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POPSU.S. Offshoring and Multinational Corporations Perhaps the ultimate expression of capitalism results in the export of jobs to lowest-cost countries to enable what used to be “American companies”, now multinational corporations that have the sole goal of maximizing their corporate profits. The ultimate political expression has evolved to a sector of the world that is, in effect, ruled by multinational corporations. What is worse is that these multinationals fail to realize that ultimately they are undercutting their own profits and shrinking their own market by underminding their own profit center in formerly prosperous prime economies. The bonus from offshoring can only last so long and is highly subject to proper application and use within a given multinational corporation. Offshoring is not a cure-all for corporate profits, nor a real solution for long-term benefit to anyone. No government contracts should be given to multinational corporations, ever!
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POPSAn Interesting Take On Healthcare What do I have to fear from a public health plan? That they might charge me less or, heavens, that I might pay the same amount, and actually get coverage? Some might say the Corporate Government is more American, because I have the freedom to not buy it. Freedom to go bankrupt if my child gets sick in this bloated, parasitic health care system. Freedom, once I’m bankrupt, to go to the emergency room and foist the costs off on everyone else. Freedom, if I ever get out of bankruptcy again, to pay whatever skyrocketing price my insurance company might happen to be charging five years down the road. That’s the Corporate Government’s idea of freedom. In this modern age, where power abhors a vacuum, you’re always going to have one Government or the other. As your doctor might say, choose your poison.
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POPSGreenback Acres - Growing the Welfare Crop The payments now account for nearly half of the nation's expanding agricultural subsidy system, a complex web that has little basis in fairness or efficiency. What began in the 1930s as a limited safety net for working farmers has swollen into a far-flung infrastructure of entitlements that has cost $172 billion over the past decade. In 2005 alone, when pretax farm profits were at a near-record $72 billion, the federal government handed out more than $25 billion in aid, almost 50 percent more than the amount it pays to families receiving welfare.
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POPSSocialized Farming In rural America, the LDP is a topic at backyard barbecues and local diners along with the high school football team and the weather. Despite its name, it is neither a loan nor, in many cases, payment for a deficiency. It is just cash paid to farmers when market prices dip below the government-set minimum, or floor, if only for a single day. ad_icon The LDP has become so ingrained in farmland finances that farmers sometimes wish for market prices to drop so they can capture a larger subsidy. "Most smart farmers are cashing in on it," said Bruce A. Babcock, director of the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University. "It shows me that farmers are being overcompensated."
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POPSInsurers Fight Public Health Plan
The worst-case scenario from the insurance industry's standpoint? The government mandates individual coverage, but also creates a public plan offering consumers a better deal, and drawing them away from the private companies. When nine of 10 Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee sent a letter to President Obama on June 8 opposing the public-option plan, they argued that such a move could destroy private insurers. "Washington-run programs undermine market-based competition through their ability to impose price controls and shift costs to other purchasers," they wrote. "Forcing free market plans to compete with these government-run programs would create an unlevel playing field and inevitably doom true competition." The nine signers have received $2.6 million from HMOs/health services and health and accident insurers to their candidate committees and leadership PACs since 1989. Of them, Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) ranks 11th among all current members of Congress to get $$.
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POPSThey Thought They Were Free 4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized. 5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution. 6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common. 7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
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POPSWorld's Smallest Political Quiz Take the test here: http://www.theadvocates.org/quizp/index.html This clip was my personal result, on which, if I am not mistaken, my dot has moved!? Different tests though.
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POPSEver Wish Obama Was More Like Reagan? Even Ford and Carter did a better job at cutting government. Their combined presidential terms account for an increase of 1.4%—compared with Reagan's 3%—in the government's take of "national income." And in nominal terms, there has been a 60% increase in government spending, thanks mainly to Reagan's requested budgets, which were only marginally smaller than the spending Congress voted. The budget for the Department of Education, which candidate Reagan promised to abolish along with the Department of Energy, has more than doubled to $22.7 billion, Social Security spending has risen from $179 billion in 1981 to $269 billion in 1986. The price of farm programs went from $21.4 billion in 1981 to $51.4 billion in 1987, a 140% increase. And this doesn't count the recently signed $4 billion "drought-relief" measure. Medicare spending in 1981 was $43.5 billion; in 1987 it hit $80 billion. Federal entitlements cost $197.1 billion in 1981—and $477 billion in 1987. (Written in 1988)
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POPSGlenn Beck Warns Of People Like Hannity, Beck: Stay Away There is another video at the source, of Hannity. In it he states "a select group of unconfirmed, unvetted, individuals are now at the helm of a SHADOW GOVERNMENT right here in the US." "To his defense, this clip is from June 9th, 2009, and his book was published June 16th, 2009, so maybe he did not have a chance to read his own words, or simply forgot what he wrote. Should America believe anything that comes out of their mouths? They speak of one thing only to preach another. They warn of shadow governments only to promote the idea. Essentially, Glenn Beck has written in his book that he cannot be trusted. "
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POPSHow Dare They Call It Socialism! We spend more than double than the entire rest of the world, taxpayer dollars given to a government entity "for the health and "safety" of all citizens." "Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes … known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.… No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare." — James Madison, Political Observations, 1795
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POPSEnumerated Powers Act "This measure would enforce a constant and ongoing re-examination of the role of our national government," he said. "… It is simply intended to require a scrutiny that we should look at what we enact and that, by doing so, we can slow the growth and reach of the Federal Government, and leave to the states or the people, those functions that were reserved to them by the Constitution."
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POPSSinister Plot To Bilk U.S. Taxpayers a $7.4 Trillion Success! It should be noted that the amount of money pledged is equivalent to $24,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. It’s nine times what the U.S. has spent so far on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Congressional Budget Office figures. It could pay off more than half the country’s mortgages.
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POPSWill Obama Stop The Goldman to Gov't Express? Specifically, Grassley is concerned about a tax code change that paved the way for the acquisition of Wachovia by Wells Fargo. An ex-Goldman executive was leading Wachovia at the time of that deal. Here's the answer he'll get from Treasury and Paulson: these are dangerous times and anything that was done was for the good of the country. In other words, they'll drag out the old national security argument. Grassley will become a minnow in the next Democrat-controlled Congress. But the Democrats need to take up the baton, turn it into a club and see just what Paulson has been up to. As I've written before, Paulson has admitted that part of his job was to keep in touch with "market participants." Calling his friends on Wall Street - and especially at Goldman - would be an odd extension of the role of Treasury secretary and I certainly would like to know what he felt compelled to tell these folks.
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POPSHold the Gold But there's another more puzzling aspect to the recent gold rush. Even as the demand for gold coins such as the Canadian Maple Leaf or the Krugerrand of South Africa has grown, the market price of the precious metal itself is off its highs. In early October, the price of an ounce of gold on the spot market was about $930 an ounce. With the commodities bubble bursting in recent months, gold declined into the upper $600 range. Spot gold closed yesterday at $739.90, down $2.60. Bill Murphy, chairman of the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee, says the price of spot gold is even more perplexing given the demand for coins and the fact that central banks in Europe have stopped selling gold into the open market.
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POPSUS Asks Germany To Join in Bailout Nein, say the wise Germans. Still, the financial crisis has already reached German shores, and banks here have had to announce write-downs of nearly €40 billion ($58.5 billion). "German banks are already sufficiently involved in the calamity," says Stefan Kooths of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) in Berlin. Either way, experts estimate that half of America's bad loans were sold abroad -- and a large part of that was assumed by Germans. And now the money is gone. "There's no reason why Germany should have to bear even more burdens," says Kooths. Experts have also criticized the American rescue package for a number of other reasons. Diemo Dietrich from the Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH) doesn't think the plan is well-balanced: "The government is only buying bad risks and, in doing so, nationalizing the losses." Dietrich adds that taxpayers won't share in any of the profits that the government hopes the stabilized market will bring about in the long ru
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POPSWall Street Fascism How shallow it was; how shallow it remains. The question is, How many times can the government race its emergency bailout vehicle toward the cliff without dragging the entire economy irretrievably into the abyss of outright socialism or full-fledged, Mussolini-style economic fascism?
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POPSIn 2002 (!!!!) An Attempt to Save The Coming Market Crisis Was Made Mr. Speaker, it is time for Congress to act to remove taxpayer support from the housing GSEs before the bubble bursts and taxpayers are once again forced to bail out investors misled by foolish government interference in the market. I therefore hope my colleagues will stand up for American taxpayers and investors by cosponsoring the Free Housing Market Enhancement Act.
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POPSBailout Blowback Warning in 2003! One of the major government privileges granted to GSEs is a line of credit with the United States Treasury. According to some estimates, the line of credit may be worth over $2 billion dollars. This explicit promise by the Treasury to bail out GSEs in times of economic difficulty helps the GSEs attract investors who are willing to settle for lower yields than they would demand in the absence of the subsidy. Thus, the line of credit distorts the allocation of capital. More importantly, the line of credit is a promise on behalf of the government to engage in a huge unconstitutional and immoral income transfer from working Americans to holders of GSE debt. The Free Housing Market Enhancement Act also repeals the explicit grant of legal authority given to the Federal Reserve to purchase GSE debt. GSEs are the only institutions besides the United States Treasury granted explicit statutory authority to monetize their debt through the Federal Reserve.
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POPSOnce Again...This is Not Capitalism “I think that we’ve got to keep people in their homes,” McCain declared in an interview aired Sunday on the CBS news program “Face the Nation.” He continued: “There’s got to be restructuring, there’s got to be reorganization, and there’s got to be some confidence that we’ve stopped this downward spiral.” Obama proclaimed that the takeover should not be used to “protect investors and speculators who relied on the government to reap massive profits,” while McCain denounced “executives were making hundreds of—some billion dollars a year while things were going downhill.” The Republican candidate acknowledged, “This is the kind of cronyism, corruption, that’s made people so justifiably angry.” All of this is empty demagogy. The speculation, cronyism and corruption that pervaded the operations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are emblematic of the parasitism and criminality of the America’s ruling financial elite as a whole.
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POPSHYPERINFLATION (read, watch, learn) In late 1923, Germany undertook a monetary reform creating a new unit of currency called the rentenmark. The German government promised that the new currency could be converted on demand into a bond having a certain value in gold. Proponents of the standard answer argue that the guarantee of convertibility is properly viewed as a promise to cease the rapid issue of money. An alternative view held by some economists is that not just monetary reform, but also fiscal reform, is needed to end a hyperinflation. According to this view a successful reform entails two believable commitments on the part of government. The first is a commitment to halt the rapid growth of paper money. The second is a commitment to bring the government's budget into balance. This second commitment is necessary for a successful reform because it removes, or at least lessens, the incentive for the government to resort to inflationary taxation.
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POPSHousing Bill Passes Ron Paul has a very educational speech on this "bailout" Go here to watch, the video is in the upper right hand corner "Congressman Paul talks about the Housing Bill". http://www.house.gov/paul/index.shtml
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POPSYou Owe $455,000 * “People seem to think the government has money,” said former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker. “The government doesn’t have any money“ * The United States Department of the Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget published a report stating that the U.S. cannot grow our way out of the government’s liabilities, that the liabilities are quickly growing, and that failing to take drastic and immediate action would lead to very bad consequences (the report was written in 2006) * The International Monetary Fund - which oversees third-world economies - are so concerned about the solvency of the U.S. economy that they are conducting a complete audit of the whole US financial system If you owed $455,000, you might very well have to file for bankruptcy, unless you had some rich uncle who could bail you out. But if your uncle had bailed you out numerous times in the past and if you had consistently broke your promises to re-pay him - he’d probably cut you off
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