The first ever GAO(Government Accountability Office) audit of the Federal Reserve was carried out in the past few months due to the Ron Paul, Alan Grayson Amendment to the Dodd-Frank bill, which passed last year. Jim DeMint, a Republican Senator, and Bernie Sanders, an independent Senator, led the charge for a Federal Reserve audit in the Senate, but watered down the original language of the house bill(HR1207), so that a complete audit would not be carried out. Ben Bernanke(pictured to the right), Alan Greenspan, and various other bankers vehemently opposed the audit and lied to Congress about the effects an audit would have on markets. Nevertheless, the results of the first audit in the Federal Reserve’s nearly 100 year history were posted on Senator Sander’s webpage earlier this morning.
CONTINUED:
http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/10.11/gaoaudit.html
Showing posts with label FED. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FED. Show all posts
Friday, December 30, 2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Just Some Thoughts from Lynn--November 16, 2011—4:24am
Well it has been another sleepless night, a 3rd in the row for me! So I thought I would get up and get a few things off my mind.
We had a wonderful monthly meeting last night for CCTA. If you were not there, you missed some good information and some great fellowship. And as my friend Connie can tell you on my behalf, great cookies and coffee, and laughter!
Our CCTA Treasurer Gary Lindsey, who is an accountant with his own small business—gave a wonderful and informative presentation on “Understanding the Federal Reserve.”
We were honored to have Rep. Norman Sanderson there to give us an update on what is happening in the NC General Assembly and around the state. He and his wife are precious members of the CCTA family.
We were blessed to have local author C.A. Lee (my wonderful sister Cheryl) as a special guest to sign her new book, “Shifting Culture: Revival, Revolution or Ruin?” It is indeed a great book on where our country is headed, how we got here and what we need to do about it, all from a spike-haired Nana’s perspective. Get this book in the hands of friends, neighbors and family. Most of have been reading stacks of books—this will let them off easy, it ties much of what we have learned, all in one book! Available from CCTA and Amazon.com.
Our Watchdog Committee Chairman, Hal James, gave an outstanding report on our governmental activism as usual. Hal and Raynor, Nancy and Don Murdoch, Gary Lindsey, and others have been attending commissioner and alderman meetings and working tirelessly for all of us!
There were other great reports from our committee chairs as well. I gave my Federal Watchdog report quickly and an update on what is happening with the Tea Party activities and directed folks to our website and BlogSpot for more information.
But as my aches and pains keep me awake—I have to face the truth that what really keeps me up at night is ANXIETY, what is happening in our government, our churches and media and the direction of our precious nation. I think I just know too much.
Instead of reading from my reports, I should have talked to you about just how serious things are for our country and our fellow citizens.
Coastal Carolina Taxpayer Association has been around doing good works for the citizens for some time. On April 15th 2009, we became the local voice of the tea party movement as well. It was my first contact with the group, and some 1200 people showed up for a march from the Craven County Administrative Building to Union Point for a rally! It was awesome.
On that day so many people showed to protest the government’s hands in our pocket books! Taxed Enough Already was the cry! We were so outraged!
Today our problems are far more serious. We have read, and studied and searched for the truth. We have recognized corruption, crony capitalism, a liberal godless left that commands the media and sues out of our principles and values. Our politicians our president and the media stand up and lies blatantly to us on a daily basis!
We have a president and leaders that are making daily power grabs, introducing socialism, promoting an entitlement society, eroding our faith, steeling our freedoms and indoctrinating our children. Our government agencies, politicians and judges are shredding our Constitution on a daily basis.
Our fraudulent president, yes regardless of where he was born, he does not meet the constitution requirement as a NATURAL BORN CITIZEN. I am not afraid to say it! Everything he and his minions do is in direct contradiction to securing our nation and promoting a healthy environment for our economy and our people. He goes around Congress, has been packing the courts with liberal Federal Judges (who may end up on the Supreme Court for dang near an eternity). He is shoving wrong headed legislation down our throats through administrative directives, regulations and Executive Orders! Congress has been giving away its powers—and passing off its duties for years. Lobbyists write bills and Congress doesn’t even read them.
Obama throws tantrums and is determined to have his way by any means. But don’t think he is the Director—look close you will the see the puppet strings! He thinks of himself as a world ruler. And if you don’t agree with him, you are just too stupid, or lazy or religious or right-wing to know any better!
Our elected officials are burying us in debt—and leaving a tab that can never be paid for future generations. As long as we allow elected officials to take money from those who have to buy votes from people who have NOTHING INVESTED in game, why should they care about anything else but the next election?
LISTEN--we have just months to heave the anchor overboard together—or put our feet up and watch the ship that is our nation approach the iceberg and go down once and for all! It’s not just about income tax, property taxes, Medicare, Social Security and our personal comforts….it are about losing our America, our Freedoms and the future of our children. Can’t you get motivated by that?
So I ask you, where are the other 1150 people that stood with us that April day in 2009? Where are they when we now know that things are so much more serious?
Are they afraid…or are we too afraid to meet them head on and recruit them? As our Vice Chairman, Nancy Murdoch said last night, “It is time to stop preaching to the choir.”
We can’t do it alone folks, and we are running out of time.
For Country, family, friends, and for my fellow patriots, I ask God’s Blessings,
Lynn Childs
We had a wonderful monthly meeting last night for CCTA. If you were not there, you missed some good information and some great fellowship. And as my friend Connie can tell you on my behalf, great cookies and coffee, and laughter!
Our CCTA Treasurer Gary Lindsey, who is an accountant with his own small business—gave a wonderful and informative presentation on “Understanding the Federal Reserve.”
We were honored to have Rep. Norman Sanderson there to give us an update on what is happening in the NC General Assembly and around the state. He and his wife are precious members of the CCTA family.
We were blessed to have local author C.A. Lee (my wonderful sister Cheryl) as a special guest to sign her new book, “Shifting Culture: Revival, Revolution or Ruin?” It is indeed a great book on where our country is headed, how we got here and what we need to do about it, all from a spike-haired Nana’s perspective. Get this book in the hands of friends, neighbors and family. Most of have been reading stacks of books—this will let them off easy, it ties much of what we have learned, all in one book! Available from CCTA and Amazon.com.
Our Watchdog Committee Chairman, Hal James, gave an outstanding report on our governmental activism as usual. Hal and Raynor, Nancy and Don Murdoch, Gary Lindsey, and others have been attending commissioner and alderman meetings and working tirelessly for all of us!
There were other great reports from our committee chairs as well. I gave my Federal Watchdog report quickly and an update on what is happening with the Tea Party activities and directed folks to our website and BlogSpot for more information.
But as my aches and pains keep me awake—I have to face the truth that what really keeps me up at night is ANXIETY, what is happening in our government, our churches and media and the direction of our precious nation. I think I just know too much.
Instead of reading from my reports, I should have talked to you about just how serious things are for our country and our fellow citizens.
Coastal Carolina Taxpayer Association has been around doing good works for the citizens for some time. On April 15th 2009, we became the local voice of the tea party movement as well. It was my first contact with the group, and some 1200 people showed up for a march from the Craven County Administrative Building to Union Point for a rally! It was awesome.
On that day so many people showed to protest the government’s hands in our pocket books! Taxed Enough Already was the cry! We were so outraged!
Today our problems are far more serious. We have read, and studied and searched for the truth. We have recognized corruption, crony capitalism, a liberal godless left that commands the media and sues out of our principles and values. Our politicians our president and the media stand up and lies blatantly to us on a daily basis!
We have a president and leaders that are making daily power grabs, introducing socialism, promoting an entitlement society, eroding our faith, steeling our freedoms and indoctrinating our children. Our government agencies, politicians and judges are shredding our Constitution on a daily basis.
Our fraudulent president, yes regardless of where he was born, he does not meet the constitution requirement as a NATURAL BORN CITIZEN. I am not afraid to say it! Everything he and his minions do is in direct contradiction to securing our nation and promoting a healthy environment for our economy and our people. He goes around Congress, has been packing the courts with liberal Federal Judges (who may end up on the Supreme Court for dang near an eternity). He is shoving wrong headed legislation down our throats through administrative directives, regulations and Executive Orders! Congress has been giving away its powers—and passing off its duties for years. Lobbyists write bills and Congress doesn’t even read them.
Obama throws tantrums and is determined to have his way by any means. But don’t think he is the Director—look close you will the see the puppet strings! He thinks of himself as a world ruler. And if you don’t agree with him, you are just too stupid, or lazy or religious or right-wing to know any better!
Our elected officials are burying us in debt—and leaving a tab that can never be paid for future generations. As long as we allow elected officials to take money from those who have to buy votes from people who have NOTHING INVESTED in game, why should they care about anything else but the next election?
We could easily be facing National Un-Healthcare and a DEATH PANEL, economic collapse, government surrender of our guns and means of defense, government take over of communications, a crisis of attack from outside or worse, from our government with little food or money and maybe martial law. INVEST IN A SURVIVAL PLAN!
LISTEN--we have just months to heave the anchor overboard together—or put our feet up and watch the ship that is our nation approach the iceberg and go down once and for all! It’s not just about income tax, property taxes, Medicare, Social Security and our personal comforts….it are about losing our America, our Freedoms and the future of our children. Can’t you get motivated by that?
So I ask you, where are the other 1150 people that stood with us that April day in 2009? Where are they when we now know that things are so much more serious?
Are they afraid…or are we too afraid to meet them head on and recruit them? As our Vice Chairman, Nancy Murdoch said last night, “It is time to stop preaching to the choir.”
We can’t do it alone folks, and we are running out of time.
For Country, family, friends, and for my fellow patriots, I ask God’s Blessings,
Lynn Childs
Thursday, September 22, 2011
THE BLAZE: So What is the Fed‘s New ’Operation Twist?’
September 22, 2011
The Federal Reserve announced yesterday that it will use more than $400 billion to try to drive down long-term interest rates, make home and business loans cheaper and invigorate the economy.
Analysts said the moves would provide only a slight economic benefit.
The plan the Fed unveiled, dubbed “Operation Twist,“ resembles a program the Fed used in the early 1960s to ”twist” long-term rates lower relative to short-term rates.
“This program should put downward pressure on longer-term interest rates and help make broader financial conditions more accommodative” the Fed said in its official statement according to a recent CNN Money article.
In its statement, the Fed noted that the economy is growing slowly; unemployment is high and housing remains in a prolonged slump.
“This is a measured response to weak economic conditions,” said David Jones, head of DMJ Advisors and the author of four books on the Fed.
“The Fed is still trying but it can only do so much,” he said in the AP report.
MORE: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/so-what-is-the-feds-new-operation-twist/
The Federal Reserve announced yesterday that it will use more than $400 billion to try to drive down long-term interest rates, make home and business loans cheaper and invigorate the economy.
Analysts said the moves would provide only a slight economic benefit.
The plan the Fed unveiled, dubbed “Operation Twist,“ resembles a program the Fed used in the early 1960s to ”twist” long-term rates lower relative to short-term rates.
“This program should put downward pressure on longer-term interest rates and help make broader financial conditions more accommodative” the Fed said in its official statement according to a recent CNN Money article.
In its statement, the Fed noted that the economy is growing slowly; unemployment is high and housing remains in a prolonged slump.
“This is a measured response to weak economic conditions,” said David Jones, head of DMJ Advisors and the author of four books on the Fed.
“The Fed is still trying but it can only do so much,” he said in the AP report.
MORE: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/so-what-is-the-feds-new-operation-twist/
Monday, September 5, 2011
Carlton's Corner: This Should Make Your Blood Boil.....
I'm a fanatic ( one who won't change his/her mind and won't shut up).
Pegs me exactly. I admit it. I am indeed a fanatic when drawn into issues concerning the FR (Federal Reserve)
Having expressed my views on this criminal organization more then once to my email addressees, we are finally beginning to detect some signs that others, with at least a bit of clout, may finally be realizing and homing in on the source of the grandest financial 'fleece job' ever recorded in the annuls of our history.
But what should really nag all of us are the questions--why has it taken so long for the masses to understand the magnitude of this perpetual 'fleece job"--if indeed they understand , or even care, now? And what effect will this 'audit' have on the visibility of the organization-if any?
Remember as you read the following article---its about audting one of the most corrupt institutions in the world--one that is not a government institution at all, but is composed of FR Banks which are nothing more than private credit monopolies,domestic swindlers, rich and predatory money lenders which prey on the people of America for the benefit of themselves and their foreign customers---Repeating: " their foreign customers"
In other words, these FR Banks are naught more than agents of the foreign central banks.
Making the FR little more than an out-of-control credit monopoly --an extremely extensive, arrogant and dangerous one at that!
Do yourselves a great service by learning all you can about this dandy institution that has managed to survive and flourish at the expense of you and I and will, if not curbed, play a prime role in finally destroying the economy of this country.
So read and make up your own mind. Fanatics needed badly!
Carlton
The first ever GAO audit of the Fedral Reserve was carried out in the past few months due to the Ron Paul, Alan Grayson Amendment to the Dodd-Frank bill, which passed last year. Jim DeMint, a Republican Senator, and Bernie Sanders, an independent Senator, led the charge for a Federal Reserve audit in the Senate, but watered down the original language of the house bill (HR1207), so that a complete audit would not be carried out. Ben Bernanke, Alan Greenspan, and various other bankers vehemently opposed the audit and lied to Congress about the effects an audit would have on markets. Nevertheless, the results of the first audit in the Federal Reserve’s nearly 100 year history were posted on Senator Sander’s webpage earlier this morning.
What was revealed in the audit was startling: http://iowastatedaily.com/opinion/article_f61ac908-cddb-11e0-bce9-001cc4c03286.html?mode=print
$16,000,000,000,000.00 (TRILLION) had been secretly given out to US banks and corporations and foreign banks everywhere from France to Scotland. From the period between December 2007 and June 2010, the Federal Reserve had secretly bailed out many of the world’s banks, corporations, and governments. The Federal Reserve likes to refer to these secret bailouts as an all-inclusive loan program, but virtually none of the money has been returned and it was loaned out at 0% interest. Why the Federal Reserve had never been public about this or even informed the United States Congress about the $16 trillion dollar bailout is obvious the American public would have been outraged to find out that the Federal Reserve bailed out foreign banks while Americans were struggling to find jobs. To place $16 trillion into perspective, remember that GDP of the United States is only $14.12 trillion. The entire national debt of the United States government spanning its 200+ year history is only $14.5 trillion.
The budget that is being debated so heavily in Congress and the Senate is only $3.5 trillion. Take all of the outrage and debate over the $1.5 trillion deficit into consideration, and swallow this Red pill: There was no debate about whether $16,000,000,000,000 would be given to failing banks and failing corporations around the world.
In late 2008, the TARP Bailout bill was passed and loans of $800 billion were given to failing banks and companies. That was a blatant lie considering the fact that Goldman Sachs alone received 814 billion dollars. As is turns out, the Federal Reserve donated $2.5 trillion to Citigroup, while Morgan Stanley received $2.04 trillion. The Royal Bank of Scotland and Deutsche Bank, a German bank, split about a trillion and numerous other banks received hefty chunks of the $16trillion. ****
When you have conservative Republican stalwarts like Jim DeMint(R-SC) and Ron Paul(R-TX) as well as self identified Democratic socialists like Bernie Sanders all fighting against the Federal Reserve, you know that it is no longer an issue of Right versus Left. When you have every single member of the Republican Party in Congress and progressive Congressmen like Dennis Kucinich sponsoring a bill to audit the Federal Reserve, you realize that the Federal Reserve is an entity onto itself, which has no oversight and no accountability.
Americans should be swelled with anger and outrage at the abysmal state of affairs when an unelected group of bankers can create money out of thin air and give it out to megabanks and supercorporations like Halloween candy. The list of institutions that received the most money from the Federal Reserve can be found on page 131 of the GAO Audit and are as follows:
Citigroup: $2.5 trillion($2,500,000,000,000)
Morgan Stanley: $2.04 trillion ($2,040,000,000,000)
Merrill Lynch: $1.949 trillion ($1,949,000,000,000)
Bank of America: $1.344 trillion ($1,344,000,000,000)
Barclays PLC (United Kingdom): $868 billion* ($868,000,000,000)
Bear Sterns: $853 billion ($853,000,000,000)
Goldman Sachs: $814 billion ($814,000,000,000)
Royal Bank of Scotland (UK): $541 billion ($541,000,000,000)
JP Morgan Chase: $391 billion ($391,000,000,000)
Deutsche Bank (Germany): $354 billion ($354,000,000,000)
UBS (Switzerland): $287 billion ($287,000,000,000)
Credit Suisse (Switzerland): $262 billion ($262,000,000,000)
Lehman Brothers: $183 billion ($183,000,000,000)
Bank of Scotland (United Kingdom): $181 billion ($181,000,000,000)
BNP Paribas (France): $175 billion ($175,000,000,000)
Pegs me exactly. I admit it. I am indeed a fanatic when drawn into issues concerning the FR (Federal Reserve)
Having expressed my views on this criminal organization more then once to my email addressees, we are finally beginning to detect some signs that others, with at least a bit of clout, may finally be realizing and homing in on the source of the grandest financial 'fleece job' ever recorded in the annuls of our history.
But what should really nag all of us are the questions--why has it taken so long for the masses to understand the magnitude of this perpetual 'fleece job"--if indeed they understand , or even care, now? And what effect will this 'audit' have on the visibility of the organization-if any?
Remember as you read the following article---its about audting one of the most corrupt institutions in the world--one that is not a government institution at all, but is composed of FR Banks which are nothing more than private credit monopolies,domestic swindlers, rich and predatory money lenders which prey on the people of America for the benefit of themselves and their foreign customers---Repeating: " their foreign customers"
In other words, these FR Banks are naught more than agents of the foreign central banks.
Making the FR little more than an out-of-control credit monopoly --an extremely extensive, arrogant and dangerous one at that!
Do yourselves a great service by learning all you can about this dandy institution that has managed to survive and flourish at the expense of you and I and will, if not curbed, play a prime role in finally destroying the economy of this country.
So read and make up your own mind. Fanatics needed badly!
Carlton
The first ever GAO audit of the Fedral Reserve was carried out in the past few months due to the Ron Paul, Alan Grayson Amendment to the Dodd-Frank bill, which passed last year. Jim DeMint, a Republican Senator, and Bernie Sanders, an independent Senator, led the charge for a Federal Reserve audit in the Senate, but watered down the original language of the house bill (HR1207), so that a complete audit would not be carried out. Ben Bernanke, Alan Greenspan, and various other bankers vehemently opposed the audit and lied to Congress about the effects an audit would have on markets. Nevertheless, the results of the first audit in the Federal Reserve’s nearly 100 year history were posted on Senator Sander’s webpage earlier this morning.
What was revealed in the audit was startling: http://iowastatedaily.com/opinion/article_f61ac908-cddb-11e0-bce9-001cc4c03286.html?mode=print
$16,000,000,000,000.00 (TRILLION) had been secretly given out to US banks and corporations and foreign banks everywhere from France to Scotland. From the period between December 2007 and June 2010, the Federal Reserve had secretly bailed out many of the world’s banks, corporations, and governments. The Federal Reserve likes to refer to these secret bailouts as an all-inclusive loan program, but virtually none of the money has been returned and it was loaned out at 0% interest. Why the Federal Reserve had never been public about this or even informed the United States Congress about the $16 trillion dollar bailout is obvious the American public would have been outraged to find out that the Federal Reserve bailed out foreign banks while Americans were struggling to find jobs. To place $16 trillion into perspective, remember that GDP of the United States is only $14.12 trillion. The entire national debt of the United States government spanning its 200+ year history is only $14.5 trillion.
The budget that is being debated so heavily in Congress and the Senate is only $3.5 trillion. Take all of the outrage and debate over the $1.5 trillion deficit into consideration, and swallow this Red pill: There was no debate about whether $16,000,000,000,000 would be given to failing banks and failing corporations around the world.
In late 2008, the TARP Bailout bill was passed and loans of $800 billion were given to failing banks and companies. That was a blatant lie considering the fact that Goldman Sachs alone received 814 billion dollars. As is turns out, the Federal Reserve donated $2.5 trillion to Citigroup, while Morgan Stanley received $2.04 trillion. The Royal Bank of Scotland and Deutsche Bank, a German bank, split about a trillion and numerous other banks received hefty chunks of the $16trillion. ****
When you have conservative Republican stalwarts like Jim DeMint(R-SC) and Ron Paul(R-TX) as well as self identified Democratic socialists like Bernie Sanders all fighting against the Federal Reserve, you know that it is no longer an issue of Right versus Left. When you have every single member of the Republican Party in Congress and progressive Congressmen like Dennis Kucinich sponsoring a bill to audit the Federal Reserve, you realize that the Federal Reserve is an entity onto itself, which has no oversight and no accountability.
Americans should be swelled with anger and outrage at the abysmal state of affairs when an unelected group of bankers can create money out of thin air and give it out to megabanks and supercorporations like Halloween candy. The list of institutions that received the most money from the Federal Reserve can be found on page 131 of the GAO Audit and are as follows:
Citigroup: $2.5 trillion($2,500,000,000,000)
Morgan Stanley: $2.04 trillion ($2,040,000,000,000)
Merrill Lynch: $1.949 trillion ($1,949,000,000,000)
Bank of America: $1.344 trillion ($1,344,000,000,000)
Barclays PLC (United Kingdom): $868 billion* ($868,000,000,000)
Bear Sterns: $853 billion ($853,000,000,000)
Goldman Sachs: $814 billion ($814,000,000,000)
Royal Bank of Scotland (UK): $541 billion ($541,000,000,000)
JP Morgan Chase: $391 billion ($391,000,000,000)
Deutsche Bank (Germany): $354 billion ($354,000,000,000)
UBS (Switzerland): $287 billion ($287,000,000,000)
Credit Suisse (Switzerland): $262 billion ($262,000,000,000)
Lehman Brothers: $183 billion ($183,000,000,000)
Bank of Scotland (United Kingdom): $181 billion ($181,000,000,000)
BNP Paribas (France): $175 billion ($175,000,000,000)
Thursday, September 1, 2011
I CAN'T BELIEVE SO MANY PEOPLE ARE SO BLIND TO WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THE USA IN THE LAST 2 YEARS.
David Kaiser is a respected historian whose published works have covered a broad range of topics, from European Warfare to American League Baseball. Born in 1947, the son of a diplomat, Kaiser spent his childhood in three capital cities: Washington D.C. , Albany , New York , and Dakar , Senegal .. He attended Harvard University , graduating there in 1969 with a B.A. in history. He then spent several years more at Harvard, gaining a PhD in history, which he obtained in 1976.. He served in the Army Reserve from 1970 to 1976.
He is a professor in the Strategy and Policy Department of the United States Naval War College . He has previously taught at Carnegie Mellon, Williams College and Harvard University . Kaiser's latest book, The Road to Dallas, about the Kennedy assassination, was just published by Harvard University Press.
History Unfolding
I am a student of history. Professionally, I have written 15 books on history that have been published in six languages, and I have studied history all my life. I have come to think there is something monumentally large afoot, and I do not believe it is simply a banking crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes these exist, but they are merely single facets on a very large gemstone that is only now coming into a sharper focus..
Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because I know how it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how people react to it. Yes, a perfect storm may be brewing, but there is something happening within our country that has been evolving for about ten to fifteen years. The pace has dramatically quickened in the past two.
We demand and then codify into law the requirement that our banks make massive loans to people we know they can never pay back? Why?
We learned just days ago that the Federal Reserve, which has little or no real oversight by anyone, has "loaned" two trillion dollars (that is $2,000,000,000,000) over the past few months, but will not tell us to whom or why or disclose the terms. That is our money. Yours and mine. And that is three times the $700 billion we all argued about so strenuously just this past September. Who has this money? Why do they have it? Why are the terms unavailable to us? Who asked for it? Who authorized it? I thought this was a government of "we the people," who loaned our powers to our elected leaders. Apparently not.
We have spent two or more decades intentionally de-industrializing our economy... Why?
We have intentionally dumbed down our schools, ignored our history, and no longer teach our founding documents, why we are exceptional, and why we are worth preserving. Students by and large cannot write, think critically, read, or articulate. Parents are not revolting, teachers are not picketing, school boards continue to back mediocrity. Why?
We have now established the precedent of protesting every close election (violently in California over a proposition that is so controversial that it simply wants marriage to remain defined as between one man and one woman. Did you ever think such a thing possible just a decade ago?) We have corrupted our sacred political process by allowing unelected judges to write laws that radically change our way of life, and then mainstream Marxist groups like ACORN and others to turn our voting system into a banana republic. To what purpose?
Now our mortgage industry is collapsing, housing prices are in free fall, major industries are failing, our banking system is on the verge of collapse, social security is nearly bankrupt, as is Medicare and our entire government. Our education system is worse than a joke (I teach college and I know precisely what I am talking about) - the list is staggering in its length, breadth, and depth.. It is potentially 1929 x ten...And we are at war with an enemy we cannot even name for fear of offending people of the same religion, who, in turn, cannot wait to slit the throats of your children if they have the opportunity to do so.
And finally, we have elected a man that no one really knows anything about, who has never run so much as a Dairy Queen, let alone a town as big as Wasilla , Alaska .. All of his associations and alliances are with real radicals in their chosen fields of employment, and everything we learn about him, drip by drip, is unsettling if not downright scary (Surely you have heard him speak about his idea to create and fund a mandatory civilian defense force stronger than our military for use inside our borders? No? Oh, of course. The media would never play that for you over and over and then demand he answer it. Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter and $150,000 wardrobe are more important.)
Mr. Obama's winning platform can be boiled down to one word: Change. Why?
I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am now.
This man campaigned on bringing people together, something he has never, ever done in his professional life. In my assessment, Obama will divide us along philosophical lines, push us apart, and then try to realign the pieces into a new and different power structure. Change is indeed coming. And when it comes, you will never see the same nation again.
And that is only the beginning..
As a serious student of history, I thought I would never come to experience what the ordinary, moral German must have felt in the mid-1930s In those times, the "savior" was a former smooth-talking rabble-rouser from the streets, about whom the average German knew next to nothing. What they should have known was that he was associated with groups that shouted, shoved, and pushed around people with whom they disagreed; he edged his way onto the political stage through great oratory. Conservative "losers" read it right now.
And there were the promises. Economic times were tough, people were losing jobs, and he was a great speaker. And he smiled and frowned and waved a lot. And people, even newspapers, were afraid to speak out for fear that his "brown shirts" would bully and beat them into submission. Which they did - regularly. And then, he was duly elected to office, while a full-throttled economic crisis bloomed at hand - the Great Depression. Slowly, but surely he seized the controls of government power, person by person, department by department, bureaucracy by bureaucracy. The children of German citizens were at first, encouraged to join a Youth Movement in his name where they were taught exactly what to think. Later, they were required to do so. No Jews of course,
How did he get people on his side? He did it by promising jobs to the jobless, money to the money-less, and rewards for the military-industrial complex. He did it by indoctrinating the children, advocating gun control, health care for all, better wages, better jobs, and promising to re-instill pride once again in the country, across Europe , and across the world. He did it with a compliant media - did you know that? And he did this all in the name of justice and .... . ... change. And the people surely got what they voted for.
If you think I am exaggerating, look it up. It's all there in the history books.
So read your history books. Many people of conscience objected in 1933 and were shouted down, called names, laughed at, and ridiculed. When Winston Churchill pointed out the obvious in the late 1930s while seated in the House of Lords in England (he was not yet Prime Minister), he was booed into his seat and called a crazy troublemaker. He was right, though. And the world came to regret that he was not listened to.
Do not forget that Germany was the most educated, the most cultured country in Europe . It was full of music, art, museums, hospitals, laboratories, and universities. And yet, in less than six years (a shorter time span than just two terms of the U. S. presidency) it was rounding up its own citizens, killing others, abrogating its laws, turning children against parents, and neighbors against neighbors.. All with the best of intentions, of course.. The road to Hell is paved with them.
As a practical thinker, one not overly prone to emotional decisions, I have a choice: I can either believe what the objective pieces of evidence tell me (even if they make me cringe with disgust); I can believe what history is shouting to me from across the chasm of seven decades; or I can hope I am wrong by closing my eyes, having another latte, and ignoring what is transpiring around me..
I choose to believe the evidence. No doubt some people will scoff at me, others laugh, or think I am foolish, naive, or both. To some degree, perhaps I am. But I have never been afraid to look people in the eye and tell them exactly what I believe-and why I believe it.
I pray I am wrong. I do not think I am. Perhaps the only hope is our vote in the next elections.
David Kaiser
Jamestown , Rhode Island
United States
By passing this along, perhaps it will help to begin the awakening of America as to where we are headed.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Carlton's Corner: The Creature from Jekyll's Island
August 17, 2011
Here’s the Banksters Ultimate Scam
Folks,
This video lecture is fascinating.(especially if you don’t know much about the Fed--as most people ). Edward Griffin is a rare truth teller in today's world. Please do yourself a favor and watch it in full if you have time. Starts slow, but gets very interesting later. View it HERE
Many people have been and remain asleep (mentally) most of their lives--myself included-. until too recently. Far too many people seem so unwilling or too lazy to think for themselves that it appears they have been brainwashed by society (or/and the government) to do and believe anything they are told, Rather than make any effort to inform themselves on vital issues, people will espouse that they have no time to do so-even as they turn on the Telly to watch some inane reality show. Ironically, these are the same people ,for example, who actually believe ( and would argue ) that the FR (Federal Reserve) is a federal entity!--and even vote in complete ignorance. Ever so prone to attempt to argue topics of which they have absolutely no knowledge or understanding.
I have ,in at least 2 previous emails, referred to the FR as one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known.and is little more that an arrogant credit monopoly with dangerous power.
The sad part is that we aid and abet this monster right here in our own backyard!
Now view the video and listen to someone much smarter than me expound on the FR----and then ask yourselves--Why do we ,as citizens, continue to allow this institution to exist.? Then tell me, because I don't have a clue!
Long -but certainly of far more value than a football game segment of equal length-------
Carlton Melvin
CCTA Member
Editor's Note: CCTA recommends reading, "The Creature from Jekyll Island", by G. Edward Griffin (5th edition) available at Amazon.com.
Here’s the Banksters Ultimate Scam
Folks,
This video lecture is fascinating.(especially if you don’t know much about the Fed--as most people ). Edward Griffin is a rare truth teller in today's world. Please do yourself a favor and watch it in full if you have time. Starts slow, but gets very interesting later. View it HERE
Many people have been and remain asleep (mentally) most of their lives--myself included-. until too recently. Far too many people seem so unwilling or too lazy to think for themselves that it appears they have been brainwashed by society (or/and the government) to do and believe anything they are told, Rather than make any effort to inform themselves on vital issues, people will espouse that they have no time to do so-even as they turn on the Telly to watch some inane reality show. Ironically, these are the same people ,for example, who actually believe ( and would argue ) that the FR (Federal Reserve) is a federal entity!--and even vote in complete ignorance. Ever so prone to attempt to argue topics of which they have absolutely no knowledge or understanding.
I have ,in at least 2 previous emails, referred to the FR as one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known.and is little more that an arrogant credit monopoly with dangerous power.
The sad part is that we aid and abet this monster right here in our own backyard!
Now view the video and listen to someone much smarter than me expound on the FR----and then ask yourselves--Why do we ,as citizens, continue to allow this institution to exist.? Then tell me, because I don't have a clue!
Long -but certainly of far more value than a football game segment of equal length-------
Carlton Melvin
CCTA Member
Editor's Note: CCTA recommends reading, "The Creature from Jekyll Island", by G. Edward Griffin (5th edition) available at Amazon.com.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
NC RENEGADE: You Just Lost 3.7% of Your Savings in April
The US dollar index on Bloomberg.com (DXY:IND) compares the value of our Federal Reserve Notes against a basket of other world currencies. As the value of our dollar declines through redistribution and the unchecked policies of the Federal Reserve, the fruits of our labor (savings/retirement) are evaporating. Since January 1, 2011 through the end of April, the dollar has lost 7.59% of its value compared to other currencies. Almost half of this loss (48.7%) occurred in the month of April where the dollar declined 3.7%.
GRAPHICS AND FULL ARTICLE HERE:
http://ncrenegade.com/editorial/you-just-lost-3-7-of-your-savings-in-april/#more-1623
GRAPHICS AND FULL ARTICLE HERE:
http://ncrenegade.com/editorial/you-just-lost-3-7-of-your-savings-in-april/#more-1623
Friday, April 1, 2011
NO JOKE: FOREIGN BANKS TOOK MOST FROM FED; BERNANKE KEPT SECRET!!
U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s two-year fight to shield crisis-squeezed banks from the stigma of revealing their public loans protected a lender to local governments in Belgium, a Japanese fishing-cooperative financier and a company part-owned by the Central Bank of Libya.
READ MORE: http://randysright.wordpress.com/2011/04/01/no-joke-foreign-banks-took-most-from-fed-bernanke-kept-secret/
READ MORE: http://randysright.wordpress.com/2011/04/01/no-joke-foreign-banks-took-most-from-fed-bernanke-kept-secret/
Monday, March 21, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
BOOK REVIEW: Creature from Jekyll Island
Creature from Jekyll Island -- A Second Look at The Federal Reserve by G. Edward Griffin
Where does money come from? Where does it go? Who makes it? The money magician's secrets are unveiled. A boring subject? Just wait. You'll be hooked in five minutes. It reads like a detective story – which it really is, but it's all true. This may be the most important book on world affairs you will ever read. NEW: 5th Edition.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_64?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=creature+from+jekyll+island+a+second+look+at+the+federal+reserve&sprefix=creature+from+jekyll+island+a+second+look+at+the+federal+reserve
Where does money come from? Where does it go? Who makes it? The money magician's secrets are unveiled. A boring subject? Just wait. You'll be hooked in five minutes. It reads like a detective story – which it really is, but it's all true. This may be the most important book on world affairs you will ever read. NEW: 5th Edition.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_64?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=creature+from+jekyll+island+a+second+look+at+the+federal+reserve&sprefix=creature+from+jekyll+island+a+second+look+at+the+federal+reserve
Monday, December 27, 2010
The Tea Party’s Uphill Battle
The Tea Party’s Uphill Battle
by Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson
The Tea Party movement and its millions of supporters have high hopes that the recent elections will rein in runaway government. While I endorse this objective, accomplishing it will be far more difficult than most people realize.
The Tea Partiers will have to contend with more than just a Big-Government president and Senate. They also face well-funded, well-connected, and well-entrenched special interests, plus a public that expects the officials they elect to shrink government and balance the federal budget only if it’s the other guy’s programs that get cut. Would-be reformers will also have to deal with the larger, permanent, unelected powers that aren’t accountable to the people.
The fact is that the United States isn’t as democratic as we’d like to think it is. We cherish the idea that the vox populi (the voice of the people) predominates over the will of privileged elites; that government is subordinate to the people (that it serves the people, rather than ruling them); that those in positions of governmental power should be accountable to the people from whom they derive their authority; that government is, essentially, “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” Is that the kind of system we have today? Let’s see:
Congress delegated its constitutional prerogative to be the guardians of our money to the Federal Reserve System. As I’ve previously discussed, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke & Co. exercise extraordinary discretionary powers that affect us all, yet Bernanke—arguably the second most powerful person in America—is unelected and unaccountable to the people.
Key rules by which we live—most notably, the right to legal abortion—were created by the Supreme Court, instead of by Congress. Regardless of your opinion about the Roe v. Wade decision, it doesn’t seem very democratic that five unelected, unaccountable justices should have the power to establish the rules by which we live.
Perhaps the greatest damage to democracy has been the tremendous amount of power amassed by “the permanent government,” the unelected federal bureaucrats.
Consider:
Although the Constitution confers the legislative prerogative on Congress, in a typical year federal agencies will adopt more than 10 times as many legally binding rules as Congress passes laws (3,830 final rules compared to 285 laws in 2008, for example).
The Obamacare bill grants the Secretary of Health and Human Services the authority to determine or define what the legislation means no fewer than 1,697 times, according to a tabulation by Devon Herrick of the National Center for Policy Analysis.
This year’s Dodd-Frank financial reform bill gives power to unelected officials to decide which financial institutions live and die. It also adds power to the 115 federal agencies that already shared regulatory supervision over the financial system, and guarantees high-paying federal jobs to all employees of those agencies, despite their failure to protect us from the financial meltdown of recent years.
The EPA has a long tradition of exceeding its statutory authority and seems determined to further cripple the generation of electricity by imposing heavy penalties for carbon dioxide emissions, despite the crack-up of the global-warming myth and the refusal of Congress to restrict CO2 emissions.
Nobody seems to be able to stop the National Labor Relations Board from helping unions to avoid conducting business in a way that is transparent to rank-and-file workers.
These are just a few examples of the power wielded by unelected officials. They are part of what the late economist Milton Friedman termed an ”iron triangle:” Congress appropriates funds for federal agencies, who, in turn, give grants to citizen-activist groups that then actively lobby Congress for expansions of those programs. Thus is maintained what Friedman and his wife, Rose, labeled “the tyranny of the status quo.”
The influx of some new, Tea Party-supported legislators in Congress should make government marginally more democratic. At least we can count on an end to the imperial speakership of Nancy Pelosi, which was characterized by major legislation written behind closed doors (in the middle of the night), ram-rodding bills along partisan lines (before even Pelosi’s allies could read them), and refusing to heed the concerns of millions of Americans (by excluding their elected representatives from even having a perfunctory say in Congress’ proceedings). That is significant, though incremental, progress.
Will the Tea Party movement be able to tame Big Government in all its undemocratic manifestations? That isn’t likely on the strength of just one strong mid-term election. The task ahead is daunting.
http://floydreports.com/the-tea-partys-uphill-battle/?utm_source=Expose+Obama&utm_campaign=8d59ddcf79-EO_12_27_201012_27_2010&utm_medium=email
by Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson
The Tea Party movement and its millions of supporters have high hopes that the recent elections will rein in runaway government. While I endorse this objective, accomplishing it will be far more difficult than most people realize.
The Tea Partiers will have to contend with more than just a Big-Government president and Senate. They also face well-funded, well-connected, and well-entrenched special interests, plus a public that expects the officials they elect to shrink government and balance the federal budget only if it’s the other guy’s programs that get cut. Would-be reformers will also have to deal with the larger, permanent, unelected powers that aren’t accountable to the people.
The fact is that the United States isn’t as democratic as we’d like to think it is. We cherish the idea that the vox populi (the voice of the people) predominates over the will of privileged elites; that government is subordinate to the people (that it serves the people, rather than ruling them); that those in positions of governmental power should be accountable to the people from whom they derive their authority; that government is, essentially, “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” Is that the kind of system we have today? Let’s see:
Congress delegated its constitutional prerogative to be the guardians of our money to the Federal Reserve System. As I’ve previously discussed, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke & Co. exercise extraordinary discretionary powers that affect us all, yet Bernanke—arguably the second most powerful person in America—is unelected and unaccountable to the people.
Key rules by which we live—most notably, the right to legal abortion—were created by the Supreme Court, instead of by Congress. Regardless of your opinion about the Roe v. Wade decision, it doesn’t seem very democratic that five unelected, unaccountable justices should have the power to establish the rules by which we live.
Perhaps the greatest damage to democracy has been the tremendous amount of power amassed by “the permanent government,” the unelected federal bureaucrats.
Consider:
Although the Constitution confers the legislative prerogative on Congress, in a typical year federal agencies will adopt more than 10 times as many legally binding rules as Congress passes laws (3,830 final rules compared to 285 laws in 2008, for example).
The Obamacare bill grants the Secretary of Health and Human Services the authority to determine or define what the legislation means no fewer than 1,697 times, according to a tabulation by Devon Herrick of the National Center for Policy Analysis.
This year’s Dodd-Frank financial reform bill gives power to unelected officials to decide which financial institutions live and die. It also adds power to the 115 federal agencies that already shared regulatory supervision over the financial system, and guarantees high-paying federal jobs to all employees of those agencies, despite their failure to protect us from the financial meltdown of recent years.
The EPA has a long tradition of exceeding its statutory authority and seems determined to further cripple the generation of electricity by imposing heavy penalties for carbon dioxide emissions, despite the crack-up of the global-warming myth and the refusal of Congress to restrict CO2 emissions.
Nobody seems to be able to stop the National Labor Relations Board from helping unions to avoid conducting business in a way that is transparent to rank-and-file workers.
These are just a few examples of the power wielded by unelected officials. They are part of what the late economist Milton Friedman termed an ”iron triangle:” Congress appropriates funds for federal agencies, who, in turn, give grants to citizen-activist groups that then actively lobby Congress for expansions of those programs. Thus is maintained what Friedman and his wife, Rose, labeled “the tyranny of the status quo.”
The influx of some new, Tea Party-supported legislators in Congress should make government marginally more democratic. At least we can count on an end to the imperial speakership of Nancy Pelosi, which was characterized by major legislation written behind closed doors (in the middle of the night), ram-rodding bills along partisan lines (before even Pelosi’s allies could read them), and refusing to heed the concerns of millions of Americans (by excluding their elected representatives from even having a perfunctory say in Congress’ proceedings). That is significant, though incremental, progress.
Will the Tea Party movement be able to tame Big Government in all its undemocratic manifestations? That isn’t likely on the strength of just one strong mid-term election. The task ahead is daunting.
http://floydreports.com/the-tea-partys-uphill-battle/?utm_source=Expose+Obama&utm_campaign=8d59ddcf79-EO_12_27_201012_27_2010&utm_medium=email
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Weekly Newsletter - Lame Duck
Below are our current Lame Duck successes:
-S3815 the Natural Gas and Electric Vehicles Bill was withdrawn by unanimous consent
-Appropriations Omnibus was rejected (CR expires December 3) The budget will be extended through some form of CR (CR=Continueing Resolution) (Ask your Representatives to reduce this by a percentage)
-Unemployement Insurance was rejected in the House.
We must defeat or minimize the damage from the following.
- The DREAM Act - Amnesty for illegal immigrants beyond current military process of becoming a US Citizen - Send a Free Fax to Sen. LeMieux http://southfloridateaparty.net/content/stop-amnesty-send-free-fax-sen-lemieux
-Allow to expire all the Stimulus in all its forms including the Build America Bonds program. Be aware of the impact on profligate local and State governments and make adjustments where appropriate..http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704648604575620610837699250.html?KEYWORDS=muni+federal+program
- TANF (expires December 4th) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporary_Assistance_for_Needy_Families
This is what was added http://economic-legislation.blogspot.com/2010/10/tanf-emergency-contingency-fund.html by the Stimulus and must end.
- FAA (Expires December 31st) Reduce TSA funding - Ask your Senator/Congressman to revert TSA back to contractor status, metal detectors, profiling and dogs. It's less stressful;. costs less and more effective. Body scanners are a law enforcement tool for terrorists and smugglers. I am unconvinced the reduction of terrorism off sets the health and legal concerns.
- FDA Food Modernization Act - Will add more government control over food supply. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-510&tab=summary
- FCC Net Neutrality - a threat to free speech through regulation not legislation http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/05/06/how-the-fcc-plans-to-regulate-internet-lines/
- The Paycheck "Fairness" Act - A threat to Free Markets and extends government's role into hiring and pay. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-1338
- Quantitative Easing - Defend your purchasing power by asking your Representatives to stop Quantitative Easing. I can't stress the importance of telling DC to stop messing around with the values of our currency. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-11-08/china-says-fed-easing-may-flood-world-economy-with-hot-money-.html
This monetary easing is preventing recovery by devaluing the growth in savings and preventing self-reliance, investment at real market values and job creation. This Fed tactic makes all things in America more affordable to the rest of the world while pricing us out of the market because of supply and demand and a weak dollar for imports like coffee. We need to become more competitive rather then devalue everything we make and own, including our energy and food resources. Withdrawing taxpayer money from the market, paying down debt and contracting the monetary base will help to insulate the market from hyperinflation when real market demand growth occurs. We need market equilibrium and better market regulation, tax and oversight to increase adaptation, innovation and market efficiences. We need the correction in Housing that the Fed is trying to prevent from the government manufactured bubble. The Fed says this is a liquidity crisis when consumer demand is weak. The only form of real market recovery is thru the deleveraging and savings being built by the American people.
http://www.southfloridateaparty.net/content/weekly-newsletter-lame-duck
-S3815 the Natural Gas and Electric Vehicles Bill was withdrawn by unanimous consent
-Appropriations Omnibus was rejected (CR expires December 3) The budget will be extended through some form of CR (CR=Continueing Resolution) (Ask your Representatives to reduce this by a percentage)
-Unemployement Insurance was rejected in the House.
We must defeat or minimize the damage from the following.
- The DREAM Act - Amnesty for illegal immigrants beyond current military process of becoming a US Citizen - Send a Free Fax to Sen. LeMieux http://southfloridateaparty.net/content/stop-amnesty-send-free-fax-sen-lemieux
-Allow to expire all the Stimulus in all its forms including the Build America Bonds program. Be aware of the impact on profligate local and State governments and make adjustments where appropriate..http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704648604575620610837699250.html?KEYWORDS=muni+federal+program
- TANF (expires December 4th) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporary_Assistance_for_Needy_Families
This is what was added http://economic-legislation.blogspot.com/2010/10/tanf-emergency-contingency-fund.html by the Stimulus and must end.
- FAA (Expires December 31st) Reduce TSA funding - Ask your Senator/Congressman to revert TSA back to contractor status, metal detectors, profiling and dogs. It's less stressful;. costs less and more effective. Body scanners are a law enforcement tool for terrorists and smugglers. I am unconvinced the reduction of terrorism off sets the health and legal concerns.
- FDA Food Modernization Act - Will add more government control over food supply. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-510&tab=summary
- FCC Net Neutrality - a threat to free speech through regulation not legislation http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/05/06/how-the-fcc-plans-to-regulate-internet-lines/
- The Paycheck "Fairness" Act - A threat to Free Markets and extends government's role into hiring and pay. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-1338
- Quantitative Easing - Defend your purchasing power by asking your Representatives to stop Quantitative Easing. I can't stress the importance of telling DC to stop messing around with the values of our currency. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-11-08/china-says-fed-easing-may-flood-world-economy-with-hot-money-.html
This monetary easing is preventing recovery by devaluing the growth in savings and preventing self-reliance, investment at real market values and job creation. This Fed tactic makes all things in America more affordable to the rest of the world while pricing us out of the market because of supply and demand and a weak dollar for imports like coffee. We need to become more competitive rather then devalue everything we make and own, including our energy and food resources. Withdrawing taxpayer money from the market, paying down debt and contracting the monetary base will help to insulate the market from hyperinflation when real market demand growth occurs. We need market equilibrium and better market regulation, tax and oversight to increase adaptation, innovation and market efficiences. We need the correction in Housing that the Fed is trying to prevent from the government manufactured bubble. The Fed says this is a liquidity crisis when consumer demand is weak. The only form of real market recovery is thru the deleveraging and savings being built by the American people.
http://www.southfloridateaparty.net/content/weekly-newsletter-lame-duck
Sunday, November 14, 2010
The CATO Institute Finds That The Fed Must Be Abolished
Ending the Fed is the only hope America now has. The outcome will be painful, but it will be surmountable. The alternative is the unquestionable end of America's status as a superpower.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/cato-institute-finds-fed-must-be-abolished
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/cato-institute-finds-fed-must-be-abolished
Friday, November 5, 2010
ObamaCare will decimate the economy
The Fed is about to print off another $500 billion-$1 trillion. The dollar will continue to collapse, and as a result, prices will continue to skyrocket--on EVERYTHING
http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-national/obamacare-will-decimate-the-economy-1
http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-national/obamacare-will-decimate-the-economy-1
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Campaign for Liberty
Reality Economics, By Lew Rockwell
September 7, 2010
As a culture, we like our reality on television, but seem to oppose it in economics.
For more than two years now, and even longer depending on your dating scheme, the federal government has waged war on the reality of the incredible Fed-fueled bubble that developed in housing with spillover effects on the rest of economic life.
That bubble had to explode to restore some sanity to the economic environment. There is no getting around that. The policies were all about trying to paper over what we did not want to deal with as facts. But the facts won't go away.
Do we have to make a television show to get Washington to see it?
The FDIC has admitted that some 829 banks remain at risk of failure. That's one in ten. Only 118 have failed this year but many more should have and would have absent Fed intervention. Meanwhile, there are no new banks started in the U.S. in the last quarter -- the first time in 38 years that this has been true. As for the actual soundness of the banks, it's anyone's guess. How much bad debt they are carrying, with both lenders and borrowers agreeing to look the other way, is something that no one wants to know.
Then there is the other topic that no one wants to talk about: house prices. They need to fall more. Washington has attempted to prop them up with some 18 different programs from mortgage buyouts to tax schemes. It delayed the fall of prices for a time. But they have begun to fall again, exactly to the point where nature wants to take them.
The problem is that you can't artificially boost both supply and demand at the same time. If you subsidize housing construction and that results in more houses being built, you apply downward pressure on the prices of houses that are currently on the market. If you subsidize house buying, you also promote house selling, allowing the reality of the real estate glut to express itself in home prices.
There is no way that the central planners can get around this problem unless they both build and buy houses themselves and leave the rest of us out of it. That might help prettify the housing data but it does nothing to change market realities. Merrill Lynch, in fact, has published a report that suggests that the housing glut will not normalize for another five years and that assumes some reasonable slowdown in the pace of building.
Already the government has done everything in its power to override market signals, at the same time it is attempting to make market signals operate in a way that conforms to political priorities. The problem is that you can't do both. You have to either defer to the market or abolish it.
The same is true with unemployment rates, which are stubbornly high. Now, what does it tell you when there is a surplus of workers relative to the number of job opportunities? It means that in some sectors, jobs are selling at too high a price. There are fixes for this. You can lower the minimum wage, reducing the cost of hiring, or workers can lower their reservation wage.
As it stands, Washington is doing nothing to encourage any of these fixes, so of course unemployment remains very high. Many young people have actually removed themselves from the market by going back to school to avoid paying their student loans. The state universities are glad to take their money.
A good indicator of future business conditions is commercial and industrial loans. They continue to fall as if off a cliff. How does the Fed deal with this? By keeping rates as low as possible on the short end, so that way banks have nothing to gain by lending and consumers have nothing to gain by saving. Not smart.
Meanwhile long-term rates are being held down by the existence of a too-big-to-fail doctrine for mortgage-holding companies like the nationalized Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. In a real market, there is no telling where rates would be, but they would be high enough to compensate for risk. When there is no risk, or that risk is socialized, you see the absurd scenario of falling rates during the largest mortgage crisis in American history.
A major difference between now and the 1930s relates to the standard of living of consumers themselves. Everyone is still shopping, still living high on the hog, still going out to eat, still spending lavishly. But how and why? The answer is consumer credit, which is down but not nearly in proportion to the fall in economic prospects.
Such opportunities didn't exist in the 1930s. People had to live within their means. Today we can all just go on fooling ourselves for as long as possible.
Do we even want to raise the ghastly subject of government finance? Let's not go there.
Suffice it to say that the entire system today is shot through with artifice that just can't last. What are we to do about it? The present course is going to drive us further and further into disaster. The only real answer was stated by Ludwig von Mises in 1931, in an essay in the book The Causes of the Economic Crisis.
Mises wrote in 1931 as follows, and there is really nothing to add to his analysis:
"The severe convulsions of the economy are the inevitable result of policies which hamper market activity, the regulator of capitalistic production. If everything possible is done to prevent the market from fulfilling its function of bringing supply and demand into balance, it should come as no surprise that a serious disproportionality between supply and demand persists, that commodities remain unsold, factories stand idle, many millions are unemployed, destitution and misery are growing and that finally, in the wake of all these, destructive radicalism is rampant in politics.
"The periodically returning crises of cyclical changes in business conditions are the effect of attempts, undertaken repeatedly, to underbid the interest rates which develop on the unhampered market. These attempts to underbid unhampered market interest rates are made through the intervention of banking policy -- by credit expansion through the additional creation of uncovered notes and checking deposits -- in order to bring about a boom.
"The crisis under which we are now suffering is of this type, too. However, it goes beyond the typical business cycle depression, not only in scale but also in character -- because the interventions with market processes which evoked the crisis were not limited only to influencing the rate of interest. The interventions have directly affected wage rates and commodity prices, too....
"All attempts to emerge from the crisis by new interventionist measures are completely misguided. There is only one way out of the crisis: Forgo every attempt to prevent the impact of market prices on production. Give up the pursuit of policies which seek to establish interest rates, wage rates and commodity prices different from those the market indicates. This may contradict the prevailing view. It certainly is not popular. Today all governments and political parties have full confidence in interventionism and it is not likely that they will abandon their program. However, it is perhaps not too optimistic to assume that those governments and parties whose policies have led to this crisis will some day disappear from the stage and make way for men whose economic program leads, not to destruction and chaos, but to economic development and progress."
Copyright © 2010 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.
September 7, 2010
As a culture, we like our reality on television, but seem to oppose it in economics.
For more than two years now, and even longer depending on your dating scheme, the federal government has waged war on the reality of the incredible Fed-fueled bubble that developed in housing with spillover effects on the rest of economic life.
That bubble had to explode to restore some sanity to the economic environment. There is no getting around that. The policies were all about trying to paper over what we did not want to deal with as facts. But the facts won't go away.
Do we have to make a television show to get Washington to see it?
The FDIC has admitted that some 829 banks remain at risk of failure. That's one in ten. Only 118 have failed this year but many more should have and would have absent Fed intervention. Meanwhile, there are no new banks started in the U.S. in the last quarter -- the first time in 38 years that this has been true. As for the actual soundness of the banks, it's anyone's guess. How much bad debt they are carrying, with both lenders and borrowers agreeing to look the other way, is something that no one wants to know.
Then there is the other topic that no one wants to talk about: house prices. They need to fall more. Washington has attempted to prop them up with some 18 different programs from mortgage buyouts to tax schemes. It delayed the fall of prices for a time. But they have begun to fall again, exactly to the point where nature wants to take them.
The problem is that you can't artificially boost both supply and demand at the same time. If you subsidize housing construction and that results in more houses being built, you apply downward pressure on the prices of houses that are currently on the market. If you subsidize house buying, you also promote house selling, allowing the reality of the real estate glut to express itself in home prices.
There is no way that the central planners can get around this problem unless they both build and buy houses themselves and leave the rest of us out of it. That might help prettify the housing data but it does nothing to change market realities. Merrill Lynch, in fact, has published a report that suggests that the housing glut will not normalize for another five years and that assumes some reasonable slowdown in the pace of building.
Already the government has done everything in its power to override market signals, at the same time it is attempting to make market signals operate in a way that conforms to political priorities. The problem is that you can't do both. You have to either defer to the market or abolish it.
The same is true with unemployment rates, which are stubbornly high. Now, what does it tell you when there is a surplus of workers relative to the number of job opportunities? It means that in some sectors, jobs are selling at too high a price. There are fixes for this. You can lower the minimum wage, reducing the cost of hiring, or workers can lower their reservation wage.
As it stands, Washington is doing nothing to encourage any of these fixes, so of course unemployment remains very high. Many young people have actually removed themselves from the market by going back to school to avoid paying their student loans. The state universities are glad to take their money.
A good indicator of future business conditions is commercial and industrial loans. They continue to fall as if off a cliff. How does the Fed deal with this? By keeping rates as low as possible on the short end, so that way banks have nothing to gain by lending and consumers have nothing to gain by saving. Not smart.
Meanwhile long-term rates are being held down by the existence of a too-big-to-fail doctrine for mortgage-holding companies like the nationalized Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. In a real market, there is no telling where rates would be, but they would be high enough to compensate for risk. When there is no risk, or that risk is socialized, you see the absurd scenario of falling rates during the largest mortgage crisis in American history.
A major difference between now and the 1930s relates to the standard of living of consumers themselves. Everyone is still shopping, still living high on the hog, still going out to eat, still spending lavishly. But how and why? The answer is consumer credit, which is down but not nearly in proportion to the fall in economic prospects.
Such opportunities didn't exist in the 1930s. People had to live within their means. Today we can all just go on fooling ourselves for as long as possible.
Do we even want to raise the ghastly subject of government finance? Let's not go there.
Suffice it to say that the entire system today is shot through with artifice that just can't last. What are we to do about it? The present course is going to drive us further and further into disaster. The only real answer was stated by Ludwig von Mises in 1931, in an essay in the book The Causes of the Economic Crisis.
Mises wrote in 1931 as follows, and there is really nothing to add to his analysis:
"The severe convulsions of the economy are the inevitable result of policies which hamper market activity, the regulator of capitalistic production. If everything possible is done to prevent the market from fulfilling its function of bringing supply and demand into balance, it should come as no surprise that a serious disproportionality between supply and demand persists, that commodities remain unsold, factories stand idle, many millions are unemployed, destitution and misery are growing and that finally, in the wake of all these, destructive radicalism is rampant in politics.
"The periodically returning crises of cyclical changes in business conditions are the effect of attempts, undertaken repeatedly, to underbid the interest rates which develop on the unhampered market. These attempts to underbid unhampered market interest rates are made through the intervention of banking policy -- by credit expansion through the additional creation of uncovered notes and checking deposits -- in order to bring about a boom.
"The crisis under which we are now suffering is of this type, too. However, it goes beyond the typical business cycle depression, not only in scale but also in character -- because the interventions with market processes which evoked the crisis were not limited only to influencing the rate of interest. The interventions have directly affected wage rates and commodity prices, too....
"All attempts to emerge from the crisis by new interventionist measures are completely misguided. There is only one way out of the crisis: Forgo every attempt to prevent the impact of market prices on production. Give up the pursuit of policies which seek to establish interest rates, wage rates and commodity prices different from those the market indicates. This may contradict the prevailing view. It certainly is not popular. Today all governments and political parties have full confidence in interventionism and it is not likely that they will abandon their program. However, it is perhaps not too optimistic to assume that those governments and parties whose policies have led to this crisis will some day disappear from the stage and make way for men whose economic program leads, not to destruction and chaos, but to economic development and progress."
Copyright © 2010 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
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