There is an epidemic loose in the land. I write to warn you of this plague for which there is no vaccine or cure known to modern society. I refer not to the dreaded Bird flu or Swine flu. This alert is for a malady far more insidious and apparently more contagious than any strain of influenza. In fact, it seems that most everyone has already caught this alarming affliction without even knowing it.
I refer, of course, to the deadly maladjustment where people living in the year 2011 appear able to talk only about themselves. It used to be when you met someone at a party or in any social or business environment, something took place that was called conversation: a give and take between two human beings. But this new virus or mutation has rendered conversation moot. Today, people broadcast solely about themselves, a disorder that can go on well into the night.
After being on the receiving end of this center-of-the-universe monologue as the clock approaches 3 A.M., I ask, in a weakened condition: But what about me? Don't you want to know anything about me?
Apparently not, as my pathetic question bounces off the person caught up in self expression, who proceeds to go on with his or her life's story unimpeded by the presence of another human creature.
So I ask......is there anyone out there who still remembers the fine art of the "give and take?"
April 24, 20011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
D DAY FOR THE FEDERAL RESERVE
By engaging in quantitative easing (the printing of money) on a scale never before witnessed or imagined by the inhabitants of Planet Earth, the Federal Reserve is fast approaching the tipping point.
With QE2, the buying of U.S. Treasury bonds from the Treasury Department (a Ponzi scheme of epic proportions) scheduled to end by June 30th, what is the Federal Reserve going to do?
The move up in stocks, bonds and commodities is almost entirely due to the counterfeiting of the Fed. All that confetti (paper currency) has to go somewhere. But since the "recovery" is not real, should Big Ben (Bernanke) decide to pull the plug on QE2, it will be time to put on your helmets and crawl into your bunkers. Stocks and bonds will plunge along with what's left of the economy.
If, on the other hand, should the Federal Reserve cave and give us QE3, 4, 5, 6 etc., then the Cartel will have lost all credibility when it comes to fulfilling its mandate: price stability and full employment. Inflation will get far more virulent than it already is. Our purchasing power will all but disappear.
My guess is that they will SAY that the end of QE2 is upon us while continuing to print monopoly money at a rate greater than the speed of light. They have no choice, really. With the debt closing in on its own tipping point, it's inflate or die for the Fed.
March 28, 2011
With QE2, the buying of U.S. Treasury bonds from the Treasury Department (a Ponzi scheme of epic proportions) scheduled to end by June 30th, what is the Federal Reserve going to do?
The move up in stocks, bonds and commodities is almost entirely due to the counterfeiting of the Fed. All that confetti (paper currency) has to go somewhere. But since the "recovery" is not real, should Big Ben (Bernanke) decide to pull the plug on QE2, it will be time to put on your helmets and crawl into your bunkers. Stocks and bonds will plunge along with what's left of the economy.
If, on the other hand, should the Federal Reserve cave and give us QE3, 4, 5, 6 etc., then the Cartel will have lost all credibility when it comes to fulfilling its mandate: price stability and full employment. Inflation will get far more virulent than it already is. Our purchasing power will all but disappear.
My guess is that they will SAY that the end of QE2 is upon us while continuing to print monopoly money at a rate greater than the speed of light. They have no choice, really. With the debt closing in on its own tipping point, it's inflate or die for the Fed.
March 28, 2011
Saturday, February 26, 2011
WE ONCE HAD A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD
Does anyone besides me see the connection between what's gong on in Northern Africa and the Middle East to what's firmly in place here in the good old USA? Over there people are awakening to the long-term abuse they have suffered under dictators and their armies. The result is called "revolution," a term long ago associated with the founding of our own country.
Today, we in America live under a similar equation where a small cartel of corporate and governmental elites are seamlessly mutating free enterprise into a brand of capitalism that borders on fascism.
There used to be a level playing field. On one side of the gridiron was management and their representatives, the Republican party. On the other side was Labor and the Democratic party. They engaged in an antiquity called collective bargaining. And since neither side was happy with the outcome of their arbitration, what they came up with was probably a pretty fair deal. That was when free enterprise existed and flourished.
Contrast that with today where a war is being waged against collective bargaining and the Middle Class. The right-wing rulers of America, the corporations, the big banks and their paid-for politicos, want it their way 100 per cent. No more push back. Their ruthless goal is a perfect game: no runs, no hits, no errors.
In a country where people actually still believe what the government tells them and do as they are told, thank God for Madison, Wisconsin, that last bastion of Liberalism, where, like their brethren in the desert, they are willing to put it on the line for what they believe lest it be taken from them forever.
Question: where is Obama on this crucial issue? As a candidate he said repeatedly, " I promise to be walking the picket lines as President of the United States any time the workers' rights to organize are threatened." Not only hasn't he been sighted in the Badger State, but he has not even uttered a verbal sound on the subject.
Unlike the brave people in the Middle East and in Madison, Wisconsin, centrists stand for nothing. Instead, they stay right down the middle in preparation for November, 2012. Pragmatic presidents rarely show the leadership for which they were elected.
February 26, 2011
Today, we in America live under a similar equation where a small cartel of corporate and governmental elites are seamlessly mutating free enterprise into a brand of capitalism that borders on fascism.
There used to be a level playing field. On one side of the gridiron was management and their representatives, the Republican party. On the other side was Labor and the Democratic party. They engaged in an antiquity called collective bargaining. And since neither side was happy with the outcome of their arbitration, what they came up with was probably a pretty fair deal. That was when free enterprise existed and flourished.
Contrast that with today where a war is being waged against collective bargaining and the Middle Class. The right-wing rulers of America, the corporations, the big banks and their paid-for politicos, want it their way 100 per cent. No more push back. Their ruthless goal is a perfect game: no runs, no hits, no errors.
In a country where people actually still believe what the government tells them and do as they are told, thank God for Madison, Wisconsin, that last bastion of Liberalism, where, like their brethren in the desert, they are willing to put it on the line for what they believe lest it be taken from them forever.
Question: where is Obama on this crucial issue? As a candidate he said repeatedly, " I promise to be walking the picket lines as President of the United States any time the workers' rights to organize are threatened." Not only hasn't he been sighted in the Badger State, but he has not even uttered a verbal sound on the subject.
Unlike the brave people in the Middle East and in Madison, Wisconsin, centrists stand for nothing. Instead, they stay right down the middle in preparation for November, 2012. Pragmatic presidents rarely show the leadership for which they were elected.
February 26, 2011
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
KICKING THE CAN DOWN THE ROAD
The inflation I've warned about and the social unrest that goes with it are here compliments of the Federal Reserve's money printing insanity. Coal and oil are trading at two-year highs. Corn, soybeans, wheat, and sugar are trading at multiyear highs. Cotton has reached 140 year highs. Gold and copper are trading at record highs. Silver is trading at a 30-year high.
When Americans go shopping for food and clothing, their eyes cross in disbelief. What is merely an inconvenience for most of them is a matter of survival for countless millions in the developing world. So, while there is a political component to the protests in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Jordan etc., the trigger is rocketing food prices.
While the government's infamous Plunge Protection Team buys S&P futures to support the fantasy stock market and the Federal Reserve prints up the money to buy the Treasury's (printed-up) Treasury Bonds in a desperate attempt to prevent the bond market from evaporating, the world's investors are running for their lives away from the U.S. dollar. And with most of our state and local governments broke, the municipal bond market has already crashed. Housing prices continue their decline.
The debt bubble is searching for a pin. The government's only solution is to lie to the American people while "fixing" the unfixable debt by adding more debt. This is called "kicking the can down the road" or "extend and pretend." It's a desperate attempt at buying time. But anyone with a certain body part on top of his or her neck knows that it will not end well. We are closing in on the tipping point. Once again, get ahead of the curve. Protect yourselves.
February 1, 2011
When Americans go shopping for food and clothing, their eyes cross in disbelief. What is merely an inconvenience for most of them is a matter of survival for countless millions in the developing world. So, while there is a political component to the protests in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Jordan etc., the trigger is rocketing food prices.
While the government's infamous Plunge Protection Team buys S&P futures to support the fantasy stock market and the Federal Reserve prints up the money to buy the Treasury's (printed-up) Treasury Bonds in a desperate attempt to prevent the bond market from evaporating, the world's investors are running for their lives away from the U.S. dollar. And with most of our state and local governments broke, the municipal bond market has already crashed. Housing prices continue their decline.
The debt bubble is searching for a pin. The government's only solution is to lie to the American people while "fixing" the unfixable debt by adding more debt. This is called "kicking the can down the road" or "extend and pretend." It's a desperate attempt at buying time. But anyone with a certain body part on top of his or her neck knows that it will not end well. We are closing in on the tipping point. Once again, get ahead of the curve. Protect yourselves.
February 1, 2011
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
I hate to have to say this during the Christmas season, but the lies are becoming ubiquitous and the complacency is beyond belief. This can only mean that the people actually believe what the government is saying about the economic recovery. THERE IS NO RECOVERY. The global debt bubble is teetering on a cliff with the world's central banks trying desperately to paper over the debts by adding trillions of additional debt on top of the pile. This is done by printing pieces of paper which are nothing more than worthless IOU's.
The Wall Street/Government conspiracy has secretly forced the public to bail out the banksters, and, in the doing, has managed to transfer what was private debt incurred by fraudulent behavior into sovereign debt now on the backs of the people.
With Wall Street now targeting for profit the debt of one European country after another, the main stream cheerleading press is in cahoots by diverting the public's attention from here to there. But the day of reckoning is coming for the USA. With our Federal, state, and local governments either already bankrupt or soon to be, and the so called "dumb money" all in when it comes to the stock and bond markets, it is time to come out of denial and recognize that we are in a monetary crisis that will end badly.
Protect yourselves. We are running out of time. The better things look on the surface, the more explosive they are getting in reality.
December 21, 2010
The Wall Street/Government conspiracy has secretly forced the public to bail out the banksters, and, in the doing, has managed to transfer what was private debt incurred by fraudulent behavior into sovereign debt now on the backs of the people.
With Wall Street now targeting for profit the debt of one European country after another, the main stream cheerleading press is in cahoots by diverting the public's attention from here to there. But the day of reckoning is coming for the USA. With our Federal, state, and local governments either already bankrupt or soon to be, and the so called "dumb money" all in when it comes to the stock and bond markets, it is time to come out of denial and recognize that we are in a monetary crisis that will end badly.
Protect yourselves. We are running out of time. The better things look on the surface, the more explosive they are getting in reality.
December 21, 2010
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
THE MINORITY RULES THE COUNTRY
The Republicans, who are a minority in Congress, held the unemployed hostage until they got their tax break for their constituency, their millionaire and billionaire pals. Only then would they agree to allow an extension of the unemployment benefits so those out of work could buy food for their families. Never mind that two thirds of the American people were against those tax cuts for the top two per cent. And don't bother that the Democrats still enjoy a large majority in both houses of Congress. The missing link was the leadership that we expected from our President. Obama has been eaten alive by the Republicans because he is not a fighter. For two years he has been jerked around by a mean-spirited opposition that has sought nothing but to bring him down.
Not only is the country run by a minority, the fact is that a very select group of people decide the domestic and foreign policies of these United States. The Democrats have come to stand for nothing, and Obama's presidency is now a study in compromise, appeasement, cowardice and failure. This was not the hope so many of us felt on Inauguration Day in 2009.
December 7, 2010
Not only is the country run by a minority, the fact is that a very select group of people decide the domestic and foreign policies of these United States. The Democrats have come to stand for nothing, and Obama's presidency is now a study in compromise, appeasement, cowardice and failure. This was not the hope so many of us felt on Inauguration Day in 2009.
December 7, 2010
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
MOMENT OF TRUTH FOR OBAMA
We've come to the moment of truth for President Obama. Either he finds the courage to represent in plain English the suffering of those four million Americans who are losing their unemployment insurance and sticks to his policy of letting the Bush tax cuts expire for those making over $250,000, or he will be perceived as a weak leader who is presiding over a failed presidency.
There are no compromises or deals to be made with the likes of a Mitch McConnell or a John Boehner. They are simply not interested. They want to see Obama fail, and they will do whatever is necessary to see that he does.
No, the ball is now squarely in Obama's court. He must choose sides and take a stand. He must try to remember who elected him and act bravely on their behalf.
November 30, 2010
There are no compromises or deals to be made with the likes of a Mitch McConnell or a John Boehner. They are simply not interested. They want to see Obama fail, and they will do whatever is necessary to see that he does.
No, the ball is now squarely in Obama's court. He must choose sides and take a stand. He must try to remember who elected him and act bravely on their behalf.
November 30, 2010
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