High Finance Woes

LA Hanna wrote: This borrowing and spending is threatening my future wages in this country for decades to come.

And how did that come about?

Older voters pay attention to government.

Younger voters do not.

But older voters have an advantage.

At any rate, younger voters are having HUGE debt and problems heaped onto them by previous generations.

Is that fair? Of course not.

That's why young voters need a crash course. Rampant debt, money-printing, borrowing, spending, and waste is threatening the young voters' future.

Too many Americans are addicted to credit, and the massive debt is being dumped on younger voters.

Rampant borrowing, money-printing, and spending could crash the U.S. Currency, and then the problem will be many times worse.

Many want a quick fix, but none exist.
Just think of what hyperinflation could mean, when oil is mostly traded using U.S. Dollars today?
If we crash the U.S. Currency with hyperinflation, the current pain and misery can be magnified many times over.
Why create more money out of thin air when we can NOT even pay the interest alone on the nation-wide debt?
The interest alone on the nation-wide debt of $53 Trillion to $66 Trillion (at only 4.0% interest) is $5.82 Billion to $7.24 Billion per day!
That is $19.08 -to- $23.74 per day for every man, woman, and child (for only the interest alone).
For a household size of 2.61 persons, that is $49.80 -to- $61.96 per household, per day for interest alone!
That is $1513.88 -to- $1883.58 per household per month for interest alone!
That is $17,812.00 -to- $22,615.4 per household per year for interest alone!

The point is, the debt is so large, all of it can never be paid off (only some of it, and that depends on whether enough wealthy investors will buy up some assets at a discount).
That is, finding customers is a problem, when 80% of the U.S. population only owns 16%-to-17% of all wealth, and savings rates have been negative since year 2005.

There does exist a point-of-no-return, a threshold, where the debt is finally so large, that some of it can NEVER be paid off in full.
And that is what is happening now, fueled by falling asset values, of which many were over-valued to start with.
Lots of people have homes that are now worth less than the remaining principal.
Even if foreclosures, which started before year 2005, peaked in AUG-2008, there are millions more foreclosures on the way.
And beware of builders, banks, and corporations that want a bail-out to prop-up artificially inflated prices. Funny how the free-market capitalists don't want government controls and meddling, but now want government bail-outs when the results of years of their own greed and irresponsibility have finally back-fired.
When the debt-pyramid finally becomes too large to ever be dealt with, a melt-down is unavoidable (which we are seeing; which was not hard to see coming).
We've had positive inflation every consecutive year for the past 58 years.
The nation-wide debt has steadily grown from 100% to almost 500% of GDP since year 1976.

There are many things (such as stopping these 10 major abuses) Congress could do to help, and could have done a long time ago, but there is NO quick fix now.
Instead, Congress refuses to do those numerous responsible things, and now risks crashing the U.S. Dollar, which has already plummeted for over five years against all major international currencies.

But younger voters are culpable too, as are ALL voters, and voters must try to put a stop to getting dumped on (see picture that demostrates the process). Crapping in our own nest isn't very smart. However, some people are getting dumped on more than others, and having their future destroyed by previous generations who are addicted to credit, pork-barrel, subsidies, and brainwashed to believe we can all live at the expense of everyone else (or by dumping the debt on future generations). And wallowing in the partisan warfare (voters essentially allowing themselves to be manipulated), wallowing in the blame game (which BOTH parties fuel), and repeatedly rewarding bad politicians with 85%-to-90% re-election rates will simply make things worse (much worse).

Hanna said "I insist, as a new voter, that it stop. Sen. John McCain, I truly believe, will put a stop to this assault upon my, and my friend's, taxable futures as wage earners in America. Enough is enough. Vote for John McCain. He isn't perfect, but, he is also not a liberal spending Democrat. That's good enough for this new voter."

Hanna, McCain is part of the borrow and spend crowd. He is one of the reasons the debt level is so high. That is what will dim your's and your children's future. Despite the current deficit and the record debt this country carries McCain just wants to keep cutting taxes fighting wars and expanding the military. That is what dims your future and your childrens future. We saw this play out in the '70's thanks to LBJ's guns and butter spending in the '60's. We are seeing it again with Bush and will continue to see it with McCain.
The republican record speaks for itself massive debt from borrowing and lowering taxes now leads to higher taxes later. McCain is more of the same.

Neither McCain or Obama will stop this bail-out, since BOTH are for the bail-out.

Having failed in the House, the Senate, along with Obama and McCain, have added another $150 Billion of pork-barrel to the $700 Billion BILL, raising it to $850 Billion.

Let's play Monopoly, Federal Reserve/Federal Government style:

• STEP #01: Develop a plan for a huge bail-out for the people that caused the problem and touted less regulation and unfettered free-market capitalism, but tell everyone it is necessary to save the economy.


• STEP #02: Try to rush the decision, like a high-pressure salesman, so that few have time to think it through, because if they do, the scam will fail. Time the game so that it falls right before Congress' adjournment, and 6 weeks before an election, so that the players will feel pressured, pre-occupied, and distracted.


• STEP #03: Fear-monger to create confusion. Combine it with rushed deadlines. Tell people that you need $700 now, or the whole world economy will collapse into another Great Depression (despite the fact that could happen anyway, with or without a bail-out).


• STEP #04: Change the rules as you go. Abandon principles where convenient. Hide from the public and probing questions. Communicate to the public through leaks. Limit open Congressional hearings and inquiries. Communicate with the two parties separately in order to provide a partisan slant for those communications. Treat everyone else condescendingly, as if they are too stupid to understand the complex economic conditions. Make everyone think we must rely on their superior understanding. Try to obscure and distract from the irresponsibility of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve, who up until now, were painting a relatively rosy picture, and now, all of a sudden, out of the blue, say we are now on the verge of the next Great Depression.


• STEP #05: Privatize gains for a few, and Socialize losses to the many tax payers. Besides, those tax payers are very likely to continue to repeatedly reward incumbent politicians with 85%-to-90% re-election rates anyway. Cha Ching!


• STEP #06: Ignore fraud, cooking the books, and pretend there will be no more of it from this point forward.


• STEP #07: If the first bail-out fails, don't give up. Ignore the fact that most Americans were against it. Rename it to a "rescue" and try to sweeten it up with some pork-barrel. Here's a winner. A tax exemption for certain types of wooden arrows:
  • SEC. 503. EXEMPTION FROM EXCISE TAX FOR CERTAIN WOODEN ARROWS DESIGNED FOR USE BY CHILDREN.
  
  
  • (a) IN GENERAL.—Paragraph (2) of section 4161(b) is amended by redesignating subparagraph (B) as sub301 paragraph (C) and by inserting after subparagraph (A) the following new subparagraph:
  
  
  • ‘‘(B) EXEMPTION FOR CERTAIN WOODEN ARROW SHAFTS.—Subparagraph (A) shall not apply to any shaft consisting of all natural wood with no laminations or artificial means of enhancing the spine of such shaft (whether sold separately or incorporated as part of a finished or unfinished product) of a type used in the manufacture of any arrow which after its assembly—
  
  
  • ‘‘(i) measures 5/16 of an inch or less in diameter, and
  
  
  • ‘‘(ii) is not suitable for use with a bow described in paragraph (1)(A).’’.
  
  
  • (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by this section shall apply to shafts first sold after the date of enactment of this Act.


• STEP #08: If all else fails, simply continue to print money like crazy. Before too long, the banks have all the money, and everyone else is broke or deep in debt. Cha Ching!


• STEP #09: Ignore the numerous common-sense reforms that have been hammering the middle-class Americans for 30+ years.


• STEP #10: Don't worry about angry voters. The voters will most likely still continue to repeatedly reward irresponsible incumbent politicians with 85%-to-90% re-election rates, because more Americnas apparently care more about THEIR party than their country. After all, dismally low approval ratings for Congress (as low as 9%) is nothing but voter whining and rhetoric, that is rarely (if ever) backed up with action on election day, as evidenced by Congress' cushy re-election rates and THEIR party's high seat-retention rates.

At any rate, the voters have the government that the voters elect (and re-elect, and re-elect, and re-elect , . . . , at least until that finally becomes too painful).

Hanna now that you have seen McCain rail against earmarks and pork for the past several weeks how does it sit with you that McCain voted for the bail out bill with an additional $150bil added on to it? The hypocrisy of this leaves me stunned. This lack of leadership on McCains part exposes not only McCain but all of the borrow and spend republicans that deemed this pork necessary for the hypocrites they are.
Not that the dems are much better, but to borrow $7bil from my grandkids and great grandkids is one thing but to cut taxes as part of the bill and add pork to it should be criminal and they should be ashamed of themselves. Our choice is clear unfortunately tax and spend or borrow and spend, as a young person there is only 1 thing worse that tax and spend and that Hanna is borrrow and spend.

I share your concerns for the country and economy, LA Hanna, but I'm curious--on what evidence do you base your belief that Democrats will be less responsible with the federal budget? During your lifetime, the huge federal deficits accumulated during the Reagan administration were turned into budget surpluses by the Clinton administration, and then the surpluses were thrown away and record deficits run up under George W. Bush. And no, it is not Congress' fault; the budgets Reagan proposed were even larger than those Congress approved. There is just no consensus even within parties on what to cut.

The fact is, the great majority of federal spending is not optional: it is for defense, social security, and interest on the federal debt. The rest goes to federal salaries, national parks, museums, education and homeland security. Other federal spending helps maintain our economy by providing information, safety regulation, and job training. Yes, there is wasteful spending, but the actual percentage is very small. Democratic Vice President Al Gore is the only recent presidential candidate who actually succeeded in shrinking government and making it more efficient while in office; Reagan and the Bushes grew government.

John McCain has not proposed any spending cuts that will save even 10% of the $300 billion he wants to give in tax breaks to millionaires. He has not actively supported investment in alternative energy sources, which Thomas Friedman, author of several books on the global economy, argues persuasively will be the economic engine of this century. You and your friends will have better jobs and wages as a result of the pragmatic policies of an Obama presidency.

Its time to FIGHT! Strike back against these media weapons of mass distortion!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K50TS0UZE7w

Some good info in that video, but too bad it is spoiled by fueling and wallowing in the partisan warfare.

People should watch that video, but they should not fall for the partisan bias and the typical fueling-of and wallowing-in the blind, circular, distracting, partisan warfare.

The fueling and wallowing in the circular, divisive, distracting partisan warfare is for people who care more about THEIR party than their country.

At any rate, the voters have the government that the voters elect (and re-elect, and re-elect, and re-elect , . . . , at least until that finally becomes too painful).

The Root of the Problem - The Subprime Primer:
(01.01) Mr. Jack wants a loan and he goes to see a mortgage broker. Mr. Jack says, I have no money for a down payment and I can't afford the monthly payment if the interest rate goes up. Can you help me?
(01.02) Mortgage Broker: Sure. Since the value of your house will always go up, we don't need a down payment anymore.
(01.01) Mortgage Broker: Can we give you a low interest rate for a few years? Later, we will raise it.
(01.03) Mr. Jack: Sure, no problem. One problem though. My employer is a jerk and he may not verify my employment. Is that a problem?
(01.04) Mortgage Broker: Nope. We can get a "Liar's Loan" and you can verify your own income and employment.
(01.05) Mr. Jack: You guys are awesome.
(01.06) Mortgage Broker: Well, we don't actually lend you money. A bank will do that, so we don't care if you repay the loan. We still get our commission.
(01.07) Mr. Jack: Cool !

(02.01) Later, Mr. Banker says: Wow, what a bunch of crappy loans. I'd better get rid of these. The really smart guys on Wall Street will buy them and do their magic.

(03.01) Later, Mr. Wall Street Investment Banker: Phew! What a bunch of crappy loans. We'd better get rid of these. We will create a new security called a CDO (or CMO), and sell it to investors. We will pool the crappy loans with some good loans with good ratings, and sell them all over the world. And since home prices always go up, we'll be fine. The SEC won't let us sell this crap to widows and orphans, so we will sell it to insurance companies like AIG, banks, small towns in Norway, school boards in Kansas, and anyone looking for an investment. Then we will set up a shell company in the Cayman Islands to take ownership of some of the crappiest loans via a "Special Purpose Vehicle", and put the crap on their balance sheet instead of ours. Then we will get Congress to go along by telling them that it is vitally important to the health of the U.S. financial systems that investors not have the transparancey to know about these complex transactions.

(04.01) Later, seeing massive layoffs (10,000 per month by Aug-2008), Mr. John Q. Public: Mr. Congressman, as a concerned citizen and investor, I demand our financial institutions show greater transparency.
(04.02) Mr. Congress person: No. Get lost. How dare you or any voter demand transparency and accountability! ? !

(05.01) Later, Later, Mr. Norweigan Town Pension Fund Administrator: Hey, Mr. Wall Street Investment Banker, what's up? We're not receiving our payments?
(05.02) Mr. Wall Street Investment Banker: Yeah, Sorry. I meant to call you about that. The people who took out the mortgages can't re-pay their mortgages.
(05.03) Mr. Norweigan Town Pension Fund Administrator: Wait a minute, I thought we bought AAA CDO's. You know - safe investments.
(05.04) Mr. Wall Street Investment Banker: Well, unfortunately, the loans are crappier than we originally thought. We are as unhappy as you about it, Mr. Norweigan Town Pension Fund Administrator.
(05.05) Mr. Norweigan Town Pension Fund Administrator: But you told me home prices always go up, and borrowers can always refinance.
(05.06) Mr. Wall Street Investment Banker: Yeah, that was a bad assumption. We screwed up. Sorry, Mr. Norweigan Town Pension Fund Administrator.
(05.07) Mr. Norweigan Town Pension Fund Administrator: Bad assumption my frigid Norweigan ass! What about the AAA rating?
(05.08) Mr. Wall Street Investment Banker: They screwed up too.
(05.09) Mr. Norweigan Town Pension Fund Administrator: But these securities were insured. What about the insurers?
(05.10) Mr. Wall Street Investment Banker: They're broke. They screwed up too.
(05.11) Mr. Norweigan Town Pension Fund Administrator: Well, that's just great. What am I supposed to tell my village pensioners?
(05.12) Mr. Wall Street Investment Banker: Tell them you screwed up.
(05.13) Mr. Norweigan Town Pension Fund Administrator: Screw you.
(05.14) Mr. Wall Street Investment Banker: No, Screw you.

(06.01) Mr. Wall Street Investment Banker: Mr. Congressperson, We need a bail-out.
(06.02) Mr. Congressperson: Sure, no problem. We'll dump it on the tax payers and tell the voters that they will make a profit from all of that toxic debt. The voters are like Mikey (ya know, on the Life cereal commercial). The voters will eat anything. Even a crap sandwich. Besides, we've already been doing it for decades, and the voters continue to re-elect incumbent politicians, despite 9% approval ratings. The voters' whiny rhetoric doesn't match their voting habits. Most voters care more about THEIR party than their country. And as an incumbent politician, we are experts at tricking voters into pulling the party-lever and wallowing in the distracting, divisive partisan-warfare.
(06.03) Mr. Wall Street Investment Banker: Great. I knew you would come through Mr. Congressman. After all, we keep your campaign war chest full, so that you can enjoy perpetual re-election, since voters elect the candidate that spends the most money 90% of the time. Cha Ching!

(07.01) Mr. Voter: What the hell happened? I don't get it. I keep pulling the party-lever, and continue to reward MY incumbent politicians with perpetual re-elecion rates of 85%-to-90%, but nothing ever changes. What am I doing wrong?

(08.01) The END. : (

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzWrnUezDOU

Regarding the title of this thread, "High Finance Woes" . . .

Do you remember people telling you that GDP has been growing, and that we can't be in recession without negative GDP growth?
Look at this graph.
Look at down-turn of the GDP in 2005 Dollars (blue diamonds; near top of graph).
Look at down-turn of the GDP in 1950 Dollars (green diamonds; near bottom of graph).
GDP, measured in BOTH 2005 and 1950 Dollars, has been FALLING since year 2006!

Same graph of DEBT and GDP, but un-stretched: One-Simple-Idea.com/NationalDebtAndGDPAdjustedForInflation2005and1950Dollars.gif

Has this been reported anywhere on any news or financial channels ?

How could inflation (one-simple-idea.com/DebtAndMoney.htm#Measurement) really only be 3%-to-5% (currently reported to only be 5.37%) ?
Especially when the U.S. Dollar is falling drastically falling (one-simple-idea.com/USD_Falling.htm) against all major international currencies ?
How could the U.S. Dollar be falling so fast against all major international currencies if inflation was really only 3%-to-5% ?

HHHHMMMmmmmmmm . . . what else are we being lied to about ?
Unemployment statistics?
Income statistics?

How can we go from a "mere economic slowdown" and a "fundamentally sound economy" to "economic crisis" in the span of a few weeks?
Not even the federal government and Federal Reserve can be that incompetent, can they?
That means someone has been hiding the facts, fudging the data, and cooking the books.
It's only a matter of time before the debt pyramid becomes so large that we can't even keep up with the interest payments (that is, not without completely eroding the value of the U.S. currency).
Already, the federal government and Federal Reserve are borrowing and printing the money to merely pay the annaul $429+ Billion interest on the $10.3 Trillion national debt.

At any rate, the voters have the government that the voters elect, and re-elect, and re-elect, and re-elect , . . . , at least until that finally becomes too painful.

More...

This was posted in another blog and I thought it was important for everyone to read and know what is going on. We cannot just take a leap of faith in this years election. I was undecided for some time on what to do with my vote, I have been doing my own analization of these 2 candidates, and ignoring the pundits. The person who posted the following, this is something that would not in the least bit surprise me... this is a good example of how much of a game politics is and how very worried we all should be about it!
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
McCain voters, ignore the polls!
Ok, I want to clear my conscious a little. Hopefully you could make a blog post to help some fellow clinton supporters out.

I work for a campaign and can’t wait for this week to be over.

I was doing it for a job. I was not a fan of any candidate but over time grew to love HRC.

The internal campaign idea is to twist, distort, humiliate and finally dispirit you.

We pay people and organize people to go to all the online sites and “play the part of a clinton or mccain supporter who just switched our support for obama”

We do this to stifle your motivation and to destroy your confidence.

We did this the whole primary and it worked.

Sprinkle in mass vote confusion and it becomes bewildering. Most people lose patience and just give up on their support of a candidate and decide to just block out tv, news, websites, etc.

This surprisingly has had a huge suppressing movement and vote turnout issues.

Next, we infiltrate all the blogs and all the youtube videos and overwhelm the voting, the comments, etc. All to continue this appearance of overwhelming world support.

People makes posts to the effect that the world has “gone mad”

Thats the intention. To make you feel stressed and crazy and feel like the world is ending.

We have also had quite a hand in skewing many many polls, some we couldn’t control as much as we would have liked. But many we have spoiled over. Just enough to make real clear politics look scarey to a mccain supporter. Its worked, alough the goal was to appear 13-15 points ahead.

see, the results have been working. People tend to support a winner, go with the flow, become “sheeple”

The polls are roughly 3-5 points in favor of Barack. Thats due to our inflation of the polls and pulling in the sheeple.

Our donors, are the same people who finance the MSM. Their interests are tied, Barack then tends to come across as teflon. Nothing sticks. And trust, there were meetings with Fox news. The goal was to blunt them as much as possible. Watch Bill Oreilly he has become much more diplomatic and “fair and balanced” and soft. Its because he wants to retain the #1 spot on cable news and to do that he has to have access to the Obama campaign and we worked hard at stringing him a long and keeping him soft for an interview swap. It worked and now he is anticipating more access. So he is playing it still soft.

This is why nothing sticks.

The operation is massive, the goal is to paint a picture that is that of a winner, regardless of the results.

There is no true inauguration draft or true grant park construction going on. There will be a party, but we are boasting beyond the truth to make it seem like the election is wrapped up.

Our goal is to continue to make you lose your moral. We worked hard at persuasion and paying off and timing and playing the right political numbers to get key republican endorsements to make it seem even more like it was over and the world was coming to an end for you all.

There is a huge staff of people working around the clock, watching every site, blogs, etc. We flood these sites. We have had a goal to overwhelm.

The truth is here. I could go on and on, but you get the picture.

I am saying this because I know HRC was better for the country, and now realize this. I was too late by the time I connected to her. To me Barack was just a cool young dude that seemed like a star. I didn’t know him or his policies, but now I understand more than I care to and I realize his interests are more for him, and the DNC and all working like puppets with dean. I always thought a president wanted the better good for the country. The end result I see is everyone dependent on the government, this means more and more people voting for the DNC. This means the future is forever altered. I don’t see this as america, so I am now supporting John Mccain.

Sarah Palin is a huge threat, and our campaign has feared her like you can’t imagine. If it seems unfair how she has been treated, well its because she has had a team working round the clock to make her look like a fool.

this is a big conspiracy and I am so shocked that its not realized.

We released a little blurb the other day that the Obama campaign was already working on reelection and now putting our efforts towards 2012. This was to make it seem like it was above us to continue caring about 2008. Trust me, its a lie. David is very smart, but its a sticky ugly not very truthful kind of intelligence.

Its not over yet, but I think the machine is working. And its a hill to climb.

I will be quitting my post on nov 5th and my vote will be for John Mccain. Fortunately, my position has been a marketing position and I don’t feel I had any part of anything I would feel guilty for. But I look forward to getting out of this as the negativity and environment upsets me.

I wish you all well, and goodluck.

PS my name is not really sarah. but I am a female and I understand your plight

So, LA Hanna, what do you think of McCain's great giveaway of a $5000 tax credit to every working person for health care? Or how about McCain's tax package which would add 1.2 trillion dollars more to the national debt than Barack Obama's tax plan?

How about across the board spending cuts? Will that affect your ability to fund a college education? Youbetcha, lady!

How, a Republican can stand witness to the doubling of the national debt under Republicans and insist on another Republican to continue another 4 years, on a policy of reducing government revenues and thereby increasing national debt, is beyond me.