SWIMMING IN MUDDY WATER!
I received a thoughtful response on my
I was feverishly taking notes while watching the interview of Aaron Russo. It is true in one sense that our courts lack the independence that is called for in the Constitution. But I am not sure it goes to the level Mr. Russo is claiming. But it did make me want to do some research myself.
I'll give you a quick anecdote. When I got married my wife was flabbergasted.
She had just learned that I hadn't file taxes in three years. The story behind
that was one January I sat down to figure out my taxes. I owed a small amount to
both the state and federal governments. I had just finished working all 52 weeks
of the year and now they wanted more money. I was pissed. My feeling was "You
get the first bite of the apple. If you didn't take enough money too bad. I am
not going to pay money for the privilege of working 40 plus hours a week only to
have them tell me I now owe them more money." Luckily I knew a CPA who
straightened it all out with something called "income averaging". In the end I
got refunds for all three years with interest. Go figure.
One thing Aaron Russo says is true we have to make government responsive to the people. I hope everyone who takes time to come to a blog like this knows that
our recent voting history is dismal. Not because of Florida or Ohio or whether
or not computer voting is safe. Because the number of citizens taking the time
to do their civic duty is embarrassingly low. How many of us have turned to
someone who is bitching about this or that and asked "Did you vote", Too often
the answer is no. By the way fight the impulse to say shut up no vote no
bitching. It comes under freedom of speech. We defend to the death your right to
speak your mind even if you are out of your mind. Barry
I agree, Russo seems a bit over the top but I can't help but ask myself... OR IS HE? I feel there is so much information kept from the masses. They aren't sure we could handle the bad news so they fairytale it up before releasing it to the naive hoi polloi. (which isn't hard to do since most of us have not a clue about this mysterious fiat currency, world trade and Federal Reserve phenomenon.)
Not for our protection but for theirs... I am sure there is a fear that a great chaos would erupt creating upheaval in the markets... Just imagine if we, in large numbers, would stop buying, even for a short period, there would be a financial seism measuring 5 or 6 on the cash flow Richter scale.
We, the consumers, are the backbone of the entire capitalistic world. The buying, selling, manufacturing and consuming is our conditioning from day one. We are good little disciples and do exactly what is expected of us.
I wish I knew more about the world of financial workings, so I could understand exactly what is happening but like most I just speculate or surmise. Even the expert financiers who seem to be in the know, have lamented that we may possibly be in trouble, if something soon isn't done to break the rapid, uncontrolled freefall of bad decisional routine. Read the below excerpts from this article...
Financial Wizardry & Collapse
Bear with me for a second here. This isn't an easy topic. That's because no one understands Credit-Default Swaps (CDSs), or other complex credit-derivatives, but it is important that we try to understand the implications of their exponential increase. Sure, some people claim to understand: hedge fund managers, investment bankers, etc. They understand the derivatives marketplace just like neuroscientists understand consciousness—they know the component parts, they can use them as tools barely under their control, but when it comes to understanding exactly how the greater dynamic emerges from the component parts they are in the dark.
No one really understands the credit-derivative market, but everyone is impacted by it. Credit-derivatives represent the creation of money out of thin air, like some act of financial wizardry. Take a Credit-Default Swap, for example. Here’s how it works: Corp. A needs to raise funds to expand operations, so they issue a $10 million bond. Pension Fund B buys that bond, but is concerned with the risk of Corp. A going bankrupt and defaulting on the bond. So Hedge Fund C offers what is, in effect an insurance policy—Pension Fund B pays Hedge Fund C $200,000, and in exchange if Corp. A defaults on the bond, Hedge Fund C covers the $10 million for Bank B. Here’s the magic: because this insurance policy creates the market for this otherwise too-risky bond from Corp. A in the first place, and because the par-value of the credit-default swap (the insurance
policy) that the Hedge fund issues does nothing more than eat up the difference
between the risk-premium on this bond, this $200,000 that the hedge fund makes
is essentially fabricated out of thin air. Don’t forget to sprinkle in a liberal
portion of fractional-reserve-banking fairy dust and viola: now you understand
the credit-derivatives market as well as anyone else in the world.
Clear as mud? Try this on for size: there were $25 Trillion dollars in credit
derivatives issued so far in 2006. That’s about half the size of the world
economy. Oh, and it’s unreported, unregulated, and largely non-transparent. But
wait, it gets better: MoreHere
And this next one...
World financial system heading for collapse
The World Today - Friday, 26 August , 2005 12:20:00
Reporter: Eleanor Hall
ELEANOR HALL: A former United States trade negotiator and businessman is warning that the world financial system is headed for collapse before the end of this decade unless US policymakers make some radical changes.
Clyde Prestowitz is an international trade specialist who worked for the Reagan
administration in the 1980s and now heads the Economic Strategy Institute in Washington.
He’s just written a compelling and at times alarming new book about the shift in
power in the world economy from the United States to emerging economies like
China and India.
His book, Three Billion New capitalists: the Great Shift of Wealth and Power to
the East is intended to be a wake-up call to policy-makers in western countries,
including Australia, to recognize and respond to the new challenges of international competition and to stop living beyond our means.
When he joined me in The World Today studio this morning, Mr. Prestowitz described the savings problem in the United States in particular, as an urgent crisis that is set to topple the world economy.
CLYDE PRESTOWITZ: The US right now is absorbing 80 per cent of global savings. Well when you hit 100 per cent, the music stops and leading figures, people like Paul Volcker, the former Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, people like George Soros, the great speculator, have all made statements that they fear a major financial crisis within the next five years because the system is unsustainable.
ELEANOR HALL: Within five years?
CLYDE PRESTOWITZ: Yes.
More Here
Well does that make it a bit more understandable? Maybe a driblet for me but still I feel like I am swimming in very muddy water... and due to this, I have no confidence in what the big wheelers and dealers are doing in this quagmire of crapulence. When wealth and power are the byproducts of human endeavor, it's EVERYMAN FOR HIMSELF! (If it's every man for himself, then people are trying to save themselves from a difficult situation without trying to help anyone else...) Thanks for the response, thinkingblue aka Carolyn
THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL by Rob Kirby
KirbyAnalytics.com
May 10, 2006
Look at any modern schoolbook that publishes "The Constitution of the United States of America", and then go back to the original document signed by the Founding Fathers, which is actually titled "The Constitution for (sic) the United States of America". That one small word change found only in modern schoolbooks alters significantly the intent of the Founding Fathers.
Their intent is made clear if you think of the federal government in terms of
the "united States" - or in other words, States, each of which is a sovereign
power, that are united - as opposed to the "United States", a single sovereign
power. The reality is that the Founding Fathers found the concept of a single
sovereign power to be abhorrent. When they spoke of the loss of power within a
State to a federal authority, they called it "consolidation" and they were
dead-set against it.
That realization explains why the Founding Fathers went to great pains in the
Constitution to delegate only 17 specific and enumerated powers to the federal
government. They intended that the powers of the federal government would be few and limited. And so it was until the establishment of the Federal Reserve
created the ruling elite. After all, who do you think is responsible for that
one small word change in today's 'textbooks' if not the Establishment?
MORE HERE
QUOTES FROM:
might pick them up.- Oscar Wilde
Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed-
Mahatma Gandhi
A greedy father has thieves for children - Serbian Proverb
Poverty wants much; but avarice, everything - Publilius Syrus (Roman author, 1st
century B.C.)
YOU CAN BEAM ME UP NOW, SCOTTIE. 
Thinkingblue
posted by thinkingblue at 8:53 AM
<< Home