up in Perugia Italy, a little town located in the province of Umbria. Umbria is a place made famous for food wine and Etruscan architecture. It was also the place that my father and brother chose to study veterinary medicine. Today both are doctors each with their own practice and my sister and I have gained a wealth of memories.
My mother was born in Sicily in a little town called San Fratello. The town was ancient when I visited there in the late seventies as It had no running water and an agrarian population that subsided by raising farm animals and growing food crops. My personal favorites, were grapes, figs, olives, prosciutto, and lots of wine.
This life was very unique, especially when compared to the grandiose lifestyle back in the United States. America being relatively new had large streets, and great big skyscrapers in every city. Italy was tight, and catered to the ancient Roman lifestyle of horse drawn carriages. Today the eco-friendly population has adapted modern day automotive technology to cater to the tight cobblestone streets that are the signature of the Roman antiquity. The photo below is of a 500 the car we used as a family back in the late 70's.
My mother and father had grown very fond of Italy as a result of their wonderful experiences, and today, have thought about retiring there. They are both already in their retirement years and have found themselves struggling to reallocate their assets in order to achieve their retirement objectives.
Like countless others they have had difficulty selling their business real-estate, have lost substantial sums of money in the market post 9/11 and today were once again reminded that America's falling dollar is making my mothers birthplace more unattainable. The reality is, that only those people who are capable of incurring such staggering losses, like the super rich, will have access to an overseas retirement.
All too many people and businesses have already fled the country, some businesses like Pfizer in Groton Ct. cannot flee fast enough as they have recently accelerated the closing of their plant. America has fallen upon hard times for reasons that few people understand or really know, but put simply our country has borrowed more than it could afford to pay and is now suffering the dire consequences.
As our nation continues its march toward a recession, or possibly a recession or worse, we all pay. We pay for our leaders mistakes at the gas pump, when we travel to other countries, when we sell our home, when we buy food, when we go to collect our social security, when we buy a car, pay our Dr's bill, or collect our 401K's and IRA's.
The most horrible position a nation can be in is where we are headed now, "Stagflation" a condition where a stagnating economy and inflation co-exist. This is the hardest condition for our leaders to cure because adjusting interest rates, and manipulating the money supply no longer work after a certain point. To put this into perspective imagine a see-saw where you fix one end of the problem and the other end gets worse and vice versa.
The next six months will determine what we as individuals will need to do to realign our lives for the new America. Should the economy continue to deteriorate then we will need to compensate in advance to prepare for a prolonged period of harder times. I will comment more on this as the new CPI or inflation figures emerge.
Bernanke's Feb. 14th speech before congress was no Valentines Day gift. The video reposted for you below is full of big words and economic principles that average people may not understand. The purpose of this post is to give you the basic simple facts in a manner that is more easily understood.
To get to the point, there is no real good news other than Uncle Sam is going to mail you a check. Do not run to your mailbox though, because you may not get one unless you contact H.R. Block or some retail tax service and fill out your paperwork.
The reason you are getting this money is because all the big names in Washington are very upset over how many people cannot afford to pay for their home, their electric, gas, and yes their food. If you have been to the gas station, or the supermarket, than you know how much more expensive things have gotten lately.
The big bummer is that our schools, city buildings, bosses, and customers are just as strapped and squeezed by expensive food and energy as we are and because of that we pay more in taxes and work harder for less pay. In some really rare cases entire company’s close or lay people off. When this happens people worry about how long they can keep paying bills out of unemployment benefits or severance pay. They also have a harder time finding good paying jobs to replace the ones they lost.
The bottom line on all this Bernanke talk is that because of all these financial difficulties that people are having, many are not able to keep up with their bills. When this happens the bank, forecloses, or takes its house back and then sells it to the highest bidder to reclaim the money they are owed. Many people also made their problems worse by not reading or understanding their loans. They soon found out their payments kept going higher and higher each month while their incomes stayed the same.
During this time, the bank still has to pay the high city taxes and back taxes and late fees and interest, the lawyer’s charges, the insurance, and their employees handling the paperwork. This all cost the bank a lot of money. This has happened so often in the last five years that banks do not want to lend anyone any more money. They are afraid they may go out of business or worse end up sued by their owners because of poor lending decisions. Many of them have gone out of business and this has scared the owners of these lending companies.
Unfortunately we need banks. This is because houses are very expensive, people do not have hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy a home, and many already strapped for money, and left with bad credit, cannot buy a home. Some just have to accept they will be renting for a long time. This is very bad for the bank because now they have a harder time selling those houses making them worth less and less. In some cases the people who purchased these houses owe more money than their homes are worth, often by a lot! Since the bank took their house back as collateral they are stuck paying the amount that is short and due the bank owners who lent the buyers the money in the first place.
The real kicker is, and this is just an example, if a buyer purchased their home for $270,000.00 put $20,000.00 down and owed $250,000.00 at the time of foreclosure. The amount the bank is short according to the IRS is now taxable income to you. What do I mean? If that house was sold for only $100,000.00 because the previous owner did damage to it, than as far as the IRS is concerned the $150,000.00 difference is taxable income the forclosee owes putting previous owners in a deeper financial hole.
The biggest kicker in Bernanke speech is that he intends, if necessary, on cutting interest rates to banks to increase the banks profit. Very seldom does it lower your payment any. What Bernanke has done in the past, and will probably do again, is print money out of thin air to keep these banks from going completely out of business. The bad news is that the amount of "phony money" needed, if not done correctly, could hurt the entire world economy and create more inflation driving up the cost of milk eggs and gas even more.
The Ron Paul Phenomenon is pushing forward in the Presidential Primaries. Ron Paul Scored an impressive second place finish in Nevada, and actually took first place in Louisiana. Although the media reported his finish in LA as a second place finish, the true number after all the delegate votes were counted put Ron Paul at a first place finish.
However this victory can be called a Pyrrhic victory as the continued implications of the chaotic caucus process, and Ron Paul media black out, continues to leave undesirable results and general distrust for the integrity and honesty of the primary system. This system is now marred so bad that courts could be used again, as in the Bush Gore Election, to decide who our next President is. Already there has been a recount in New Hampshire, and a revelation of the criminal record of an official at the Diebold company. The process has now set a record so problematic that we can expect a continuous flow of challenges to the primary results.
With this in mind, I can at least say that there is some good news. Ron Paul continues his rise to awareness when respected market enthusiast Cramer, who hosts the stock market television show Mad Money had Ron Paul on as a guest. Cramer endorsed all the ideas and principles that Ron Paul stands for. Most particularly, his criticism of the Federal Reserve System who acts with complete impunity from the wreckless policies they set for the American economy. Watch the clip as it is the first time I have ever seen Cramer so excited.
Recently after seeing Walker of the General Accountability Office, a branch of our Federal Government, give a lecture posted on Youtube, I became concerned. Walker has fallen short of calling the U.S. Government "Insolvent" and also cited in his 2007 GAO report (http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d07607t.pdf) that the primary cause of this "insolvency" stemmed from the DOD's poor accounting for the last decade, and entitlements due the baby boomers set to retire in 2008. The cost of those entitlements, primarily healthcare cost the greatest concern.
After reading the entire report, I e-mailed a note to every key politician I know including Rell, Shays, Lieberman, Dodd, and DeLauro. Naturally if we are to avert the bankrupcy of America of which may arrive as early as next decade, our Representatives should have a plan.
It occurred to me after watching Walker speak that any politician looking to help Ameriaca's poor fiscal condition must adapt a platform to include. Cutting your Social Security, Cutting your Medicaid and Medicare, Cutting your V.A. Benefits, Cutting state funding, reducing if not eliminating foreign aid, withdraw from engaging in expensive wars, and simultaneously increase every tax to yield maximum revenue back to the government to pay debts.
To put the seriousness of this problem into perspective, America has indebted every American family almost $600,000 dollars (by todays estimated calculations.) The government currently owes 57 Trillion Dollars. With this looming disaster, and the head of the GAO screaming this message, still virtually no one sees, or cares, about the impending economic collapse. There is no talk of it anywhere!
At some future point it may be entirely necessary for CT to abandon the Dollar and print its own currency, you may need to be friendly with your neighbors and learn to barter again until the nation recovers from its failures. I say this because I believe that not one single future politician will be electable if they take the saving of America seriously. I do not wish to be harsh but too many American's do not care about government, we are largely uninformed, and naively believe mass media to be news. A media which is governed not by News, but advertising and ratings.
America's culture prefers to tune out negativity, American's would rather watch celebrity gossip, and a barage of stories focused on our own people committing crimes against each other while our powerful leaders enjoy media exile and benefit from your uninformed oasis.
Every great nation on earth has fallen, The Aztec's, The Egyptian's, The Romans, and perhaps in the not so distant future America. Watch the warning from Walker the GAO Sr. officer. He is begging our Representatives for action, and now he is begging you to listen! Our Government has become apathetic and is hopelessly addicted to spending.
Democrat Genevieve Salvatore on Wednesday called for "zero-based budgeting," saying that as mayor she would allocate money only when justified. 
