The Long Cold Winter

[geekster]

I don't watch 60 minutes, haven't watched it in years. But of course you are going to find personal validation in anything that would advocate "taxing the rich". That is not surprising judging from what we have seen you post so far. That doesn't mean that it will have its intended impact. If your goal is to improve the economic situation of the country, you aren't going to be able to tax the rich to get out of it or to even help in any measurable way and in fact it can make the problem worse. If you goal is simply class warfare and you want to "punish" the rich, that goal is easily attainable.

If you want to appeal to people's emotions when they are on hard times with an approach of "look, there is someone who isn't hurting as much as you are, lets take away their stuff and make them more like you!" and put government into the Robin Hood business, I suppose that can be done but it has never succeeded anywhere it has been tried. That approach makes things worse. Every time. EVERY time.

It is not the role of government to manage the wealth of its citizens, redistribute it, decide how much is too much or not enough, etc. In fact, any time it is attempted to centrally manage a market, it ends in disaster. There has never been a successful case yet demonstrated yet it has been tried many times.

In fact, today the administration is talking just the opposite. Today the administration is saying "maybe extending those tax cuts for everyone isn't such a bad idea after all". I am guessing that 60 Minutes either didn't get that memo or their production cycle is too long to quickly adjust to a flailing administration. Actually, to be fair, this latest flag up the pole only came out today.

I learned many years ago that the two people on this planet to be feared most are a Lieutenant with a screwdriver and a Corporal with a clipboard. Obama is the Lieutenant with a screwdriver. He wants to monkey around with something he does not understand while reading manuals written by people who also have no experience in economics but think they have a pretty good idea of how things "should" work. That is called "living in a fantasy world". It is having some notion in your head about how things ought to be but having no real understanding of how things work or why they are how they are.

American politics are changing in ways that might just make your head explode, so be ready. The minorities that the Democrats have taken for granted for so long are beginning to ask what they have to show for their support over the past 50 years. Why do Democrats never really seem to solve problems, just make it easier to live with them? Why are areas run by Democrats in much worse shape than places run by Republicans? Even center Democrats these days are supporting Republicans (Ed Koch for example).

The face of the Republican Party is changing:

[youtube][/youtube]

Everything you thought you knew is changing.

But what it all boils down to is that people have to take some personal responsibility for their situation and place some personal investment of time and effort into improving it. I don't have the slightest problem giving someone who wants help a helping hand. If someone is chronically unemployed, lets try to look at the underlying causes. Was the person a dropout? If yes, why? Is it because they can't read well? If so, that can be fixed. If they want to improve their situation, I don't believe anyone has the slightest problem giving them the tools they need to do so and seeing them put in that effort gains them respect from their community AND from themselves. Americans have a natural affection for the underdog who works their way out. But simply tossing money at these people and sweeping them under the rug doesn't do them or us any favors.

It needs to involve effort on both sides and they need to meet in the middle, or at least try to. There has to be a social contract. You can get tools and skills you need to advance yourself but you also need to put in the effort to make use of them. And the implication of that is that if you don't put forth the effort, then the community isn't either. There is along with that carrot, a stick. If you don't put forth the effort, the free ride stops. We just can't afford it. We are out of money. We are now spending the earnings of our grandchildren. It has gotten completely out of control and it just has to stop.

This is what you are facing:

[youtube][/youtube]

[can't sit still]

I started this thread 3 years ago to give y'all a heads-up on the approaching problems. I'm going to slow down my posts. Y'all are aware now of potential problems. QE II is an attempt to rape the rest of the world,,,, IMF style. The R.O.W. is starting to resist this.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... &aid=21716
They need some serious capital controls to fight off the unlimited dollar printing.
The money managers are trying to abandon the dollar and move their capital into emerging markets and commodities. This trashes the R.O.W.
The U.S. GOV is at war with the R.O.W. This war will not be won by the military. It will be won by the computer.
I'm hungry now so, i have to finish later.

[can't sit still]

Here's a short vid with BBB Bernanke and Greenspan. Pretty funny;

At the moment, GOV is flooding the world with cheap dollars. GOV wants to export inflation to all corners of the R.O.W. The FED is actively trying to destroy all currency.
The Bretton Woods agreement was set so that everyone could agree on currency values. There was NO possible way to calculate that value independently.
Today, we have computers. THEY can calculate the value. We could slip into a point where we didn't need currency,,, dollars or others.
A program could calculate EVERY single last fact and facet of a country's economy and come up with a daily value for it. this would eventually morph into an independent unit of value with each country's unit referenced to their production.
This would be far better than referencing it to gold or some other single commodity.

It is important to consider;
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brett-kin ... tml?ref=tw

Think about the FOREX. They trade $ 3 trillion a day. If that volume of trade can be accommodated in currency, it could also be accommodated in goods. Industry could create a "base unit of value" It could assign a arbitrary value to every product. The free market would dictate where that value would rest. It would take a lot to work this out but, it's far better than grossly subsidizing the parasites.
I'm hungry again.
Food for thought;
http://www.runtogold.com/2010/11/fiat-c ... onspiracy/
Dan

[can't sit still]

Much of what is being done with the economy is counter-productive. Many decisions are "kicked down the road" in the hopes that the economy will grow itself out of the current problems. Some of the projected solutions are hopelessly screwed up;
"The Fed is saying don’t worry about mark to market losses because we will hold the bonds. The Fed is saying don’t worry about inflation because we will sell the bonds. Both of those statements cannot be true at the same time. You can hold bonds and you can sell bonds but you can’t do both at once. "
http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/ ... krupt.html
The FED is pretty much bankrupt. I seriously doubt that congress would loan them assets. Dunno where this all leads to. It will depend on the actions taken by our bank-controlled GOV.

[can't sit still]

Here's a vid that is bleak;

It's also filled with inaccuracies.

[geekster]

Exactly as predicted:

New York state manufacturing unexpectedly plunged in November, the first contraction since July 2009 when the US economy exited recession, official data showed Monday.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported its manufacturing activity index dropped to minus 11.1 points in November, from a positive 15.7 points in the previous month.

The Empire State Manufacturing Survey index is considered a bellwether of the manufacturing sector which has been a key strength in the economic recovery.

It was the first time the index fell below zero since July 2009, the month after the worst recession in decades was officially declared over.

The sharp 27-point decline surprised analysts, who had forecast on average a slip to a positive 11.7-point reading.

The new orders index plummeted to minus 24.4 points, from positive 12.9 points in October.

(I believe they mean October, not November, in those earlier numbers but this is a report from the French press, so they can be forgiven, I guess)

As we approach the end of the year, manufacturing is going to come to a grinding halt as most companies have already bought most of what they think they will need for the next two years in terms of "durable goods". That means that manufacturing orders are going to sink like a rock.

Cisco Systems last week reduced their Q4 earnings expectation too, as they are also seeing the downturn. Companies bought a lot of network gear in Q2 and Q3 in order to buy it under the current favorable tax regulations that expire on January 1.

[Ugly Dougly]

http://www.wset.com/Global/story.asp?S=13510268

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) - The Navy's newest nuclear-powered submarine has reached a significant milestone.

Northrop Grumman says the Virginia-class submarine California was launched at its Newport News shipyard over the weekend. Officials say the launch is important in the life of a submarine because it's the first time the ship is put into the water.

Shipbuilders moved the 7,800-ton ship out of the construction facility to the floating dry dock last week. The dock was then submerged into the James River. Tugboats then moved the California to the shipyard's submarine pier where final outfitting and testing will take place.

California is the eighth ship of the Virginia Class. The $2.3 billion submarine is 377 feet long and can dive to depths greater than 800 feet.

Maybe instead of "honoring" the Golden State by naming this boat after California, you think Sacramento could use $2.3 billion???

[geekster]

It isn't up to the taxpayers of the other 49 states to fund California's fiscal irresponsibility. California needs to spend within its revenue stream. Asking for the taxpayers of the other states to contribute to California's irresponsibility is rather arrogant.

The answer isn't "get more money from taxpayers outside of California". The answer is "spend only what the taxpayers of California can provide".

With this new Congress, California's federal money tit is probably going to dry up and we are going to need to live within our means. Interesting concept that seems alien to many people.

[ygmir]

It isn't up to the taxpayers of the other 49 states to fund California's fiscal irresponsibility. California needs to spend within its revenue stream. Asking for the taxpayers of the other states to contribute to California's irresponsibility is rather arrogant.

The answer isn't "get more money from taxpayers outside of California". The answer is "spend only what the taxpayers of California can provide".

With this new Congress, California's federal money tit is probably going to dry up and we are going to need to live within our means. Interesting concept that seems alien to many people.

+1

[Ugly Dougly]

I'd say this country needs California more than it needs another sub.

[can't sit still]

The LONG, LONG cold winter.

You need to understand Stealth Economic Warfare

by Dick Eastman

What is the connection between Wal Mart, the trade deficit, foreclosures and the end of domestic middle-class ownership of the means of production?

After careful economic survey of your town's economic environment one or more Wal Mart stores are built. Wal Mart with economies of scale, a surplus war chest for cut-throat competition and advantages in the import of foreign produced goods, Wal Mart focuses on driving each locally owned or domestically owned competitor out of business. People may not want to shop at Wal Mart but their own budgets and deflation which makes "making ends meet" progressively more difficult forces them to give in sooner or later. Only after the local competition is bankrupt will prices climb to monopoly pricing levels. What you don't know is that this is but one aspect of a grand strategy for conquest without war waged by an international elite against us.

In the days of regulated international trade what is being done would be called "dumping." Where one industrial country's monopoly corporations dump their unsold surplus on another. (The surplus is unsold because the workers of those countries are deprived of purchasing power, it being drained off in taxes and interest payments, and monopoly pricing.) Dumping undercuts what the local producers can profitably produce and so forces the replacement of self-sufficient local production with international dependency -- dependency on foreign supply. But there is more to what is happening today than that.

Today, the financial sector is allied with the foreign trade sector in intensifying the power of this economic weapon to the destructive equivalent of an H-bomb attack. Wal Mart undercuts while at the same time the American people lose their manufacturing base and all profit from domestic production of goods and services. Normally this would end because the people who no longer produce for export cannot continue to buy imports. That is where the the financial sector comes in and "supersizes" the catastrophe. When people lost their jobs and their small businesses there was a great reduction in money staying local. Profits that used to be realized in your town used to stay in your town. Now all of the profits go to the international corporations. This means less money in circulation in the domestic economy -- in addition to the reduction of purchasing power resulting from general deflation in the domestic loop due to pro-creditor monetary and credit policies. But it did not end because the financial sector jumped in with offering homeowners very easy terms on loans, so that, in exchange for all of their wealth as collateral, second mortgage and easy business loans were extended that put money in the system that allowed the people to continue importing goods that their production was no longer able to pay for. But of course the amount of a loan received must be paid back in that same amount plus compound interest -- but people did not see what was going on. Not only were they to ignorant of economics, but the media that should have known and reported to them was actually owned by the very interests waging this economic war. Those who saw it coming were marginalized by gatekeeping and misrepresentation.

So we mortgaged the farm and everything else to keep up the standard of living we had been accustomed to and that we expected would remain normal into the future. The average American had no idea that everyone was living on everyone else's borrowed time.

So not only did they enemy dump their goods on our economy and drive us out of our means of livelihood, they just kept us cannibalizing ourselves by taking out loans. But the enemy was not really stuck with bad loans, because all of our loans were backed by our last holdings of real wealth -- the remaining equity in or homes and whatever earning power the lender though worthy of attaching and, in the last resort, the government stepping in to make good on our payments when we failed to make our debt payments -- meaning that the government is guaranteeing to high finance that if they make a loan contract and the loan goes bad, the government will make it good by going after other citizens who still have untaxed income, citizens who had no part of that contract -- which is the essence of total debt slavery in a nation.

They loan us the money so we can continue to buy from China through Wal Mart and they allow us hock everything we own so we may continue to buy foreign instead of buying domestic, and when -- because of lack of earnings at home we can no longer keep up our debt payments, the government bails (with a borrowings also at interest!!!) and the government will use the IRS and bankruptcy law to get the rest.


The result is the transfer of all the wealth of a nation to the internationalists, global organized crime aiming at the new owners and rulers of the world -- the end of self-sufficient and self-respecting middle-class existence under the Jeffersonian model -- the "liberal" model of freedom from money power aristocrat tyranny.

I don't think enough people are seeing this.

Dick Eastman -- the anti-Beck anti-Paul anti-Celente anti-gold Mormon
Yakima, Washington

My solution:

http://www.citizensamericaparty.org/socialcredit.htm

From Vicky Davis;

http://www.economyincrisis.org/content/ ... astructure
Sovereign Wealth Funds Buying Up Infrastructure

Not content to sit on the trillions in profits they have made selling overpriced oil to the Western world, Middle Eastern governments from Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates are using their massive reserves of dollars to purchase U.S. assets across the country, according to Matt Taibbi’s new book Griftopia, which is previewed in October's Rolling Stone Magazine.

“There are now highways, airports, parking garages, toll roads — almost everything you can think of that isn't nailed down and some things that are — for sale, to bidders unknown, around the world,â€

[can't sit still]

One thing that we can be very sure of is; very few understand the economic problems. Here's some excerpts from a very interesting article.

" On November 15, the Wall Street Journal published an open letter to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke from 23 noted economists, professors and fund managers, urging him to abandon his new “quantitative easingâ€

[can't sit still]

This is a post from Dick Eastman and others that goes a long way towards explaining the "method" behind much of the financial crash.


It's more complicated than simple text book inflation.

by Dick Eastman

The dollar is being inflated outside the domestic economy in the international currency markets. At home we have deflation. And between the international outer loop where dollars are expanding in supply and the domestic loop where M1 is being even further tightened, there is the international lender who extends credit so we can buy at foreign inflated prices with our miserable deflated incomes. I know no one else is saying that -- but all of them are passing on what they learned from text books and what they are being told by very intelligent creditor class people who lie to us so we will continue to go along with being swindled. No one in the media or government really understands the economy, except the paid liars managing this theft.

The inflation is only international -- or more properly when lower domestic loop dollars are worth less in the currency markets due to Bernanke pumped supply (which is not going to the domestic loop) and bearishness on the part of currency speculators -- worth less compared to currencies of the nations we buy from. But the outer loop and its plentiful supply of dollars is walled off from the inner loop of scarce (deflated) purchasing power and monopoly pricing -- at the interchange between the two loops is the international lender ready to extend credit so we can buy the foreign goods the buying of which must be debt financed -- where we buy foreign currencies to pay for imports. At home there is deflation. No money to buy or produce local products, but plenty of money to buy on credit products from abroad. If you miss that you miss everything and are probably making the monstrous mistake of thinking that gold can rescue us from "inflation" in the simple economics text book sense -- in fact gold would only lock in continuing domestic circulation deflation.

The Fed is goosing the elite loop money supply -- and none of it is reaching the lower loop which need an injection of purchasing power to save us.

This is the real key to understanding the economic crisis. Stop listening to Glenn Beck, Celente, Rand and Ron who are not really on your side -- and get with the populist remedy that takes money creation and credit monopoly out of the hands of the financial sector.

Dick Eastman
Yakima, Washington

American Bankers' Association agreement, 1891, as printed in the Congressional Record, 29 April, 1913:

On September 1st, 1894, we will not renew our loans under any consideration. On Sept. 1st we will demand our money. We will foreclose and become mortgagees in possession. We can take two-thirds of the farms west of the Mississippi and thousands of them east of the Mississippi as well, at our own price. . . . farmers will become tenants as in England."


From the "Banker's Manifest", 1892, for the private circulation among leading bankers only, taken from the "Civil Servants' Year Book, "The Organizer" of January, 1934:

http://circleof13.blogspot.com/2008/11/ ... -1892.html

“Capital must protect itself in every way, through combination and through legislation. Debts must be collected and loans and mortgages foreclosed as soon as possible. When through a process of law, the common people have lost their homes, they will be more tractable and more easily governed by the strong arm of the law applied by the central power of wealth, under control of leading financiers. People without homes will not quarrel with their leaders. This is well known among our principle men now engaged in forming an IMPERIALISM of capital to govern the World. By dividing the people we can get them to expend their energies in fighting over questions of no importance to us except as teachers of the common herd. Thus by discrete action we can secure for ourselves what has been generally planned and successfully accomplished.â€

[geekster]

New orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods unexpectedly fell in October to post their largest decline in nearly two years and business capital spending plans dropped, according to a government report on Wednesday that pointed to a slowdown in factory activity.

The Commerce Department said durable goods orders tumbled 3.3 percent, the largest decline since January 2009, after surging by a revised 5 percent. Economists had expected orders to be flat in October after a previously reported 3.5 percent jump.

Excluding transportation, orders dropped 2.7 percent, the biggest fall since March 2009, after a revised 1.3 percent increase in September, which was previously reported as a 0.4 percent. Economists had expected orders excluding transportation to rise 0.6 percent in October.

The drop in orders last month was almost across the board, with hefty declines in bookings for machinery, computers, communications equipment and defense aircraft.

Things moving exactly as expected with current policy. This administration and this outgoing Congress is apparently intentionally killing the economy. Nothing is going to move until tax policy is clear. As long as we have this ambiguous debate on if current tax policy will be extended or not, people are going to be tight with the purse strings. These idiots didn't even pass a budget.

[geekster]

Oh, and there's this:

Sales of new single-family houses in October 2010 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 283,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 8.1 percent (±16.1%)* below the revised September rate of 308,000 and is 28.5 percent (±12.6%) below the October 2009 estimate of 396,000.

The median sales price of new houses sold in October 2010 was $194,900; the average sales price was $248,200. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of October was 202,000. This represents a supply of 8.6 months at the current sales rate.

[can't sit still]

Individual productivity has gone way up in America in the last few decades. Wages have not gone up since 1971. OK, so, we're producing way more for the same money. That wasn't enough to maintain us in our accustomed style of living so we spent future wages to maintain our standard. [credit]
The banks judged us to be credit-worthy because we had jobs. The banks judged states and cities to be credit-worthy because they had tax-authority...... on people who had jobs.

The population of Cleavland has fallen 50% since 1950 because they shipped out jobs. Since 1950, we've only accelerated the elimination of jobs. The banks were slow to catch on to the fact that our aggregate earning power was diminishing quite a bit. THEY papered it over with credit.
We were short on money but, the banks covered us because we had jobs. Our personal aggregate earning power was dropping steadily. The banks payed more attention to employment rates rather than personal earnings.
Greenspan turned on the money tap so that we didn't have to live commensurate with our current earnings. The banks actively, knowingly aided and abetted this bubble. They collected their fees and schlepped the loan over to Mac n Mae. They also securitized it all to avoid any loss.

They knowingly made all these loans on inflated houses to people who didn't qualify. This part of the guilt goes all the way down to branch managers and loan officers. They're all culpable. They knowingly made bad loans but are going to avoid taking any losses. That's their plan anyway.

In the larger picture, how long can a society hold together if the leaders are all criminals who never get punished? It doesn't matter if incentive [profit motive] is removed by socialist criminals or fascist criminals. Without incentive, the economy remains moribund.
The corporations are doing great. It hasn't occurred to them that they will starve the goose that lays the golden eggs.
http://www.legitgov.org
All links are here:
http://www.legitgov.org/#breaking_news

Corporate Profits Were Highest on Record Last Quarter 24 Nov 2010 The nation’s workers may be struggling, but American companies just had their best quarter ever. American businesses 'earned' profits at an annual rate of $1.66 trillion in the third quarter, according to a Commerce Department report released Tuesday. That is the highest figure recorded since the government began keeping track over 60 years ago, at least in nominal or non-inflation-adjusted terms. Corporate profits have been going gangbusters for a while. Since their cyclical low in the fourth quarter of 2008, profits have grown for seven consecutive quarters, at some of the fastest rates in history.
I'm sure that this is real inspiring news to the 44 million on food stamps.


It appears that criminals and special-interest groups plan to gut whatever wealth remains in the country. Not much future there.
Happy Thanksgiving

[can't sit still]

This paper presents info about the rich gaining so much more than the not-rich from economic expansion.
"C.E.O.’s of the largest American companies earned an average of 42 times as much as the average worker in 1980, but 531 times as much in 2001. Perhaps the most astounding statistic is this: From 1980 to 2005, more than four-fifths of the total increase in American incomes went to the richest 1 percent. "
OK, so we all knew that money begets money and brains and persistence beget rewards.
The article goes on to point out that the inequality actually causes a shrinkage in the economy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/opini ... istof.html
It is my personal belief that it is all going to blow to hell. The dynamics of the economy are VERY dependent on consumption. Too many individuals and entities are focused on production. There is NO point in production if there is falling consumption.
The corporatists inundated us with credit so that we could fulfill their needs of consumption. Credit, minus future wages is a zero-sum game. Actually, it's less than zero-sum because of the costs of interest. We can no longer spend tomorrow's wages.
We are over-indebted so, we can no longer fulfill the corporate need for consumption.
We've reverted back to the days when we only had today's wages for today's consumption.
The bankers have pushed all the credit down our throats that we can possibly support. This fact became obvious when they pushed MORE credit than we could support and it crashed.
Their solution is to push debt down our throats in the guise of GOV spending. Just as private debt over-saturated, GOV debt is on the road to over-saturation.

Not wanting to be left out of any profit potential, investors are boning up on ways to profit from crashing GOV debt;
http://dollarcollapse.com/uncategorized ... ort-munis/
Municipal bonds are crashing because of over-commitment and because private wealth is crashing. OK, so the investors will crash Munis. The resultant conflagration will undoubtedly spread to other areas of public debt.
Short Ireland,,, short Portugal,,, short U.S. treasuries, etc.
Where does that leave the rich?

If Corporation X puts all it's profits into instruments, instead of wages, the corporation has FAR more cash. OK, sounds good. If a bank securitizes a NINJA loan, it can't lose,, because it's insured.
As we clearly see, there are FAR to many securitized loans defaulting to ever be repaid by "insurance". TOO many loans and never enough insurance reserves.

If all the corporations put all their profits into instruments, this wealth that is withdrawn is too remote to ever be used in consumption. The corporations are so focused on production that, they never focus on the purchasing power of their prospective clients / consumers.
This enormous "ball of wealth" has reached a point where it is only an abstract idea. It can never be condensed into consumption. If it can't be redeemed as something tangible or productive, it has no value.

As investors vaporize a stock here and a bond there, they chip away at the notion of value of ALL instruments. When they attack a whole class of instruments [munis], they show ever-increasing weakness in instruments as a whole.
Sure, they may vaporize munis and collect their rewards in dollars. But, what if the dollars are vaporized? If / when, investors vaporize enough instruments to cause a general flight FROM instruments, where will they take their hundreds of $ trillions?

These hundreds of $ trillions can't flow into tangibles. It would inflate the price of tangibles to where the purchasing power of the great masses would be insufficient to consume anything at all.
The corporatists have accumulated about $ 10 quadrillion worth of instruments by withholding wealth from circulation. Wealth that does not circulate eventually becomes worthless.
Investors are NOT making wealth in the long run. They are only making money. At the same time, they are chipping away at confidence in instruments.
Banks are singularly focused on greed. As long as the banks control GOV, there will be no hindering of those who are chipping away at the reputation / confidence of instruments.
Since the U.S. current debt is very close to it's GDP, what do you think will be the value of it's instruments in the future?

The question du jour is; How many instrument classes can be destroyed without losing investor's faith in instruments?

[can't sit still]

Hungary is broke,,, just like Argentina was. They have told their people,"give us all your pension money or we'll just take it"
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-2 ... -some.html
The U.S. is talking about doing the same thing. They want all the private pension funds to be invested in GOV securities. What a screw job

[Deb Prothero]

The headline might be a bit overblown but there was a little push back from Russia and China today...

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles ... .S.+Dollar

[can't sit still]

Deb, it's not overblown. Russia is the number 2 oil exporter. I expect that they will prefer oil payments in non-dollars. All central banks hold dollars to make oil payments. They won't need these dollars anymore... not for Russian oil anyway. China just signed a 10 year oil agreement with Brazil. Russia and China just signed huge uranium purchase agreements also. They're bypassing the dollar. The dollar is slowly being shunned.
OPEC may very well follow the example of Russia. 2/3 of U.S. dollars circulate out side the U.S. If these were all repatriated for tangibles, we would have severe price inflation in several areas. R O W is also reducing the maturity of their U.S. instruments.
The day is not too far off when the FED will have to buy ALL the long-dated U.S. debt instruments. OPEC won't be interested in selling us oil.
Our number one oil supplier will receive new money with the ink still wet. YOU know who I mean. The U.S. has done all it could to keep Canada from completing a pipeline to the coast so that they could export oil to other countries besides America.
We will buy Canadian trees for a penny and make $ 100 bills out of them. Then we will send back these $ 100 bills and buy your oil. You can burn these bills to keep warm.

[Deb Prothero]

Deb, it's not overblown.

yes, I feared as much.

Russia is the number 2 oil exporter. I expect that they will prefer oil payments in non-dollars. All central banks hold dollars to make oil payments. They won't need these dollars anymore... not for Russian oil anyway. China just signed a 10 year oil agreement with Brazil. Russia and China just signed huge uranium purchase agreements also. They're bypassing the dollar. The dollar is slowly being shunned.

And rightfully so. Unfortunately a bit of a reality check is needed.

OPEC may very well follow the example of Russia. 2/3 of U.S. dollars circulate out side the U.S. If these were all repatriated for tangibles, we would have severe price inflation in several areas. R O W is also reducing the maturity of their U.S. instruments.
The day is not too far off when the FED will have to buy ALL the long-dated U.S. debt instruments. OPEC won't be interested in selling us oil.

OPEC discussed this very subject at their last meetings according to reports. they pulled back and decided to give y'all some breathing space. Now that the ROW sees that you can't deal out the truth to your own people and get support for stringent measures, then the ROW sees you as having less moral authority.

Our number one oil supplier will receive new money with the ink still wet. YOU know who I mean. The U.S. has done all it could to keep Canada from completing a pipeline to the coast so that they could export oil to other countries besides America.
We will buy Canadian trees for a penny and make $ 100 bills out of them. Then we will send back these $ 100 bills and buy your oil. You can burn these bills to keep warm.

Especially here in the east since we don't have a pipeline coming from the west. Albertans would sell "their" oil to Americans just to spite us here in the east.

[Deb Prothero]

oh and lest you think I've got my head in the clouds about our role - here's this week's blockbuster news.

Our current PM is a neo-con and his environment minister is an unschooled ignoramus. I don't agree with much of anything that they do or say. However this report points to scandalous underhanded behaviour which cannot be condoned.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/pol ... le1809399/

[can't sit still]

Deb,,, from your link, "Canada has committed to reducing its emissions by 17 per cent from 2005 levels by 2020, but has produced no plan to do so."
I can understand why they're all meeting in Cancun. The climate is great. I'm sure that it will be much warmer than in Kyoto or Copenhagen. I doubt that serious negotiations will take more than 10 minutes.

[Here and there]

I don't have the slightest problem giving someone who wants help a helping hand. If someone is chronically unemployed, lets try to look at the underlying causes. Was the person a dropout? If yes, why? Is it because they can't read well? If so, that can be fixed. If they want to improve their situation, I don't believe anyone has the slightest problem giving them the tools they need to do so and seeing them put in that effort gains them respect from their community AND from themselves. Americans have a natural affection for the underdog who works their way out. But simply tossing money at these people and sweeping them under the rug doesn't do them or us any favors.

Two words: unemployed PhDs. We're not just talking about PhDs in French literature, either. Drop by the IEEE, and take a look at what has been happening to engineers in this country. Then Google "overqualified" and "long term unemployed". Would you seriously try to claim that somebody who's just been through a PhD program can't read well enough, geekster? I'd lay serious odds that he can read far better than you ever could or ever will.

You talk about your beliefs about the realities greeting the unemployed, and that's the problem. Too many people will treat your beliefs as beliefs, and insist that the rest of us should respect them and you. Jesus being the son of God, Italian women being prettier than Russian women, summer being more pleasant than autumn - these are beliefs. Highly qualified applicants being stonewalled by the people in Human Resources - that's a fact. It's an ugly fact that nobody in this country has any excuse for being ignorant of, any more.

There was a time when I would try to reason with somebody like you. But then there was also a time when I would try to reason with people who believed that the earth was flat, that aliens built the pyramids, that cars could be run on water, or any had embraced any other kind of pseudoscientific crankery. I learned not to do that, because of an inevitability to be found in the path the discussion would take. After one had exploded every single argument that the crank had to offer, he'd just start all over again, as if the discussion had never taken place, hoping to win an argument in which the facts weren't on his side just by being persistent enough. That's what Conservatives, as a group, are doing right now, and have been doing through a few decades of steadily deepening misery. It's the mark of a crank, and it's a sign that the dialogue should end.

But what it all boils down to is that people have to take some personal responsibility for their situation and place some personal investment of time and effort into improving it.

Had I invested enough "time and effort" into "improving my situation" by the time I had submitted my 10,000th job application, you arrogant, worthless son of a bitch? How about my 20,000th? 30,000th? While hearing that a dean's list average (over a 3.5) from a top 20 school, one I worked my way through at a more than full time job, was not good enough to apply for entry level employment?

Consider yourself plonked. You're an asshole, and I hope that you will come to enjoy the very worst in life, finding as little realistic hope of escape from your circumstances, as have those whose suffering you have dismissed in such a condescending and cavalier manner. I'll leave you with this video to enjoy.



[youtube][/youtube]




PS. Fuck Etiquette

[Here and there]

The developed nations don't really need many people to produce what they need. They need even fewer producers when they outsource much of the labor. The parasitic sector of the population must take their sustenance from the producers. As automation increases, the net number of producers goes down. Certain sectors of the parasitic sector have been very successful at forcing the producers to support them very handsomely.

The sectors of non-producers that do not have influence are being squeezed away from the fruits of the producers.... children, Amerinds, the non-working and the non-employed.

So, I have a basic question for you: do the non-productive people deserve to live in a first world manner?

I'd add one: do the so-called "non-productive" people deserve to have civil rights? Here in Chicago, the local police have a charming habit of grabbing people who look too poor to afford lawyers, and torturing them until they confess to crimes that the police have not been able to solve. Beatings, suffocation, electroshock, guns put to the head of somebody who is then told that if his name isn't on the confession, then his brains will be on the wall. And an awful lot of poor people around here just vanish. One day, you go out and nobody knows where they went, and you never see them again. So, if one thinks the threat is a hollow one, one is mistaken.

I can already hear geekster saying "get a lawyer to work for you pro bono, if your rights are being trampled". Ever try doing that? Now, try doing that dressed as the poor usually are, in hand me downs older than we are or thrift store purchases, and try not getting thrown out of the place you're visiting, looking for a lawyer.

I remember one of oh so many magical moments, when some of Chicago's finest discovered that I had a mild case of cerebral palsy, courtesy of a botched delivery. They thought it was just hysterically funny to handcuff my hands behind my back, and make me walk down the stairs, with nobody in front of me and nobody holding me, watching me lean back into the stairs so that if I fell, I'd only bang my back and head on the concrete, instead of falling forward and breaking my neck. They'd graciously let me do that, drawing the line at letting me sit down and scoot, because where's the fun in that? And why not? What am I going to do? Sue?

This is how poor people get treated. Routinely.

Everything you say above is that they aren't "needed." Under that premise if they aren't "needed" then should they be relegated to a third-world life of poverty?

Already there. One of the jobs available, sometimes, to those without personal connections, is that of substitute teacher. I remember seeing what passed for lunch in the Chicago public school system. Two slices of wonderbread, soaked in grease, with maybe an ounce of semi-burned fried, ground meat. The kids swear they get less than that at home, and having done my stint on welfare, I don't doubt it. Try paying your bills with less than $3.00 per day, in the United States.

This is the point that conservatives refuse to get, when they compare poverty in the US with poverty elsewhere, using currency conversion rates. The poor in what is recognized as being the Third World can buy their food and pay their rent in soft currency. The poor in the United States can't. A relevant comparison would be one between what the poor can buy in one location with what they can buy in another. Do that, and you'll find that the difference between life below the povery line here and in Mexico isn't as great as advertised.

Someday computers, robots, and machines will be able to do almost all the labor for humanity. Should only the wealthy, and intelligent be able to benefit from that labor while the rest of humanity reverts to hunter gatherer modes of living?

No. That would be unethical. Only a sociopath would feel otherwise.

And, I would add, how about the intelligent but unconnected, the ones who could more than earn their keep, but aren't being allowed to? Should those who are stubbonly denied any real chance at employment because they don't have the personal connections needed to get past the front door people, because they're the wrong color or religion, because of cronyism, racism, or any number of other motivations as venal, be so reduced, as well? If so, let me leave you with a thought.

Somebody talked about how nobody was entitled to any sort of charity, but those of us in the sciences, pure and applied, who've been arbitrarily left out in the cold, have been giving out a kind of charity of our own, for years. Any one of us with even the slightest hint of skill in the learning of foreign languages, especially those in Mathematics, Physics, Electrical or Chemical Engineering and a number of other fields could probably get jobs within a week, if only we were willing to consider certain overseas offers that are always on the table, that in the past we've been reluctant to accept. There are certain technologies that are always being eagerly sought out, one above all others. Can you guess what it is?













Kind of ironic that we're at this juncture, in part, because of Bush' war on terror, isn't it?

If you push people hard enough, and long enough, they'll eventually push you back with everything they have. In the case of those excluded scientists - we're a patient bunch. It's in our nature. There's hardly a one of us who wouldn't much rather build up society rather than destroy it, but when that society seems determined to wage war against us, without provocation or mercy, patience can not and should not go on forever.

We have watched our loved ones die of diseases that were left untreated for too long, because preventative medical care is one of those "luxuries" that the poor are expected to do without. We've seen our friends brutalized, and our children, when we've been able to have children, go hungry, all so people at the lower end of the corporate food chain can work past their self-esteem issues, and so that those at the top can enjoy a few more of their luxuries maybe a few minutes sooner than they otherwise would have. Many of us have seen our old neighborhoods depopulated and reduced to ruin because, as we know all too well, so many of us being from humble backgrounds, police protection is another one of those "luxuries" than the poor are expected to pass on, a noise complaint in Streeterville being shown more concern by the authorities than a murder in Englewood.

So, eventually, one just has to ask oneself a simple question. If we are showing such remarkable charity to our fellow man, accepting misery in our own country before accepting work from its enemies, shouldn't some of that charity begin at home? At what point do we let ourselves say that enough is enough? That those who have forced such a choice bear the responsibility for its consequences? Every man for himself? I don't think Geekster has really thought that one out.

[can't sit still]

This is where I have to add my "Luddite" speel. I posted it in the Daily Bell and they accused me of being a Neo-Luddite.
At one time 44% of Americans worked on the farm. Farming was automated and mechanized. Today, about 1 % work on the farm. Those displaced went to manufacturing. Manufacturing has been mechanized, automated and outsourced.
Look at the average accountant, He can handle 20 times the volume as his predecessor from 50 years ago.

We learn specialized knowledge for specialized professions. MUCH of this specialized knowledge can be formulated into a computer program. Remember when a law office had hundreds of volumes of law books. A specialized search service does it much better. Mechanics use specialized search services for reference and trouble-shooting.

Any economy is going to have birth and death of jobs and niches. In days of old, the changes were so gradual that retirement took care of people who were obsoleted. People shifted from going into horse-related trades to automobile-related trades. Look at type-setters. How many young people opt for type-setting for a career?

The speed of change has accelerated to the point where many professions and careers do not have a life-long application. As man's efforts and labors receive ever-more amplification from machines, there will be ever-less need for man.

Some years ago, Mexico launched a comm-sat for schools in remote areas. No teachers wanted to work in the boondocks. The state hired it's most interesting, competent and charismatic teachers to teach a class in front of a camera. This was relayed to thousands of classrooms where a big monitor relayed the instruction. All, they needed was some local adult to keep order. There is NO cure for this kind of efficiency.

The unintended end result is that; as you employ a smaller and smaller percentage of the population, there is an ever-decreasing amount of purchasing power. You put 5000 teachers out of a job but, only created 200 jobs related to the comm-sat. Look at the humble forklift. You put 5 million stevedores out of work. We only need a hundred thousand workers to build and maintain forklifts.

We spent the last 60 years building labor-saving devices. We get in the mind-set to create new jobs that are designed and / or oriented to be done by a computer.

Here is something to think about and remember;
Society and the business economy has a certain set of tools in the toolbox to deal with social and economic problems. There is NOTHING in this toolbox to deal with current problems.
We've never before had birth-control.
We've never before had ultra-cheap shipping.
We've never before had unlimited credit.
We've never before had worldwide instant communications.
We've never before had unlimited productivity.
We've never before had the wholesale destruction of job niches.

THIS is why leadership is floundering and academia is helpless.
GOV has spent 15---20---30 $ trillion with little or no effect. Does that tell you that they don't have a clue?
Accepted economic policy has NO historical provisions for increasing purchasing power. If you couldn't produce adequately, you simply starved to death.
Today's world has unlimited productive capacity. There is no societal mechanism for distributing this potential largess to those who find that the economy no longer has a need or niche for them.
There is a thin net.
"At the end of December, another two million workers will join the ranks of those who have exhausted their unemployment benefits and a total of 4 million Americans will be without unemployment checks and face destitution."
http://www.opinion-maker.org/2010/11/th ... orse-news/
At the moment, there is NO mechanism for supporting these people. The states have borrowed about $ 28 billion to extend benefits.
We live in the "Machine-Age" of super-productivity. It is a disgrace that we haven't developed a mechanism that supports those who have been displaced directly or indirectly by machine efficiency.

There is much speculation that Obama and company plan to crash GOV with pedal-to-the-metal spending,,, referred to as the Cloward-Piven strategy. I don't see any hope with the present admin. A competent president would have pushed academia to put their collective heads together and produce a plan / formula to support those who have been made redundant WITHOUT killing the incentive of those still employed.
THAT is the big balancing trick. Support people adequately without killing incentive for working people. The Pres may never get the plan implemented but, it would mean a GREAT deal if a plan existed.

My fingers are getting tired. I have no such plan. The biggest obstacle that I see is human nature,,, sorry.

[geekster]

[youtube][/youtube]

And we aren't far behind.

[can't sit still]

geekster, that vid you posted is the absolute best news that I've seen in a long time. The efforts of over-laying a whole new layer of government in Europe reduced the GDP by 20 %. TOO MANY fucking bureaucrats. Like prohibition, collectivization was a "noble experiment" It doesn't fucking work. You can't rob people of their identity, crush them into a tiny box and steal their wealth,,,, and then expect them to meekly line up and bend over.

The anti-collectivization people had a shitload of evidence from the U.S.S.R. Now, the have a shitload of evidence from Western Europe.

There is a VERY important lesson that is showing it's true nature here. The Europeans did NOT get their money's worth by hiring zillions more bureaucrats to run the show.
Every specialized computer program reduces the need for workers in the private sector.
The public sector is taking on millions of new "workers".
The economy is crashing like a MOFO. When it comes time to apportion a much-reduced amount of remuneration, how are the legions of bureaucrats going to justify their jobs?
Take the dept of energy. They haven't done anything worthwhile since their inception. They mandated that we all buy CFL bulbs so that we could have poisonous mercury around the house. Have they mandated LEDs?
Anyway, GOV hires legions of people to work for GOV in the hopes that they will feel fealty to GOV and vote for lots of taxes. The money will come to a crashing halt when the bond market blows. I don't see any particular use for 25 million bureaucrats.
There just isn't enough money to go around. Why should it go to bureaucrats instead of producers?

[can't sit still]

David Walker, the former U.S. Comptroller-General flew the coop a few years ago. Recently, Rahm Emanuele flew the coop to run for mayor of Chicago, knowing that he wasn't eligible because of residency requirements. There have been a slew of desertions from the White House.
Then, there are the naysayers. The latest is Sheila Blair,, the director of the FDIC. Walker saw the approaching disaster coming 5 years ago. Blair has just come out and said that trouble is on it's way;
http://www.cnbc.com/id/40378597
Davidowitz says that the eventual crash of Spain will bring it all down;
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/ob ... 35652.html
The Euro GOV seems to admit the likelihood of Spain crashing.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-2 ... -says.html
There is no possible, practical way to bail out Spain. They have a reported 20 % unemployment and 40 % for the young. Creditors won't lend if there is no one working to repay the debt.
When the European financial system was designed, there were NO provisions for rescues or bailouts. This was quite stupid because the EMU had NO enforcement powers for financial rules. Rules but NO enforcement. They bent over backwards to get Greece to join. Greece was in default for 57 years of the previous 100 when they joined.
Seems stupid,, in hindsight.

While the EMU was being formed , the advent of containerized shipping,,, the WTO and NAFTA were all birthed. These insured the crash of the EMU AND the dollar.
Sooner or later, we're all going to get a big serving of TOAST
The Congressional Budget office has said the same thing. Is it SO late in the game that these people are not worried about hurting their careers by speaking out?[

[geekster]

There have been a slew of desertions from the White House.

It isn't just the White House, Democrat politicians are defecting en masse from the party. You won't read about it much in the major papers but if you follow the political wonk blogs like Politico, you can read about it.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45627.html

This is extremely important in a redistricting year. New York, for example, is set to lose two house seats as is Pennsylvania and possibly Ohio while Florida, Texas, and Utah are set to gain seats.

So not only have the Democrats lost elections in their districts, many will never stand a chance of gaining them back as the districts are re-drawn.

California will be an interesting teaching case over the next two years and I invite people to pay very close attention to what is going on here. I believe the basic rules of economics will again be validated. California has elected a far left governor and has a left leaning legislature at a time when the state is facing fiscal hardship. The political left is incapable of dealing with fiscal hardship in any sane way and their reaction is always to simply try to grab control of everything and manage it from the center, which just makes things worse.

Rather than loosen their grip, reduce the burden on business, industry and individuals, they always choose the other tack and that results in capital flight.

I believe the next two years will see the wholesale flight of the tech industry from California. Once this happens, there will be no getting it back. People don't seem to remember that the two original hubs of the tech industry were the route 128 area around Boston and the route 7 corridor in the Virginia suburbs of Washington DC.

The "tax the rich" scheme isn't going to work in California because "the rich" will simply flee to other states. You don't improve the situation of the poor by bringing down the rich. It isn't the role of government to confiscate the fruits of someones labor to give to someone else because it feels sorry for that person. Doing so results in simply making the entire state poorer as the rich leave and it does not address the underlying causes of why there are so many poor in the first place. Simply giving someone a check will not by itself fix that person's problem in a sustainable way.

I predict that plain old economic decisions will result in a lot more individuals and companies leaving the state after the first of the year. These will not be political decisions, but rather economic decisions though they will be rooted in the economic policy of a political ideology.

The taxpayers of the other 49 states are in no mood to continue bankrolling California's irresponsible legislature. Having pissed away all the money from its own taxpayers, it wants to piss away the tax money of the rest of the taxpayers in the country, too. That teat is about to run dry and the California legislature is going to have to grow up and so are the people.

Lets just sit back and watch the wheels fall off the cart.