Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Obamanomics and the poor.
"WASHINGTON - The recession has hit middle-income and poor families hardest, widening the economic gap between the richest and poorest Americans as rippling job layoffs ravaged household budgets.
The wealthiest 10 percent of Americans — those making more than $138,000 each year — earned 11.4 times the roughly $12,000 made by those living near or below the poverty line in 2008, according to newly released census figures. That ratio was an increase from 11.2 in 2007 and the previous high of 11.22 in 2003.
Household income declined across all groups, but at sharper percentage levels for middle-income and poor Americans. Median income fell last year from $52,163 to $50,303, wiping out a decade's worth of gains to hit the lowest level since 1997.
Poverty jumped sharply to 13.2 percent, an 11-year high.
"No one should be surprised at the increased disparity," said Richard Freeman, an economist at Harvard University. "Unemployment hurts normal workers who do not have the golden parachutes the folks at the top have."
Analysts attributed the widening gap to the wave of layoffs in the economic downturn that have devastated household budgets since the recession officially began in December, 2007. [Nice try, the Recession began in the third quarter of 2008, when the change in GDP went negative] They said while the richest Americans may be seeing reductions in executive pay, those at the bottom of the income ladder are often unemployed and struggling to get by.
Large cities such as Atlanta, Washington, New York, San Francisco, Miami and Chicago had the most inequality, due largely to years of middle-class flight to the suburbs. Declining industrial cities with pockets of well-off neighborhoods, such as Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Buffalo, N.Y., also had sharp disparities.
Up-and-coming cities with growing middle-class populations, such as Mesa, Ariz., Riverside, Calif., Arlington, Texas, and Henderson, Nev., were among the areas showing the least income differences between rich and poor.
The real lesson: Liberal policies hurt the poor the most. Cities controlled by Democrats are the worst hit. Republican areas are better off.
WHO WOULD HAVE THUNK IT?
Revolutionary games for children.
1. Pin the moustache on POTUS.
Blindfolded children will be asked to pin a two inch wide moustache on a portrait of Barak Hussein Obama. Children should be praised for participating and get a Red Star that they can wear on their shirt.
2. Multiculturalism game.
Rush played a record entitled "Kids Songs of the Revolution," such as "One Leader for Ever," "Hope is in the air" and "Change is here." All these songs were from Germany of the 1030s and sung in German. However, there is one song that's in Italian (Avanti popolo -Onward the people) that is very catchy and stays with you. In fact, I still remember the words after nearly sixty years that were taught to me in school in the 40s and 50s:
Avanti popolo, alavis kossa,
Bandela Rossa, bandela rossa,
Bandela Rossa la triomfera, Bandela Rossa la triomferera
Avanti popolo...
The song is about the Red flag of revolution triumphing.
Kids can be encouraged to march while carrying red flags.
3. Kill granny pantomimes.
Kids will play act pulling the plug on Granny's respirator, so the country can save on her medical care. This should be attempted only in areas that allow killing off of the old and sick.
4. Cultural Revolution Games.
Children will be taught to put dunce caps on others playing the part of reactionary parents opposed to "CHANGE" and "HOPE."
I am sure that NEA-affiliated teachers can pull this off.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Looking into the crystal ball.
Gold is taking a breather, though today it was up slightly. The dollar is also moving higher. Cycle theory predicts gold to hit a minimum in early to middle October then take off for a rally. Actually, cycle theory predicted a drop in gold a while ago and that drop did not materialize. Is gold stronger than the theory predicts? We should see soon. The dollar will move in the opposite direction, which is down.
The economy continues to deteriorate and the "unexpected" drop in consumer confidence is in line with that. The Baltic Dry Index continues to languish and Lumber hit another down patch: meaning that international economy is weak and construction is still imploding. There are hopeful signs, mostly political. The effort of the Red/Green coalition to tax away our wealth by the Cap and Tax method is stalled and the effort to set up socialized medicine also hit a snag. All these happenings should be positive for the Stock Market.
Soon, the control of inflation will begin a debate as to when to start tightening interest rates:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Officials-Fed-will-need-to-apf-1511169380.html?x=0
Bernanke has given a lot of thought to what caused the Great Depression and he does not want to raise interest rates too soon - a mistake that he believes happened during the Depression. So, the scenario predicted by Cycle Theory is still in effect: we will have a rally in gold to maybe 1,300 and the Stock Market will continue to rally. Then ,when interest rates are raised (and some in the Fed promise a large and fast rise), the Stock Market will collapse and also the economy. The price of gold mining stocks will tumble along with other stock prices. At some point, gold mining stocks will begin another rally, as the FED panicks and drops interest rates again, and gold prices will then move past 2,000/oz. The Stock Market will not recover untill the Obamabots are gone from power and Capitalism is re-established in 2013, or at least after the election of 2012.
We should remember though, that the Obamabots can turn on deflation just by tinkering with the 'mark to market' rule. Until the Obamabots are gone from power and the perps that collapsed the banks are arrested Capitalism is not safe in America.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aqMTD5UFmU
The reference to the smell of the podium comes from Hugo Chavez, Communist Dictator of Venezuela, who complained that "W" was the Diablo and the podium smelled like sulphur after W's speech at the UN. Following the Obama speech, Chavez said the podium smelled good, like hope.
Here is my substitute chant:
An Obama chant for school children.
Barak Hussein Obama,
Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm.
The name rhymes with that of Usama,
Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm.
He comes after President Roosevelt,
He will destroy what’s left of our wealth
Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm.
He reads speeches for his ventricolists,
His podium smells good to Communists,
Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm.
Barak Hussein Obama,
Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm.
The name rhymes with that of Usama,
Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm.
The Day will come when an electorate,
Returns him to his radical friends,
Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm.
A new day will rise from the purple mist
The podium smells bad to Communists,
Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm.
Barak Hussein Obama,
Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm.
The name rhymes with that of Usama,
Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm.
If u wanna hear more of such kiddy lore,
Go right ahead and you construct some more,
Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm.
Copyright Geezer Bela in Exile
P. S. I fully expect the Obamabots to rewrite the Doxology as a praise of Obama.
Do dogs have souls?
Do the animals have a soul, we ask, especially a dog?
A divine spark of the intellect that physical death survives?
Or are they merely a collection of instincts and of drives,
Designed to make them live a bit and in this world do thrive?
Some say that they lack the immortal soul that God into Adam did breath,
But the same can be said of the Woman named Eve if Genesis we believe.
Else the soul could be transferred in part of the flesh taken out
From Adam’s chest to form the first woman, withouth a breath no doubt.
I look into Barika’s amber eyes and I see there her deep love below,
She would not hurt me with fearsome teeth or even a careless blow.
God gave us dominion over the plants and all His creation and beasts,
So can we elevate the ones we love and return the love that they give?
Copyright: Geezer Bela in Exile.
Some people believe that dogs do not have a soul because the Bible does not state that God had breathed a soul into them. My point here is that there is no statement that Eve received a soul that way either, yet Christians have no doubt that women have a soul. Muslims, in fact, believe that women will not enter Paradise, except as the 72 virgins that every Islamic male Martyr gets to rape. Jews believe that there are special animals (called 'nefesh') that had been specially created to be our companions. I guess the question is how much of God's abilities has He given us and allows us to exercise. We have clearly been given the capacity to love and to sacrifice for our loved ones. So, then can we evoke in some dogs the capacity to love? I think so.
Stock Market sayings being tested.
2. "Sell in May and go away." If you were doing that, you missed most of the rally so far.
3. Is this a new Bull or a Bear Market rally? We still do not know and if you are going to wait until we know for sure, there won't be a point in getting in. Obama's policies will not fix the economy. Even the Communists of Chinese (who, unlike Obama, joined the Party that openly espouses their beliefs) are appalled by the policies of the Obamabots.
4. The Stock Market reflects the expected earnings of the companies. No, it doesn't.
5. The next saying that will be tested has to do with the buying surge following Yom Kippur. That's Tuesday. Will it happen? I do not know.
The first graphic shows the current S&P 500 averages running way above the 200 DMA. Is this unusual? Let's look at two other Bull Markets.
The graphic above shows the 1974-76 Bull Market. It had a considerable length of time when the S&P 500 ran above the 200 DMA. The 1992-94 period had even a longer stay above the 200 DMA(see graphic below). Of course, that was a period when the policies of RR finally began to take hold.
The next step in dismantling America.
By now the argument about whether the Obamabots induce these crises or the crises just come about as unintended consequences of their policies IS UNIMPORTANT. Commercial real estate is about to take a hit from which it may not recover for years, if ever. Here is how it is brought about:
Commercial real estate, like homes, is financed largely by credit. A company builds a shopping center on finances obtained from the bank. The company then rents the stores and receives regular monthly (or quarterly) payments of rent and makes payments to the bank. If the stores begin to go belly up, the company that owns the shopping center has a while until its income no longer covers the monthly payments it must make to the bank. When that happens, the real estate company is essentially broke. The company then needs to refinance the property, but in today's environment that is difficult. As more of these companies try to sell their property, the value of their real estate plummets. At some point, the money they own on the buildings is larger than the value of the buildings on the open market and they hand their keys to the bank. This has happened to private housing and is beginning to happen to commercial real estate.
As banks are handed back properties that developers (or operators) can no longer operate, that asset is then counted as worth zero under 'mark to market' and we have another round of bank failures. As banks are required to increase reserves, this takes their money out of circulation and we have another dip in the GDP. Furthermore, the FED has a new opportunity to destroy more private property and "replace it" as public property. Socialism is advanced.
Employment continues to deteriorate. By now the job seekers outnumber the jobs available by a factor of 6. As businesses downsize because demand is not picking up, employment will not get better anytime soon.
Is there a ray of sunshine in this? Yes. The commercial real estate is only half of the residential real estate, so the "crisis" may not be as bad as when the FED declared banks insolvent. Unfortunately, by now the banks have been weakened to the point that many will not withstand this second shock. And our economy is getting weaker, in spite the talk of green shoots.
The second wave of real estate implosion, however, will reduce inflationary pressures for a while. This will be a good opportunity to buy some gold or gold mining stocks.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Yes, there will be death panels!
"Beginning in 2015, payment would be reduced by five percent if an aggregation of the physician's resource use is at or above the 90th percentile of national utilization." Translated into plain English, it means that in any year in which a particular doctor's average per-patient Medicare costs are in the top 10 percent in the nation, the feds will cut the doctor's payments by 5 percent.
The clause is plainly devised to reduce care for seniors (whose medical care is responsible for 80% of medical costs) and withholding care from people is designed to kill them. Don't think that Liberals like Baucus (who looks so kind and urbane) would NOT do something as monstrous as that. They do think like that.
The Newsweek article "The case for killing Granny" is just one of the intellectual efforts of Liberals to sell us the concept of killing off the old.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/09/killing_granny_1.html
The sad fact is that rationing medical care will reduce it for everyone, not just for the old. It is part of the Liberal mindset that we Americans have too much and we need to do with less.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
How bad is the economy?
...CEO's are now playing miniature golf,
...if the bank returns your check marked "Insufficient Funds," you call them and ask if they meant you or them,
...Hot Wheels and Matchbox stocks are trading higher than GM,
...McDonalds is selling the 1/4 ouncer,
...parents in Beverly Hills fired their nannies and learned their children's names,
...a truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico,
...Motel Six won't leave the light on anymore,
...the Mafia is laying off judges in Cicago and Boston,
...Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen.
And finally...Congress says it's looking into this Bernard Madoff scandal. Oh Great!! The guy who made $50 Billion disappear is being investigated by the people who made $1.5 Trillion disappear.
Don't squeeze the Charmin!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32997234/ns/us_news-washington_post?wid=18298287
What is more disturbing than the idiocy of the enviros is the fact that governments and even business give in to them. The list of damage they caused to the country is getting longer and longer. From opposing nuclear power plants, to forcing National forests to become tinder boxes the damage these control freaks and parasites cause is enormous.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
The Obama doctrine.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/23/the-obama-doctrine-16333053/?source=newsletter_opinion_headlines
While, this is true re foreign affairs, it is also true for domestic and economic policy. The chief weapon of Obama and his henchmen is the "mark to market" accounting system. This is how the Obamabots diminish our country economically. In essence, the use of this accounting system allows the govt to declare certain properties owned by banks (or properties on which banks have loaned money) "troubled assets" because the market for those properties has temporarily disappeared or is greatly diminished. Their value is then counted as zero and the banks are required to deposit money as reserves to cover the value of those properties on their books. The government steps in and gives the banks monopoly money in exchange for bank properties and in fact control of the banks. Where does the money come from? The govt "generates it," is the way the standard radical doctrine defines it in academic circles. Some academicians believe that the government (note NOT GOD) owns everything, so it is just an accounting cipher as to whose name is down as owner.
As usual with the practices on the Left (i.e. the ungodly), what they say is not what they do. What in fact they are doing is to diminish the value of those properties by either selling them at deep discounts or allowing them to deteriorate. This way, the value of those properties is taken out of private hands, most of it is wasted and the country's economy is down-sized. The Obamabots believe that we are too rich, too powerful and must be made to do with less.
The deflation I have just described is handy for the Obamabots to cover their sins re counterfeiting the currency. If it were not for the deflation they caused, inflation would be raging by now. But, the destruction of assets represses the economy and prices. That is why the Obamabots plan to have another round of asset destruction by declaring commercial real estate in default. That will transfer more value from private hands into government hands and in fact remove them from the economy. The result will be another round of deflation, another round of government "bailouts." By the time it is over, kiss the dollar good by and prepare for price controls to deal with roaring inflation. And price controls create black markets and shortages. Maybe the Obamabots will achieve their dream of reducing us to the level of "Cuber" where toilet paper is rationed.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
The dollar, gold and China.
All these coming calamities are waiting to ensnare the Obamabots and they will not help the US economy either.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Obama lets down friends.
Not to be content with letting down the Poles and the Czechs, Obama decided to let down his friends in the Media and politics. Having gone down that opposition to ObamaCare was motivated by racism, the Media is twisting in the wind. Obama has done what Rush Limbaugh asked him to do and that makes him look weak domestically. There is one silver lining in this though. Obama's move to repudiate the charges of racism being at the bottom of opposition to ObamaCare makes Jimmy Carter look every inch the fool he really is.
Another Liberal is disappointed.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/162110-the-recovery-was-too-expensive?source=email
Martenson calculates the cost of restoring the economy to a 3.0% growth. On a 14 trillion economy, a 3% annual growth amounts to 420 billion dollars. Its cost? By Martenson's reckoning the cost of getting us out of the recession is about 1.7 Trllion dollars. Three trillion has been pledged to pump up the financial system and 1.2 Trillion has been printed as funny money. We are risking heavy inflation, a dethroning of the dollar as the reserve currency of the world and Obama has taken the first step to start a trade war with China.
Martenson makes noises like he is a Liberal economist (all for government intervention), though he finds the Obamanomic approach inefficient. He says this: "Of course, I wouldn't have poured a single dime of that money into any of the black holes masquerading as banks that are now, regrettably, even larger than too-big-to-fail. Instead I would have poured the money into farms, communities, new forms of transportation, energy infrastructure and the like." Standard litany of a Liberal.
What is interesting is that Liberals are beginning to voice disappointment with Obama. What they have not discovered is that Obamanomics is not about the rescue of the economy any more than ObamaCare is about reform of medical care. The Obamabots want control of everything to impose their form of Socialism. They do not want growth, they want us to think smaller, to withdraw from the world, to give in to Islam, to become more dependent on government. They will continue their Munchhausen by proxy doings and pretend to fix what they had broken in the first place.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Norman E. Borlaugh, RIP
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/16/the-humanitarian-the-greens-hated/?source=newsletter_opinion_headlines
Dr Borlaugh was the genius behind the Green Revolution in crop science that may have saved as many as a billion people by making countries such as India self sufficient in food production. Political Greens hated him, because political Greens hate humanity and want people to die off. One poster to the Puffington Post put it this way: "How many non-human organisms have been destroyed to facilitate the constant demand for monoculture wheat farming that is needed to feed the billions of parasitic humans currently scratching and nibbling at the earth's surface?" We suspect that the ecosystem would not miss this particular parasitic scratching nibbler if he practiced what he preached and reduced his carbon footprint to zero. " Dr Borlaugh answered his critics: "They've never experienced the physical sensation of hunger. They do their lobbying from comfortable office suites in Washington or Brussels. If they lived just one month amid the misery of the developing world, as I have for 50 years, they'd be crying out for tractors and fertilizer and irrigation canals and be outraged that fashionable elitists back home were trying to deny them these things."
Dr Borlaugh mistakenly believed that the population explosion would continue and opposed Pres Reagan's efforts to reduce the pro-abortion propaganda for the third world. But, as economics improved (largely because Asian countries like India gave up on Socialism and the Green Revolution took hold) the population explosion abated and it was diffused.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Obama lies demean Presidency.
AP had fact-checked Obama's speech and even they conclude that Obama was not telling the truth.
Here are three of Obama's whoppers and there may have been more, but who can count?
Whopper #1. OBAMA: Nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change the coverage or the doctor you have.
AP. "The Congressional Budget Office analyzed the health care bill written by House Democrats said that by 2016 some three million people who now have employer based care would lose it."
Whopper #2. OBAMA: I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits, either now or in the future.
AP: "The long-term prognosis for costs of health care legislation has not been good."
The CBO claims that the health care bill will cost $1 Trillion in annual deficits and the "compromise" bill touted by Montana's Democrat Senator projects a yearly cost of $800 billion.
Whopper #3. OBAMA: "Don't pay attention to those scary stories about how your benefits will be cut. That will not happen on my watch. I will protect Medicare. "
AP:, "Obama and congressional Democrats want to pay for their health care plans in part by reducing Medicare payments to providers by more than $500 billion over ten years."
Obama demeans the Presidency by his lies and there were more of them. Joe Wilson was right. All the Republicans should have stood and shouted: LIAR!!!
Media stirs racial animosity.
Meanwhile, blacks are attacking whites in possibly increasing numbers. To be fair, it is hard to tell, because the Media suppresses news of such attacks and tries to censor the race of attackers. These statistics bear watching, because the Media may be held responsible for such attacks.
In the Laughing Stock.
Conservatives are split in their opinions about these two Liberals claiming ignorance. There are those who believe that both Gibbs and Gibson are lying and they did know. After all, it is their job to know. But, there are others who believe that these two flowers of Liberaldom are really as ignorant as they claim to be. After all, neither the ACORN crimes, nor the Tea Party were covered by the New York Times, so how are they expect to know?
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Obama called a failure by Liberals.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27134.html
Politico already calls Obama a failure.
Situation still deteriorating.
Why bentral banks are starting to hoard gold.
Advertisement
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
By Porter Stansberry in the S&A Digest:
What's the real solution to the constant boom and bust of our credit markets? Simple: a sound currency whose price (interest rates) is set by the demands of the global market, not by any government. Calling our current system "modern" is a misnomer. Our current system is barbaric. It has proven to be a failure every single time in history when it has been tried. Paper money has been used for thousands of years to steal the wealth of the middle class, impose a secret tax on the productive, and swindle, through speculation, the fortunes of those who are honest and hard working. On the other hand, only one monetary system has proven to work, every single time it has been tried – gold. And yet it is the gold system that has been labeled "barbaric" by the politicians who fear it. Just because the U.S. is unlikely to ever return to the gold standard doesn't mean you can't. One year ago today, gold was trading for $635. Today, it sits near $1,000. There is a very good reason for this. Gold is no one else's liability. And it is difficult to produce. Over the last year, our Federal Reserve increased the size of its balance sheet by 126%. So far, this has only resulted in roughly 20% more currency in circulation. But eventually, all of this new credit will end up as money, greatly devaluing the value of the paper you hold in your wallet. The same thing, at various rates of growth, is happening around the world at every major central bank. And that is why, according to sources in the gold market, central banks themselves are for the first time in more than a decade net purchasers of gold. The politicians want you to use their paper money. Meanwhile, they've decided to stockpile gold. So should you.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Millions say to Obama...NO!!!
Let's make one thing clear. This is not a matter of who has the majority vote in Congress, or the lies told by the Media. This is about the rights of each of us enoumerated in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. What Obama and his fellow Marxists are doing is illegal, no matter how many votes he gets. WE WILL NOT ACCEPT IT! Nor can the people vote those rights away.
The American people have the right to replace a government that is not responsible to the people, a government that tries to take away our freedom. Hopefully, we can do it at the ballot box, but if not....
Spoofing the Media and Pelosi
I arrived at the Tea Party protest a little after 11:30 AM only to find the march already in full swing, filling the width of Pennsylvania Avenue as far as the eye could see in both directions. A couple of political terrorists from Long Island told me it had been like that for an hour and a half.
This could only mean one thing.
The pharmaceutical lobby had started handing out checks much earlier than I’d anticipated.
Undaunted, I followed the tens-of-thousands of people representing special interests and the insurance companies towards the Capitol Building and was stunned by their blatantly un-American behavior, as was evidenced by all the American flags they were waving.
That’s always a dead giveaway.
It was stunning. Never before have I seen so many people who were clearly not indicative of the country’s mood. You’d think there’d be many fewer people not representing mainstream views.
And it got worse. Here are some protesters taking a page right of the Nazi playbook with a banner proclaiming, “Let no government exist that is not responsible to the people.”
Where did they get that? Mein Kampf?
These people should heed President Obama’s plea that we engage in a more civil and respectful dialogue and do the right thing and just shut up and get out of the way.
Once I saw this T-shirt, I knew I’d pressed my luck far enough and stole away while the angry mob was distracted with its bickering and game playing.
Hey, she looked mean!
J.
Vfom:
http://planetmoron.typepad.com/planet_moron/2009/09/dc-tea-party-march-report.html
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Why ObamaCare won't work..well..
The problems in achieving these goals are obvious. If Medicare fraud and abuse is so obvious, why not set out to eliminate it and reduce the deficit? In fact, Obama is peddling snake oil. The only way he can reduce Medicare costs is rationing medical care for the elderly and the disabled.
Even worse is his idea that cost savings can be made by eliminating profits. If that were true, the Soviet Union would be a thriving enterprise instead a chapter in the dustbin of history.
Who do you trust with health care administration? People whose livelihood depends on being polite to you and serve you as well as they can (else you go somewhere else)? Or government employees who simply have to follow rules? And those rules will force those govt employees to deny service to you as often as they can. If medical care will be administered by the govt, more govt employees will be hired, so there will be NO cost savings from eliminating private profit. People should have learned that by now. No rocket science.
The signs of the coming Stock Market Crash.
So, cycle theory points to a Stock Market crash in 2010 and a Bear Market that will last through 2011. This correlates with the cycle of politics we are experiencing now. Another sign of the coming disaster is that corporate insiders are selling stock like there is no tomorrow. In fact, if Obamabots keep control of Congress beyond 2010, there isn't. Hope for tomorrow. A third sign of the coming disaster is the developing troubles in the rest of the housing and real estate market which I chronicled in the previous post. The fourth sign is the gathering inflation and credit crunch along with the decrease in private spending.
The value of American corporations is decreasing. This IS THE POLICY of the Obama regime. The price to earnings ratio has already risen to 18, higher than the average 16. A further 20% rise in stock value, without increase in earnings, will set the stage for a collapse.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
The forecast now.
Friday, September 11, 2009
A bad day then a bad day now.
Media hypocracy
Also conveniently forgotten are the words of the Lightening of High Places (Barak o Bawmawh) in 2006: "Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership."
Of course, the deficit then was 150 billion/year, whereas it is 1.9 trillion this year, but hey...then it was Bush and now it is the anointed one.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
You said what?
That you can keep your own doctor?
That health care will not be rationed?
That you are not planning Socialism?
That the stimulus is working?
That you are a good leader?
Monday, September 7, 2009
On the track of GATA.
http://www.gata.org/
Here is how they define themselves: "The Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee was organized in January 1999 to advocate and undertake litigation against illegal collusion to control the price and supply of gold and related financial securities. The committee arose from essays by Bill Murphy, a financial commentator, and by Chris Powell, a newspaper editor in Connecticut, published at Murphy's Internet site, www.lemetropolecafe.com [1].
Murphy's essays reported evidence of collusion among financial institutions to suppress the price of gold. Powell, whose newspaper had been involved in antitrust litigation, replied with an essay proposing that gold mining and investor interests should act on Murphy's essays by bringing suit against the financial institutions involved in the collusion against gold.
The response to these essays was so favorable that the committee was formed and formally incorporated in Delaware. Murphy became chairman and Powell secretary/treasurer.
GATA underwrote the federal anti-trust lawsuit of its consultant, Reginald H. Howe -- Howe vs. Bank for International Settlements et al. -- which was pursued in U.S. District Court in Boston from 2000 to 2002. While the Howe suit was dismissed on a jurisdictional technicality, it became the model for Blanchard Coin and Bullion's anti-trust lawsuit against Barrick Gold and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., which was filed in U.S. District Court in New Orleans in 2002 and prompted Barrick Gold's decision to stop selling gold in advance for 10 years.
GATA continues to expose and oppose collusion against a free market in gold, other precious metals, currencies, and related securities.
GATA is recognized by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt educational and civil rights organization and it welcomes financial contributions."
Stay tuned while I investigate how this works.
Did Jesus name the anti-Christ?
Recently, a friend sent me a video on the subject mentioned in the title of this post. I can not reference the video, so I am going to go through it with you.
Luke tells us in his 10 th Chapter what happened when the 70 He sent out returned. Jesus said this to them in verse 18: ..."I saw Satan fall like lightening from Heaven." Of course, Luke had written his Gospel in Greek, whereas Jesus spoke those words in Aramaic, the ancient form of Hebrew and I am using the Revised Standard Version in English. Isaiah, who predated Jesus's ministry, had this to say about Satan, quoting Satan: 'I will ascend to Heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High;'
So, the characterization of Satan as "lightening from Heaven" (or a high place) is consistent between Isaiah and Jesus. Fortunately for us, we have Strong's Hebrew Lexicon to find out what Jesus said in Aramaic:
http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/hebrew/
The question then is: does the calling Satan as "lightening from Heaven" (a high place) actually tell us something that we understand in today's world?
Lightening in the Dictionary is word # 1299 and is sounded out as "Barak." High place is word # 1116 which sounds "Bamah" or Bamaw. Lightening of a high place would then sound as "Barak o (or u) Bamah," the "o" or "u" being a conjunction. The question I have is did Barak Obama sit in the Illinois State Assembly? That would be a far North place from Jerusalem. And is it on a hill? Or, did he ever preside over a session? Would that be a high place? Check it out for yourself.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
And how the piranhas profited from our misery.
"Just my opinion, of course, but I think the powertraders on Wall Street look for weaknesses to exploit in the name of profit, without regard to economic consequences, political motives, nationalistic allegiances and/or world conspiracies. To them, Wall Street is just a Golden Goose that keeps producing.In the instance at hand, it became apparent that if mark-to-market accounting of large asset bases could be linked, more or less directly, to the ability to decimate the market value of thinly-traded debt assets, then, the balance sheets of huge institutions and their related share prices could be brought into play. Hence, we saw the ABX index created by Goldman Sachs for the specific purpose of having a vehicle to short subprime debt paper. As must have been the traders' fondest hopes, the ABX, and other debt indices, became the de-facto standard for valuing corporate debt on a broad basis, so that these thinly-traded indices could serve as the value benchmark for vast quantities of debt assets, without regard to other performance and valuation methods. Once, that occurred, the rout was on, and it was totally self-reinforcing, as declining index values lowered debt-asset values, causing huge writedowns on corporate books, creating panic share selloffs, which in turn created more fear, allowing the indices to be shorted even lower, rather easily.You raise the question of whether these factions desired or were indifferent to the final destruction of the financial system, and I'd probably conjecture that while they don't mind making the Golden Goose very ill, they don't really want to kill it, since they can make money making it healthy once again, until the next time they want to strangle it for a while.To that end, once all the damage was done shorting things to near calamity, the same interests that had made tens or hundreds of billions probably hoped to pick up all the decimated paper for a song, if banks could be forced to sell it at vastly depressed prices. That's why so much pressure has been brought to bear on forcing banks to give away 'toxic" paper. However, seeing that this approach was not bearing fruit, and looked increasingly likely not to occur, the speculators did the next best thing, they started buying large positions in the entities holding such paper, so they could participate in the inevitable ride up. "If you can't beat 'em. join 'em."
I add that the piranhas had a motive in crashing the financial system.
How the banks were dismantled.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/160007-citigroup-a-simple-analysis-of-a-terribly-complex-company?source=email
And here is a description by blogger "Tack" of what happened to the bank stocks:
You have hit the nail on the head, one that has eluded so many observers, misled by the ridiculous mark-to-market values, which, of course, are near meaningless for bank loan portfolios that are being held for performance, not as speculative-gain assets. The current mark-to-market values, so frequently cited by the "insolvent" crowd, bear almost no resemblance to the discounted-cashflow values typically used banks and other financial firms to value debt portfolio assets.The above explains why banks are making record cashflows and amassing record cash balances -- lots of that "valueless," "toxic" debt is actually performing nicely and throwing off cashflows, month after month. It, also, explains why no bank is in the slighest interested to jettison absurdly-marked loans at giveaway prices, so that some drooling speculators can make all the gains on the writeups after the hysteria passes (it's passing, now, by the way).Huge lobbying efforts were expended by the speculator class to inspire Congress to pass laws making it mandatory for banks to sell their assets at ruinous prices, but, thankfully, these efforts have failed, so far (and let's hope, forever). If this had occurred, we would have seen the complete ruination of the banking system and utter destruction of the economy, with an accompanying depression of incalculable magnitude.Related to the foregoing, the same speculator class caused most of this crisis by taking what could have been a manageable subprime-loan problem and turning into an economic rout by playing a rigged game of shorting (much of it illegal naked shorting) debt indices, while at the same time buying huge CDS positions on the institutions holding the debts, know full well that the then-current mark-to-market rules would ensure financial catastrophy for the banks and other lenders.So many observers/commenters seem to think that the writedown, selloff, paper-insolvency stage was/is the real world and that the current recovery is false, but they have it exactly backwards. The banks, mistakes though they made with poor loans (aided and abetted by Barney Frank/Christopher Dodd lending mandates), have been the victims of a scurrilous campaign of manipulation and profiteering. It is only now that they are regaining some semblance of normal operation, and even now, they have a long way to go to regain full economic and stock-market value.On Sep 05 11:38 AM stonebluff wrote:> Beware of assuming that mark to market should be a mantra. When the> Fed racked interest rates up to 20% in the early 80's, probably every> commercial bank in the US was broke bcause of depreciation in its> assets. A bank of which I was a director was under water because> of depreciation in its impeccable loan portfolio alone.. The regulators> and bankers very sensibly ignored the mess. They have to have that> flexibility.> > An analysis of book value that is made based on intangibles based> on what every credit trainee is taught not to do.
Weather Channel Blues.
To be sure, Jim Cantore lives for standing out in 100+ mile winds and reporting how awful, wet and windy it is. Weather like that is no joke. BUT! What what became a joke was the career of Dr Heidi Cullen at the Weather Channel. She lost sight of all measures of objectivity and became a misguided advocate of the Global Warming cult. This cult trumpeted endlessly that because of increasing carbon dioxide emissions, global temperatures would rise resulting in all manner of catastrophes. Her solution (and the solution of most of the Warmists) was to build a Socialist government that would dole out carbon credits, while some charlatans would grow rich selling these credits.
Dr Cullen is no longer at the Weather Channel. She resurfaced at PBS, Jim Lehrer and other Liberal outfits. I decided to check a few of her predictions.
The basic problems with Dr Cullen were that: 1. she lost scientific impartiality and became an ideologue, an extreme advocate of a theory; 2. she assumed that once a trend was established, it would continue; 3. that global warming was established almost as a scientific law with no dissent permitted and 4. that global warming could be alleviated by the Socialist prescriptions of the greens.
One prediction of the Greens was that the warming experienced up to 1998 would continue. It did not and cooling set in in 1998. This trend continues. A second prediction was about increased hurricanes. That trend did not continue either. Another prediction was for larger number of hurricanes. We are seeing fewer hurricanes and so on. There was one prediction, however, which was one of the most alarming: that global warming would devastate the trout fishing in Montana.
So, I checked the headlines from local sources in Montana.
http://www.newwest.net/city/article/montanas_snowpack_bodes_well_if_it_doesnt_melt_too_fast/C8/L8/
The report is from "Carbon based climate change." Takes alarmist tack and reports that cold weather kept snow pack lower than average and if there is a warm year, it could be bad.
http://willfishforwork.com/2009/03/27/montana-snow-pack-march-27-2009/
This blogger laments the length of the cold and his cabin fever. No evidence of serious low water in Montana rivers as of March 27, 2009.
http://www.newwest.net/city/article/montanas_snowpack_bodes_well_if_it_doesnt_melt_too_fast/C8/L8/
This blog reports about average snow pack. Less than normal precipitation was preserved because of cooler weather. This is a May 1, 2009 report with a map.
http://www.mt.nrcs.usda.gov/snow/data/comparison.html
Actual tabulation of snow pack as of May 11, 2009. Snow pack is 122% of average statewide.
http://www.nrmsc.usgs.gov/research/ftm_snow.htm
The July report from Flattop Mountain SNOTEL site reports near average snow.
http://www.wrds.uwyo.edu/wrds/nrcs/updatesur/update-mt.html
The snow precipitation update from SNOTEL sites in Montana shows near average precipitation most places with a couple of exceptions. In other words: a normal year.
OK, so how is the fishing in Montana? Did it rain? Here is the person on the scene:
http://www.wapiti-waters.com/blog/?p=809
This summer has been busy and the fishing has been great. One nice thing is that we haven’t had many wildfires so the air quality is very clear. I am enjoying that! Our rivers levels have been ample though in late July, the water temperatures were creeping up. But now, we have had cooling rain, a little too much rain as the river has been running a bit muddy from run-off sediment.
This last week we had a pacific and a Canadian weather system collide over our big sky and it dumped record breaking rain amounts. The Bitterroot and Big Hole doubled their water levels. The fishing hasn’t been very good except on the Blackfoot River. It fished well yesterday.
I am posting a few photos taken at Victor Crossing on the Bitterroot a few days ago to give you an idea of what our river looks like right now. As the storm passes and the sun comes out, the river should clear and the trout will be hungry.
Our national Media do not check the accuracy of predictions and when they do, they suppress reports that show their favorite alarmists to be wrong. Here is an obviously biased (and wrong) prediction by Dr Cullen:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/july-dec08/troutdrought_10-31.html
The facts contradict the alarmist prediction so PBS is not reporting them. They are busted by the evidence. And Algore should be in jail for fraud and racketeering.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
The astonishing comments of Pat Caddell.
The march of gold.
As you can see, gold stocks lost about as much as other stocks. At this point, the Stock Market is still advancing while gold is moving up. This could change and change rapidly. Here is the graphic for the ETF GLD (exchange traded gold fund that owns actual gold):
Notice that gold hit its top in Jan 2008 and lost some value in the ObamaCrash, but only lost 30% instead of the 50% loss in stocks. It would appear that if we have another crash, not even gold stocks will be safe. I might add thouth that the ObamaCrash of Oct-Nov last year was exaggereated by the deflation used to elect Obama and it is not likely to be redone in the next dip.