Prince warns Saudi Arabia of Apocalypse: "U.S. Will Not Survive
The Loss"
"Do not fool yourself by relying on the United States or Britain or
Israel, because they will not survive the loss; the only door open
is now the exit door of no return. Let us go before it closes."
By Live Free or Die
Reporter
Before It's News.Com
Sat Jan 29 2011 09:29
Saudi Prince Turki bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud has warned the country's royal family to step down and flee before a military coup or a popular uprising overthrows the kingdom.
In a letter published by Wagze news agency on Tuesday, the
Cairo-based prince warned Saudi Arabia's ruling family of a fate
similar to that of Iraq's executed dictator Saddam Hussein and the
ousted Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, calling on them to
escape before people "cut off our heads in streets."
He warned that the Saudi royal family is no longer able to "impose" itself on people, arguing that deviations in carrying out the religious concepts that make up the basis of the Saudi government "have gotten out of our hands," so that the opposition views our acts as "interfering in people's private life and restricting their liberties."
"If we are wise, we must leave this country to its people, whose dislike for us is increasing," said Prince Turki, advising Saudi officials to escape with their families.
"Do it today before tomorrow as long as the money we have is
enough for us to live anywhere in the world; from Switzerland to
Canada and Australia…we should not return as long as we are able
to get out safely, we must take our families quickly and pull out,"
he urged.
"Do not fool yourself by relying on the United States or Britain or
Israel, because they will not survive the loss; the only door open
is now the exit door of no return. Let us go before it closes."
He finally warned against a military coup against the ruling family, saying "no one will attack us from outside but our armed forces will attack us."
Prince Turki is a member of the liberal Free Princes movement
founded in the 1950s amid tensions between King Faisal and his
brother King Saud, requesting the Saudi authorities to implement
political reforms and set out a constitution.
The late King Faisal expelled members of the civil rights group to
Egypt but later on pardoned them.
http://beforeitsnews.com/story/384/045/Prince_Warned_of_
Apocalypse:_US_Will_Not_Survive_the_Loss.html
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
We Don't Do Big Things
We Don't Do Big Things
By Matt Welch
Editor In Chief
Reason Magazine
January 26, 2011
Over at The American Spectator, Philip Klein points out the many similarities between President Obama's listless blueprint last night for "Winning the Future" and former president Bill Clinton's ballyhooed "bridge to the 21st century." Sample:
"So tonight, let us resolve to build that bridge to the 21st century,
to meet our challenges and protect our values," Clinton said in his
acceptance speech at the 1996 Democratic National Convention.
In his State of the Union address last night, Obama said, "So over
the last two years, we've begun rebuilding for the 21st century, a
project that has meant thousands of good jobs for the hard-hit
construction industry. And tonight, I'm proposing that we redouble
those efforts."
Is there a more flaccid verb in the English language than "redouble"? Calls to mind some grim, Hugh Hefner-style vacuum device....
Recognizing that I am hardly the average viewer here, I was struck last night by how tired, even sad, the whole spectacle was. It's 2011, and we're still talking about building bridges to the 21st century?
Five years after George Dubya Whathisname used his SOTU to launch the instantly forgotten (but nevertheless signed into law!) American Competitiveness Initiative, we're launching a spanking new competitiveness initiative?
Gonna get off that foreign oil, build that clean energy, and invest in our kids' education, just like we promised every January stretching back to Richard Nixon?
And as someone (I forget who) pointed out on Twitter, 54 years
after a country that hasn't existed for two decades put a satellite
into space, we're still using moonshots as the go-to metaphor for
all the lofty presidential goals no one remotely believes will ever
come true.
Here's a reality check:
We will not have high-speed rail within Segwaying distance of 80 percent of the country, ever.
We will not get 80 percent of our electricity from "clean energy
sources" by 2035, unless someone far outside the halls of
government invents a snail that eats trash and poops hydrogen.
Obama won't veto every bill that arrives on his desk with earmarks–re-watch that part of the speech last night; no one believed him.
Why won't these things happen?
Because, as Rep. Paul Ryan rightly emphasized last night, the only real policy issue in America right now is that we are on the verge of fiscal catastrophe because we cannot afford the government we're paying for today, let alone the one we're promising for tomorrow.
And the president, though he is much more serious on this issue
than a huge swath of his political party, is nonetheless not remotely
serious about this issue.
Vowing to cut $400 billion over 10 years (a plan that, judging by the two people clapping when he proposed it, will likely be cut to ribbons if it survives through Congress), at a moment when the deficit for this year is more than three times that, indicates that Democrats (and a helluva lot of Republicans as well) are hunkering down in our awful status quo–half-heartedly tinkering around the edges of spending, making incremental changes this way and that, then launching new moonshots and redoubling old impotent efforts.
Politicians have put us on the precipice of financial ruin, and
they show no indication of doing a damned thing about it.
And I think they know it. Look at the plaintive, semi-desperate,
Stuart Smalleyesque mantra Obama kept repeating at the end:
"We do big things." By his insistence his anxiety shall be revealed.
We don't do big things, America, not in the moonshotty Marshall
Plan way of speechwriters' cliche box. Increasingly, we don't do
little things, either–like keeping libraries open five days a week
in California.
What we do is snarf up ever-larger portions of your grandkids'
money for purposes that are usually obscure and often criminal.
There are more than a quarter million people working at the Departments of Agriculture and Commerce. Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security combined nearly pass the half-million mark.
And at a moment of grave fiscal peril, we continue to spend half the planet's money on defense, with Obama et al expecting thunderous applause for snipping out "tens of billions" from future defense spending growth.
We continue to arrest 800,000-plus people a year for smoking or trading a plant that makes you want to eat Pop Tarts.
No, these people are not serious about the task at hand. The state
of our union, as measured by the competence of people in power, is
a fucking disgrace.
http://reason.com/blog/2011/01/26/we-dont-do-big-things
By Matt Welch
Editor In Chief
Reason Magazine
January 26, 2011
Over at The American Spectator, Philip Klein points out the many similarities between President Obama's listless blueprint last night for "Winning the Future" and former president Bill Clinton's ballyhooed "bridge to the 21st century." Sample:
"So tonight, let us resolve to build that bridge to the 21st century,
to meet our challenges and protect our values," Clinton said in his
acceptance speech at the 1996 Democratic National Convention.
In his State of the Union address last night, Obama said, "So over
the last two years, we've begun rebuilding for the 21st century, a
project that has meant thousands of good jobs for the hard-hit
construction industry. And tonight, I'm proposing that we redouble
those efforts."
Is there a more flaccid verb in the English language than "redouble"? Calls to mind some grim, Hugh Hefner-style vacuum device....
Recognizing that I am hardly the average viewer here, I was struck last night by how tired, even sad, the whole spectacle was. It's 2011, and we're still talking about building bridges to the 21st century?
Five years after George Dubya Whathisname used his SOTU to launch the instantly forgotten (but nevertheless signed into law!) American Competitiveness Initiative, we're launching a spanking new competitiveness initiative?
Gonna get off that foreign oil, build that clean energy, and invest in our kids' education, just like we promised every January stretching back to Richard Nixon?
And as someone (I forget who) pointed out on Twitter, 54 years
after a country that hasn't existed for two decades put a satellite
into space, we're still using moonshots as the go-to metaphor for
all the lofty presidential goals no one remotely believes will ever
come true.
Here's a reality check:
We will not have high-speed rail within Segwaying distance of 80 percent of the country, ever.
We will not get 80 percent of our electricity from "clean energy
sources" by 2035, unless someone far outside the halls of
government invents a snail that eats trash and poops hydrogen.
Obama won't veto every bill that arrives on his desk with earmarks–re-watch that part of the speech last night; no one believed him.
Why won't these things happen?
Because, as Rep. Paul Ryan rightly emphasized last night, the only real policy issue in America right now is that we are on the verge of fiscal catastrophe because we cannot afford the government we're paying for today, let alone the one we're promising for tomorrow.
And the president, though he is much more serious on this issue
than a huge swath of his political party, is nonetheless not remotely
serious about this issue.
Vowing to cut $400 billion over 10 years (a plan that, judging by the two people clapping when he proposed it, will likely be cut to ribbons if it survives through Congress), at a moment when the deficit for this year is more than three times that, indicates that Democrats (and a helluva lot of Republicans as well) are hunkering down in our awful status quo–half-heartedly tinkering around the edges of spending, making incremental changes this way and that, then launching new moonshots and redoubling old impotent efforts.
Politicians have put us on the precipice of financial ruin, and
they show no indication of doing a damned thing about it.
And I think they know it. Look at the plaintive, semi-desperate,
Stuart Smalleyesque mantra Obama kept repeating at the end:
"We do big things." By his insistence his anxiety shall be revealed.
We don't do big things, America, not in the moonshotty Marshall
Plan way of speechwriters' cliche box. Increasingly, we don't do
little things, either–like keeping libraries open five days a week
in California.
What we do is snarf up ever-larger portions of your grandkids'
money for purposes that are usually obscure and often criminal.
There are more than a quarter million people working at the Departments of Agriculture and Commerce. Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security combined nearly pass the half-million mark.
And at a moment of grave fiscal peril, we continue to spend half the planet's money on defense, with Obama et al expecting thunderous applause for snipping out "tens of billions" from future defense spending growth.
We continue to arrest 800,000-plus people a year for smoking or trading a plant that makes you want to eat Pop Tarts.
No, these people are not serious about the task at hand. The state
of our union, as measured by the competence of people in power, is
a fucking disgrace.
http://reason.com/blog/2011/01/26/we-dont-do-big-things
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
The Real State of the Union
The Real State of the Union
Would Ike like this dysfunctional economy?
By Brett Arends, MarketWatch
Jan. 25, 2011, 12:01 a.m. EST
BOSTON (MarketWatch) — Forget the posturing you’re going to hear tonight. Do you want to hear the real state of the union? Just ask Ike: President Dwight Eisenhower.
As fund manager Jeremy Grantham notes, it was 50 years ago this month that the old general delivered his famous farewell address to the nation after a lifetime of service that few will ever match.
Everyone remembers his warning against the rise of the “military-industrial complex.”
Less well-remembered: His warning against hocking ourselves up to the eyeballs as the easy way out of any problem.
“We... must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience the precious resources of tomorrow,” he said.
“We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.”
Living only for today?
Mortgaging our grandchildren’s assets?
An insolvent phantom?
Hmmm. Sound like anyone we know?
Today the United States is more in debt than any country, ever, in the history of the world. And it’s not just the ballooning federal debt that you keep hearing about. Companies are hocked up to the eyeballs. States and towns. And, of course, families.
Already, the total is $36 trillion. That is nearly three times the size of the economy. (And that is not even counting the trillions in so-called unfunded liabilities for the likes of Social Security and Medicare and municipal retirement plans.)
Just this conservative figure works out at about $300,000 per American household.
About half of that has been racked up in the last decade. About two-thirds of it just since 1990.
In Eisenhower’s time, gross federal debt was about half of GDP. And most of that had been built up fighting the Second World War.
This year it will reach about 100%.
What did we do with the money we borrowed? We had a housing bubble. And we bought a bunch of Jacuzzis and flat-screen TVs… made in China.
The situation is getting worse, not better.
Last month, President Barack Obama and the Republicans in Congress struck another trillion-dollar deal that included freebies for everybody. Lots more tax cuts, and a bit more spending. Gigantic deficits stretch out as far as the eye can see.
The headline on the weekend’s Wall Street Journal? “Obama To Push New Spending.”
Republicans will blame Obama and the Democrats again tonight.
But it was the Republicans who really launched the debt orgy under Reagan, and then again under Bush II. And most of them still worship the false idol of the Laffer curve, which claims that every time you cut taxes, revenues rise.
Logical conclusion: Cut rates to 0%. Maximum revenues! No wonder George Bush senior, the last Eisenhower, ie true, Republican, called this racket “voodoo economics.”
Under Eisenhower, Uncle Sam took 18% of the economy in taxes, and spent 18%. Result: Balanced budget. As they say, it ain’t rocket science.
Today? The government spends 25%. (Much of that goes on care for an aging population that has saved little for its own retirement).
Meanwhile taxes are less than 15%. The lowest level in 50 years.
Insanity.
We spend billions more than we produce each year. We have run a current account deficit with the rest of the world in every year but one since 1982. (Reagan, again). In the past 10 years, those deficits have topped $5 trillion. About half our Treasury bonds are owned overseas.
Imagine what Ike would think of that.
What has all this debt bought us?
Wages have been stagnant, or declining, for decades. Average workers (male and female) are level over 40 years. For men alone, wages are actually down. And today, one in four men can’t even get a full-time job.
In Eisenhower’s time, as Grantham points out, the average big company chief executive earned about 40 times as much as a factory-floor worker. Today: 400 to one. Surely this has passed the point of reasonable political debate. Surely there is no sensible conservative who is willing to defend this obscenity?
As for inequality: For most of our history America was, famously, among the “flattest” of societies. We did not have the aristocrats and peasants of other countries, the vast gulf between the rich and the poor. That was true when Alex de Tocqueville visited in the 1830s, and it was true when Ike was in the White House.
Today? America’s society has become among the most unequal in the world. We are far more stratified than other advanced societies, including the former aristocratic countries of Europe. We are less equal than Russia. We on a par with the Philippines and Nigeria. No kidding. Nigeria.
So when you watch our national political circus tonight, just ask yourself one question.
WWIT: What Would Ike Think?
I hate to imagine.
Brett Arends is a columnist for MarketWatch and The Wall Street Journal, based in Boston.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/state-of-the-union-the-real-story-2011-01-25?pagenumber=1
Would Ike like this dysfunctional economy?
By Brett Arends, MarketWatch
Jan. 25, 2011, 12:01 a.m. EST
BOSTON (MarketWatch) — Forget the posturing you’re going to hear tonight. Do you want to hear the real state of the union? Just ask Ike: President Dwight Eisenhower.
As fund manager Jeremy Grantham notes, it was 50 years ago this month that the old general delivered his famous farewell address to the nation after a lifetime of service that few will ever match.
Everyone remembers his warning against the rise of the “military-industrial complex.”
Less well-remembered: His warning against hocking ourselves up to the eyeballs as the easy way out of any problem.
“We... must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience the precious resources of tomorrow,” he said.
“We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.”
Living only for today?
Mortgaging our grandchildren’s assets?
An insolvent phantom?
Hmmm. Sound like anyone we know?
Today the United States is more in debt than any country, ever, in the history of the world. And it’s not just the ballooning federal debt that you keep hearing about. Companies are hocked up to the eyeballs. States and towns. And, of course, families.
Already, the total is $36 trillion. That is nearly three times the size of the economy. (And that is not even counting the trillions in so-called unfunded liabilities for the likes of Social Security and Medicare and municipal retirement plans.)
Just this conservative figure works out at about $300,000 per American household.
About half of that has been racked up in the last decade. About two-thirds of it just since 1990.
In Eisenhower’s time, gross federal debt was about half of GDP. And most of that had been built up fighting the Second World War.
This year it will reach about 100%.
What did we do with the money we borrowed? We had a housing bubble. And we bought a bunch of Jacuzzis and flat-screen TVs… made in China.
The situation is getting worse, not better.
Last month, President Barack Obama and the Republicans in Congress struck another trillion-dollar deal that included freebies for everybody. Lots more tax cuts, and a bit more spending. Gigantic deficits stretch out as far as the eye can see.
The headline on the weekend’s Wall Street Journal? “Obama To Push New Spending.”
Republicans will blame Obama and the Democrats again tonight.
But it was the Republicans who really launched the debt orgy under Reagan, and then again under Bush II. And most of them still worship the false idol of the Laffer curve, which claims that every time you cut taxes, revenues rise.
Logical conclusion: Cut rates to 0%. Maximum revenues! No wonder George Bush senior, the last Eisenhower, ie true, Republican, called this racket “voodoo economics.”
Under Eisenhower, Uncle Sam took 18% of the economy in taxes, and spent 18%. Result: Balanced budget. As they say, it ain’t rocket science.
Today? The government spends 25%. (Much of that goes on care for an aging population that has saved little for its own retirement).
Meanwhile taxes are less than 15%. The lowest level in 50 years.
Insanity.
We spend billions more than we produce each year. We have run a current account deficit with the rest of the world in every year but one since 1982. (Reagan, again). In the past 10 years, those deficits have topped $5 trillion. About half our Treasury bonds are owned overseas.
Imagine what Ike would think of that.
What has all this debt bought us?
Wages have been stagnant, or declining, for decades. Average workers (male and female) are level over 40 years. For men alone, wages are actually down. And today, one in four men can’t even get a full-time job.
In Eisenhower’s time, as Grantham points out, the average big company chief executive earned about 40 times as much as a factory-floor worker. Today: 400 to one. Surely this has passed the point of reasonable political debate. Surely there is no sensible conservative who is willing to defend this obscenity?
As for inequality: For most of our history America was, famously, among the “flattest” of societies. We did not have the aristocrats and peasants of other countries, the vast gulf between the rich and the poor. That was true when Alex de Tocqueville visited in the 1830s, and it was true when Ike was in the White House.
Today? America’s society has become among the most unequal in the world. We are far more stratified than other advanced societies, including the former aristocratic countries of Europe. We are less equal than Russia. We on a par with the Philippines and Nigeria. No kidding. Nigeria.
So when you watch our national political circus tonight, just ask yourself one question.
WWIT: What Would Ike Think?
I hate to imagine.
Brett Arends is a columnist for MarketWatch and The Wall Street Journal, based in Boston.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/state-of-the-union-the-real-story-2011-01-25?pagenumber=1
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Judgement Day
from: tony whitcomb expotera.ceo@gmail.com
to: billg@microsoft.com, info@barackobama.com,
jonde@microsoft.com, SpeakerBoehner@mail.house.gov
cc: rbarnett@wc.com, Pat.Shriver@fmjlaw.com,
rjschutz@rkmc.com, stuart@implex.net, steve@implex.net,
miked@sierra-bravo.com, toneill@sierra-bravo.com,
mikes@sierra-bravo.com, evening@cbsnews.com,
cnn@cnn.com, nightly@nbc.com, editor@usatoday.com
date Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 8:56 AM
subject: Judgement Day
mailed-by gmail.com
Gentlemen:
When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates his sheep from the goats, and He will set the sheep on His right hand but the goats at the left.
Then the King will say to those on His right hand, “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited me, I
was in prison and you came to me.” ... “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My Brethren, you did it to me.”
Then He will also say to those on the left hand, “Depart from Me,
you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his
angels; for I was hungry and you gave Me no food, I was thirsty and
you gave Me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not take Me in,
naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not
visit Me.” ... “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it
to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” And these will
go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal
life. (Matthew 25:31-36, 40-43, 45-46 NRSV)
And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose
face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no
place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before
God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened,
which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those
things which were written in the books, according to their works.
(Revelations 20:11-12)
Then I saw, "a new heaven and a new earth," for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dresses for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Look! God's
dwelling place is now among the people and he will dwell with them.
They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be
their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no
more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things
has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, "I am
making everything new!"
Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and
true." He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the
Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost
from the spring of water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit
all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.
But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the
sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and
all liars, they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur.
This is the second death. (Revelations 21:1-8)
Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree
therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into
the fire. ‘I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is
more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry
his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His
winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing-floor
and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn
with unquenchable fire.’ (Matthew 3:10-12)
Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be
at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they
will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and
they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be
weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like
the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!
(Matthew 13:40-43)
‘I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after
that can do nothing more. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him
who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell
you, fear him! ... ‘I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish
it were already kindled! (Luke 12:4-5, 49)
Sincerely,
The Last Boy in Line
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to: billg@microsoft.com, info@barackobama.com,
jonde@microsoft.com, SpeakerBoehner@mail.house.gov
cc: rbarnett@wc.com, Pat.Shriver@fmjlaw.com,
rjschutz@rkmc.com, stuart@implex.net, steve@implex.net,
miked@sierra-bravo.com, toneill@sierra-bravo.com,
mikes@sierra-bravo.com, evening@cbsnews.com,
cnn@cnn.com, nightly@nbc.com, editor@usatoday.com
date Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 8:56 AM
subject: Judgement Day
mailed-by gmail.com
Gentlemen:
When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates his sheep from the goats, and He will set the sheep on His right hand but the goats at the left.
Then the King will say to those on His right hand, “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited me, I
was in prison and you came to me.” ... “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My Brethren, you did it to me.”
Then He will also say to those on the left hand, “Depart from Me,
you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his
angels; for I was hungry and you gave Me no food, I was thirsty and
you gave Me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not take Me in,
naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not
visit Me.” ... “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it
to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” And these will
go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal
life. (Matthew 25:31-36, 40-43, 45-46 NRSV)
And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose
face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no
place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before
God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened,
which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those
things which were written in the books, according to their works.
(Revelations 20:11-12)
Then I saw, "a new heaven and a new earth," for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dresses for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Look! God's
dwelling place is now among the people and he will dwell with them.
They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be
their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no
more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things
has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, "I am
making everything new!"
Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and
true." He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the
Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost
from the spring of water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit
all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.
But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the
sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and
all liars, they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur.
This is the second death. (Revelations 21:1-8)
Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree
therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into
the fire. ‘I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is
more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry
his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His
winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing-floor
and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn
with unquenchable fire.’ (Matthew 3:10-12)
Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be
at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they
will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and
they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be
weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like
the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!
(Matthew 13:40-43)
‘I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after
that can do nothing more. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him
who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell
you, fear him! ... ‘I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish
it were already kindled! (Luke 12:4-5, 49)
Sincerely,
The Last Boy in Line
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Saturday, January 15, 2011
Happy Birthday Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.!!
Happy Birthday Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.!!
Dear Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,
My name is Tony Whitcomb. I am a forty-five year old, African
American Social Entrepreneur, Founder and CEO, of a Internet
start-up called, Expotera and on this very special day in our
Nation's History, I personally not only want to wish you a very,
"Happy Birthday" but I also want to humbly present you with this
Open Letter, as well as a Silent Prayer, on behalf of our Country,
and on behalf of the American People.
Dr. King, in 2008 our Country made history by electing the very first African/American, President of the United States, a False Prophet
among the People, by the name of, Barack Obama.
Since officially being sworn into the highest office in the land back
on January 20, 2009, Mr. Obama, and his fellow Elitist Connivers,
out in Washington D.C., and very dark places elsewhere, have now
managed to plunge our Nations economy into a very, very, deep
recession/depression, that can now only be historically described
and compared to, "The Great Depression" which began back in 1929
and lasted until the early 1940s.
Dr. King, during your lifetime, you gave an infinite number of
famous, passionate, historical, inspirational, truthful and quite
memorable, sermons and speeches, and on May 17, 1957 during
your, "Give Us The Ballot" Address in Washington D.C., you
delivered the following statements in your closing message to
your audience, and to the American People:
"I conclude by saying that each of us must keep faith in the future.
Let us not despair. Let us realize that as we struggle for justice and
freedom, we have cosmic companionship. This is the long faith of
the Hebraic-Christian tradition: that God is not some Aristotelian
Unmoved Mover who merely contemplates upon Himself. He is not
merely a self-knowing God, but an other-loving God forever working
through history for the establishment of His kingdom."
"And those of us who call the name of Jesus Christ find something of
an event in our Christian faith that tells us this. There is something
in our faith that says to us, Never despair; never give up; never feel
that the cause of righteousness and justice is doomed. There is
something in our Christian faith, at the center of it, which says to us
that Good Friday may occupy the throne for a day, but ultimately it
must give way to the triumphant beat of the drums of Easter."
"There is something in our faith that says evil may so shape events
that Caesar will occupy the palace and Christ the cross, but one day
that same Christ will rise up and split history into A.D. and B.C., so
that even the name, the life of Caesar must be dated by his name."
"There is something in this universe which justifies Carlyle in
saying: "No lie can live forever."
"There is something in this universe which justifies William
Cullen Bryant in saying: "Truth crushed to earth will rise again."
"There is something in this universe which justifies James Russell
Lowell in saying: "Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on
the throne. Yet that scaffold sways the future, And behind the dim
unknown Stands God, within the shadow, Keeping watch above His own."
Dr. King, our current President and his fellow morally, as well as
spiritually corrupt, Politicians in Washington D.C., may publicly
invoke your name and may choose to quote you from time to time,
especially when it is politically expedient and/or convenient, but
privately, all of them to a person, now subscribe and adhere to
the political teachings and philosophy of one Joseph Goebbels.
Mr. Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of
Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. He was one
of Adolf Hitlers closest associates and most devout followers
and in an article that was written back on January 12, 1941,
Mr. Goebbels stated the following, which I believe pretty much
sums up, "The State of Our Union" here in America, in 2011:
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will
eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for
such time as the State can shield the people from the political,
economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes
vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress
dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by
extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
Dr. King, in your 1967, "Trumpet of Conscience" Lectures for the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, you delivered the following
statement and message to President Lyndon B. Johnson, and to
the American People:
"Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now."
"I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor
of Vietnam."
"I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes
are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted."
"I speak for the poor in America who are paying the double price
of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam."
"I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast
at the path we have taken."
"I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great
initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours."
Dr. King, in your honor and in your loving memory, and on behalf of
our Country and the American People, and on behalf of all of the
incredibly brave and extremely courageous, Men and Women of the
United States Military, I now wish to directly quote you, with a few
new adaptations for 2011, in telling our current, less than brave,
as well as less than courageous, President and Politicians, in
Washington D.C., the following:
"Somehow this madness must cease. All of you must stop now!"
"I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of
Afghanistan and Iraq."
"I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes
are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted."
"I speak for the poor and for the middle-class, in America who are
now paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death
and corruption in both Afghanistan and Iraq.
"I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast
at the path all of you have now taken."
"I speak as an American Citizen, to the deeply entrenched, selfish,
greedy and arrogant, false leaders, of my own nation. The great
initiative in these wars is yours. The initiative to stop it must be
yours!"
Dr. King, I now wish to humbly conclude this very sincere, "Happy
Birthday" wish to you, Open Letter and Silent Prayer, on behalf of
our Country, and on behalf of the American People, by quoting one
last direct statement from your, "Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos
or Community" Lectures for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation:
I am quite respectfully replacing the word, "Negro" in the very
first sentence of your statement below with the words, "Poor"
and, "Middle-Class" because here in America in 2011, the poor
and the middle-class, are all now considered by, "The Powers
To Be" as the new, modern-day, "Negro's" of the 21st century:
"Being poor and middle-class, in America in 2011, means trying to
smile when you want to cry. It means trying to hold on to physical
life amid psychological death."
"It means the pain of watching your children grow up with clouds of
inferiority in their mental skies. It means having your legs cut off,
and then being condemned for being a cripple."
"It means seeing your Mother and Father spiritually murdered by
the slings and arrows of daily exploitation, and then being hated
for being an orphan."
Dr. King, may you continue to rest in eternal grace and everlasting
peace, and may God, Bless America and the American People, in
spite of our highly dysfunctional, false idol worshiping, Government
and it's lowly criminal, false idol worshiping, Corporate enablers.
Sincerely,
Tony E. Whitcomb
Founder/CEO Expotera
Dear Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,
My name is Tony Whitcomb. I am a forty-five year old, African
American Social Entrepreneur, Founder and CEO, of a Internet
start-up called, Expotera and on this very special day in our
Nation's History, I personally not only want to wish you a very,
"Happy Birthday" but I also want to humbly present you with this
Open Letter, as well as a Silent Prayer, on behalf of our Country,
and on behalf of the American People.
Dr. King, in 2008 our Country made history by electing the very first African/American, President of the United States, a False Prophet
among the People, by the name of, Barack Obama.
Since officially being sworn into the highest office in the land back
on January 20, 2009, Mr. Obama, and his fellow Elitist Connivers,
out in Washington D.C., and very dark places elsewhere, have now
managed to plunge our Nations economy into a very, very, deep
recession/depression, that can now only be historically described
and compared to, "The Great Depression" which began back in 1929
and lasted until the early 1940s.
Dr. King, during your lifetime, you gave an infinite number of
famous, passionate, historical, inspirational, truthful and quite
memorable, sermons and speeches, and on May 17, 1957 during
your, "Give Us The Ballot" Address in Washington D.C., you
delivered the following statements in your closing message to
your audience, and to the American People:
"I conclude by saying that each of us must keep faith in the future.
Let us not despair. Let us realize that as we struggle for justice and
freedom, we have cosmic companionship. This is the long faith of
the Hebraic-Christian tradition: that God is not some Aristotelian
Unmoved Mover who merely contemplates upon Himself. He is not
merely a self-knowing God, but an other-loving God forever working
through history for the establishment of His kingdom."
"And those of us who call the name of Jesus Christ find something of
an event in our Christian faith that tells us this. There is something
in our faith that says to us, Never despair; never give up; never feel
that the cause of righteousness and justice is doomed. There is
something in our Christian faith, at the center of it, which says to us
that Good Friday may occupy the throne for a day, but ultimately it
must give way to the triumphant beat of the drums of Easter."
"There is something in our faith that says evil may so shape events
that Caesar will occupy the palace and Christ the cross, but one day
that same Christ will rise up and split history into A.D. and B.C., so
that even the name, the life of Caesar must be dated by his name."
"There is something in this universe which justifies Carlyle in
saying: "No lie can live forever."
"There is something in this universe which justifies William
Cullen Bryant in saying: "Truth crushed to earth will rise again."
"There is something in this universe which justifies James Russell
Lowell in saying: "Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on
the throne. Yet that scaffold sways the future, And behind the dim
unknown Stands God, within the shadow, Keeping watch above His own."
Dr. King, our current President and his fellow morally, as well as
spiritually corrupt, Politicians in Washington D.C., may publicly
invoke your name and may choose to quote you from time to time,
especially when it is politically expedient and/or convenient, but
privately, all of them to a person, now subscribe and adhere to
the political teachings and philosophy of one Joseph Goebbels.
Mr. Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of
Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. He was one
of Adolf Hitlers closest associates and most devout followers
and in an article that was written back on January 12, 1941,
Mr. Goebbels stated the following, which I believe pretty much
sums up, "The State of Our Union" here in America, in 2011:
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will
eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for
such time as the State can shield the people from the political,
economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes
vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress
dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by
extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
Dr. King, in your 1967, "Trumpet of Conscience" Lectures for the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, you delivered the following
statement and message to President Lyndon B. Johnson, and to
the American People:
"Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now."
"I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor
of Vietnam."
"I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes
are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted."
"I speak for the poor in America who are paying the double price
of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam."
"I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast
at the path we have taken."
"I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great
initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours."
Dr. King, in your honor and in your loving memory, and on behalf of
our Country and the American People, and on behalf of all of the
incredibly brave and extremely courageous, Men and Women of the
United States Military, I now wish to directly quote you, with a few
new adaptations for 2011, in telling our current, less than brave,
as well as less than courageous, President and Politicians, in
Washington D.C., the following:
"Somehow this madness must cease. All of you must stop now!"
"I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of
Afghanistan and Iraq."
"I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes
are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted."
"I speak for the poor and for the middle-class, in America who are
now paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death
and corruption in both Afghanistan and Iraq.
"I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast
at the path all of you have now taken."
"I speak as an American Citizen, to the deeply entrenched, selfish,
greedy and arrogant, false leaders, of my own nation. The great
initiative in these wars is yours. The initiative to stop it must be
yours!"
Dr. King, I now wish to humbly conclude this very sincere, "Happy
Birthday" wish to you, Open Letter and Silent Prayer, on behalf of
our Country, and on behalf of the American People, by quoting one
last direct statement from your, "Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos
or Community" Lectures for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation:
I am quite respectfully replacing the word, "Negro" in the very
first sentence of your statement below with the words, "Poor"
and, "Middle-Class" because here in America in 2011, the poor
and the middle-class, are all now considered by, "The Powers
To Be" as the new, modern-day, "Negro's" of the 21st century:
"Being poor and middle-class, in America in 2011, means trying to
smile when you want to cry. It means trying to hold on to physical
life amid psychological death."
"It means the pain of watching your children grow up with clouds of
inferiority in their mental skies. It means having your legs cut off,
and then being condemned for being a cripple."
"It means seeing your Mother and Father spiritually murdered by
the slings and arrows of daily exploitation, and then being hated
for being an orphan."
Dr. King, may you continue to rest in eternal grace and everlasting
peace, and may God, Bless America and the American People, in
spite of our highly dysfunctional, false idol worshiping, Government
and it's lowly criminal, false idol worshiping, Corporate enablers.
Sincerely,
Tony E. Whitcomb
Founder/CEO Expotera
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Deepening crisis traps America's have-nots
The US is drifting from a financial crisis to a deeper and more
insidious social crisis.
Self-congratulation by the US authorities that they have this
time avoided a repeat of the 1930s is premature.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
7:39PM GMT 09 Jan 2011
There is a telling detail in the US retail chain store data for
December.
Stephen Lewis from Monument Securities points out that luxury
outlets saw an 8.1pc rise from a year ago, but discount stores
catering to America’s poorer half rose just 1.2pc.
Tiffany’s, Nordstrom, and Saks Fifth Avenue are booming. Sales
of Cadillac cars have jumped 35pc, while Porsche’s US sales are
up 29pc.
Cartier and Louis Vuitton have helped boost the luxury goods
stock index by almost 50pc since October. Yet Best Buy, Target,
and Walmart have languished.
Such is the blighted fruit of Federal Reserve policy.
The Fed no longer even denies that the purpose of its latest blast of
bond purchases, or QE2, is to drive up Wall Street, perhaps because
it has so signally failed to achieve its other purpose of driving down
borrowing costs.
Yet surely Ben Bernanke’s `trickle down’ strategy risks corroding
America’s ethic of solidarity long before it does much to help
America’s poor.
The retail data can be quirky but it fits in with everything else we
know.
The numbers of people on food stamps have reached 43.2m, an all
time-high of 14pc of the population. Recipients receive debit cards
– not stamps -- currently worth about $140 a month under President
Obama’s stimulus package.
The US Conference of Mayors said visits to soup kitchens are up
24pc this year. There are 643,000 people needing shelter each night.
Jobs data released on Friday was again shocking.
The only the reason that headline unemployment fell to 9.4pc
was that so many people dropped out of the system altogether.
The actual number of jobs contracted by 260,000 to 153,690,000.
The “labour participation rate” for working-age men over 20
dropped to 73.6pc, the lowest the since the data series began
in 1948.
My guess is that this figure exceeds the average for the Great
Depression (minus the cruellest year of 1932).
“Corporate America is in a V-shaped recovery,” said Robert Reich,
a former labour secretary.
“That’s great news for investors whose savings are mainly in
stocks and bonds, and for executives and Wall Street traders.
But most American workers are trapped in an L-shaped recovery.”
It is no surprise that America’s armed dissident movement has
resurfaced. For a glimpse into this sub-culture, read Time
Magazine’s “Locked and Loaded: The Secret World of Extreme
Militias”.
Time's reporters went underground with the 300-strong `Ohio
Defence Force’, an eclectic posse of citizens who spend weekends
with M16 assault rifles and an M60 machine gun training to defend
their constitutional rights by guerrilla warfare.
As it happens, I spent some time with militia groups across the US
at the tail end of the recession in the early 1990s.
While the rallying cry then was gun control and encroachments on
freedom, the movement was at root a primordial scream by blue-
collar Americans left behind in the new global dispensation.
That grievance is surely worse today.
The long-term unemployed (more than six months) have reached
42pc of the total, twice the peak of the early 1990s. Nothing like
this has been seen since the World War Two.
The Gini Coefficient used to measure income inequality has risen
from the mid-30s to 46.8 over the last quarter century, touching
the same extremes reached in the Roaring Twenties just before
the Slump.
It has also been ratcheting up in Britain and Europe.
Raghuram Rajan, the IMF’s former chief economist, argues that the
subprime debt build-up was an attempt – “whether carefully planned
or the path of least resistance” – to disguise stagnating incomes and
to buy off the poor.
“The inevitable bill could be postponed into the future. Cynical as
it might seem, easy credit has been used throughout history as a
palliative by governments that are unable to address the deeper
anxieties of the middle class directly,” he said.
Bank failures in the Depression were in part caused by expansion
of credit to struggling farmers in response to the US Populist
movement.
Extreme inequalities are toxic for societies, but there is also a
body of scholarship suggesting that they cause depressions as
well by upsetting the economic balance.
They create a bias towards asset bubbles and overinvestment, while
holding down consumption, until the system becomes top-heavy and
tips over, as happened in the 1930s.
The switch from brawn to brain in the internet age has obviously
pushed up the Gini count, but so has globalization.
Multinationals are exploiting “labour arbitrage” by moving plant
to low-wage countries, playing off workers in China and the West
against each other.
The profit share of corporations is at record highs across in America
and Europe.
More subtly, Asia’s mercantilist powers have flooded the world
with excess capacity, holding down their currencies to lock in
trade surpluses.
The effect is to create a black hole in the global system.
Yes, we can still hope that this is a passing phase until rising wages
in Asia restore balance to East and West, but what it if it proves to
be permanent, a structural incompatibility of the Confucian model
with our own Ricardian trade doctrine?
There is no easy solution to creeping depression in America and
swathes of the Old World.
A Keynesian `New Deal’ of borrowing on the bond markets to build
roads, bridges, solar farms, or nuclear power stations to soak up
the army of unemployed is not a credible option in our new age of
sovereign debt jitters.
The fiscal card is played out.
So we limp on, with very large numbers of people in the West
trapped on the wrong side of globalization, and nobody doing
much about it.
Would Franklin Roosevelt have tolerated such a lamentable state of
affairs, or would he have ripped up and reshaped the global system
until it answered the needs of his citizens?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_
pritchard/8249181/Deepening-crisis-traps-Americas-have-nots
.html?sms_ss=email&at_xt=4d2adc967ac700ea,0
insidious social crisis.
Self-congratulation by the US authorities that they have this
time avoided a repeat of the 1930s is premature.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
7:39PM GMT 09 Jan 2011
There is a telling detail in the US retail chain store data for
December.
Stephen Lewis from Monument Securities points out that luxury
outlets saw an 8.1pc rise from a year ago, but discount stores
catering to America’s poorer half rose just 1.2pc.
Tiffany’s, Nordstrom, and Saks Fifth Avenue are booming. Sales
of Cadillac cars have jumped 35pc, while Porsche’s US sales are
up 29pc.
Cartier and Louis Vuitton have helped boost the luxury goods
stock index by almost 50pc since October. Yet Best Buy, Target,
and Walmart have languished.
Such is the blighted fruit of Federal Reserve policy.
The Fed no longer even denies that the purpose of its latest blast of
bond purchases, or QE2, is to drive up Wall Street, perhaps because
it has so signally failed to achieve its other purpose of driving down
borrowing costs.
Yet surely Ben Bernanke’s `trickle down’ strategy risks corroding
America’s ethic of solidarity long before it does much to help
America’s poor.
The retail data can be quirky but it fits in with everything else we
know.
The numbers of people on food stamps have reached 43.2m, an all
time-high of 14pc of the population. Recipients receive debit cards
– not stamps -- currently worth about $140 a month under President
Obama’s stimulus package.
The US Conference of Mayors said visits to soup kitchens are up
24pc this year. There are 643,000 people needing shelter each night.
Jobs data released on Friday was again shocking.
The only the reason that headline unemployment fell to 9.4pc
was that so many people dropped out of the system altogether.
The actual number of jobs contracted by 260,000 to 153,690,000.
The “labour participation rate” for working-age men over 20
dropped to 73.6pc, the lowest the since the data series began
in 1948.
My guess is that this figure exceeds the average for the Great
Depression (minus the cruellest year of 1932).
“Corporate America is in a V-shaped recovery,” said Robert Reich,
a former labour secretary.
“That’s great news for investors whose savings are mainly in
stocks and bonds, and for executives and Wall Street traders.
But most American workers are trapped in an L-shaped recovery.”
It is no surprise that America’s armed dissident movement has
resurfaced. For a glimpse into this sub-culture, read Time
Magazine’s “Locked and Loaded: The Secret World of Extreme
Militias”.
Time's reporters went underground with the 300-strong `Ohio
Defence Force’, an eclectic posse of citizens who spend weekends
with M16 assault rifles and an M60 machine gun training to defend
their constitutional rights by guerrilla warfare.
As it happens, I spent some time with militia groups across the US
at the tail end of the recession in the early 1990s.
While the rallying cry then was gun control and encroachments on
freedom, the movement was at root a primordial scream by blue-
collar Americans left behind in the new global dispensation.
That grievance is surely worse today.
The long-term unemployed (more than six months) have reached
42pc of the total, twice the peak of the early 1990s. Nothing like
this has been seen since the World War Two.
The Gini Coefficient used to measure income inequality has risen
from the mid-30s to 46.8 over the last quarter century, touching
the same extremes reached in the Roaring Twenties just before
the Slump.
It has also been ratcheting up in Britain and Europe.
Raghuram Rajan, the IMF’s former chief economist, argues that the
subprime debt build-up was an attempt – “whether carefully planned
or the path of least resistance” – to disguise stagnating incomes and
to buy off the poor.
“The inevitable bill could be postponed into the future. Cynical as
it might seem, easy credit has been used throughout history as a
palliative by governments that are unable to address the deeper
anxieties of the middle class directly,” he said.
Bank failures in the Depression were in part caused by expansion
of credit to struggling farmers in response to the US Populist
movement.
Extreme inequalities are toxic for societies, but there is also a
body of scholarship suggesting that they cause depressions as
well by upsetting the economic balance.
They create a bias towards asset bubbles and overinvestment, while
holding down consumption, until the system becomes top-heavy and
tips over, as happened in the 1930s.
The switch from brawn to brain in the internet age has obviously
pushed up the Gini count, but so has globalization.
Multinationals are exploiting “labour arbitrage” by moving plant
to low-wage countries, playing off workers in China and the West
against each other.
The profit share of corporations is at record highs across in America
and Europe.
More subtly, Asia’s mercantilist powers have flooded the world
with excess capacity, holding down their currencies to lock in
trade surpluses.
The effect is to create a black hole in the global system.
Yes, we can still hope that this is a passing phase until rising wages
in Asia restore balance to East and West, but what it if it proves to
be permanent, a structural incompatibility of the Confucian model
with our own Ricardian trade doctrine?
There is no easy solution to creeping depression in America and
swathes of the Old World.
A Keynesian `New Deal’ of borrowing on the bond markets to build
roads, bridges, solar farms, or nuclear power stations to soak up
the army of unemployed is not a credible option in our new age of
sovereign debt jitters.
The fiscal card is played out.
So we limp on, with very large numbers of people in the West
trapped on the wrong side of globalization, and nobody doing
much about it.
Would Franklin Roosevelt have tolerated such a lamentable state of
affairs, or would he have ripped up and reshaped the global system
until it answered the needs of his citizens?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_
pritchard/8249181/Deepening-crisis-traps-Americas-have-nots
.html?sms_ss=email&at_xt=4d2adc967ac700ea,0
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
No Jobs for More than 75% of Unemployed Americans
No Jobs for More than 75% of Unemployed Americans
By Mary Elizabeth Dallas
January 11, 2011
A new report from Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) paints a
grim picture of the U.S. labor market.
The bottom line: no jobs for more than 75% of unemployed
Americans, according to an analysis from the Economic Policy
Institute (EPI).
The discouraging November report from the Job Openings and
Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), shows there were 80,000 fewer
job openings in November, while revisions to earlier data
reveal that October job openings were overstated by 34,000.
Additional signs of weakness: hires declined by 39,000, layoffs
increased by 36,000, and quits decreased by 44,000. The report
underscores the rocky nature of the recovery, according to the EPI.
That’s because the total number of job openings in November was
3.25 million, while the Current Population Survey reveals the total
number of unemployed workers was 15.0 million.
Therefore, the ratio of unemployed workers to job openings was
4.6-to-1 in November - more than three times the 2007 average
of 1.5-to-1, notes the EPI.
Moreover, although the labor market is now adding jobs, the group
points out it remains 7.2 million payroll jobs below where it was at
the start of the recession three years ago.
The EPI argues even this number discounts the fact that simply
keeping up with the growth in the working-age population would
require the addition of another 3.7 million jobs in those three years.
Translation: the labor market is now about 11 million jobs below
the level needed to restore the pre-recession unemployment rate
(5.0% in December 2007).
“So, despite the job growth of 2010, we remain near the bottom
of a very large hole,” concludes the EPI.
To achieve the pre-recession unemployment rate by 2016 would
require the addition of about 300,000 jobs every month for the
entire five years.
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/7857961-no-jobs-
for-more-than-75-of-unemployed-americans
By Mary Elizabeth Dallas
January 11, 2011
A new report from Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) paints a
grim picture of the U.S. labor market.
The bottom line: no jobs for more than 75% of unemployed
Americans, according to an analysis from the Economic Policy
Institute (EPI).
The discouraging November report from the Job Openings and
Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), shows there were 80,000 fewer
job openings in November, while revisions to earlier data
reveal that October job openings were overstated by 34,000.
Additional signs of weakness: hires declined by 39,000, layoffs
increased by 36,000, and quits decreased by 44,000. The report
underscores the rocky nature of the recovery, according to the EPI.
That’s because the total number of job openings in November was
3.25 million, while the Current Population Survey reveals the total
number of unemployed workers was 15.0 million.
Therefore, the ratio of unemployed workers to job openings was
4.6-to-1 in November - more than three times the 2007 average
of 1.5-to-1, notes the EPI.
Moreover, although the labor market is now adding jobs, the group
points out it remains 7.2 million payroll jobs below where it was at
the start of the recession three years ago.
The EPI argues even this number discounts the fact that simply
keeping up with the growth in the working-age population would
require the addition of another 3.7 million jobs in those three years.
Translation: the labor market is now about 11 million jobs below
the level needed to restore the pre-recession unemployment rate
(5.0% in December 2007).
“So, despite the job growth of 2010, we remain near the bottom
of a very large hole,” concludes the EPI.
To achieve the pre-recession unemployment rate by 2016 would
require the addition of about 300,000 jobs every month for the
entire five years.
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/7857961-no-jobs-
for-more-than-75-of-unemployed-americans
Saturday, January 8, 2011
The (Bill) Gates of Hell Foundation
The (Bill) Gates of Hell Foundation
by Zen Gardner
Tue Jan 04, 2011 18:51
Why mince words when the planet's being destroyed and we're
all being systematically murdered?
When it finally dawns on you what these New World Order elite
globalists are up to it can be staggering. And it can't be more in
your face than it is right now.
We have chemtrails continually 'playing' on the world's biggest
screen, our skies--horrific displays of absolute disregard for all
things living.
And yet the majority doesn't even see them and there's total
silence about it from authorities and the media.
Flocks of birds are falling from the sky and millions of dead fish
are washing up on our shores, and they all act dumb, like they
have no idea what the hell is going on.
The Gulf of Mexico has been killed, the vital loop current disrupted,
the weather shot to hell, the food and water are deliberately poisoned and altered, and then they screw with the stratosphere and magnetosphere with a host of devilish devices.
Never mind the deliberately trashed economy and the fabricated
'war on terror' while the police state clampdown continues.
And we're not supposed to notice?..or think this is deliberate
destruction of our world?
Enter the Two Man Wrecking Crew
And so they trot out a "friendly, respectable face" for this deliberate
destruction and depopulation, hoping we won't notice the havoc
being wreaked in front of our eyes, all the while making us think
they're doing us a favor and 'pioneering our future'.
..And with a message straight from the Bilderbergers which seems
to say..
'It's time to step up the depopulation plan.'
So good, so clean, so 'successful', so giving..........Right.
Bill and Melinda Gates Tapped To Be 'The Friendly Face of Eugenics"
As F. William Engdahl in Financial Sense wrote:
Microsoft founder and one of the world’s wealthiest men, Bill Gates,
projects an image of a benign philanthropist using his billions via his
(tax exempt) Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to tackle diseases,
solve food shortages in Africa and alleviate poverty.
In a recent conference in California, Gates reveals a less public
agenda of his philanthropy—population reduction, otherwise known
as eugenics.
Gates made his remarks to the invitation-only Long Beach,
California TED2010 Conference, in a speech titled, “Innovating
to Zero!.”
Along with the scientifically absurd proposition of reducing man-
made CO2 emissions worldwide to zero by 2050, approximately
four and a half minutes into the talk, Gates declares, “First
we got population.
The world today has 6.8 billion people. That’s headed up to about 9
billion. Now if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care,
reproductive health services, we lower that by perhaps 10 or 15
percent.” (author’s emphasis).
Hard To Believe?
Watch this short clip for yourself if you haven't seen it yet, as he
builds false premise upon false premise, like they all do as if we're
stone cold idiots, and then he gives his chilling solution on how to
"Innovate to Zero"...
"Bill Gates Admits Vaccines Are Used for Human Depopulation Video" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WQtRI7A064
The Decade of Death
By the way, they've set a goal for their vaccine program they love so
much. Is this a signal to their own?
Bill and Melinda Gates Pledge $10 Billion in Call for Decade of
Vaccines
DAVOS, Switzerland -- Bill and Melinda Gates announced today that
their foundation will commit $10 billion over the next 10 years to
help research, develop and deliver vaccines for the world’s poorest
countries.
“...said Melinda Gates, “We’ve made vaccines our number-one
priority at the Gates Foundation because we’ve seen firsthand
their incredible impact on children’s lives.”
"Incredible impact", alright.
And Not Just Vaccines, Folks...
Besides vaccines, the Gates are funding 10 different projects
researching new contraception methods, including their latest that
involves sterilizing men by putting ultrasound on their testes. (Nice
one, Bill. Hope you're trying it out nightly.)
But more importantly, the Gates of Hell also fund two other major
thrusts towards the destruction of earth's eco-system and the
extermination of its inhabitants: geoengineering (chemtrails et al),
and genetically modified organisms or GMOs.
'Bill Gates's Hidden Dreams of Geoengineering Revealed'
Bill Gates has already proven his interest in geoengineering schemes
with his earlier co-patent filing for reducing the intensity of killer
hurricanes.
So perhaps we're not too surprised that Science Insider has dug
up the Microsoft chairman's past projects on altering the Earth's
climate, ranging from filtering carbon dioxide to reflecting sunlight
via brighter clouds.
And...
'Gates Foundation Funded Approval of Genetically Modified Mosquitos'
MONSANTO
"Control the food supply, and you control the people."
Bill Gates, who recently bought 500,000 shares of Monsanto stock, is
reportedly funding the approval of genetically modified mosquitoes.
It seems that not only will genetically modified salmon enter the
environment along with unforeseen changes, but a new self-
sterilizing mosquito may be joining them.
The plan, concocted by United Nations’s Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs, involves creating genetically modified
mosquitoes that either kill or sterilize themselves.
The United Nations’ aim is to combat Dengue fever through the genetic manipulation of nature.
As with other genetically modified organisms, the long-term
repercussions are widely unknown, and introducing a genetically
modified creature into the environment may make for the genetic
coding of an entire species to be altered.
The Monsanto Connection
Besides funding and profiting tax free from this horrific company,
there's an 'image problem' there too for which they're trying to use
Bilderberg Bill and Melinda.
The immediate impact of these partnerships is to enhance the public
image of Gene Giants that are donating royalty-free genes to needy farmers.
But the longer-term goal is to create the “enabling environments”
(biosafety regulations, intellectual property laws, positive media
coverage to promote public acceptance) that will support the market
introduction of genetically engineered crops and related technologies.
It’s a package deal – wrapped in a philanthropic façade – and it
comes with strings attached…
The Elite Call To Arms?
For those of you 'awake and aware' to what's going on, that the
world's self-appointed 'elite' are planning a great 'culling of the herd'
comes as no surprise.
What's remarkable is how blatant they've become about the subject.
This possibly denotes two things:
1.They feel comfortable with how well they've programmed and
entranced most of society to accept such nonsense as global
warming and carbon footprints, never mind the mythical 'war on
terror' and a host of other lies.
2. They're signaling to their own the program's ratcheting up.
And the Bill and Melinda Gates (of Hell) Foundation is the new
poster child and sanitizing ploy.
But while every effort is being made to give the Gates Foundation a
benign, philanthropic appearance, their primary program is clearly
population reduction, just wrapped in brighter elitist "do gooder"
package.
"Awwwww. Look how they're giving back and leading these new
technologies..."
Right...just wait and see.
But they're throwing everything at it. And telling the others it's
time to throw in as well.
"A Time To Give, Brethren"
President Barack Obama met with Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Chairman
Warren Buffett and Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates this
morning at the White House to discuss the economy and the
billionaires’ philanthropic endeavors, an administration official said.
Obama called for the Oval Office meeting, which also included
Gates’ wife, Melinda, to discuss the Giving Pledge project, started
by Buffett and Gates to encourage wealthy U.S. individuals and
families to give most of their fortunes to charity, the administration
official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Why not. The old money will soon be worthless when we go through
the 'transition' they have planned for us. "Use it for a good cause
men. We're gonna make the earth our own private country club!"
Other Signs
Still wondering? Why do you suppose they just locked up supplies of
all the world's natural seeds in an underground vault in Norway, but
are busy altering the genetic make up of the seeds WE'RE supposed
to eat?
Think about that.
And why are they feverishly burrowing their monstrous underground
cites while trashing the environment on the surface of the earth?
Oh, you don't know about that? Or don't believe it or "they woulda
told us"? Please, pull your head out.
Are they preparing to board their underground 'arks'?
Yeah, it's ugly stuff to hear about. Would you rather just let the
train run over you and I and others not say anything?
Sorry to say, this isn't theory, it's fact.
Read up on "depopulation" and "eugenics" and you'll find this has
been their MO for centuries, periodically "culling the herd" with wars
and epidemics, gutted economies and famines, all while keeping the
world in one form of social slavery or another.
It's nothing new. It's just that the expanding growth of humanity is
accelerating at such a rate, our numbers frighten them, and besides,
they want all those resources for themselves.
Have you noticed they tend to hoard slightly?
The Rothschilds alone are worth an estimated 500 trillion
dollars..with a 'T'. The queen of England and the Vatican
could bail out AND support half the world.
They're not real big on sharing if you haven't noticed, yet
they make you feel guilty for devouring the earth's resources.
Why believe anything they say?
Useless Eaters
This is how they view us. We're now chillingly referred to as
"human resources". Spot your social 'security' number?
Epilogue
Bill Gates is one of many eugenicists, but he's channeling gobs of
money and a lot of perceived clout, and apparently they think he
has the image to pull this off.
That global warming and the other scams still have such traction
is hard to believe, but that's the image the media is portraying.
And people are swallowing it, I'm sorry to say, and will likely sit
back and watch our demise and blame themselves for it.
A neighbor mentioned the weird yesterday and added, "Do you think
it's God's way of punishing us for what we've done to the planet?"
I know. Lunacy. It's endemic.
The manipulated masses have been so dumbed down and
indoctrinated, if the adulterated planet doesn't kill them, they will
practically volunteer for death to reduce their carbon footprint.
That's the cumulative effect and logical deduction you could arrive
at. And it's all by design.
It's amazing to behold. People get all snotty about their energy
saving Prius or recycling efforts, while joining hands and singing
kumbaya with benign exterminator Bill and his conniving ilk over
'the woes of global warming and human swarming'.
Little do they know what their "final solution" really is.
This mass mind manipulation of guilt and lies is the drumbeat of the
elites, while we sw-allow their planet destroying programs and march
into the chemtrail sunset trying to eliminate our carbon footprints.
Only one way to do that.....
How manipulated are you?
Stay conscious. They're spraying hard, closing down on our food
supply, and more fabricated troubles are on their way.
Keep your loved ones close and spread the word to the hungry.
Love, Zen
http://beforeitsnews.com/story/340/140/The_Bill_Gates_of_
Hell_Foundation.html
by Zen Gardner
Tue Jan 04, 2011 18:51
Why mince words when the planet's being destroyed and we're
all being systematically murdered?
When it finally dawns on you what these New World Order elite
globalists are up to it can be staggering. And it can't be more in
your face than it is right now.
We have chemtrails continually 'playing' on the world's biggest
screen, our skies--horrific displays of absolute disregard for all
things living.
And yet the majority doesn't even see them and there's total
silence about it from authorities and the media.
Flocks of birds are falling from the sky and millions of dead fish
are washing up on our shores, and they all act dumb, like they
have no idea what the hell is going on.
The Gulf of Mexico has been killed, the vital loop current disrupted,
the weather shot to hell, the food and water are deliberately poisoned and altered, and then they screw with the stratosphere and magnetosphere with a host of devilish devices.
Never mind the deliberately trashed economy and the fabricated
'war on terror' while the police state clampdown continues.
And we're not supposed to notice?..or think this is deliberate
destruction of our world?
Enter the Two Man Wrecking Crew
And so they trot out a "friendly, respectable face" for this deliberate
destruction and depopulation, hoping we won't notice the havoc
being wreaked in front of our eyes, all the while making us think
they're doing us a favor and 'pioneering our future'.
..And with a message straight from the Bilderbergers which seems
to say..
'It's time to step up the depopulation plan.'
So good, so clean, so 'successful', so giving..........Right.
Bill and Melinda Gates Tapped To Be 'The Friendly Face of Eugenics"
As F. William Engdahl in Financial Sense wrote:
Microsoft founder and one of the world’s wealthiest men, Bill Gates,
projects an image of a benign philanthropist using his billions via his
(tax exempt) Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to tackle diseases,
solve food shortages in Africa and alleviate poverty.
In a recent conference in California, Gates reveals a less public
agenda of his philanthropy—population reduction, otherwise known
as eugenics.
Gates made his remarks to the invitation-only Long Beach,
California TED2010 Conference, in a speech titled, “Innovating
to Zero!.”
Along with the scientifically absurd proposition of reducing man-
made CO2 emissions worldwide to zero by 2050, approximately
four and a half minutes into the talk, Gates declares, “First
we got population.
The world today has 6.8 billion people. That’s headed up to about 9
billion. Now if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care,
reproductive health services, we lower that by perhaps 10 or 15
percent.” (author’s emphasis).
Hard To Believe?
Watch this short clip for yourself if you haven't seen it yet, as he
builds false premise upon false premise, like they all do as if we're
stone cold idiots, and then he gives his chilling solution on how to
"Innovate to Zero"...
"Bill Gates Admits Vaccines Are Used for Human Depopulation Video" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WQtRI7A064
The Decade of Death
By the way, they've set a goal for their vaccine program they love so
much. Is this a signal to their own?
Bill and Melinda Gates Pledge $10 Billion in Call for Decade of
Vaccines
DAVOS, Switzerland -- Bill and Melinda Gates announced today that
their foundation will commit $10 billion over the next 10 years to
help research, develop and deliver vaccines for the world’s poorest
countries.
“...said Melinda Gates, “We’ve made vaccines our number-one
priority at the Gates Foundation because we’ve seen firsthand
their incredible impact on children’s lives.”
"Incredible impact", alright.
And Not Just Vaccines, Folks...
Besides vaccines, the Gates are funding 10 different projects
researching new contraception methods, including their latest that
involves sterilizing men by putting ultrasound on their testes. (Nice
one, Bill. Hope you're trying it out nightly.)
But more importantly, the Gates of Hell also fund two other major
thrusts towards the destruction of earth's eco-system and the
extermination of its inhabitants: geoengineering (chemtrails et al),
and genetically modified organisms or GMOs.
'Bill Gates's Hidden Dreams of Geoengineering Revealed'
Bill Gates has already proven his interest in geoengineering schemes
with his earlier co-patent filing for reducing the intensity of killer
hurricanes.
So perhaps we're not too surprised that Science Insider has dug
up the Microsoft chairman's past projects on altering the Earth's
climate, ranging from filtering carbon dioxide to reflecting sunlight
via brighter clouds.
And...
'Gates Foundation Funded Approval of Genetically Modified Mosquitos'
MONSANTO
"Control the food supply, and you control the people."
Bill Gates, who recently bought 500,000 shares of Monsanto stock, is
reportedly funding the approval of genetically modified mosquitoes.
It seems that not only will genetically modified salmon enter the
environment along with unforeseen changes, but a new self-
sterilizing mosquito may be joining them.
The plan, concocted by United Nations’s Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs, involves creating genetically modified
mosquitoes that either kill or sterilize themselves.
The United Nations’ aim is to combat Dengue fever through the genetic manipulation of nature.
As with other genetically modified organisms, the long-term
repercussions are widely unknown, and introducing a genetically
modified creature into the environment may make for the genetic
coding of an entire species to be altered.
The Monsanto Connection
Besides funding and profiting tax free from this horrific company,
there's an 'image problem' there too for which they're trying to use
Bilderberg Bill and Melinda.
The immediate impact of these partnerships is to enhance the public
image of Gene Giants that are donating royalty-free genes to needy farmers.
But the longer-term goal is to create the “enabling environments”
(biosafety regulations, intellectual property laws, positive media
coverage to promote public acceptance) that will support the market
introduction of genetically engineered crops and related technologies.
It’s a package deal – wrapped in a philanthropic façade – and it
comes with strings attached…
The Elite Call To Arms?
For those of you 'awake and aware' to what's going on, that the
world's self-appointed 'elite' are planning a great 'culling of the herd'
comes as no surprise.
What's remarkable is how blatant they've become about the subject.
This possibly denotes two things:
1.They feel comfortable with how well they've programmed and
entranced most of society to accept such nonsense as global
warming and carbon footprints, never mind the mythical 'war on
terror' and a host of other lies.
2. They're signaling to their own the program's ratcheting up.
And the Bill and Melinda Gates (of Hell) Foundation is the new
poster child and sanitizing ploy.
But while every effort is being made to give the Gates Foundation a
benign, philanthropic appearance, their primary program is clearly
population reduction, just wrapped in brighter elitist "do gooder"
package.
"Awwwww. Look how they're giving back and leading these new
technologies..."
Right...just wait and see.
But they're throwing everything at it. And telling the others it's
time to throw in as well.
"A Time To Give, Brethren"
President Barack Obama met with Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Chairman
Warren Buffett and Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates this
morning at the White House to discuss the economy and the
billionaires’ philanthropic endeavors, an administration official said.
Obama called for the Oval Office meeting, which also included
Gates’ wife, Melinda, to discuss the Giving Pledge project, started
by Buffett and Gates to encourage wealthy U.S. individuals and
families to give most of their fortunes to charity, the administration
official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Why not. The old money will soon be worthless when we go through
the 'transition' they have planned for us. "Use it for a good cause
men. We're gonna make the earth our own private country club!"
Other Signs
Still wondering? Why do you suppose they just locked up supplies of
all the world's natural seeds in an underground vault in Norway, but
are busy altering the genetic make up of the seeds WE'RE supposed
to eat?
Think about that.
And why are they feverishly burrowing their monstrous underground
cites while trashing the environment on the surface of the earth?
Oh, you don't know about that? Or don't believe it or "they woulda
told us"? Please, pull your head out.
Are they preparing to board their underground 'arks'?
Yeah, it's ugly stuff to hear about. Would you rather just let the
train run over you and I and others not say anything?
Sorry to say, this isn't theory, it's fact.
Read up on "depopulation" and "eugenics" and you'll find this has
been their MO for centuries, periodically "culling the herd" with wars
and epidemics, gutted economies and famines, all while keeping the
world in one form of social slavery or another.
It's nothing new. It's just that the expanding growth of humanity is
accelerating at such a rate, our numbers frighten them, and besides,
they want all those resources for themselves.
Have you noticed they tend to hoard slightly?
The Rothschilds alone are worth an estimated 500 trillion
dollars..with a 'T'. The queen of England and the Vatican
could bail out AND support half the world.
They're not real big on sharing if you haven't noticed, yet
they make you feel guilty for devouring the earth's resources.
Why believe anything they say?
Useless Eaters
This is how they view us. We're now chillingly referred to as
"human resources". Spot your social 'security' number?
Epilogue
Bill Gates is one of many eugenicists, but he's channeling gobs of
money and a lot of perceived clout, and apparently they think he
has the image to pull this off.
That global warming and the other scams still have such traction
is hard to believe, but that's the image the media is portraying.
And people are swallowing it, I'm sorry to say, and will likely sit
back and watch our demise and blame themselves for it.
A neighbor mentioned the weird yesterday and added, "Do you think
it's God's way of punishing us for what we've done to the planet?"
I know. Lunacy. It's endemic.
The manipulated masses have been so dumbed down and
indoctrinated, if the adulterated planet doesn't kill them, they will
practically volunteer for death to reduce their carbon footprint.
That's the cumulative effect and logical deduction you could arrive
at. And it's all by design.
It's amazing to behold. People get all snotty about their energy
saving Prius or recycling efforts, while joining hands and singing
kumbaya with benign exterminator Bill and his conniving ilk over
'the woes of global warming and human swarming'.
Little do they know what their "final solution" really is.
This mass mind manipulation of guilt and lies is the drumbeat of the
elites, while we sw-allow their planet destroying programs and march
into the chemtrail sunset trying to eliminate our carbon footprints.
Only one way to do that.....
How manipulated are you?
Stay conscious. They're spraying hard, closing down on our food
supply, and more fabricated troubles are on their way.
Keep your loved ones close and spread the word to the hungry.
Love, Zen
http://beforeitsnews.com/story/340/140/The_Bill_Gates_of_
Hell_Foundation.html
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Taxpayer Backing for the Facebook Bubble
Taxpayer Backing for the Facebook Bubble
By Deal Book
January 6, 2011 8:13 AM
The Goldman Sachs deal with Facebook is essentially backed by
taxpayers’ dollars, Simon Johnson, a former chief economist at
the International Monetary Fund, writes at Economix.
Goldman, as a bank holding company, has “unfettered access” to
the Federal Reserve’s discount window — meaning that it essentially
has government-provided liquidity at any time, Mr. Johnson argued.
So Goldman, in pursuing its many farflung investments, can borrow
at a lower rate than it otherwise might, because creditors think the
government will be good for the loans even if the firm isn’t.
By some estimates, he writes, that is worth a 50-basis-point
discount on the rate Goldman pays on its loans.
Fannie and Freddie were badly mismanaged — and followed the
market in 2005-7 with bad bets based on excessive leverage —
in large part because they had an implicit government subsidy.
Those institutions should be euthanized as soon as possible.
Goldman Sachs now enjoys exactly the same kind of unfair,
nontransparent and dangerous subsidy: it has effectively
become a new form of government-sponsored enterprise.
Goldman is not a venture capital fund or primarily an equity
-financed investment fund. It is a highly leveraged bank,
meaning that it borrows through the capital markets most
of the money that it puts to work.
There is a difference between raising money for business, once
the defining activity of investment banks, and stoking shares in
a sector that is now everybody’s darling, and likely overblown.
By channeling debt guaranteed by the United States government to Facebook, Goldman is in effect inflating the valuation of social networking businesses, Mr. Johnson argues.
Social networking is a bubble in the sense that e-mail was a bubble.
The technology will without doubt change forever how we
communicate with each other, and this may have profound
effects on the nature of our society.
But investors will get carried away, valuations will become too high
and some people will lose a lot of money.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/01/06/taxpayer-backing-for-
the-facebook-bubble/
By Deal Book
January 6, 2011 8:13 AM
The Goldman Sachs deal with Facebook is essentially backed by
taxpayers’ dollars, Simon Johnson, a former chief economist at
the International Monetary Fund, writes at Economix.
Goldman, as a bank holding company, has “unfettered access” to
the Federal Reserve’s discount window — meaning that it essentially
has government-provided liquidity at any time, Mr. Johnson argued.
So Goldman, in pursuing its many farflung investments, can borrow
at a lower rate than it otherwise might, because creditors think the
government will be good for the loans even if the firm isn’t.
By some estimates, he writes, that is worth a 50-basis-point
discount on the rate Goldman pays on its loans.
Fannie and Freddie were badly mismanaged — and followed the
market in 2005-7 with bad bets based on excessive leverage —
in large part because they had an implicit government subsidy.
Those institutions should be euthanized as soon as possible.
Goldman Sachs now enjoys exactly the same kind of unfair,
nontransparent and dangerous subsidy: it has effectively
become a new form of government-sponsored enterprise.
Goldman is not a venture capital fund or primarily an equity
-financed investment fund. It is a highly leveraged bank,
meaning that it borrows through the capital markets most
of the money that it puts to work.
There is a difference between raising money for business, once
the defining activity of investment banks, and stoking shares in
a sector that is now everybody’s darling, and likely overblown.
By channeling debt guaranteed by the United States government to Facebook, Goldman is in effect inflating the valuation of social networking businesses, Mr. Johnson argues.
Social networking is a bubble in the sense that e-mail was a bubble.
The technology will without doubt change forever how we
communicate with each other, and this may have profound
effects on the nature of our society.
But investors will get carried away, valuations will become too high
and some people will lose a lot of money.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/01/06/taxpayer-backing-for-
the-facebook-bubble/
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Ocean's Eleven
111th Congress Added More Debt Than First 100
Congresses Combined: $10,429 Per Person in U.S.
By Terence P. Jeffrey
Monday, December 27, 2010
(CNSNews.com) - The federal government has accumulated more
new debt--$3.22 trillion ($3,220,103,625,307.29)—during the tenure
of the 111th Congress than it did during the first 100 Congresses
combined, according to official debt figures published by the U.S.
Treasury.
That equals $10,429.64 in new debt for each and every one of the
308,745,538 people counted in the United States by the 2010 Census.
The total national debt of $13,858,529,371,601.09 (or $13.859
trillion), as recorded by the U.S. Treasury at the close of business
on Dec. 22, now equals $44,886.57 for every man, woman and child in the United States.
In fact, the 111th Congress not only has set the record as the most
debt-accumulating Congress in U.S. history, but also has out-stripped its nearest competitor, the 110th, by an astounding $1.262 trillion in new debt.
During the 110th Congress—which, according to the Clerk of the
House, officially convened on Jan. 4, 2007 and adjourned on Jan.
4, 2009--the national debt increased $1.957 trillion.
When that Congress adjourned less than two years ago, it claimed
the record as the most debt-accumulating Congress in U.S. history.
As it turned out, however, its record did not last long.
The $3.22 trillion in new federal debt run up during the 111th
Congress exceeds by 64 percent the $1.957 trillion in new debt
run up during the 110th.
Although the 111th Congress cast its last vote on Dec. 22, it
will not officially adjourn until next week.
Democrats controlled both the House and Senate in the 110th
and 111th Congresses.
The 108th Congress ($1.159 trillion in new debt) and 109th
($1.054 trillion in new debt) take third and fourth place
among all U.S. Congresses for accumulating debt.
In both these Congresses, Republicans controlled both the House
and Senate.
Still, the $3.22 trillion in new debt accumulated during the record-
setting 111th Congress is more than three times the $1.054 trillion
in new debt accumulated by the last Republican-majority Congress
(the 109th) which adjourned on Dec. 8, 2006.
Historically, according to the U.S. Treasury, the federal debt did not
reach $3.22 trillion until September 1990 during the 101st Congress.
Between the first Congress, which adjourned in 1791 leaving behind
approximately $75 million in debt, and the convening of the 101st
Congress, which occurred on Jan. 3, 1989, the national debt grew
to $2.684 trillion.
During the Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) tenure as speaker, which
commenced on Jan. 4, 2007, the federal government has run up
$5.177 trillion in new debt.
That is about equal to the total debt the federal government
accumulated in the first 220 years of the nation's existence,
with the federal debt rising from $5.173 trillion on July 23,
1996 to $5.181 trillion on July 24, 1996.
In her inaugural address as speaker, Pelosi vowed that Congress
would engage in no new deficit spending.
"After years of historic deficits, this 110th Congress will commit
itself to a higher standard: Pay as you go, no new deficit spending,”
she said in an address from the speaker’s podium.
“Our new America will provide unlimited opportunity for future
generations, not burden them with mountains of debt."
Here is an accounting of the new debt accumulated during the
tenure of each Congress since the 101st.
The convening and adjourning dates are reported by the Clerk of
the House and the debt levels are recorded by the U.S. Treasury:
Congress Convening/Adjourning Debt Levels
111th Congress
Jan. 6, 2009 - $10,638,425,746,293.80
Dec. 22, 2010 - $13,858,529,371,601.09
New Debt: - $3,220,103,625,307.29
110th Congress
Jan. 4, 2007 - $8,670,596,242,973.04
Jan. 3, 2009 - $10,627,961,295,930.67
New Debt: - $1,957,365,052,957.63
109th Congress
Jan. 4, 2005 - $7,601,016,892,663.19
Dec. 8, 2006 - $8,655,403,967,590.98
New Debt: - $1,054,387,074,927.79
108th Congress
Jan. 7, 2003 - $6,387,381,983,103.35
Dec. 9, 2004 - $7,546,778,677,941.37
New Debt: - $1,159,396,694,838.02
107th Congress
Jan. 3, 2001 - $5,723,237,439,563.59
Nov. 22, 2002 - $6,332,715,758,032.33
New Debt: - $609,478,318,468.74
106th Congress
Jan. 6, 1999 - $5,615,428,551,461.33
Dec. 15, 2000 - $5,706,990,981,165.37
New Debt: - $91,562,429,704.04
105th Congress
Jan. 7, 1997 - $5,312,781,237,956.91
Dec. 19, 1998 - $5,583,950,306,972.53
New Debt: - $271,169,069,015.62
104th Congress
Jan. 4, 1995 - $4,801,793,426,032.89
Oct. 4, 1996 - $5,222,049,625,819.53
New Debt: - $420,256,199,786.64
103rd Congress
Jan. 5, 1993 - $4,169,232,407,244.75
Dec. 1, 1994 - $4,774,851,353,596.54
New Debt: - $605,618,946,351.79
102nd Congress
Jan. 3, 1991 (Dec. 31, 1990) - $3,364,820,000,000.00
Oct. 9, 1992 (Sept. 30, 1992) - $4,064,621,000,000.00
New Debt: - $699,801,000,000.00
101st Congress
Jan. 3, 1989 (Dec. 31, 1988) - $2,684,392,000,000.00
Oct. 28, 1990 (Oct. 31, 1990) - $3,274,950,000.000.00
New Debt: - $590,558,000,000.00
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/111th-congress
-added-more-debt-first-10
Congresses Combined: $10,429 Per Person in U.S.
By Terence P. Jeffrey
Monday, December 27, 2010
(CNSNews.com) - The federal government has accumulated more
new debt--$3.22 trillion ($3,220,103,625,307.29)—during the tenure
of the 111th Congress than it did during the first 100 Congresses
combined, according to official debt figures published by the U.S.
Treasury.
That equals $10,429.64 in new debt for each and every one of the
308,745,538 people counted in the United States by the 2010 Census.
The total national debt of $13,858,529,371,601.09 (or $13.859
trillion), as recorded by the U.S. Treasury at the close of business
on Dec. 22, now equals $44,886.57 for every man, woman and child in the United States.
In fact, the 111th Congress not only has set the record as the most
debt-accumulating Congress in U.S. history, but also has out-stripped its nearest competitor, the 110th, by an astounding $1.262 trillion in new debt.
During the 110th Congress—which, according to the Clerk of the
House, officially convened on Jan. 4, 2007 and adjourned on Jan.
4, 2009--the national debt increased $1.957 trillion.
When that Congress adjourned less than two years ago, it claimed
the record as the most debt-accumulating Congress in U.S. history.
As it turned out, however, its record did not last long.
The $3.22 trillion in new federal debt run up during the 111th
Congress exceeds by 64 percent the $1.957 trillion in new debt
run up during the 110th.
Although the 111th Congress cast its last vote on Dec. 22, it
will not officially adjourn until next week.
Democrats controlled both the House and Senate in the 110th
and 111th Congresses.
The 108th Congress ($1.159 trillion in new debt) and 109th
($1.054 trillion in new debt) take third and fourth place
among all U.S. Congresses for accumulating debt.
In both these Congresses, Republicans controlled both the House
and Senate.
Still, the $3.22 trillion in new debt accumulated during the record-
setting 111th Congress is more than three times the $1.054 trillion
in new debt accumulated by the last Republican-majority Congress
(the 109th) which adjourned on Dec. 8, 2006.
Historically, according to the U.S. Treasury, the federal debt did not
reach $3.22 trillion until September 1990 during the 101st Congress.
Between the first Congress, which adjourned in 1791 leaving behind
approximately $75 million in debt, and the convening of the 101st
Congress, which occurred on Jan. 3, 1989, the national debt grew
to $2.684 trillion.
During the Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) tenure as speaker, which
commenced on Jan. 4, 2007, the federal government has run up
$5.177 trillion in new debt.
That is about equal to the total debt the federal government
accumulated in the first 220 years of the nation's existence,
with the federal debt rising from $5.173 trillion on July 23,
1996 to $5.181 trillion on July 24, 1996.
In her inaugural address as speaker, Pelosi vowed that Congress
would engage in no new deficit spending.
"After years of historic deficits, this 110th Congress will commit
itself to a higher standard: Pay as you go, no new deficit spending,”
she said in an address from the speaker’s podium.
“Our new America will provide unlimited opportunity for future
generations, not burden them with mountains of debt."
Here is an accounting of the new debt accumulated during the
tenure of each Congress since the 101st.
The convening and adjourning dates are reported by the Clerk of
the House and the debt levels are recorded by the U.S. Treasury:
Congress Convening/Adjourning Debt Levels
111th Congress
Jan. 6, 2009 - $10,638,425,746,293.80
Dec. 22, 2010 - $13,858,529,371,601.09
New Debt: - $3,220,103,625,307.29
110th Congress
Jan. 4, 2007 - $8,670,596,242,973.04
Jan. 3, 2009 - $10,627,961,295,930.67
New Debt: - $1,957,365,052,957.63
109th Congress
Jan. 4, 2005 - $7,601,016,892,663.19
Dec. 8, 2006 - $8,655,403,967,590.98
New Debt: - $1,054,387,074,927.79
108th Congress
Jan. 7, 2003 - $6,387,381,983,103.35
Dec. 9, 2004 - $7,546,778,677,941.37
New Debt: - $1,159,396,694,838.02
107th Congress
Jan. 3, 2001 - $5,723,237,439,563.59
Nov. 22, 2002 - $6,332,715,758,032.33
New Debt: - $609,478,318,468.74
106th Congress
Jan. 6, 1999 - $5,615,428,551,461.33
Dec. 15, 2000 - $5,706,990,981,165.37
New Debt: - $91,562,429,704.04
105th Congress
Jan. 7, 1997 - $5,312,781,237,956.91
Dec. 19, 1998 - $5,583,950,306,972.53
New Debt: - $271,169,069,015.62
104th Congress
Jan. 4, 1995 - $4,801,793,426,032.89
Oct. 4, 1996 - $5,222,049,625,819.53
New Debt: - $420,256,199,786.64
103rd Congress
Jan. 5, 1993 - $4,169,232,407,244.75
Dec. 1, 1994 - $4,774,851,353,596.54
New Debt: - $605,618,946,351.79
102nd Congress
Jan. 3, 1991 (Dec. 31, 1990) - $3,364,820,000,000.00
Oct. 9, 1992 (Sept. 30, 1992) - $4,064,621,000,000.00
New Debt: - $699,801,000,000.00
101st Congress
Jan. 3, 1989 (Dec. 31, 1988) - $2,684,392,000,000.00
Oct. 28, 1990 (Oct. 31, 1990) - $3,274,950,000.000.00
New Debt: - $590,558,000,000.00
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/111th-congress
-added-more-debt-first-10
Saturday, January 1, 2011
America's Unhappy New Year
America's Unhappy New Year
By Jack D. Douglas
The Baby Boom officially begins crashing this year. Some Baby Boomers began retiring early, but the big retirement Crash begins now and will go on for many years.
This is a crashing demographic wave that is also a massive financial and economic crash. The peak income years of this large wave of Americans now suddenly and steadily drops for many years to come as more and more of them retire.
Their disposable income and actual consumer spending will likely be far less than was expected a few years ago because of the massive drops in retirement savings and the soaring costs of health care which will demand far more frugal living than was true of their predecessor waves of retirees.
This will be even greater as they suddenly realize that the Obama
Central Plan for Medicare Cost Cuts will force them to pay far more
of their own medical costs.
At the same time, this growing tsunami-crash of retirements will produce a soaring tsunami of government expenditures for Medicare/Medicaid, in spite of the cuts now in the works which are not remotely enough to cut the soaring overall costs of these vast programs.
And the growing wave of Baby Boom retirees will also produce
soaring government expenditures for the vast Social Security
payments, because the government has spent their "contributions"
to the system and given the SS "Trust" non-negotiable bonds — IOU's
that now come due to pay the soaring costs for these retirees.
The government will be forced to borrow trillions more to pay for these costs at the same time its revenues are sinking and it is borrowing trillions to pay for other costs from the Great Financial Crisis.
This coming together of a great demographic crash with other
crashing markets and a soaring great wave of government
borrowing and expenditures will multiply all of the financial
and economic problems the U.S. faces for many years to come.
Harry Dent and his research organization have been studying the vast, long-term effects of such huge demographic and other waves for the past three decades.
Their latest analysis of this huge wave's effects leads them to predict The Great Depression Ahead [Free Press, 2009], beginning in about 2010 with another crash of real estate, stocks, Big Banks, and commodities.
They also argue that the High Tech innovation and investment wave is cresting and will lead to lower investment and profits, which will also multiply the downturns in markets and government revenues.
This one highly successful new U.S. industry that actually produces something other than paper assets with phony AAA ratings is also under soaring pressures from Asian competitors [and has only held up as well as it has at home by importing Asian scientists and engineers massively, who now take their knowledge home with them].
It is easy to see what massive downward pressures this will put on
business profits, stock prices, investment, commodity prices, and
so on. U.S. stocks are already vastly overpriced in terms of historic
price-earnings ratios.
[Calculated on the standard, average ten preceding years earnings on today's prices the p-e is 20. If the real rates of inflation are factored in, it is much higher, probably close to the 1929 high of about 29 just before the Crash. Markets have been anticipating growing corporate profits which are not materializing and which will most likely sink fast as the Baby Boom tsunami crashes and the Social Security government borrowing tsunami grows and drives up bond rates and borrowing costs for corporations.]
The U.S. financial planners in the White House have not been unmindful of the great dangers we will face as these new waves multiply the already crashing tsunamis of almost all the big markets.
[The U.S. Treasury bond market, the biggest and most dangerous of them all, has not crashed, but it has been leaking faster for months — long-term rates have been soaring as the government net new borrowing soars and the roll-overs of old bonds has reached a historic peak and the net purchases of U.S. paper assets from abroad have actually turned slightly negative because of the falling dollar and soaring U.S. bond sales — a very dangerous sign, since the U.S. has to borrow trillions abroad to meet its soaring financial needs.]
I believe this is why they pulled out all the sanity-stops and went for broke with the vast pop-Keynesian program.
They desperately wanted to produce a V-shaped recovery, so that
real estate prices, consumption, investment, profits, stock prices,
commodity prices, etc., would all move up together and reinforce
each other synergistically.
That has not happened. The vast outpouring of trillions in all possible ways has done little to stem the vast tide of losses and has produced a meagre crop of pale-green shoots.
At the same time, the U.S. Imperial Bubble continues to crash.
The U.S. has been paying vastly more and more to maintain its
Global Empire while the returns on this vast expenditure that
distorts our whole economy away from productive investments
have been sinking faster and faster into the negative netherworld.
Obama, like Bush before him, seems to start a new war with vast costs every few months.
He has already doubled the U.S. costs in Afghanistan, sent costs
in Pakistan soaring, and has committed unknown but soaring U.S.
assets to fight civil wars in Colombia, Yemen, Baluchistan, and
Mexico.
That's like cutting your wrists when you already are dying from congestive heart failure and leukemia.
Well, as Sarah Palin would say with a wan but winsome smile, "Miracles can still happen! Can't they?"
Perhaps so, Sarah, but in financial matters God obviously helps
those who first help themselves by not committing suicide.
After all, it does not take omniscience to see that financial
suicides are bad risks. Besides, it's much better just to invest
in sane nations.
Jack D. Douglas
January 06, 2010
Jack D. Douglas is a retired professor of sociology from the
University of California at San Diego. He has published widely
on all major aspects of human beings, most notably The Myth
of the Welfare State.
Copyright © 2010 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in
whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/douglas/douglas30.1.html
By Jack D. Douglas
The Baby Boom officially begins crashing this year. Some Baby Boomers began retiring early, but the big retirement Crash begins now and will go on for many years.
This is a crashing demographic wave that is also a massive financial and economic crash. The peak income years of this large wave of Americans now suddenly and steadily drops for many years to come as more and more of them retire.
Their disposable income and actual consumer spending will likely be far less than was expected a few years ago because of the massive drops in retirement savings and the soaring costs of health care which will demand far more frugal living than was true of their predecessor waves of retirees.
This will be even greater as they suddenly realize that the Obama
Central Plan for Medicare Cost Cuts will force them to pay far more
of their own medical costs.
At the same time, this growing tsunami-crash of retirements will produce a soaring tsunami of government expenditures for Medicare/Medicaid, in spite of the cuts now in the works which are not remotely enough to cut the soaring overall costs of these vast programs.
And the growing wave of Baby Boom retirees will also produce
soaring government expenditures for the vast Social Security
payments, because the government has spent their "contributions"
to the system and given the SS "Trust" non-negotiable bonds — IOU's
that now come due to pay the soaring costs for these retirees.
The government will be forced to borrow trillions more to pay for these costs at the same time its revenues are sinking and it is borrowing trillions to pay for other costs from the Great Financial Crisis.
This coming together of a great demographic crash with other
crashing markets and a soaring great wave of government
borrowing and expenditures will multiply all of the financial
and economic problems the U.S. faces for many years to come.
Harry Dent and his research organization have been studying the vast, long-term effects of such huge demographic and other waves for the past three decades.
Their latest analysis of this huge wave's effects leads them to predict The Great Depression Ahead [Free Press, 2009], beginning in about 2010 with another crash of real estate, stocks, Big Banks, and commodities.
They also argue that the High Tech innovation and investment wave is cresting and will lead to lower investment and profits, which will also multiply the downturns in markets and government revenues.
This one highly successful new U.S. industry that actually produces something other than paper assets with phony AAA ratings is also under soaring pressures from Asian competitors [and has only held up as well as it has at home by importing Asian scientists and engineers massively, who now take their knowledge home with them].
It is easy to see what massive downward pressures this will put on
business profits, stock prices, investment, commodity prices, and
so on. U.S. stocks are already vastly overpriced in terms of historic
price-earnings ratios.
[Calculated on the standard, average ten preceding years earnings on today's prices the p-e is 20. If the real rates of inflation are factored in, it is much higher, probably close to the 1929 high of about 29 just before the Crash. Markets have been anticipating growing corporate profits which are not materializing and which will most likely sink fast as the Baby Boom tsunami crashes and the Social Security government borrowing tsunami grows and drives up bond rates and borrowing costs for corporations.]
The U.S. financial planners in the White House have not been unmindful of the great dangers we will face as these new waves multiply the already crashing tsunamis of almost all the big markets.
[The U.S. Treasury bond market, the biggest and most dangerous of them all, has not crashed, but it has been leaking faster for months — long-term rates have been soaring as the government net new borrowing soars and the roll-overs of old bonds has reached a historic peak and the net purchases of U.S. paper assets from abroad have actually turned slightly negative because of the falling dollar and soaring U.S. bond sales — a very dangerous sign, since the U.S. has to borrow trillions abroad to meet its soaring financial needs.]
I believe this is why they pulled out all the sanity-stops and went for broke with the vast pop-Keynesian program.
They desperately wanted to produce a V-shaped recovery, so that
real estate prices, consumption, investment, profits, stock prices,
commodity prices, etc., would all move up together and reinforce
each other synergistically.
That has not happened. The vast outpouring of trillions in all possible ways has done little to stem the vast tide of losses and has produced a meagre crop of pale-green shoots.
At the same time, the U.S. Imperial Bubble continues to crash.
The U.S. has been paying vastly more and more to maintain its
Global Empire while the returns on this vast expenditure that
distorts our whole economy away from productive investments
have been sinking faster and faster into the negative netherworld.
Obama, like Bush before him, seems to start a new war with vast costs every few months.
He has already doubled the U.S. costs in Afghanistan, sent costs
in Pakistan soaring, and has committed unknown but soaring U.S.
assets to fight civil wars in Colombia, Yemen, Baluchistan, and
Mexico.
That's like cutting your wrists when you already are dying from congestive heart failure and leukemia.
Well, as Sarah Palin would say with a wan but winsome smile, "Miracles can still happen! Can't they?"
Perhaps so, Sarah, but in financial matters God obviously helps
those who first help themselves by not committing suicide.
After all, it does not take omniscience to see that financial
suicides are bad risks. Besides, it's much better just to invest
in sane nations.
Jack D. Douglas
January 06, 2010
Jack D. Douglas is a retired professor of sociology from the
University of California at San Diego. He has published widely
on all major aspects of human beings, most notably The Myth
of the Welfare State.
Copyright © 2010 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in
whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/douglas/douglas30.1.html
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