Treasury and IMF Reports On World Equity and Debt

December 3, 2007

Elaine Meinel Supkis

A nasty winter storm is roaring in today. For the previous 5 days, I have been busy outside preparing for this event, stowing away the farm equipment in new sheds, repairing the horse's stall, putting a new roof on the chicken pen and securing the room that has timbers curing which were cut on the wood mill earlier. I got the latest Treasury Department financial report on US foreign holdings which compliment the previous report on foreigners holding US debts and equities. So we will do a quick examination of both reports. These reports show clearly the deteriorating condition of US wealth because it is deep in the red, of course.

US Portfolio Holdings of Foreign Securities Report

I signed up for regular releases by the Treasury Department so I won't miss various reports as they come out. Most news sites have snippets and a three paragraph analysis but since these are often ill-informed, we have to take a closer look periodically. The most troubling thing about the US economy is how nearly all systems across the board are running in the red. Even when they improve, they still run in the red. Only one time in the last 35 years has any data run in the black. This was when Clinton finally balanced the budget.

Instantly, there was talk about $2 trillion in potential excess government revenues. The rich in America used this false data to push for extensive tax cuts. Bush was their vehicle for this. When it looked as if Bush was going to lose the election despite much of the media pushing hard for him, they resorted to upending the Constitution of the United States. A corrupt Supreme Court ruled that we citizens have no say in national elections, the counting of votes was immaterial when it comes to choosing who leads us. Bush became our dictator at this point and as all dictators do, he immediately rewarded the oligarchs who supported his regime and we began to run very deep in the red again, far more than in past ages when we still had somewhat real elections.

Now, all the systems running in the red went downwards at warp speed. The illusion of wealth was maintained by lowering interest rates below the real rate of inflation and the novel concept of never paying off any principal on any loan was endorsed by our government and the entire banking establishment. I warned that this would lead to bankruptcy in the end but no one listens to me! So now the banking system is collapsing due to no one saving via paying off principal on loans.

The effects of all this shows up in various data compilations. The US has been selling off its future for a long time now, so long, we think this is normal and not harmful. Today's report on US Foreign Holdings, for example, makes it look as if we are doing just fine. But buried inside the statistical flow is the signs of grave danger. The Treasury is dishonest even as they publish data. Instead of issuing FOREIGN holdings of US equities and bonds at the SAME TIME they issue this report, they release them far apart from each other. This insures the obvious headlines comparing the two won't happen. The media helps this process by refusing to connect the two reports. All this is done to encourage people to spend money just as all the international reports paper over US financial irresponsibility. Almost all nations have trade surpluses with the US. They desperately want to keep this status quo going.

One thing is also certain: they want the dollar to be strong, too. But this has collapsed due to the US spending and running so deep in the red at this point, the dollar can't be held up no matter how big other nation's FOREX reserves are. But this isn't discussed in any IMF or US Treasury reports. So I want to examine both the IMF report for 2006 and compare it to the Treasury report of 2006. The 2007 numbers are not in yet and won't appear for another 6 months. But we can project, of course, for we know from the news stream, pretty much what is going on.

We are in a historic banking crisis of great proportions and this requires first a lot of data before we make pronouncements and predictions.
Note to readers: CLICK ON ALL IMAGES TO ENLARGE. This includes the text sections.

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US holdings of all things foreign was roughly $6 trillion last year. It went up this year so it is probably closer to $7 trillion but this is just my guessing. Perhaps the banking crisis that began in July has cut this drastically and it might be only somewhat bigger overall. I do know that the US has put increasing amounts of money away in various pirate coves across the planet. God save the Queen! Huzzah. The amount held by foreigners who have our bonds and equities was almost $8 trillion last year and rising still even as the inflow has fluctuated this year due to the Western banking crisis that was started by the US collapse of the housing market bubble. We shall see in six months. We do know that the amounts in these international accounts have shot up over the last decade, tremendously. And the differential is troubling, the inflow is $2+ trillion greater than outflow. Normally, we could be happy that people are investing in us but anyone looking at what is going on, closely, can see that foreign powers are buying us up and are gaining huge influence over us. We are selling ourselves out even as we send huge sums of money out of the US.

And I would suggest this is due to the US trade deficit and it now is PART of this trade deficit and it represents a major bleeding of US native wealth. For the money movement outwards by US investors and businesses is not friendly but rather, an attempt at evading taxes and US industrial and banking laws and regulations. As well as profit taking via transfer of the industrial base to Asia.

One other thing here is how the dying dollar is warping all statistics. Many of the global changes in values has been US dollar devaluation-driven. Just as Japan has artfully used the weak yen to create greater profits, the US numbers are inflated by the decline of the dollar. The two former island empires the curiously mirror each other, being offshore to huge land masses which both islands have sought to dominate, both empires ballooned in size during the 19th century, both went heavily into industrialization and conquests of neighbors or parts of the planet. Both fought each other quite viciously during WWII. The prize was the markets and resources of the Pacific and all of Asia.

The USA won that war between the two ambitious island empires and England, of course, latched onto this new empire and gave up most dreams of ruling the earth by themselves while Japan bowed to the US power and then latched onto our throat and proceeded to try to throttle us via 'free trade'. Looking at the chart above, we see both former empires now are the biggest destination of US money moving activity. We hold over half a trillion in UK equities and slightly under half a trillion in UK debts.

Curiously, we hold virtually no Japanese debts but slightly over half a trillion in equities. This, of course, is one of the many side effects of Japan's noxious near zero interest rates. Few people on earth want to hold Japanese debts. This also means that Japan doesn't owe foreigners and I would suggest this means the Japanese remain in firm control of their financial situation. No one can call in the debts if only the Japanese hold them. More than one reader of this news service has pointed this out in the comments section.

#5 and #8 on the list above, the Cayman Islands and Bermuda, are tax havens. Bermuda is an older tax haven and has lost status compared to the upstart locations. So Bermuda holds only $17 billion in debts while the Cayman Islands has over $200 billion in debts parked there. This is old numbers, it doubled in the last year for all the small tax havens.

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It always pays to look at the actual breakdown in data. When I analyze international relations, I keep these sorts of numbers in the back of my mind. Within these numbers, we can break them down further to see exactly what country is holding and who bought these various things. This matters a great deal. For example, Japan's holdings include a gigantic level of US government debt holdings, the biggest on earth.

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Just 12 years ago, the amount of foreign holdings by the US was at only $870 billion. Last year, it rose to $5.6 trillion. This is vast growth. It rose from only $11 billion to over $300 billion in the Cayman Islands tax haven/pirate cove. Bermuda went from $9 billion to well over $200 billion. Both grew 27X greater. This is a ferocious rate of growth. England and Japan's rate was only 7X and 4X growth. So both have a bigger slice but the monstrous growth at the various pirate coves is most astonishing. This represents major financial bleeding in the US. These funds didn't flow to these destinations in order to invest in any businesses there. This is pure tax evasion at work. The fact that this mushroomed EVEN as corporate taxes have been slashed to historic lows, shows a system heading towards a crash. For the US empire needs taxes to pay for its military machine. And the top of this story, I mentioned how Japan is holding US government bonds which are for funding the US navy and our invasion forces. This is a problem for us because Japan is a top trade rival. China holds the next biggest amount. All, so we can rule the Seven Seas. But we don't rule our own bank accounts.

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This is so simple to explain! From 1994 to 2001, Japan bought up huge amounts of US government debt. During this time, the US happily sold our government expenses to this prickly ally who became our ally only because we defeated them in a very bloody war. Back in 2004, I noted that Japan was selling off our bonds now but they were bought by the Chinese, it seems. Japan was happy by 2001 because the great national emergency was over and they fixed their banking system with it set at a seeming depression level which enabled their export manufacturers to raid and dominate many foreign markets. This was a 'sweet spot' for MITI and Fortress Japan. Part of the buying up of US bonds was picked up by the Arab kings and other oil exporters who decided it was time to get a death grip on US foreign policy.

These people paid for Gulf War I but learned their lesson, with the collapse of oil profits afterwards during peace time, they know that wars which the US must pay for via debts keeps oil prices up and on top of this, puts the US into debt to them in the future.

Here is this year's report on foreign owners of US debts.
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Note here that in this critical graph, the Cayman Islands are #1. It attracts this money like a magnet, doesn't it? And here is the heart of the US housing crisis funding problems. A lot of this debt flowed to this island. And it is causing troubles. Not enriching anyone. I suppose the investment houses up here are glad they have these debts parked down there. This way, they can gingerly extract themselves from all this bit by bit instead of all at once. And on one can poke around, peering into empty treasure chests.

The total is nearly $8 trillion. The #1 holder is, of course, Japan. This is how Japan manages to escape any mention in any international or US documents detailing banking problems, trade problems or any problems at all. Everywhere I look, I see this sort of queer analysis. It even fools many 'bear' commentators. We will examine this further down in today's article. But look at the numbers! Over 10% of our debts held by foreigners or in foreign locations is held by the Japanese! This is called 'leverage' and they definitely apply this leverage for their own ends. #2 is China, the trade rival we are maddest at. Why doesn't China have leverage, one might ask?

It is simple: the Chinese DO have leverage. Much of the loud talk by the US is a smoke screen. We know perfectly well how to fix things. Cease deficit spending and put up some trade barriers. We are trying to kill the dollar versus the yuan but are failing. We aren't even trying to stop the yen's decline. The UK is next in line. But right behind them are the tax havens.

Also, note how these nations hold much more debts of ours than equities. 2/3rds of these holdings are in the form of US IOUs. The UK holds the most equities with Japan, the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg and Canada all big holders but none close to England in this regard.

Here is an older Brad Setser blog entry from back in June, 2007:

I am testifying later today (gulp) before the House budget committee -- and the time that normally goes into writing blog posts has gone into preparing my written testimony.

That means I haven't had time to fully explore a range of interesting topics:

1. The Economist's (continued) insistence that a 10% of GDP (and rising) current account surplus, 30% y/y export growth and $500b in intervention in the fx market is not a sign that a currency is (just perhaps) a wee bit undervalued.

2. Larry Summers' argument that the preeminent economic policy challenge right now is to find ways to address the unequal distribution of the gains from recent growth. No doubt his new paper with Jason Furman and Jason Bordoff is worth reading.

3. Bear Stearns' decision to back -- i.e. to provide a loan that, best I can tell, allows the fund's existing creditors off the hook -- the least troubled of its two troubled hedge funds but not to back the other, more leveraged and thus more troubled, fund. Like Naked Capitalism, I wonder if that is viable -- from the outside, Bear seems to be threatening to turn over the keys of its more troubled fund to that funds' creditors and daring them to liquidate the more leveraged funds assets and set a market price that would make it hard to mark-to-model, no matter what the consequences are for Bear's reputation. If I am reading this wrong, do tell ...

The Budget Committee's hearing is structured around the question of whether large foreign holdings of US debt put the US economy at risk? My answer is pretty simple: the United States' ongoing need for a large increase in foreigners' willingness to hold US assets in order to fund large ongoing deficits remains a potential economic vulnerability.

I was not invited to testify, of course. This will never happen. But 'foreigners' are not the only holders, a huge slice is held by AMERICANS who use tax havens and England as a tool to prevent government oversight or controls. This is also why the US and English banking are sliding off the same cliff at the same time, the US slightly ahead of England. Far from England possessing us, we own them via proxies that are hard to see easily. We should arrest all Goldman Sachs executives and question them at Gitmo. After all, exo-territorial finances means they don't need our national protections of the laws of the US. Not that our laws are doing so hot lately.

I will note here that the US recently said, we can kidnap people in England and not do things via government channels and other treaty-based sovereign systems. I would hope the English people become aware of this 1984-ification of their nation.

Of course, the committee hearings were set up by the Democrats to talk about what is painfully obvious and which the GOP blissfully ignored as they ran all our economic systems in the red. Will the US figure out the fine details about all this? The huge growth in this and all other financial indicators in the last decade are totally abnormal and represents many dangers to be. Indeed, all indicators since 1974 have been very bad in the long run. By simply accelerating the rates at which this happens and causing all systems to run upwards at a mad rate has made it look as if we are all getting richer rather than the world resetting itself to do a big flip into a new system.

Due to the rapidly accumulation of red ink in the US side of the world's financial ledgers, this moment of change will approach faster and faster if the speed of change continues to increase. I will also note that this hearing came right before the first waves of the US banking collapse that ended up engulfing Europe.

Foreign holdings of U.S. securities rise
Overseas holdings of U.S. securities $7.8 trillion at end-June 2006

This is a recent headline about our increasing security threat as money is moved out of the US itself and into mostly tax havens and our two island partners at both ends of both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In 198, the UK held only $12.5 billion but by 2006 it was over $600 billion. Its biggest jump was between 1984-1989 when it doubled from $43 billion to $110 billion. This was due to the Plaza Accords whereby the US tried to fix the FX markets by having the world's biggest currencies devalue the dollar 'in an orderly fashion' [hahaha]. So, in that same time frame, Japan went from $28 billion to $180 billion. Quite a windfall, eh? In 1974, Japan's holdings were $12 billion, identical to England's holdings. But the change in the value of the yen with the Plaza Accords meant Japan's holdings changed more radically, I am guessing.

Since then, Japan has been on this buying spree. This was done so they can control our finances as they reorganize Japan's finances on the new system which we see today, the one that is kept carefully hidden from view by fellow G7 dwarves who don't want to change this system since all exploit it in various interesting ways.

China's trajectory went from $5 billion in 1978 to only $200 billion in 1989, they were not party to the Plaza Accords, after all. But in 1994, just before they got most favored nation status and free trade took off under Clinton, the figures stood at the same spot England and Japan were at in 1974, under $20 billion. But in the 12 years since, China has enlarged it to $700 billion, a record rate of increase. Quite substantial. What took the Japanese around 30 years to do, China is doing in 15.

Foreign investors flee US securities October 16 2007

Foreign investors slashed their holdings of US securities by a record amount as the credit squeeze intensified, according to the latest Treasury figures.

The Treasury International Capital report – known as the Tic – for August will be closely watched because it appears amid growing concerns about the weakness of the US dollar, which hit a record low recently against a basket of major currencies.

“The bad news is that [the data] plainly show how vulnerable the dollar is to a continuation of the credit crunch-risk averse environment,” said Alan Ruskin, chief international strategist at RBS Greenwich Capital. “There is no way to get away from the lack of corporate bond inflows, the foreign selling of US equities and the countervailing strong US purchases of foreign equities and bonds.”

The Treasury said net sales of US market assets – including bonds, notes and equities – were $69.3bn in August after a revised inflow of $19.5bn during July. The August outflow exceeded the previous record decline of $21.2bn in March 1990.
*snip*
“There was clear panic-selling of equities in August, but given the market’s subsequent rebound, those flows should have reversed,” said Dominic Konstam, head of interest rate strategy at Credit Suisse. “If foreign investors return to buying equities, it is not obvious that there will be a capital flight from the US that will lead to a dollar crisis.”

The 'capital flight' has been going on for years and years now. For our own citizens, the big hot shots at Goldman Sachs and the other 5 big trading houses like Merrill Lynch or Bear Stearns, have all been removing their funds from the US and parking them at various pirate coves as well as other nations. There has been a huge inflow from overseas as the US goes deeper into debt and sells off more and more infrastructure and systems. We would not need all this foreign money if our own guys were not betraying us by moving everything out as fast as they can. The inflow into the Cayman Islands, for example, went from only $126 billion in 2000 to a whopping $500 billion last year and is far greater this year, I fear, around a $1 trillion. This is pure insanity.

This is a literal transfer of wealth. And it endangers the nation. The hearings in Congress hasn't solved anything, indeed, all it did was cause huge donations to the DNC by these pirates. Flush with this money, the Democrats hope to take control of all of Congress as well as the White House next year. But the price they pay is, they dare not pry into the financial affairs of these pirates. Which is why there is no news about changing this system which is eating us out of house and home.

Click here for the summation of the latest IMF report about US/foreign financial holdings. This report is filled with goodies, many charts as well as a hysterically funny sub-section about the Japanese 'carry trade' which proves to me that the controllers of the IMF which are the same people who are controlling world banking and who want to keep this status quo going as long as possible, are in collusion with each other and Japan to keep this fatal system flowing.

Indeed, the IMF is now in the comical situation whereby the central banks of the top imperial nations who have dictated financial terms to the rest of the world, is rapidly collapsing and with it, all moral authority as well as the ability to defy other nations and rig this game in the favor of the rich empires of yore, Europe and the US. This collapse has been a significant loss of political power for all of us. Not to mention, making us look like fools as we let Japan consolidate power via the carry trade!

Click here for the main links to each section of the 2006 IMF 'Assessing Global Financial Risks' report.

First, this chart is amusing. We must all remember that Japan is having this terrible depression they can't escape. Look at corporate earnings growth! True, in 2006 Japan was not beating the hell out of everyone but they never went into the red and now, their growth is still better than our own. Also, we must remember previous M3 graphs: the US, Europe and Japan all have been responsible for a huge, huge growth in money creation in the last decade. All three dwarf, individually as well as in aggregate, world finances. China, which is #4, is less than half of any of these three and note that the biggest money creation systems are also enjoying the fastest corporate earnings growth.

So, foreigners are buying our equities but note how our own equities are much flatter than Asia and especially, Japan. Now, how can this be, Japan's equities are shooting upwards but they are in a depression? This is one of many peculiarities the writers of reports struggle to explain away. I find this quite baffling considering that all systems that Japan can control vis a vis outside influence are shooting to the moon simultaneously with a flat, near 0% interest rate and 0% inflation in a world that is experiencing the biggest M3 growth in history, much of this happening in Japan, itself! Some depression.

This graph shows Japan merrily tagging along, moving upwards alongside Europe and the USA. Again, this would be impossible if there were a depression. We can see that in 2001, Japan fell badly because of its dependence upon the US markets but thanks to the Greenspan free money regime, Japan kicked back into high gear and soared.

This chart shows how Japan mostly bought foreign bonds rather than stocks for many years. Holding nearly anyone's debts is preferable to holding Japanese bonds. But then, this is the curious trick of the present system. The big corporations didn't need to have lots of money flowing in, they had access to near 0% financing via the Bank of Japan. So they didn't mind ringing up debts. We must remember, during this entire cycle, the US and Europe has been trending towards higher and higher interest rates while Japan did not. And to make up for this, the US and Europe both went for the option of paying less and less principal on loans so they ended up paying mostly interest or worse while Japan didn't have to pay interest at all so any loans they have are 'free' if they choose not to pay principal at all! Free money has led to Japanese dominance in many world markets.

This chart shows the flow of funds in Asia and other developing economies. We can see the effects of the Asian Currency Crisis in 1997, the second wave being the Dot Com bubble in the US gave fuel to Asia's economies. Then, in 2003, it takes off tremendously thanks to the Greenspan free money regime that aped Japan's form of banking. The yellow bars are European emerging nations. They took up only a tiny fraction of the equity growth. The lion's share is in Asia. Money is being invested heavily in China as well as the rest of Asia and I would suggest this is mostly the big corporations outsoucing like mad.

Note that the issuing of DEBTS is the reverse. Asia has issued very little while Europe and South America relied on this form of funding. This shows that the other element in global economics, the use of debts and the accumulation of red ink, is very powerful. Asia's advantages are multiplying faster than the other parts of the earth and this is based ultimately on trade: countries with fabulous trade surpluses are able to improve their financial situation faster than rivals.

This is a good pie chart showing who owns whom. Surprise! Offshore accounts that have been parked at pirate coves across the planet outstrip even the Japanese empire! This huge sum of money should be a topic of great interest in Washington. I would expect angry hearings with some people beating on the guys pulling this stunt. Namely, starting with Goldman Sachs, HAHAHA. Bribes are wonderful, aren't they?

All of Europe is the next biggest slice, then comes Japan. The UK and China tag along far behind. Again, all the focus is on China, of course, but when we look at the actual information, we can see, China is the LEAST of our problems right now.

And here is a snippet from this report, talking about how the Japanese carry trade has nothing to do with the flood of M3 money and freebie loans that have caused world finances to explode upwards.

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This whole section is pure garbage! The value of the yen has nothing to do with the carry trade existing. It is a byproduct of the Bank of Japan's lending policies. The plan is to keep things as close to 0% as humanly possible. The carry trade was not the goal, it is a development that arises from Japan having a 0% rate! It was ACCIDENTAL. The 0% rates are DELIBERATE. The weak yen is also DELIBERATE. Japan will move heaven and earth to keep the yen weak. Just because they fail doesn't mean they didn't try. Their gleeful expectations of seeing the yen fall to 130 to the dollar by last October were THWARTED by other powers using their considerable bank accounts to drive up the value of the yen during negotiations over future treaties and trade issues. Namely, China has driven it up. China has no interest in tapping into the Japanese carry trade, their interest is to drive up the value of the yen as much as possible.

Since they have considerable banking powers, they can do this IN THE TEETH OF ALL OTHER FORCES. But if China were to tap into the carry trade, they would be trying to keep the yen weaker than the yuan. Not the reverse. This is why I can safely say, the carry trade is a side effect, not a cause, of currency trading schemes. The hell hounds and pirates are ruthlessly exploiting this, knowing Japan can't change course. So they make bets, demand loans and in other ways, feed off of all this. But the intention of the government and Bank of Japan is to feed Toyota and others with free loans so they have a bigger trade advantage due to a cheap yen and great loan rates compared to the West. Period.

And the IMF should be holding emergency meetings about all this! They aren't any more than the G7 are talking about this or the US is demanding it stop, etc. EVERYONE HAS BENEFITTED FROM THIS! Since they all enjoy the Japanese carry trade side effects, they want it to continue so the IMF is irresponsibly lying about this or being deliberately obtuse.

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Comments

[Frank]

Thanks for this, Elaine. I was beginning to get it, I think, but now it's quite clear.

The value of the yen has nothing to do with the carry trade existing. It is a byproduct of the Bank of Japan's lending policies. The plan is to keep things as close to 0% as humanly possible. The carry trade was not the goal, it is a development that arises from Japan having a 0% rate! It was ACCIDENTAL.

I kept wondering how the Wizards of Japan benefited from the creation of the Carry Trade. This makes it clear that its creation was not deliberate, not part of some frightfully clever plan!

[DeVaul]

Wow! All these numbers and financial schemes are making my head hurt. I really do not know what to make of it all.

I cannot believe people actually devote their lives to running these schemes and number games. There are so many other things to do in life, so many other things to learn and experience -- and to remember.

Why would so many settle for this?

[Carlos]

Market commentator Ray DeVoe Jr. [Jesup, Lamont – Edison, NJ] wrote a piece a few years ago titled “Restocking Count Zaroff’s tropical island with ‘the most dangerous game’ …and other financial games for the semi-skilled” about the movie – AND US Government statistics. Ray likened Count Zaroff’s rearranging the navigational lights and buoys around his island so ships will wreck and he will have victims to hunt to our government rearranging, obfuscating and flat lying about important financial statistics causing our economy to wreck.

So, my assertion is that the Cayman Islands statistics are bullshit – a made-up black hole of bogus holdings and un-verifiable numbers – probably of supposed treasury holdings that do not exist, of sales that were never made and of worthless GSE [FNM & FRE] bonds that were reportedly exchanged – transmogrified is a better word – by some alternative financial commentators, for Treasuries.

To simplify – the US dollar index has gone from $1.20 to $0.75 in the last 6 years of the Bush administration. For that alone he should be impeached.

[John]

"Why would so many settle for this?"

Being able to regularly partake of $5000/bottle champagne and $5000/hour hookers in a $20,000,000 private jet on the way to Club Med, if I had to take a guess. :-)

[Big]

Hi Elaine,

Do you have any comments on Jim Simons' Renaissance Hedge Fund, and how it seems to win all the time.

First, I thought they found the programmatic magic bullet,

Then, I thought they had all of their Ph.Ds develop some minority report system that peers into the future...

But then alas, I saw the lawsuits in which two MIT Ph.Ds that worked at Renaissance claimed that they were asked to manipulate the system and violate securities laws.

http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2007/07/
algorithm-wars.html
Gaining access to information that was not publicly available.

Sounds alot like Gollum Sachs winning because of their insiders.

Great post.

[DeVaul]

Hi John,

Perhaps you are right, but I rarely see these types of people. And I wonder how many there are out there that enjoy such things, and if they are always looking over their shoulders wherever they go.

[Elaine Supkis]

Devaul, they have BODY GUARDS. I loved that story about the hunter who was a Russian noble who rigged the game because he had body guards. The hero of that story had to first kill off the body guards before he could bag Zaroff. The history of rulers shows us one important thing: they love to kill people and love to do it while protected but not totally protected, they need the frisson of danger or they die of boredom. This is why they do hazardous sports and get killed by skiing or horses or drowning off their yachts, etc.

Or like poor Diana, destroyed in a crash while surrounded by maddened photographers. Shudder.

[Big]

let's hope you are not a royalist Elaine.

Diane, while not deserving her fate, knew what she was getting into.

Let's take all of the royals in every country and have them do Morgan Spurlock's 30 days, where he lived day by day as a day laborer...waiting by the side of the road for someone to pick him up.

I would presume they would slit their wrists mighty quick.

[Chris]

This article made me remember an old Michael Hudson interview on Counterpunch. It is interesting as it highlights the importance of the offshore tax havens for the power games the elites play:

http://www.counterpunch.org/schaefer03252004.html

[DeVaul]

Ok, well Ron Paul just stated for the record that he would cut all overseas military spending, close all foreign military bases, and bring home all troops from every foreign land as the EASIEST way to cut spending and balance the budget.

I could not copy and paste his comment here.

I may end up on the street, but I will vote for him.

[DeVaul]

The interview with him is on the Silver Bear Cafe. It would not allow me to cut and paste his answer, so go there to read it.

[Al]

DeVaul,
That's the way I feel too. Despite disagreeing with much of his domestic policy, ending the killing and winding down the war machine supersedes everything else. Despite what many think, an imperial presence is NOT in our best interests.

[Elaine Supkis]

He will probably be removed a la Kennedy, I think.

[DeVaul]

Yeah, I know. But, I will vote for him just out of principle. He did flatly state what he would do if he were president, and I do think he would back down from throwing millions of poor people into the streets.

His knowledge of our meddling in Iran back as far as the 1950's means he is capable of learning and acknowledging accountability.

That says a lot for him. Alas, he will never see the oval office.

If the CIA does not kill him, the Mossad will.

[Al]

Paul has specifically mentioned cutting off aid to Israel as he would to most other countries. As I'm sure you guys are aware. Haven't heard him called anti-Semitic though. Maybe it's part of trying to keep him marginalized. Yeah Devaul your Mossad comment is very apt.