Greed...

The latest debacle involving Bernard Madoff is just another instance whether the worst in human behavior has been exhibited by the white-collar workforce.  Here is a man that was one of the most respected individuals in the financial arena.  He owned accolades from some of the most revered and was so highly regarded that the SEC gave him a clean bill of health when others were saying that he was in violation on a number of fronts.  The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to investigate the relationship between the niece of financier Bernard L. Madoff and a former official at the agency, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. 

Christopher Cox and the SEC should themselves be investigated for a number of reasons directly related to the current state of affairs within the Stock Market.  The SEC has failed to exercise prudent authority over the Stock Market, the Banking Industry, and those who have manipulated the Futures Market at the expense of consumers the world over.  The speculation in Oil Futures, in this writer’s opinion, is directly related to the sudden and dastardly increase in the price of oil – 140.00 per barrel.  Sending the fox to check the integrity of the hen house is ludicrous! 

On a personal note, I filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange with regard to the improper manipulation of funds within an account owned by my wife with a bank that is no longer, thank God, an independent institution within the banking system.  Agents within this particular banking institution withdrew funds from one of my wife’s accounts and invested said funds in a Real Estate Mutual Fund.  This bank was so blinded by the need (greed) to invest our money that they violated banking protocols, risking admonishment by the SEC.  Little did we know that the SEC was never going to investigate them?  They knew what we did not know – you can violate the rules and not have to worry about being penalized for having done so. 

Our case was found to be not valid, even though the agent for that banking institution admitted that he had moved the funds; even though the paper trail showed that he had done so without out permission – no signature of any kind indicating that he had permission to move the money into the fund.  In answer to the question, did you remove (sic) money from the account of one (sic) and with the intentions of investing it in a certain mutual fund, the agent answered… “I believe that Mrs. (sic) told me to do that.”  On grounds that we have yet to discern, the arbitrator for SEC dismissed our case. 

Mortgage lenders have destroyed the legitimacy of the banking system with poison loans that, by design, were never going to be in the borrowers favor.  ARMS, and all of their variants, have been introduced to the public knowing that the borrower would never meet the requirements – in other words, they knew that the borrower would fail.  Option ARMS are uniquely designed for a particular type of borrower and if you don’t fit these criteria completely, you will default. 

Narrow-minded banking institutions bought up these loans, I suppose, because they had every intention of foreclosing on the property and reselling it to another sucker.  What they didn’t figure on was the great loss of jobs across America, the slow-down in the consumer market, and how all of these things happening in America would affect the global economy.  These poison pill loans were bundled up and sold to everyone that would venture to speculate in the Real Estate Market of the United States.  Sub-prime loans, in the form of ARMS, Option ARMS, and the marketing of over-priced housing to individuals served to rip the foundations from under the banking system. 

With a slowdown in consumer spending, the Bush Administration began to cut back on every program that would have made it possible to recover by using stimulus packages and more tax cuts.  Infrastructure programs that would have created jobs suddenly were gone.  States that were depending on subsidies from our government could no longer depend upon delivery of those subsidies.  Suddenly, budgets were no longer being balanced and the alternatives were even worst.  States had to choose which programs are more important out of a group of programs that are all vital to sustained growth within the State.  We have more than thirty States, at last count, that were financial distress.

Greed… when allowed to grow is all consuming.

Who Cares If We Are The Greatest Superpower

The United States has discredited itself in so many ways over the past eight years that it becomes difficult to pinpoint when we actually became the focal point for the anger of the rest of the free world. No one can do it right all the time, but we seemed to get it wrong with an alarming degree of success. In areas where our military strength would have carried weight and made a difference, we deferred to others who took advantage of the situation for personal gain. When diplomacy would have gotten a standing ovation from our peers we chose instead to be heathens slaughtering the innocent in the process.

Within our own country we forsook the poor, the helpless of our countrymen, allowing them to suffer unnecessarily during the height of their despair. The greatest nation in the world was duly noted for not being able to save its own people from drowning, from dying needlessly. Who cares if you are the greatest super-power in the world if you have no desire to do the humane when it comes to your own people, and yet we have done this on too many occasions to count. Katrina is an open sore that will never heal in my lifetime.

Knowing that is was happening; we allowed the seedy to be greedy in preying upon our less fortunate to such a degree that it threatens to consume us all. In pursuit of money at all cost, we have systematically allowed the destruction of the foundation of our economy. The dollar and our way of life are fast receding into darkness. Jobs that once were disappearing overseas are simply disappearing into the vast ‘Black Hole’ formed by the greedy. We are so dumb, that we have allowed the same low class of individuals to be in charge of saving us from what they invented. Are we really that stupid? It appears so!

I can’t say enough bad things about the man who sat on the toilet while all of this was being accomplished. Nero fiddled, but this guy simply defecated and not always in the proper receptacle. So where is all of this leading to; what will become of us when there is nothing else to lose, nothing else to flush down the toilet? I can assure you that one individual will be basking in the sun on a playa down in Argentina when it becomes more than apparent to you and I what is going to happen to us. His ranch is ninety thousand acres of primo terra, and it didn’t come cheap. If I remember correctly, that is where the Nazis ran off to when World War II was over and the Germans lost. Those that know the grand plan are not telling you and me for fear that we will riot sooner than the end of the year. Oh! Did I tell you there is no extradition treaty with Argentina; well, now you know!

Last year I sent all of you a message that you probably did not understand, or dismissed it as something that guy down on the island is jabbering about. Well, I am back with more gibberish for you, only this time the guy that has predicted accurately about other less than taste maladies is backing me up.

I don't know who the author of this quote is, but I believe that it came out of a book on Economics that I was reading back in the seventies when it was alright to smoke 'pot' to help expand your ability to expound on your thoughts. Can't do that today and live in peace, but getting back to my original thought; the quote goes like this...

"When ninety-seven percent of the wealth is owned by three percent of the population, there will be a revolution" - author unknown

Gerald Celente, the CEO of Trends Research Institute, has made a few predictions in the span of a decade and been correct on all of the predictions. I have included an article here from Alex Jone's Prison Planet by Mr. Celente that should bring you down to Earth for a short moment. Please read it and couple this article with my suggestions to each of you on how you can survive the coming events. If you threw my previous article on this subject in the trash can, I forgive you, but will not send you another because I don't have time.


Rod Davis - I put my name in this one because its for real!

How To Rescue The Economy

I want to share with you my thoughts on this bailout situation. We don't need seven hundred billion dollars to repair this problem. In fact, we don't need any money at all. This is why...

1. We should renegotiate all of the loans that are sub-prime and get rid of the ARM forever. All of the loans that are delinquent, or borderline should be extended so that the borrower can meet the payments. In other words, if it takes more than thirty years to repay a loan at three hundred dollars a month, as oppose a fixed thirty year loan with payments of nine hundred, then restructure the loan so that the person can make the payments.

2. Identify all loans and the circumstances that are presently making the borrower delinquent in payments - resolve it by one of two ways. Re-finance the loan terms in such a way that the borrower can make payments, or place that loan at high risk for further evaluation and resolvement.

3. Those mortgage lenders that stretched the parameters for making loans to borrowers that were marginally qualified should be prosecuted for fraud.

4. No golden parachutes for CEOs and administrative officers that were at the helm of companies that failed - retroactive. In other words, if the culprit is gone, go get him! Limit the retirement package for all CEOs.

5. No money to investment banks that are going under.

6. Re-instate the regulations that were withdrawn with the Commodity Futures Market Act of 2000. Increase the transparency of all markets wherein there is the possibility for speculation - oil, electricity, etc. Severe penalties for violators.

7. Institute national projects that would create jobs (bridge and road repair, technical skills) Setup centers dedicated to the re-tooling of the job market so that individuals can make themselves employable. Make it a goal to reduce the pollutions of automobile by setting the bar for carbon reduction and using the money that was accepted by the auto industry to retool that industry.

8. Re-structure the tax code so that the taxes for those making less than fifty thousand are not taxed as much as those making between fifty thousand to one hundred fifty thousand, and those making more than one hundred fifty thousand will pay a little less than those making more than one hundred fifty thousand. Let's rebuild the tax structure in the shape of a vase - small at the bottom, fat in the middle, and somewhat bigger than the bottom at the top.

9. Increase Social Security taxes by raising the taxable group to those making two hundred seventy thousand.

Those in a position to set policy should began to understand that this economy is not trickle down, it is trickle up. The reason that you don't have cash flow is because the work force is reduced and can't spend enough money to support a substantial cash flow. With a reduction of the people that were making fifty to sixty thousand dollars a year, we lost cash flow.

We should, all as one, resist the notion that if we don't do something tomorrow, the world will cease to exist as we know it. The Bush administration has used 'fear' tactics more than enough times to let me know that it 'ain't so' folks. Bush lied about WMDs in Iraq. Bush lied about Al Qaeda in Iraq. He has not kept his promise to get Osama Bin Laden. The Bush administration cannot be trusted with seven hundred billion dollars just before they walk out of the door. Personally, I think Bush and Cheney and the rest of the gang are seeking their severance pay (golden parachute) before bailing out.

Here is your cue... the banking system was supposed to have crashed last weekend - it didn't. It was supposed to crashed on last Monday - it didn't. Now it is supposed to crash on this coming Monday (September 29, 2008); my prediction - it won't!

Don't believe the hype; we don't need a bailout! If you agree with me, send this letter to your Congressional representatives in both houses asap!

Will Bailing Out the Banking Industry Really Help?

The Bush administration continues to put forth a policy that will, in the end, bring down the house of cards surrounding Wall Street. As has been the case before now, Bush continues to protect big business and the rich at the expense of the consumer. Taxpayers are being asked to foot the bill once again; the same taxpayers whose jobs have been out-sourced overseas. Where is the logic in trickledown economics in a global economy?

Previously, I suggested that the way to recover from this dilemma is to simply renegotiate the loans of delinquent customers in such a manner that each of the delinquent consumers will again be able to make the payments on their respective loans. Notice that I didn’t make one reference to shelling out money to achieve this goal. This would improve the liquidity, to some degree, for local loan agencies. If every delinquent homeowner were allowed to keep his home, and if these marginal loans could be bungled for purchase by investors willing to take the risk, then we could see a two pronged attack to resolve the issues facing the banking industry overall.

The Secretary of the Treasury has this brilliant idea to immediately throw billions of dollars onto a fire that can only be put out over time with what I call ‘trickle up’ economics. If the money used to shore up the economy was done by printing more paper money as part of the buyout that will signal the devaluing of the dollar. Once the dollar, used by most of the free world as the currency of choice in trading loses its value, we will began to see the dollar swirl within the confines of the toilet bowl and disappear forever as the currency of choice in trading. China, the Pacific Rim investors, and the Arabs will have a terrific choice to make, one that we will have no say in the makeup of.

Instead of letting investors take the cream off of the top, the policy should be to allow the cream to rise to the top by supporting the consumer base. One can only hope that these educated individuals will began to realize that it has been the consumer that supported the American economy in the past, and only the consumer can return this economy to where it was previous to the mass deregulation instituted by the Bush administration. Yes, I do blame Bush and the Republican dominated Congress because none of the deregulation was done with Democrats in agreement of these new regulations, and you can point your finger at Phil Gramm – thanks for nothing Phil.

This writer and others with no measure of discipline in economics predicted that the Bush doctrine on economics would destroy the delicate balance held by the United States in the global economic arena. I complained to everyone that I could write to that we are about to, with this grand tax cut program that rewards the rich at the expense of the poor deal a death stroke to the United States economy. You simply cannot spend every dime that you have (surplus – from the Clinton administration), ring-up deficits by charging where possible (the selling of bonds) and mismanage your house (taxes received) the way that the Bush administration has done and survive.

I continue to warn that if the Bush administration continues to try to bring this problem under control by buying out every failed bank that we will be involved in the most volatile non-recoverable situation ever. It will surpass the 1929 crash of Wall Street in comparison like an anthill next to Mt. Everest.