WHEN IS A CONSPIRACY NOT A THEORY?

Please take a moment and read the following information that was reported in the Huffington Post. It is all rather disturbing as it hints much larger issues. Is there a conspiracy? Or is it just a theory?

“U.S. CORPORATIONS POST RECORD PROFITS - When corporate America sits down at its Thanksgiving table this Thursday to remember when the pilgrims received their IPO from the native population and then used their start-up money to do away with indigenous redundancies over the proceeding centuries, it'll have 1.66 trillion reasons to be thankful -- that's the record profits that big business pulled down at an annualized rate over the past three months. In the early days of the Obama administration, the Dow hit a low of 6,626. It's now over 11,000. Yet we keep being told that this is THE MOST ANTI-BUSINESS WHITE HOUSE EVER!!! (What would pro-business look like? Three trillion in profits?)

BUSINESS FURIOUS AT WHITE HOUSE FOR DOUBLING ITS WEALTH - Major corporations are dug in against the White House, furious at the size of their profit statements and bonus checks and angry that the Dow has nearly doubled on Obama's watch. Politico tells us that Obama had better start being nicer to big business: "After business leaders sank millions into the midterms to defeat Democrats, a chastened Obama administration is seeking reconciliation with the corporate community. But after two years of building frustration, the executives say they won't be won over by another round of private lunches and photo opportunities at the White House. If President Barack Obama has any hope for a truce with corporate America in time for his 2012 reelection campaign, he needs to drop the name-calling, try to see their point of view better and step up with some specific proposals. 'No amount of relationship-building is a substitute for policy,' said Johanna Schneider, executive director for external affairs at the Business Roundtable, which was once one of the administration's most enduring corporate allies. 'We have to see some concrete policies that will help grow business because everyone's goal is to grow jobs. This isn't hocus-pocus. There are concrete steps to take for job growth,' she added." No, job growth is not, actually, the goal of big business. Their goal is to post big, fat profits and grow their share price. Which is exactly what they've been doing. If they want to create jobs, they can spend the more than trillion dollars they have sitting on the sidelines and, you know, start hiring people.” [HuffPost's Peter Goodman]

When thinking about this information it is easy to be reminded of the hundreds of billions of dollars in bail out money that went to banks and large corporations. It is easy to remember that the “Fed” just printed off $600 billion to give to banks so that ‘they can make loans.’ It is easy to remember the $100 billion to bail out Greece; the $150 billion for Ireland and who knows how much for Portugal and maybe Spain. The point is that well over $1 TRILLION has been given to banks and large corporations and that is showing up as corporate profit.
To pay for this, what is happening? Governments and politicians are calling for extending retirement ages, decreasing benefits, reducing social net programs, cutting jobs, keeping tax cuts for the rich, increasing employee contributions to health care, freezing wages and a variety of other attacks on the lower and middle class pocketbooks.  And yet, large corporations are making trillions in profit!
Is it just possible that governments and big business are creating a massive climate of fear? Is it possible that these same people are creating a situation that would make all of the ‘doomsday’ prophecies concerning 2012 self-fulfilling?  Form follows thought and quantum physics is now telling us that thoughts create our physical reality. By creating near panic economic situations, will this new sense of fear and despair not manifest as disaster and chaos? Further, with no real action concerning climate change, are the cards being stacked against all but the rich? Is there a conspiracy to create situations in which many will die; the lower class close to being eliminated; and, the middle class being relegated to fill their shoes? We have a dumbing down of our educational systems; major increases in odd diseases; the fattening of our youth and adults; and, foods and products filled with chemicals that can only cause even more disease and reliance upon…well, reliance upon who?
Keep this in mind: This is all about paper. Money is merely paper. We are not talking about gold, silver, land, diamonds, rubies or even goats. We are talking about pieces of paper, the value of which is based upon common consensus. When I was a teenager, a gallon of gas cost 35 cents. That same gallon of close is around $3.00 today. It is the same gas and the cost to produce it has not risen that much.  The markets are fond of saying that the price of gas has risen or fallen because of demand. In other words, if we want it more, we have been willing to pay more. If we drive less, the price goes down. All a matter of consensus by someone as to value. Paper money has no intrinsic value; it is really backed by nothing. There has been much talk about deficits and all of the supposed problems they incur. But really, if the 'Fed' can print $600 billion and pump it into the banks, why can't they print the same and free itself or the consumer from debt? Right, I can hear the scream of economists now. But economics is really a fantasy and not a science. No one gets stuck dead by the god of money if they keep prices low if demand rises. All it would take is for all nations to agree that they will print the money to pay off their debts and agree that the money will retain its value. Everyone wins and the debt is gone.
So much more could be said here but the bottom line is that there are really no 'laws' of economics. Is it worth ruining the lives of countless millions over the supposed value of a piece of paper? Is it worth letting the world be run by the few people making trillions and the expense of the many? Is it right that a few unknown investors rate the value of a county's money and make or break that nation? Since when have we, the people, said that our lives would be dictated by so called 'market forces,' which is really just another name for the rich?
Many of the 2012 prophecies pointed to a time when choices had to be made. It appears that Big Business and the many governments they control have made their choice. They have opted for a massive global population reduction and an increased reliance not on government, but rather, the Company Store. However, their choice does not have to be final. The sheer numbers of people, choosing a more rational and sane world can alter events. How the masses respond to these disturbing events will determine events that may well culminate in a few short years. Something to really think about. Please, think about it. It is the only way out.
How to deal with all this will be the subject of future posts.

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR FINANCIAL CRISIS

 GUEST BLOG

By Ziad K Abdelnour



I personally believe that the US government’s entire strategy now - as during the S&L crisis - is to cover up how bad things are.
But it is not only a matter of covering up fraud that has already happened. I am afraid our government also created an environment which greatly encouraged fraud….and the mortgage fraud is a lot like the fraud which occurred during the Great Depression.
Facts?
It is clear to everybody by now that our government knew about mortgage fraud a long time ago. The FBI warned indeed of an "epidemic" of mortgage fraud back in 2004. However, the FBI, DOJ and other government agencies then stood down and did nothing. The Federal Reserve turned its cheek and allowed massive fraud and the SEC has repeatedly ignored accounting fraud…..while Alan Greenspan took the position that fraud could never happen.
Later in 2006, President George W. Bush has bestowed on his intelligence czar, John Negroponte, broad authority, in the name of national security, to excuse publicly traded companies from their usual accounting and securities-disclosure obligations.
Moving forward to today’s Administration, we all know by now that Tim Geithner was complicit in Lehman’s accounting fraud and pushed to pay AIG's CDS counterparties at full value, and then to keep the deal secret.
As Robert Reich recently noted, Geithner was "very much in the center of the action" regarding the secret bail out of Bear Stearns without Congressional approval.
Tim Geithner, as President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York since October 2003, was also one of those senior regulators who failed to take any effective regulatory action to prevent the crisis, but instead covered up its depth.
Further facts?
It is equally clear to everybody by now that:
• Bernanke might have broken the law by letting unemployment rise in order to keep inflation low.
• Paulson and Bernanke falsely stated that the big banks receiving TARP money were healthy, when they were not.
• Arguably, both the Bush and Obama administrations broke the law by refusing to close insolvent banks.
• Congress may have covered up illegal tax breaks for the big banks.
• Of course, deregulation by Larry Summers, Robert Rubin, Phil Gramm and many other high-level politicians and regulators also helped to grease the skids for fraud.
Comparing our current crisis to the Great Depression, the main relevance is surely here since in both cases, the government knew what it should do. Both times, it declined to do it.
In the summer of 1929 a few stern words from on high, a rise in the discount rate, a tough investigation into the pyramid schemes of the day, and the house of cards on Wall Street would have tumbled before its fall destroyed the whole economy.
Again, and not to be repetitive, the FBI clearly warned publicly in 2004 of "an epidemic of mortgage fraud." But the government did nothing, and less than nothing, delivering instead low interest rates, deregulation and clear signals that laws would not be enforced. The signals were not subtle: on one occasion the director of the Office of Thrift Supervision came to a conference with copies of the Federal Register and a chainsaw. There followed every manner of scheme to fleece the unsuspecting ....
This is fraud, perpetrated in the first instance by the government on the population, and by the rich on the poor.
Following the rule of law, the government that permits this to happen is clearly complicit in a vast crime.
So what are we to do with the fraud started at the very top with Greenspan, Bush, Paulson, Negraponte, Bernanke, Geithner, Rubin, Summers and all of the rest of the boys?
Reminiscing the principles of our Great Founding Fathers, everyone knows that the American colonists revolted largely because of taxation without representation and related forms of oppression by the British.
But - according to Benjamin Franklin and others in the thick of the action - a little-known factor was actually the main reason for the revolution.
To give some background on the issue, when Benjamin Franklin went to London in 1764, this is what he observed:
When he arrived, he was surprised to find rampant unemployment and poverty among the British working classes… Franklin was then asked how the American colonies managed to collect enough money to support their poor houses. He reportedly replied:
“We have no poor houses in the Colonies; and if we had some, there would be nobody to put in them, since there is, in the Colonies, not a single unemployed person, neither beggars nor tramps.”
In 1764, the Bank of England used its influence on Parliament to get a Currency Act passed that made it illegal for any of the colonies to print their own money. The colonists were forced to pay all future taxes to Britain in silver or gold. Anyone lacking in those precious metals had to borrow them at interest from the banks.
Only a year later, Franklin said, the streets of the colonies were filled with unemployed beggars, just as they were in England. The money supply had suddenly been reduced by half, leaving insufficient funds to pay for the goods and services these workers could have provided. He maintained that it was "the poverty caused by the bad influence of the English bankers on the Parliament which has caused in the colonies hatred of the English and . . . the Revolutionary War." This, he said, was the real reason for the Revolution: "the colonies would gladly have borne the little tax on tea and other matters had it not been that England took away from the colonies their money, which created unemployment and dissatisfaction."
Is this just ancient history?
No.
The ability for America and the 50 states to create their own respective credit has largely been lost to private bankers. The lion's share of new credit creation is done today by private banks, so - instead of being able to itself create money without owing interest - the government owes unfathomable trillions in interest to private banks.
America may have won the Revolutionary War, but it has since lost one of the main things it fought for: the freedom to create its own credit instead of having to beg for credit from private banks at a usurious cost.
As economic writer and attorney Ellen Brown has tried to teach to President Obama, Governor Schwarzenegger, and anyone else who will listen, the way out of the economic crisis is to stop paying interest to private banks for the creation of credit, and to return to the system of government-issued credit used by the Founding Fathers to create prosperity for the people and to gain independence from their oppressors.
The big question is: Are they or anyone out there listening? Go figure....
Your feedback as always is greatly appreciated
Thanks much for your consideration

WAITING FOR THE BULLY TO GET A BIGGER STICK?

Most have assuredly seen this headline:

"Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- In a sharp escalation of hostility along their disputed sea border, North Korean and South Korean forces traded fire Tuesday, a deadly skirmish that jacked up diplomatic tensions in a volatile region."

I am not a "hawk" by any stretch, but North Korea needs a reality check!

They have repeatedly snubbed their nose at the world and the UN. Their recent lies about not have a Uranium enrichment facility and now the shelling of a S. Korean island should be a clear signal that the North has no intention of living with its neighbors peacefully. Many analysts claim that the North does these things to get people to pay them attention. The notion being that nay attention, positive or negative, works for them.

All of this may be fine as long as they are playing and taunting with little sticks. But clearly, their intention is to have nuclear weapons. Then they will have a really big stick. What happens if they want attention then?

WHEN 62% VOTE AGAINST YOU

In Maine, Tea Party candidate Paul LePage won the governorship with only 38% of the vote. That means that 62% of the state voted against him. The problem is that there were 5 candidates. The next closest was an independent with 37% of the vote.  Clearly, the Republican winner has no mandate from Maine voters. Clearly, there is a need for reform to enable a run off election if no one gets a majority.

This is the general problem with the 2010 mid-term election. Assumptions are being made that the state and the country voted for the Republican agenda. I do not believe this happened. I do not believe that people voted to reduce deficits-most do not really care about defecits. They did not vote to reduce or privatize social security. They did not vote to eliminate health care-most of the provisions have not even gone into effect. They did not vote to eliminate or reduce unemployment benefits. They did not vote to fire hundreds of thousands of government workers and teachers. They did not vote to eliminate climate change regulations that will save the planet. They did not vote to make it easier for companies to to pollute; for banks to take our homes; for credit card companies to drive us deeper into debt.

There certainly needs to be change. People do want to end wasteful spending, eliminate fraud, and reduce intrusion in their lives. But clearly, there is no mandate to turn the country over to big corporations and to eliminate programs so desperately to help people in these trying times-times which were generated by excessive greed.

WHY DEMOCRATS REALLY LOST 2010

Pundits are trying to claim that the massive Democrat defeat in the mid-terms was a vote against the policies of president Obama. Not so!

The defeat was a rebuke of the Democratic Party's failure to do what they were elected to do in 2008. Instead of helping small businesses and the average person, they sided with big business and gave them $billions. Then, when homes were being taken, they did basically nothing to help the homeowner. Did they do anything to create more jobs? Not really. Did they free us from the drain that health care causes and create a truly worry free health care system? No. Did they really stand up to big business and the banks? No, what they passed has so many loopholes they were hardly worth passing. Did they stand up and say no to tax breaks for the rich? No. Did they pass envirnmental protection legislation dealing with climate change? No. Did they refuse to take campaign contributions from big corporations in 2010? Mostly not.

If the Democrats stuck to their principles and were true to their beliefs, they just might have had a great victory. When it became clear that the Republicans did not want to compromise and work with them, they should have had the courage to vote for what they claimed they stood for. In truth, people did vote vote against the Obama policies, rather, they voted against ineffective politicians who were afraid to do what we thought they were elected to do. In most cases, it wasn't pro Tea Party or pro Republican votes, it was anti-ineffectivness votes.

The Democratic Party let us all done and they paid the price for their lack of courage to make the changes they promised. A nation does not shift from supporting Obama and then two years later flip to Tea Party ideas. We are not that politically fickle. We are a people of 'imediate gratification.' We want it now. If you say that you will do something and you do not deliver, we will not support you. So dear Republicans, do not put too much into your victory and do not think that it clears the way for 2012. Although it might have something to do with 2012, but that is another story!