AMERICANS CONTINUE CLUELESS ABOUT THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM

Americans remain totally clueless about the extreme fragility of our financial system. They actually believe the Federal Reserve and the Federal Government have their interests at heart and will prevent bad things from happening to them.

The latest scam for preventing a mortgage meltdown is the so-called "freeze" on those "teaser" rates for a limited number of subprime adjustable rate loans. That this latest of "fixes" came about from a secret meeting where no jounalists were allowed to tread indicates to me that the real purpose of the get together had nothing to do with keeping families in their homes, but rather how to keep the owners of mortgage backed securities from suing U.S. banks and forcing them to buy back these worthless securities at face value. Can you say ten times their true market value?

Everywhere you look you find fraud and collusion. The originators of the loans, the appraisers, the rating agencies are all in it up to their eyeballs. Goldman Sachs and its CEO, Hank Paulson, now Secretary of the Treasury  (through the magic of the "revolving door") knew about it. Goldman Sachs, it turns out, was going short these toxic waste products at the same time it was selling the stuff to foreign and domestic investors under the watchful eye of  Mr. Paulson.

You can bet the shredding machines are working overtime at the banks and brokerage companies as New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo zeros in on the fraud. What the average American citizen doesn't know is should the inevitable law suits force the banks to pay back the investors around the globe who were duped, the amount of money involved is many times the capital of all of our major banks combined. That can only mean one thing: all of our largest banks would fail, which would guarantee a giant bailout, the likes of which the world has never known, at taxpayers' expense.

But Americans aren't worried. After all, they are reassured daily by the government and their "cheerleaders," the financial press, that everything is just fine. While Goldilocks and the Tooth Fairy are dancing in the streets, the financial system is teetering on the brink, and a big bunch of "higher ups" are planning schemes and destroying records in a desperate attempt to stay out of prison.

12/23/2007

ABOLISH THE FEDERAL RESERVE

The Federal Reserve is a cartel of private bankers. I repeat, they are a private bank. They, together with their counterparts (cental banks) around the world, are running the domestic and foreign policies of their respective countries.

The Constitution clearly dictates that the money of the United States of America will be issued by the government and will be in the form of gold and silver coinage. Paper currency was brought into existence to make it easier to transact business. But the currency was merely a receipt for the real money. You could walk into any bank and exchange the currency, the receipt, for the real money, the gold.

What the Federal Reserve has done is take over the printing of the paper receipts. Their scam has been to convince Americans that the receipts are the real money. The bankers and the government have colluded to take the people's gold and given us worthless paper in return. The paper is backed by absolutely nothing. This is counterfeiting, pure and simple. If we did what the Federal Reserve does every day of the year, we'd spend a good portion of our future in the slammer.

No paper currency has ever survived. And when you destroy a country's currency, you take the country down with it.

By creating billions of dollars out of thin air in order to bail out their buddies in the banking system, the Federal Reserve is assuring a massive inflation which is the most evil tax of all because it penalizes those who try to save and live prudently while enriching the bankers and enslaving the citizenry.

When the candidates for president talk about the need for change, let someone ask them whether they will lead a movement to abolish the Federal Reserve. Without bringing about that very fundamental change first, all other change will never happen. The system will go on as it has in the past as a conspiratorial form of capitalism between our government and the bankers.

12/17/2007

PEACEFUL COUP D'ETAT, ANYONE?

I have a question. Are Americans complete idiots? Or are they just totally exhausted from trying to make ends meet? We could conduct a poll.

We elect our government to represent our interests. Instead, they join forces with Corporate America in order to grab power and line their pockets. We place our trust in our elected officials. Rather than just tell us the truth, they respond with a combination of spin and outright lies. The war in Iraq is going well, inflation is under control, deficits don't matter, Social Security and Medicare are on solid ground etc.

For the sake of accuracy, let's take everything they throw at us and jerk it around 180 degrees. The war is a hopeless quagmire steeped in America's blood and treasure. Inflation is raging for everything you need in this world, be it food for your body, heat for your home, gasoline for your car, education for your children, or health care for all. We are hopelessly indebted to foreigners who have become our bankers. It is the creditors who make the rules, after all, not the debtors.

The debt is not the $8 trillion that the government funnels through its public relations firm, the press. It is closer to $78 trillion. Those are the funds obligated to pay social security and medicare to the 77 million retiring baby boomers. Our representatives like to call these debts "unfunded liabilities" which they hide "off budget." They make what Enron did look like a walk in the park.

How do you think the government is going to pay these obligations? Increased taxes? They'd have to tax 500 percent of your income to even come close. No, they'll print the money on pieces of paper called U.S. dollars. The more currency they print, the less it will be worth. What you thought would be enough for a luxurious retirement won't even provide you with the neccessities of life. It's called inflation, and it's the most insidious tax of all. We're all living through it right now, but you ain't seen nothin' yet.

Just wait until Federal Reserve Chairman Benjamin S.  Bernanke starts dropping $100 bills from his flying machine. Our government can't pay the bill, and the dollar is dropping like a stone. It's obvious that the government plans to inflate away its debts on the backs of the middle class.

So I go back to my original question. Are we all idiots? Or are we in a protracted coma? Why aren't millions of Americans incensed? Why aren't we swarming around the White House and the Capitol Building? Why aren't millions and millions of us streaming into Washington with signs that read: "Peaceful Coup d'Etat?" Can you imagine the power of millions of citizens, all carrying that same stunning message, descending on Washington, D.C.

11/23/2007

A CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

I just read an article entitled: "Bush's Healthcare Fantasy." It is, in my opinion, less a fantasy than a deliberate ideology that is determined to make sure that the United States stands alone as the one country amongst the developed nations of the world that does not have and never will have a universal health care system.

The health insurance companies do not want it, the pharmaceutical industry does not want it and the medical establishment does not want it. They will do whatever is necessary to make sure it never happens. And, of course, they will accomplish their goal by colluding with the appropriate members of the Legislative and Executive branches of government. After being paid handsomely to do the healcare industry's bidding, our elected officials will then leave office and seamlessly morph into lobbyists for the very industries they represented when they were in government.

The sole purpose for having a government in the first place is for the protection of the citizenry. Americans go to the polls with the unspoken understanding that those individuals they elect to office will represent their interests. That they represent the special interests who line their pockets at the expense of the American people is quite simply a conspiracy.

Yes, Virginia, there is a vast right-wing conspiracy. We bear witness to that conspiracy every day as our jobs leave our shores and the greatest transfer of wealth from the many to the few takes place right before our eyes.

Not only won't there be a universal healthcare system in this country, there will come a time very soon when our government officials, having bankrupted the country by killing people in unnecessary foreign wars, will look us right in the eye and tell us that we can no longer afford the entitlement programs that We the People counted on. Major cuts will have to be made in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. And Corporate America will renege on employee pensions and health insurace. In fact, that day is already upon us, isn't it?

The only way this is ever going to change is when a leader emerges who totally disassociates him/herself from the Republican and Democratic parties and states unequivocally that as a truly independent candidate, he or she will have no interest in special interests and will only represent the needs of ordinary American citizens. Such an individual will, of course, need the protection of our entire military establishment.

08/06/2007

THE MIDDLE CLASS MUST STRIKE BACK

America used to practice a democracy that was the envy of the rest of the world. One of its components was a free enterprise system that produced and benefited a large middle class. While it took 300 years to nurture this breathtaking experiment, it has taken the Bush administration a mere 6 1/4 years to trash it.

While sacrificing our nation's blood and treasure in the name of democracy in Iraq, Bush has trampled the Constitution here at home. It is, after all, as he said himself, "just a piece of paper."

What we have now in this country is something called "authorative free enterprise" or what I prefer to call "conspiratorial capitalism." The corporate elite and the most powerful members of our elected government are in collusion to separate the once proud middle class from its financial assets. By outsourcing the best jobs to China and India and "insourcing" cheap illegal labor across our southern border, by becoming the greatest debtor nation in the history of the world, by debasing the U.S. dollar and then lying about the rampant inflation that has been taking place for years (the greatest hidden tax on each and everyone of us), by spying on the American people through tapping of their telephones, tracking their emails and snooping into their financial records, by detaining so-called "enemy combatants" without allowing them recourse to legal assistance and torturing them in the process, by repeatedly sticking it to Congress with its super secret, none-of-your-business response, this small covey of power-hungry individuals are running the United States of America down a slippery slope to bankruptcy and world scorn.

This Bush guy is so much more impeachable than Clinton and Nixon put together, that one would think it would be a piece of cake. But the Congress doesn't have the stomach for it --- or for anything else for that matter.

If we have to hold out until November of next year, there's two things everyone of us can do: 1- whatever is necessary to insure that all voting machines leave a paper trail in 2008. (These guys will stop at nothing); 2- Whatever is necessary to protect our financial assets. Remember, those assets are on a one-way track from the many to the few, and all paper assets are nothing more than that: "just a piece of paper."

04/17/2007

THE TOOTH FAIRY LIVES !

We had a customer come into our art gallery the other day and use the "S" word. She turned to her husband, and I distinctly heard her say, "Dear, I think maybe we should try to save some money." Although it was a private conversation not meant for the likes of my ears, I felt compelled to let them both know that saving money is positively un-American and cannot be tolerated in any form whatsoever.

I further personalized the issue by appealing to their patriotism. "If you truly love your country, and I'm sure you do, then you have a moral duty to go further into debt by continuing to buy things you don't need with money you don't have." They stared back at me with a glazed expression, which was a signal for me to continue their education. "Our Federal Government sets a good example for us all and expects every citizen to do his or her part in following its lead."

Having paused in my monologue, I asked them whether they were ready to repent over their use of the word, "saving." "Surely, you must know that the alternative to going deeper into debt is recession or worse, and you certainly don't want to have that on your conscience." I concluded by begging them never to use the "S" word again in public, as it could turn out to be contagious.

The couple did a quick 180 and accelerated out the door, never to be seen again. But I felt good that in some small way I had at least tried to do what I could to keep the myth alive that the economy is thriving, business is great and there is no inflation.

The Tooth Fairy lives !

11/26/2006

POLITICAL ASYLUM ANYONE?

We used to have a system of government that relied upon checks and balances. The Executive Branch had to work with Congress because the Senate and the House of Representatives had been given oversight powers to review the president's agenda. The Supreme Court was, for the most part, above politics. It simply ruled on the constitutionality of issues that arose from cases that could not be resolved in the lower courts.

Enter the Bush administration. In what can only be labeled as a genuine conspiracy with Corporate America, the rich and the powerful few now do pretty much as they please. They dictate the rules of the game to the Congress, which willingly abdicates its oversight responsibilities to a point where I for one do not even recognize the country in which I've lived all of my life.

Whether it's the energy bill for the oil companies, the Medicare Prescription bill for the drug companies, awarding no-bid contracts in Iraq to their "bedfellow" companies, hoping to turn over our busiest ports to a United Arab Emirates company, outsourcing our best jobs to China and India, leaving our borders wide open to terrorists and illegal immigrants, spying on Americans without first obtaining warrants, preventing high-ranking officials at the Defense Department from telling the truth about "Operation Able Danger," and doing the same at NASA to make sure that the scientific facts about global warming do not get out, issuing "Goldilocks" reports on the economy which are patently false, outing a CIA undercover agent as revenge when her husband publicly caught them in a lie, presiding over the greatest transfer of wealth from the many to the few in the history of the country --- I could go on forever.

The point is that this conspiracy (and that's what it is) goes unchallenged because, having been appointed instead of elected, the Bush-Cheney dictatorship feels no obligation to represent the people. (That was obvious in New Orleans). With most of Congress and the journalistic community in the same corporate hip pocket as the Executive Branch, and the American people willing to swallow whatever they're spoon fed, the Republicans look to have a lock on this year;s mid-term elections. How can that be, you say? Because in a year when you'd think we'd kick the bums out, the Democrats offer nothing.

Political asylum anyone?

02/18/2006