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Prepare for Economic/Social/Political Chaos
The New Age: S. O. L. P. (Standard of Living Plunging) - United Serfs of
America
First, for background, click below for some "Straight Talk" from Wall
Street:
dailymotion/video/x71zxa_straight-talk-stock-market_fun
(Keep in mind the previously posted articles regarding Insider Trading
in the District of Corruption and Hank Paulson and the select group who
received inside information.)
I had originally planned to write a major commentary on the longer-term
economic future but this work, submitted by Ron Hera of Hera Research,
covers much of what I had intended to examine. The comments are his,
(mine, or other's, are in parenthesis and italics)
895_guidebook-
Submitted by Ron Hera of Hera Research
How the United States Will Become a 3rd World Country (What it means to your
future)
The United States is quickly coming to resemble a post-industrial
neo-3rd-world country. Unemployment, lack of economic opportunity,
falling real wages and household incomes, growing poverty and
increasing concentration of wealth are major trends in the U.S. today.
Behind these growing problems are monetary inflation created by the
Federal Reserve's monetary policies, federal government deficit
spending and the dominant influence of "too big to fail" banks and
large corporations in Washington D.C., which has altered the direction
of law in the United States. To make matters worse, the U.S. government
faces a historic fiscal crisis.
High unemployment, lack of economic opportunity, low wages, widespread
poverty, (By last count a record number of Americans are on food stamps
- over 46,000,00, about one out of every six. Guess we lost that "War
on Poverty".) extreme concentration of wealth, unsustainable government
debt, control of the government by international banks and
multinational corporations, weak rule of law and counterproductive
policies are defining characteristics of 3rd world countries. Other
factors include poor public health, nutrition and education, as well as
lack of infrastructure--factors that deteriorate rapidly in a failing
economy.
Apparently ineffective regulation and relatively little law enforcement
action by the federal government in the wake of the sub-prime mortgage
meltdown resulted in widespread speculation that special interests had
taken priority over the rule of law. Critics have also charged that the
federal government's policies threaten to eliminate what remains of the
American middle class.
Accelerating Concentration of Wealth
In response to the economic downturn that began in 2007 and the start
of the financial crisis in 2008, the U.S. federal government and the
Federal Reserve resorted to a radically inflationary policy intended to
save banks and to shepherd the U.S. economy through a recession.
Instead, radically inflationary policies greatly increased the
concentration of wealth.
(The $7,770,000,000,000,000,000.00 Bailout!)
(Bloomberg News sued the Federal Reserve for documents under the
Freedom of Information Act regarding the Fed's activities in the wake
of the 2008 financial crisis. The Fed fought them all the way to the
Supreme Court where it lost. .
Bloomberg Markets said it went over 29,000 pages of Fed documents
obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and central bank records
of more than 21,000 transactions.
"Saved by the bailout, bankers lobbied against government regulations,
a job made easier by the Fed, which never disclosed the details of the
rescue to lawmakers even as Congress doled out more money and debated
new rules aimed at preventing the next collapse," Bloomberg reported.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke had argued back in 2008 when the crisis hit
that revealing borrower details would create a stigma that would have
led to more banks collapsing.
And the Fed fought to keep the details of the loans, which totaled
$7.77 trillion, secret long after."
Full Article :
abcnews.go/blogs/business/2011/11/fed-gave-banks-trillions-i
n-bailout-bloomberg-reports/
Have we gone insane? The Fed secretly creates 7.77 Trillion Dollars
out of thin air? Where's the oversight? Where is the Maimed Street
Media? Where is the outrage over this rogue bankster organization's
actions?)
Under ordinary circumstances, monetary inflation has the effect of
redistributing wealth in favor of those who receive newly created money
first. The value of money is reduced as a function of the number of
currency units in the economy but recipients of newly created moneycan
spend it before it loses value. In a declining economy, however, the
wealth redistribution effects of inflation are magnified.
When the Federal Reserve or the federal government supports banks and
financial markets through liquidity injections, bailouts, asset
purchases, quantitative easing, etc., the lion's share of financial
support, i.e., newly created money, is captured by the largest
financial institutions and by the wealthiest 1% of Americans. Money
printing skews the distribution of money over the economy while the
value of money, i.e., the purchasing power of wages and savings, is
reduced. The overall effect is a wealth transfer from proverbial Main
Street to literal Wall Street.
(One measure of wealth distribution is the percentage of national
income that the top 10% of the country's population earns. Using the
World Banks' data base,
data.worldbank/indicator/SI.DST.10TH.10, based on the most
recent data (mostly 2007), the following are some representative
nations and the percentages of that nation's income earned by the top
10% of its population:
Argentina 36.1% Brazil 43% Cambodia 36.9%
China 31.4% Ghana 32.5% India 31.1%
Indonesia 30.1% Mexico41.3% Philippines 33.9%
Russia 34.3% Ukraine 22.5%
Peculiarly, income distribution figures are not available on the World
Bank data base for Western Europe or the United States. However, the
World Institute for Development Economics Research did a study on
wealth (not just income) distribution in 2006 using figures for 2000,
as follows:
Canada 53% Denmark 65% France 61%
Germany 44.4% Norway 50.5% Sweden 58.6%
Switzerland 71.3% U. K. 56%
So, care to guess what percent of the nation's wealth is owned by the
top 10% of households in the United States?
Go ahead, guess.
In searching for the figures for the U.S., the most recent I could find
was research done by Professor G. William Domhoff which was updated as
of September 2010. His analysis is also based not just on income but on
"wealth", as a better measure of wealth distribution. As he states,
"It's important to note that for the rich, most of their income does
not come from "working": in 2008, only 19% of the income reported by
the 13,480 individuals or families making over $10 million came from
wages and salaries."
His analysis
(sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html)
concludes: "In the United States, wealth is highly concentrated in a
relatively few hands. As of 2007:
The top 1% of households (the upper class) owned 34.6% of all privately
held wealth in the United States. (Compare that with what 10% own in
so-called "less developed countries")
In terms of financial wealth (total net worth minus the value of one's
home), the top 1% of households had an even greater share: 42.7%.
(!!!!)
The top 5% of American households owned 62% of the wealth.
The top 5% of American households owned 72% of the financial wealth!
(OMG!!)
To try to equate Domhoff's methodology to those of the World Bank's 10%
base, the
approximate figures would be:
The top 10% of U. S. households owned 73% of the wealth.
The top 10% of U. S. households owned 83% of the financial wealth
(#%^$#@%$!!!)
He concludes: "Since financial wealth is what counts as far as the
control of income-producing assets, we can say that just 10% of the
people own the United States of America."
He goes on to add, "The effects of the Great Recession on the wealth
distribution suggest that average American has been hit much harder
than wealthy Americans. Edward Wolff, the economist we draw upon the
most in this document, concludes that there has been an "astounding"
36.1% drop in the wealth (marketable assets) of the median household
since the peak of the housing bubble in 2007. By contrast, the wealth
of the top 1% of households dropped by far less: just 11.1%. So, as of
April 2010, it looks like the wealth distribution is even more unequal
than it was in 2007."
And the distribution will get worse in the future. Domhoff exposes the
fact that it is the rich who write the laws to - perpetuate their
wealth. "Actually, ultra-conservatives and their wealthy financial
backers may not have to bother to eliminate what remains of inheritance
taxes at the federal level. The rich already have a new way to avoid
inheritance taxes forever -- for generations and generations -- thanks
to bankers (banksters). After Congress passed a reform in 1986 making
it impossible for a "trust" to skip a generation before paying
inheritance taxes, bankers (banksters) convinced legislatures in many
states to eliminate their "rules against perpetuities," (a rule that
had existed since the late 1600s) which means that trust funds set up
in those states can exist in perpetuity, thereby allowing the trust
funds to own new businesses, houses, and much else for descendants of
rich people, and even to allow the beneficiaries to avoid payments to
creditors when in personal debt or sued for causing accidents and
injuries. About $100 billion in trust funds has flowed into those
states so far. You can read the details on these "dynasty trusts"
(which could be the basis for an even more solidified "American
aristocracy") in a New York Times opinion piece published in July 2010
nytimes/2010/07/12/opinion/12madoff.html?_r=1 by Boston
College law professor Roy Madoff, who also has a book on this and other
new tricks: Immortality and the Law: The Rising Power of the American
Dead (Yale University Press, 2010).
The wealth distribution of the United States, the wealthiest nation on
earth, appears to be one of the worst on earth. Certainly it is far far
worse than any of those nations for which data is available on the
World Bank's data base. It borders on the distribution curve of a
feudal society. You remember feudalism from your history class, right?
The age of lords and their serfs. Well, welcome back to the U.S; back
to the U.S.; back to the U.S. of A, United Serfs of America, one nation
under guard with bailouts and tax favors for lords.
I strongly recommend that you read the Domhoff analysis in full. It
contains far more astounding facts than what is presented here. The
site again
issociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html and read
the News York Times article:
nytimes/2010/07/12/opinion/12madoff)
Looming Fiscal Crisis
U.S. government debt and deficit spending have markedly accelerated
over the past decade. For example, The U.S. Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) was created and the U.S. military grew to 3 million
active duty and reserve personnel, not including contractors. Since
2001, the U.S. spent approximately $1 trillion on military expansion
while the total cost of the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq has been
estimated to exceed $3.7 trillion.
Although the U.S.federal government remains in denial, the
Congressional debt ceiling debate and subsequent U.S. credit rating
downgrade on August 5, 2011 were only the tip of the iceberg. In fact,
the United States faces a historic fiscal crisis. As of 2012, the
majority of new federal government debt will stem from interest on
existing debt. Treasury bond issues totaled $2.55 trillion in 2010,
roughly 2x the federal budget deficit of $1.3 trillion. Artificially
low U.S. Treasury bond yields, created by the Federal Reserve's
quantitative easing (QE1 and QE2) programs and by its current
"Operation Twist," only slow the rate at which the federal debt
balloons.
The U.S.federal government's fast-growing debt is $14.94 trillion,
approximately 100% of GDP. Additionally, future liabilities total $66.6
trillion based on generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP
accounting) and using official data from the Medicare and Social
Security annual reports and from the audited financial report of the
federal government. (The 2009 Financial Report of the U.S. Government
was recently released, and it basically says that the U.S. government
is facing financial Armageddon if something drastic is not done...."
gao.gov/financial/fy2009/09frusg.pdf
Entitlements, like Social Security, Medicare and other government
social programs are a financial tsunami of unmanageable magnitude.
Rapidly growing interest costs on the national debt together with
spending on major entitlement programs will absorb approximately 92
cents of every dollar of federal revenue by the year 2019 (by the way,
that's only 8 years away). By 2020, that figure will be up around 100
cents of every dollar of federal revenue. So, that means that interest
on the debt and spending on entitlement programs will eat up everything
the U.S. government takes in before a penny is spent on anything else
(Except, of course, government payrolls and benefits - That comes right
off the top.) like defense, health care, education, homeland security,
job creation etc. That is a recipe for national financial suicide.
And unfortunately, the problem is only going to get far, far worse when
you project things out beyond the year 2020. Right now, interest on the
debt and spending on entitlement programs like Social Security and
Medicare eat up only about 10 percent of GDP (That's not revenue,
that's 10% of our entire Gross Domestic Product! That's a whole lot of
money!). In fact, things are even more dire than that. The projections
are based on previous government figures that projected that mandatory
spending will exceed government revenues at some point between 2030 and
2040, but the latest government figures now project that this will
happen right around 2020. So that actually understates the magnitude of
the problem we are facing....)
The eventual insolvency of the U.S. federal government cannot be
averted through any combination of taxes, budget cuts or realistic GDP
growth. Inflationary policies, i.e., increasing deficit spending by the
federal government and debt monetization by the Federal Reserve, would
devalue the U.S. dollar and potentially trigger a hyperinflationary
collapse of the currency. To stave off the inevitable, interim measures
might include tax increases, exchange controls, nationalization of
pension funds or other measures similar to those taken in 3rd world
countries.
(Current estimates are that we spend more on Defense than the rest of
the world COMBINED! Not to mention the human suffering (Which really
needs to be more than mentioned!), since 2001 we have spent over
$1,155,000,000,000 for war. Even a "moron" has to ask, "Why are we
spending so much?"
The answer: youtube/watch?v=8y06NSBBRtY
The President's warning fell on deaf ears.
There's an old economic expression: you can have guns or you can have
butter. You can't have both. When we spend this much money on guns
(defense, wars) we don't have the money left over for butter (Medicare,
Medicaid, and Social Security). So
guess where the bulk of the proposed cuts are to come from? You got it
- "butter": Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
But even IF we enacted ALL the "proposed" (dead-on-arrival) cuts AND
cut defense by 50%, we would still face a financial crisis; just not as
catastrophic a crisis.
What no one seems to want to talk about is - the $627 billion pound
gorilla in the room: interest on the national debt. Even using the
White House's own "estimates" (Lies, damn lies and ...) the interest
bill in 2017 will be $627,000,000,000. By 2018 the interest on the debt
will exceed the costs of Medicare. Between 2017 and 2021 interest
payments will total $4.5 trillion. Based on the White House's own
figures (remember: lies, damn lies and...) the national debt will
QUADRUPLE over the next decade. And that's using their "statistics"
(Lies...etc) and assuming that interest rates don't rise above their
"expectations". "Expectations?" They "expect" interest rates to be 3%
on ten-year treasury bonds.
So... what happens if interest rates across the board increase just 1%?
The interest bill alone in 2017 will explode to one trillion dollars!
We can't afford to pay the current interest on the debt and that's with
interest rates between ZERO and Three Percent!! What the hell do you
think is going to happen when those who have been buying our debt
decide that zero return isn't worth the investment when we're printing
dollars in amounts approaching the entire federal budget? I'll tell
you what happens - It's OVER!
Interest on the debt is NOT discretionary. It MUST be paid! So, who's
do you think is gonna' pay this bill? Guess.
Just to pay the interest on that debt every man, woman and child in the
United States will have to pony up $2,500 every
year - and more!
* That's just to pay the interest.
* That's using White House "statistics" (pah--leeze!).
* That's assuming interest rates don't rise above their
"expectations". )
Dominant Corporate Influence
In a 2009 radio interview on Elmhurst, Illinois' WJJG 1530 AM, Senator
Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) explained that "...the banks--hard to believe in a
time when we're facing a banking crisis that many of the banks
created--are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they
frankly own the place." Senator Durbin was unequivocal in saying that
the federal government of the United States is controlled by banks.
Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the International Monetary
Fund (IMF), had reached the same conclusion one month earlier in his
widely read article The Quiet Coup. Johnson explained that the finance
industry had effectively captured the U.S. government, a state of
affairs typical of 3rd world countries.
(The Top Ten Corporate Contributors:
(1 AT & T
2 National Association of Realtors
3 Goldman Sachs (Bankster Organization)
4 American Association for Justice
5 Citigroup (Bankster Organization)
6 American Medical Association
7 National Automobile Dealers Association
8 United Parcel Service
9 Altria
10 American Bankers Association (Bankster Organization)
Corporate influence over the political process, as well as over the tax
and regulatory policies of the United States, is at an all time high.
The federal government is the largest single customer in the U.S.
economy and, through taxation or regulation, the government can grant
or deny market access to private companies and can either prevent or
mandate the consumption of their products and services. As a result,
virtually every large corporation in the United States seeks to win the
government's business and to steer government tax policies and
regulations in their favor. Naturally, politicians who accede to the
wishes of particular corporations are given campaign funds to ensure
their reelection. In the past decade, the amount of money spent on
lobbying has more than doubled and there are currently 24 lobbyists for
every 1 member of Congress.
The interdependence of elected officials and the largest U.S.
corporations reached a new high with the 2008 bank bailouts. The
influence of private corporations and de facto industrial cartels
(comprising the largest corporations in each major industry) over tax
and regulatory policies creates significant economic distortions that
ultimately compromise the sustainability and the stability of the
economy. Ideally, the government would be an impartial referee, rather
than an active business partner that overwhelmingly favors large
businesses over small businesses, despite the fact that small
businesses account for the vast majority of American jobs.
Impact on the Rule of Law
Corruption, cronyism and weak rule of law are typical of 3rd world
countries. The United States exhibits a clear corporate influence over
elections and legislation and, arguably, relatively little law
enforcement action where large, legally well-equipped corporations are
concerned. Reports of so-called crony capitalism have appeared in the
U.S. news media, but the term "corruption" has been avoided, along with
discussion of fundamental reforms.
A cursory examination of legal developments over roughly the past
decade evidences a pattern in which U.S. federal law systematically
favors the largest financial institutions, as well as a paradigm in
which financial institutions heavily influence both the regulations
that putatively govern their activities and the laws that apply to
consumers of their products and services. The financial crisis that
began in 2008 and the subsequent response of the federal government
appear to follow logically from prior legislative events:
1. 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLB). The Act repealed key provisions
of the Banking Act of 1933, commonly known as the Glass-Steagall
Act. In the aftermath of the Great Depression, the Glass-Steagall
Act prevented depository institutions from engaging in high risk
financial speculation.
2. 2000 The Commodity Futures Modernization Act (CFMA). The Act
deregulated over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives, such as credit
default swaps, referred to by Warren Buffett as "financial weapons
of mass destruction." OTC derivatives were at the heart of the
financial crisis that began in 2008 and are the root cause of the
"too big to fail" doctrine. The Act preempted state gaming laws
that had prevented banks from speculating in OTC derivatives with
no connection to underlying assets.
3. 2001 USA PATRIOT Act. The financial provisions of the Act allow
banks to collect additional financial information about account
holders, for example, linking business accounts to the personal
financial records of business owners, thus weakening both financial
privacy and the corporate veil. The Act enhances the ability of
creditors to collect and allows federal authorities to monitor
financial transactions and to obtain financial records without a
subpoena.
4. 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act
(BAPCPA). The Act, which was sponsored by banks and credit card
companies, effectively eliminated the concept of a "fresh start" by
allowing banks and credit card companies to engage in collections
activities, in effect, forever. As a result, small business owners
who end in bankruptcy are less likely to ever start another
business. The Act places banks in front of bankruptcy courts,
creates liabilities for bankruptcy attorneys and contains many
widely criticized, anti-consumer provisions.
5. 2008 Emergency Economic Stabilization Act. The Act, commonly
referred to as a "bank bailout," authorized the United States
Secretary of the Treasury to spend $700 billion to purchase
distressed assets, especially mortgage-backed securities (MBS).
Instead, the funds were given to foreign and domestic banks to
offset their risky MBS, OTC derivatives and other losses. The bank
bailout set a precedent of socializing losses but keeping gains
private. The Act effectively bound the fate of the U.S. Treasury to
that of the largest U.S. financial institutions.
6. 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The Supreme
Court of the United States held that corporate funding of
independent political broadcasts in candidate elections cannot be
limited under the First Amendment, overruling prior case law and
guaranteeing the ability of corporations to influence elections
without meaningful restrictions. The Court's decision gave carte
blanche to corporations to influence elections, legitimized the
interdependence of elected officials and large corporations and
created a precedent under which the rights of corporations
supersede those of citizens.
7. 2010 The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
The Act failed to restore critical provisions of the Glass-Steagall
Act, significantly regulate OTC derivatives, break up "too big to
fail" banks, prevent another financial crisis and prevent further
bailouts. The Act created a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,
but did not repeal any provision of BAPCPA or restore the financial
privacy of U.S. citizens removed by the USA PATRIOT Act. The Act
failed to provide adequate funding to the government's watchdogs,
the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures
Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI), potentially hobbling enforcement. The Act has also been
criticized for the burden it places on smaller competitors in the
financial sector, which could ultimately result in an increased
concentration of financial power in "too big to fail" banks.
Critics have alleged that, underlying the sub-prime mortgage meltdown that
triggered the financial crisis in 2008 was rampant fraud. Fraud has been
alleged at virtually every level from the assessment of property values and
credit risk; to the loans themselves and to their securitization as MBS
assets; to the ratings of MBS assets as AAA; to hedging or betting against
MBS assets in the OTC derivatives market (perhaps including financial firms
allegedly betting against MBS assets that they themselves created and sold to
clients as AAA assets). After the crisis, a seeming pattern of fraud
continued apparently unabated in the robo-signing foreclosure scandal where
documents submitted to courts were falsified. Despite an avalanche of alleged
crimes under existing federal law, no firm or individual of any significance
in the financial crisis has yet been prosecuted.
President Barack Obama said in October 2011 that the mortgage finance
practices leading to the economic meltdown were "immoral, inappropriate
and reckless ... but not necessarily illegal." Since fraud is, in fact,
illegal, critics claim that the U.S. federal government has simply
failed to enforce the law. Adding fuel to the fire, the Solyndra loan
scandal could be construed to suggest corruption at high levels and the
MF Global debacle could be construed as indicative of weak regulation
and law enforcement and even of questionable market integrity.
In theory, selective enforcement of the law risks the creation of two
sets of laws: one for big banks and corporations, and for their
executives, i.e., those with connections in Washington D.C. or on Wall
Street, and one for everyone else. Among other things, failure to
enforce the law could create an environment in which crime pays, but,
for ordinary citizens, hard work, prudent financial decision making,
saving and investing for the long term do not.
More than any other aspect of America's progression towards 3rd world
status, the federal government's low level of law enforcement action
where "too big to fail" banks are concerned is perhaps the most
insidious because it raises questions of legitimacy and of the social
contract. A financial and legal system of moral hazard implies that
victims face double jeopardy while they are deprived of legal recourse,
i.e., those allegedly defrauded might face inflation and tax burdens
stemming from preferential treatment of favored corporations or from
further bailouts.
Destructive Tax Policies
In the face of rising government debt, the rapidly shrinking American
middle class is the primary target of the U.S. federal government's tax
policies. The eventual extinction of the American middle class would be
a key milestone along the road to 3rd world status. Current U.S. tax
policies favor the largest corporations and this is unlikely to change
in the foreseeable future. Although tax increases exacerbate economic
downturns, several tax options have been or are being discussed.
However, none of them are likely to be put in place.
Assuming that big banks, multinational corporations and the wealthiest
1% of Americans remain off limits in terms of tax policy, the range of
income taxed is likely to widen from the current tax on households
earning more than $250,000 per year to progressively lower income
levels. In fact, the government's intended revenue source is precisely
what remains of the once much larger middle class: professionals, small
business owners and dual income families in urban areas, etc. These are
the households that have managed to stay ahead of inflation, declining
real wages and falling household incomes.
Among other things, U.S.tax policies will erode capital formation
within the remnants of the middle class, which is the engine of small
business creation and the source of most American jobs. The eventual
result will be a three-tier socioeconomic structure
consisting of a super rich wealthy class, a much poorer working class
and a massive, politically and financially disenfranchised underclass,
similar to that of a 3rd world country.
(U.S. Is Bankrupt and We Don't Even Know It
By Laurence Kotlikoff - Aug 10, 2010 Bloomberg Opinion
Let's get real. The U.S. is bankrupt. Neither spending more nor taxing
less will help the country pay its bills. This is what happens when you
run a massive Ponzi scheme for six decades straight, taking ever larger
resources from the young and giving them to the old while promising the
young their eventual turn at passing the generational buck.
It will stop in a very nasty manner. The first possibility is massive
benefit cuts visited on the baby boomers in retirement. The second is
astronomical tax increases that leave the young with little incentive
to work and save. And the third is the government simply printing vast
quantities of money to cover its bills.
Most likely we will see a combination of all three responses with
dramatic increases in poverty, tax, interest rates and consumer prices.
This is an awful, downhill road to follow, but it's the one we are on.
And bond traders will kick us miles down our road once they wake up and
realize the U.S. is in worse fiscal shape than Greece.
Read the full article:
bloomberg/news/2010-08-11/u-s-is-bankrupt-and-we-don-t-e
ven-know-commentary-by-laurence-kotlikoff.html
Via Dolorosa
The United States increasingly resembles a 3rd world country in terms
of unemployment, lack of economic opportunity, falling wages, growing
poverty and concentration of wealth, government debt, corporate
influence over government and weakening rule of law. Federal Reserve
monetary policies and federal government economic, regulatory and tax
policies seem to favor the largest banks and corporations over the
interests of small businesses or of the general population. The
potential elimination of the middle class could reshape the
socioeconomic strata of American society in the image of a 3rd world
country. It seems only a matter of time before the devolution of the
United States becomes more visible. As the U.S. economy continues to
decline, public health, nutrition and education, as well as the
country's infrastructure, will visibly deteriorate. There is little
evidence of political will or leadership for fundamental reforms. All
other things being equal, the United States will become a post
industrial neo-3rd-world country by 2032.
"Tomorrow" has arrived: youtube/watch?v=Ket-ndpxhPg
(Some Final Words of Wisdom and Warning - now too late - From One of Our
Founding Fathers)
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than
standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control
the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks
and the corporations that will grow up around the banks, will deprive the
people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent
their fathers conquered."
Thomas Jefferson - 1802
A hundred years after this warning we established the Federal Reserve
to manage the nation's money supply (it has devalued our currency over
95% since its inception). In the 1970's we had double digit inflation.
In 2008 we began deflation. Already one-quarter of all homeowners owe
more on their mortgage than their home is worth. Unemployment is at its
highest level since the Great Depression while the banksters earn mega
million dollar bonuses and own the government.
Over two hundred years ago, Thomas Jefferson foresaw it all. Yet
despite his warning, here we are today, approaching the time when our
children are indeed "waking up homeless on the continent our
forefathers conquered".
Before this is over (many many years from now) things are going to get
very very ugly. Americans are already preparing. Care to guess what
product had the greatest increase in its sales history this past Black
Friday? Watch this video: youtube/watch?v=WM_3M8Tf24Q
We have been warning for three years, don't rely on or expect the
government to take care of you. Plan and prepare to take care of
yourself and those you love. Begin by living beneath your means. For
help in doing this, see our book, Retire on Social Security - A Guide
to Living Well on a Budget of $1,000 a Month)
It takes only two words to describe the future of the United States as
the world's economic powerhouse. Watch the following music video and
particularly after 1minute and 30 seconds.
youtube/watch?v=1iABFZGzEjY&ob=av2n
I wish every one Good Luck with their lives in the years immediately
ahead. You're going to need all the luck and planning you can get!
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Insider Trading in the District of Corruption
Please view this video clip from 60 Minutes before reading the rest of
this article cbsnews/video/watch/?id=7388130n
These "legal" actions by - exempt - members of CONgress violate the
integrity of the capital markets of theUnited States of America.
"They" profit from actions that all other citizens would go to jail for
- remember Martha Stewart, Ivan Boesky?
An investment services organization has taken up the cause of bringing
these self-serving (but totally legal actions -due their own
self-written laws of exemption) actions to an immediate end. Please
read the following from Money Morning:
"The folks who actually caused much of our current economic crisis -
our vaunted elected leaders down in Washington
- continue to live in a plastic-bubble-encased dream world. Our friends
in Congress, whose collusion with Wall Street actually created the mess
that we're in right now, are largely oblivious to the very real pain
being experienced by the people they're supposed to represent and
protect.
"Free travel, triple pensions, 58% are millionaires ...the perk list
for our friends in Congress goes on and on. So while the typical
American family on Main Street has to scratch and struggle just to get
by - with most family members living in fear as they do so - our
congressional leaders live a dream life that's totally disconnected
from the terrifying reality that they've created for the "other 99%."
"And now we find out that some of the top congressional members are
getting rich off of the "inside information" they routinely come across
as part of the jobs that we elected them to do. For the rest of us,
insider trading is a federal offense, a felony that would lead to an
indictment and conviction, a jail sentence, and a financial forfeiture
so onerous that it usually leads to financial ruin. Hell, even Martha
Stewart wasn't immune to insider-trading allegations.
"But for members of Congress, insider trading is perfectly legal. In
fact, it's actually commonplace, if not rampant, according to a recent
CBS News "60 Minutes" segment.
"According to that CBS report, former Rep. Dennis "Denny"Hastert, R-IL,
made $2 million selling land he owned after receiving a federal earmark
to build a parkway near his property. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, bought
shares of the 2008 Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) initial public offering (IPO)
while legislation affecting credit card companies was debated in the
House.
"And Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-AL, chairman of the House Financial
Services Committee, was warned that a "global financial
meltdown" was about to occur during closed-door briefings with
then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman
Ben S. Bernanke back in September 2008.
"You know what Bachus did? The next day, Bachus bought stock options
that allowed him to profit if and when the economy tanked, "60 Minutes"
reported.
"And we all know how that trade must've turned out, given the recession
and bear market that followed.
"This is an outrage. And it's time for it to stop. It's time to send a
message.
"Congress should be watching out for us - not profiting off our pain.
In fact, it's time for Congress to live like we do.
"Money Morning is conducting an online vote to see if you think insider
trading by our congressional leaders should be banned. We're going to
deliver the results right to the source - to the majority and minority
leaders of Congress.
"We need your vote.
"If you want to help us send that message, please click here
(stopinsidertradingincongress/vote/)
If you want to help us send that message, please click here. And
forward this to family and friends - we want all the votes we can get.
Thanks for your help on this.
Respectfully yours,
William (Bill) Patalon III
Executive Editor Money Morning & Private Briefing
P. S. In the comments window of this survey, I added the following:
("It is also time to call for a special prosecutor to go after all our
exempt leaders "friends" who received inside information from them.
Maybe we can't put our CON-gressmen in jail but we can put their
friends in.
Additionally, findings of the special prosecutor should be made public
so voters can - act in accordance." - Jim)
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Public Retirement Plans at Risk
The Lost Decade of Stock Market Returns Puts Retirement
Benefits in Jeopardy
What many retirees fail to realize is how dramatically their retirement
benefits are affected by the overall returns of the stock and bond
markets. To understand the impact lets create a simple hypothetical
retirement plan.
The plan has one employee, Bill, who is 55 in 2001. The employee will
retire in ten years and will live only ten years. The plan will pay
him a defined benefit of $10,000 a year when he reaches the age of 65.
Note that even in this simple example we have already made an actuarial
assumption: he will live only 10 years.
895_guidebook-
In 2001 we begin depositing money into Bill's account. We shouldn't
have to deposit the full $10,000 today because the money won't be
disbursed for ten years and it will grow in value. The money will be
invested in the stock market (bonds make up a large portion of
retirement funds and we will cover that problem in a separate analysis)
but how much should we deposit? For a guide we look to past history.
Over the prior ten years (1991 - 2001) the stock market rose by about
120% (12% per year). Wishing to be conservative, we assume that the
money will grow by only 10% a year.
That means, for example that if there were only one $10,000 payment and
it was the next year then we would deposit $9,000 today. If it were
two years out we would deposit $8,100. Similarly, since the
disbursements are a rolling ten years out, we only deposit $3,487 each
year (based on those assumptions) which will pay Bill $10,000 a year
for his ten year life expectancy. Thus, over ten years we deposited a
total of $34,870 into Bill's account and are committed to pay him a
total of $100,000 during his retirement.
You can probably see the problem right away. What happens if the
account earns less than the 10% annual growth rate assumption? What
happens when the stock market goes nowhere for a decade (as has just
happened)?
(That's why Social Security, as it was originally constructed, was such
a brilliant - Tax. When Social Security was established they assumed -
based on life-expectancy then - that most contributors would: one, die
before they collected any money or two, die very soon after
retirement. The survivors would be happy voters and those who got
nothing would not complain because they would be - dead. The
government gets a lot of money and will only repay a pittance.
Brilliant! Except...beneficiaries did the unthinkable, due to advances
in medicine etc., they didn't die as planned. But Social Security's
problems are another subject)
Well, it's now 2011 and Bill retires. Guess what? The total gains
from the stock market are zero. So, there is only $34,870 in his
account and a "promise" to pay him $100,000. The account is only 35%
funded. It is - underfunded - by $65,130! How long can you pay Bill
the $10,000 a year he is expecting? How much can the account actually
afford to pay him each year for life?
Bill may not know it yet, but he has a BIG problem. Now that you
understand the nature of the problem you will appreciate the meaning of
what "underfunded" means to your retirement and what kind of problem
you may be facing.
The American Enterprise Institute estimates that public pensions are
currently underfunded by THREE TRILLION DOLLARS! If you are the
beneficiary of a public pension plan I suggest - STRONGLY - that you go
to their study to see just how secure your benefits are. Go to this
link: aei/docLib/Biggs-WP-164.pdf (page 42 - 44).
Here are some representative levels of funding:
AlaskaTeachers 37% Alabama Teachers 42% Arkansas
Teachers 45%
Arizona S.R.S. 44% Calif.Teachers 47%
Colorado State 34%
Conn. Teachers 32% FloridaR.S. 57%
GeorgiaTeachers 54%
HawaiiE. R. S. 36%
Iowa 51%
Idaho 51%
IllinoisTeachers 28% IndianaP.E.R.F. 57%
Kansas P.E.R.S. 38%
KentuckyE.R.S. 30% LouisianaS.E.R.S. 35% Mass.
Teachers 38%
MarylandP.E.R.S. 43% MaineState 41%
Mich. S.E.R.S 46%
Minnesota 45% Missouri
43% Missippi P.E.R.S. 39%
MontanaP.E.R.S. 48% N. Carolina 60% N.
Dakota P.E.R.S. 49%
Nebraska Schools 48% New Hampshire 34% New
JerseyP.E.R.S. 38%
New MexicoP.E.R.F. 50% Nevada 42% N.Y.
State & Local 56%
Ohio P.E.R.S. 51% Oklahoma P.E.R.S. 42% Oregon
P.E.R.S. 58%
Penn. State E.R.S. 44% Rhode Island E.R.S. 29% S.
Carolina 42%
S. Dakota 53% Tenn.State & Teach. 51% Texas
E.R.S. 49%
Utah 45% Virginia
R.S. 47% Vermont State 50%
Wash.P.E.R.S. 2/3 54% Wisconsin 54%
W. VirginiaP.E.R.S. 48%
Wyoming 46%
You can't look at these levels of funding and believe that everyone is
going to get what they think. Should the markets - decline further -
these coverage figures will get even worse. This is why we have been
urging retirees not to expect that they will get what they've been
promised and to live beneath their means. When it comes to your
retirement it may prove best to plan that it is you ultimately who may
be the main source of your financial security.
A good way to get your expenses under control and save money is to
invest in our guide: Retire on Social Security, available on this
website.
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How Will Early Retirement Affect What You Receive in Social Security
Benefits?
The table below is for beneficiaries who were born between the years
1943 and 1954. Full retirement age for those born in this period is 66
years. You can begin collecting benefits as early as age 62. The
following table provides the percentage of your full retirement
benefits that you will receive should you decide to retire early.
Examples of how much your Social Security benefit will be reduced by
early retirement if you would receive $1,000 a month at full retirement
age of 66. You decide to retire early at age 63 and three months. You
would receive 81.7% of your full retirement benefit ($1,000) which
would be $817.00 a month. Wait one more month and the monthly benefit
would be $822.00. You want to retire early but need at least $900 a
month in benefits. You would have to wait until age 64 and 6 months
before you would get (90% of your full benefit) $900.00.
Age You Retire % of Benefit You Receive Spouse % of
Benefit
62 75.0%
35.0%
62 + 1 month
75.4 35.2
62 + 2 months
75.8 35.4
62 + 3 months
76.3 35.6
62 + 4 months
76.7 35.8
62 + 5 months
77.1 36.0
62 +
6 77.5
36.3
62 + 7 months
77.9 36.5
62 + 8
months 78.3
36.7
62 + 9 months
78.8 36.9
62 + 10 months
79.2 37.1
62 + 11 months
79.6 37.3
63 80.0
37.5
63 + 1 month
80.6 37.8
63 + 2 months
81.1 38.2
63 + 3 months
81.7 38.5
63 + 4 months
82.2 38.9
63 + 5 months
82.8 39.2
63 + 6 months
83.3 39.6
63 + 7 months
83.9 39.9
63 + 8 months
84.4 40.3
63 + 9 months
85.0 40.6
63 + 10 months
85.6 41.0
63 + 11 months
86.1 41.3
64
86.7 41.7
64 + 1 month
87.2 42.0
64 + 2 months
87.8 42.4
64 + 3 months
88.3 42.7
64 + 4 months
88.9 43.1
64 + 5
months 89.4
43.4
64 + 6 months
90.0 43.8
64 + 7 months
90.6 44.1
64 + 8 months
91.1 44.4
64 + 9 months
91.7 44.8
64 + 10 months
92.2 45.1
64 + 11 months
92.8 45.5
65
93.3 45.8
65 + 1 month
93.9 46.2
65 + 2 months
94.4 46.5
65 + 3 months
95.0 46.9
65 + 4 months
95.6 47.2
65 + 5 months
96.1 47.6
65 + 6 months
96.7 47.9
65 + 7 months
97.2 48.3
65 + 8 months
97.8 48.6
65 + 9 months
98.3 49.0
65 + 10 months
98.9 49.3
65 + 11 months
99.4 49.7
66
100.0 50.0
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Your Monthly Medicare Payment to Skyrocket
So, we have health care reform - Obamacare. In case you missed it, as
part of the new health care, your contributions to Medicare will
skyrocket. But guess when the big increases come? Come on, this
shouldn't be difficult. Let's see...it is now 2011 and the election is
when?
Here is how much the government will be deducting from your Social
Security checks.
2011 Monthly deduction - $96.40
2012 Monthly deduction - $104.20
2013 Monthly deduction - $120.20
2014 Monthly deduction - $247.00
That's a 150%+ increase in three years!
Care to guess what the deduction was when Medicare began in 1965? How
about $3.00.
Remember the old adage about never letting the camel stick its head in
the tent? Government intrusion always starts small and for the common
good but just like the camel, once you let the head in, the whole camel
will soon follow and you'll be the one out in the cold (or eaten
alive).
Today's video: youtube/watch?v=XhyRpvgm03g
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Thank you Helen, $20 donation
The Economic Outlook from London
Watch the video: youtube/watch?v=aC19fEqR5bA
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Military Retirement Benefits Under Review
Military pensions and health care for active and retired troops now
cost the government about $100 billion a year, representing an
expanding portion of both the Pentagon budget and the deficit. Last
year, for every dollar the Pentagon paid service members, it spent an
additional $1.36 for its military retirees, a much smaller group. Even
in the troubled world of state and municipal pension funds, pensions
almost never cost more than payrolls.
The Defense and Treasury Departments set aside more than $75 billion
each year to pay current and future benefits. As of year end 2009, the
retirement fund is far short of enough money to cover its total costs,
with assets of $278 billion and obligations of about $1.4 trillion.
The government covers the shortfall by - you guessed it - issuing more
debt.
Currently service personnel who retire after 20 years are eligible for
pensions that pay half their salaries for life, indexed for inflation,
even if they leave at age 38. The typical beneficiary is a retired
noncommissioned officer, with an average pension of about $26,000 a
year.
They are also eligible for lifetime health insurance through the
military's system, Tricare, for a small fraction of the cost of private
insurance. The annual fee is just $460 for families and has not risen
in years, even as health care costs have skyrocketed. Consequently,
working veterans shun employer health plans in favor of military
insurance. Critics of the system say the contribution could be raised
substantially and still be far lower than what civilians pay for
employer-sponsored health plans, typically about $4,000.
Under the debt ceiling agreement the Pentagon must find $400 billion in
reductions over the next 12 years (A whole $400 B over the next TWELVE
Years - how will they ever manage?). Even this small reduction may
make the unthinkable - thinkable: reduction in retirement benefits for
the military. Further, if Congress does not adopt the recommendations
of the "super" committee the mandated reductions in Pentagon spending
would more than double, to about $900 billion, (a whole $75 B a
year)and that would hit just about every category of defense spending.
One of the proposals in Washington from the Defense Business Board
would make the military pension system more like a 401k plan. Under
it, the Pentagon would make defined contributions to a service member's
individual account (service members may make additional
contributions). Mr. Panetta has said that if adopted, the plan would
not apply to current military personnel.
We've said it before, we'll say it again about retirement benefits -
this is just the beginning. It's going to get a whole lot of ugly in
the years ahead. Govern your actions accordingly. Live beneath your
means and put money aside for your future. Our guide will help you cut
your expenses and still live well - available on this site.
Read more:
nytimes/2011/09/19/us/retiree-benefits-for-the-military-
could-face-cuts.html
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Taxpayers Vote to Cut Public Pensions
Faced with a possible 23% tax increase, taxpayers in Hollywood, Florida voted
to cut the pensions of its firefighters, police and city employees.
With their backs against the wall, facing a $38 million deficit, and
unable to reach an agreement with the city's unions, Hollywood leaders
took the high risk action of putting the issue to a public referendum.
If taxpayers chose to vote down the pension changes, the city would be
forced to lay off 75 employees and consider raising the tax rate by
23%.
Taxpayers responded by casting their votes to strip the city's police,
firefighters and general employees of their current pension plans,
saving the city $8.5 million.
The changes, which go into effect October 1, mean fire, police and
general employees will have to work longer in order to retire, will
receive a smaller percentage of their salary as pension and will no
longer be able to include vacation and cost of living increases into
the pension formula.
The yes vote on the referendum has broad implications for other Florida
cities who are struggling with the costs of public pension benefits.
(This is only just beginning. Don't be surprised in two years if we're
reading about stripping benefits to those already retired! It's going
to get a whole lot of ugly.)
Union leaders responded by saying they will challenge the vote in
court. (Eye roll)
Read more:
miamiherald/2011/09/13/2404725/hollywood-voters-getting-
say-on.html#ixzz1XwU2pfvO
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Social Security - The Real Figures
The current Social Security Trustee's report states "There were about
2.9 workers for every OASDI beneficiary in 2010. This ratio had been
extremely stable, remaining between 3.2 and 3.4 from 1974 through 2008,
and is lower for 2009 and 2010 due to the economic recession. (Oops,
they neglected to state that in 1945 there were 42 workers per
beneficiary. Isn't that like - material?) The ratio of workers to
beneficiaries is projected to decline, even as (another assumption:
"as" not - IF) the
economy recovers, because the workers of the baby-boom generation are
being replaced in the workforce by lower-birth-rate generations. This
ratio reaches 2.1 by 2035 when the babyboom generation will have
largely retired, with a further gradual decline thereafter due to
increasing longevity."
Full Report at: cnsnews/sites/default/files/documents/
2011%20SOCIAL%20SECURITY%20TRUSTEES%20REPORT.pdf
I have a problem with their "estimate" that there are 3 (rounded)
workers for every beneficiary. It begins with another material
misrepresentation. The Board of Trustees reports that there were
156,725,000 covered workers who paid SOME social security taxes in 2010
(And SOME is the critical word). It also reported that there were
53,398,000 beneficiaries in 2010. So... all you do is divide the
workers by the beneficiaries and you get - Presto, 2.9!
NOT SO FAST!
First, anyone who paid ANY social security taxes (even one dollar!) was
counted as a worker. So if you worked for one day and paid $1.00 in
social security taxes you were counted by social security as a worker
supporting the system.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics there were 111,714,000
million FULL TIME workers in 2010. Full time workers, not someone who
worked for a few weeks or only a few hours a week all year, those are
the workers one should use to determine how many workers are really
supporting the system.
However, of that total there were 18,073,000 government workers (local,
state, or federal employees). (Note: The benefits for these employees
are not paid for by the private sector. They are paid for with tax
dollars or borrowings which must be repaid. Consequently their payments
are not revenue but expenses for the American taxpayer.). Since they
do not contribute to the system, these workers should also be removed
from the base.
That leaves 93,641,000 workers to support 53,398,000 beneficiaries, a
ratio of 1.75. It would take a great deal of research to determine
just how much all the part time workers contribute but you can assume
that it isn't a lot. I would venture a guess that it would require
four part time workers to contribute the equivalent of one full time
worker. That gives an approximate coverage ratio of two to one (down
from 42 to one in the year before the baby boom generation started
arriving).
Ladies and gentlemen, when the board of trustees uses such obviously
flawed statistical analysis in something as simple as a coverage ratio,
one should seriously question their other conclusions.
We've said it before, we'll say it again: things are going to get a lot
tougher in the years ahead. Govern your actions accordingly. Live
beneath your means! Our guidebook, available on this site, will help
you save the money you're going to need in the future while still
living well today. Try it, you'll like it!
Today's video:
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Tracker Powered by zfacts
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Enter your search keyword(s) and the keyword "zorgium" into the search input field of
http://bing.com,
http://yahoo.com or
http://google.com.
Heads up: There's an ongoing spamdexing of Google searchbot algorithms. Sites that are 'copies of copies' and cloaked sites which include Zorgium keywords presented to search engine crawlers yet garbage content presented to human visitors were hosted on thousands of IP addresses and domains registered immediately after the introduction of Zorgium in November of 2009. The Hostgator/'The Planet'/Softlayer datacenters in Texas seem to be the epicenter of this activity in conjunction with anonymously registered domains of various TLD's but primarily .info domains at Godaddy which, in our opinion, has some sort of connection to the domains of goldmint.in and goldmint.org. Google has begun to notice this and has begun to lower the ranking of these sites and put our original sites back on top of the search rankings. These actions, as far as we can tell, negatively impact the use of the keyword 'zorgium' as a search term and provided little benefit, if any, to the perpetrators.
ZORGIUM note to content providers: If you don't want your page to appear in Zorgium's search abstraction then put an exclusion for "Zorgium" in your web server's robots.txt file.
DISCLAIMER: Zorgium is a free world-wide-web engine from AZ.COM. You may use it, but by doing so you agree that your use of other people's information discovered via our website is entirely your responsibility. Enjoy!