Anwaar
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Speak the truth and keep on coming.
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Post by Anwaar on Oct 20, 2005 18:27:56 GMT 4
Bush Panel Set to Propose Permanent Huge Deficits & Major Tax Shift onto Wage-EarnersEarly news reports about the upcoming report from President Bush’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform indicate that the panel will propose a major tax shift away from capital income and onto wage-earners. In addition, the plan contemplates permanent extension of the revenue losses from Bush’s previously enacted tax cuts past 2010, at a cost of $7 trillion over the next two decades. This in turn will almost guarantee huge federal budget deficits for the future. “The panel’s upcoming tax proposals appear both to increase taxes substantially on most Americans and sharply increase future burdens on our children,” said Robert S. McIntyre, director of Citizens for Tax Justice. “While we await full details, this approach looks a lot more like tax deform than true reform.” Source : Citizens for Tax Justice Link : www.ctj.org/
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
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Post by michelle on Dec 16, 2005 19:59:09 GMT 4
Debt, Unemployment, Privatization and WarHow Greenspan Skewered AmericaBy Mike Whitney December 6, 2005 No one has done more to ensure the ultimate demise of the American middle class than Alan Greenspan. No one. In the stately pantheon of class-warriors, Greenspan's spectral-image looms larger than any other; the foremost proponent of hardnosed social-Darwinism and exclusionary economics. Even his carpet-bagging consort, G.W. Bush, pales in comparison. In just under 5 years the Fed-master has engineered a coup so vast and devastating that $1.3 trillion of borrowed revenue has been adroitly shifted from the beleaguered middle class to the privileged 1% that Greenspan represents. Whoa! It is the biggest heist in the history of the planet, and it was designed and executed within the leather-bound citadel of the Federal Reserve. Thanks, Alan. The partnership of Bush and Greenspan has been the moral equivalent of the sacking of Rome; maxing out the nation's credit card until every last farthing has been drained from the public till. Greenspan's tenure has left America bobbing atop an ocean of red ink ready to capsize with the first gust of recession. Greenspan was a key player in facilitating the Iraq war, pushing interest rates to their lowest level 6 months before the war to keep the economy on life-support while the propaganda campaign burst from the front pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post. It worked like a charm. The American people were hoodwinked by White House fabrications and anesthetized by cheap money. They began a borrowing frenzy that sluiced zillions into a hyper-inflated housing market that is timed to detonate just as wistful Alan picks up his gold watch and heads for the exit. Good thinking, Alan. Now, after years of mismanagement, Greenspan is offering caveats about the chaos he's leaving behind. In his typical gibberish the chairman has warned of "painful" adjustments if deficits are not brought under control. "Painful" or life threatening? It was Greenspan, the budget-busting tote for the patrician-class, who defended the lavish Bush tax cuts that put the country on the fast-track to doomsday. Now, he's joined Grover Norquist and the "privatization-kooks" who want to dismantle the tattered ruins of the social safety net and christen the new epoch of predatory capitalism. Alan is a big supporter of "survival of the fittest" economics; the notion that people at the bottom of the societal food-chain deserve to be there so their Nietzschean overlords, like the Fed-chair, can rule supreme. As Greenspan applies the last few turns of the screw (raising interest rates twice more before he leaves) we're bound to see the credit-shackled middle class begin an orderly march towards the nearest cliff where they will quickly disappear lemming-like into the sea. Seriously, the American people have no idea of the economic firestorm that's just around the corner. The economy is underwritten by $8 trillion of debt, requiring massive $2 billion infusions of foreign capital EVERY DAY. As former Fed-chief Volker noted, "It can't go one for ever." No it can't. Besides, it's all part of a neoliberal plan that has been successfully executed throughout the third world; plunging the host nation into insurmountable debt with the help of crooked regime (Bush and Co.) and then pulling the rug out from under the shocked public. The massive and calculated deficits are intended to create a crisis of insolvency, resulting in the same type of "shock therapy" and "structural readjustment" programs the IMF applies to bankrupt nations around the world. Greenspan has moved the country closer to his goal of dismantling popular social programs so the captains of industry can privatize the public's assets. So, how did Greenspan pull it off? How did he keep the somnolent American public from noticing the widening deficits and the alarming transfer of wealth from one class to another? The answer is; low interest rates, the toxic elixir that can incapacitate an entire nation, leaving its people drowsy and indifferent to imminent disaster. Recently, Greenspan has begun warning of the difficulties ahead, cautioning that our problems will only be "compounded by a protectionist reversal of globalization". In other words, prepare yourself to compete with the lowest paid worker in Canton province. The hemorrhaging of high-paying jobs that sustain the middle class doesn't bother the Fed-chief. Greenspan has the same irksome sense of equity as his ideological-twin at New York Times, Tom Friedman. Friedman has been preaching the gospel of "free market" capitalism for years. Neither one tries to conceal their contempt for organized labor or the redistribution of profits. Friedman's Brigadoon is identical to Greenspan's; a land of milk and honey where 99% of the denizens live in abject poverty scraping to get by and where the not-so-invisible hand is savagely affixed to the throat of a permanent underclass. Welcome to Greenspan's nirvana. Greenspan also warned that the budget "will substantially worsen in the coming years unless major deficit-reducing measures are taken." "Deficit-reducing measures"? You mean, like rolling back the Bush tax cuts? Hell no; class-warrior Alan said "he did not believe that major increases in taxes were the solution". Of course, not. Why should the fat-cats in the silk suits and Ferraris have to pay their share? After all, we can just raise the payroll tax again (Greenspan's earlier plan) and take another pound of flesh from the middle class? No one will notice. Baby boomers retirement? Not to worry; Greenspan suggests we extend the age of retirement to some imaginary date when the wealthy will stop fleecing the poor and the national ledger will magically balance. Cradle to grave; Americans are being prepared for the slaughter. The chances for upward mobility or even subsistent living are being eclipsed by the day. The yolk that one shoulders at birth will follow him until his death. Greenspan's racketeers have absconded with the nation's bounty behind a smokescreen of low interest rates. They lulled us to sleep with soothing words of "no-interest loans", no down payments, and a real estate windfall for anyone bold enough to sign on the dotted line. Now, the grim reality has begun to set in. Interest rates are rising, the dollar is reeling, energy costs are skyrocketing, consumer confidence is plummeting, and gold is shooting through the roof. When China and Japan decide to jettison their worthless US Savings Bonds; Greenspan's mighty fortress will collapse in a heap. The American people are crazy to think that a privately owned institution like the Federal Reserve will ever function in the public interest. The Fed operates behind an iron-curtain of secrecy to protect the interests of its primary constituents; the parasite class. It was authorized under executive order by Woodrow Wilson who was coerced into putting the country's future into the hands of its central bankers so he could finance World War 1. Bankers have always understood that the one who holds the purse-strings calls the shots. This explains what Thomas Jefferson meant when he said, "Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies." While Greenspan teeters off to retirement, he can be confident that his trap has already sprung. The country is dead-broke and will be forced to comply with the demands of its creditors. The impending "austerity measures" will be used to reshape the fabric of American life; a complete reordering of society to meet the standards of a modern capitalist utopia; Greenspan's paradise, the United States of Destitution. From: www.counterpunch.org/whitney12062005.htmlMike Whitney lives in Washington state. He can be reached at: fergiewhitney@msn.com
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Jul 25, 2006 19:16:44 GMT 4
CONYERS v. BUSHOnce again, THANK YOU REPRESENTATIVE CONYERS!!!!...MI wanted to update you on the lawsuit I have filed against George W. Bush and members of his administration, referred to in legal parlance as Conyers v. Bush.You are likely familiar with a number of steps I have taken to challenge the legality and constitutional grounds of the Administration's actions. From the lead up to Iraq, to the Downing Street Minutes, to the outing of a CIA agent, to warrantless wiretapping of U.S. citizens, I have called loudly for the Bush White House to explain itself. I decided to file suit against the President in Federal Court in Michigan, along with 11 Senior Democratic Members of Congress. This suit was necessary because of a clear violation of the constitution. When the President signed the Deficit Reduction Act (which "reduced" the deficit by cutting taxes, health care benefits, and student loans), he signed into law a bill that had not passed the House and Senate. A different version of the bill passed each house of Congress with a multi-billion dollar difference in funding for life-saving medical equipment.Anyone who ever watched Schoolhouse Rock knows this to be a problem. [FYI; go to:]www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXSHMSDrShE Given the stakes involved I felt it was imperative to aggressively take this fight to the courts. The President's lawyers tried to get the bill dismissed, but late last week I responded with legal filings that stand up for the rule of law and the Constitution and hope to bring the President, and our United States government, back under the rule of law. I wanted to email you this news today to update you on our efforts and to thank you for your help and support. Thank you also for your continued dedication to a better democracy. Sincerely, John Conyers, Jr website: www.johnconyers.com/ Conyers for Congress P.O. Box 17204 Alexandria, Virginia 17204 Phone: 313-438-2004
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Oct 12, 2006 18:02:56 GMT 4
Yesterday's Deficit Announcement: ANNOUNCEMENT MASKS BIGGER STORY: LONG-TERM OUTLOOK REMAINS BLEAK 10/12/06
This is a MUST read for all Americans. We are in it deep while the White House gives us a song and dance tune about the economy and budget. The Administration’s claim that it has cut the deficit in half is misleading in several respects. You are misguided if you believe that the deficit has been caused by spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the response to Hurricane Katrina. The TRUTH of the matter is that if tax cuts for the wealthiest in the United States had not been enacted, the federal budget would have been in virtual balance in 2006!!!!!!......Michelle"Today's announcement seems like good news, but it's more of a temporary blip than real progress. The improvement in the deficit may not extend even beyond this year, and the long-term outlook remains bleak. Despite Administration assertions, the evidence indicates this temporary improvement has little to do with a tax- cut driven surge in revenues or the economy. Revenues always grow and deficits always decline in economic recoveries. What stands out is that both revenue growth and the economy have performed markedly worse in the current recovery than in average recoveries of modern times. In addition, the tax cuts of recent years are a key factor behind our long-term deficit problems, which now appear worse than they did a few years ago. Sadly, today's claims of budgetary success are Orwellian." ----Robert Greenstein, executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, in response to today's announcement of the 2006 deficit figure.[/i] **************************************************** October 11 2006 TODAY’S DEFICIT ANNOUNCEMENT MASKS BIGGER STORY: LONG-TERM OUTLOOK REMAINS BLEAKby Richard Kogan and Jim Horney The Treasury announced today the final deficit figure for fiscal 2006. That figure is $248 billion. This figure is $42 billion lower than the $290 billion deficit that the Office of Management and Budget estimated on July 11, which itself was lower than the deficit estimates that OMB and CBO issued last winter.[1] Consequently, today’s announcement seems like good news. But it is more of a temporary blip than solid progress. The improvement in the deficit may not extend even beyond this year, and the long-term outlook remains bleak. The improvement in the deficit may not extend beyond this year. As former CBO Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin observed a few days ago about the new deficit figures, “The world doesn’t end, but the deficit goes in the other direction next year.”[2] The outlook for the budget over the next 10 years remains bleak. CBO’s August projections show that if Congress makes the President’s tax cuts permanent and extends relief from the alternative minimum tax, deficits will total nearly $3.5 trillion over the next 10 years (2007-2016), averaging $349 billion a year and never dipping below $280 billion a year even if costs for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan fall substantially.[3] And the deficit outlook for subsequent decades, when increasing numbers of baby boomers will retire and, thus, receive Social Security and health care coverage, is substantially worse. A deficit of $248 billion in 2006 means that the second largest six-year deterioration in the budget in 50 years has occurred, just behind the deterioration in the six-year period from 1998-2004. In 2000, there was a budget surplus equal to 2.4 percent of Gross Domestic Product. A deficit of $248 billion in 2006 equals 1.9 percent of GDP. This 4.3 percentage point deterioration in the budget is the second-largest six-year deterioration in half a century, just behind the 4.4 percentage point deterioration between 1998 and 2004. The Administration is essentially celebrating a deficit that is lower in 2006 than in 2004 or 2005, even though deficits typically shrink during recoveries. More noteworthy is that the budgetary record during the current recovery is worse than during any other recovery in recent decades. (See graph below.) Misleading Administration Claims to Have Cut in Deficit in HalfThe Administration’s claim that it has cut the deficit in half is misleading in several respects. First, the Administration uses a starting point of $521 billion, which was the deficit that it predicted for 2004 when it issued its proposed 2005 budget in February 2004. But analysts recognized from the outset that the $521 billion was inflated; the figure apparently was purposefully set high so the Administration could claim its policies were working when the actual 2004 deficit came in lower. At the same time that the Administration issued its $521 billion deficit forecast for 2004, CBO was estimating a deficit of $477 billion for that year. And the actual deficit for 2004 came in at $413 billion. More importantly, compared to the fiscal picture the Administration inherited in 2001, the fiscal situation has worsened sharply rather than improved, hardly evidence that Administration polices “are working.” The Administration has cherry-picked the deficit “high point” (selecting, in fact, a high point that never actually occurred) as well as what may be the deficit “low point” — the 2006 figure — as evidence of success. But deficits are expected to turn back up in 2007 or 2008. That deficits declined in 2005 and 2006 amidst an economic recovery tells nothing about the efficacy of Administration policies, especially considering that deficits turned to surpluses during the 1990s recovery, following tax increases in 1990 and 1993. Today’s deficit announcement does not signify recent improvement in the economy. Of the $42 billion improvement in the deficit from OMB’s July figure of $290 billion, about $30 billion comes from slower spending. In some cases, that simply means that the government will spend some of the funds in 2007 rather than in 2006. In addition, the Blue Chip has just reduced its consensus economic-growth estimate, and Goldman-Sachs says “The economy has clearly downshifted further in the third quarter.” Also, on October 6, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that job growth so far in 2006 has been considerably slower than in 2005, and the job growth in September was the lowest of any month this year. Total Real Per-Capita Revenue Growth in 22 Quarters after the Last Business Cycle Peak Current Business Cycle -0.4% Average for All Previous Post-World War II Business Cycles 9.8% 1990s Business Cycle 10.7% Despite persistent claims to the contrary, revenue growth over the current business cycle actually has been negative, after adjusting for inflation and population growth. Specifically, per capita revenues were lower in real terms in 2006 than in 2001, when the last recovery ended and the current business cycle started. While revenues have grown since 2004, this growth has not yet fully compensated for the fall in revenues that occurred in 2001, 2002, and 2003. Indeed, the overall lack of revenue growth over the current business cycle is almost unprecedented for economic recoveries since the end of World War II. It stands in stark contrast to claims that the President’s tax cuts have boosted economic and revenue growth to remarkable levels. The economy’s overall performance has been weaker during the current recovery than in an average recovery, which also stands in contrast to claims of a tax-cut fueled boom. Economic data, available through the second quarter of 2006, show that the current economic expansion remains weaker than the average post-World War II economic recovery -- with GDP and non-residential investment growth falling below, and employment and wage and salary growth falling far below, historical norms. [4] Finally, today’s announcement provides more evidence of the central role that recent tax cuts have played in the current deficit picture. Based on Joint Committee on Taxation estimates, the total cost in 2006 of tax cuts enacted since January 2001 was $251 billion (including the increased interest costs of the debt that resulted from borrowing to offset the lost revenues). This means that even with the spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the response to Hurricane Katrina, the federal budget would have been in virtual balance in 2006 if the tax cuts had not been enacted. End Notes: [1] See Office of Management and Budget, Mid-Session Review of the Budget for Fiscal Year 2007, July 11, 2006, and Congressional Budget Office, An Analysis of the President’s Budgetary Proposals for Fiscal Year 2007, March 2006. CBO’s March baseline projection of the 2006 deficit under then-current policies was $336 billion. Legislation enacted since then (primarily additional funds for the war in Iraq and an extension of alternative minimum tax relief) has added an estimated $30 billion to the deficit. Thus, CBO’s March projection implied a deficit of $366 billion under the policies that have actually taken effect. [2] Quoted in David Wessel, “Deficit Progress Will Be Tough to Sustain,” Wall Street Journal, October 7, 2006, page A2. [3] Our adjustments to CBO’s current-policy baseline projections (including an adjustment to reflect the assumption that emergency appropriations enacted in 2006 will not be repeated in each year through 2016) are based on estimates provided by CBO in Table 1-8 of the Budget and Economic Outlook: An Update. [4] See Isaac Shapiro, Richard Kogan, and Aviva Aron-Dine, “How Good is the Current Economic Recovery?,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, revised October 6, 2006. Source: www.cbpp.org/10-11-06bud.htm**************************************************** Also, reported earlier at the FH forum under: Money Masters and Enslaved Taxpayers: tinyurl.com/nu9lcRe: Money Masters and Enslaved Taxpayers « Reply #34 on Jun 19, 2006, 4:25pm » Bush-GOP Tax Cuts Benefit Wealthy (Audio) While Jeopardizing U.S. Economic FutureInterview with Len Berman, Director of the Tax Policy Center, Conducted by Melinda Tuhus www.btlonline.org/berman062306.ramAnd:Re: Money Masters and Enslaved Taxpayers « Reply #38 on Jul 12, 2006, 2:52pm » CBPP: Treasury Report Confirms that Tax Cuts Do Not Pay for Themselves*************************************************** Read the following, if you can stomach it :
Remarks by the President on the Economy and Budget10/11/2006 3:34:00 PM WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Following are remarks by the president on the economy and budget: THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Please be seated. Good afternoon. Thanks for coming to the White House. In 2004, I made a promise to the American people, we would cut the federal budget deficit in half over five years. Today I'm pleased to report that we have achieved this goal, and we've done it three years ahead of schedule. (Applause.) This morning my administration released the budget numbers for fiscal 2006. These budget numbers are not just estimates; these are the actual results for the fiscal year that ended February the 30th. (sic) (see note 1) These numbers show that the budget deficit has been reduced to $248 billion and is down to just 1.9 percent of the economy. As a percentage of the economy, the deficit is now lower than it has been for 18 out of the last 25 years. These budget numbers are proof that pro-growth economic policies work. By restraining spending in Washington, and allowing Americans to keep more of what they earn, we're creating jobs, reducing the deficit, and making this nation prosperous for all our citizens. Today I'm going to talk about the pro-growth economic policies that helped bring a dramatic reduction in the federal deficit. I'm going to remind the American people that we cannot afford to be complacent. I'll discuss some of the issues that I intend to address over the next two years to help ensure that our dynamic economy continues to grow and provide jobs. Before I do so, I do want to recognize members of my Cabinet who have joined us. I want to thank the Secretary of the Treasury, Hank Paulson, for being here today. Mr. Secretary, thank you for your service. (Applause.) And the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, affectionately known as OMB -- Rob Portman. Thanks for coming, Rob. (Applause.) I thank Steve Preston, who is the Administrator of the Small Business Administration. Thanks for being here, Steve. I see members of my staff who are here who probably should be working -- (laughter) -- instead of taking time off. But I thank you for coming. The reduction of the deficit I've announced today is no accident. It is the result of the hard work of the American people, and because of sound fiscal policies here in Washington. When I first came to office, I thought taxes were too high -- and they were -- and this economy of ours was headed into a recession. Some people said the answer was to centralize power in Washington and to let politicians decide what to do with the people's money. I had a different approach. I have a different view. And therefore, we chose a different course of action. See, I believe that our economy prospers when we trust the people to make the decisions on how to save, spend, or invest. And so, starting in 2001, we worked with members of the United States Congress to pass the largest tax relief ever passed since Ronald Reagan was the President. We cut taxes on everybody who pays income taxes. I was concerned about this kind of selective tax cutting. I didn't think that was fair. Our attitude was if you pay income taxes, you ought to get relief.We reduced the marriage penalty, we doubled the child tax credit, and we put the death tax on the road to extinction. We cut the tax rate paid by most small businesses. Most small businesses are a sub-chapter S corporation, for example, or a limited partnership and, therefore, pay tax at the individual income tax rate, and therefore, when you cut the rates on people who pay income taxes, you're cutting tax on small businesses. And by the way, it was really the cornerstone in many ways of our economic recovery policy, because we understand that 70 percent of new jobs in America are created by small businesses, and therefore, when small businesses have more capital to spend, it is more likely they'll create jobs. We increased the amount small businesses can expense, on the knowledge that providing incentive for people to buy plant and equipment will cause somebody to have to make the plant and equipment that the person purchases. We encouraged economic expansion by cutting taxes on dividends and capital gains, understanding that by cutting those types of taxes, we're reducing the cost of capital, which makes it easier for people to borrow so we can expand our economy. In other words, we had a comprehensive plan that when enacted has left nearly $1.1 trillion in the hands of American workers, families, investors and small business owners. And they have used this money to help fuel economic expansion that's now in its 37th straight month of growth. The theory was, was that if we can encourage entrepreneurship and investment and consumption by reducing taxes, it will cause the economy to recover from a recession, and a terrorist attack, corporate scandals, war, hurricanes -- and it has. The pro-growth policies have worked. Since August of 2003, this economy of ours has added more than 6.6 million new jobs. And the national unemployment rate is down to 4.6 percent. People are working. And that's good for our country. Behind these numbers are millions of individual workers who start each day with hope because they have a job that will enable them to do their duties to support their families, or to put food on the table. Behind these numbers are small business owners that are being rewarded for taking risk. Government can't make anybody successful; we can make the environment such that people are willing to take risk. And when small businesses take risk, the economy flourishes and grows. You know, last week I went to a FedEx facility here in D.C. The Secretary and I went, and we met with a group of entrepreneurs who are helping to drive this economic growth. It was a fascinating meeting. It was really exciting, wasn't it, Hank? I mean, it was so wonderful to sit with dreamers and doers. We met a guy -- I think he said he was an engineering graduate from Perdue -- who on his way from upstate New York to Purdue to go to college, he and his brother would stop and dive for golf balls -- (laughter) -- and then they'd sell the golf balls to help pay for college. He has since -- he and his brother have since started an Internet company that sells golf clubs. And he's successful, and he's employing people, and he's excited, and he appreciates the tax cuts. (Laughter.) We talked to the Under Armour man. I don't know if you ever heard of that product. I know I'm not supposed to advertise -- (laughter) -- so I won't. (Laughter.) But here's a dreamer. The man had an idea. He didn't like the way the cotton shirts that he wore absorbed his bodily fluids when he exercised, so he came up with a better product. And it worked. And now he's built a huge business. And he's talking about how to continue to expand, and he's worried about our trade policy. Here's a small business guy who came out of a garage, and he's talking to the Secretary of the Treasury and the President of the United States about making sure we have intellectual property rights protection in China. My point to you is, is that America must remain entrepreneurial heaven if we want to be the leading economy in the world, and we will do so through good policy. And that's by keeping taxes low. As a matter of fact, the best policy would be for Congress to have certainty in the tax code by making the tax cuts we passed permanent. (Applause.) Back to the budget. When we announced -- when I announced the plan to cut the deficit in half by 2009, a lot of folks said it's just simply not going to be done. They said that we had to choose between cutting the deficit and keeping taxes low -- or another way to put it, that in order to solve the deficit we had to raise taxes. I strongly disagree with those choices. Those are false choices. Tax relief fuels economic growth, and growth -- when the economy grows, more tax revenues come to Washington. And that's what's happened. It makes sense, doesn't it? As businesses expand people pay more taxes, and when you pay more taxes, there’s more revenues that come to our treasury. Tax revenues grew by $253 billion in 2006. That's an increase of 11.8 percent. Over the last two years, we've seen the largest back-to-back increases in tax revenues ever, and the largest percentage increase in 25 years. In other words, when you put policies in place that cause the economy to grow, tax revenues increase. I know that sounds counterintuitive for some here in Washington. People say, well, they're cutting taxes; that means less revenue. But that's not what happened over the past two years. As a matter of fact, I'm convinced that if we had raised taxes it would cause there to be an economic decline, which would make it harder to balance the budget over the years. [??!!!!!!!]Continued at [Read more of Bush's cruel joke on the little people]: releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=74147
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Nov 14, 2006 15:54:44 GMT 4
A Staggering New Bill For Iraq? Jessica Holzer and Matthew Swibel 11.09.06, 6:00 AM ET Forbes.com The U.S. armed services have requested a $160 billion supplemental appropriation to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the remainder of fiscal year 2007--a staggering amount that, if approved by the Defense Department, may hasten the showdown between resurgent congressional Democrats and the Bush administration over the budget-busting War on Terror.The request--which will likely include all costs related to the war on terrorism--far surpasses the $94 billion supplemental authorized earlier this year to fund the ongoing wars as well as hurricane recovery in the Gulf and is nearly double the $82 billion Iraq war supplemental outlay of 2005. It comes within days of Republicans' stunning losses in the midterm elections and the resignation of embattled Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who was set to decide on the request Nov. 15. President Bush said Wednesday that he would nominate as Rumsfeld's replacement Robert Gates, former head of the Central Intelligence Agency under the presidency of his father, George H.W. Bush. While House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has vowed not to undercut the troops in the field, defense experts said that she and other Democratic leaders probably hadn't anticipated the massive request. "I'm not sure they've grasped the potential size of this forthcoming supplemental request. We'll just have to see whether they can choke down that amount of dough," said Tom Donnelly, a defense expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Bush said in a White House news conference Wednesday morning that he had reached out to the Democratic leadership of the new Congress and hopes to work closely with them. He made no mention of this supplemental appropriation for the War on Terror. While a good chunk of the $160 billion request will be used to replace worn equipment, it also covers additional systems, armor and weaponry and thus is a blueprint for pressing on with the current troop levels in Iraq and strategy in the War on Terror. "It's not just going to be 'I broke my tank, and I want to fix it,'" Donnelly said. Small-cap defense contractors, such as DRS Technologies (nyse: DRS - news - people ), Essex (nasdaq: KEYW - news - people ) and Armor Holdings (nyse: AH - news - people ), are particularly sensitive to defense supplementals because they don't hold as much sway over the regular defense appropriations process. However, they are not likely to be counting on a defense supplemental of such size. Critics contend that the Bush administration has skirted the normal budget process for these defense expenditures to avoid scrutiny of the costs of the ongoing wars. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has sponsored legislation to fold these war costs into regular defense spending bills. Such emergency supplementals are often used for spending that doesn’t past muster in the light of the normal budget process: For example, more than $7.5 billion in spending slashed from the 2005 defense appropriations bill was restored in the next supplemental, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense. And they are magnets for pork from both sides of the aisle. In the 2005 defense and tsunami relief supplemental, Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, added $40 million for flood damage and mitigation in the Manoa Valley on the island of Oahu. Source: tinyurl.com/yh3a6b
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michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Nov 24, 2006 6:49:12 GMT 4
Welcome to Flight 101. First Class to the right. We here at Mammon Airlines do hope you enjoy your life. Middle Class, please board to the rear of the plane. Welcome to Hell. CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?! Hard US lessons, harder landings By Max Fraad Wolff Nov 21, 2006 The arriving Democrats in the US Congress are likely to plan little and execute on even less in the way of seismic economic adjustment. Thus it is of interest to forecast their response to the trouble that is coming. The US is beginning to unwind the largest housing bubble in modern history. There will be upswings and local exceptions and wide regional and price variations. This changes nothing. Hundreds of billions of dollars in household access to cash and debt from refinancing, equity extraction, home equity lines of credit and house flipping will dry up. Housing price crashes differ from equity price busts in three important dimensions. First, the price corrections during housing price busts averaged 30%, reflecting the lower volatility of housing prices and the lower liquidity in housing markets. Second, housing price crashes last about four years, about one-and-a-half years longer than equity price busts. Third, the association between booms and busts was stronger for housing than for equity prices. The implied probability of a housing price boom being followed by a bust is about 40%. Housing and equity price busts have,however, one important feature in common. During the 1970s to the 1990s, they generally coincided or overlapped with recessions. [1] The housing market today is in the early stages of a multi-year correction. This will constitute a radical reduction in the wealth effect, access to credit, low-cost credit and notions of improving conditions for the long-suffering American middle class. The revolt of these folks in the November mid-term election is just the first in a series of cuts that their reaction to worsening conditions will carve into the national economy and polity. Middle class reaction to deteriorating economic conditions will be definitive next year and beyond. The debt, income and savings situation of the American middle - if we take the three middle quintiles of the income distribution to be the middle class - is horrifying. Many of these people are in the difficult situation of simply waiting to discover themselves and be discovered as former members of the middle class in terms of material quality of life. 2006 will be a year where America's aggregate savings rate is negative. Households are simply not saving anything. Real average weekly earnings of production and non-supervisory workers - over 75% of all us payrolls - have been stagnant since the mid 1970s. If we use 2005 dollars and the CPI-U (consumer price index for urban consumers), average weekly earnings decreased by about $1 per week over the 30-year interval 1975-2005. The folks have thus stopped saving and have taken on massive amounts of housing and consumer debt. A look through the Federal Reserve's Flow of Funds Accounts of the United States, or Z1, released in September 19, is a traumatic experience. It reveals the contours of America's debt disaster in stark statistics that grow worse with each passing quarter. In 1999, total outstanding household debt was $6.4 trillion. As of the end of the second quarter of 2006 total outstanding household debt was $12.3 trillion. Household debt has increased by almost as much since 1999 as the sum total of all debt accumulated by all households across the preceding 220-year history of the US. In 1999, household mortgage debt stood at $4.4 trillion. At the close of the second quarter of 2006 it had more than doubled to $9.33trillion. In 1999, consumer credit outstanding was measured at $1.6 trillion. Today, this stands at approximately $2.4 trillion dollars, signaling a 50% increase in less than seven years. This is usually soft peddled and talked down by comparison to skyrocketing housing values. Household assets held as real estate increased by $9 trillion from 2000-2006. This might be called the mother of all modern bubbles. Yet household net worth struggled up by a mere $1.2 trillion. Net worth badly lags housing values because of waves of cashing out. When these waves crash ashore it will be with massive destructive force. The last six years have hosted the most stupendous extraction of inflated household wealth in history. Across the 22 quarters from 2000 through the second quarter of 2006 disposable personal income increased by $2.3 trillion. However, disposable personal income as a percentage of household net worth fell. Rising house values contributed more than personal income increases largely derived from these rising house values. Owner's equity as a percentage of household real estate declined despite soaring prices from 58% to 54%. Another way to describe the above two statistics would be that American households are totally dependent on inflating house prices and have already borrowed and spent the paper gains that every credible economic model suggests are now deflating. Last year this process of refinancing took on a desperate air. Mean house prices are now falling. Interest rates are above recent lows and unlikely to test them absent a serious recession. However, Americans keep refinancing and re-mortgaging. Why? There really is only one answer: desperation. Freddie Mac informs all those who dare to look that 90% of its refinanced loans resulted in new balances at least 5% higher than the previous loan. This means that the third quarter of 2006 was the highest rate of cashing-out refinancing in 16 years. The median age of a refinanced loan was 3.4 years. If you look at rates in the spring/summer of 2003 - when these now refinanced away loans were written - you will note that they hit a 40-year low. Refinancing continues despite falling house prices and rising rates. This is the desperate top of a very troubled bubble. In the third quarter of 2006, the median ratio of new-to-old interest rates was 1.12. In other words, one-half of those borrowers who paid off their original loan and took out a new one increased their mortgage coupon rate by 12%, or roughly three-eighths of a percentage point at today's level of fixed mortgage rates. This is the highest ratio since Freddie Mac began compiling this information in 1985. [2] It is clear that legions of folks are desperately continuing to pursue survival strategies that built them mountains of debt and no longer make any sense at all. We know there is trouble coming from the housing quarter and we can be certain it is significant and will take at least a few years to work through. This will put tremendous pressure on Americans stuck with flat earnings, high debt, deflating house values and zero savings. What offsets can we count on? The traditional routes of savings reduction, debt increase and government counter-cyclical spending and tax cuts have already been over-utilized. These options either don't exist or will have to be used modestly and to reduced effect. As we have already reviewed, there are no savings or the false savings some economists claim come from rising house prices. The sustainability of present debt stretches credulity. This calls into question who still would be willing to loan to earnings-strapped, debt-burdened Americans with deflating collateral and home equity. Last but not least, can Uncle Sam save the day? No!The Federal government has gone on a tax cut and spending bender that almost puts the American consumer in a thrifty light. The Federal Reserve Z1 Report of September 19 - mentioned above - offers a handy little table called Consolidated Statement for Federal, State and Local Governments or L106c. Between 2001 and 2006, all assets of all levels of government grew by 16% to $2.4 trillion. During the same period, liabilities grew by $2.6 trillion, or 40%, to $7.9 trillion. Thus, the state has in fact already been firing on all cylinders - native and borrowed - to force up growth and economic activity level. There is real trouble coming as tax increases and spending cuts in some combination are required to slow the growth of Federal debt and foreign borrowing ahead of falling tax receipts and rising payments associated with underfunded liabilities from Federal programs. Thus, the government is more likely to prove hindrance than help in the near-term future.The shape and speed of the coming troubles, and mass reaction to them, are likely to be the largest shapers of domestic macro economic performance. We believe there are also significant international implications. Housing is the next shoe to drop and the first sign of the upset that was the mid-term elections. Notes [1] IMF World Economic Outlook April 2003. Chapter II, When Bubbles Burst, page 63. [2] Refinance Activity Remains High; Cash Out Share Increases in Third Quarter. November 1, 2006, Freddie Mac. Max Fraad Wolff is a doctoral candidate in economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and managing director of GlobalMacroScope. (Copyright 2006 Max Fraad Wolff) Source: www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/HK21Dj02.htmlAlso See:The pain of a weak US dollar (Nov 16, 2006) SNIP:The United States' massive trade deficit exerts pressure on the US dollar as currency is shoveled abroad in return for goods and services. As the US economy is slowing down and possibly sliding into recession, the rate at which the trade deficit grows may also be slowing; in September, this deficit was "only" US$64.3 billion - still near record territory but not as bad as economists had predicted. Does this mean the worst for the dollar is over? After all, it now costs over 50% more to pay for a 100 euro hotel room than six years ago, assuming the hotel has not raised its price. Can it get worse? Since you probably cannot afford to go to Europe on vacation anymore, it may not matter to you. But even if you do not travel abroad, it does matter to you as your purchasing power erodes; among others, the cost of imports and commodities, including the price you pay at the gasoline pump, is likely to go up. The trade deficit is a component of the broader current-account deficit, which also includes investment income. The current-account deficit is the shortfall that needs to be covered by foreign investors for the dollar not to fall. Last year, foreigners needed to purchase $805 billion in dollar-denominated assets just to keep the dollar from falling. That's more than $2 billion every single day. As the US economy is slowing down, what matters is whether other factors propping up the dollar slow down even faster. The most apparent one is whether foreigners will be as inclined to invest in a slowing US economy. Read it all: atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/HK16Dj02.htmlSome Americans Lack Food, but USDA Won't Call Them HungryThe U.S. government has vowed that Americans will never be hungry again. But they may experience "very low food security." Go To: tinyurl.com/y3fwnu
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
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Post by michelle on Nov 25, 2006 10:36:16 GMT 4
Declining purchase power of the U.S. Dollar
Continuing with the thrust of the previous post, here is a detailed account of what has and is happening to the united States' economy. Isn't time we turn our full attention on the international bankers, particularly the scourge of the world, the Federal Reserve? The Fed is not a government agency; they are privately owned and have complete control of our monetary sysytem. The US Treasury is a mere illusion, a joke...on you. You know, previous to the creation of the Federal Reserve, there was no inflation; year after year, way back when, we paid the same price for our necessities....Michelle Declining purchase power of the U.S. Dollar
"Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes her laws" ......Meyer Rothschild June 26, 2006[/b] – Unless something drastically changes and quickly, the United States of America will continue its steadfast plunge towards the biggest financial / economic crash in history. The national debt as of June 24, 2006 was $8,396,207,722,575.62.[1] Under the Bush Administration and a Republican controlled Congress, the national debt has increased from $5.6 trillion in 2000, to $8.4 trillion today. According to researchers at the U.S. National Debt Clock, the national debt has continued to increase an average of $1.74 billion per day since September 30, 2005. How any politician – particularly one that calls himself or herself a Republican – can call current policy fiscally conservative is beyond any thinking person’s comprehension. Republicans attempt to explain away the national debt by pointing to the events of September 11, 2001, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the global War on Terror and Hurricane Katrina as the excuse for runaway debt. Democrats point to the Bush Administration tax cuts as irresponsible in light of the financial needs of the federal government. Both parties are wrong – if you still believe the Democrats and Republicans represent two political parties. Actually, there is only one political party in power right now and it is a two-part juggernaut called the Republicrats. The emphasis here is on rats - because that’s exactly what the rodents in the U.S. Congress and White House are collectively - dirty, rotten rats, which are stealing the American workers’ purchasing power with each new dollar of debt the government creates. It is clear that the federal government would rather bankrupt its people than give up any of its power, size, and scope. If you haven’t noticed yet, the U.S. government no longer derives its power from the people. It is its own power that does what it wants, whenever it wants, to whomever it wants. That makes you and I enslaved subjects of a hostile government. If you don’t feel enslaved, just wait. You will. In the meanwhile, if you haven’t done so yet, it’s time to join and build another viable, political party. The Muckraker Report recommends the Libertarian Party. The LP is not perfect, but at least it is not owned and controlled by lobbyists and bankers – although if it emerges as a political force, it will have to guard against and thwart hostile takeover attempts by the aforementioned. For the record, the Libertarian Party is adamantly opposed to the Bush Dynasty’s New World Order globalization agenda. The Bush Administration and U.S. Congress, coupled with the criminal cartel of private bankers – foreign and domestic – that make up the money mafia called the Federal Reserve, have the U.S. taxpayer and worker on a collision course with hyperinflation, recession, and a total collapse of the U.S. and world economies. As the Muckraker Report has stated in previous articles – the direction the fools on Capitol Hill have the U.S. heading could make the Great Depression of the 1930’s look like a bounced check in comparison to the fear and despair that awaits the American people. Let’s assume, although these assumptions are categorically false, that 9/11 happened exactly as the U.S. government says it did, that Osama bin Laden is actually wanted by the government in connection with 9/11 and therefore defines why the U.S. had to invade Afghanistan, that Iraq actually posed an immediate threat to the United States, and that the U.S. government honestly wants to help the poor folks that lost what little they had in Hurricane Katrina rebuild, rather than use the natural disaster as an opportunity to primarily enrich big business that makes big campaign contributions to power hungry politicians as they rape the U.S. taxpayer and steal the abandoned land along the Gulf Coast. Let’s assume that all is on the up and up – that the Republicrats are shooting straight with, not at, the American people. What happens in your household when an emergency occurs? That depends on your wealth, doesn’t it? For some folks, needing tires for their only vehicle and primary form of transportation to and from work constitutes a financial emergency. Fifty years ago, Americans used to save money the best they could in preparation for such events. Not anymore. Today, a credit card with an available credit balance serves as savings for emergencies. What a horrendous, criminal situation! How many of us have used those damn credit cards to purchase essentials with no ability to pay the balance in full within 30 days? How many of us have purchased $500 worth of tires and paid the treasonous bankers $1000 or more over the course of the billing cycles before we actually pay for those tires? Why should the banking cartel profit during your time of need anyhow? Why is a banker even part of the equation? Easy credit rip-off baby! I’m telling you, the bankers, the banking cartel from Rothschild down, every single bastard that participates in this bait and rob scheme, need to be publicly tarred and feathered! Vengeance in the hands of an irate people! So you reach for your last credit card statement. Damn it! You’re maxed out! No credit for you! The fact is that you’re so over-extended, have been repeatedly raped by the government and the bankers so much already, that nobody wants you anymore. You’re all used up! You have been tapped, slapped, and left to die a slow economic death. Now the government and the banks will not loan you so much as a glass of water! They have bled you dry! But you still need tires. What will you do? If you have never been in this situation, I’ll tell you what many Americans do when they are faced with such financial emergencies. They cut corners. The save money. They buy retreads. They go to junkyards and buy two less worn out tires to replace the two most worn out tires on their vehicle. They cancel their cable, have their home phone turned off, and eat rice for a month. They find a way to squeeze the money out of their limited resources. They persevere and find a way. But not the U.S. Congress. Its credit card balance is unlimited because they get to raise the credit limit, or as they call it - the debt ceiling, whenever they want with no worries about paying it back because the American people are the collateral for the loan. Basically, the federal government is operating on a stolen credit card with the peoples’ name on it. Imagine if you could raise your credit card limits whenever you wanted. Imagine if you knew you could raise your credit limit endlessly, change the newly extended credit into dollars, and use some of the monetarized debt to make payments on the old and new debt – with no end in site! What would it be like if every American had a credit card with the same ability? I’ll tell you exactly what would happen! The prices of everything would explode. Why wouldn’t they? It’s free money, right? Most Americans would be millions of dollars in debt and nobody would seem to care. The value of the dollar would become worthless. It would take thousands of dollars to purchase what a single dollar buys today. History warns us of the destiny of fiat, fake money with the slogan – “Not worth a Continental”. How much longer will we wait until the world is saying, “Not worth a Greenback”? The Continental Congress issued fiat paper money to pay for the costs of the American Revolution. Due to over-issuing the Continental, lack of confidence in the money emerged, soon rendering the Continental as nearly worthless or “not worth a Continental”. Eventually, Congress redeemed the continental notes at 1/100th of their original value. The point that simply cannot be missed is that due to over-issuing of a fiat money – a paper money with no hard asset backing such as gold or silver – the currency lost some of its purchasing power, then the people’s confidence, and then 99% of its value. The parallel between the Continental and the Greenback is cause for great alarm. History repeats itself, and the history of nations crumbling as their money fails is well documented. What is even more alarming today though is the fact that the stability of the Greenback isn’t contingent solely on American faith in its purchasing power. Today, the Greenback and our nation’s survival are contingent on the majority of the world having confidence in the U.S. Dollar. All leading indicators today suggest that the world is losing faith in the U.S. Dollar and are looking for ways out of holding or using the dollar – particularly to purchase crude oil. Meanwhile, back on the Crawford Ranch, the war in Iraq is costing about $150 million a day and the war in Afghanistan, an additional $27 million a day. This does not include the additional costs, the billions of dollars being pumped into these countries to fund the Bush nation building agenda. And to fight the ambiguous War on Terror and fund all the other follies of the federal government associated with it, the Bushites are borrowing $1.74 billion per day to keep the beast fed and the people in check. Not once have we heard a Republicrat suggest that the federal government must begin to eliminate many of the 1,174 federal agencies it now funds, so that it can pay for its current priorities of Afghanistan, Iraq, and spying / controlling the world. This should flat out piss you off! If the War on Terror and winning in Iraq – whatever winning will look like in Iraq nobody knows – is priority one for America, then start closing the doors of every federal government agency that should not even exist in the first place. If we need more armor, close the Department of Education. If we need more bullets, get rid of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The 50 states will survive without these bureaucratic wastelands that distribute only obvious or purposely erroneous information that then gets used or misused to create draconian laws that the states are forced to enforce without funding - so shut them and hundreds like them down to fund the war cause. The truth is that there are at least 700 federal agencies and departments that if they were shut down tomorrow, 95% of America wouldn’t even notice – so cut the waste to fund the nation’s priorities. But instead of cutting back to pay for the so-called new priorities of the nation – the self-titled fiscal conservatives just keep borrowing more money and raising the nation’s debt ceiling – the credit card limit – so that it can borrow more money to pay the finance charges on the previously borrowed money. It is a vicious, desperate cycle. The consequence of this foolish lack of fiscal integrity and budgetary restraint has run its course in the United States. The world has noticed and foreign governments are moving to protect their countries and people – and so they should! Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress is ignoring reality and the writing on the wall rather than admit that the American people are about to get royally screwed. Things are desperate my fellow Americans – so much so that not a word of truth about the debt and U.S. Dollar is ever mentioned on the evenings news. Already, the American people are beginning to pay the price by losing their homes to rising interest rates that are negatively impacting their adjustable rate mortgages. The Fed is raising interest rates to hold back the inflation that it created by over-issuing debt notes. Losing your home because of this fact? How’s that feel? Just like when an American household reaches the point when it realizes it is in debt up to its eyeballs – that it can barely pay its financial charges – so is the state of our nation. Unfortunately, the U.S. Congress, President, and Fed refuse to take responsibility for the grave crisis that is looming by denying that the crisis even exists! The U.S. government and the banking cartel are now merely printing dollars as fast as they can and hoping for the best. So what is the rest of the world doing to prepare for the collapse of the U.S. dollar while the American people plunge deeper and deeper into personal and national debt? If there is a fast track to a total economic collapse in the United States today, it is foreign nations moving assets out of dollars. Here’s what has happened in the last six months: The United Arab Emirates said it was looking to move one-tenth of its dollar reserves into euros Syria confirmed plans to use euros instead of dollars for its external transactions Iran, through its soon to open, Iran Oil Bourse, an exchange meant to facilitate oil, mineral, and gas transactions in direct competition with the U.S. owned New York Mercantile Index and International Petroleum Exchange, will allow oil to be purchased with currencies other than U.S. dollars. Currently, all oil purchases worldwide are transacted with U.S. dollars This requires all oil consuming nations to maintain U.S. dollar reserves The Iran Oil Bourse will create the option for nations to dump the dollar in favor of another currency to purchase oil China, Japan, and South Korea are preparing to safeguard their economies if the U.S. dollar does in deed collapse under the weight of the record U.S. debt and trade deficits. Russia has announced that it sees a need to open its own oil exchange for the sale of its oil and gas and that it wants Russian goods, commodities, and natural resources to be paid for in Rubles – not dollars Venezuela has expressed interest in pricing its oil exports in euros Collectively, members of OPEC - Algeria, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela – are considering a move out of U.S. dollars – the end of the petrodollar and a move to the petroeuro. The list goes on and on. The world is watching. They see the over-issuing of the U.S. Dollar. They see the record breaking rise of our national debt, the ever-widening U.S. trade deficit, and the utter inability of the U.S. government to streamline, cut costs, and reduce spending. They see the United States of America as what it has become; a nation of no restraint. Since the U.S. is now the world’s largest debtor and the world’s largest oil consumer with the world’s largest trade deficit – investing in the United States and holding U.S. Dollars just doesn’t look like a wise investment decision at this time. Foreign nations are closely monitoring what each other are doing with the dollar. If the first sign of a mass exodus from the U.S. Dollar is suspected by any nation holding lots of dollars, all hell will break loose and the dollar will die in a single day. It could happen tomorrow. All the central banks around the world need to suspect is that the Asian Banks are moving out of dollars – and in a single day the United States of America will experience its second market crash that leads to its second and even worse – Great Depression. Like a bad stock – nobody wants to be the last one out. When an investor misses a sell off – they lose big time! Remember Enron? China isn’t going to lose $1 billion for our sake. Be prepared. When this U.S. Dollar dump happens – you be sure to remember who made it possible – your friendly bankers at the Federal Reserve and their enablers in the White House and U.S. Congress. What ever you do, DO NOT look towards the U.S. government to help you out – because somehow they eventually will but the price you will pay in personal freedom and liberty will be devastating. Instead, those responsible should experience the wrath of a furious people on our way to abolishing the corrupt federal government and re-establishing a full-fledged constitutional republic and a sound monetary system based solely on gold or silver, never again to relinquish the printing and control of our nations’ money, the issuance of interest rates, and our nation’s overall monetary policy to filthy Rothschild formula disciples. Please understand this fact. Every new dollar of national debt reduces the purchasing power of the dollar in your wallet. Think about it this way. Prices are not going up. The value “purchasing power” of your dollar is going down. This phenomenon is the result of the Federal Reserve System and a U.S. Congress unwilling or unable to resist the temptation to borrow money to fund its unnecessary follies. The accumulative effect of this undisciplined fiscal policy is that the U.S. government is a mammoth beast of waste and burden that can no longer sustain itself without borrowing $1.74 billion per day. And rather than slash government spending by eliminating 75% of all federal agencies and departments such as the nightmare waste called the U.S. Department of Education, the fools on Capital Hill seem more content to bankrupt the American people then offend the powerful lobby groups that have sprung up to defend the federal agencies they support and control. What can be done about all of this now? It might be too late for anything to reverse this course. Americans should contact their Congressman and Senators demanding that they do not raise the debt ceiling again. In March 2006, the U.S. Congress raised the debt ceiling from $8.174 trillion to $8.97 trillion. We the people must tell Congress to stop the bleeding! The U.S. Congress needs to be told “NO” to raising the debt ceiling and “YES” to cutting the size and scope of the federal government. If Congress refuses to listen, then let its refusal serve as all the evidence required for the people to understand that the current members of the U.S. Congress are traitors, tyrants, and domestic terrorists hell bent on enslaving the people and destroying the nation. Few realize how many people that now sit on positions of power in Washington DC are purposely in this pursuit. It’s called evil and deception. Don’t trust your government to do the right thing. Force your government do the right thing! Make some noise. Raise some hell. Be heard before you are forbidden to speak out against the federal government of the United States. If you remain silent now, you will be silenced forever. "First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.” These are wise words from Gandhi. Unfortunately, time is running out and the American people at still at “first they ignore you”. Fierce persistence is urgently required if we the people hope to survive long enough to witness “then you win”. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] U.S. National Debt Clock, The Outstanding Public Debt, June 24, 2006, www.brillig.com/debt_clock/, [Accessed June 24, 2006] Source: www.teamliberty.net/id272.html
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DT1
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You know, it's not like I wanted to be right about all of this...
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Post by DT1 on Nov 25, 2006 11:33:59 GMT 4
Michelle, By the end of this excellent post,I was enraged and horrified... I knew about the problem,but not the magnitude. And it just blows my mind that we as a people are being sold out with hardly any complaint. What the hell is going on here? I try not to repeat myself,but- Information is power,and they want you powerless. The Debt clock page was sobering to say the least. The sum jumps by a billion than faster than youcan hit the refresh. Astonishing. "The budget should be balanced; the treasury should be refilled; public debt should be reduced; and the arrogance of public officials should be controlled." -Cicero. 106-43 B.C.
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Nov 26, 2006 15:17:58 GMT 4
Just look around your towns and cities; ask your friends in the housing and real estate businesses how many homes they have for sale and what the size of the land area is that these empty homes sit on. The housing bubble smack-down has already begun, all compliments of the Federal Reserve. [linked to replies 5 & 6]......MHousing Bubble Smack-down Monday, 20 November 2006 by Mike Whitney Give me 5 minutes and I’ll convince you that you should sell your house immediately and invest yourlife-savings in gold or a Swiss bank-account.For some time now we’ve been hearing about the so-called housing bubble and what effect it could have on your net worth and future. Well, the numbers are finally in and you can decide for yourself whether its time to sell now or try to ride out the storm. In 2000 the total value of homes in the US was $11.4 trillion. Today that number has shot up to $20.3 trillion; nearly double. At the same time, mortgage-debt in 2000 was a trifling $4.8 trillion (about half) while in 2006 it skyrocketed to a whopping $9.3 trillion. So, how do we explain these enormous increases in value? After all, wasn’t the housing boom just the natural outcome of “supply and demand”? No it wasn’t. That’s an unfortunate myth that should be interred with the withered remains of Milton “free-market” Friedman. If we really want to know what’s going on, we need to look back at the machinations at the Federal Reserve in 2001, that’s when Greenspan lowered interest rates to 1.5% to soften the blow from the stock market meltdown. Rather than tighten interest rates and let the country to go through a period of recession, Greenspan lowered rates and ramped up the printing presses to “full-throttle”. Voila; the housing bubble! Or what the conservative “Economist” magazine calls “the largest equity bubble” in history. The housing bubble has nothing to do with supply and demand or with the fictional increase in workers salaries. (which have actually gone down since Bush took office) Rather, it is the predictable result of dramatically increasing the money supply while expanding personal debt via home-mortgages. Remember, the central banks are not in the mortgage business; they are in the “money-pedaling” business. And the way you sell more money is by making it as cheap as possible. The Fed intentionally inflated the bubble with cheap money so they could keep the printing presses whirring-along. They worked in concert with the banks to lower the requirements for mortgages so they could attract an endless swarm of “unqualified” customers who wanted tojointhe feeding-frenzy. Isn’t that what happened? And, didn't that make it possible for every Tom, Dick and Harry to borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars on “no-down payment”, “interest only”, ARMs or other equally risky mortgage-packages? Of course it did. There are some who will argue that the Federal Reserve just made an honest mistake and were merely trying to steer the country away from impending recession. That may be true,but let’s consider the facts before we draw any hasty conclusions. Did the Federal Reserve double the money supply in the last 7 years? Yes.Did they know what they were doing?Yes.Did they know that printing more money creates inflationary pressures and reduces the value of money already in circulation? Yes. Did they realize that the money was going directly into the real estate market where it was creating an “unsustainable” equity bubble that would eventually crash and destroy thelives' of hundreds of thousands of Americans whose greatest asset is their home? Of course, because it's the Federal Reservewhichproduces all the relevant facts and figures, charts and graphs, about increases (and trends) in the housing market. How could they NOT know?!? In other words, they doubled the money supply and then sat back and watched while $4.5 trillion went directly into the real estate market via mortgage loans to people who were “under-qualified”.(knowing that these same people would eventually fail to meet their payments and adversely effect the entire market) The Federal Reserve knew all of this. In fact, they knew where every dime was going, but decided to persist in their swindle to the bitter end. Have the real effects of this monster-bubble been softened by the huge trade deficit? Yes, because America currently borrows $800 billion a year from China, Japan etc. which keeps the economy sputtering along while our manufacturing sector continues to be ransacked. The $800 billion account deficit is like a sedative which lulls us to sleep while the country is looted right in front of our eyes. For example, in the last 12 years, foreign ownership of US assets has soared from $3 trillion to over $12 trillion.(400%) At the same time, over 13,000 major US companies have been sold to foreign corporations since 1980. Nevertheless, Americans are only-too-happy to ignore these unpleasant facts as long as they can totter off to Wal-Mart to buy little Johnny his new video-game. It’s only a matter of time before the scattered, bleached bones of American industry appear everywhere across the American heartland. And, does the Fed realize that Americans borrowed another $825 billion from their home equity in the last 12 months (to spend on house repairs, shopping, boats etc) and that without that consumer spending the nation’s growth rate (GDP) will shrivel to nothing? Yes, because they provide all that data, too. So, what does this mean for the homeowner whose future depends onthe steady increase in his home equity? What can he expect? Well, first of all, you can ignore all the gibberish you hear on the business channel about “soft landings” and a “temporary downturn”. There’ll be no soft landings. This is the Big One; Real Estate Armageddon followed by a plague of locusts. JUST LOOK AT THE NUMBERS! There’s a $10 trillion difference between the aggregate in 2000 and 2006! $4.5 trillion of that is new mortgage-debt! That’s more than a little “froth” as Greenspan likes to say. In an economy that’s currently growing at a feeble 1.6%, a plummeting housing market could pave the way for another (dare I say it) Great Depression. $10 trillion!?! Some things are worth repeating. First of all, (if we compare our situation to what happened in Japan during the 1990s) we can expect that prices will continue to fall for years to come, perhaps, a decade or more. Many of the slower markets are already showing a decline of 10% to 20%. This is a trend that is likely to speed up dramatically in 2007 when $1 trillion in ARMs reset. That’s when we’ll begin to see a truly new phenomenon in the US, that is, people who’ve always been solid members of the middle class sliding downwards into the ranks of the working poor. By 2008, if the present trend-lines persist, housing prices will probably drop to 25% to 30% of their 2005 value; diminishing equity value by approximately 45% to 50% for most homeowners. If you own your home outright; you can sweat it out, but if you got into the market late; you’re toast. You’ll be joining the throng of mortgage-slaves who are shackled to loans that are significantly higher than the current value of their house. Imagine paying off a loan for $400,000 when your house has been reassessed at $250,000 or $300,000; that’ll be the reality for an estimated 30 million Americans. Meanwhile, inventory will continue to grow (already at an 8 month backlog) the economy will continue to contract, and the dollar will continue to weaken. (Many of the major home builders; Centex, Beazer and Toll Bros, are reporting that profits are down by nearly 65%.) At the same time the Fed just issued another $10 billion in Treasury Bonds last week raising the national debt to a mind-boggling $8.6 trillion. This loosey-goosey approach to printing fiat money and creating debt explains the recent surge in the markets. As “The Daily Reckoning’s” Richard Daughty says, the “bull market is manufactured from rampant government deficit-spending and financed by the Federal Reserve creating the money.” Amen. Its all fluff and there's nothing to it. It'sjust loose money finding a temporary perch before the approaching squall. Don’t trust the smoke and mirrors. Behind the merriment and gusto, Wall Street analysts are expecting a collapse…and soon. How soon, you ask? Well, Daughty also notes that “revolving credit like credit card loans grew by $2.85 billion, or at an annual rate of 4.00%, to $857 billion.” So, credit card debt is going up, which is an indication that the people who were siphoning money from their home equity have switched over to plastic. That’s sure sign the writhing consumer-beast is in its last throes. The end is near. Why should I care about Net Long-term Capital Inflows? In another bit of disheartening news the net long-term capital inflows fell short of what the US needs to cover the current account deficit. The inflows were only $65 billion when we need $70 billion to make ends meet. This is another way of saying that foreigners are no longer mopping up our red ink. Interestingly, foreign central banks are buying considerably fewer Treasurys; $9 billion in US securities and a paltry $8 billion in Treasury bonds. What does it mean? It means that no is dim-witted enough to buy our debt anymore because we’re no longer a good risk. That’s a very bad sign. Under different stewardship the "full faith and credit" of the US Treasury meant something. That's no longer true. Also, according to Marketwatch, “US residents purchased a net $22.9 billion in foreign securities, up from $2.7 billion in August. Foreign holdings of dollar-denominated short-term securities, including Treasury bills, fell by $10.8 billion.” Foreign investments are up $20 billion in one month?!? Are you kidding me? So, the smart money is getting out of Dodge pronto; leaving the rest of us behind in a leaky canoe. Thanks, Greenspan. Some of you may have seen Alexander Cockburn’s shocking article “Lame Duck” last week on Counterpunch. Cockburn refers to a report published by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) “a body set up under the purview of the British Treasury to monitor financial markets and protect the public interest by raising the alarm about shady practices and any dangerous slides towards instability.” The report “Private Equity: A Discussion of Risk and Regulatory Engagement” states clearly: “Excessive leverage: The amount of credit that lenders are willing to extend on private equity transactions has risen substantially. This lending may not, in some circumstances, be entirely prudent. Given current levels and recent developments in the economic/credit cycle, the default of a large private equity backed company or a cluster of smaller private equity backed companies seems inevitable. This has negative implications for lenders, purchasers of the debt, orderly markets and conceivably, in extreme circumstances, financial stability and elements of the UK economy.” The problem is even greater in the US where unregulated fractional lending has allowed banks to loan unlimited amounts of money on measly reserves. Hence, “the default of a large private equity company is inevitable”. The whole deregulated banking scam has turned the system into a Vegas-style “crap shoot” with no guarantees that you’ll ever see your money again. The same is true with the new-fangled investment “instruments” like hedge funds which contain few tangible assets and more and more “collateralized debt”. That means that they depend heavily on the “worker bees” at the bottom of the economic Totem Pole, who are expected to continue making their payments even while the economy begins to swoon. The present system is fraught with peril and likely to come crashing down in a heap. As Cockburn sagely notes, “The world’s credit system is a vast recycling bin of untraceable transactions of wildly inflated value.” “Market transparency” has gone the way of the Dodo. The new “deregulated” markets are intentionally opaque so the medicine men and hucksters who designed them could fleece the public from the comfort of their Wall Street enclaves. No one should be too surprised that the whole rickety contraption is tilting towards the dumpster. Happy Days in the Weimar Republic So, what was the “Grand Plan” the Fed had in mind when they decided to anesthetize the American public with low interest rates and flood the planet with worthless green scrip? Did they think that Bush would corner the oil market and, thus, force the rest of the world to take our anemic greenbacks? Or were they just planning to steal every last farthing from the American people before they loaded the boats and fled to more promising markets in Asia? Or perhaps they were delusional enough to believe that really wonderful things would happen if they just kept tossing banknotes into the Jet-stream like New Year’s confetti? Whatever the madcap rationale might have been, the country is now facing an agonizing wake-up call as the full-effects of Greenspan’s tenure materializes and the stronghold of global consumerism deteriorates into Weimar USA. In the long run, Greenspan’s treachery will loom larger then that of his “would-be” understudy, Bin Laden. He put the country on the fast-track to disaster. Just watch as the“For Sale” signs go up on lawns across America in Dear Alan’s honor. Source: www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/236
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DT1
Moderator
You know, it's not like I wanted to be right about all of this...
Posts: 428
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Post by DT1 on Feb 25, 2007 13:43:26 GMT 4
It's amazing to me how GW Bu__sh__ keeps saying how great the economy is. His economy,I guess...Out here in the reality-based community,It's quite different.In US, record numbers are plunged into poverty: report AFP Published: Saturday February 24, 2007 rawstory.comThe gulf between rich and poor in the United States is yawning wider than ever, and the number of extremely impoverished is at a three-decade high, a report out Saturday found. Based on the latest available US census data from 2005, the McClatchy Newspapers analysis found that almost 16 million Americans live in "deep or severe poverty" defined as a family of four with two children earning less than 9,903 dollars -- one half the federal poverty line figure. For individuals the "deep poverty" threshold was an income under 5,080 dollars a year. "The McClatchy analysis found that the number of severely poor Americans grew by 26 percent from 2000 to 2005," the US newspaper chain reported. "That's 56 percent faster than the overall poverty population grew in the same period," it noted. The surge in poverty comes alongside an unusual economic expansion. "Worker productivity has increased dramatically since the brief recession of 2001, but wages and job growth have lagged behind. At the same time, the share of national income going to corporate profits has dwarfed the amount going to wages and salaries," the study found. "That helps explain why the median household income for working-age families, adjusted for inflation, has fallen for five straight years. "These and other factors have helped push 43 percent of the nation's 37 million poor people into deep poverty -- the highest rate since at least 1975. The share of poor Americans in deep poverty has climbed slowly but steadily over the last three decades," the report said. It quoted an American Journal of Preventive Medicine study as having found that since 2000, the number of severely poor -- far below basic poverty terms -- in the United States has grown "more than any other segment of the population." "That was the exact opposite of what we anticipated when we began," said Dr. Steven Woolf of Virginia Commonwealth University, a study co-author. "We're not seeing as much moderate poverty as a proportion of the population. What we're seeing is a dramatic growth of severe poverty." US social programs are minimal compared to those of western Europe and Canada. The United States has a population of 301 million, but more than 45 million US citizens have no health insurance.
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