Green Day – The Burning Platform

HAPPY 50TH ANNIVERSARY SSS

Newbies on TBP may not know that SSS’s favorite group of all-time is Green Day. He is such a big Billie Joe Armstrong fan, he wears his pants extra low to copy him. Add any other Green Day videos in the comment section. He really likes Brain Stew.

AMERICAN EULOGY

Dmitry Orlov quoted this article this morning. I wrote it in January 2011. That seems like a long time ago. I think it holds up well.

The Founding Fathers described the kind of country they were shaping on July 4, 1776 with the most well known sentence in the English language:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. – Declaration of Independence

In 1776, America was an idea born of noble intentions. An idea that every citizen had the opportunity to succeed, prosper and achieve based upon their hard work and abilities. The government did not provide advantages or a safety net for its citizens. People were free to succeed or fail based upon their own merits. America had a frontier spirit because it was still a frontier. Individual effort, intellect and willingness to sweat allowed you to move up the socio-economic ladder. The government provided a National Defense, and very little else. In 1794, the country had a population of 4.4 million and a GDP of $310 million. Government spending totaled $7.1 million, or 2.3% of GDP, and was split between Defense and interest on the Revolutionary War debt. Today, Federal Government spending totals $3.7 trillion, or 25% of GDP.

James Truslow Adams in his 1931 Epic of America described the America that once existed in reality, but only exists as a phantom today:

“The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, also too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.”

“The American Dream that has lured tens of millions of all nations to our shores in the past century has not been a dream of material plenty, though that has doubtlessly counted heavily. It has been a dream of being able to grow to fullest development as a man and woman, unhampered by the barriers which had slowly been erected in the older civilizations, unrepressed by social orders which had developed for the benefit of classes rather than for the simple human being of any and every class.” – James Truslow Adams – Epic of America

His assessment of the American Dream was made in 1931. He saw signs that the American Dream had begun to die. He was right. The American Dream began to develop a terminal illness in 1913 with the creation of the Federal Reserve and the passage of the 16th Amendment to the Constitution, creating a permanent income tax.

Song of the Century

Sing us a song of the century
It sings like American Eulogy
The dawn of my love and conspiracy
Forgotten hope and the class of 13
Tell me a story into that goodnight
Sing us a song for me

American Eulogy – Green Day

At the outset of the last century America was still a vital, free, growing country on the rise. The song of the century began as a joyous ballad and ended as a funeral dirge. The creation of a Central Bank, which could create inflation on demand, and allowing politicians the ability to buy votes through pork spending, paid for with ever increasing taxation, have sucked the life out of the American Dream. According to the Federal Reserve’s own website, their mandates were clear. Below are those mandates and an assessment of their success.

Conducting the nation’s monetary policy by influencing the monetary and credit conditions in the economy in pursuit of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates.

Due to loose monetary policy in the 1920’s, the Federal Reserve created a stock bubble, a stock market crash of 89%, a decade long Great Depression, and unemployment of 25% in the 1930’s.
Due to loose monetary policies in the 1970’s, the Federal Reserve created raging inflation that reached 14% in the early 1980’s and needed to raise interest rates to 18% in order to break the back of inflation, resulting in unemployment surging to 9.7% in 1982.
Due to loose monetary policies in the early 2000’s, the Federal Reserve created the largest housing bubble in history, with the subsequent collapse bringing the financial system to within hours of collapse, and driving unemployment to 9.9% in 2009.
Due to the loosest monetary policy in history, today, inflation has begun to rage across the globe, leading to riots, protests and bloody revolutions, with more on the way.
The Federal Reserve has achieved their stable prices mandate by inflating away 96% of the purchasing power of the US dollar in less than 100 years. The price of gold continues to soar, as faith in the US dollar diminishes by the minute. I guess stability is in the eye of the beholder.

Supervising and regulating banking institutions to ensure the safety and soundness of the nation’s banking and financial system and to protect the credit rights of consumers.

The Federal Reserve’s supervisory and regulatory expertise can be observed in the graph above. This graph doesn’t do the Fed justice, as it begins in 1934. Sixteen years after its origination, the Fed managed to let 10,000 out of 25,000 banks in the country fail between 1929 and 1932.
Their glorious history also includes residing over the failure of 2,800 banks during the 1980’s S&L crisis.
While protecting their mega-bank Wall Street masters, the Fed has allowed over 300 small banks to go under so far. There are 900 banks on the troubled list that will eventually meet their maker.

Maintaining the stability of the financial system and containing systemic risk that may arise in financial markets.

Generally, maintaining the stability of the financial system and containing systematic risk doesn’t include allowing the worldwide financial system to come within hours of collapse as described by Rep. Paul Kanjorski:

“On Thursday [the 18th], at about 11 o’clock in the morning, the Federal Reserve noticed a tremendous drawdown of money market accounts in the United States to a tune of $550 billion being drawn out in a matter of an hour or two. The Treasury opened up its window to help. They pumped $105 billion into the system and quickly realized that they could not stem the tide. We were having an electronic run on the banks.

They decided to close the operation, close down the money accounts, and announce a guarantee of $250,000 per account so there wouldn’t be further panic and there. And that’s what actually happened. If they had not done that their estimation was that by two o’clock that afternoon, $5.5 trillion would have been drawn out of the money market system of the United States, would have collapsed the entire economy of the United States, and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed.

Now we talked at that time about what would have happened if that happened. It would have been the end of our economic system and our political system as we know it.”

Providing financial services to depository institutions, the U.S. government, and foreign official institutions, including playing a major role in operating the nation’s payments system.

It seems this is the only mandate the Federal Reserve has taken seriously is providing services to its owners, the banks. Did the bankers and politicians that met on Jekyll Island to mastermind this Central Bank envision that those services would include: buying $1.5 trillion of toxic mortgages from the banks; allowing the mega-banks to borrow from the Fed at 0% and reinvest those funds at 2.5% risk free; pumping $600 billion directly into the stock market through their QE2 scam; allowing banks to falsely overstate the value of their mortgage and commercial loans; and never ever enforcing basic risk management regulations.
While providing Wall Street banks with billions of unearned risk free profits, 0% interest rates further impoverish the savers and senior citizens of the country. The Federal Reserve has fulfilled their unstated mandate of enriching bankers at the expense of middle class Americans.

To strengthen U.S. standing in the world economy.

The Federal Reserve’s affect on the world economy is best revealed in a pictorial tribute to their policies:

TUNISIA

ALGERIA

EGYPT

The Federal Reserve has not been alone in killing the American Dream. Politicians since 1913 have done their part in suffocating the dream. The tax code consisted of 400 pages in 1913 and tax rates ranged from 1% to 7%. In less than a century politicians of both parties have carved out 70,000 pages of payoffs, entitlements, and bribes for their contributors and constituents. Tax rates now range from 10% to 35%. Those 70,000 pages of rules, regulations and tax breaks do not benefit the average middle class American. They benefit those who had the money and power to buy off a Congressman.

The Federal Reserve and the US Tax Code bastardized the American Dream, created barriers to economic advancement, and supported the accumulation of wealth and power by a select few. The ruling elite have used their power and control over the media to convince the majority of Americans that the American Dream is about accumulating material possessions with debt. The American Dream no longer meant attaining the fullest measure of your capabilities, but living in the biggest McMansion, driving the nicest BMW, watching the biggest TV and wearing the latest fashions, all acquired with debt. America is dying.

Mass Hysteria

Red alert is the color of panic
Elevated to the point of static
Beating into the hearts of the fanatics
And the neighborhood’s a loaded gun
Idle thought lead to full-throttle screaming
And the welfare is asphyxiating
Mass confusion is all the new age and it’s creating a feeding ground for the bottom feeders of hysteria

Hysteria, mass hysteria!
Mass hysteria!
Mass hysteria!
Mass hysteria!

American Eulogy – Green Day

Green Day captures the essence of America since the turn of the century. The country has been in the throes of mass hysteria since 9/11. The once independent, self sufficient individualists that populated this country have become dependent, government reliant, quivering shadows of the frontiersmen that created this country. In the name of safety and security, the American people have allowed their government to accumulate complete control over every aspect of our lives. Only a country in the grip of mass hysteria would allow their leaders to run the National Debt from $5.8 trillion to $14.1 trillion in less than 10 years. Only a country in the clutches of mass hysteria could believe they could get rich by trading internet stocks and houses to a greater fool. Only a country seized by mass hysteria would allow its leaders to promote democracy at the point of a cruise missile as we continue to fight $3 trillion wars in the Middle East, while nearly tripling the amount spent on Defense to more than $1 trillion per year.

Defense Budget Breakdown for 2011

Defense-related expenditure	2011 Budget request & Mandatory spending	Calculation
DOD spending	$721.3 billion	Base budget + “Overseas Contingency Operations”
FBI counter-terrorism	$2.7 billion	At least one-third FBI budget.
International Affairs	$10.1–$54.2 billion	At minimum, foreign arms sales. At most, entire State budget
Energy Department, defense-related	$20.9 billion
Veterans Affairs	$66.2 billion
Homeland Security	$54.7 billion
NASA, satellites	$3.4–$8.5 billion	Between 20% and 50% of NASA’s total budget
Veterans pensions	$58.4 billion
Other defense-related mandatory spending	$7.5 billion
Interest on debt incurred in past wars	$114.8–$454.2 billion	Between 23% and 91% of total interest
Total Spending	$1.060–$1.449 trillion

If you had told someone on September 10, 2001 that ten years later America would be running $1.5 trillion annual deficits, fighting two wars of choice in countries that despise our presence, and had not only not addressed the $100 billion of unfunded welfare liabilities but added billions more with Medicare D and Obamacare, they would have thought you were a crazy doomster predicting the end of the world. They would have put you away in a padded cell if you had further predicted that politicians would cut taxes three separate times, that the Wall Street banks that leveraged themselves 40 to 1 and destroyed the financial system were handed $2 trillion of taxpayer funds so they could pay themselves multi-million dollar bonuses, and that the Federal Reserve would triple its balance sheet to $2.45 trillion by running its printing presses at hyper-speed and handing the money to those same Wall Street Mega-Banks.

What caused the mass hysteria that has destroyed the soul of America? Was it just the madness of crowds? Or was it something more sinister?

True sounds of maniacal laughter
And the deaf-mute is misleading the choir
The punch-line is a natural disaster
And it’s sung by the unemployed
Fight fire with a riot
The class war is hanging on a wire because the martyr is a compulsive liar
When he said “it’s just a bunch of niggers throwing gas into the ….”

American Eulogy – Green Day

Whenever an act doesn’t make sense and seems irrational, you need to ask yourself, “who benefits?” Who has benefited from the hysteria? The answer is in plain sight. The moneyed interests benefited. The military industrial complex benefited. The Federal Government bureaucracy benefited. Wall Street bankers benefited. Mega-corporations and their CEOs benefited. The top 1% ruling elite gained more wealth and more power.

They created the mass hysteria with the assistance of their corporate owned mainstream media and completed their pillaging of the middle class with the cooperation of regulators, rating agencies and their ultimate weapon, the privately owned Federal Reserve bank, that has enriched its owners while impoverishing those whose only aspiration was to do an honest day’s work, raise their families, and live in relative comfort, safety, and happiness.

I Don’t Wanna Live In The Modern World

I don’t wanna live in the modern world!
I don’t wanna live in the modern world!
I don’t wanna live in the modern world!
I don’t wanna live in the modern world!

I am a nation without bureaucratic lies
Deny the allegation as it’s written (fucking lies!)

I want to take a ride to the great divide
Beyond the “up to date” and the neo-gentrified
The high definition for the low resident
Where the value of your mind is not held in contempt
I can hear the sound of a beating heart
That bleeds beyond a system that’s falling apart
With money to burn on a minimum wage
I don’t give a shit about the modern age

American Eulogy – Green Day

The modern world in no way resembles the world James Truslow Adams wrote so passionately about in 1931. Green Day’s version of bureaucratic lies, high definition TVs for the poor, contempt for those who use their minds, and a debt flooded system that is falling apart is an accurate assessment of America today. The modern world is ruled by the few with wealth and power, sustained by government. The misinformation and propaganda dished out by the mainstream media creates a smokescreen that obscures who wields the true power in this country. The corporate mainstream media has done such a good job spreading the Big Lie that a vast number of Americans actually admire and worship the ultra-rich.

Remember the financial crisis of 2008-2009 that wiped out 7 million jobs, cut the value of many homes in half, and required a taxpayer bailout of Wall Street? According to research done by economist Edward Wolff, “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.”

Source: William Domhoff

What is good for Wall Street is not good for Main Street. The American middle class has been lured into debt by the purveyors of debt, the ultra-rich elite who control the financial industry. The further into debt the bottom 90% descend, the greater the enrichment of the ruling class. This is why Wall Street shysters, political hacks and the corporate mainstream media have urged Americans to whip out those credit cards and “Save America” by spending money they don’t have, again. It is reminiscent of President Bush’s heartfelt plea to the American public to defeat terrorism by buying a GM car with 0% down.

The propaganda that is constantly pounded into the brains of Americans about “death taxes” and the rich paying more than their fair share of taxes is part of the Big Lie perpetrated by the powerful ruling class. The “huge” issue of estate tax impacts only the few thousand richest Americans. According to a study published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, only 1.6% of Americans receive $100,000 or more in inheritance. Another 1.1% receive $50,000 to $100,000. On the other hand, 91.9% receive nothing (Kotlikoff & Gokhale, 2000). The richest families in the country provide the funding for the mainstream media propaganda needed to eliminate estate taxes.

The lies about the ultra-rich paying more than their fair share of taxes are refuted in the graph above. The top 1% actually pays a lower percentage of their income than the next 9%. The tax code isn’t 70,000 pages for nothing. The ultra-rich have used their wealth to great advantage by having loopholes and tax dodges inserted into the tax code by their bought off congressmen. The average American can’t afford high powered tax specialists and lawyers to help them stash their wealth in off-shore tax havens in the Caribbean and Switzerland. The consistent theme in America today is that the middle class gets screwed and the ultra-rich ruling class accumulates more wealth and power.

The Death of America

“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” – John Adams

The right to happiness was based upon James Treslow Adams’ view that we were free to attain “the fullest stature of which they are innately capable”. The happiness of becoming a success through your individual exertion, intelligence and efforts has been subverted by the happiness of material goods acquired through the use of debt, peddled by the ruling class.

The debts are too extreme, the military overreach too excessive, the looting by the financial class too great, the political corruption too extensive, and the opportunities too few. The dream of a social order where everyone could rise to the highest level of their capabilities regardless of their birth has been systematically squashed. With 66% of households making less than $65,000 and college costs out of reach for 80% of Americans without incurring crushing levels of debt, the chances for most Americans to climb the social ladder through educational advancement are nil. Even if they do graduate from college, the CEOs in corporate America, who “earn” 300 times the average worker, have outsourced their jobs to China and India.

The wealth of the few has erected barriers to advancement of the many. America has progressively become a stratified class oriented society that has begun to spiral downward as the ruling class has gone too far. The revolutions flaring across the globe are occurring because the ruling class went too far and took too much. The ruling class in America should take note. They have shattered the American Dream and the retribution from those who have been swindled will be unexpected and violent.

KNOW YOUR ENEMY (Oldie but Goodie)

I wrote this in April 2009 when the stock market was at 7,000, oil was less than $50 a barrel and the National Debt was $11.1 trillion. I warned that government solutions and stimulus would fail. I thought that more liberties would be taken away and that turmoil in the world would lead to higher oil prices and our government would look for an external threat to divert our attention away from our domestic issues. The Federal Reserve and captured politicians in DC have since been able to enrich their Wall Street constituents with a 120% gain in the stock market, while killing the middle class with $6 trillion of additional debt and a doubling of energy and food prices.

It was written at the outset of this Fourth Turning Crisis. We are now over four years further into this Fourth Turning. Back then politicians and bankers promised things would get better if we just trusted them and their solutions. Are things better? Has normalcy been returned? In my opinion, and it appears millions more, things are not better and getting worse by the day.

Do you know the enemy?
Do you know your enemy?
Well, gotta know the enemy

Violence is an enemy
Against the enemy
Violence is an energy

Bringing on the fury
The choir infantry
Revolt against the honor to obey

Know Your Enemy – Green Day

Do you know the enemy? Is it Iraqis, Iran, the Taliban, terrorists, Muslims, Russia, North Korea, China, or our government? General Douglas MacArthur had a distinct point of view on the more likely threat.

“I am concerned for the security of our great Nation; not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within.”

William Strauss and Neil Howe wrote the book The Fourth Turning in 1997. Their theory is that history is a series of repetitive 100 year cycles with four generations living through each cycle. Each cycle and generation has many similarities, only the particular events change. We are currently in the most hazardous part of the cycle with the most volatile generation in positions of power. Strauss & Howe foresaw perilous times ahead:

“Based on historical patterns, America will hit a once-in-a-century national crisis within the decade…’like winter,’ the crisis or ‘fourth turning’ cannot be averted. It will last 20 years or so and bring hardship and upheavals similar to previous fourth turnings, such as the American Revolution, the Civil War, the Great Depression and World War II. The fourth turning is a perilous time because the result could be a new ‘golden age’ for America or the beginning of the end. It all will begin with a ‘sudden spark’ that catalyzes a crisis mood around the year 2005.”

We are currently in the midst of the Fourth Turning, an era of upheaval, a crisis in which our country will redefine its very nature and purpose. The sudden spark that catalyzed this crisis occurred on the beautiful sunny morning of September 11, 2001. The crisis reached an initial crescendo in late 2008. Many believe that the worst is behind us and the future has begun to brighten. This is highly unlikely. Previous crisis periods lasted fifteen to twenty years. The Civil War crisis was confined to five brutal years that resulted in 600,000 American deaths. The crisis in our past history that appears most analogous is the Great Depression/World War II crisis that lasted sixteen years. A financial depression caused by the Federal Reserve pumping too much credit into the financial system during the 1920’s had been considered the worst in U.S. history. The current financial crisis, caused by the Federal Reserve pumping too much credit into the financial system along with politicians turbo charging the effort by eliminating all regulation of the financial system, has led to the Greater Depression. We are likely only half way through this crisis, with tears and bloodshed yet to follow.

Are You a Terrorist?

Most people in America, comfortable in their manicured lawn suburban sprawl will discount the possibility of civil unrest, war, and dictatorship in this country. Could Nazi like sociopaths gain control of our government? It is inconceivable. Anyone who would bring up this possibility would be branded a lunatic. As Doug Casey recently pointed out in his article Street Fighting Man, the Germans thought the same thing.

“Who would have guessed that the Germans of the last century, who had much more than their share of writers, composers, philosophers, scientists, plain middle-class shopkeepers, and a well-educated, orderly population would have bred the Nazis? It would be easy to recount dozens of recent examples of perfectly ordinary countries that have gone bonkers. The fact is that your neighbor or your mailman, who pets his dog, hugs his kids, and plays softball on the weekends, might exhibit a much less appealing, indeed an appalling, side when social conditions change. The problem arises when a society becomes highly politicized. In normal times, a sociopath stays under the radar. Perhaps he’ll commit a common crime when he thinks he can get away with it, but social mores keep him reined in.

However, once the government changes its emphasis from protecting citizens from force to initiating it with laws and taxes, those social mores break down. Peer pressure and moral opprobrium, the forces that keep a healthy society orderly and together, are replaced by regulation enforced by cops funded by taxes. And sociopaths start coming out of the woodwork and are drawn to the State, where they can get licensed and paid to do what they’ve always wanted to do. It’s very simple, really. There are two ways people can relate to each other: voluntarily or coercively. The government is pure coercion, and sociopaths are drawn to its power and force.”

With the never ending lessening of our civil liberties after 9/11, the government power over our daily lives grows day by day. Recent revelations that the Department of Homeland Security considers Ron Paul and his followers, potential terrorists are disturbing. A February 20 report states:

“Due to the current economical and political situation, a lush environment for militia activity has been created. Unemployment rates are high, as well as costs of living expenses. Militia members most commonly associate with 3rd party political groups. It is not uncommon for militia members to display Constitutional Party, Campaign for Liberty or Libertarian material.”

A new Department of Homeland Security report highlights security risks posed by extremist groups and disgruntled veterans. The report stated that threats could come from “military veterans facing significant challenges reintegrating into their communities.” I’m sure the young men and women who risked their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan for George Bush are thrilled to find out that the organization he created to protect the homeland considers them a terrorist threat. The U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, PA recently put out a report titled Known Unknowns: Unconventional Strategic Shocks in Defense Strategy Development warning an economic crisis in the United States could lead to massive civil unrest that would require the military to restore order. The report states:

“Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities to defend basic domestic order and human security, in case of unforeseen economic collapse.”

Why are the government organizations that are supposed to protect and defend our citizens making plans to protect the government from the citizens? President Obama’s top advisor David Axelrod had this to say about the tax day tea parties last week.

“I think any time you have severe economic conditions there is always an element of disaffection that can mutate into something that’s unhealthy.”

Since when did peaceful protest and free speech become unhealthy? What is unhealthy and dangerous is when the government and many in the mainstream media proclaim that what these people were doing was perilous to our country. Maybe Mr. Axelrod, Nancy Pelosi and the pundits on MSNBC should read the 1^st Amendment to the Constitution.

Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Crisis – Winter of our Discontent

Don’t want to be an American idiot.
One nation controlled by the media.
Information age of hysteria.
It’s calling out to idiot America.

American Idiot – Green Day

Strauss and Howe described the similarities of most crisis phases:

A crisis arises in response to sudden threats that previously would have been ignored or deferred, but which are now perceived as dire. Great worldly perils boil off the clutter and complexity of life, leaving behind one simple imperative: The society must prevail. This requires a solid public consensus, aggressive institutions, and personal sacrifice. People support new efforts to wield public authority, whose perceived successes soon justify more of the same. Government governs, community obstacles are removed, and laws and customs that resisted change for decades are swiftly shunted aside. A grim preoccupation with civic peril causes spiritual curiosity to decline. Public order tightens, private risk-taking abates, and crime and substance abuse decline. Families strengthen, gender distinctions widen, and child-rearing reaches a smothering degree of protection and structure. The young focus their energy on worldly achievements, leaving values in the hands of the old. Wars are fought with fury and for maximum result.

On September 11, 2001 an attack by 19 Muslim terrorists using knives to hijack airliners and fly them into the Twin Towers and Pentagon plunged the United States into a state of crisis. This was an attack by a small terrorist organization of less than 10,000 members led by Osama bin Laden. It was not an attack by the Muslim world against the Christian world. The dogmatic, single minded, religiously driven George Bush, influenced by neo-con extremists, decided a worldwide war on terror was the solution. He even declared the war on terror as World War III. Using fear tactics and bullying weak Congressmen who feared losing their jobs if they showed courage, George Bush enhanced the power of the government over our lives by ramming through the USA Patriot Act (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001) and creating the Department of Homeland Security in the name of safeguarding the public from unknown phantom dangers. Section 2 of the act essentially allows the government to listen in on your private conversations or access your emails. Does this seem proportionate to the acts of 19 men with knives that could have been foiled by a $39.99 deadbolt lock from Wal-Mart?

201	Authority to intercept wire, oral, and electronic communications relating to terrorism
202	Authority to intercept wire, oral, and electronic communications relating to computer fraud and abuse offenses
203(b)	Authority to share electronic, wire and oral interception information
204	Clarification of intelligence exceptions from limitations on interception and disclosure of wire, oral, and electronic communications
206	Roving surveillance authority under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978.
207	Duration of FISA surveillance of non-United States persons who are agents of a foreign power
209	Seizure of voice-mail messages pursuant to warrants
212	Emergency disclosure of electronic communications to protect life and limb
214	Pen register and trap and trace authority under FISA
215	Access to records and other items under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
217	Interception of computer trespasser communications
218	Foreign intelligence information
220	Nationwide service of search warrants for electronic evidence
223	Civil liability for certain unauthorized disclosures
225	Immunity for compliance with FISA wiretap

The fact that there have been no terrorist attacks in the U.S. since 9/11 is touted as being due to this act and the Department of Homeland Security. Therefore, sacrificing civil liberties is seen as a small price to pay for safety and security. Osama bin Laden’s 1^st attempt at blowing up the World Trade Center occurred in 1993. He patiently waited eight years before his 2^nd attempt. Has spending over $1 trillion since 9/11, forfeiting 4,900 American lives and sacrificing of individual liberties led to our increased security, or are the terrorists just being patient?

The perceived success of these extreme measures has now convinced a majority of the population that government can solve all of their financial troubles better than the free market. America is a minimum monthly payment nation. As long as they can make the minimum monthly payment, they can lease a BMW, buy the best furniture today and worry about the bill in 2013, and buy electronic gadgets and bling on their Capital One credit card. The American sheeple are being led to slaughter by shepherds (Obama, Geithner, Bernanke) who have convinced them that borrowing and spending at malls will save the country. The Baby Boomers are desperately hoping to be saved from their own irresponsible behavior by even more reckless behavior by their government. Boomers will never be celebrated for their willingness to sacrifice and accept the bitter medicine that is required to rebalance their lives. Ask them to buy a Rolex with someone else’s tax dollars and they are all in. I’m personally hoping the crack in my windshield will eventually convert into the likeness of Jesus Christ. I’ll turn my car into a shrine and make millions. Just classify me as a Boomer optimist.

The risk taking by entrepreneurs that has been the basis for our economic success is abating as they step aside and let government dictate how auto companies, insurance companies, and banks should be run. Government is dictating the winners and losers. They will pick the winners that will benefit government and their social agenda. Government will use this crisis to enhance their power. The 50% of Americans who pay no Federal income taxes will support any idea or program that will get them something for nothing. Politicians will frame every issue as an either or option. You either support their new spending plan or catastrophe awaits. The young allow their dogmatic parents to dictate family values. The rhetoric in our society continues to get more polarizing.

Prophets in an Alien Nation

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Where everything isn’t meant to be okay.

American Idiot – Green Day

Strauss & Howe described the Prophet/Idealist generation as being born during a High, spending its rising adult years during an Awakening, spending midlife during an Unraveling, and spending old age in a Crisis. Prophetic leaders have been cerebral and principled, summoners of human sacrifice, wagers of righteous wars. Early in life, few saw combat in uniform. Late in life, most prophets come to be revered as much for their words as for their deeds. The three previous crisis periods in U.S. history were dominated by the prophetic leadership of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt. George Bush has led us through the 1^st half of this crisis. It is likely that Barack Obama will lead us through the 2^nd half of the crisis. I don’t think George Bush will be revered for being cerebral or making inspiring speeches. He did wage a righteous war against terrorism. Barack Obama is cerebral and principled. He is waging a righteous war in Afghanistan, though he has never seen combat. He is already known for his inspiring speeches. Will he rise to the level of Lincoln?

George Bush and Barack Obama are both Baby Boomers. The oldest boomer is 63, the youngest 45. Boomers occupy the leadership positions in government, corporations, military, and educational institutions. Boomer leaders are cocky, aggressive, and quoting Doug Casey, “quite willing to burn down the barn in order to destroy whatever rats they see.”

George Bush was sure there was WMD in Iraq. He was sure that cutting taxes, sending out rebate checks, and letting banks regulate themselves was the path to prosperity. Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke were sure that TARP would save our financial system from collapse. Barack Obama was sure that if we didn’t pass his bloated stimulus bill, catastrophe awaited the country. Baby Boom leaders are always sure and often wrong. The masses are drawn to leaders who are sure of themselves. They want to believe that a wise man will lead them to the Promised Land. They won’t realize that he is leading them to hell, until it is too late.

Civil Unrest – The Great Unraveling

Overthrow the effigy
The vast majority
Burning down the foreman of control

Silence is the enemy
Against your urgency
So rally up the demons of your soul

Know Your Enemy – Green Day

Strauss & Howe explained their view of how America was feeling in 1997. They were dead on. We are a country that has been rotting from within for decades.

America feels like it’s unraveling. Though we live in an era of relative peace and comfort, we have settled into a mood of pessimism about the long-term future, fearful that our superpower nation is somehow rotting from within. The America of today feels worse, in its fundamentals, than the one many of us remember from youth, a society presided over by those of supposedly lesser consciousness. We yearn for civic character but satisfy ourselves with symbolic gestures and celebrity circuses. We perceive no greatness in our leaders, a new meanness in ourselves. Each new election brings a new jolt, its aftermath a new disappointment.

Many Americans know we are on the wrong track but are so distracted by the circus like distractions of every day life, they choose not to think about it. It is likely that the 123 million eligible voters who chose not to vote in the 2008 Presidential election don’t even realize the country is on the wrong track. The sedated masses were easy to manipulate when unemployment was 4%. There are now 6 million more people unemployed today than just 16 months ago in November 2007. Another 2 to 3 million will lose their jobs in 2009. The government doesn’t count another 5 to 10 million people who are classified as out of the workforce, but would like to work. This means there will be 20 to 25 million people out of work by the end of this year. Unemployed people have a propensity to be angry. In the last few months there have been several mass murders committed by angry unemployed men. As the economic “solutions” rolled out by politicians and Federal Reserve bureaucrats lead to an inflationary depression similar to the Weimer Republic of the early 1930’s, civil unrest will rear its ugly head.

Doug Casey describes the likely scenario:

People believe they have little to lose, they’re eager to hang those they believe responsible for their problems, and they’ll listen to radical or violent proposals. We’re now just entering what will likely be the worst economic trough since the Industrial Revolution. A rioter is typically an angry person looking for vengeance because he blames someone else for his problem. So far, rioters seem to be directing their attention at governments. Correct target, of course, but they don’t have the rationale quite right. They’re not angry because governments inflated the currency, promoted fractional reserve banking, and nurtured all the cockamamie socialist programs that caused this crisis. Not at all; they rather liked all that. They’re angry only because their governments haven’t adequately protected them from the consequences of what they did. So as conditions worsen, we can expect governments worldwide to pull out absolutely all the stops to show they’re “doing something.” And round up scapegoats to satisfy the mob and divert anger from themselves. I fully expect civil unrest to spread everywhere, simply because the depression will spread everywhere. It will be worst in places that have been most overextended, most debt leveraged, most urban, and have the largest numbers of unemployed workers — the U.S., Europe, and China.

The civil unrest is most likely to erupt among Hispanics and African Americans. The unemployment rate of Hispanics is 11.4% versus 5.0% in November 2007. It is doubtless far worse, as many Hispanics worked “under the table” in the housing industry. The unemployment rate of African Americans is 13.3%, the highest since 1993, and up from an all-time low of 7.0% in 2000. The urban areas of the United States are a powder keg, with automatic weapons available to anyone. Policemen are being slaughtered at a record pace. Mexico is on the verge of becoming a failed state. Drug lords are running the country. Its oil fields are in rapid decline and it will no longer be an exporter of oil within 5 years. The Mexican government depends on oil for 40% of its tax revenues. The collapse of Mexico’s government, extreme power of murderous drug lords, and worldwide depression will drive millions of poor towards the U.S. border. The anti-immigrant feelings in the U.S. continue to grow as more white Americans lose their jobs. This is an explosive combination that will eventually require military and National Guard intervention.

There are two other hot button issues which will increase the anxiety in this country. Guns and ammo are selling like hotcakes. The combination of apprehension that Obama and his Democratic majority will put restrictions on gun ownership and the severe economic downturn has led to an exorbitant increase in gun sales. Ruger has a $48 million backlog of guns on order. Many citizens in the Western states live by the motto: You can have my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers. Any effort by the Obama administration to restrict gun ownership will be met with major resistance. The Tax Day Tea Parties revealed the other hot button issue for many Americans. When the Bush tax cuts expire in 2010 and Obama institutes his Cap & Trade energy tax, the economy will receive a double whammy. At that point the failed economic policies and higher taxes will lead to consternation and resentment throughout the land. The unending economic turmoil throughout the world will result in protests and anger in many countries. The more disturbing issue is how politicians will try to divert the attention of the masses through the use of an external threat.

War – Fingers of Instability

The insurgency will rise
When the bloods been sacrificed
Don’t be blinded by the lies
In your eyes

Violence is an energy
From here to eternity
Violence is an energy
Silence is the enemy
So gimme gimme revolution

Know Your Enemy – Green Day

Back in 2006 John Mauldin wrote an article titled Fingers of Instability. It was based on a book written by Mark Buchanan called Ubiquity, Why Catastrophes Happen. It examines chaos theory, complexity theory, and critical states. Physicists, using a computer model examined what takes place when sand is continuously piled up grain by grain. They were endeavoring to understand what makes the pile ultimately collapse. Buchanan described the experiment:

“Imagine peering down on the pile from above, and coloring it in according to its steepness. Where it is relatively flat and stable, color it green; where steep and, in avalanche terms, ‘ready to go,’ color it red. What do you see? They found that at the outset the pile looked mostly green, but that, as the pile grew, the green became infiltrated with ever more red. With more grains, the scattering of red danger spots grew until a dense skeleton of instability ran through the pile. Here then was a clue to its peculiar behavior: a grain falling on a red spot can, by domino-like action, cause sliding at other nearby red spots. If the red network was sparse, and all trouble spots were well isolated one from the other, then a single grain could have only limited repercussions. But when the red spots come to riddle the pile, the consequences of the next grain become fiendishly unpredictable. It might trigger only a few tumblings, or it might instead set off a cataclysmic chain reaction involving millions. The sand pile seemed to have configured itself into a hypersensitive and peculiarly unstable condition in which the next falling grain could trigger a response of any size whatsoever.”

“In this simplified setting of the sand pile, the power law also points to something else: the surprising conclusion that even the greatest of events have no special or exceptional causes. After all, every avalanche large or small starts out the same way, when a single grain falls and makes the pile just slightly too steep at one point. What makes one avalanche much larger than another has nothing to do with its original cause, and nothing to do with some special situation in the pile just before it starts. Rather, it has to do with the perpetually unstable organization of the critical state, which makes it always possible for the next grain to trigger an avalanche of any size.”

You may be wondering what sand has to do with war. The relevance is that a small seemingly minor incident could lead to a large world war. At the moment Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by Serb anarchists in 1914, no one expected a World War to result. When the war began most expected it to last a few weeks. Instead, over 15 million people died in one of the deadliest conflicts in human history. There are many known flashpoints that could lead to a broader worldwide conflict. The use of nuclear weapons seems unlikely, but the deaths of 15 million people in World War I and 70 million in World War II also seemed unlikely at the outset of each conflict. Among the possible flashpoints are:

Israel attacks Iran nuclear facilities.
Pakistan government collapses and conflict with India and/or Afghanistan erupts.
Russia attempts to reacquire its former territory the Ukraine.
China attempts to reign in its former province Taiwan.
North Korea attacks South Korea.
While the U.S. gets bogged down in Afghanistan, civil war breaks out again in Iraq supported by Iran and Syria.

Difficult economic periods often lead to war. The economic period ahead will be intensely difficult. Leaders of the U.S., China, and Russia will see their economic theories and solutions discredited. The natives will become restless as they are kicked out into the streets, homeless and hungry. The U.S. has completely ignored the energy crisis that is bearing down on them. The 12% of our daily oil supply from Mexico will be gone in less than five years. Our economy is still in freefall. If oil were to rocket back up into the mid-$100’s in the next year, the consequences would be dire. A conflict between Israel and Iran would immediately lead to a spike in oil prices. If Iran is attacked they would surely launch missiles at the Iraqi oil fields and attempt to block or mine the Strait of Hormuz.

The United States views China and Russia as our chief adversaries in the world. The United States is attempting to get Georgia and the Ukraine admitted into NATO. If Russia were to attack either country, the U.S. would be obligated to go to war against Russia. How would we do this with an all volunteer military that is already stretched too thin? Russia knows we are stretched thin and will push right to the edge of conflict. China knows they can not win a traditional war with the United States. Therefore, they are not preparing for a traditional war. As the U.S. spends $765 billion per year on F-22s, aircraft carriers, and tanks, the Chinese use our dollars to buy up commodities and natural resources in Africa, South America, Australia, and the Middle East. The next war will be a resource war and a cyber war. China is already winning the resource war. Russia has vast reserves of oil and natural gas. Worldwide turmoil is beneficial to the price of their major assets. The United States is dependent on foreign nations to the tune of 5.1 billion barrels of oil per year. Who will be more desperate when the oil tap is shut off?

As the U.S. is bogged down in Iraq, Afghanistan and our Mexican border, further world conflict would stretch U.S. military capacity to the breaking point. As the U.S. economy falls further and the price of oil skyrockets, American leaders will grow increasingly desperate. They will be looking for an opportunity to flex their muscles and prove to the American people that they aren’t really failures. This will be the dangerous time where the fingers of instability could be triggered by one grain of sand. Suppose China decided to take advantage of our weakness and attacked Taiwan. We would steam our aircraft carrier fleets towards the conflict. Suppose China launched a nuclear missile 100 miles from our fleet at sea as a warning. Would we launch a nuclear missile at China? If cyber war broke out and the Chinese or Russians were able to disable our electric grid and or satellites, we would be unable to detect a nuclear strike. Would we launch our nuclear missiles in response? Who knows? If Russia and China can disable our satellites, we can surely do the same. Uncertainty, pressure and panic never lead to a positive result. Could the end of earth as we know it be over in a matter of moments due to the miscalculations of inept politicians? You know the enemy.

“Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.” Winston Churchill

The current crisis does not have to end this way. If the American people can wake up from their materialistic stupor in time, this crisis could lead to a new beginning for the Great American Republic. This crisis will inflict enormous pain on many Americans. If we continue on the current path, violence is in our future. If we permit the country to rebalance to a sustainable level of spending, address our future liabilities, and develop an energy plan there is hope. The choice is ours.

IS ADMIN AN ANTI-CAPITALIST?

Well, of course he isn’t. But I never thought I’d see the day when Admin attacked one of the most successful businesses in America, Southwest Airlines. Why? All because Southwest had the effrontery to kick off Green Day band member Billie Joe Armstrong from a flight because this slug got on the flight with the waistband of his pants somewhere close to his knee caps while revealing a butt crack which would make a member of a plumber’s union blush. Oh, the horror. Southwest enforced some modicum of decorum from its passengers on its flights. What next? Saying “please” and “thank you”?

ACTUAL MUGSHOT, WITHOUT EYE LINER, OF BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG AFTER A DUI ARREST

BILLIE JOE WITH EYE LINER. WHERE’S THE LIPSTICK?

Billie Joe Armstrong

Here’s how it went down between Admin and me on the thread of “Farewell WYSP.”

SSS posts article of Armstrong getting booted off of a Southwest flight from Oakland to Burbank.

ADMIN: “Southwest Airlines Eats Shit. Are you actually condoning people getting thrown off airplanes because their pants are sagging? I guess that Federal Government mindset still breaths (sic) in you.”

SSS: “Are you against private businesses like Southwest Airlines which create thousands of jobs and SUCCEED? I could care less whether Southwest kicked this punk off their plane because of his low riders. It is THEIR AIRPLANE AND THEIR DECISION TO MAKE, not some government drone frisking little girls at a security checkpoint. If Southwest’s actions offend the public in general, then it’ll read about it on the bottom line of its annual report. This has absolutely nothing to do with a federal government mindset, but everything to do with letting a business alone and letting them run its show the way it sees fit.”

(edited) “Southwest Airlines commenced Customer Service on June 18, 1971, with three Boeing 737 aircraft serving three Texas cities-Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio. Today, Southwest operates 550 Boeing 737 aircraft among 72 cities. Yearend results for 2010 marked Southwest’s 38th consecutive year of profitability. Southwest is the United States’ most successful low fare, high frequency, point-to-point carrier. Southwest operates more than 3,400 flights a day coast-to-coast, making it the largest U.S. carrier based on domestic passengers carried as of December 31, 2010.

ADMIN: “Nice copy and paste about Southwest. It seems their reputation is doing better than their actual results. Their profits are on track to be down 30% this year and their stock has collapsed from $14 to $8.”

————————–end of thread————————–

You seem to be focused on profits and stock prices, Admin. Well, so what? Businesses have good years, and they have bad years. What else is new? Try and focus on the price of oil, please, since it is a harbinger of the profit margin of the airline industry. Anyway, you like people to bring facts and figures to the table when they show up on TBP. I did so with my “copy and paste” response above, which didn’t seem to meet your threshold of truth. So chew on these.

—-Southwest Airlines employs nearly 35,000 people. Those are PURE tax-paying jobs, in addition to Southwest’s corporate taxes.

—-Southwest Airlines has bought 550 Boeing 737 jet airliners. Tell me that hasn’t helped one of America’s most important manufacturers. Tell me that hasn’t helped Boeing’s growth. Southwest has been the LAUNCH CUSTOMER for the Boeing 737 300/500/700 series of jets. What that means is that these aircraft were first ordered and bought by Southwest. Let me put it more simply: Southwest Airlines has been critical to Boeing aircraft sales.

Want some more facts, Admin? Will a pie or bar chart help?

LIVIN IN BEVERLY HILLS (Oldie but Goodie)

I wrote this back in September 2009 before I had a website. I was reminded of it this morning as Weezer blared from my radio on the way to work.

For the last three decades millions of Americans have been living in Beverly Hills. How can this be? Only 35,000 people reside in Beverly Hills, California. Millions have acted like they live in Beverly Hills, where the median household income is $125,000. The median household income in the United States is $50,000. There are 116 million households in the United States. Only 12 million households have income of $125,000 or more. There are 60 million households making less than $50,000.

Why shouldn’t the 60 million households be entitled to live like the top 10%? This is America, where the American Dream of wealth and riches is achievable. Just one small problem. Millions chose to live like the privileged Beverly Hills elite without doing the difficult work to earn their way into the top 10%. They made these dreadful decisions of their own free will. No one forced millions of Americans to borrow and spend like drunken soldiers.

It appears that the psychology of the nation transformed in the early 1980’s. Was it the optimistic message of “Morning in America” preached to the country by Ronald Reagan? Was it the fact that the youngest Baby Boomers were turning 35, entering their prime spending years? Or, was it the long-term decline in interest rates from 18% to 1% over two decades? Whatever the rationale, millions are now drowning in deep pool of debt.

Auto Nation

Where I come from isn’t all that great
My automobile is a piece of crap

My fashion sense is a little whack
And my friends are just as screwy as me
                      Living in Beverly Hills – Weezer

I spend 500 hours per year in my car commuting on the Schuykill Expressway to and from work. In my spare time, I’ve calculated that I will spend at least a year of my life in traffic before I retire. While commuting at 5 mph on the Schuykill, I can’t help but survey the cars I’m sharing the road with. There are thousands jamming the highways in the Philadelphia area. There are 230 million cars in the U.S. and approximately 200 million drivers. We are a car crazed nation, with the number of cars per person 40% higher than Europe, 500% higher than China and 6,200% more than India. In 1970, when I was seven years old, the number of cars per 1,000 people was 529. Today it is 765, a 45% increase in three decades. Suburban dwellers have a love affair with their cars.

The average price of a new car exceeds $30,000 today. That is a nice chunk of change. I have a mental block paying that much money for an asset, that losses 20% of its value in the 1st year of ownership. My price limit is $20,000. I finance my cars over 4 years and try to get 10 years out of them. The 6 years of no payments goes directly into savings. My frugality regarding cars probably harks back to my father buying used cars during my entire childhood. Cars were a means of transportation, not a symbol of success. It appears to me that expensive luxury cars are an attempt at filling a psychological or emotional void in people’s lives. We spend half our lives in cubicles or offices and the other half in our shielded houses with gates and fences to keep people at a distance. The only time we are seen by others is on the highways and byways. An expensive sports car tells the world you are a success. A luxury car is a futile attempt at increasing your perceived happiness. Your fashion sense may be a little whack, but your car isn’t a piece of crap.

This brings me to the conundrum that has confounded me as I drive to work each day. There appears to be many more BMW and Mercedes vehicles on the road than people with enough income to own one of these vehicles. How can this be? I was befuddled. After a little research it became quite clear. The graphs below tell the whole sordid story. Borrow today, live like a Beverly Hills hotshot, roll the loan or lease into the next loan or lease in 3 years, and don’t be troubled about the future. According to the Federal Reserve, consumer non-revolving debt grew from $300 billion in 1980 to $1.6 trillion today. About $1 trilion of this is auto loans. The average automobile loan today is for 63 months, with some going as high as 84 months, compared with an average of less than 48 months in the early 1990s. In 1997 banks financed an average 89% of a new vehicle’s price. The average loan amount was $17,000. In 2007 banks financed 101% of a new vehicle’s price, since consumers borrowed to cover the amount they were upside down on their trade-in. The average loan amount is now $29,000. A full 40% of all trade-ins involve upside-down car loans. The average American car “owner” is in debt up to their eyeballs and upside down on their loan, but at least they look like a million bucks in the eyes of their neighbors and co-workers. Looking marvelous is what passes for achievement today.

Of course, it takes two to tango. A car buyer with no money wouldn’t be able to drive that beautiful BMW X5 or that Mercedes ML350 unless someone loans them the money to do so. This is where the creative geniuses from Wall Street entered the picture. Auto loans were securitized into packages and sold off to investors. The banks and finance companies who initiated the loans did not care if the loans went bad. Their sole intent was to move cars off the lots, not lose sleep about silly details like credit scores, income, or ability to pay back the loan. It worked wonders for the car companies. Annual sales rolled along at a 16 million per year clip. Car executives and bankers made ungodly salaries and bonuses. Then reality set in. Many borrowers couldn’t really afford their loans. Delinquency rates have soared to all time highs in the 10% range and are headed higher. The securitization market froze and annual sales have plunged below 10 million units. Another Wall Street success story.

The ability of car companies to make payments extremely low through long-term loans and leases is the reason an average Joe making $50,000 per year can drive a BMW and resemble someone making $150,000 per year. Chrysler and Ford generated 20% of their car sales through leases, while GM led the pack at 40% of their sales. Many of these leases were for SUVs and other giant gas guzzlers. When gas prices soared in 2008, the residual value of these gas guzzlers plummeted as the resale market disappeared. Ford and Chrysler have written off billions. The king of the hill, GMAC accumulated $33 billion of lease assets and is slowly but surely writting off $14 million of these “assets”, while the taxpayer funds their future bad leases.

Leases have made it possible for millions of Americans to drive the hottest luxurious wheels their limited cash budgets would not permit them to buy. Auto makers loved leases because they could sell higher-priced vehicles, which generate a gusher of profits in the short-term. By piling on inducements of their own, such as rebates or 0% financing deals, auto makers were able to subsidize consumers’ lease payments further. As a result, Americans have been able to have access to vehicles their parents never envisioned driving. Leases allowed anyone to look like a rock-star, driving luxury sedans, sports cars and Hummers costing $40,000 to $60,000. The Wall Street Journal describes a common scenario:

For Richelle Babcock, a mother of two young boys in Ann Arbor, Mich., leasing has made it possible to get new cars every couple of years. A few years ago, she took advantage of a trade-in deal and other incentives Chrysler was offering and got a $180-a-month lease on a 2006 Jeep Commander with a sticker price of about $35,000. There’s “no way,” Ms. Babcock says, that she would have bought the Commander outright. “I don’t want to have to own it and drive it forever.” Indeed, in December she turned it in and instead leased a new 2008 Commander. Her payment roughly doubled, but that’s mainly because the lease is much less restrictive about her annual mileage.

I’d like to ask Ms. Babcock a couple questions. Does she have college education funds set up for her two young boys? Does she have an emergency fund of 6 months of living expenses? How much does she have in her retirement account? I’m sure she would be offended by such questions. It’s her right to get a brand new car every two years. These are the people who can’t distinguish a need from a want.

This brings me to the chapter in this horror story that really sticks in my craw. I drive through West Philadelphia every day. The neighborhoods are decrepit, with boarded up houses, trash strewn vacant lots, grade schools that resemble prisons, and a substantial number of unemployed folks shuffling about from morning to night. These neighborhoods appear to have five times as many BMWs and Mercedes as my suburban upper middle class neighborhood. According to the U.S. Census, West Philly is a predominantly Black neighborhood, with a large proportion of unmarried high school dropouts living in poverty, occupying dilapidated houses with Direct TV dishes on their roofs. According to the U.S. Census, my neighborhood is occupied by people who are five times higher on the income scale.

The August unemployment figures from the BLS show that the unemployment rate for Black men is 17.0% versus 10.6% last August and versus 9.3% for White men. The unemployment rate for Black teenagers is 34.7%. With these figures, you would expect unrest, looting, and riots in West Philly. The civil unrest hasn’t happened in West Philly or anywhere else. I think I’ve figured out why. Just picture a 20 year old unemployed Black man calling his homies on his iPhone urging them to drag themselves away from staring at their 52 inch HDTVs with 600 stations on their Direct TV network, hop into their BMW X5, and drive over to the comprehensive healthcare riots. It’s not happening. Our elected officials, Federal Reserve and banking cartel have chosen to buy off the poor at the expense of the middle class, so the rich can get richer.

Easy money allows the poor to live like the rich. This explains why people in West Philly are able to drive $50,000 one year old BMWs, while I choose to drive an 8 year old CRV with 130,000 miles. My choice was to finance my $20,000 car over 4 years at 7%. I had a $500 monthly payment for 4 years and then was able to save $500 per month for the next 6 years, banking $36,000 in savings. The auto financing companies GMAC, Ford Credit, and Chrysler Credit offer rebate incentives, 7 year loans, and 0% interest to entice everyone to drive BMWs and Mercedes for a monthly payment below $500. The poor are more likely drawn to three year leases with even lower monthly payments. You can lease a BMW for $399 per month or lower. Once you are lured into 3 year leases or 7 year loans, you are ensnared in a lifetime car payment, never saving a dime. Over 4 decades, my method will leave me with $200,000 of savings. A perpetual car payment will leave you with $0 of savings. Millions have chosen this negligent path. Not only did they pursue this path, they hurtled themselves down the path with gusto by borrowing against their houses to buy cars. The numb-nuts in California and Florida were the worst offenders.

A drug addict still needs a dealer to get their fix. Politicians in Washington with their cohorts in crime, the Federal Reserve and the banking cartel, provided the drug of easy money. The unholy combination of a psychological need to appear successful and easy money has created a deadly recipe for those in the middle class who drive their modest cars for 10 years and save for the future. The black magic of securitization has allowed banks and finance companies to bestow credit card cards and car loans to high school dropouts making $20,000 per year in West Philly with no concern about getting repaid. They packaged this future bad debt, paid off Moody’s and S&P to rate it AAA, and dumped it on suckers throughout the world. Now, auto loan delinquency rates are at all time highs, 1.7 million cars were repossessed in 2008, with another 2 million likely to be repossessed in 2009.

The underprivileged people in West Philadelphia don’t comprehend that politicians and bankers are actually keeping them entrapped in poverty by providing them with easy credit and persuading them that making perpetual payments for cars, TVs, and other material goods is a normal lifestyle. When reality sets in and these people stop making their payments, no trouble for them. As the financial system came crashing down due to the millions of bad loans made by the banking cartel, their protectors Hank (Goldman) Paulson and Ben (Helicopter) Bernanke funneled TRILLIONS of your tax dollars and your children’s tax dollars and their children’s tax dollars to the banks that committed these crimes. The poor people in West Philly don’t pay taxes, so they got to drive BMWs and watch 52 inch TVs for awhile, and are left relatively unscathed. The middle class is paying the bill, losing millions of jobs, while seeing their 401ks drop by 40% and they are still driving their 10 year old cars. Government now wants you to pay more so the poor will have health insurance when they get injured in a BMW accident.

What’s My Payment?

I didn’t go to boarding schools
Preppy girls never looked at me

Why should they, I ain’t nobody
Got nothing in my pocket

Living in Beverly Hills – Weezer

For the last three decades you didn’t need anything in your pocket to attract a preppy girl. You just needed to whip out one of your 10 credit cards and act like a Beverly Hills hotshot. Cash was for suckers. Credit cards are so easy to use. You just pull it out, buy whatever you desire at that moment and make a minimum payment every month until infinity. We’ve become a minimum payment nation. If you can handle the minimum payment, it’s yours. In 2006, the Census Bureau determined that there were nearly 1.5 billion credit cards in use in the U.S. A stack of all those credit cards would reach more than 70 miles into space — and be almost as tall as 13 Mount Everests. Consumer credit debt has risen from $400 billion in 1980 to $2.5 trillion today. Consumers have an average of 5.4 credit cards with $973 billion outstanding. The average outstanding credit card debt for households that have a credit card was $10,679 at the end of 2008. The average American with a credit file is responsible for $16,635 in debt, excluding mortgages, according to Experian. The most fascinating fact is that the top 10 U.S. credit card issuers held an 87.55% market share of $973 billion in general purpose card outstanding in 2008. These 10 banks are coincidently the same banks that brought down the financial system (Bank of America, Citicorp, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Capital One, HSBC, American Express, Discover, US Bank, USAA).

Consumer Credit Debt

It has taken Americans three decades of overspending and under-saving to get into this pickle. As you may notice, consumer credit debt is $2.5 trillion and has barely budged downward. The pundits and economists predicting a strong economic recovery are blind to the truths of consumer debt. With actual unemployment exceeding 16.8%, 9 million people forced to work part-time wanting to work full-time, the work week at all time lows, and banks shutting down credit lines, consumers will be reducing or defaulting on their debt for years. With 70% of the economy dependent on consumer spending, there is absolutely no chance of a strong recovery. Household debt service payments as a percentage of disposable income reached a peak of 14.2% in 2007 and have plunged all the way to 13.5% today. Disposable income is plunging as people without jobs don’t have anything to dispose of.

A paradigm shift is occurring and the mainstream media, mainstream economists, and clueless politicians running this country do not understand the implications. Three decades of debt accumulation is not resolved in two years. It will take decades of reduced spending, paying down debt, and writing off debt. The Federal Reserve, banking cartel, and politicians are franticly attempting to make consumers borrow and spend with TARP, TALF, Cash for Clunkers, and numerous other debt increasing gimmicks. The consumer is tapped out. The median 401k balance in the U.S. is $26,000. Boomers realize they are 60 years old and have $50,000 of retirement savings and $30,000 of credit card debt. They are learning the brutal lesson of needs versus wants. The implications are disastrous for those dependent on a consumer spending society (i.e. retailers, restaurants, hotels, car makers, homebuilders).

There are 25% of households in the U.S. with no credit cards. Of those with a credit card, 30% pay off their balances each month. These are the people that have chosen to live within their means. They understand the difference between needs and wants. They appreciate the notion of delayed gratification. You buy things when you can afford them. You live a life of thrift and frugality, save for your family’s future, and live within the parameters of a budget. What a concept. The TARP accepting banks that control 87% of the credit card market are recording losses on an unprecedented scale. But no need to worry, the middle class tax payers come to the rescue again. Orwell must be rolling in his grave at the government originated Troubled Asset Relief Program. “Troubled” is an Orwellian word to describe debt that was knowingly issued by banks to people who would never pay it back in order to generate outrageous fees and bonuses for the executives issuing the debt. When the debt predictably went bad, “Relief” was provided to the criminal bankers on the backs of the taxpaying middle class. Bank of America, Wells Fargo and JP Morgan are bigger than they were before the financial crisis, their executives are still making millions, their “assets” are still “troubled”, and we continue to pay the bill, as will our children and grandchildren. Don’t worry. Ken Lewis, Vikram Pandit and Jamie Dimon’s grandchildren will inherit hundreds of millions of your tax dollars from their banker grandpas.

I Wanna Be Just Like A King

Beverly Hills… That’s where I want to be! (gimme, gimme)
Living in Beverly Hills…

Beverly Hills… Rolling like a celebrity! (gimme, gimme)
Living in Beverly Hills…

Look at all those movie stars
They’re all so beautiful and clean

When the housemaids scrub the floors
They get the spaces in between

I wanna live a life like that
I wanna be just like a king

Take my picture by the pool
Cause I’m the next big thing
Living in Beverly Hills – Weezer

The 8,000 square foot castle-like McMansions are the symbol of extravagance and excess that represent the worst of America’s hyper-consumerism culture. Even though the family unit has gotten smaller since 1970, the average home size has grown from 1,400 sq ft to 2,500 sq ft. McMansions are clearly not necessary due to family size. Essentially, it is another example of Boomers attempting to show the world they are successful. The bigger and gaudier the house the more flourishing you appear. This psychological need for approval combined with the big lie pushed by the National Association of Realtors that a house is always a great investment to generate the biggest housing bubble in history. One glance at Robert Shiller’s chart showing home prices versus population growth and CPI, proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that we have experienced a manic increase in house prices. It is also unambiguous that the downward spiral is not nearly complete. The housing cheerleaders continue to forecast a housing recovery that is still 5 years in the future.

It is mind boggling that home prices could have surged that high while owner’s equity has plunged from 70% in 1980 to 45%. People didn’t earn the McMansions, they borrowed them. The Federal Reserve created spiral in prices upward has trapped millions of late comers in houses that are worth 20% to 30% less than the mortgage debt that is strangling them. Over 16 million home occupiers (not homeowners) are underwater in their mortgage. The decisions to buy houses with nothing down, using option ARM loans, were free choices made by people who should have known better. The decisions to make subprime loans to people making $30,000, to make no-doc loans, and to not verify income or assets were purposefully done to enrich the bankers, mortgage brokers, and real estate agents. The $10.5 trillion of mortgage debt will need to be paid down or written off over many years, before the housing market will reach equilibrium again.

The dream of living like a king in Beverly Hills has come to a shattering conclusion. As mortgage delinquencies soar to all-time high levels, the kings are being led kicking and screaming to the foreclosure guillotine. Neighborhoods of McMansions in California, Phoenix, Florida, and Las Vegas are weed infested crime ridden high end ghettos. The American dream of home ownership spouted by George Bush and legislated through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has turned into a debt induced nightmare.

MORTGAGE DELINQUENCIES

The Alt-A reset crisis which will begin in 2010 and not crest until 2013 is coming down the tracks at a swift pace. The credit criteria used by the banks that doled out Alt-A loans were as lax as the subprime loans that precipitated this crisis. These loans already have delinquency rates of 33%, even before these resets kick in. There is no evading this calamity. There is also no doubt how the Federal Reserve, Treasury, and government politicians will handle this next emergency. If you have lived in a modest home, made your mortgage payments, didn’t use your home equity to buy a Mercedes ML350, and pay your taxes, the government will seize your taxes again and dispense them to the profligate borrowers and criminal bankers. You will pay your mortgage and the mortgages on millions of other houses.

Alt-A Loan Resets

Give Me Something I Need

No I don’t – I’m just a no class, beat down fool
And I will always be that way

I might as well enjoy my life
And watch the stars play

Beverly Hills… That’s where I want to be! (gimme, gimme)(gimme,gimme)
Living in Beverly Hills…
Beverly Hills… Rolling like a celebrity! (gimme, gimme) (gimme,gimme)
Living in Beverly Hills…
Living in Beverly Hills – Weezer

The era of excess, gluttony, and overindulgence is coming to a wretched ending. The unraveling is complete. We have entered an epoch of crisis that will last for two decades. The coming winter will be cold, bitter and harsh on most Americans. Millions are learning that living in Beverly Hills was just a delusionary dream. They are just no class, beat down fools and I will always be that way. It is time to enjoy the more basic aspects of life: family, friends, enjoying what you’ve got, and leaving the world a better place for our children and grandchildren. It comes down to choices. It is time for Americans to grow up and take responsibility for their actions and their futures. They must realize that the Federal Reserve and the banking cartel are the only ones profiting from ever expanding debt. The Rising Debt Era has not benefited the borrowers as they borrowed toys they couldn’t afford. The beneficiaries were Bank of America, Citicorp, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan and the other members of the cartel. The 10 biggest banks in the country control 48% of all deposits, 50% of the mortgage market, and 87% of the credit card market, supported and protected by the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department. The “too big to fail” continue to get bigger, as the FDIC will shutter 500 smaller banks in the next year.

The banking cartel has no intentions of relinquishing power. It will be left to average Americans to make the right choices. Government will continue to push Keynesian Cash for Clunkers publicity stunts to keep their debt civilization going. The consumer society needs to be put to rest. Americans must ask themselves a few questions. Do you really need a $35 Aeropostale tee shirt when you can get an identical tee shirt at Kohl’s for $6? They were both made in the same Chinese sweatshop by 13 year old children. The difference is that Aeropostale will say it is a “green” shirt because there was no air conditioning used in the sweatshop ruining the ozone layer. What exactly does a pair of $345 Botticelli shoes do that a pair of $35 shoes from Payless Shoe Source won’t do? Does a $10,000 Rolex watch tell time better than a $50 Timex? Will an $85,000 BMW 750LI get you to the supermarket better than a $15,000 Honda Civic?

When I started researching this article, I came across a Heritage Foundation report called How Poor Are America’s Poor? Examining the “Plague” of Poverty in America. The article makes it clear that the poor in America do not fit the portrayal of living in poverty when compared to real poverty in Africa and much of the developing world. The report concludes:

The typical American defined as “poor” by the government has a car, air conditioning, a refrigerator, a stove, a clothes washer and dryer, and a microwave. He has two color televisions, cable or satellite TV reception, a VCR or DVD player, and a stereo. He is able to obtain medical care. His home is in good repair and is not overcrowded. By his own report, his family is not hungry and he had sufficient funds in the past year to meet his family’s essential needs. While this individual’s life is not opulent, it is equally far from the popular images of dire poverty conveyed by the press, liberal activists, and politicians.

The main causes of child poverty in the United States are low levels of parental work, high numbers of single-parent families, and low skill levels of incoming immigrants. By increasing work and marriage, reducing illegal immigration, and by improving the skill level of future legal immigrants, our nation can, over time, virtually eliminate remaining child poverty.

The Heritage Foundation report missed one key aspect of being poor in America. The politicians and banks have taken advantage of the poor’s lack of education and ignorance regarding the perils of debt and have enslaved them in a monthly payment plantation. The poor don’t own the cars, electronics, homes and appliances. They are renting them until they can no longer make the payments. The politicians have colluded with the Federal Reserve and banks to provide bad money to the poor in order to keep them satiated and pliable. When the debt predictably goes bad, the banks are compensated by their bought government cronies with middle class’ tax dollars.

“When I was a child I spoke as a child I understood as a child I thought as a child; but when I became a man I put away childish things.” I Cor. xiii. 11.

Americans, led by the Baby Boom Generation, have been living like spoiled children for thirty years. They have thought like children, with instant self-gratification as their sole aspiration. It is time to put away childish things. Hard times have arrived. There is no easy way out. We have kicked the can down the road for a generation. Tomorrow has arrived. Our long-term structural problems have now collided with our current debt induced tragedy. Current policies that further the expansion of debt will ultimately lead to the collapse of our economic system. The timing is all that is in doubt.

Give me something that I need
Satisfaction guaranteed to you
What’s the consolation prize?
Economy sized dreams of hope

When I was a kid I thought
I wanted all the things that I haven’t got
Oh. I learned the hardest way
Then I realized what it took
To tell the difference between
Thieves and crooks
A lesson learned to me and you

Give me something that I need
Satisfaction guaranteed
Because I’m thinking about
A brand new hope
The one I’ve never known
Cause now I know
It’s all that I wanted

Macy’s Day Parade – Green Day

Materialism has not provided what we needed. As our current crisis deepens, luxury cars and Rolex watches will seem so phony. Childish symbols like yellow rubber wristbands and yellow, pink, and rainbow ribbon stickers on our SUVs do nothing to change the world. When you are walking down the street, look people in the eye and say hello rather than staring at your feet or checking your latest email or text message on your “crackberry”. Deeper personal relationships with family and friends will become crucial. The thieves and crooks occupy Washington DC and Wall Street. We do not need what they are selling. Economy sized dreams of hope will sustain the citizens of this great country. Instead of accumulating stuff, give your stuff to people who need it. Donate your stuff to Purple Heart, the Salvation Army, or any other worthy charity. Donate your time to Manna, Habitat for Humanity, or any other worthy cause. Don’t delegate your role in caring for your fellow citizens to the government. Americans will soon realize that what they wanted was not what they needed.

PUMP IT UP

Down in the pleasure centre,
hell bent or heaven sent,
listen to the propaganda,
listen to the latest slander.
There’s nothing underhand
that she wouldn’t understand.
Pump it up until you can feel it.
Pump it up when you don’t really need it.

Elvis Costello – Pump It Up

I had been planning an article based on the Green Day song – Static Age – about the propaganda, lies and misinformation that are endlessly directed at the American people by the government, the mainstream corporate media, and the wealthy elite that control the levers of our society. Then Barack Obama presented his 2012 Budget proposal, including his 10 year projection for our country. I know you’ve heard the term Peak Oil, but the term that came to my mind when I saw Obama’s budget was Peak Bullshit. I thought that would be a great article name, but some sites wouldn’t like the foul language. I was in a quandary until the Elvis Costello song Pump It Up came on the radio while I was driving to work. Down in the pleasure center of Washington DC, the propaganda, slander and most blatant lies are spoken without a hint of guilt or even the faintest whiff of shame. The politicians in Washington DC on both sides of the aisle believe the American people are stupid, gullible, apathetic and easily manipulated. They may be right, but there are a few people out there who can cut through their bullshit and find the truth.

Obama, Wall Street, and the corporate mouthpieces in the mainstream media have been pumping up the American people for months with false data, unwarranted optimism, bank profits created out of thin air by accounting fraud, and attempting to create an economic recovery built on a foundation of sand, supported only by lies. The Obama budget is worse than a joke. It is a tragic joke. It amazes me that he can stand in front of the American people and present such a lie. The liberal media then unquestioningly presents the budget as a frugal cost cutting proposal that will reduce deficits and inflict painful cuts upon the poor American people. It would be laughable, if it wasn’t so sad. One look at Obama’s deficit projections for FY11 and FY12, presented one year ago, should be enough to convince you that no one in Washington DC has a clue what they are doing.

	Federal	(Deficit)
Year	Spending	Surplus
2011	$3,834	-$1,267
2012	$3,755	-$828

Obama projected a two year deficit of $2.1 trillion. His current projection, just one year later, is $2.75 trillion. He missed it by this much.

The rocket scientists running our country underestimated the deficit by 31% in the space of one year. I suppose that is considered highly accurate for a government drone. Now let’s get some perspective on Obama’s projected FY11 deficit of $1.65 trillion. This is the projected DEFICIT. Do you remember back to the Clinton administration? Did you feel like your Federal government wasn’t spending enough? In 1998 the TOTAL SPENDING of the Federal government was $1.65 trillion. We now run deficits that equal the entire budget of the United States in 1998, without blinking an eye or questioning how we got here. The politicians have scared the populace into thinking that the country will collapse without the Federal Government spending $3.8 trillion of your money, every year.

Static Age

Can you hear the sound of the static noise?
Blasting out in stereo
Cater to the class and the paranoid
Music to my nervous system
Advertising love and religion
Murder on the airwaves
Slogans on the brink of corruption
Vision of blasphemy, war and peace
Screaming at you

I can’t see a thing in the video
I can’t hear a sound on the radio
In stereo in the static age – Green Day – Static Age

The politicians prefer their actions be bathed in shades of grey. The corporate payoffs, backroom deals, union arm twisting and selling of votes to the highest bidder are how business is done in Washington DC. They believe that if there is enough static noise being generated by the mainstream media, then the American public will be distracted and not notice they have destroyed the country. When analyzing Obama’s budget we need some perspective. Below is a chart showing actual Federal spending and deficits from 1999 through 2010 and projections from 2011 through 2021. My assessment is that the Great American Empire peaked in 1999-2000. The unemployment rate was 4% and 64.4% of the working age population, or 137 million Americans, were employed. Corporate profits were surging, along with the stock market. The Federal government was spending $1.8 trillion and generating budget surpluses of $236 billion. The National Debt of $5.7 trillion was only 57% of GDP.

The decline of the American Empire can be seen in the chart of woe. The unemployment rate today is 9%. Only 58.4% of the working age population is employed. Eleven years after peak empire, the working age population has grown by 26 million people and the number of employed Americans has grown by 2.4 million. At least 64.4% of the population would like to be working. This means that there are 14.4 million people who would work if the jobs were available. The Federal government is spending $3.8 trillion and generating deficits of $1.6 trillion. The National Debt is $14.2 trillion, or 94% of GDP. Except for Wall Street banks and mega-corporations, small business profits are weak and the stock market is at the same levels reached in 1999. These are the truths you won’t hear from politicians or the mainstream media.

	Federal		(Deficit)
Year	Spending	% Change	Surplus
1999	$1,702		$125
2000	$1,789	5.1%	$236
2001	$1,863	4.1%	$128
2002	$2,011	7.9%	-$158
2003	$2,160	7.4%	-$378
2004	$2,293	6.2%	-$413
2005	$2,472	7.8%	-$319
2006	$2,655	7.4%	-$249
2007	$2,729	2.8%	-$161
2008	$2,983	9.3%	-$459
2009	$3,518	17.9%	-$1,413
2010	$3,456	-1.8%	-$1,293
2011F	$3,819	10.5%	-$1,645
2012B	$3,729	-2.4%	-$1,101
2013B	$3,771	1.1%	-$768
2014B	$3,977	5.5%	-$645
2015B	$4,190	5.4%	-$607
2016B	$4,468	6.6%	-$649
2017B	$4,669	4.5%	-$627
2018B	$4,876	4.4%	-$619
2019B	$5,154	5.7%	-$681
2020B	$5,422	5.2%	-$735
2021B	$5,697	5.1%	-$774

So now let’s assess the reality of Obama’s ten year budget. If you were to believe the reports in the media, you would think that Obama is cutting deficits and making hard choices. Amazingly, deficits plummet all the way down to “only” $600 billion to $800 billion after 2012. In the chart above, I ignore the revenue side of the equation, because Obama’s assumptions are beyond ridiculous. His assumption of the GDP growing from $15 trillion in 2011 to $24.6 trillion in 2021, a 64% increase, is a fantasy. During the last 10 years, GDP grew by only 51%. So, despite mind numbing debt levels, structurally high unemployment, peak oil, and a rapidly aging population, GDP is going to surge over the next ten years? I certainly believe that. Under the Obama budget, tax revenues will grow from 14.4% of GDP in 2011 to 20% of GDP in 2021. By comparison, the historical average is only 18% of GDP. Some of Obama’s tax revenue assumptions are as follows:

Raising the top marginal income tax rate from 35% to 39.6%. This is a $709 billion/10 year tax hike
Raising the capital gains and dividends rate from 15% to 20%
Raising the estate tax rate from 35% to 45% and lowering the estate tax exemption amount from $5 million ($10 million for couples) to $3.5 million. This is a $98 billion/ten year tax hike
Capping the value of itemized deductions at the 28% bracket rate. This will effectively cut tax deductions for mortgage interest, charitable contributions, property taxes, state and local income or sales taxes, out-of-pocket medical expenses, and unreimbursed employee business expenses. A new means-tested phase-out of itemized deductions limits them even more. This is a $321 billion/ten year tax hike
Massive new taxes on energy, including LIFO repeal, Superfund, domestic energy manufacturing, and many others totaling $120 billion over ten years
Increasing unemployment payroll taxes by $15 billion over ten years
Increasing tax penalties, information reporting, and IRS information sharing. This is a ten-year tax hike of $20 billion.

It is an absolute certainty that the Democrats will lose control of the Senate in 2012. Obama will never get any of his tax increases through a Republican controlled Congress. They are DOA. Therefore, his revenue assumptions are overstated by hundreds of billions every year. Even using his optimistic assumptions, the National Debt would reach $18 trillion in 2015. Using real world numbers, the National Debt will exceed $20 trillion in 2015. In what must be a gag, Obama says that interest on the debt will “only” be $500 billion in 2015. Hysterically, this would mean our debt holders will only require a crumbling empire to pay 2.5% on our debt. How about 5% as a minimum and 10% as a more likely rate? This would put interest on the debt between $1 trillion and $2 trillion per year. The collapse of America is a certainty if Obama’s budgeted spending and deficits play out. Somehow, the majority of Americans are overwhelmed with indifference.

Overwhelmed By Indifference

Some of my friends sit around every evening
and they worry about the times ahead
But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference
and the promise of an early bed
You either shut up or get cut up;
they don’t wanna hear about it. – Elvis Costello – Radio, Radio

Do you remember when the politicians of both parties were making dire predictions of Great Depressions, economic collapse and 10% unemployment if we didn’t pass their “save an investment banker” rescue package and the $800 billion “jobs creation” stimulus package? They assured the American people that these expenditures were temporary and were only being made to save the country. Before the crisis, Federal spending was $2.7 trillion. The talking heads at the Fed and in the White House assure us they saved the world. GDP is growing and Obama told me we’ve added over 1 million jobs in the last year. Sounds like the emergency is over. The $400 billion per year of emergency spending should now be rolled back, since it was temporary. Therefore, Obama’s budget surely must going from $3.8 trillion back down to a pre-emergency level of $3.0 trillion in 2012. Not quite. You see, government spending never goes down. His proposal shows $3.7 trillion of spending in FY12. Emergencies never end for a politician in Washington DC. Spending equals power and control over our lives. There will always be another emergency that requires more spending.

You are now hearing the spin from the ideologues on both sides of the aisle about their cost consciousness and desire to restrain spending. It’s all a load of bull. Bush and the Republicans added $4.3 trillion to the National Debt during their reign of error. Obama has matched Bush in the space of 2 1/2 years by adding another $4.3 trillion. There is no effort to cut spending. Obama’s budget shows spending rising from $3.7 trillion in FY12 to $5.7 trillion in FY21. The propaganda and misinformation being spewed from these corrupt politicians is mind numbing.

Again, some perspective is needed to realize how out of control our Federal Government has become. According to the BLS, inflation has risen by 33% since 1999. Real GDP has grown by 23%. The population of the U.S. has grown by 10%. The number of employed Americans has risen by 1.8%. The average pay for a Federal drone (aka worker) has risen by 58%, while the average pay for real workers has risen by only 30%. Therefore, the average non-government employee has seen a decrease in their standard of living as inflation has risen faster than wages. As you can calculate yourself, Federal government spending surged by 124% between 1999 and today. Have you noticed a doubling in service level, competence, educational scores, new energy solutions, or safety and security? What did we get for an extra $2.1 trillion of spending?

What we got was exhausting wars of choice, less freedom, less liberties, less safety, more rules, more regulations, more bureaucrats, more corruption, a financial collapse, and a government that has put us on a path to fiscal ruin. We’ve almost tripled spending on Defense. Are we safer? We’ve more than doubled spending on healthcare. Are we healthier? We’ve more than doubled spending on welfare. Are the poor less impoverished? We’ve more than doubled spending on education. Are our children smarter? The Federal government is out of control. When you hear a politician or pundit detailing the horrors of “spending cuts”, please keep in mind they are lying. There will be no cuts until they are forced upon the government by the looming collapse of our economic system.

Year	Defense	Pensions	Health Care	Welfare	Education
1999	$333	$431	$332	$165	$56
2000	$359	$454	$352	$171	$60
2001	$366	$481	$390	$183	$64
2002	$422	$503	$427	$224	$78
2003	$483	$518	$469	$242	$91
2004	$543	$537	$509	$238	$96
2005	$600	$565	$549	$246	$106
2006	$621	$591	$583	$250	$128
2007	$653	$636	$642	$254	$102
2008	$730	$669	$671	$313	$102
2009	$794	$739	$764	$407	$91
2010	$847	$756	$821	$496	$140
2011F	$965	$801	$882	$488	$130
2012B	$925	$813	$866	$424	$121
% Increase	177.8%	88.6%	160.8%	157.0%	116.1%

Now the question is what do we do about it? I know my first inclination would be to do what that Iraqi reporter did a few years ago during a Bush press conference in Iraq. I’d love to throw my shoes at Obama and every lying corrupt politician in America, but the momentary feeling of pleasure would be snuffed out in seconds by a hail of bullets from the Department of Homeland Security thugs guarding these traitors to the American republic.

Below is my CHART OF DOOM. Using real world assumptions, the National Debt will reach $25 trillion by 2019. That level of debt would be 130% of a realistic GDP figure. The interest on this level of debt would likely exceed $2 trillion per year, more than the entire Federal spending budget in 2002. This chart will not come to pass. Our economic system will collapse well before we reach a $25 trillion debt level. This is already baked in the cake. There are not enough politicians willing to tell the truth and not enough citizens that want to hear the truth. The result will be default, insolvency, currency collapse, vaporization of wealth, chaos, and pain.

The only way to avert the coming financial catastrophe is to go Egyptian on their asses. Maybe mobs of Americans surrounding the White House, Federal Reserve building and Wall Street bank headquarters would get their attention. It wouldn’t take a majority, but a minority of angry Americans willing to fight for the future of the country. The anger is building. More people are becoming aware. The internet is working its magic, just as it is doing in the Middle East. Those in control can keep pumping out their lies and propaganda, but the truth is plain to see, if you open your eyes.

“It does not take the majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fire freedom in the minds of men.” – Samuel Adams

AMERICAN EULOGY (Featured Article)

The Founding Fathers described the kind of country they were shaping on July 4, 1776 with the most well known sentence in the English language:

James Truslow Adams in his 1931 Epic of America described the America that once existed in reality, but only exists as a phantom today:

Song of the Century

Sing us a song of the century
It sings like American Eulogy
The dawn of my love and conspiracy
Forgotten hope and the class of 13
Tell me a story into that goodnight
Sing us a song for me – American Eulogy – Green Day

Conducting the nation’s monetary policy by influencing the monetary and credit conditions in the economy in pursuit of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates.

Due to loose monetary policy in the 1920’s, the Federal Reserve created a stock bubble, a stock market crash of 89%, a decade long Great Depression, and unemployment of 25% in the 1930’s.
Due to loose monetary policies in the 1970’s, the Federal Reserve created raging inflation that reached 14% in the early 1980’s and needed to raise interest rates to 18% in order to break the back of inflation, resulting in unemployment surging to 9.7% in 1982.
Due to loose monetary policies in the early 2000’s, the Federal Reserve created the largest housing bubble in history, with the subsequent collapse bringing the financial system to within hours of collapse, and driving unemployment to 9.9% in 2009.
Due to the loosest monetary policy in history, today, inflation has begun to rage across the globe, leading to riots, protests and bloody revolutions, with more on the way.
The Federal Reserve has achieved their stable prices mandate by inflating away 96% of the purchasing power of the US dollar in less than 100 years. The price of gold continues to soar, as faith in the US dollar diminishes by the minute. I guess stability is in the eye of the beholder.

Supervising and regulating banking institutions to ensure the safety and soundness of the nation’s banking and financial system and to protect the credit rights of consumers.

The Federal Reserve’s supervisory and regulatory expertise can be observed in the graph above. This graph doesn’t do the Fed justice, as it begins in 1934. Sixteen years after its origination, the Fed managed to let 10,000 out of 25,000 banks in the country fail between 1929 and 1932.
Their glorious history also includes residing over the failure of 2,800 banks during the 1980’s S&L crisis.
While protecting their mega-bank Wall Street masters, the Fed has allowed over 300 small banks to go under so far. There are 900 banks on the troubled list that will eventually meet their maker.

Maintaining the stability of the financial system and containing systemic risk that may arise in financial markets.

Generally, maintaining the stability of the financial system and containing systematic risk doesn’t include allowing the worldwide financial system to come within hours of collapse as described by Rep. Paul Kanjorski:

Now we talked at that time about what would have happened if that happened. It would have been the end of our economic system and our political system as we know it.”

Providing financial services to depository institutions, the U.S. government, and foreign official institutions, including playing a major role in operating the nation’s payments system.

It seems this is the only mandate the Federal Reserve has taken seriously is providing services to its owners, the banks. Did the bankers and politicians that met on Jekyll Island to mastermind this Central Bank envision that those services would include: buying $1.5 trillion of toxic mortgages from the banks; allowing the mega-banks to borrow from the Fed at 0% and reinvest those funds at 2.5% risk free; pumping $600 billion directly into the stock market through their QE2 scam; allowing banks to falsely overstate the value of their mortgage and commercial loans; and never ever enforcing basic risk management regulations.
While providing Wall Street banks with billions of unearned risk free profits, 0% interest rates further impoverish the savers and senior citizens of the country. The Federal Reserve has fulfilled their unstated mandate of enriching bankers at the expense of middle class Americans.

To strengthen U.S. standing in the world economy.

The Federal Reserve’s affect on the world economy is best revealed in a pictorial tribute to their policies:

TUNISIA

ALGERIA

EGYPT

Mass Hysteria

Hysteria, mass hysteria!
Mass hysteria!
Mass hysteria!
Mass hysteria! – American Eulogy – Green Day

Defense Budget Breakdown for 2011

Defense-related expenditure	2011 Budget request & Mandatory spending	Calculation
DOD spending	$721.3 billion	Base budget + “Overseas Contingency Operations”
FBI counter-terrorism	$2.7 billion	At least one-third FBI budget.
International Affairs	$10.1–$54.2 billion	At minimum, foreign arms sales. At most, entire State budget
Energy Department, defense-related	$20.9 billion
Veterans Affairs	$66.2 billion
Homeland Security	$54.7 billion
NASA, satellites	$3.4–$8.5 billion	Between 20% and 50% of NASA’s total budget
Veterans pensions	$58.4 billion
Other defense-related mandatory spending	$7.5 billion
Interest on debt incurred in past wars	$114.8–$454.2 billion	Between 23% and 91% of total interest
Total Spending	$1.060–$1.449 trillion

What caused the mass hysteria that has destroyed the soul of America? Was it just the madness of crowds? Or was it something more sinister?

Whenever an act doesn’t make sense and seems irrational, you need to ask yourself, “who benefits?” Who has benefitted from the hysteria? The answer is in plain sight. The moneyed interests benefitted. The military industrial complex benefitted. The Federal Government bureaucracy benefitted. Wall Street bankers benefitted. Mega-corporations and their CEOs benefitted. The top 1% ruling elite gained more wealth and more power. They created the mass hysteria with the assistance of their corporate owned mainstream media and completed their pillaging of the middle class with the cooperation of regulators, rating agencies and their ultimate weapon, the privately owned Federal Reserve bank, that has enriched its owners while impoverishing those whose only aspiration was to do an honest day’s work, raise their families, and live in relative comfort, safety, and happiness.

I Don’t Wanna Live In The Modern World

I don’t wanna live in the modern world!
I don’t wanna live in the modern world!
I don’t wanna live in the modern world!
I don’t wanna live in the modern world!

I am a nation without bureaucratic lies
Deny the allegation as it’s written (fucking lies!)

Most Americans still believe the fairy tale of the American Dream, that no matter how humble your beginnings, everyone has a fair chance to become rich in America. The truth is that the wealthy ruling class owns the country. The top 1% control 43% of the financial wealth of the nation. The top 10% control 83% of the financial wealth of the nation. There is a misperception that the ultra-rich earn their wealth. The facts show otherwise. In 2008, only 19% of the income reported by the 13,480 individuals or families making over $10 million came from wages and salaries. Remember the financial crisis of 2008-2009 that wiped out 7 million jobs, cut the value of many homes in half, and required a taxpayer bailout of Wall Street? According to research done by economist Edward Wolff, “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.”

Source: William Domhoff

The bottom 90% own less than 19% of stocks and mutual funds in the country. Reality is that the 10% richest Americans own the country. The top 1% control 50% of the investment assets and only 5% of the total debt in the country. The bottom 90% control 12% of the investment assets and are burdened with 73% of the total debt. You can clearly see that the Wall Street bailout and the current Federal Reserve QE2 plan to boost stock prices have only benefitted the top 10% richest Americans. What is good for Wall Street is not good for Main Street. The American middle class has been lured into debt by the purveyors of debt, the ultra-rich elite who control the financial industry. The further into debt the bottom 90% descend, the greater the enrichment of the ruling class. This is why Wall Street shysters, political hacks and the corporate mainstream media have urged Americans to whip out those credit cards and “Save America” by spending money they don’t have, again. It is reminiscent of President Bush’s heartfelt plea to the American public to defeat terrorism by buying a GM car with 0% down.

The Death of America

“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” – John Adams

Two hundred and thirty five years ago, our Founding Fathers declared that we all had the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These rights have been restricted and bastardized over two centuries. Liberties have been severely restricted as your government tracks you through your social security number, is able to monitor your phone and internet communications, and regulates your education, healthcare, business, and a thousand other daily activities. The right to happiness was based upon James Treslow Adams’ view that we were free to attain “the fullest stature of which they are innately capable”. The happiness of becoming a success through your individual exertion, intelligence and efforts has been subverted by the happiness of material goods acquired through the use of debt, peddled by the ruling class.

The American Dream where every person had the opportunity to live a richer and fuller life began to die in 1913. Every generation born in this country had an excellent chance to live a better life than their parents. Relentless progress was the American way. I have three teenage sons. Based on the actions of this country’s ruling oligarchy, I doubt that my sons will live a richer and fuller life than myself. The debts are too extreme, the military overreach too excessive, the looting by the financial class too great, the political corruption too extensive, and the opportunities too few. The dream of a social order where everyone could rise to the highest level of their capabilities regardless of their birth has been systematically squashed. With 66% of households making less than $65,000 and college costs out of reach for 80% of Americans without incurring crushing levels of debt, the chances for most Americans to climb the social ladder through educational advancement are nil. Even if they do graduate from college, the CEOs in corporate America, who “earn” 300 times the average worker, have outsourced their jobs to China and India.

The ruling class provides their children with private schooling and necessary preparation to keep their place in the social order. Wealth begets wealth. The elite send their kids to the elite Ivy League schools and use their connections with their fellow ruling elite to get them jobs on Wall Street, the prestigious connected corporations or government jobs in Washington DC. The wealth of the few has erected barriers to advancement of the many. America has progressively become a stratified class oriented society that has begun to spiral downward as the ruling class has gone too far. The revolutions flaring across the globe are occurring because the ruling class went too far and took too much. The ruling class in America should take note. They have shattered the American Dream and the retribution from those who have been swindled will be unexpected and violent.