Michael Raises Some Very Good Points, But He Overlooks Some Critical Points As Well!!

George Bush added $Trillions of dollars to the National Debt by borrowing to pay for his insane war in Iraq and to finance his equally insane  tax cuts for the 1%.  Michael doesn't mention this crucial point.  It is not just Obama's debt (although the economist John Taylor pointed out that while Obama inherited the debt, he did nothing to reduce it so he also owns it).

The second thing Michael doesn't mention is that there is a perfectly plausible way to reduce that huge debt.  Yep, it is called INFLATION!!  It has been used by governments over and over again over the centuries, and our government will use it very soon.  That is why most of our own cash is in Inflation Protected Bonds.

P.S. If you want to see what a TRILLION $ in 100$bills looks like, see The Great Recession Conspiracy anywhere ebooks are sold.

Obama Has Stolen $5.3 Trillion From Our Children In Order To Make Himself Look Good

Barack Obama has destroyed the future of America in order to improve his chances of winning the next election.  Under Obama, 5.3 trillion dollars has been ruthlessly stolen from our children and our grandchildren.  That money has been used to pump up the debt-fueled false prosperity that we have been experiencing.  When the U.S. government borrows money that it does not have from someone else (such as China) and spends that money into the economy it is going to make our economic numbers look better.

  Even if the government spends that money on incredibly stupid things, it still gets into the hands of average Americans who in turn spend that money on food, gas, clothes, etc.  If we were to go back and take that extra 5.3 trillion dollars out of the U.S. economy, I guarantee you that we would be in a rip-roaring depression right now.  We would look a lot like Greece at this point.  For several years Greece has been raising taxes and cutting government spending in an attempt to balance the budget and these austerity measures have resulted in an unemployment rate of over 23 percent and an economy that has contracted by close to 25 percent.  Most Americans don't want to go through pain like that so they are okay with continuing to financially rape our children and our grandchildren.  Just imagine how you would feel if your parents died tomorrow and you found out that they had left you with a million dollar debt that you were legally obligated to pay off.  How would you feel, knowing that you had just been sold into debt slavery for the rest of your life?

 Well, that is how our children and our grandchildren are going to feel.  We are destroying the greatest economic machine the world has ever seen, we are accumulating the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the planet, and the coming economic collapse that we have caused is going to wipe out the promising future that our children and our grandchildren were supposed to have.  If they get the chance, future generations of Americans will curse us bitterly and will spit on our graves.  What we are doing to our children and our grandchildren is the kind of stuff that horror movies are made of.  You should be ashamed of yourself America.

The federal budget deficit for 2012 will be larger than the entire U.S. national debt was 30 years ago.  In 1982 Ronald Reagan was in the White House and the U.S. national debt was considered to be a tremendous national crisis.  But somehow we have allowed our national debt to grow from about a trillion dollars back then to approximately $16,000,000,000,000 today.

By the end of Obama's first term, the U.S. national debt will have grown more than it did from the time that George Washington became president to the time that George W. Bush became president.

That is hard to believe.

Obama is going to outdo all the presidents from George Washington through Bill Clinton in just one term.

Amazing.

At this point, the U.S. national debt is more than 22 times larger than it was when Jimmy Carter became president.

This has allowed us to enjoy a standard of living far beyond what we deserved to.  We have stolen from the future to make the present more pleasant.

But hardly anybody wants the party to end.  Especially not our Congress critters - they are living like kings and queens at our expense.  Our "representatives" in Washington D.C. love to give speeches about being "financially responsible", but most of them never take any serious action about the debt because the way things are working now has been incredibly good to them.

And the truth is that both political parties have been responsible.  In 2010, Republicans took control of the House of Representatives with a clear mandate to get government spending under control.  Not a single penny of government money can be spent without their permission.  But since they took control, the U.S. national debt has increased by another 1.8 trillion dollars.

At this point, this current Congress (controlled by both Republicans and Democrats) has added more to the national debt than the first 97 Congresses combined.

We expect this kind of nonsense from the Democrats, but the Republicans are supposed to know better.
Of course our entire financial system is designed to permanently entrap our federal government in an endless spiral of debt, but neither political party ever talks about that.

Sadly, the U.S. national debt is now more than 5000 times larger than it was when the Federal Reserve was first created.

But we never hear about the link between the Federal Reserve and our national debt from either political party or on the mainstream news.

So most Americans do not even realize that our system is designed to create government debt.
It is absolutely disgusting.

We say that we care about our kids, and yet we are passing down a $16,000,000,000,000 debt to them.
Talk about child abuse.

Most people have a really hard time grasping how much money 16 trillion dollars actually is.
 
If right this moment you went out and started spending one dollar every single second, it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend one trillion dollars.

And it would take you more than half a million years to spend 16 trillion dollars.
This is a debt that is impossible to pay back.  Just look at how it has exploded over the past 40 years....

In a previous article I discussed the distressing rate at which our debt is growing....

It took more than 200 years for the U.S. national debt to reach 1 trillion dollars.  In 1986, the U.S. national debt reached 2 trillion dollars.  In 1992, the U.S. national debt reached 4 trillion dollars.  In 2005, the U.S. national debt doubled again and reached 8 trillion dollars.  Now the U.S. national debt is about to cross the 16 trillion dollar mark.  How long can this kind of exponential growth go on?

If we can't even slow down the growth of our debt, how do we ever expect to repay a single penny?
The sad truth is that we aren't ever going to start paying down our debt.  We have gotten to the point where if we take our foot off the debt accelerator we plunge directly into a depression and the entire system collapses.  It is like a really sick version of the movie "Speed".

Where is Keanu Reeves when you need him?

Since Barack Obama entered the White House, he has approved a whole host of measures that have been good for the economy in the short-term.  TARP, the stimulus packages, the auto industry bailout and the payroll tax cut are just a few examples.

Barack Obama has wanted to do everything he possibly can to stimulate the economy in the short-term so that he can win again in 2012.

But what about the future?

Barack Obama could not care less about the future.  He is just like so many of our other politicians.  He is blinded by selfish ambition.

Since Barack Obama became president, the U.S. national debt has increased by an average of more than $64,000 per taxpayer.

Are you willing to write a check for your share?

No?

Oh, let's just pass this horrific debt on to our children, right?

The path that we are on as a nation cannot go on too much longer.  The truth is that we are headed for financial oblivion.

A recently revised IMF policy paper entitled “An Analysis of U.S. Fiscal and Generational Imbalances: Who Will Pay and How?” projects that U.S. government debt will rise to about 400 percent of GDP by the year 2050.

Of course we will never get to the point.  Our financial system will collapse long before then.
Sadly, the United States already has more government debt per capita than Greece, Portugal, Italy, Ireland or Spain does.

So why are we not like Greece or Spain yet?

Well, it is because we are still able to borrow huge piles of money very, very cheaply.

But at some point that will come to an end, and when it does the consequences are going to be nightmarish.
Historically, the interest rate on 10 year U.S. Treasuries has averaged 6.68 percent.  If the average rate of interest on U.S. debt rose to that level today, we would be paying more than a trillion dollars a year just in interest on the national debt.

And when you consider our future unfunded liabilities things get even more frightening.
According to Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff, the "fiscal gap" is "the present value difference between projected future spending and revenue".  His calculations have led him to the conclusion that the United States is facing a fiscal gap of 222 trillion dollars.
And this gap is rising at a breathtaking pace.

The following is an excerpt from a recent article co-authored by Kotlikoff....

In 2007, the first year the CBO produced the Alternative Fiscal Scenario, the gap, by our reckoning, stood at $175 trillion. By 2009, when the CBO began reporting the AFS annually, the gap was $184 trillion. In 2010, it was $202 trillion, followed by $211 trillion in 2011 and $222 trillion in 2012.

But if we interrupt this debt cycle we immediately go into a depression.

We are a debt addict that will die without more debt.

Meanwhile, our national ability to produce wealth is going down the toilet.

All over the country businesses are shutting down, factories are being closed and millions of jobs are being sent overseas.

As I wrote about the other day, American families are steadily getting poorer.  The middle class is shrinking and the tax base is shriveling up.

Many Americans end up flat broke at the end of their lives these days.  In fact, one study found that nearly half of all retirees end up with $10,000 or less when they die.

So where is all of the money for servicing this gigantic national debt going to come from?

Even if Bill Gates gave every single penny of his fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for 15 days
.
So what is the solution?

If we keep spending money like this we are doomed, but if we stop spending money like this we are doomed.

And debt is not just a problem that the federal government is facing.

Posted below is a chart that shows the growth of all forms of debt in the United States over the past several decades.  40 years ago, there was less than 2 trillion dollars of total debt owed in the United States.  Now there is nearly 55 trillion dollars of debt owed.  This generation has destroyed the future and has set the stage for an unprecedented economic collapse.  Shame on you America....

The Financial Times of London Spells Out What We Are Doing To Our Young People, And It Is A Tragedy That Will Go On For A Long, Long Time!!

 

July 30, 2012 3:27 pm

Jobless generation puts brakes on US

By Shannon Bond in New York

©AP

Andrew Grzywacz has a university degree, a job that pays $8.50 an hour, a stack of résumés ready to be mailed – and more than $30,000 in student debt.
                                                                                           “I knew I wouldn’t land the dream job right out of college,” says the 23-year-old, who graduated from Boston’s Emerson College in December with a degree in film and television writing. “The [entertainment] industry is a tough nut to crack, more so than most fields.”

Even so, Mr Grzywacz is luckier than many his age. The share of American 18- to 24-year-olds who were employed fell to 54 per cent last year, the lowest since the labour department began tracking data in 1948, according to the Pew Research Center. The share who are in college has risen, but the researchers say this only partly explains the drop. The jobless rate for Americans age 16 to 24 is above 16 per cent, more than twice the national rate.

Youth unemployment has reached crisis levels around the world, with almost 13 per cent of the global youth labour force out of work this year, according to the International Labour Organisation.

But the problem has a unique flavour in the US, where the weak job market has collided with record levels of educational debt – about $25,000 for the average graduate. Together, they pose a threat to the future earning power of young Americans such as Mr Grzywacz – and could have long-lasting effects on US growth.

The US government has made some moves to ease the student debt burden, accelerating a programme that cuts federal loan payments for low-income borrowers and forgiving unpaid balances after 20 years instead of 25. It is also easier now for nearly 6m borrowers with more than one federal loan to consolidate their debt.
The White House has pushed other measures to make college more affordable – efforts that could appeal to young voters, who played a key role in Barack Obama’s 2008 election victory. Parts of the stimulus package passed in the wake of the financial crisis expanded tax credits for tuition, and last month Congress struck a deal to prevent interest rates on some new student loans from doubling.
 
But some advocates say such efforts are inadequate given the scale of the problem. A Michigan congressman this year proposed forgiving debt for some graduates – the bill is unlikely to pass – and others are urging the government to offer income-based repayment plans for private loans.
Proponents of such schemes say high student loan burdens are hindering the US recovery. Studies show that recent graduates from US universities are delaying purchases of cars and homes, inhibiting near-term economic growth.

Rohit Chopra, the official responsible for student loans at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, added his voice to the debate last week, telling the FT that the student debt problem was hurting the US economy. “Student debt may be more intertwined with the housing market than we realise,” he warned.
With more young people living at home, the rate of household formation – a leading driver of housing demand – is now on par with the 1940s, according to a Harvard study. Just 600,000 to 800,000 new households were formed each year from 2007-2011, compared with 1.2m to 1.3m a year in the previous four years.

Americans under 35 have lost more than a third of their net worth since 2001, compared with a 27 per cent decline for all ages, according to the Federal Reserve.

Making up that ground will be difficult for Mr Grzywacz and his peers, who are earning less in today’s depressed labour market. Median income for those under 35 dropped 10.5 per cent from 2007 to 2010 – more than any other age group – compared with a 7.7 per cent overall decline
.
While a university degree still promises a higher income than a high school diploma, the median income of college graduates fell nearly 10 per cent from 2007 to 2010, according to the Fed, compared with a 5 per cent fall for high school graduates.

Young Americans are well aware of their precarious place in today’s economy, with only 16 per cent in a Rutgers University survey of recent university graduates believing their generation will have greater financial success than the one before. About half of the students surveyed had full-time jobs, and 40 per cent of the college graduates with loans reported putting off big purchases such as cars and homes.

This leaves a firmer economic recovery closely tied to the fortunes of a generation gripped by high levels of debt – and falling incomes from the jobs that require the education the debt buys.

Soon, the six-month grace period on Mr Grzywacz’s loan payments will expire, stretching his budget even further.

“Having student loan repayments thrown into that now is going to make things exceedingly more difficult,” he says. “I certainly knew that I would be in debt and that it would take years to pay it off. But it’s one thing to know that, and a completely different thing when, five years later, you’re actually looking at that debt square in the face.”
Additional reporting by Jason Abbruzzese

My Sides Still Hurt From Laughing!  Be Sure You Are Sitting Down When You Read David Brooks Letting Us All Know The REAL Mitt Romney.

Today's New York Times.
 

The Real Romney

By DAVID BROOKS

The purpose of the Republican convention is to introduce America to the real Mitt Romney. Fortunately, I have spent hours researching this subject. I can provide you with the definitive biography and a unique look into the Byronic soul of the Republican nominee:

Mitt Romney was born on March 12, 1947, in Ohio, Florida, Michigan, Virginia and several other swing states. He emerged, hair first, believing in America, and especially its national parks. He was given the name Mitt, after the Roman god of mutual funds, and launched into the world with the lofty expectation that he would someday become the Arrow shirt man. 

Romney was a precocious and gifted child. He uttered his first words (“I like to fire people”) at age 14 months, made his first gaffe at 15 months and purchased his first nursery school at 24 months. The school, highly leveraged, went under, but Romney made 24 million Jujubes on the deal. 

Mitt grew up in a modest family. His father had an auto body shop called the American Motors Corporation, and his mother owned a small piece of land, Brazil. He had several boyhood friends, many of whom owned Nascar franchises, and excelled at school, where his fourth-grade project, “Inspiring Actuaries I Have Known,” was widely admired. 

The Romneys had a special family tradition. The most cherished member got to spend road trips on the roof of the car. Mitt spent many happy hours up there, applying face lotion to combat windburn. 

The teenage years were more turbulent. He was sent to a private school, where he was saddened to find there are people in America who summer where they winter. He developed a lifelong concern for the second homeless, and organized bake sales with proceeds going to the moderately rich.

Some people say he retreated into himself during these years. He had a pet rock, which ran away from home because it was starved of affection. He bought a mood ring, but it remained permanently transparent. His ability to turn wine into water detracted from his popularity at parties. 

There was, frankly, a period of wandering. After hearing Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side,” Romney decided to leave Mormonism and become Amish. He left the Amish faith because of its ban on hair product, and bounced around before settling back in college. There, he majored in music, rendering Mozart’s entire oeuvre in PowerPoint.

His love affair with Ann Davies, the most impressive part of his life, restored his equilibrium. Always respectful, Mitt and Ann decided to elope with their parents. They went on a trip to Israel, where they tried and failed to introduce the concept of reticence. Romney also went on a mission to France. He spent two years knocking on doors, failing to win a single convert. This was a feat he would replicate during his 2008 presidential bid. 

After his mission, he attended Harvard, studying business, law, classics and philosophy, though intellectually his first love was always tax avoidance. After Harvard, he took his jawline to Bain Consulting, a firm with very smart people with excessive personal hygiene. While at Bain, he helped rescue many outstanding companies, like Pan Am, Eastern Airlines, Atari and DeLorean. 

Romney was extremely detail oriented in his business life. He once canceled a corporate retreat at which Abba had been hired to play, saying he found the band’s music “too angry.” 

Romney is also a passionately devoted family man. After streamlining his wife’s pregnancies down to six months each, Mitt helped Ann raise five perfect sons — Bip, Chip, Rip, Skip and Dip — who married identically tanned wives. Some have said that Romney’s lifestyle is overly privileged, pointing to the fact that he has an elevator for his cars in the garage of his San Diego home. This is not entirely fair. Romney owns many homes without garage elevators and the cars have to take the stairs. 

After a successful stint at Bain, Romney was lured away to run the Winter Olympics, the second most Caucasian institution on earth, after the G.O.P. He then decided to run for governor of Massachusetts. His campaign slogan, “Vote Romney: More Impressive Than You’ll Ever Be,” was not a hit, but Romney won the race anyway on an environmental platform, promising to make the state safe for steeplechase. 

After his governorship, Romney suffered through a midlife crisis, during which he became a social conservative. This prepared the way for his presidential run. He barely won the 2012 Republican primaries after a grueling nine-month campaign, running unopposed.

 At the convention, where his Secret Service nickname is Mannequin, Romney will talk about his real-life record: successful business leader, superb family man, effective governor, devoted community leader and prudent decision-maker. If elected, he promises to bring all Americans together and make them feel inferior.

.

We've Got To Get This Straight!!!  The Future Of The Country Depends On It, And The Reason Is That Our Children Are The Future, And Right Now We Are Screwing Them Royally!!

Here is what you need to do.  Go back to 5/20/12 and read "What Do You Call People Who Eat Their Own Seed Corn?"

Then go back to 8/12/12 and review the PA Consultants presentation to the London School of Economics.

Then you will have the real problem we are facing clearly in focus.  And it is not money, as important as that may be, it is our children!!

August 24, 2012

Starving the Future (from the New York Times)

By CHARLES M. BLOW

America is in trouble. 

Emerging economic powers China and India are heavily investing in educating the world’s future workers while we squabble about punishing teachers and coddling children. 

This week, the Center for American Progress and the Center for the Next Generation released a report entitled “The Race That Really Matters: Comparing U.S., Chinese and Indian Investments in the Next Generation Workforce.” The findings were breathtaking: 

• Half of U.S. children get no early childhood education, and we have no national strategy to increase enrollment. 

• More than a quarter of U.S. children have a chronic health condition, such as obesity or asthma, threatening their capacity to learn.

• More than 22 percent of U.S. children lived in poverty in 2010, up from about 17 percent in 2007. 

• More than half of U.S. postsecondary students drop out without receiving a degree. 

Now compare that with the report’s findings on China. It estimates that “by 2030, China will have 200 million college graduates — more than the entire U.S. work force,” and points out that by 2020 China plans to: 

• Enroll 40 million children in preschool, a 50 percent increase from today. 

• Provide 70 percent of children in China with three years of preschool. 

• Graduate 95 percent of Chinese youths through nine years of compulsory education (that’s 165 million students, more than the U.S. labor force). 

• Ensure that no child drops out of school for financial reasons. 

• More than double enrollment in higher education. 

And the report also points out that “by 2017, India will graduate 20 million people from high school — or five times as many as in the United States.” 

As I have mentioned before, a book written last year by Jim Clifton, the chairman of Gallup, called “The Coming Jobs War,” pointed out that of the world’s five billion people over 15 years old, three billion said they worked or wanted to work, but there are only 1.2 billion full-time, formal jobs.

This should make it crystal clear to every American that we don’t have any time — or students — to waste. Every child in this country must be equipped to perform. The country’s future financial stability depends on it.

As if to underscore that point, the Center for American Progress pointed out that “between 2000 and 2008, China graduated 1.14 million people in the STEM, or Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, subjects; the United States graduated 496,000.” 

But instead of dramatically upping our investment in our children’s education so that they’ll be able to compete in a future that has more educated foreign job seekers, we seem to be moving in the opposite direction. A White House report issued last Saturday noted that: 

“Since the end of the recession in June 2009, the economy lost over 300,000 local education jobs. The loss of education jobs stands in stark contrast to every other recovery in recent years, under Republican and Democratic administrations.” 

Not only is our education system being starved of investment, but many of our children are literally too hungry to learn. 

A survey of kindergarten through eighth-grade teachers released this week by Share Our Strength, a nonprofit that seeks to end child hunger, found that 6 in 10 of those teachers say “students regularly come to school hungry because they are not getting enough to eat at home,” and “a majority of teachers who see hunger as a problem believe that the problem is growing.” 

The report quotes a teacher in the Midwest as saying, “The saddest are the children who cry when we get out early for a snow day because they won’t get lunch.” 

It is in this environment that Representative Paul Ryan proposes huge cuts to food assistance programs. As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities points out, Ryan’s plan “includes cuts in SNAP (formerly known as the food stamp program) of $133.5 billion — more than 17 percent — over the next 10 years (2013-22), which would necessitate ending assistance for millions of low-income families, cutting benefits for millions of such households, or some combination of the two.” 

Representative Todd Akin, he of “legitimate rape” infamy, even said earlier this month that the federal government should stop financing the National School Lunch Program altogether. That man is just a font of humanity. 

We will need to make choices as we seek to balance the nation’s budget and reduce the deficit, but cutting investments in our children is horribly shortsighted. 

And, as we pursue educational reforms, beating up on teachers — who are underpaid, overworked and always blamed — is a distraction from the real problem: We’re being outpaced in producing the employees of the future. 

We’re cutting back, while our children’s future competitors are plowing ahead. 

Consider this:  45 Million people are currently living on Food Stamps.  3/4 of them are children under 12 years of age.  Paul Ryan wants to eliminate food stamps.

As far as I can tell from his speeches and his writing, Paul Ryan wants to starve our children, intellectually and physically.

Paul Ryan seems intent on destroying the future!!  Do you understand why I think he is the most dangerous man in the United States?? 

  
  

This Is Not A Country That I Want To Live In!!!!

Two young women tried to help a driver of a car that had crashed into a telephone pole, knocked down power lines and burst a water hydrant.  When they went to help the driver, they were electrocuted and died.  The City of Los Angeles is billing their families for the costs involved in removing their bodies!!!!

I am trying to put myself in the mind of the asshole who approved those charges, and I can't do it!!  Where is the Tea Party meeting??

2 Valley Village women killed trying to aid motorist will be charged for paramedic services

By KPCC & Wire Services

Amanda Riser/Flickr

Should the city waive cost for heroism and good intentions?

The families of two Valley Village women who died after rushing to aid a motorist after a recent crash will be billed for the medical costs the city incurred trying to save them, City News Service reports.
Stacey Lee Schreiber, 39, and Irma Zamora, 40, raced to help the injured driver after a crash Wednesday evening and were both electricuted by a snapped streetlight fixture that had dipped into pooling water from the hydrant the motorist had hit.

Another five people, including an LAPD officer, were also treated for their injuries. They, too, will receive bills, CNS reports.

"We can't decide who's innocent, who gets a bill and who doesn't,'' Fire Department Spokesman Brian
Humphrey told CNS. "We have no control over this. We are mandated by the city council and the mayor to bill citizens for the services rendered by paramedics and that's what we do.''

Humphrey saod that citizens do have some "recourses for redress.'' If a person is indigent or has low income they can appeal the bill and ask for a waiver of the fees, or they can attempt to be reimbursed by the driver's insurance.

"There was a time when the fire department did it for free but that was a long time ago,'' Humphrey said.
The driver of the vehicle, Arman Samsonian, 19, of Glendale, is under suspicion of driving in excess of the speed limit and is under investigation in connection with the fatal chain of events on Magnolia Boulevard, though no charges have been filed.

What do you think? Should the city waive paramedics fees for good samaritans? Or in this cash-strapped environment, does the city need to bill for the care its paramedics provide?

With contributions by Eric Zassenhaus.

Typos are not mine.
 

This Troubling Story Just Appeared In The Economic Collapse Blog.  What Do You Think About It??

 
#8 Hauled Off To A Mental Institution For What You Believe
Do you ever worry that what you post on Facebook could get you involuntarily committed to a mental institution?

Well, that is exactly what happened to one military vet recently.
A former Marine named Brandon Raub was hauled off to a mental institution because of what he posted on his Facebook page.

This is how the Economic Policy Journal summarized what happened to Raub....

The muscle used to grab Brandon Raub was local Chesterfield County, VA police. Also present during the grab were agents of the FBI and of the Secret Service.
Both the FBI and the Secret Service claim that they were only observing and not participating in the grab. The Chesterfield County police initially stated that they were only carrying out a request from the federal agencies.
The police also claim Raub is not under arrest, even though he was led away in handcuffs and is not permitted to leave the psychiatric ward of a hospital---even though it appears that Raub is not in  any way in need of psychological care.
I note this happened in the United States of America, with local police, FBI agents and Secret Service taking part.

The claim that Raub is "not under arrest" is completely and totally ridiculous.  The authorities came to his door, slapped handcuffs on him and are holding him in a mental institution against his will.
And now he has been transferred to a facility that is 3 hours away from his family, his supporters and his legal team.

What in the world is America turning into?

The Rutherford Institute is defending Raub, and the following is an excerpt from a statement about this case on their website....

“This is not how justice in America is supposed to work—with Americans being arrested for doing nothing more than exercising their First Amendment rights, forced to undergo psychological evaluations, detained against their will and isolated from their family, friends and attorneys. This is a scary new chapter in our history,” said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. “Brandon Raub is no different from the majority of Americans who use their private Facebook pages to post a variety of content, ranging from song lyrics and political hyperbole to trash talking their neighbors, friends and government leaders.”

This is the kind of thing that we have seen under brutal totalitarian regimes in the past.  Dissidents are grabbed by authorities and taken to mental institutions where they are conveniently "disappeared".

This kind of thing is not supposed to happen in America.  
                                                                                                                                                               But it is happening.

And That Is Truly Scary!!!!!

And You Were Wondering Why Congress Has No Clue About How You Live??  Here Is A Big Part Of The Answer, Thanks To The Business Insider,

Here Are The 15 Richest Members Of Congress

AP Nancy Pelosi

It's no secret that members of Congress are much more wealthy than the rest of the country.  The average net worth of a Senator is more than $14 million, and the average net worth of a member of the House of Representatives is nearly $6 million.
Thanks to analysis from The Hill, we've put together the richest of the rich, looking at the top 15 members of Congress and how they're worth.
We also look at how they made the money and — most of all — where they keep it.
We count them down from No. 15 to No. 1. All facts and figures come from The Hill's analysis.

Check out the richest of the rich >

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/richest-members-of-congress-the-hill-2012-8?op=1#ixzz24QK6Mm7k

Trickle Down Theory...One Last Time...Hopefully!!!

They are at it again.  Cut the taxes on the richest of the rich and the corporations and they will spend their riches creating new jobs, and the resulting wealth will trickle down to the rest of us.

A quick review is in order here.  Jack Kemp, then a Congressman had lunch with Arther Laffer, then an economist.  The story is that Laffer drew a curve on a napkin to promote the theory that tax cuts for the rich produce economic growth and new jobs.  That curve will forever be know as the Laffer Curve.  Of course, the joke here is unintended.

So here is your assignment.  Take a look at corporate profits.  They are high as they have ever been.  Corporations are sitting on record amounts of cash and have been doing so for a number of years now. (Update: Business Week, Oct. 15, 2012, "Corporations are Sitting on $1.7 TRILLION in cash.)

The 1% now have more money than they have ever had and their share of the wealth of the country is staggering. (Update:  that is now 40% of ALL the wealth in the country.)

So where are all the new jobs that should have been trickling down to us since, oh say, the Bush tax cuts?????????????

Even Mitt says that 23 million Americans are unemployed or under-employed, and nothing much has changed for five years now.  Record numbers of people have been unemployed for over a year now.

And yet there are still fools in Washington trying to sell us the Laffer Curve!!  It is indeed a Laugh Curve, but the results ain't funny.  Tell them to stop trying to fool you.  It ain't pretty!!

Aw Jeezzzzz.................Just When You Think It Can't Get Worse..............It Does!!!!!

Get this editorial from today's New York Times.

In Thrall to Sheldon Adelson

Three days after Paul Ryan became the presumptive Republican vice presidential candidate, he made a pilgrimage on Tuesday to the Las Vegas gambling palace of Sheldon Adelson, the casino tycoon who is spending more than any other donor to try to send Mr. Ryan and Mitt Romney to the White House. No reporters were allowed, perhaps because the campaign didn’t want them asking uncomfortable questions about the multiple federal investigations into the company behind Mr. Adelson’s wealth.

Those questions, though, aren’t going away, and neither are the ones about the judgment of Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan in drawing ever closer to a man whose business background should lead them to back away — fast. By not repudiating Mr. Adelson’s vow to spend as much as $100 million on their behalf, the two candidates seem more eager to keep the “super PAC” dollars flowing than to preserve the integrity of their campaign. 

The issues swirling about Mr. Adelson’s business practices are not new and can hardly come as a surprise to the Romney campaign. Last year, his company, the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, announced that it was under investigation by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission for possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act — specifically, that it bribed Chinese officials for help in expanding its casino empire in Macau. Later, the F.B.I. became involved, and even Chinese regulators looked askance at the company’s conduct, fining it $1.6 million for violating foreign exchange rules, The Times reported on Monday. 

Then there’s an unrelated investigation by the United States attorney’s office in Los Angeles into whether the Sands Corporation violated federal money-laundering laws by accepting millions from high-rolling gamblers accused of drug trafficking and embezzlement. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that federal authorities are examining whether the casino should have reported the suspicious funds to the government. Instead, the company accepted $100 million from one of the gamblers and gave him free hotel rooms, plane rides and large lines of credit. 

The company has denied all allegations of improper behavior. But, since Mr. Adelson’s financial future is riding on the outcome of these federal investigations, it is legitimate to ask whether he has motivation for supporting the Republican ticket so lavishly, beyond his sharp disagreement with the Obama administration’s position on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Mr. Adelson has certainly not hesitated to throw around his weight and wealth with Republicans before. 

In 2001, when China was making a pitch to hold the Olympics, it was worried about a resolution pending in the House that would oppose the bid because of its “abominable human rights record.” To curry favor with China, Mr. Adelson called Tom DeLay, then the House majority whip — and another recipient of Mr. Adelson’s campaign generosity — and urged him to block the resolution, according to a court deposition by William Weidner, then the president of Sands. Mr. DeLay quickly promised the bill would never see the light of day, and he was true to his word. 

The next day, a Chinese vice premier promised Mr. Adelson an endless line of gamblers to the Macau casino. 

A careful presidential campaign would put distance between itself and a businessman like Mr. Adelson. Instead, this one is cultivating him. Mr. Romney recently met with him in Israel, and Mr. Ryan this week paid homage to him and other big donors in a private casino for high-rollers on the 36th floor of Mr. Adelson’s Venetian hotel. By allowing Mr. Adelson to have such an outsize role in their race, the candidates themselves are placing a very risky bet.

 

This Is Mind Boggling!!!

Here is a single paragraph from the August 24-31, 2012 issue of The Week magazine.

"Goldman Sachs won't face penalties for allegedly misleading investors in the run-up to the financial crisis, said Phil Mattingly in Bloomberg.com.  A Senate subcommittee concluded last year that Goldman had sold complex mortgage securities to its clients while secretly betting those securities would lose value.  But the Justice Department said last week that it would not pursue criminal charges against the bank because the "burden of proof" had not been met."

Let's review briefly what happened here.  A Goldman customer, John Paulson, came to Goldman and asked the bank to assemble a number of portfolios of mortgages that were sure to fail.  And that is what Goldman did.  But here is the good part!  Paulson then sold the packages of mortgages SHORT since he knew they would fail to be repaid.  Hang On, It Gets Better!!  At the same time Paulson was selling the packages short, Goldman was selling them to other customers of the bank as LONG bets.

Kerisssstt.................How crooked can you get????

What do you suppose would happen in Las Vegas if a poker player (Paulson) got caught with a marked deck?

What do you suppose would happen in Las Vegas if the dealer (Goldman Sachs) got caught with a marked deck?

Now suppose you are in Las Vegas playing poker with the house dealer and one other player, and both of them have marked decks.

Does the word SCREWED come to mind?

There is an old saying amongst poker players. "Look around the table to spot the sucker in the game.  If you can't, it's you".

And "the burden of proof" has been met????  Everybody in the world knows what happened.  Books have been written about it.  Michael Lewis' "The Big Short" is the best. 

So look around the room wherever you are now, and know that you and everybody else in the room (and me) are the suckers.

I could forgive Obama just about everything if just ONE of those crooked sons-of-bitches on Wall Street had gone to jail!!!!! 

I would even settle for having ONE of them indicted!! 

The Conversation At Walden University Continues.................

The Dean says:  Sir, the for-profits are just cleaning up on government subsidies!  Take Strayer University.....

In '09, they spent $1,300 per student on instruction,
$2,500 on marketing, and
$4,500 on profit.
And a third of the students are gone within a year.

Yet Rob Silberman, the CEO, was paid over $41 Million!  Fifty times more than Harvard's president!

What's wrong with this picture?

And the President of Walden University says:  I'm not in it.

So the Dean replies:  Oh...so you agree we need a new model?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 

Stay tuned..........and remember it is your money they are stealing!!!!

Doonesbury, Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Gary Trudeau continues the discussion between the President of Walden University and his Dean.

President:  So we have a graduation rate as bad as for-profit colleges?

Dean:  Well, maybe not quite that bad....Remeber, for-profits take any warm body with federal aid.  They're all about enrollment, not completion.  And why not?   Last year tax payers sent the failure factories $32 BILLION!

President:  What are you saying?  We should turn pro?

Dean:  Aren't you tired of the rankings? 

 

For Profit Colleges Re-visited!!

If you have been reading this rant, you know that student tuition debt is now larger than all credit card debt in the U.S.  And you also know that over 80% of that debt is owed to the U.S. Government, otherwise known as you and me.

Yesterday's Los Angeles Times carried a story of the results of a Democratic Senate staff investigation into just what students get for all the money which they owe to the government, and by extension, to us. And the answer is NOTHING, NADA!!  Forget the Police Chief of Cincinnati and the Phoenix tv commercial.  He would have had the job even if he had never heard of Phoenix.

But before we get to the Times story, let me include a little personal experience.  About eight years ago, I thought distance learning via the Internet made a lot of sense, especially given the financial problems facing most universities.  So I looked into and experimented with Phoenix, DeVry, American International, Baker, Maryland and a couple more that I forget, including one in Chicago that has since gone bankrupt.  There was even a new graduate school in Singapore starting up to offer MBAs to Chinese students.   Here is what I found at all of them.

1) Utterly incompetent staff
2) Utterly unqualified faculty
3) Devoid of intellectual content in the courses
4) Ridiculously under paid faculty
5) Staff driving top of the line Mercedes etc.

In short, utter and complete fraud!!

I did actually "teach" one MBA course for AEI.  There were about a dozen students located as far away as the Caribbean.  The whole thing was pretty "thin" on content.  Students seemed to have great difficulty in getting assignments done on time, and even more difficulty showing up in chat rooms for discussion.  But all in all, considering how early in the development of online schools, it at least was not as awful as Phoenix or DeVry.

So the semester is over and the grades are turned in, and then I get a message that they need a grade for a female student.  This was somebody I did not know was in the class, turned in no assignments, participated no group work, and did not take the final exam.  I told AIE all of this and that I could not give her a grade.  AIE said I had to give her a grade or they couldn't get the money from the government for her tuition.

I told AIE that was their problem not mine.  I guess I was wrong because I never heard from them again so it seemed that it really was my problem.

So here is my summary.  For profit colleges are 99% fraud and a huge drain on the U.S. economy.  This is one fiscal problem we can really do something about.  So read this story about how badly for profit college students are getting screwed.  And remember that this is billions of dollars that could be going to legitimate colleges and universities.

latimes.com

For-profit colleges slammed in Democratic Senate staff report

It says they are failing students and costing taxpayers too much. Republicans call the investigation biased.

By Jamie Goldberg, Washington Bureau
7:19 PM PDT, July 30, 2012

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WASHINGTON — For-profit colleges are failing their students and saddling taxpayers with an enormous bill, a two-year investigation by the Senate education panel's Democratic staff concluded.

The harsh report, released Monday by the committee's chairman, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), found that federal taxpayers spent $32 billion on for-profit colleges in 2009-10, while more than half of the students who enrolled in them dropped out without degrees after about four months in 2008-09.

"In this report, you will find overwhelming documentation of exorbitant tuition, aggressive recruiting practices, abysmal student outcomes, taxpayer dollars spent on marketing and pocketed as profit, and regulatory evasion and manipulation," Harkin said. "These practices are not the exception — they are the norm."
But Steve Gunderson, president of the Assn. of Private Sector Colleges and Universities and a former Republican congressman, said the report "twists the facts to fit a narrative, proving that this is nothing more than continued political attacks on private sector colleges and universities."

Republicans on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which is controlled by Democrats, also criticized the report, saying it used biased information and failed to include Republican input, raising "substantial doubt about the accuracy of the information."

The report linked the high dropout rates with a lack of money spent on instruction at for-profit colleges, finding that in 2010 the 30 for-profit colleges that were examined employed 35,202 recruiters compared with 3,512 career services staffers. The companies examined in the report spent 42.1% of their revenue on marketing, recruiting and profits, while spending 17.2% on instruction.

More than 80% of the revenue at for-profit colleges came from federal financial aid, Harkin said.
"It's plain common sense that taxpayer dollars should not be used for lobbying," he added.
Gunderson said for-profit colleges deal with a constituency — mainly working adults, parents and veterans — that can be reached only through marketing and recruiting. To ban the use of revenue for lobbying would "result in the end of private sector colleges and universities," he said.

But many recruiters mislead prospective students about the cost of the program, the availability of federal aid, the job placement rate and the transferability of credits, the report said.

The Education Department estimates that 96% of students at for-profit colleges take out loans, a much higher percentage than students at community colleges, four-year public universities and nonprofit private colleges. Students at for-profit colleges account for 13% of the nation's college enrollment but 47% of all federal student loan defaults.

The report concluded that significant reforms were needed to ensure that for-profit colleges succeeded financially only when students also succeeded and that taxpayer dollars were used for educational purposes.
In early July, attempts by the Education Department to penalize for-profit colleges whose graduates ended up with huge debts and low job prospects were struck down by a federal judge.

For-profit colleges can still lose federal student aid if more than 90% of their revenue comes from federal sources or their students have high loan default rates in the three years after graduation.
Democratic members of the committee called for legislation to better regulate for-profit colleges, including adding new rules to the Higher Education Act, which is scheduled to be reauthorized next year.
"If nothing else this report has put the nation on notice that there is a problem here," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).
jamie.goldberg@latimes.com