1
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."
4
POPSLegalized Bribery in American Politics Just one in a thousand adult Americans contributed $1,000 or more to any candidate in the last election, yet candidates for the 2004 presidential nomination raised more than 80 percent of their individual investments from these elites. In other words, with regard to using money to influence presidential candidates, 0.1% of Americans account for 80% of the influence. 2300 energy companies lobbied Congress between 1998 and 2004, with $984 million paid for lobbyists. Why pay a lobbyist $300,000? Because it’s a great investment, of course. Does anyone believe the legal fiction that the purpose of a lobbyist is to educate politicians on the issues? Of course not. Those huge bucks are paid out for skilled middle-men and women to discreetly (or not so discreetly) convey the message that a politician will be handsomely rewarded for screwing over his or her constituents in favor of the lobbyist’s employer.
1
POPSALMOST ARMAGEDDON (?) The injection of capital into the market was followed up by calls from Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to major money market players like Bank of New York Mellon and State Street in Boston informing them that federal money was in the market and they should tell their clients the Feds would be back with a plan to stem the constriction in the credit market. Paulson knew the $105 billion injection was not a real solution. A broader, more radical answer was needed. Hours after Paulson made his round of calls to calm the industry, word leaked out that an added $1 trillion bailout of banks was being readied. Investors cheered. At about 3 p.m., news of the plans was filtering up and down Wall Street, fueling a 700-point advance in the Dow Jones industrial average through 4 p.m. Friday. By that time, Paulson had announced the plan.
0
POPSFiat Money Inflation in France Notes: 1. Well-informed people will notice this "special request" edition was published only two years prior to the third affliction upon the American people and their currency of a "national bank", this time re-named the "Federal Reserve", and thus adding irony to the hoax by characterizing it as something other than a privately owned bank with an unlimited license to create money out of thin air by simply turning on the printing press (it's only significant asset) upon the agreement of 12 persons. # This work was plainly issued to discourage Congress from indulging the age-old fantasy of rulers that they can "control" the monetary unit in a responsible way. That no government has ever accomplished this does not dissuade elected dreamers from entertaining this fantasy. We took this work from a publicly available "text" source, obviously generated by word processing software and thus clutttered with unreadable special characters.
1
POPS Buried Loot a Mystery for Authorities The money is always the same - decaying $100 bills from the 1970s and 1980s. It's the story that keeps changing: _It was an inheritance. _Somebody dug up a tree and there it was. _It was found in a suitcase buried in an alfalfa field. _A relative found a treasure map. (AP) Eric Walsh examines water damaged U.S. currency at the Mutilated Currency Division of the Treasury... Full Image No matter where it came from or who found it, that buried treasure stands to make someone rich. It could also send someone to jail. Felhaber is a customs broker, a middleman. His company, F.C. Felhaber & Co., is just minutes away from the bridge between El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Tens of billions of dollars of Mexican goods cross that bridge each year, aided by people such as Felhaber who navigate the customs bureaucracy. Customs brokers don't own the stuff that comes into the United States. They just make sure it gets here.
2
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.
2
POPSMore "Free" Money! More economic proposals to come: Obama in his speech criticized his Republican rival, John McCain, for proposing to extend all of President Bush's 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. But Obama himself has taken a page from Bush's playbook on taxes. Obama has pledged to keep the tax cuts in place for everyone except those making roughly $250,000 and up. He has also made proposals to cut taxes further for the middle class, some of which he reiterated in his speech: exempt seniors making less than $50,000 from having to pay income tax; give a tax credit worth up to $500 per working person ($1,000 per family) to offset the Social Security tax on the first $8,100 of earnings; and expand the earned income tax credit. To boost retirement savings, he has also proposed a 50% federal match on the first $1,000 of savings for families that earn under $75,000. ****Vote 4 Me, I'll give you more free money!
4
POPSStart Hoarding Now? "I think for that reason, probably sometime in the next year or two, you're going to see the government trying to combat this, either through price controls on certain products, or through official government limitations on the number or the quantity of things that people can buy. All of this is coming, because the government is going to be focused on the symptoms and not the disease. They're going to focus on rising prices, whether it's for food or oil or whatever, and try to stop prices from rising, without understanding that they are rising because of all the money that they're creating." It's crazy how the government wants to interfere with prices. They're going to look at oil prices and food prices and say hey these prices are too high; we need to limit them with price ceilings. But now they look at house prices and say, oh no, house prices are not high enough, we need to stop them from falling."
0
POPSGov't Regulating the Market Is Not The Answer "A Government Failure, not the market's". Who will correct this? Both Obama and McCain believe Government regulation is needed for when markets fail. Both are either ignorant of or compliant with the root causes. Thomas Jefferson was concise in his early warning to the American nation, "If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
4
POPSCharity Begins at Home Clients Diebold and the American Association of Nude Recreation really rather stuck out for me in this article! WT#!?? This year, most of Senator McCain’s contributions were made to the John and Cindy McCain Family Foundation. Nice of him to donate to his own charity, while he was also taking $23,000 in Social Security money, but I am sure he needed that extra government paycheck!
1
POPS Comprehensive Economic Revitalization Plan Here are a few of the plan's basics: Eliminate Taxes on Social Security Benefits. That money belongs to seniors, not the government. They paid into the system for a lifetime, and they should be free to spend every penny as they see fit. * Pass H.R. 192 to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal the 1993 increase in taxes on Social Security benefits. # Eliminate Taxes on Tips.The single parents and working students who earn their income chiefly through tips deserve to keep all of their money. This tax on "estimated income" is unfair and should be ended. * Pass H.R. 3664 to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide that tips shall not be subject to income or employment taxes. Reduce Overseas Military Commitments. Our bases and troops should be on our soil. * It's time to stop subsidizing our trading partners in Europe, Japan and South Korea.
7
POPSI.O.U. Thomas Jefferson lobbied vehemently against the central bank stating it was contrary to the Constitution.In 1826, the second bank's charter was soon to expire and presidential candidate Andrew Jackson campaigned strongly against a central bank, which was owned and operated by the international banking element. Here is Jackson's opinion of those bankers: "You are a den of vipers. I intend to wipe you out, and by the Eternal God I will rout you out...If people only understood the rank injustice of the money and banking system, there would be a revolution by morning." President Kennedy had printed $4 billion worth of non-interest bearing money, which meant he began to chop at the profits of the vultures. Interest free money means the national debt is eliminated and the power of the international banking element is broken. But he was murdered, as we all know. Kennedy wanted to abolish the Fed.
1
POPSLife of A Billionaire He can make money whatever way he wants, I have no problem with people doing well for themselves...it is this part, "Meanwhile, his tax rate is lower than teachers, firemen, nurses, even his own cleaning staff!" that I take issue with.
Newest Clips
see Newest Clips
1
Latest Pops
Latest Comments
Most Pops
Tags
Print
Save
Turn on live update