The Status Quo Teeters On Edge Of Collapse

January 7, 2008

Elaine Meinel Supkis

Yesterday, I talked about how easy it is to see how the Japanese stocks react to monetary fluctuations. In the US, the driver for stocks is interest rates. Whenever a system for placing future bets is so obvious, everyone can easily see where the markets will go, this causes misallocations of risk. Namely, there is no perceived risk. These things, once they get going, actually are quite destructive. The news this year is four-fold: the rise in price of all important commodities, the banking lending crisis, the stock markets being too predictable and the global collapse in wages. All these things point to an economic break down of vast proportions looming in our future. The G7 nations make this worse as they try to evade this fate. This is because the G7 policies are totally at fault and are causing this to happen.

U.S. stocks advanced for the first time this year on speculation the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates to prevent the world's largest economy from sinking into recession.

Stocks in the US do not rise because of what I consider to be 'good' economic news. It rises on bad economic news. This is because the sole engine of prosperity in the US is debt. Debt allows us to buy a hamburger today and repay next Tuesday. In other words, a Wimpy Economy. Wimpy is a very early cartoon character created by Max Fleischer in the Great Depression. He hung around Coney Island and begged for spare change from sailors. And being a down and out middle class man, he would always promise to pay everyone back rather than considering himself a beggar. But he was a beggar. Today, he goes every few months to China to beg. His name is Paulson.

Wimpy's scheme is to get everyone to compete for his commerce while at the same time, he has no money. We will note here that Wimpy's name also came to mean someone who is cowardly and unable to project power. The United States gravely misunderstands where true power lies. Putin can frown at the world because he is strong at home and has money. The US grins at everyone except for countries with few weapons that we plan to attack or invade. But we go cringing to Japan or China, begging them to buy our US bonds and we go to Arab kings pleading for more money. To show our strength, our Wimpy government and corporations all loudly proclaim, the money they get via this begging isn't powerful. The Sovereign Wealth Fund people have no voting power and no influence.

This is very much a Wimpy thing, note in the cartoon, he gets both China and Japan to forward him money while he gives nothing back. But then note that China and Japan can fight each other on the economic front while the Wimpy US gets to beg for more goodies. China is considered to be 'weak' by Japan and Wimpy but when China eats its spinach, it suddenly gets very strong. The spinach is the FOREX reserves.

I see all sorts of articles bemoaning China's weaknesses. They have pollution problems. They have lots of poor peasants who, as Russia has shown in WWII and France in the Revolution, make awesome armies when they are unleashed. This obvious fact is ignored, of course. Per capita, China isn't rich but we make a mistake when looking at the per capita numbers since this isn't a reflection of a country's power but rather, it is the 'comfort level' of a country. And per capita can be very misleading as we see in the US as the income gap is much more revealing than any per capita data.

The condition of peasants is important in itself. US has dispensed with most peasants via using heavy oil consuming equipment to replace the people who used to farm. This displaced population moved into the factory system during WWII and thus, we ended the peasant population base. But since 1972, with the collapse of our currency due to overspending, the US has dumped the industrial factory base while moving these jobs to other countries with big peasant population bases such as Mexico, for example. Our own peasants were then sent down the economic ladder and are rapidly falling into a post-industrial non-life in the major cities where they float in and out of the prison system and live lives of depraved indifference.

The US statistics on income leaves out debt statistics. Instead of tracking these in tandem and having 'red alert' levels when the debt stats overcome the income stats, this connection is ignored. This way, the nations racking up the greatest personal and public debts get a free ride even if the debts are double the incomes. Below is a BBC story illustrating what is wrong with these wealth statistics that leave out all mention of debts.

Britons 'richer than Americans'

Analyst Oxford Economics said the UK's GDP per head of population will reach £23,500 - £250 higher than in the US.

However, because goods and services are cheaper in the US, Americans will have stronger purchasing power, it added.

UK GDP per capita will also be higher than in Germany (£21,665) and France (£21,700), Oxford Economics calculated.

Managing director Adrian Cooper said: "The last 15 years have seen a dramatic change in the UK's economic performance and its position in the world economy.

First, the statistics here were assembled while the pound was gaining rapidly against the dollar. This was due to the battles for dominance in Asia, the Asian giants were seeking markets by strengthening home currencies of targets they wanted to dominate and then flooding the countries with goods. So the pound went up. This is at the same time that Britain hit its Hubbert Oil Peak and the offshore wells began a very swift decline. Since this last year, energy costs in Britain have soared while profits on the oil rigs has fallen despite rising world oil prices, due to depletion.

Inflation is raging in Britain. Like Japan and the US, the British government has decided lying about this is the best remedy. But the inflation has been hammering the populace. How can they be 'richer' if they are getting poorer by the hour? Do they all own gold? HAHAHA. Of course not. Indeed, the Bank of Britain declared that gold was worthless a few years back and sold off a lot of it. The lucky duckies who bought the gold at fire sale prices must be patting themselves on the back this week as gold races to $1000 an ounce.

On top of this, Britain has one of the highest per capita and total debts in the world. 200 years of imperialism has bankrupted the nation and the misspending on foreign wars continues as they discuss invading more Middle European, Asian and other countries that Britain invaded in the past. Taxes don't keep up with expenses anymore than it does in Japan or the USA. And this toika of indebted nations are at the heart of the G7 mess whereby the banking system of the world is collapsing.

EYES WIDE SHUT
by Peter Schiff

In the first place, the fact that troubled firms need to look abroad for cash provides startling evidence of the extent of the deterioration of America’s economic might. The reason we need to seek capital from abroad is that we squander our own on consumption.
*snip*
On Wednesday we learned that the December ISM Manufacturing Index plunged to 47.7, its lowest level in nearly five years. The news sent the dollar swooning, gold and oil soaring, and pushed the Dow Jones to its largest point drop ever on the first trading day of a new year (in percentage terms the second largest drop since 1932). The report amounted to a stunning repudiation of the hope that the U.S. will export its way out of a coming recession. If manufacturing is at a five year low, how can exports be booming? After all, we can not export what we do not make -- unless of course we simply export used goods, which eventually we will be forced to do. However, selling used cars to the Chinese will not create many new jobs here; as all that need be done is load the vehicles on ships and wave goodbye. This is hardly the export boom Wall Street has championed as our economic savior, offsetting the negatives of housing, financials and the consumer.

The globalists are gloating over the fact that our exports are rising and one of these is Boeing. It is the last frontier. I note over the years how these planes are sold via diplomacy. The deal is simple: our negotiators bring along Boeing executives and then they hammer out a deal that pleases everyone and then under cover of making these huge Boeing purchases, the buying nation is allowed to flood our domestic markets with imports. Boeing, more than anyone, needs a weak dollar to compete with the Europeans in this area. If we didn't have cheap dollars or allowed unfettered invasion of domestic markets, no one would buy from us. Even with the Boeing toe hold in the value-added markets, Asia has worked relentlessly to force us to reposition Boeing parts and activities in their home markets and hire their own people to do research, manufacturing and some assembly of Boeing planes.

Indeed, all the stories crowing about Boeing leave all this out. The value of the final plane, the value of the entire contract, is put on our trade ledgers but I fear the outsourcing parts are left off or put on the general ledger of 'imports to the US' which hides the fact that a good 30%+ of Boeing's labor isn't in the US at all but is in China and Japan!

Then there is the issue of being at less than 50% in the ISM index: this is bad news. We are already in the dreaded recession that the guys at the top keep pretending, isn't here.

In the meantime, with $100 oil, $850 gold, and beans in the teens, Wall Street still feels the Fed has the green light to keep cutting interest rates. Unfortunately on this point they are right. Rather than raising rates on its own terms and dealing with the consequences, the Fed will instead wait for a true financial crisis to emerge, at which point it will be forced to raise rates on the much more draconian terms imposed by our foreign creditors.

The logic of our own markets has become, 'let's get things really bad and then the Fed will drop rates and we get FREE MONEY!' Well, this is like giving children who trash the kitchen candy so they will stop. So they trash the kitchen every day. Instead of being punished for being careless and reckless, they get rewarded. If interest rates are going up due to overheating the markets, they crash and then the Fed drops rates to get them overheating again! So of course, they want the free money all the time and an emergency fund becomes the standard! When the standard becomes 'give us below the real rate interest loans' then we get funny money and a banking crisis. This develops slowly and then gets more and more ingrained as more and more dealers and financiers notice they have this new game going. And this game which has been going since 1972 is near collapse since we can't soak up much more in debts unless a lot of people go bankrupt and start all over again.

But that will start a depression. So they try to keep this game going despite the looming pile up of bankruptcies. Just yesterday, people were killed in a 100 car pile up in Wisconsin because people became so accustomed to speeding and tailgating that when a simple fog rolled in, the first cars crashed and then all the others, not suspecting a mess ahead, ran into the fog and crashed. I have avoided several massive smash ups by immediately pulling well off the roadway when a thick fog forms. In California, in 1969, I drove well off the interstate and into a field to avoid being killed. 15 people died in that mess. In the morning, I discovered a freight train idling right next to me.

Several years ago there was a black ice situation with 92 cars piled up on the NY Thruway. I had studs and was the only car allowed to drive through it. I got to see all the wrecks as I inched forwards. Caution and preparation goes a long way towards living. The US drives as if in a fog. When we get in wrecks, we say, 'The Insurance company will pay!' And off we go. Only we don't pay attention to the rise in our insurance bills.

Fed Boosts Next Two Special Auctions to $30 Billion

The Federal Reserve will increase the size of two scheduled auctions of emergency loans by 50 percent to $30 billion as part of a global attempt by central bankers to restore faith in the money markets.

The Fed reiterated that it will continue the loan auctions, designed to increase the amount of cash available in the banking system, ``for as long as necessary,'' in a statement released today. The third and fourth auctions will be conducted on Jan. 14 and 28. The central bank will announce on Feb. 1 whether further auctions will be conducted.

This flow of funds is a sign that our Wimpy economy is destroying the banking system. Our insurance system is in deep trouble. The companies insuring houses from flooding or hurricanes are in trouble. The insurance on the CDOs has collapsed. All these hedging systems are in trouble because we can't afford them. As cars and houses are more and more expensive, the insurance has to pay out more and more and if we drive or build recklessly or foolishly, this adds up and instead of being more fun and money, it means bankruptcy.

When New Orleans was destroyed, the US celebrated this as a golden opportunity. 'We will get $250 billion for rebuilding!' they said. Back then, I wrote, 'This is impossible. China won't lend us this money and the US is spending double this on our military.' And there was no money. So we pretend it doesn't exist. England, which is supposed to be richer than us per capita now, can barely cope with ONE offshore pirate bank going bankrupt. This is causing huge distress and this is due to all of England running deep in the red. There is no sovereign wealth in England except for perhaps in Buckingham Palace and they don't pay taxes, they live on the dole.

Since the first of the auctions on Dec. 17, companies' cost to borrow in dollars for three months has fallen to the lowest in two years, suggesting central banks are succeeding in spurring bank lending.

So, as inflation rages, these loans are super-cheap. Wimpy is ecstatic. He will repay next Tuesday.

Sovereign wealth funds hang help wanted sign

FTAlphaville says China Investment Corp. even wants to add Alan Greenspan to its board, presumably for the sake of name recognition and political contacts rather than advice on how to handle rising asset prices. The site notes that as thick as their wallets are, the sovereign wealth funds may initially have trouble luring top talent, given the massive bonuses being handed out on Wall Street even with many top firms in distress. But with many top U.S. investment firms likely looking at big cutbacks in the year to come, the petrodollar types may yet find themselves in the right place at the right time once again.

Rapidly, the Chinese and Arabs buy up our 'experts' who happen to be influential people who are also traitors. Greenspan will happily advise them as to how to fleece us. This talent is all about amoral exploitation and the thing the Chinese and Arabs intend to exploit is the US people. Think, 'sheering sheep' and 'cows in slaughter house.' The people handing out massive bonuses to pirates and traitors also hand out huge bonuses to politicians and others who are supposed to be owned by the American people. I am rather pleased that once again, voters are trying to overturn this and it is why the top corporate candidates are floundering despite the media flogging us for them. Deep within the US is a large number of people who have an idea that they have been betrayed.

Dollars, pounds and China's financial system
By Richard Spencer

Then, the other day, as I read another frothy crest in the waves of hyperbole that western commentators use to describe the rise of China, I came to a startling conclusion: in some circumstances, a trillion dollars is trivial, verging on useless.

I dare say Alistair Darling would not turn it down were it offered to him, no strings attached: but it's all relative, and as we know post sub-prime there are strings attached to a £100,000 mortgage, let alone sums in the zillions.

Last summer, the G7 joined Japan in telling China and Russia, FOREX reserves were stupid. Japan even dropped the huge amount they held by $150 billion to show how stupid it was, holding giant reserves. China and Russia ignored this and increased their reserves. Since then, Japan has frantically piled in these reserves and it is now nearly a trillion dollars. But the other G7 nations have ordered their slavering minions to continue the propaganda. So this stupid, stupid piece written in a nation drowning in red in and having such tiny reserves, one bank going under nearly destroys the entire banking system, has yet another story making fun of FOREX reserves. I would dearly love to have China's reserves! Far from useless, I would imaging $1.3 trillion would do quite a few things. Except pay for Britain and America's stupid wars, of course.

There are the rising numbers of those youths taking over the graduate departments of western universities. There is China's new diplomatic role, as it finds alliances in places where the West no longer treads with confidence, such as Africa and Central Asia. There is even Chinese art, with modern paintings flogged for a fiver from bohemian garrets a decade ago fetching hundreds of thousands at Christie's.

All these are real achievements: there is no doubt that, barring disaster, China as an economic and political force is here to stay. And yet, that trillion dollars still gets me. If the good years are over for the West, why does China want to buy us up? Why keep all that money in a foreign bank, not one of its own?

This man must be Wimpy's son. How can anyone this stupid be allowed out in public alone? China is buying us because we are having a stupid fire sale. We need to pawn all our riches so we can eat hamburgers today and not pay until Tuesday. Duh. Of course, the Chinese are also displacing us at home as they fill our universities but then, this is due to ferocious competition at home. And capitalism is all about the dynamics of competition and the beast that capitalism hates the most is...DEPRESSIONS. Japan doesn't have a real depression, the industries are flourishing and the capitalists are making out like bandits. The workers in Japan are depressed and they are in England, too. As well as the US.

Trichet May Signal Progress in Easing Credit-Market Logjam

G-10 officials are meeting at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, for the first time since the ECB and the Federal Reserve started a coordinated effort Dec. 12 to pump cash into the markets to reduce borrowing costs.

Since then, there have been signs of recovery. Companies' costs to borrow in the short term have fallen to a 22-month low, and commercial paper backed by collateral increased last week for the first time since August. Trichet said Jan. 5 that money- market tensions ``have receded while remaining significant,'' and the Bank of Canada said a day earlier that ``pressures'' have eased.

Gah. There is no recovery. There is free money. This makes things worse. Instead of trying to debunk gold as a valuable holding or debunk FOREX reserves, we should be debunking this business of making loans cheaper as a sign of good times and good health in an economy. Loans were gettting expensive due to raw inflation and this inflation is inflating further and the cheap loans insure this will get worse. So the crisis hasn't receded at all, it is GROWING WORSE. Business as usual is bad for us. The present carry trade status quo is fatal to us. We have to stop this whole nexus. The markets are way too predicable which is why they are fluctuating very wildly on the slightest alterations of relative status of various things. If 0% interest rates means eternal goodness, Japan's Nikkei should be at 45,,000 not dropping to below 13,000! The US should be booming, not blowing up. But these cheap rates are pure poison.

It only increases debts and turns everyone into Wimpy. Note that the dragon in China has been raising reserves, bank ratios and interest rates and the economy is expanding at over 11% a year. Japan has the exact opposite and is in deep trouble at home.

Banks May Have to Boost Loss Reserves, Moody's Says

``The combination of financial innovation, opacity and leverage is generally explosive,'' analysts led by Pierre Cailleteau in London wrote in a report published today. ``More capital buffers will be needed or required by counterparties and regulators.''

Banks sold $469 billion of CDOs last year after a record $769 billion in 2006, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. The falling value of the securities and other assets linked to U.S. subprime mortgages forced financial companies to write down more than $80 billion worldwide as defaults soared last year.

Banks may have to allocate more cash reserves to allow for greater fluctuation in the value of structured credit products, wrote Cailleteau, Moody's chief international economist. CDOs bundle together debt and other assets and use the income to pay investors.

They won't do this unless there is Hu or Wen pushing hard. We have traitors here so they encourage the huge expansion of debt. Nearly a trillion of this trash was peddled in 2006 at the apex of the bubble. Now, it is 2/3rds that rate and dropping. So the hope is, free money will open the spigots. Japan has been at near-zero interest rates this whole time. Nothing has changed except for one key thing: China keeps forcing the value of the yen upwards. And this is what has been rapidly destroying the status quo of eternal loans and eternal debts and free hamburgers. Note how all the guys in the media want this status quo. Forever. Deviations from it irritate and frighten all of them.

TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson has lost money after publishing his bank details in his newspaper column.

The Top Gear host revealed his account numbers after rubbishing the furore over the loss of 25 million people's personal details on two computer discs.

He wanted to prove the story was a fuss about nothing.

But Clarkson admitted he was "wrong" after he discovered a reader had used the details to create a £500 direct debit to the charity Diabetes UK.

HAHAHA. Serves him right. Another propaganda scheme blowing up. Of course, this was small potatoes in Wimpyland. The much bigger one involving convincing China that FOREX reserves are stupid have failed but no one in England or the US has noticed this yet. I grow rather fond of this dragon, by the way. It has us figured out. HAHAHA. I wonder how. HAHAHA.

Trade Deficit Probably Widened on Oil

The U.S. trade deficit probably widened in November as Americans spent a record amount on imported oil, economists said a report this week may show.

The gap between imports and exports expanded to $59.5 billion, a five-month high, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News ahead of the Commerce Department's Jan. 11 report. Earlier in the week, a private report may show a decline in contracts to buy existing homes.
*snip*
Exports set a record every month from March to October and are likely keep rising as growth in China and Latin America fuels demand for goods such as aircraft and industrial engines.

Will we build a huge FOREX reserve of yen and yuan? I wonder if I should pay another visit on DC and tell them all about FOREX reserves and how they work. I can bring graphs and charts and maybe penetrate the designs of our rulers and force them to face the truth. But they will derail the train I plan to use. Heh. No, they won't listen, they never listen. The Chinese were the only people to ever listen to me yap.

Growing Reliance on Temps
Holds Back Japan's Rebound

Five years ago, Japan chugged back into expansion mode after a decadelong slump. Yet its economy remains lethargic, its consumer spending anemic, its corporations cautious about capital spending and its stock market fragile.

With the rest of the world battered by continuing credit problems emanating from the U.S., the state of the world's No. 2 economy -- key to world economic health -- is an increasing concern.

Such worries have sparked a heavy selloff in Japanese stocks in recent months. The benchmark Nikkei stock average tumbled 4% Friday, the first trading day of the year, after falling 11.1% in 2007, its first losing year in the last five.

This article barely covers the issues involved. But at least they notice this story! I am amazed it took so long. Perhaps someone at the WSJ reads this blog. But of course, the temp business is the WEALTH MACHINE OF JAPAN! By ruthlessly cutting employment and wages, Japan has achieved a negative or 0% inflation rate! And the government and businesses love this! And this prevents the Japanese from buying CARS which eat up OIL which is IMPORTED and the whole point is to prevent imports. Are Japanese auto makers unhappy?

HAHAHA. No foreign auto sales in Fortress Japan! Sales are dropping there but who gives a damn? Toyota sold record cars overseas! This is the plan! Not accidental at all. The grinding depression for the workers has translated into infinite wealth for the rich in Japan. The only thing they fear is a potential uprising and this lurks in the background. The status quo of Japan is dangerous to us all and the G7 work day and night to keep this ugly status quo.

And in this article is a must-see graph showing that England, the US AND JAPAN don't save money anymore. For years, I have warned people that the fiction of Japanese saving money no matter what was dead. I want to thank the WSJ for confirming this.

Culture of Life News Main Page

Comments

[Pluto]

Wow. I never really understood Forex reserves at the macro level -- even though I play the forex. Your clear explanation (and the various scenarios) adds a powerful predictive driver at the macro level of fundamentals and structural flaws. Great stuff, as usual, Elaine.

How long do you think we can we continue the propping game between the market and interest rates? Can it last through the 08 elections? Or could commodity prices act as a wild card that could lick the legs out from under the scam?

(Oh, and I do believe Wall Street is reading -- and hoping like hell that no one else is. Lately, on CNBC during live interviews on the floor, I swear I see panic in their eyes. It's not an easy lie to push -- but that's the only game that pays the bills.)

[Elaine Supkis]

Usually, the government and the bankers work hard to keep everyone happy during elections. Note that when Ross Perot was about, showing his charts and graphs, he overturned everything. They do NOT want that, now way.

I have a lot to say about the Ron Paul riot last night. It didn't make the news.

[Pluto]

I have a lot to say about the Ron Paul riot last night. It didn't make the news.

I want to hear about that, a lot, too. I'm analyzing the Paul "vision" (his own and of his his supporters -- which do not necessarily match) for an article. I think there is something really profound going on in the American psyche as a whole. The "reactions" far outweigh the reality. It's psychotic from all corners and points to something strangely dynamic yet invisible, so far.

[CK]

Pluto
I do hope you took the time to watch the hour's worth of townhall meeting that Ron had last night.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxldrCsVByA
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VQcpmfT0f4&feature=user
or the twenty minutes with Bill Moyers the other day.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01042008/watch2.html
Does the "it's" in your final sentence refer to the "Paul"vision"" in your first sentence or to the "American psyche as a whole" in your second sentence, or to the ""reactions"" in your third sentence?
Or does the psychotic possible refer to Glenn Beck offering to french kiss Ron for Ron's stand on abolishing the IRS? The kissing offer came about three weeks after Mr. Beck wanted to have all the Ron Paul supporters rounded up as terrorists.
Up front about this, I worked for Goldwater in 64 ( too young to vote, not too young to work ), ignored politics until 1988 when I voted for Dr. Paul, went back to ignoring politics until this year; and am working and will be voting for him in the primary this year and the national when he wins the nomination. The neat thing with Dr. Paul is that you can analyse his words or his actions because they are synonymous; not exactly something you can do with any of the other candidates. You have 10 terms in congress and a whole lot of votes you can analyse, not to mention myriads of written works by him.

[Elaine Supkis]

CK, I lived right next door to the Goldwaters and the Millers in Scotsdale in the 1950's. Played with the kids, my dad is very close to them, as a friend.

Goldwater was a lot less doctrinaire than people imagine. He even was for legalizing pot! He was a very friendly person to us but he and I did fight over the same things that my dad and I fought over. Namely, the CIA and defending America from 'foes' who they thought were communists.

Funny, my dad was, along with Bush Sr, the very first to go to China to do business. There is no consistency in this world, just everyone seeking to get ahead.

[Pluto]

Does the "it's" in your final sentence refer to the "Paul"vision"" in your first sentence or to the "American psyche as a whole" in your second sentence, or to the ""reactions"" in your third sentence?

The "it's" refers to the strangly psychotic reactions that come from all spectrums of political ideology. The "la-la-la-la-he's-a-nut" scream that drowns out any possibility of reasonable conversation or the use of the frontal lobe, let alone the left hemisphere of the brain.

I'm coming at this very analytically -- on one hand as a cultural anthropologist, and on the other as a thought experiment -- running all the scenarios and what-ifs. I have no skin in the game.

For my part, I grew up on the other side of Camelback Mountain, over toward the Biltmore. You Scottsdale kids were so conceited ;-)

[Elaine Supkis]

Yo, Pluto, in 1953, NO ONE except maybe camels, lived there. Scottsdale was a one horse town when I came long ago. We even went to school on Indian House Road and this was on the edge of the reservation.

And the first shopping plaza was built, after I left in 1957, on the Goldwater ranch right where the rodeo used to be held. Of course, our house was obliverated.

[Elaine Supkis]

When Kiva Elementary school opened, we were across the street from a graveyard and there were no houses near the school. We used to sneak out through a hole we made in the fence to run in the gullies.

Indeed, we used to swim in the canals, too. There were HUGE orchards which were flooded regularly and we timed our visits to these floods.

Then there were the date palms. We would get saguaro ribs and knock down the fruits and then ranchers would shoot at us with rock salt as we ducked into the irrigation ditches. Ah, the fun of those youthful escapades. Send me to prison!

[Pluto]

I lived near Indian School Road. I know where it ended at the reservation east of Scottsdale.

Did you know that Phoenix was a totally artificial construct of the Pentagon and the Military Industrial Complex? (The "I Like Ike" era) It was the perfect god-forsaken place to train armies and build the machines of war -- and keep the population isolated from the rest of the country. Because of a "collaboration" between the Pentagon and the newspaper owner, Eugene Pulliam, Phoenix becaume a great test market for government policies. (I believe the Vietnam War was test marketed there years before we entered the conflict.) Goldwater was a key player in this.

Wikipedia has a good entry: The Great Depression and the World Wars in Arizona You were there during the thick of what later defined the conservative movement and anti-labor politics, spearheaded by Goldwater.

Fun distracting facts in the midst of an economic meltdown -- that probably began in Phoenix and is now being managed from Dubai.

[mock turtle]

elaine, this is off topic, but, please go to the times online and read this story about sibel edmonds...chilling

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article3137695.ece

she says she translated intercepted messages between leaders in our government and foreign nationals where us nuclear secrets were sold.

[mock turtle]

correction

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article3137695.ece

[mock turtle]

sorry, comments frame is cutting off end of url...last try

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
tol/news/world/middle_east/
article3137695.ece

[Elaine Supkis]

Oh dear, um, Phoenix and WWII: actually, I have assembled a story about all that and will publish it today. At one point, I lived in the vacated Insei prison camps! The government's involvement in Arizona is directly connected to my father.

You see, he WANTED to live in Arizona so he pushed in DC for a number of key things that Arizonans take for granted today. This is how he got to know both Arizona's senators and they wanted him to live nearby.

We also knew the Udall family. I grew up watching from lurking, all the debates about if we should launch WWIII.

[CK]

Pluto: Thank you for the clarification.
It is my suspicion that the "la la la he's a nut" stance is to be expected. To make a poor analogy. Big 18 wheeler fully loaded rolling down the turnpike at 70, how far can the driver turn the wheel before the truck jackknifes? The Man for Reasonable change is the man who might turn the wheel just enough to go from one lane to the next slowly, the Man for Stay the Course, he will not turn the wheel; he will rear-end the car in front of him and then blame that driver. The nut is liable to slam on the brakes, slow the inevitable and turn the wheel enough to cross three lanes and expose new scenery, or jackknife the rig.
The objective of the media is to reduce the permissable amount of wheel turning the driver and his cargo will be allowed to consider.
Consider any system, over time it will accrete more and more to itself. The longer a system exists the more inertia it develops. History is the study of that inertia. As you said, it is the "skin in the game" that matters. Lots of people have skin in e.g. The Continued Existence and continues expansion of the Federal Reserve system. The La la he's a nut stance is dog whistle politics from the media, shorthand for saying: This candidate threatens the skin you have invested in the game. Dr. Paul says he wants to pull the troops out of Iraq and the rest of the world immediately. How many folks do you know in Iraq? How many of their deaths will directly affect anyone beyond their immediate families. There is no draft, so for most of the families in this country the Iraq War is not a threat to them. How many people do you know who receive some form of govt check every month? Do away with the IRS and the Fed and all those people will be affected. So start with all the people who are employed by the government, then add all the people who receive social security, medicare, medicade, afdc, farm subsidies, college grants, vets payments, etc. etc. The last figure I saw ( and I cannot verify its truthiness ) is that approx 50% of the US population is getting something from the government every month.
Huckabee has his dogwhistle words ( vertical relationships = how are you and God getting along ), Ron has his, Hillary has hers. Huck's and Hillary's don't threaten those with a lot of skin in the game so they are not nuts even though they are. Ron's do threaten so he is nuts even though he isn't.

[Elaine Supkis]

I will vote for Bismark. Hahaha. He's dead. Germany went off the track when the Kaiser fired him.

Well, we can always ask Hu to run this joint. I suppose. He is brutal but effective.

And Ron Paul is an innocent in many ways. A Bismarkian economy always beats an Edwardian system! England was nearly destroyed while refusing to have Social Security.

[CK]

Hu's on first
Wen's he coming home?

[Pluto]

CK:

Cogent comments re Paul and the psyche of the civilization -- such as it is. I'll be thinking about it. Onward... to the next thread.