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Weld County Armed Forces Day

Today Weld County, CO. held its annual Armed Forces Day celebration. The ceremony was held in Greeley’s Bittersweet Park. Congressman Cory Gardner was the featured speaker. He presented Congressional Gold medals to two Japanese American citizens. Balmy weather could not keep away Greeley’s patriotic citizens.  The rain stopped just as the event started.  Color guard was provided by the Greeley Police department.
Congressional gold medals were presented by Cory Gardner.  The two receiving the medals were Frank Shiba, and Takeshi Murata.  Takeshi Murata is the one using a cane in the photos. The medals were for their service during World War II.  The band was from a local middle school.  They played tunes representing all services.

Please watch the video for the details behind the medals.

What’s an Infidel

This is a true story and the author, Rick Mathes,
is a well-known leader in prison ministry.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The man who walks with God always gets to his destination.  If you have a
pulse you have a purpose.

The Muslim religion is the fastest growing religion per capita in the
United States, especially in the minority races!

Last month I attended my annual training session that’s required for
maintaining my state prison security clearance.

During the training session there was a presentation by three speakers
representing the Roman Catholic, Protestant and Muslim faiths, who each explained their beliefs.

I was particularly interested in what the Islamic had to say.

The Muslim gave a great presentation of the basics of Islam, complete
with a video.

After the presentations, time was provided for questions and answers.

When it was my turn, I directed my question to the Muslim and asked:
‘Please, correct me if I’m wrong, but I understand that most Imams and
clerics of Islam have declared a holy jihad [Holy war] against the
infidels of the world and, that by killing an infidel, (which is a command
to all Muslims) they are assured of a place in heaven. If that’s
the case, can you give me the definition of an infidel?’
There was no disagreement with my statements and, without hesitation,
he replied, ‘Non-believers!’

I responded, ‘so, let me make sure I have this straight.  All followers of
Allah have been commanded to kill everyone who is not of your faith so
they can have a place in heaven.  Is that correct?’

The expression on his face changed from one of authority and command to that of a little boy who had just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.’

He sheepishly replied, ‘Yes.’ I then stated, ‘Well, sir, I have
a real problem trying to imagine The Pope commanding all Catholics to kill those of your faith or Dr. Stanley ordering all Protestants to do the same in order to guarantee them a place in heaven!’

The Muslim was speechless!

I continued, ‘I also have a problem with being your friend when you and your brother clerics are telling your followers to kill me!
Let me ask you a question: Would you rather have your Allah, who tells you to kill me in order for you to go to heaven, or my Jesus who tells me to love you because I am going to heaven and He wants you to be there with me?’

You could have heard a pin drop as the Imam hung his head in shame.

Needless to say, the organizers and/or promoters of the ‘Diversification’ training seminar were not happy with my way of dealing with the Islamic Imam, and exposing the truth

By Michael McCune

Baby Boomers

Far too often in these degenerate days what passes for research is skewed because the research is biased towards the outcome favored by entity funding the operation and the education given the researchers. As a result, non-logical answers are arrived at which fall apart under scrutiny. A paper released by Mark Watson and James Stock is fascinating as it explores old Liberal ideas centered around aging populations as a basis for future snapshots of America’s economy.(1)

Watson and Stock put forth a grim picture of a future with deeper recessions, weaker recoveries and consistently slower economic growth mostly because of population demographics. In essence the conclusion is: jobless recoveries will be the only type of recovery possible because employment is in decline.

The blame is placed squarely on a factor our politicians cannot alter: the Baby Boomers. The base contention of the Stock-Watson report is that without continuous growth in the work force or a sizable increase in population, employment and GDP America is facing a series of recessions with steeper declines, slower recoveries and a constant lowering of the standard of living.

One of the cornerstones of Obama’s Healthcare Bill was medical service provided on a priority of “community service” left in one’s life. That led to the alleged death panels through the bill’s “end of life discussion” provisions. Stock and Watson skirt this issue as Ivy League educators. Their only conclusion is that America’s 80 million (more 26% of the population from the 2010 census) Baby Boomers will require medical attention than the dwindling workforce will be able to sustain, even without another recession, unless we can return to the dynamic GDP growth of the 1950s. I agree with one caveat the illustrious authors missed because educational deficiencies: GDP growth needs to be measured in real terms not the phony dollar-to-dollar measure lazy economists use today.

But in the 1950s there were more Americans under age 25 than over age 45. In another three decades the number of seniors (over 65) is projected to triple while the number of people between 20-30 will decline by 20%. How will this shrinking workforce be able to support the demands of an aging population with vanishing payrolls and higher taxes? If it does find a way to support the aged, it will have to be at a much lower standard of living. What does America do when youth is a scarce, vital resource? The authors suggest loosening the immigration laws (which is impossible under the wide-open borders we now have) or forcing workers to cluster where industry is located.

Some of the forecasted consequences of Boomer retirement are predictable. Rising medical costs, current Social Security standards promised will have to be slashed deeply and government will have to reduce other areas of operation to make up the shortfall. Those fortunate workers will be asked to carry a heavier tax load to pay for the indigent, lazy and elderly.

But Boomer aging will also trim the amount of funds available for market investment. Many studies have shown the bull markets of the mid-1980s and 1990s were directly attributable to Boomers hitting prime earning territory and investing their financial gains. What then will be the effect when America’s economy gets blind-sided by an unfavorable worker-to-retiree ratio, slower economic growth and worse equity performances in the market?

Thomas Malthus, the first quasi-economist, worried two hundred years ago. He predicted growing populations would act as a brake on economic growth. His statements have always been interpreted a physical tax where wealth was paid to government by force but I’ve long felt he was referring to populations where the majority was trying to live off the sustenance of the few working–a kind of reversal of the babe suckling at mother’s breast to where the whole family joins in. Mom simply runs out of milk for the one who needs it most. A population growing in numbers only, without a shift in base demographic percentages, would not be a worry to Malthus. So the diagnosis on Malthus in the economy books college students are lugging around and endorsed by the two authors have to be fundamentally flawed. Malthus’ intention doesn’t jibe with what scholars have always contended he meant–just as what we witness in many written laws and regulations today.

An article in The Atlantic on the situation presented by Watson and Stock concludes “demographics can be dangerous, but they aren’t destiny.”(2) That’s pure speculation based on a faulty education from progressive thinking that has given us bunglers like Tim Geithner and Ben Bernanke. The only way shifting demographics cannot be destiny is if somehow the population reverses the aging process in years not just in looks. What if Malthus was right? What if consistent demographics with an emphasis on the young and strongest are a vital point to any sustainable economy?

Then the “death panel” assertions against Obamacare become vitally important as they must be implemented. Societies used to cleanse themselves of that portion of it that endangered the well-being of the group as a whole. We still see that in nature where the albino that gives away his location or the weak or infirm is simply abandoned by the rest of the group by a survival instinct.

Developed society is facing an on-rushing internal struggle where the fight for survival will be based on fitness demographics alone. Those unable to contribute–no matter what they service or contribution made when younger–will be disposed of “for the common good” because the economy will no longer be able to support their existence. We can hope that won’t be the case but it was the norm for the American Indian as recently as the 1800s.

To reverse the dying economy predicted by the widely revered Watson and Stock, Liberals openly want it to become the norm once again.

“I have sworn on the altar of God eternal hostility to every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”–Thomas Jefferson

(1)–”Disentangling the Channels of the 2007-2009 Recession”, for the Brookings Panel on Economic Activity March 23, 2012. James H. Stock-Department of Economics, Harvard, and the National Bureau of Economic Research and Mark. W Watson, Department of Economics and the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton, and the NBER

(2)–”The Very Real Economic Dangers of an Aging America” by Derek Thompson, The Atlantic, March 26, 2012

By Michael McCune

Slowing Economy Faces Major Obstacles

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke remarked on the U.S. unemployment rate early Monday to the National Association for Business Economics. He noted the economy must grow much more quickly than is its current pace to make any dent in the percent of unemployed individuals in the U.S.

Bernanke’s remarks, closely followed by the market leaders, quashed any expectation the Reserve would begin to rein in its runaway printing exercise. In his remarks, Bernanke noted U.S. companies laid off many more workers “than was necessary” during the recession. To relieve the stress on employees, companies might have hired back more people than the “recovery is able to handle” based on the pace of the recovery. “Progress on the unemployment front will probably stall,” he said.(1)

GDP grew by just 1.7% last year, even with a 3% growth rate in the fourth quarter and is slowing once again in the first part of 2012. The 1.7% growth rate is too small to move the unemployment rate much lower. Following Bernanke’s misguided policies, the Fed has reduced interest rates to near zero for the past three years, purchased some $2.3 trillion in debt securities to move borrowing costs lower to spur faster growth and revive the economy’s sluggish pace. None of those tactics have worked as planned.

He refuses to acknowledge debt has to be addressed directly, that inflation is ravaging America’s landscape, that economic cycles have to be allowed to run their course and that all the government’s meddling into the economy has done is keep the recession’s normal course in a false holding pattern. This holding pattern will not allow for real growth and any increases in costs beyond inflation.

Americans are falling for the government’s “hopeful” prophecies based on corrupt math. Take out inflation’s bite and see what “1.7% growth” last year is based on. Without inflation, the numbers are down for the year, wages are still flat yet consumer borrowing (debt) is growing once again. Established banks are now infringing on the “pay-day” loan business that used to be the province of skid-row pawn shops in order to prop up their own flagging businesses. Payday loans carry an extraordinary interest rate meaning it is costing the borrower more than it is normally worth to get those loans–except the want of the borrowers has never had to be tempered in youth or middle age or senility. All the borrowers know is they want the item so they borrow to get it.

That is a trap the U.S. government is in with its entitlement programs and is a reason no progress can be made on the debt front. Most debt is an anchor on the economy and Bernanke’s printing press run, his insistence on buying more U.S. debt (monetizing) with this worthless fiat, and his ill-conceived ‘Operation Twist’ have already bartered the futures of the current crop of pre-schoolers and probably the three generations following them just for his follies.

For the government to be able to pay its debt it has to have inflation. But that will only work if the government pays down it current debt and adds no more deficits in its spending.

The progress made since the recession hit is a false spring. A major economic cold snap is still looming as long as Americans and their government continue to borrow without acknowledging the foolishness of planting a summer crop before winter has ended. What happens to those tender young shoots if nature makes up for a warm winter with its usual dose of a spring blizzard?

The blizzard may well be the oil prices. Gasoline prices are still rising. If the surge peaks at $4.25 as expected then America will be able to adapt. But that peak is expected in April, well before the normal summer drive season begins, well before the summer heat takes a toll on the electrical grid through air conditioners, well before the yearly demand peak for oil is realized.

Pimco CEO Mohamed El-Erian put some of this together in his article for Project Syndicate. He wrote: “The prospect of a disorderly fiscal contraction needs to give way to a more rationally designed approach that avoids undermining the fragile recovery. To accomplish that, the political class must avoid the bickering that almost sent America back into recession in 2011 and raised major questions about the quality of the country’s economic governance.”

The calendar, 2012, means it is an election cycle; a cycle that ramps up “political bickering” not soothes it. So El-Erian’s hope is also based on a false premise. Fiscal contraction because of inflation is inevitable.

Bundle up, America. Several bad news factors are converging on the economy and all the storm shelters have been systematically removed by your government.

“I have sworn on the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”–Thomas Jefferson

By Michael McCune

 America’s Pump Price Pain Is Pure Fed Folly

The top headline in today’s local paper read “Who’s To Blame For Gas Prices?–The More We Pay At The Pump, The More We Want To Know Who Is Responsible.” There were pictures of President Obama, the street sign for Wall Street, an oil refinery and Capitol Hill accompanying the twsiting storyline. We’ve all felt pump pain, we’ve heard all the Presidential candidates weigh in on the deal, and we’ve grown weary of the finger-pointing because none of it makes sense.

Do not despair! There is a simple, though convoluted, answer to the question but the answer doesn’t solve the problem America is facing.

Examine some of the facts. The world has more oil available today than it has had in decades. Oil demand is dwindling as the world’s economies brace for contraction. Oil production is still rolling along quite nicely. The “proven” reserves are higher than they’ve been in 20 years. Logically then, the price of the valuable commodity should be on a downward spiral.

President Obama, the master at diverting attention from the real source of any problem, points to oil speculators. Sorry Barack, in a market, speculators may influence the direction of a daily move but long-term they are subject to the basic supply-and-demand pricing structure as the rest of us. The GOP Presidential hopefuls blame Obama. In this they are partially correct but Obama has about as much control over the oil prices as he does over the lack of logic he spewed when pointing at the speculators.

Where the answer lies is in the root of the liberal, socialist policies we have endured for the past four years since President Bush allowed the bailout of the financial sector and more specifically the maniacal fiat manipulations of one Ben (BS) Bernanke and the Federal Reserve. For his approved actions and reappointment, Barack Hussein Obama has to take full responsibility.

BS and his boss were facing an economic crisis, a crisis they failed to understand. Any politician’s instinct is “Do Something” rather than apply logic and “Stand Aside, Wait And Things Will Sort Themselves Out.” This is especially true for someone who feels unlimited regulation rather than unlimited commerce is the correct way to operate. BS and Obama cooked up the “stimulus” plan.

The Federal Reserve began printing money, lots and lots of money. When this didn’t alter the course of the economic slowdown, the Fed churned out more fiat for QE2. And it has churned out more yet while supporting The European Central Bank’s efforts to give Greece the monetary support it needs to continue its government mismanagement. All this printing has devalued, through inflation, the U.S. dollar.

I can already hear the howls of protest from the Left. “The dollar,” they’ll claim, “is stronger than its ever been!” And, per the FOREX (the foreign exchange) as measured against other fiat, they are correct. But all this proves is the fiat American dollar is more valuable than any other fiat from any other government in the world. In other words, measuring our worthless paper against other countries’ worthless paper in a waste of time.

This is where the commodities market, most notably oil, steps into the picture. Commodities measure the pace of the world’s economy. Every developed economy and every developing economy needs oil to operate in an economically-competitive way with every other economy operating. This is another lesson Obama failed to learn from watching the collapse of Spain and its “green” economy. The Spaniards simply weren’t competitive economically and have not recovered yet even though they ditched the green movement more than five years ago.

But friend Oil has been pegged to the dollar’s value for more than 60 years everywhere in the world. When BS ran the printing press at the Federal Reserve without qualms for the past four years–UNDER PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTION, when he boosted and boosted the fiat supply of a valueless item, he failed to recognize the consequences. For an allegedly smart man and former Princeton professor this is inexcusable and potentially a criminal dereliction of duty for counterfeiting legal fiat.

His only excuse? He is a product of his ivory-tower background, the fact he has never been a manager in the private sector and was promoted to a position by other ivory tower-educated miscreants who know only what their misguided education spoon-fed them. In short, the mindset of the academia fools involved missed a vital economic lesson somewhere along the line in their social education. The lesson is one every businessman in the country knows, “You have to have a concrete value in your product or you go bust.”

BS, and Obama, and Bush, and all the back-slapping pols who roamed the halls of Congress cheered the printing press but the fiat it produced had no value to support it, there was only more fiat available. And the banking system cannot remove it without resulting inflation and a longer, deeper recession than it was supposed to alleviate–probably with a spiraling inflation rate built-in.

The pump price is a mere harbinger of the hyper-inflation coming to America soon for the ultimate fool’s folly–an over-utilized printing press. If oil makes the world economy run, it will be doing so without the dollar as the benchmark currency.

Hmm…gold, the metal, is the only history-tested commodity with a core value unchallenged. Oil is “black gold.” You don’t suppose our politicians will get the connection to their relentless overuse of the printing press, do you? I don’t think so either. That means we’ll just have to pay through the nose or alter our lifestyle. Buckle up America, there’s a wreck coming at you!

“I have sworn on the altar of God eternal hostility to every form of tyranny over the mind of man”–Thomas Jefferson

By Michael McCune

“I have sworn on the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”–Thomas Jefferson

Government NEET Counting Covers Economy’s Weakness

Government is fond of spouting its version of the truth while forgetting the jury also demands the whole truth and nothing but the truth. With that established most everyone is familiar with “NEET”, a cosmetic used to remove unwanted hair growth, but are you aware government actually has a program called NEETs which it uses to hide the true size of the unemployment problem?

NEET is a Bureau of Labor Statistics’ acronym for “Not in Education, Employment or Training”. NEETs are not counted among the work force, keeping the unemployment rate artificially low.

Both applications of NEET accomplish the purpose of hiding the true appearance of treated items. It is not appearance but reality that you have to live with as once the appearance becomes the norm reality has a nasty way of biting. Since NEET-using politicians are as busy wooing voters as men woo NEET-using women on a Friday night, those non-users must remember the reality lurking below. NEET serves the government’s purposes by shielding nearly 18% of the American population from being counted as “unemployed”. If today’s unemployed were counted the same as they were in 1932, our unemployment rate would be the worst in our history.

A recent analysis in the Daily Reckoning arrived at the 18% figure (about 54 million Americans) were being dropped by NEET calculations. Since the unemployment rate is arrived at by dividing the total workforce into the number of unemployed the government achieved a beautiful (by current standards) rate of 8.3%. Politicians are using the beautiful look to make sure the corrupt system stays in place.

In his thought-provoking essay “What If Democracy Is Bunk?” Andrew Napolitano tackled the ethical aspect of government using things like NEET head-on.
“What if you are allowed to vote because it doesn’t make any difference? What if, no matter how you vote the elites get to have it their way? What if democracy convinces people they could prosper, not through the creation of wealth by through theft from others? What if democracy turns elections into beauty contests…and the civil unrest we are seeing around the world is because government is out of control?”

NEET used to make government look more attractive to voters is no different than the over-the-counter kind. In both cases the suitor is buying something based on appearance without fully understanding the consequences of the beast being hidden. It is an American tragedy more voters vote poorly than we date. But if we date poorly we can always fix it with a quick divorce (courtesy of government regulations) but a bad vote means we are stuck with the option.

When Valerie Jarrett, unqualified as White House Social Secretary but now a lofty WH advisor, can blandly assert “Unemployment is good for the economy because the checks are spent and help stimulate the economy” and not one media outlet howls in outrage, you know the ship is way off course.

By Michael McCune

Experts Puzzled As Americans Shun Stock Markets

“I have sworn on the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”–Thomas Jefferson
The markets may reach the moon in their gravity-defying surge but Main Street American consumers aren’t participating. In fact, Americans are pulling their money from the marketplace at record levels–$19 billion in December, another $2 billion in January. This has the “experts” puzzled and has left them groping for answers while offering up total miscalculations to prove Americans wrong.

“There’s a sense of doom,” proclaimed Psychiatrist Richard Peterson, employed by Wall Street banks and investment firms. “Fear is still with us,” states Meir Statman, Santa Clara University professor. “People keep telling me to cash out even when I warn them they are going to lose more money,” said Starmont Asset Management chief investment officer Harvey Rowen. This very bafflement expressed by the experts means they are missing the point.

The financial crisis, that left Wall Street on the surface and never hit Washington, is still ruling the streets and alleys of Main Street. The experts just cannot understand that from their ivory towers. Look at the market volumes (shares traded). A week’s worth of trades at 2012′s average level would not make up a decent day at 2007 levels so each trade today carries the weight of a hundred trades from before.

Americans are leery of the market because they see it not as a manifestation of what is right in America today but as another tool of a lying, cheating, and deceitful government. Americans lack faith in their government. When you have something they see as a tool used to perpetrate the lies that they can either opt in on or opt out of, they are opting out in record numbers. But most specifically they are opting out because they simply don’t have the excess income to squander on a bet.

The gurus overlook the fact America is struggling to keep roofs over its head, energy to cool or warm itself and food in the stomach. Until those fears subside or until the problem is rectified, Americans are holding up a big red stop sign.

What is particularly galling is the fact the gurus continue to lean on “past experience” but seem not to realize that current events play a much larger role.

Statman noted the confirmation basis is at work. “When you see a report that confirms what you believe, you digest it. If the reports differ from your belief, you dismiss it.” Great. Fantastic. But wrong analysis doc. Maybe you should come out of your classroom and take a real look at America.

Those students filing dutifully into your lecture hall are going into debt–a debt that is becoming increasingly burdensome and history is teaching likely will never be repaid. Where will they have the money–beyond that needed to survive–to invest?

Oh, that’s right, the jobs market is exploding–per a biased government. The Labor Department routinely adds 50,000 jobs to each month’s report (AP story from February 17, 2012). So Americans take the jobs report and stick it where the sun don’t shine or a pet can use it as the toilet which is all that it is good for. All they know is there are four Americans looking for a job for every one that comes open or is created. Explain how this is not continuing the sense of fear?

All Americans know is when they put gasoline into their vehicles the cost goes up week after week yet the EPA continues to hamper drilling efforts even while other government hacks are touting a resurgence in exploration and the President nixes a pipeline. They ask themselves: Is the government helping or hurting me and mine? Why would they invest is something as nebulous as the stock market?

America knows the Federal Reserve estimates of inflation are wildly inaccurate because all it has to do is wander through a grocery store picking up a loaf of bread, a gallon of milk, a dozen eggs, a pound of beef, a pound of potatoes, a sack of flour and a sack of sugar. It costs almost 50% more today for those items than it did a year ago but Ben Bernanke has the audacity to say “Inflation is not a problem.”

America views government, the stench-filled politics that surround it and the worthless, lack of direction qualifying statements from the bureaucrats, elected officials and the ever-popular “anonymous source” with a proper amount of disgust and loathing.

When the hustle and bustle of a solid economy returns to Main Street, when they can walk into a bank and get more than a quarter of a percent annually on their savings, when the average American can get a job to provide for his dependents, and when America has complete confidence its government is working for it, then maybe America will look to its stock markets again. Until then, they are on their own and no amount of psycho-babble from those still in the la-la land of academia nor all the urgings of politicians will get them to put a toe into the water.

From the OWS crowd to the Tea Party patrons, America is saying the same thing. But those at the top claim we don’t want any news that conflicts with our views when they are the ones with the hearing problem.

By Michael McCune

“I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man”–Thomas Jefferson

In the shadowy world of high finance there are insiders, inside insiders and ultimately, as discovered by private holders of Greece’s near-worthless bonds, there is a group known as the International Swaps Derivatives Association (ISDA). ISDA is to the financial world what the CIA is to normal government operations, a shadow so dark it even holds secrets from itself but is more powerful than the CIA could ever hope for.

The bailout of Greece has been an enigma from the start. There was no effort to reconcile Greece’s debt so the anchor still firmly holds the nation’s economic future down; Greece’s GDP adds just 2.4% to the European Union so the hand-wringing anguish from the European Central Bank was unwarranted; its economy is shrinking (down 7% in just the 4th quarter of 2011); and the big economy dog in Europe, Germany, is already planning a future EU without Greece. The only rational explanation left is something concerning the world’s finances that is hidden.

Consider the U.S. dollar for a moment. It has a “perceived” value only. You work to earn this perceived value. The grocer or the auto repair shop sells you a service or an item carrying an perceived value equal to the otherwise worthless paper bill you hold. Governments do this on a grand scale, they issue bonds to continue to spend more of these worthless paper items with the promise to repay later with more worthless paper.

All this activity creates an unmeasurable concept called economy. It is run by the various financial institutions set up around the world. But these institutes get their marching orders, allegedly, from the governments and the central banks which control the area they are in. But somebody someplace must be giving orders that these governments and central banks are following, otherwise they wouldn’t be driving the rest of us to destruction in concerted lockstep.

Enter ISDA. On the surface, the world’s bankers would like everyone to believe ISDA is nothing more than a trade group made up of banks and financial firms to facilitate the interchanges and exchanges of assets and credits among themselves. ISDA flashed its unimaginable capabilities in the Greek deal. By doing so it it showed the Occupy Wall Street mobs were correct in going after financial institutes but shortsighted in targeting the institutes they could see as those are merely the insiders’ false front, OWS should have targeted ISDA.

Bailout Mandate: Default Is No Default
You may have heard that Greece had to align 75% of its investors (Greek bond holders) into accepting the bailout plan’s regulations by Thursday, March 8.(1) Part of the acceptance plan was these bond holders taking a 70% reduction in the face value of the papers they were holding. Many of these balked because they were representing pension plans or other private parties in various market endeavors. In stepped the ECB to twist arms and show the malcontents how bad the alternative could be–nothing for their paper by “disorderly” default by Greece.

But the reluctant investors basically have no choice. If the majority of their fellow purchasers agree to the deal, then their bonds are reduced 70% because the bailout, drawn up by the Institute of International Finance contained “collective action clauses” or CACs. What is probably illegal about these CACs is nine members of the IIF steering committee that made sure the CACs were included in the bailout were major Greek bondholders. This means their votes alone would force the rest to go along with the deal because they controlled the required 75% of outstanding Greek bonds depriving each individual to owner from having equal say in the outcome.

In taking the bailout, Greece has already defaulted, whether it is 30%, 70% or 100% doesn’t matter except in semantics the fact is GREECE HAS DEFAULTED!!! It is borrowing to pay past due bills which it has already negotiated downward by 70% but is continuing to spend far more than it can earn (by taxation) on its own citizens.

Not all of the investors were idiots buying Greek bonds at face value, they knew the bonds weren’t road-worthy, so they bought insurance (coming from the financial institutions) to make sure the Greek paper held value for them. Unfortunately, the insurance companies are also under the thumb of ISDA’s rulings and dealings and ISDA ruled the Greek default is not a default.

The members of ISDA know it is something but they have to keep the world’s fraudulent monetary system afloat at all costs because that is the source of their power. So the bailout’s mandates have nothing to do with default.

Howls are starting to come from those bond purchasers who bought default insurance only to find it is now worthless insurance that is adding to their loss. What these bondholder/insurance buyers have found is their car was indeed faulty and they’ve been in a wreck. The insurance companies (financial institutions) have refused the claims because, by ISDA (financial institution) ruling payment can only be made for default and this mandate within the bailout is anything but a default. The car is 70% wrecked, but the insurance company is claiming only 100% wreckage is covered. ISDA’s “determinations committee”, in explaining the ruling, stated, “no credit event has yet occurred” in order for a 70% downgraded investor to claim default protection on his Greece holdings. (2) So a bond holder bought a bond from a financial institution, bought insurance to protect his investment from a financial institution and has a third part of the financial world ruling he loses on both efforts.

Government Default Option Is Eliminated
The bottom line is: ISDA doesn’t want the rest of the indebted governments of the world to realize government default is a realistic option for them because that would destroy  the corrupt system the financial world has put into place, including the mighty central banks themselves. ECB, for instance, is under the gun for 177 billion euros if Greece is not rescued or twice its capital assets base.

The Federal Reserve has been pumping fiat into the European system for four months now in lieu of QE3 here but in the U.S. world of regulation, government bonds in any form are classified by bank regulators as equal to gold, bolstering an otherwise faltering banking system. If this grading system was altered to reflect the “possibility of government default”, the whole government-financial world of collusion and corruption in finance would come tumbling down overnight. Very, very few banks would survive and even fewer national governments. This outcome cannot be allowed as both parties are getting wealthy under the system in place. The game must continue where a select few amass and hold the world’s real wealth while 6 billion, 999 million, 999 thousand, 999 other humans are stuck on the outside looking in at the displayed candy shop goodies until it accepts the few’s regulations for the possible chance to taste the candy.

So ISDA made its ruling to preserve the financial status quo. As a result, private investors are now the sworn enemy of financial institutions whose stated interest is in “helping them and their communities.” Corrupt government leaders have aligned themselves with corrupt financial elites to remove even more of the “perceived value” that you and I are trying to hold onto. I refrain from calling it wealth because more than 99% of real wealth is already owned by the financial elites.

Greece is insignificant to the European Union’s economy and even less so to the world’s. But the flea bite mustn’t be allowed on the ailing elephant of government indebtedness. ISDA, as was its charge since its inception, took on the role of applying insect repellent for the financiers of the world, only it slipped into plain sight in doing so. It’s statements and machinations directly attributable to actions within the Greek bailout blew its cover as a “trade group” forever. Now you know you are one of the insects never to be allowed into the inner sanctum.

The only item left is: How long do “We, the People…” allow our government and financial stooges to continue to play in this game now that we’ve seen the blatant, clumsily-executed sleight-of-hand in which we lose at every turn? Every day we watch merely gives them another day to remove more Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness from us.

(1)–Reuters, 3-6-2012 “Creditor Group sees 1 Trillion euro Greek Default”
(2)–Daily Reckoning, 3-6-2012 “What the Greek Rescue is Really About”

By Michael McCune

By any measure possible against other currencies, the dollar is stronger today than it has been in years. The markets are very sure and very consistent about that fact. But how can it be possible?

According to an Associated Press financial review published over the weekend, in the past three years America has printed $2.06 for every dollar that was in circulation when Barack Obama took the Oath of Office. OK, it is actually only $2.058 for my nit-picking friends who lean left. By any measure, that means the dollar in savings or in your pocket is worth less than 33 cents of what is was when Obama held up his right hand and pledged over the Bible he doesn’t believe in.

For the intellectual types who have one of those lofty degrees in finance or economy from the country’s finest whose colleagues have produced this mess, this is how it works.  Each dollar stands for a value, the more in circulation, the less value there is supporting it unless the stash of off-setting value has increased that much.  We do not have that off-setting value under the control of the federal government; therefore the fiat they’ve printed has lowered the value of your dollar by that much.

In the marketplace, the dollar is getting very healthy against the likes of the euro, yen, pound, yuan and peso.  Across the globe, investors are forsaking other fiat for the “safe” haven of the American dollar. GLORY BE!! The Democrats’ theme “Happy Days Are Here Again” is true!!!

But something is amiss. The stock market, while climbing, is nowhere near 3 times higher than it was Obama took office. For the Wall Street pros (meaning money managers who are deemed legal compared to the street walkers who are deemed illegal) this is a dire warning sign they keep missing.  Inflation, which will eventually catch up with the fraudulent printing press run, is sleep-walking when it should be in a flat sprint.  The dollar, like every fiat that has preceded it, is headed for the dumpster of history because it has been overprinted and has lost any meaningful value.

When the government officials are then presented with all those outstanding IOUs, they will have to get some value to repay those IOUs.  Who do they look to first, last and everywhere in between?  The loutish American taxpayer who has elected these suave people to run the country is the one looked to when bills come due.  The taxpayer is not doing so well these days.  He’s starting to feel the pinch every time food rises a penny or gasoline rises a penny.  But the bad news has a silver lining, if you can get it quick enough.

Precious metals are not moving right now.  This also smacks of government interference.

Ed Steer of Casey’s Research, noted, “You have to be brain dead not to see this is was an engineered price decline aimed specifically at metals.” (1) The veteran trader added, “The ‘tell’ is the lack of serious sell-off in equities.  The divergence is hard to miss.  I have seen 225 million ounces of silver dumped inside 30 minutes. The last time I checked the Comex dealers held less than 35 million ounces of silver.”

Marc Faber, publisher of Gloom, Boom and Doom, issues the same warning I have been giving, “Government will seize privately held gold.  If I am buying, which I am, I would store it outside the United States, because the government, like it did in 1933, will force you to sell your gold to them before the price catches up with the real depth of the mess they have created.  Gold prices will go ballistic and government will be forced to confiscate it, legally.  But as they are taking it away from a minority, not many people own gold, the uncaring masses will not see it for the evil it truly is.” (2)

Most American under 40 cannot remember when they couldn’t own gold; those of us on the downhill side of Obamacare’s “life contribution to society” can remember only too well the time prior to 1974 when owning gold was illegal.  Foreign bankers did a box-office business for the 41 years between 1933 and 1974 as Americans routinely exchanged American “Silver Certificate” fiat for physical gold. The SRO line for the “Eurodollars” spilled over when President Nixon devalued the dollar and then floated the fiat’s value against gold starting in 1971.

For those youngsters who don’t know, a “Silver Certificate” was a paper dollar which, by government promise, could be exchanged at any Federal Reserve Bank for an equivalent value of gold or silver ounces.  Everyone accepted that fact, but only in Europe were Americans actually allowed to put the practice into effect because, as mentioned, it was illegal for Americans to own gold.  If any American had tried to exchange his paper for real metal, he would not have been allowed to remove the metal from the bank, but the thought was nice. President Kennedy signed the order removing precious metal from coins beginning in 1965 which caused a mass collection of coins dated prior to 1965.  In the late1970s, government ruled “Silver Certificate” bills were no longer legal tender and they’ve become museum pieces.

The whole philosophy behind this continual tinkering comes from the foolish intellectual policies of elitist-trained leftists.  These people all have academic credentials coming out their collective ears but, unfortunately for them and us, they could not make a living in the marketplace.  Thus, because of envy for those that can amass wealth and status in a free economic market, they went political and rigged the game to insure they are rewarded in a manner they feel they deserve.

As the intellectuals consider inequities in wealth direct evidence of capitalistic injustice (ask the OWS crowd) they enact legislation regulating anyone other than their select group so outsiders cannot obtain wealth.  The problem is, to support the activity in which they obtain wealth, they have to raise taxes; creating fiat that has no true value. (3)

While Europe’s house of cards has been almost fully exposed, the U.S. is closing the gap at an alarming rate and has sped up over the last decade.  Only now, comparing current market value fluctuations to the amount of fiat added to circulation, can analysis of how close America is to imploding financially begin.

(1)-Daily Reckoning, Over/Under Valuations, 3-2-2012
(2)-Moneynews, 3-2-2012, “U.S. Financial Mess Will Force Government to Take Your Gold”
(3)- “Envy: A Theory of Social Behaviour” by Helmut Schoeck (Austrian)

By Michael McCune

When the NOAA announced the results of its acidic study of the oceans last spring, I asked one simple question, “You claim the oceans are more acidic now than they have been in 800,000 years and it is due to human, specifically American, activity. Where was the human population that caused the acidic level to be higher 800,000 years ago?” I never received a reply because the researchers went into the study with a preconceived theory that man was to blame and never looked at any other possibility. To them, my question wasn’t worthy of an answer.

So morally I am opposed to the regulations coercing me to accept “green” technology. Fiscally, since it has been proven that “green” economics cost about seven times more than fossil fuel technology, I am obliged to rebel against further government waste into the field. This position puts me squarely at odds with the current U.S. Administration, the current mood of many sovereign states and the United Nations.

But in this case, the grass isn’t “greener” on the other side of the fence. I’m just fine where I find myself, particularly when I witness how a green economy devastated Spain, how green technology failed in Solyndra, and especially when I can gauge the mood of my fellow Americans in the current car sales indices.

Ron Adner, a professor of strategy (type undisclosed) at Dartmouth, chimed in on this last subject early Friday morning.(1) Noting the climb in vehicle sales spurred by the rise in fuel prices, Adner noted the enthusiasm among buyers didn’t extend as well to the electric models. He cited two factors, both economic, as to why buyers were shying away from the new “green technology” offerings. First, he noted, “These autos cost at least $30,000 (real up-front green) due to their batteries which typically account for half the cost of the vehicle.” Then he added, “Most Americans see their vehicle as an investment so they look at the resale value. What will a 2012 Volt resell for in 2016? It will be like trying to sell a used computer, current technology does not hold its value.”

A loss of green on the back side, combined with the loss of green on the front end and the green technology is a lose-lose-lose proposition in these man-made contraptions because the battery’s life also comes into play. The battery is the most expensive part of the vehicle and it also has the shortest life span which is backward to a gasoline-powered car where the engine lasts a lot longer than the body. There is a fear factor that the battery will fail when you most need it, leaving you stranded.

Thus there will have to be a fuel supply system put into place–a refueling station for the electric vehicles. But, unlike a gas car, you can’t pull over and refuel in a few minutes, recharging a battery takes time, lots of time. Ultimately, the cost of operating one of these electric cars will be computed by some government hack buried in the bowels of a massive office building. He, she or they will find the electric car cannot average 60 MPH as a gas vehicle can because of the extended recharge time. So there will have to be a system of removing a depleted battery and replacing it with a charged battery quickly and efficiently so it can compete with the gas-swilling, carbon-emitting beast you currently use.

But these batteries contain substances which are toxic to the very Earth they were designed to protect, so a government agency will have to be established to regulate and control the possible exposure to the Earth by replacing, storing and transporting these batteries in the refueling station. These extra costs, of course, should be paid by the idiot using the battery–but government will determine that will be too onerous so there will be a tax placed on something most of us use–like gasoline–to help support the “green technology” that will save the planet from over-heating.

Whether you like it or not, you and I and all the people rushing in to buy new, more fuel-efficient gas vehicles while shunning the unreliable, prone-to-catch-fire, government-endorsed, electric toys (I call them toys legally because I had Tonka trucks bigger when I was a child) will be paying a heavy price to let somebody else feel good about themselves as they “save” the planet by going green.

Isn’t that the end result of most government regulation? Every wallet will be a lot lighter so somebody who can afford to feel superior to everyone else can have the opportunity to put on airs while being towed to a place where they can actually get enough juice (from a coal powered electric plant) to go another 211,200 feet (more or less) in their superior car.

When a free market economy can develop something that will be economically equivalent with the current pollution-inducing situation, then I’ll support it. But as long as government has to subsidize “green” technology, anyone who uses it will be losing the economy battle. Government is too stupid to know “quality of life” is no good if you can’t enjoy it, that’s why it’s regulations do not work.

(1) Adner’s comment were part of a video/report posted on Yahoo’s Daily Ticker 3-2-2012, “Why the Electric Car is Doomed to Fail”

All comments or suggestions on the “Rant” are welcome. This is a semi-weekly information commentary on the state of government folly in our times. There is so much data to sift that your particular concern may not get addressed as quickly as you’d like but, if it concerns the economy, it will eventually get into this series of writings. Thank you for your continued interest–Mike

By Michael McCune

The world’s shaky economy is bracing for another hit, this time from rising oil prices. Last year near this time the pieces were in place for oil prices to surge but they didn’t so the world, particularly the U.S., had time to relax and concentrate on other things. This time a couple of factors are combining which will preclude any chance to catch a break.

But this year the promise of higher fuel prices may be fulfilled and if it is it will have the ferocity of a tornado combined with the lasting power of a hurricane on the legless economic recovery.

Factors which undermined the anticipated increase a year ago were the sluggish pace of the entire world’s economy. China ran into problems, slowed its growth and reduced its demand for the black gold; the United States’ much anticipated economic recovery took a much slower pace and demand decreased; and Europe continued to languish with a snail’s pace economy and potential euro default taking front court. Against this combined backdrop, the lower production around the world didn’t cut into supply as much as feared. Indeed, the demand fell so much the lower production continued to feed supply with an excess and the price meandered downward throught the summer of 2011.

But Iran rattled its saber in the fall, defied the world’s heightened economic sanctions, and threatened the Strait of Hormuz. Suddenly the supply didn’t seem so secure and the prices began to rise. Now with the decade-long U.S. military venture in the Middle East falling apart like soggy cardboard and the U.S. and NATO’s ill-advised suppport of the Arab Spring insuring more anti-West governments in control of more and more world production, no amount of supply seems adequate for the oil drought forthcoming.

Government leaders are frantically trying to make their country’s supply as safe as possible but it is in the U.S., with its entire GDP resting squarely on the supply of oil, that is the driving force in the price rise. The U.S., the greediest player at the table and the most vulnerable as it has most of its chips in the game, also has lost the aura of might over the last 60 years. Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and a score of other, lesser sites, have shown the giant’s nose can be tweaked with near impunity. True the tweaker may suffer a price, ask Bin Laden’s ghost, but the organizations’ spawning such individuals are alive, well and more healthy than prior to the tweaking.

These organizations threaten the supply line of oil more than any other factor and the proven inadequacy of the U.S. to inflict its will because Washington politics remove most of the force of its military might has made the U.S. appear to be a mere beach bum flexing impressive looking but soft muscle to the rest of the world. In short, the U.S. has become all show and no go in the world’s eyes and it is, beyond the financial support received, thumbing its nose at America’s impotence.

Then one must toss in the effects of the slowed rise in prices last year while there was inflation and oil has to do some catching up, just to get back to even with the rest of the economy. But these trands never “just catch up” there is always an over-correction. Oil’s unforeseen year off has to be corrected. How fast and how well it does its’ catching up will be seen but it will make a move, at a time no politician wants it to–election time.

This move could be a economic killer in the U.S., ironically enough, for a housing market already reeling. If your job is in the city how are you going to pay for the added commuting cost by moving farther away from the work site? Without a housing market, where will the base come from to boost a sagging economy. Already America is witnessing a flat-lining economy, a flat-line not far removed from the depths of the 2008-09 recession.

If oil prices at the pump were to rise even 20% annually (and over the last two weeks they’ve already jumped 6%) the fragile toehold of recovery could well be lost. Every politician running is focusing on the economy and how to trim the unemployment rate (all except the incumbent acknowledge the official rate is a joke) but how will they switch gears and promise “better gas prices” for the average voter?

It is a problem beyond their ability to handle. A problem coming from factors they can neither control nor avoid. But I’ll bet they’ll promise something in the next eight months–anything to get elected. Meanwhile Main Street must deal with the problem of rising prices and no relief–either at the pump or from a powerless Washington which continues to create problems for the rest of the country on its own.

By Michael McCune

It defies logic how any American can look at the current sea of red tape engulfing them and decide the government knows what it is doing. It has gotten to the point where you can’t flush the toilet in your own home without violating some agencies’ administrative standard.
The first example is the Obama Administration’s lauded push to remove–or at least reduce–Medicare fraud, a practice which the Administration claimed is costing the vulnerable institute over $1.3 billion annually.

Last year the government spent $77 million in pursuing Medicare fraud. The catch for the year was a mere $7,600 in verifiable infractions.(1) Now I am not the sharpest mathematical mind available but it seems spending $10,000 for every dollar you receive is not money well-spent, particularly when the Administration continually whines about not having enough funds for its socialistic aims and the economy is still languishing aimlessly in the gutter. After all, isn’t the purpose of allocated audit expenses to generate more revenue than it consumes? Apparently not in American government today.

The second case in point is the bailout given to AIG. Included in the cash infusion was a series of tax breaks which weren’t widely publicized when the insurance giant’s toppling seemed imminent. At a time when the Administration is vociferously promoting increased taxes on capital gains and closing escape hatches the alleged wealthy use to avoid an “equitable” tax burden, Administration-favored AIG posted a PROFIT of $19.8 billion in the 4th quarter of 2011 in large part because of the Administration-granted tax breaks.(2)

The first problem with the posted profit is, if AIG had been taxed like a normal corporation, the company would have paid over $5.6 billion in taxes for the same time period and not been able to pocket such a stunning amount. The second problem is the company is not using the tax-break funds here in the U.S. but is investing in Asia—on the backs of the taxpayer money which was used to bail them out! This is a fiasco worse than the failed green technology policies the government promoted. Those people at least kept everything in the U.S. even if they used portions of the received funds to support the local political affiliates.

The third fiasco that begs for attention is the lack of results from the Justice Department, FDIC and SEC in going after the bankers who failed the system “by letting their banks fail.” Of the 243 bank directors charged with some sort of malfeasance, the government has been able to collect—drum roll please—nothing, nada, zilch, nil. Score a big fat zero thus far in getting some of the lost loot, um, wealth returned to legitimate taxpaying homeowners.

The bankers have been found guilty in the government’s court system in every case decided as of today. The catch is the bankers were smart enough to obtain liability insurance because of the government’s interference with the mortgage loan processing (specifically not being able to ask about the ability to repay said loan). The dastardly insurance companies are refusing to pay because, by the government’s own rules, the bankers did nothing illegal and therefore the insurance claim filed by the government is invalid…as are the charges!(3)

The insurance companies have the guts to tell the petioning government “go take a hike” because, by law, nothing the bankers did could possibly be construed as malfeasance as they were following the letter and intent of Congress’s own legislation (thank you, Barney Frank and Charlie Rangel). It is getting to the point where one group of government officialdom is running smack into the wall created by another group of government hacks. This is what happens to all socialistic governments ever created. They create gridlock themselves because of conflicting administrative views of every problem and none of the wimps are man enough to stand up and take the blame because they are too busy pointing fingers. The gridlock Obama is accusing the Republicans of during his campaign speeches are even more directly the problem of the monkey-eared idiot grinning at him in his bathroom mirror every day. He appointed the czars that oversee this mess and his flurry of Executive Orders are creating a red-tape blizzard nothing can penetrate.

All this means is the flailing economy and rising government debt levels will be with us for a considerable time. The more ineffective and intrusive government becomes, the more the economy will suffer. The more the economy suffers, the fewer dollars will be available for the government to receive which puts more demands on those government services considered “a Right”. The more demand put on government services, the faster the debt load increases. And the carousel continues its circular journey to nowhere as the taxpayer is taken for a ride.

What happens when the carousel fails? Economist Peter Morici of Maryland University, obviously in no need of Medicare himself, stated the situation pretty well, “This isn’t a healthy situation.”(4) On that point I heartily concur.

(1)–AP, printed in Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, 2-24-2012
(2)–Moneynews, “Bailed-out AIG…”, 2-24, 2012
(3)–Moneynews, “Bankers Escape Penalties…”, 2-24-2012
(4)–Daily Reckoning, Bill Bonner’s “Fuel for Krugman’s Fire”, 2-23-2012

I’ve been fortunate to be able to expand the readership of the Rant through numerous web sites, newspaper outlets and now a combination of website and radio. Stan Grant’s “In Defense of a Nation” can be accessed anytime on-line at www.indefenseofanation.com under the archives tag. I have been on numerous shows as a guest and this week the topic was “Government Regulation” in which I participated. The information used in today’s Rant was printed after that show aired but fit the talking points very well. Next week’s show, available after Thursday, continues the exploration of regulation run amok in the U.S.–Mike

U-Pump-It Gas Station in Evans, Colorado January 4, 2009 the same week President Obama took Office

The Obama administration has declared war on the livelihoods of all American families.  Since taking office in January, 2009 gasoline prices have become unaffordable for many American families.  Their policies and regulations on Coal power plants are killing off the economic viability of towns and cities across the country.  Please watch the video above to see what has happened to Craig, Colorado.

Why is the Department of Energy not using our tax dollars to develop cleaner coal?  Why are we not exploiting the vast amount of oil we have here?  Why are they refusing to build the XL pipeline that would create 20,000 jobs?  That certainly would decrease our dependence on foreign oil?  The coal companies are just selling their vast amounts of coal to China.  They simply use it in their dirty power plants.  Then the dirty air from China blows right back to the US.  So what have we gained?  Nothing!

Remember the reason for the creation of the Department of Energy?  The Department of Energy was created on August 4th, 1977 TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL.  Now it’s 2012, 35 years later.  Budget being asked for 2013 is $27.2 BILLION.  It has 16,000 federal employees, approximately 100,000 contract employees.  Just look at the job they have done!  They have not created one BTU, kilowatt, or single drop of oil.  The only energy produced by the Dept. of Energy is the rapid flow of taxpayer dollars!  Their ineptitude and inability to solve this problem couldn’t be more apparent than the recently reported nearly $6.00 a gallon gas prices in Florida.  Soon grocery prices will increase again.  http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/02/22/orlando-stations-charging-nearly-6-for-gas/

US government put economic sanctions on Iran.  Iran now threatens to close the Straits of Hormuz & gas prices in the US skyrocket.  It’s unmistakably obvious the Department of Energy completely failed to do the job they were chartered to do.  The US has more oil than all the Middle East combined.  Why are we not using it instead of financing Middle East terrorists?

Why is the Obama administration wasting our tax dollars with companies like Solyndra?  They went bankrupt, and were caught destroying millions of dollars of glass tubes.  It has just now been reported that the Bankrupt employees are getting bonuses averaging $18,500 each.  When is the nonsense ever going to stop?  http://www.reagancoalition.com/articles/2012/20120223002-solyndra-bonuses.html

Government bailed out General Motors when they should have gone bankrupt.  GM recently announced record profits greater than any time since 1997.  Part of the Bailout deal they got was freedom from paying Federal Income Taxes for 10 years!  That would increase any company’s bottom line.  How can they make profits from the Chevy Volt?  They simply are not selling.  $40,000 for a car that only goes 40 miles on a charge!  That is a lot of Green Cash for something that don’t work!  If you are on Social Security you certainly can’t afford one!

It’s time for us to fight back!  Please write to President Obama, tell him your personal stories and how his Green Energy policies have affected you.  Over regulation is the culprit that is killing our economy.  Be sure to use one of our “IN GOD WE TRUST” stamps on the envelope to reassure him that this is a Christian nation.  http://www.standingtallusa.com/products/  If one million of us wrote to the white house, I think it might get his attention.  It would be a stack of letters 400 feet high if we did!  How could they ignore that!

By Michael McCune

Many Americans think their economic condition is worsening but they live with it because, philosophically, how bad can it really get? Look to Greece for an answer.

Yesterday the Greece government finalized a deal with its creditors in order to stave off sovereign bankruptcy. By doing so it put into place some rather severe austerity measures to bring the government’s budget into line with the demanded spending cuts. Greece’s unelected leadership was desperate enough to  accept the demands so today, ordinary Greeks everywhere are going to begin paying the price…in some cases literally.

Lucas Papademos, the unelected Prime Minister, former Goldman Sachs employee and general prostitute for the world’s banking concerns, has agreed to such drastic cuts, some retroactive to November, that some government employees like school teachers, police, firefighters and clerks will not only not receive pay this month but could have to PAY in order to keep their work place. (1)

Americans, currently in their national tax filing period, are generally upset when they don’t get as big a refund from the government as they expect but they still hold paying jobs, how would they react to having to “pay the government” in order to keep the job they have? Greeks, with an unofficial unemployment rate well above 33%, have no choice because somebody else will make the concessions just so they will have thepossibility of some income when the austerity measures are finally lifted.

But those people aren’t sure of when that will be. Fitch’s Rating Service, which slashed Greece’s credit rating from junk status CCC into the oblivion of a mere C category (2),  figures the default will have to occur well before the planned austerity measures are completed in two decades as suggested by Werner Hoyer, president of the European Investment Bank.

In response, angry Greek unions have called for protest rallies to be conducted Wednesday afternoon outside Parliament. The communist party will hold a similar rally shortly after. Hopefully the two sides won’t join forces or the world would see how quick a country outside the Middle East can return to vigilante law where there are plenty of trees to hang the government hacks.

What particularly galls the Greek unions was the dismissal two weeks ago of 43 ELECTED members of Parliament by Papademos before the vote for austerity. Those members were opposed to the measures, figuring default couldn’t possibly be as bad as agreeing to and actually signing a bill that would destroy the Greek economy for the foreseeable future. In order to assure the vote for austerity, the technocratic Papdemos’ coalition which held 193 of the 300-seat Parliament had to make a choice between gridlock and acceptance of the plan. The political parties making up the coalition majority (Socialists and Conservatives) then evicted members not following the parrty line. (Reminds one of the political hacks with the R’s and D’s after their names in Washington when they routinely throw constiuent concerns under the bus for political gain.)

There is a lesson for America: cuts have to be made to government spending BEFORE the situation gets much worse. President Obama’s plan to triple taxes on dividends (3) without corresponding spending cuts are exactly what led to Greece’s problem. You don’t alleviate problems caused by debt by acquiring more debt to be repaid.

(1)-Atlantic Wire “Some Greeks Might Pay to Work” 2-22-12
(2)-Moneynews “Fitch Downgrades Greece to C” 2-22-12
(3)-Moneynews “Obama’s Triple Tax on Dividends Will Affect Elderly” 2-22-12

By Michael McCune

Wall Street is moving further into the realm of weightlessness, the euro’s demise moves closer by the moment while the United States government by passing tax cuts without corresponding spending cuts pulls the noose tighter around its own economic future. These events all have one entity to bless for their convergence–Goldman Sachs.

Seems like a nightmare to be able to blame a host of converging events on the actions of one company but when “you dance with the devil…”

Before blood pressures exceed the limits of human veins, remember this company did not act entirely alone, it worked in concert with the affected governments though maybe not within the bounds of the current C-in-C’s professed “government transparency” from 2008. Goldman Sachs is the ultimate wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Allegedly an independent financial institute, Goldman Sachs has over 200 former employees in well-placed Washington positions and probably 200 times that number scattered over the globe in various governments and financial agencies. Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank, is currently directing the forthcoming bailout of Greece and is a former Goldman employee. Lucas Papademos, the Greece Prime Minister who pushed through the “austerity measures” necessary for Greece to receive the funds from Draghi’s ECB, is a former Goldman employee. Mario Monti, Italy’s Prime Minister whose country is next in line for a substantial bailout from the ECB, is a former Goldman employee. Ben (BS) Bernanke, chair of the Federal Reserve which is funding all of the shenanigans going on in Europe, isn’t a former member of the Goldman Sachs but merely a misplaced academic who taught many of the higher-placed Goldman employees while at Princeton and surely listens to the whispers from the many ex-Goldman employees roaming Washington as advising bureaucrats.

But their machinations are having the desired effect on Wall Street. The Dow is moving into territory not seen since late 2007 when the housing bubble broke. Did you know Goldman had a visible hand in that pop but, unlike the majority of American investors, Goldman made a mountain of money on the breaking bubble? While urging investors to buy, buy, buy the housing market, Goldman sold, sold, sold. When the bust came, Goldman raked in the dough and almost everyone else dropped like a corpse.

The same thing has happened before—such as when Greece was seeking admittance to the Euro Union. Goldman covered up the debt problem so the Greeks could qualify to get into the EU and then sold additional tons of Greece debt on its unsuspecting customers, while selling the euro in currency exchanges. Now those gullible investors are being asked to take another 70% haircut on the face value of the bonds they are holding after dropping about 50% last October. Goldman just makes money on both ends of the deals.

Because it is so deeply embedded in governments, particularly here in Washington, even when the company is hauled into some Congressional hearing it receives no more than a slap on the wrist. Those elected officials know who butters their bread and it isn’t you and me in Constituency land, it is the movers and shakers behind the scenes for Goldman in major financial centers around the globe.

It has been alleged, not yet proven, that it was former Goldman employees who actually wrote the recently infamous NDAA where Americans can be tossed into prison for acts of “terrorism”. Read the final version carefully and you will not find this directly, only indirectly.

This bill, at certain times and places, removes the Secretary of Defense from the seat of power and puts in the Secretary of Homeland Security and uses Homeland’s definitions of terrorist and ensuing penalties as the basis for incarceration despite overt pronouncement’s “No American will forfeit their rights” in the bill. Follow some of the recent FBI directives where “shielding or attempting to shield a computer screen”, “operating a radio-controlled airplane” or “illogical lengths of travel” are considered basis for investigation as terrorist-related activities.

But Goldman has never acted overtly. Its “overt operations” are no more than a front for its true activities which is to enrich the governments it works for while impoverishing the citizens of those same countries. It is a whore for sale to the highest bidder. Maybe the government officials involved ought to be prosecuted as Goldman’s pimps. At least that would be a honest incarceration and give a honest description of Goldman’s activities.

By Michael McCune

Numbers mean nothing to Washington politicians and bureaucrats. The difference between white and black carries much more weight in our national capitol and that is why everything seems to be a similar shade of gray when it comes from the heart of the country.

Today’s point is the way Congress almost unaimously passed the extension of the payroll tax cuts, 2% off the workers’ mandatory contribution to Social Security, and then announced the large number of Americans affected by the extension. The announcement touted “the 160 million workers and jobless benefits for millions more…” while backing President Barack Obama’s faulty jobs agenda in a burst of bipartisanship not seen in Washington since the Patriot Act bill went through in the aftermath of 9-11.

The troublesome part is the number of workers claimed to be beneficiaries of this action. America’s economy, at its peak performance, was able to generate no more than 153 million jobs by the Bureau of Labor’s own reports. Today the number of jobs, per the same source, is no more than 142 million (if you disregard the fact the agency adds 48,000 jobs to the submitted state counts each monthly “as a routine adjustment basis” as leaked by a BLS insider.) So how could there be 7 to 18 million more “workers” affected by this action than what the economy is actually utilizing or has ever had utilized at one time? Quite simply, it is Washington math.

You have a job but it is over at the end of February either through retirement or you are hired for another position. That is one job but the person filling your old position is counted also and you are also counted in your new job. The rotation creates the illusion of more “employment” than is actually there at any given moment in time. The elected officials merely used Internal Revenue sources to show how many people filed W-2s for last year. If an individual had more than one W-2, each was counted as a separately employed “person”.

So you can readily see the politicians didn’t really lie, they merely used inflated numbers to make it appear that their action helped more people than it really does.

By the same token those receiving jobless benefits and are thus the beneficiaries of the action are also double, triple or quadruple counted by the Washington bureaucracy. If you go from unemployment to a job and back to unemployed, you show up three times of the count register, not once. Thus Washington’s compassionate politicians can show how much they truly care about the average Joe on Main Street.

Washington’s bureaucrats need the expanded numbers to “demonstrate the organization’s worthiness” every year when budget time rolls around so the agency gets its necessary funding. Except there is one slight problem with that premise as well. The Senate hasn’t passed a budget is over 1,000 days, almost three full years. So why do the agencies feel it is necessary to continue the deluge of phony numbers when there is no budget process to justify such a blatant lie?

This is why the debt continues to grow. There are millions more who need the aid than can be justified by any insipid action Washington officialdom can conjure up. But it has to “justify its existence” somehow and by passing these meaningless, useless measures that merely add to the mounting debt problem is how it seems best suited for the job.

This is how the middle class continues to vanish in America. Its future was borrowed during the economy’s hey-day in the 50s and 60s when now dead generation was receiving benefits it hadn’t earned. Thus to keep the illusion of wealth, borrowing (debt) had to be employed from the future for the next 40 years. Now we are borrowing from generations not yet conceived who will be created by people not yet conceived in fact but merely in Washington’s fertile imagination.

To understand this fact, ask yourself why a person newly born is now required to be registered with the Social Security Administration–thus being immediately eligible for benefits–when he won’t start paying anything into the system for at least 18 years if indeed Social Security is merely “insurance” as FDR stated when he sold the scam to America.

That’s what the touted “rare bipartisanship” vote today signified. More of the same illogical math will be forthcoming from Washington’s puppets. Apparently is is working…the United State’s unemployment headcount rate, as Obama promised when pushing his 2009 stimulus package, is dropping inexorably towards the 8% figure.

Washington’s finest have started nothing new however; Hitler’s inner core deployed non-existent military units in key positions towards the end of WWII. We all know how well that worked out.

By Michael McCune

Today, once again, the U.S. stock markets raced upward on hopeful news from Greece. The Greek Parliament passed the long-awaited austerity measures necessary for the completion of the $170 billion bailout from the Euro Union and the IMF over the weekend. Why the U.S. markets are reacting favorably is a mystery because the Greeks have shown a very hostile attitude towards their Parliament’s approval.

Many Greeks took to the streets to protest the punitive measure which forces drastic cuts in pensions, wages and jobs across the board in an effort to meet the $423 million in budget savings, less than 10% of the total budget savings Greeks still face in the future. The  EU warned Monday the consequence of the measure not being met were “devastating” so the Greek Parliament, depleted by protesting defectors but reinforced by pro-measure appointees by PM Lucas Papademos in time for the vote, inked the deal; meaning it is good for now, on paper.

Here’s what the Greek Parliament agreed to: 22% reduction in the minimum wage with a 32% cut for workers under age 25, a raising of the required pension age to 60, an estimated 17% cut in public sector jobs (one in every six), and a 12% cut in pension compensation. These numbers make even less sense than they would in the U.S. because Greece has practically no free enterprise left–everything is government run–and the measures do not come close to fulfilling the $4.3 billion in necessary savings called for in the immediate $18.8 billion rescue bailout measure needed to meet bond payments on March 20. This in a country whose total government assets don’t total $1.3 billion.

Athens resembled a war zone in the aftermath of Parliament’s approval. Rioters and police battled across Athens and it appeared the rioters were winning. Looting and uncontrolled fires swept through the cinemas, shops and banks of Athens as the community turmoil surged once again. The real question is what happens when the police payrolls, also targeted in the cuts, can’t be met. Who will stop the riots then?

EU leaders expressed dismay over the riots but what did they honestly expect? A miracle apparently as EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said a disorderly default would have a devastating consequence for Greek society. Yet the Greeks have shown time after time they are completely unwilling to give up their lifestyle as long as there is any chance they don’t have to compromise further and have had disorderly defaults before. Rehn didn’t state specifically what consequence he foresaw for the Greek society but one can assume he meant the same consequence that would be felt if Europe and its euro toppled because Greece brought it down.

In what was a particularly accurate situation assessment, the left-wing French Daily Liberation asked, “What if we all became Greeks? Is what is being imposed today on this pressured and humiliated country a foretaste of what will be prescribed for Italy, Portugal or, one day, France?”

Ah! That’s the rub for America too. Except our economy is much, much larger than Greece’s and we have many more times the resources, what, in specifics, is the difference between Greece and the U.S. beyond the ability to print fiat at will? The Greeks have outspent their GDP just like America. The Greek problem then is a glimpse of what the future holds for Americans when the dollar is replaced as the No. 1 world currency and we can no longer afford to repay our debt.

The leader of Portugal’s largest union, Armenio Carlos, praised the Greek rioters’ “heroic resistance” to the austerity measures and warned his own country could face a similar social explosion if such imposed cuts were mandated to continue financial aid to his Iberian state, which is also facing sanctions as the EU and IMF run on borrowed funds themselves.

In what is sure to become a rallying cry for the rioters, Greek deputy PM Philipp Roesler told German television, “Now we need to wait and see what comes after the legislation. We have taken one step in the right direction but we are still far from the goal.” If the riots are any indication there won’t be much movement towards the goal in the immediate future unless members of Parliament have a death wish.

But the asinine U.S. markets soared as if the Greek rescue goal was accomplished, again, seemingly disregarding the fact it was the U.S. Federal Reserve that put the tax-weary U.S. citizen on the front lines by sending its massive three-month printing spree overseas so there could even be a modicum of discussion for a Greece bailout.

It is insanity for markets to continue projecting hope when the debt grows daily and is far beyond the capacity of the debtor to repay. The euro is failing, just as every other fiat in the world is. The common sense not to run the printing press is overwhelmed by the desire to protect the government’s own fanny, so the presses are operated without legitimate resources to cover the fiat. The only way to change the situation is to let Greece drop into the slime it has created. It may not make for catchy sound bites for the rest of the world, but then everyone will be aware you reap what you sow. Maybe then the Eurpoeans, Asians and Americans will be ready for their bitter harvests.

By Michael McCune

I was often told by instructors, while discussing the shortcomings found in my blue book essays, “Your biggest problem is you haven’t answered the real question.”

It is thus also with government’s eternal struggle to make the pathway to success an even ascent for all. Only those who actually construct their own Ladder to Success have a chance of reaching the goal. Success takes effort and government interference blunts that effort. Success takes dedication, government regulations would have us believe all are to be rewarded equally–regardless of effort.

The struggle by governing boards of the European Union, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund to find an acceptable answer for the Greek debt is a prime example. The Greeks, for whatever reason, didn’t construct a ladder for Greek success but instead allowed their government to soft-soap the effects of indolent lifestyles which will lead to another fiscal default.

The result is Greece has much more debt than it can ever repay and has been on the brink of collapse seemingly since the mid 60s. The internal pressure coming from a populace that doesn’t want to make the effort to succeed is running headlong into the irrefutable reality the lifestyle provided is directly from dreamland. Living demands an effort be made to hold onto that life.

But as bad as Greece is, our own U.S. “free society” is running against the pressure of a long over-indulged populace. The “OWS” crowd and their “Tax the Rich” mantra is a prime example of what is wrong. Those people want success handed to them. They want those who constructed their Ladder of Success to now hand over the rewards they have reached through effort. Their education experience, directed by government, has taught them all are to be rewarded equally.

Actually the only ones who have to hand anything over are those who didn’t fall into the government’s “Too-Big-To-Fail” arena. Every company, employee or shareholder of those “Too-Big-To-Fail” places need to be chastised by the OWS mob directly because those entities aren’t where they are at because of blood, sweat and tears any more but due entirely to the tax-funded handouts from government. Government was able to do this because it sucks the lifeblood from every success story in its misguided effort to “provide for all.” That is the basis of the socialistic state we find ourselves in today.

It started innocently enough with the first property tax assessment for schools. Who can argue that the education benefits provided did NOT help our society grow dramatically during the past 150 years and provided the basis for America’s rise in the world standings after World War I? But today, through government interference, that advantage has been negated. The newest generation going through the system and just out of it is ruined by government that is akin to a hamster’s treadmill–no matter how fast you run no forward progress is achieved–and is losing the academic battle to places where a decided emphasis on education as a privilege not a right is voiced.

Reading the Constitution provides not one iota of a hint that education is a federal government area of concern. Yet here we are. The national experiment in education is failing. If the education system gave me their current answers in blue book form I’d have to inform it, “Your biggest problem is you haven’t answered the real question.” The question remains, “What good is a system where education is considered a right and not a privilege?”

This is where government interference blunts effort and will lead to fiscal disaster as we are witnessing with directionless, effortless OWS youth churned out by the system today. What is the difference between a Grecian Parliamentary Member saying, “The people won’t stand for austerity programs, just give us money to continue breathing” and a State Legislature seeking exemption from a national law in the U.S.? In Greece it was handed out as a boon, in the U.S. it was handed out as “social justice”. Either way it was approved as a “right.” The results, distressingly, are the same. The populace grows accustomed to the hand of government aiding them in their daily lives. It robs them of effort.

Whether it is a school district saddled with too many tenured, educated idiots sitting on the collective boards, administrations or in the classroom or with too many tenured, unteachable idiots occupying the seats and disrupting those who have the need to learn, the only solution to the problem is to eliminate the “right” and go back to “privilege” in all aspects of society. Including the areas of home ownership, food, employment and education.

Nobody can remove a right from another person. However, you only keep a privilege as long as you have earned it. That lesson has been lost or omitted from the OWS participants’ education. Real education has been denied them by permissive me-first parents, watered-down community spirit and a benevolent government. They can no longer construct a Ladder of Success because all the productive DNA has been removed from their system.

In the “Land God Blessed”, that is the ultimate indictment against what our goals have become today.