President's Pigs Flying Economic Report

March 26, 2008

Elaine Meinel Supkis

I almost missed reporting on the 'Economic Report of the President' that was issued last week. It is chock full of laughs and should go down in history as an exhibit as to why the mighty US Empire collapsed. Over the years, I have noticed that all government agencies talking about trade always talk about our exports but never, ever, our imports. If they are mentioned, it is in passing. Also, a report on the most prosperous and stable nations has some eye-openers. Seems the richest and most stable are all pirate coves or ruled by Queen Elizabeth II. Global instability is growing greater thanks to warped trade/commodity values coupled with monetary policies that have flooded the planet with inflationary financing.

Wealth Effects on Consumption and Saving

Household wealth rose rapidly relative to disposable personal income from 2002 through the second quarter of 2007, supporting the growth of consumption and a decline in the saving rate. Over the 2002–07 period, the ratio of household wealth to annual-income increased 0.7 years, to 5.7 years of accumulated income(that is, consumers collectively accumulated an extra 70 percent of a years’ income). During the late 1990s and again during 2004–06, a strong rise in household net worth coincided with a sizable increase in consumer spending relative to disposable personal income.
***********************************************

Average hourly earnings of production or non-supervisory workers (who constitute about 80 percent of total employment on nonfarm payrolls) increased 3.7 percent (in nominal terms) during the 12 months through
December 2007—somewhat below the pace a year earlier of 4.3 percent. These nominal hourly earnings were outstripped by the 4.4 percent increase in the overall CPI for wage earners, and so real earnings fell 0.7 percent during 2007 (following a 1.8 percent gain in 2006). Even so, the recent pace of these nominal wage increases is above various measures of expected price inflation (such as those implied by the market for inflation-indexed Treasury securities), and suggests that employers and employees expect a gain in real
earnings in 2008. The situation is similar to a year ago, but during 2007, price inflation was higher than expected because of sharp and unanticipated increases in food and energy prices. In the long run, real hourly compensation increases with productivity growth, which is projected to remain solid.
*************************************************

The rapid growth of U.S. exports has been one of the most important economic developments of the past few years. In the 3 years from the end of 2003 to the end of 2006, real exports grew at an annual average rate of 8.3 percent, more than twice as fast as the overall U.S. economy. This growth has provided clear benefits to the entrepreneurs, owners, and workers of firms in export-oriented industries and, more broadly, to the U.S. economy as a whole. This chapter identifies the factors that have driven recent export growth and discusses several longer-term trends that have lifted exports over time. More broadly, the chapter also addresses the benefits that flow from open trade and investment policies as well as some related challenges.

The key points of this chapter are:

• The United States is the world’s largest exporter, with $1.5 trillion in goods and services exports in 2006. The United States was the top exporter of services and second-largest exporter of goods, behind only Germany.

• In recent years, factors that have likely contributed to the growth in exports include rising foreign income, the expansion of production in the United States, and changes in exchange rates. One reflection of that
growth is that exports accounted for more than a third of U.S. economic growth during 2006 and 2007.

• Over time, falling tariffs and transport and communication costs have likely lowered the cost of many U.S. goods in foreign markets, boosting demand for U.S. exports.

• Open trade and investment policies have increased access to export markets. Increased investment across borders by U.S. companies facilitates exports.

• Greater export opportunities give U.S. producers incentives to innovate for a worldwide market. Increased innovation and the competition that comes from trade liberalization help raise the living standard of the average U.S. citizen.

• Nearly all economists agree that growth in the volume and value of exports and imports increases the standard of living for the average individual, but they also agree that the gains from trade are not equally
distributed and some individuals bear costs. The Administration has proposed policies to improve training and support to individuals affected by trade disruption.

I amended the government's chart. This report has many charts that often tell a much different story from the text. But what is more annoying is the lack of charts. This report cunningly leaves out any charts or graphs showing the red ink. A report about our joint over-all economic state that leaves out all mention of government and trade red ink is a fraud. A lie. A deception. Throughout this maladministration, we have an endless stream of falsified reports. The refusal to look at the important facts and figures is a problem for over 35 years. Anyone can make any assertion so long as they control what information is debated. By leaving out ALL of the red ink items from this report except for, of course, Social Security and other benefit programs, is a crime.

Any government doing this should be replaced. Any ministers doing this should be impeached. Any financial advisors doing this should be arrested. Lying about finances is a crime. It isn't a scheme or a trick. Bookkeepers who help corporation Presidents lie to investors are arrested. Presidents of corporations who lie about profits while selling stocks are arrested by the Security and Exchange Commission and put on trial.

So why aren't we using this report to arrest the people who issued it? Bush signed this report so he is the first to be arrested. I am rather harsh about this matter because the infection of lying about finances has insidiously spread throughout our government to the point that the corruption is now openly destroying our nation. This is treason. For example, anyone calling for increased military spending and military adventures while calling for tax cuts or ignoring the need for tax hikes, should be impeached or arrested. The people at large who vote for these corrupt officials can't help themselves. Everyone wants a free ride. But any nation interested in staying afloat has to stop this sort of voter-bribery. In the past, Congress tried this with a 'debt ceiling'. This is the ultimate 'glass ceiling': it shatters regularly. At this point, far from feeling fear when the red ink and tax cuts cause our deficits to grow rapidly, when the red ink hits this glass ceiling, it shatters and Congress and the President all rush past it and double the red ink production.

This is a crime against America. It is a generational crime for it is burdening our grandchildren for things we want now. It is destroying our finances and weakening our nation. And this report has virtually no mention of this. Indeed, like all the usurper's reports, this report celebrates the very same tax cuts that have created this problem. The same is with global trade: not a peep about our trade deficit. This is very childish. It is like a 12 year old putting money in his piggybank and then not only spending all of it, but stealing from mom's purse, too. Then, when confronted, whines, 'I put over $5 in my piggy bank! I am so saving money!'

Well, if that child is buying computer games that cost $50 from that $5 something is wrong.

And this is how our nation is being operated: lies on top of lies. As we go into debt. The report notes that wages, for example, have gone up in the last 7 disastrous years. Which may be true [barely!] but using their own false inflation statistics, they admit, wages have FALLEN. Which is obvious to anyone who buys anything in the last 7 years! Later, in this report, they claim that we are 'richer' due to free trade and if workers are displaced, they get better jobs. And can be 'retrained'. As what, we ask. Certainly, our economists and bankers should be retrained! Not to mention, our craven politicians. We could train them to clean toilets or muck pig sties.

What bothers me the most is the opening statement by this crew of incompetents: they trumpet a rise in 'wealth' in the US due to the housing bubble! Our 'wealth' increased due entirely to the 'value' of our housing rising rapidly thanks to a cheap loan regime set into motion by Greenspan! Bankers took advantage of this sub-inflation rate finances from both our central bank and then the Bank of Japan, to flood the US with lending plopped down on top of our housing stock and businesses. This sudden flood of DEBT is our 'wealth'. And this basic misunderstanding of what wealth really is---this is the problem today.

Debt is NOT wealth. If my house rises in value by 50% and I sell it, if I owe no money on that rise in value, I am 'richer' but only if I live poorer! In other words, if I move into another house of equal quality, I end up with 0% profit! If I downsize or move to a much cheaper place and buy a cheaper house, then I have a profit but it is due to downsizing or living at a lower standard. Which is not a profit, either.

What I have done over the years is buy run down houses, fix them up and sell them for another property that needs development. This means I make a profit but it is 'capitalism': I add labor and thus, value, to something. Pure inflation caused by banks lending to anyone who wants loans who then bid up things like housing, stocks, bonds and commodities, is not 'capital'. Speculative wealth is dangerous since it encourages, desires and needs loose lending and thus, inflation. What is produced is far less important than bidding up the paper that represents value.

The present banking collapse is being hit by a decline in housing value but what was bid up in value far beyond its real worth wasn't just housing. It was the bonds issued by the banks that was BACKED by the housing. The actual value of the housing is immaterial. The ability to pay back the loans: that is what matters here. And as this report notes very briefly, wages are falling and we know that it is falling rapidly vis a vis inflation. And inflation is caused by banks issuing too many loans too recklessly and speculators using loans from Japan to play in the commodities and stock markets. And the more commodities rise, the less people are able to pay off loans for housing or buy housing in the first place.

The recent attempt at killing inflation in commodities has not worked. Once again, they are climbing thanks to the huge infusion of funds from central banks. This report, of course, misunderstands all this and talks as if they, the government, who are producing an epic flood of red ink, are not responsible for the problems this report mentions in passing. To them, the red ink they are producing is vanishing ink.

Britain is world's 7th most stable and prosperous nation

The United Kingdom has been ranked as one of the most stable and prosperous countries in the world, beating the United States, France and even Switzerland in a global assessment of every nation’s achievements and standards.

A one-year investigation and analysis of 235 countries and dependent territories has put the UK joint seventh in the premier league of nations. The top ten comprise also the Vatican, Sweden, Luxembourg, Monaco, Gibraltar, San Marino, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands and the Irish Republic.
*snip*
The bottom ten, surprisingly, do not include Iraq. They are listed as Gaza and the West Bank, Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Ivory Coast, Haiti, Zimbabwe, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.

Palestinians live in terrible conditions thanks to their lovely neighbors who just want them to go away. The other nations have either been invaded repeatedly by imperial European or American powers or were victims of centuries of slave raiders or the end destination of slaves from these regions.

Here is the winner's list:

1 Vatican [Elaine: HAHAHA---last time that place was looted, it was by the French King 500 years ago!]

2 Sweden [Elaine: The socialist state!]

3 Luxembourg

4 Monaco

5 Gibraltar

6 San Marino

7 Liechtenstein

8 UK

9 Netherlands

10 Ireland

11 New Zealand

12 Denmark

13 Austria

14 Andorra

15 Germany

16 Iceland

17 Switzerland

18 Portugal

19 Australia

20 Norway

21 Malta

22 France

23 Canada

24 USA

25 Belgium

26 Spain

27 Italy

28 Japan

The vast majority of the nations that are rated high are either pirate coves or part of the House of Brunswick royals in England. England, itself, is not 'rich'. The top layer is quite rich and they use the Queen's cool pirate coves to evade taxes and run banking/speculative schemes. Other nations here are also running various tax haven/money laundering schemes. The ones that are larger than a postage stamp are now having problems caused by the collapse of the banking system in the US and England. Iceland, for example, is suddenly having problems. Their currency is rapidly falling and the flood of easy money that flowed in is now flowing out as frantic hedge fund hell hounds and pirates try to recapitalize their sinking funds.

Other nations on this list are oil pumping nations with low population levels. But if we go to Norway, for example, we discover the people there are not living high off the hog at all. In the US, thanks to easy lending, we drive big, fat cars and live in big, fat houses. This isn't true in Norway. As for 'stability': many nations on this list were totally destroyed by war in the last 75 years! This isn't very stable.

The Arab kingdoms didn't make this list because they are 'bad' unlike other, equally bad nations. This is a judgement call, of course. Even when they have socialist policies where income is distributed. I wanted to include this list because the President's report loves to pretend the US is the best nation on earth. And this is just plain silly. And talking about silly, time to look at Greenspan's latest speech:

We will never have a perfect model of risk

By Alan Greenspan

The current financial crisis in the US is likely to be judged in retrospect as the most wrenching since the end of the second world war. It will end eventually when home prices stabilise and with them the value of equity in homes supporting troubled mortgage securities.
*snip*
The crisis will leave many casualties. Particularly hard hit will be much of today’s financial risk-valuation system, significant parts of which failed under stress. Those of us who look to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholder equity have to be in a state of shocked disbelief. But I hope that one of the casualties will not be reliance on counterparty surveillance, and more generally financial self-regulation, as the fundamental balance mechanism for global finance.

The problems, at least in the early stages of this crisis, were most pronounced among banks whose regulatory oversight has been elaborate for years. To be sure, the systems of setting bank capital requirements, both economic and regulatory, which have developed over the past two decades will be overhauled substantially in light of recent experience. Indeed, private investors are already demanding larger capital buffers and collateral, and the mavens convened under the auspices of the Bank for International Settlements will surely amend the newly minted Basel II international regulatory accord. Also being questioned, tangentially, are the mathematically elegant economic forecasting models that once again have been unable to anticipate a financial crisis or the onset of recession.

Far from shocked disbelief, a number of people who write about economics online are not shocked but enraged about the stream of lies and deceptions that poured out of Greenspan, our government and the banking system for the last 7 years if not much longer! Greenspan and his gang all pushed our concerns aside and still do this. And note how this man still embraces 'self-control'! Like the President's Report which embraces free trade even as it kills us, he continues to believe that people tempted by greed can exercise self-control!

And this man is a liar! He thinks this started in the parts of the system that were the most controlled? What? I saw this begin at the offshore pirate coves! The lending of easy money to homeowners, for example, wasn't from the classic banking system! Countrywide is a recent bank-lending system that basically operated outside of the present upper-tier banking system. This is why it grew so very fast in very few years! They disregarded the older banking laws. On top of this, Greenspan's libertarian buddies eliminated all the rules and regulations! Far from over-regulated, all regulations were collapsing! And they loved this! And want more of this!

So, as Greenspan stands in the center of the mess he created, he thinks more of the same is called for? Talk about lunacy.

Greenspan:

I do not say that the current systems of risk management or econometric forecasting are not in large measure soundly rooted in the real world. The exploration of the benefits of diversification in risk-management models is unquestionably sound and the use of an elaborate macroeconometric model does enforce forecasting discipline. It requires, for example, that saving equal investment, that the marginal propensity to consume be positive, and that inventories be non-negative. These restraints, among others, eliminated most of the distressing inconsistencies of the unsophisticated forecasting world of a half century ago.

But these models do not fully capture what I believe has been, to date, only a peripheral addendum to business-cycle and financial modelling – the innate human responses that result in swings between euphoria and fear that repeat themselves generation after generation with little evidence of a learning curve. Asset-price bubbles build and burst today as they have since the early 18th century, when modern competitive markets evolved. To be sure, we tend to label such behavioural responses as non-rational. But forecasters’ concerns should be not whether human response is rational or irrational, only that it is observable and systematic. [Elaine: Greenspan needs a mirror. People who cause both bubbles and panics always refuse to see themselves as the agent and enabler of these events.]

This, to me, is the large missing “explanatory variable” in both risk-management and macroeconometric models. Current practice is to introduce notions of “animal spirits”, as John Maynard Keynes put it, through “add factors”. That is, we arbitrarily change the outcome of our model’s equations. Add-factoring, however, is an implicit recognition that models, as we currently employ them, are structurally deficient; it does not sufficiently address the problem of the missing variable.

Generational waves explains how fools who are greedy always push aside sober, careful people. When the last person who remembers past disasters dies, the newer generation undo all the laws and regulations that prevent these excesses. Once the last rule created in the wake of the previous total collapse is removed, they immediately run things all the way up and cause a new major collapse! This is not 'emotional' but rather, a loss of experience. All the lessons I learned about banking, I learned from survivors of first, the Depression of 1893 and the Great Depression. The warnings from 100 year olds I knew as a child were reinforced by warnings from my father-in-law who was an adult in 1929 and who worked on the Roosevelt rescue team.

The present crop of fools all mock people who saved us last time around. Bernanke thinks he is smarter than my former father-in-law, for example. He preens himself on his magic scheme to save us from our follies: print money! Lend cheap!

Junk Bond Losses Top $35 Billion, JPMorgan Sees More

High-yield, high-risk bonds are off to their worst start ever, and the biggest investors say there's no recovery in sight.

Junk bonds have fallen an average 3.9 percent this year, losing about $35 billion, according to data from Merrill Lynch & Co. indexes. Some funds managed by John Hancock Advisers LLC, OppenheimerFunds Inc. and Fidelity Investments are down more than 7 percent, showing that even the largest investors were caught off guard by the collapse.

While the Federal Reserve has slashed benchmark interest rates by 3 percentage points since September, it has been unable to get investors to increase their purchases of the riskiest assets. The declines are choking off financing for speculative- grade companies, boosting defaults. The debt is likely to ``struggle'' for months as the economy enters a recession, according to JPMorgan Securities Inc., the top high-yield research firm in Institutional Investor magazine's annual poll.

Want to fix junk bonds? HAHAHA. Even they call these crummy things 'junk'! People play with fire because they can make money fast this way! Except in down markets. Then junk turns to crap. And anyone who plays with them gets burned! Do we rescue these junk bonds and the speculators who played with them? Are we nuts? If they want safe bonds, they can buy them...LAST YEAR. Instead, they rolled the dice. This is a situation that calls for cold-hearted measures: too bad, suckers. You lose.

Instead, Bernanke will be out there, trying to save these miscreants. And this is why our system is doomed: we cannot save every fool who tried to make a killing. They have to die by the sword because they lived by the sword. If we want a safe system, all the Fed LLP has to do is raise interest rates. A la Volker.

Dollar’s painful role in rebalancing the economy

How cheap? Based on International Monetary Fund purchasing power parity calculations for the end of 2007, much of the euro area is between 15 per cent and 30 per cent more expensive than the US, while Australia, Canada and New Zealand are all about 30 per cent pricier by this measure. For the latter group of Anglo-Saxon countries, the currency rate deviations from PPP are at all-time extremes.

So how much cheaper will the US become, and how much should “value” count in currency forecasts?

Fiat currencies, backed by nothing more than the monetary authority, do not have an esteemed place in history for holding their value. Since the fall of Bretton Woods in 1973, a rolling dollar investment in a one-year US Treasury bill has yielded less than half the value of an investment in the “barbaric relic” that Keynes dubbed gold. Gold barbarians are among those now banging at the US central bankers’ gate, pronouncing the dollar a victim of past excess liquidity and easy money.

Warren Buffett has spoken of policies that have force-fed overseas investors “a few billion” dollars a day. But the ultimate “value investor” has yet to see value in the US dollar.

A long article about the dollar. The misunderstanding here is, the ultimate value of any currency is supposed to be its relation to TRADE and DEBT. If both run out of control, the money is supposed to 'reset' at a lower value. This is pure hogwash. All central banks manipulate their balances to keep up as much one-way trade as possible. Of course, in the case of the US, our central bankers do this to make trade and debts WORSE. This is why our nation is going downhill. And every one of our 'friends' want us to do more of this. A bad thing. Which no one is trying to stop or even slow down.

Iceland Lifts Key Rate to 15% at Unscheduled Meeting

Iceland's central bank raised its key interest rate by a record 1.25 percentage points at an emergency meeting to halt a slump in the krona and a surge in inflation. The currency made its biggest ever jump against the euro.

Sedlabanki raised the repo rate to 15 percent, the Reykjavik- based bank said on its Web site today. It hadn't planned to hold a rate meeting until April 10. It was ``crucial'' to reverse the krona's decline ``as quickly as possible,'' the bank said.

The krona tumbled 17 percent against the euro in the past three weeks on concern that the global financial turmoil would make it harder for Iceland to finance one of the world's largest current account deficits. The country risks ``spiraling'' wages and inflation if that decline isn't pared, the central bank said. Inflation reached a one-year high of 6.8 percent last month.

See? Their currency is going down due to too much debts! No one cares. But if we try to deal with this, the world goes into action to assure us, we don't need to stop our red ink problems. But we must ignore this and still do it. So what do our rulers think we should do to fix things?

How's Social Security, Medicare?

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration renewed calls for action to overhaul Social Security and Medicare, as trustees of the nation's two largest entitlement programs sounded the alarm again about their long-term financial challenges. But with an election looming, Congress will likely leave the issue to the next president.

These criminals have increased military spending every year this last 7 years. And their fixes all involve starving Americans to death or killing us in other ways. They can't see any other solution. If we all drop dead, this would please them. They are even tempted to shove us into a war and kill us that way, too! While making huge profits via the sales of very expensive weapons which get destroyed instantly. This is why I worry about WWIII all the time. These people are so cruel, so short sighted and demented, they would be seriously tempted to do this terrible thing to us. Just so they can make a few more pennies.

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[rockpaperscizzors]

Another refreshing voice in the wilderness--From Der Spiegel:

THE BANK ROBBERS

Finance CEOs in Freefall as Subprime Losses Mount
By Frank Hornig
The subprime crisis has dealt a huge blow to the financial industry. As a nervous Wall Street waits to see the full extent of the damage, CEOs are under pressure to explain what went wrong -- and to justify their plump salaries....The case is symptomatic of the worldview, self-image and the day-to-day reality of many top bankers, especially in the mecca of high finance, Manhattan. They were once the kings of the world, the bonus gods and rainmakers, the super-rich in the cosmos of big money -- simultaneously employees and kings.

Their equity capital was ultimately nothing but a promise: the promise of reputable financial transactions and the pledge that everything would go well in the debits-and-credits world of global finance. But nothing went well. For a long time -- far too long -- the public was appeased, the industry was glorified and promises were made, and the underlying problems were covered up with lies.

Since last summer, however, the entire industry has increasingly proved to be little more than a gambling den. Part of what was being gambled away was the trust that customers and small investors invested along with their money. Many bets were lost. So was a lot of money -- and even more trust.

The gentlemen in their pinstriped suits proved to be bank robbers.

Record sums went up in smoke. In the second half of 2007, Citigroup alone had to write off more than $24 billion (€15.4 billion) in bad debt as a result of its speculative ventures. No gang of thieves could ever steal that much money from a bank vault.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,543536,00.html

The eternal question "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" Elaine, you were one of the few who first heard the sound. Now that all the trees are being felled the cacophony of "TIMBER" is being heard worldwide.

[Rob]

A friend in Nigeria told me he just got this email from a email address in the U.S.:

From:Mr Ben S. Bernanke

Tel: 234-80-33058356
Fax:234-1-7591112

ATTENTION MANAGING DIRECTOR.

I am Mr Ben S. Bernanke of the Federal Reserve of
Finance U.S., an economist by profession and
also currently Chairman of recovery fund set up by the
Federal Government in conjunction with the
IMF and World Bank. A presidential committee
on derivatives contract payment was inaugurated last year,
after the visit of Bear Sterns and JP Morgan CEOs.

The aim of the committee is to verify delays of non-
payment of free money loans due to
successive economic instability and inconsistency in
their policies expediting financial speculation where sagacity
was needed.

In view of this, we discovered a lot of money floating
without claim from any of our bond auctions.

These was as a result of private FRB decision to award
part of the 30 Billion dollars in smaller awards
in money worth $120,000,000 ( one hundred and
twenty million dollars) and determined by blind auction process
to a savings accounts overseas or domestic for disbursement.

Therefore, I was mandated to negotiated with a domestic or foreign
partners who will be trusted to keep the secret of the
deal to transfer the money to his or her account
within 14 days of approval. This was as a result of
our inability to own account overseas since we are
still serving civil servants. In view of this, your
company name will be gazetted for immediate payment,
your banking particulars will be required for approval
for transfer by the Federal Reseve Bank of America (FRBA).

Confirm the receipt of this letter for immediate
answer for acceptance. You have only 25% of the total
sum transferred and received by you. Call me
immediately as soon as you receive this message by
phone or E-mail.

Yours Faithfully,

Mr. Ben S. Bernanke.

[rockpaperscizzors]

Paulson warns US house prices must plunge
The US Treasury Secretary gave warning today that there is more pain ahead in the American housing market after he said prices must be allowed to drop before the economy can stabilise.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article3627054.ece

Lets see, homes were artificially inflated deliberately to doubled, tripled, and quadrupled prices to line the pockets of the greedy investment and comerical banks, lenders, speculators, etc... And our GDP that hinges on 78% consumerism would be propped up via home equity loans. Keep the economy running as jobs flew out of the country via NAFTA and WTO and imports crammed our closets and drawers full of chinese crapola. Not to mention wars and a out of control pentagon budget and tax cuts for the wealthy. Fortified and defended tax-free havens for the greedy bastards who cooked up this ruse. Now the schmucks-US homeowners- are to bend over and grab our ankles and bite the bullet again in losing whatever home equity is left as the housing prices depreciate and commodities inflate due to the Feds generous discount window as the banks borrow and dump into gold, oil, and grains.

Heaven forbid if instead they raise people's wages and offer higher interest rates for savers. Or better yet, roundup a posse and hunt down all them bank robbers. thieves, and liars, and bring em' to the justice tree. What the heck we're living in an era of BANKS GONE WILD, might as well impose WILD WEST JUSTICE.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

[GK]

Hi Elaine, have you seen these foreign ownership statistics for the US industries?

This is the scam, move everything you can offshore, everything else sell off.

Elaine, as a literary person, you must know the story of Madame Bovary. The wealthy wife (US Public) of a town doctor (USA) is loaded up with debt by the sneaky town vendor (Fed, Wall Street), then he pulls a margin call and she runs away with wealthy foreigner (China) goes crazy and commits suicide (US fighting WWIII).

Quite simply, I would say the Rothschild family is pulling the "Madame Bovary Plan" on the USA.

http://economicrot.blogspot.com/

Foreign ownership percentages of Selected US Industries:

* Sound recording industries 97%
* Commodity contracts and brokerage 79%
* Motion picture sound industries 75%
* Metal ore mining 65%
* Motion picture and video 64%
* Wineries and distilleries 64%
* Database and other publishers 63%
* Book publishers 63%
* Cement, concrete, lime product 62%
* Engine, turbine and power 57%
* Rubber product 53%
* Nonmetallic mineral product 53%
* Plastics and rubber products 52%

Article below also from his site Economy In Crisis

America in is a major state of decline. Few realize its causes & the source of our problems. This email alert will highlight one main reason for our inability to be able to compete, our inability to support ourselves, and for our rapidly declining living standard -- N.A.F.T.A.

[MILO]

AND NO MENTION OF THE TAX BREAKS THE LOCALLY BOUGHT GOVERNMENT GAVE FOR THEM TO LOCATE "HERE" AND CHANGE AND SABOTAGE THE LOCAL ECONOMYS WHILE TAXING AWAY THE LOCAL POPULATIONS AS A LAND THEFT SCHEME AND METHOD TO "BUY" MORE LANDS AND ENCORPORATE THEM INTO THE TAX BREAK CHEAT SCAM...............TREASON STARTING AT THE LEVEL OF LOSS TO/OF THE LOCAL RAILS IN A METHOD TO HOBBLE TRADE FROM/TO THE LOCAL.....ALL LAW HAS BEEN PAID FOR AS A METHOD OF CREATING A HINDERANCE TO/OF COMPETION.......OF THE TRUE "RULING ELITE" THE REAL MONEY "CLASS"

[Elaine Supkis]

Yes, sweetheart deals to foreign powers so they can locate $7 an hour jobs here in America. While American-owned factories move to Asia.

That was the game. And all the profits flow either offshore or to Asia. And Germany, of course. Can't forget them.

[MCC]

Here's another wrinkle in the import/export imbalance: Last night I met two guys here in Oregon who have started a business in which they export used European cars from the US to Europe by way of E-Bay. Two things are fueling this. First the plummeting value of the dollar means that the Europeans can buy things cheaply here. Secondly, Americans have grown increasingly desperate for cash and are willing to part with a European car if it means paying for the absolute necessities. This is increasingly the nature of US exports. We're no longer capable of manufacturing valuable goods, so the only way we keep going is to sell off all of our assets bit by bit. Clearly the operations of our federal government are for sale. And more and more our state and municipal assets, like highways and drinking water, are being privatized too (sold to foreign capitalists). And if you have to sell your old BMW to pay the electric bill, well that's just more of the same. If a couple of guys in Oregon are making a modest living for themselves by selling off American assets, then I have no doubt that Wall Street is already playing this game to the hilt but on a much grander scale. They sure did an effective job of converting our houses into credit "securities" to be sold off to foreign investors. It makes me wonder how much of America is actually owned by Americans anymore.

[AF]

Rob-

Truly well-played sir!

All others-

Yes, god forbid we let the working people of this country get a taste of the wealth they have created for the capitalist pigs.

That's why there is currently more economic mobility in the Scandinavian countries. How dare those filthy social democrats usurp the land of Horatio Alger!

[Bokonon]

Red shoes,

The secret to stability for a country is be run by a man who likes to wear dresses and red shoes. The country should also preferably be surrounded by Italy. The major export is salvation.

Any discussion of Robert Calvi, Banco di Ambrosiano, Archbishop Paul Marcinkus and the idea that the Catholic Church could ever have been involved in money laundering could imperil your immortal soul.

[Market Watcher]

The situation is clear.

To fix the problems we face requires higher interest rates, higher than inflation, which is something in the order of 8-10%. Secondly an accross the board import tariff is necessary. 10% would be a place to start. 30-50% would be more like it.

This is politically impossible now. Lots of people would be much less wealthy very quickly, including many considering themselves middle class. Many businesses would be exposed as bankrupt. Employment would shrink greatly. The banking system as it currently exists could not survive.

[Elaine Supkis]

Either we save the present rotted banking system or we save our nation. A banking system servicing a dead nation is pretty useless. If the nation is bankrupt, it doesn't matter if banks are solvent. Especially if the banks are OFFSHORE banks! They are being saved by destroying our nation.

This is, for me, totally unacceptable. Are Americans going to get good jobs by running up infinite red ink? Ha! Of course not!

The JOBS ARE LOST ALREADY. We might say, 'Dead jobs walking' in this case. Alas. So at some point, we must bit the old bullet. We did this in the past. We can do it in the future. NOT doing it is fatal.

[LT]

Rob - Nice one

[Elaine Supkis]

I agree. Rob's satire is spot on.

[Ed-M]

Yes, it is. Shouldn't be long before Bernanke actually dies this. Then, when people complain, the Republicans might let us arrest him. For mail fraud.

[Ed-M]

Opps... does this, not dies this.

[Elaine Supkis]

Actually, you were correct with the 'dies this'. Heh.

[Ed-M]

Interesting how two words with completely different meanings can mean one and the same, given the right context. ;-)

[Bear of Little Brain]

I seem to remember reading that the Fed Chairman is, effectively, above the law. Couldn't find anything that specific, but came across this:

http://lw.bna.com/lw/19980120/971282.htm

which contains this opinion:

This appeal presents a single question of law: whether the Board
of Governors of the United States Federal Reserve System (the
"Board") can be sued in contract in federal court. The district court found that the doctrine of sovereign immunity shielded the Board from contract suits in federal court and dismissed this case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Because we can find neither an express waiver of sovereign immunity in the Board's governing statutes nor the Board's inclusion in a more general Congressional waiver of immunity, we agree with the district court's finding, and affirm its dismissal of the case.

Another factoid that I remember, but haven't checked, is that the "Axis of Evil" (Iraq, Iran, North Korea) had one particular thing in common - no "proper" central banks. I also recall that the Russian Tsar refused to allow the same. A lot of Wall Street money (maybe from elsewhere as well, I don't know) poured in to support the communist revolution. The Romanov line, of course, was terminated en masse in a cellar. Don't know if Lenin ever established a central bank or not. Draw your own conclusions about the otherwise totally illogical "Axis of Evil".

[Paul S]

Elaine: Thanks for the article, more true but depressing news. The fact that the red ink is deliberately left out is telling though not surprising. (Should we expect honesty from "Dubaya' and his confederates? Silly question). The Bushes know full well what is actually happening; they're just going to dump this mess on the next President. By then, 'Dubaya' will be bunkered down in Crawford and the only decisions he will be making is what kind of BBQ sauce he wants on his chicken. This will ONLY be resolved when the guilty parties face some sort of tangible, REAL punishment. Meaning like being impeached, jailed, sent to prison, etc. The system in my view is so corrupt, it will not fix itself. Rome burned while Nero fiddled and the US of A flushed down the tubes while 'Dubaya' was President. History repeats itself.

[Paul S]

Elaine; I just re-read this article and I agree with you re your concern about WW3. I think this country's ruling class--if they think of it at all--are GROSSLY underestimating their future potential opponents, like Russia and China. With these opponents, this country's ruling class will be facing formidable adversaries. These potential enemies won't be bribed OR intimidated and a corrupt, incompetent Federal government doesn't faze the Chinese or Russians one little bit. Is our ruling class so suprememly arrogant they do not realize this? OR: do they not know that our military resources are--because of 'Dubaya's' self financing war-- severely strained? We would have a tough time going to war with Monaco, let alone a tough, hard nosed potential adversary like China or Russia. Re the Presidents Economic "Report", what do you expect from a President who told us the war would be self-financing, then upped the cost to $50-$100 billion? You would have an easier job with the Presidents report if you searched in the report for things that were true. There are fewer of those and it would save you time. Sorry if this post veers off the topic.

[Dutch]

Mentioning foreign investment do we know who is buying all of these mining companies lately? Is this not hoarding on a global scale?