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Obama is looting the Treasury to pay off insurers
February 21, 2016 | 8:00pm
Photo: Reuters
The Obama administration will tell any lie and break any law to prevent the president’s signature health-care program from collapsing.
Insurance companies such as UnitedHealthcare and Aetna are losing billions trying to sell ObamaCare plans, and the risk is they’ll drop out at the end of 2016. No insurance companies means no ObamaCare.
In 2014, the White House tried to avert that disaster by promising insurers a taxpayer-funded bailout, but public outrage and quick action by Sen. Marco Rubio put a stop to it. Now the administration is at it again.
Desperate to keep insurers on board, the administration scrambled to find another pot of money. Unfortunately, once again, a big part of that money pot belongs to the public.
President Obama doesn’t seem to care. On Feb. 12, the administration announced that the money will be handed out to insurers — a whopping $7.7 billion this year alone.
But it’s not just expensive: That huge handout to the insurance industry is also illegal.
This is money you and everyone else who already has insurance are forced to pay, called a reinsurance fee. You pay the fee whether you buy your own plan or get covered at work, even if your employer self-insures. You may be clueless about it, but the fee is buried in your premium or taken out of your compensation.
The text of the Affordable Care Act is clear as a bell on what this money can be used for.
Some of these annual fees — adding up to billions a year — belong to the public, not the insurance companies. The law states a fixed share “shall be deposited into the general fund of the Treasury of the United States and may not be used” to offset insurance companies’ losses.
But the administration gave all of it to the insurance companies last year, and got away with that heist. So now they’re trying it again.
Anyone in the corporate world who misused funds that way would be headed to prison. This rogue administration is going to any length — including running afoul of the law — to keep insurers hooked into ObamaCare.
In the words of University of Houston law professor Seth Chandler, who tried to call attention to the crime several months ago, this is “an illegal diversion of funds . . . to enrich insurers.” Last year alone, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas got $549 million of these reinsurance funds, while Anthem Blue Cross of California got $401 million.
How did this fly under the radar last year? Because no one — especially members of Congress — has read the law. Insurance companies weren’t about to object to getting more money than the law allows.
Plus, the announcements of these payments were buried in mind-numbing federal agency releases. The latest such disclosure came late last Friday — heading into a holiday weekend.
This week, a few health scholars took notice, including Galen Institute senior fellow Doug Badger. He says the illegal maneuver is “designed to keep a sinking ship from hitting rock bottom.”
ObamaCare was sold on lies: You can keep your health plan if you like it. And keep your doctor if you like your doctor. Then, once it was passed, the administration resorted to a long string of lawless executive actions to keep an unworkable scheme going, despite the damage being done to employers, doctors and consumers.
The administration’s diversion of public funds to its insurance-company cronies is just the latest defiance of the law.
The president has illegally delayed the employer mandate repeatedly. He’s handing out free ObamaCare plans to illegal immigrants. Statutory deadlines are routinely ignored, and funds are slyly shifted from one program to another — the law be damned.
Ultimately, ObamaCare is imperiling not only our health and our nation’s economic growth, but even our nation’s most precious asset — the rule of law.
Betsy McCaughey is the author of “Beating Obamacare” and a senior fellow at the London Center for Policy Research.
AND WORSE, (If anything could be worse)!
Awful, just awful… what a lawless administration.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/431676/obama-administration-enabling-noncitizen-voting
Several well-funded organizations — including the League of Women Voters and the NAACP — are fighting efforts to prevent non-citizens from voting illegally in the upcoming presidential election. And the United States Department of Justice, under the direction of Attorney General Loretta Lynch, is helping them.
On February 12, these groups filed a lawsuit in D.C. federal court seeking to reverse a recent decision by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC). The Commission’s decision allows Kansas and other states, including Arizona and Georgia, to enforce state laws ensuring that only citizens register to vote when they use a federally designed registration form. An initial hearing in the case is set for Monday afternoon, February 22.
A NOTE ABOUT THE APPLE I-PHONE CONTROVERSY:
To see this in perspective, we have to go back to the Snowdon Controversy! Did Snowdon commit a crime? Yes! Was his crime a public service? Yes!
If you don’t believe we are living under a lawless government, after reading this far, then you are asleep and I hope you wake up in time! The wimps in the media (propaganda machine) keep you thinking that the Apple Controversy is about one phone! IT IS NOT! As Snowdon proved, we do not have any privacy from “Big Brother” except for this latest model of I-phone by Apple.
We need to ask, “Why didn’t the FBI take this phone to Apple before they caused it to lock-up?” Seventy times in the past, the FBI prevailed upon Apple to help them with phones that had not reached the “locked-up” stage. Apple always cooperated. I’m not very tech savvy, but listening to those that are, I found out that for Apple to get into this phone at this stage would open up the flood gate for the destruction of the last vestige of privacy left in the tech world.
If privacy is so important for the ability to murder a baby in the womb, then maybe “We the People” should be allowed this one little area of privacy.
Let’s face it, Apple is the one system that hackers from China, Russia, North Korea, Isis and other enemies of privacy have not been able to penetrate! As Snowdon proved, NOTHING IS PRIVATE ANYMORE, except this one tiny area!
Will Apple win? Probably not, because the “sheeple” believe what they are told by the media! Apple will cave and the NSA will now be able to spy on this tiny island of privacy left to “We the People.”
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What’s Killing White People? The answer is easy, Liberalism! First read the excerpt from the article in
The NY Times:
https://tpc.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-2/js/ext.js
The documents have been released and the truth is staggering. For years now Al Gore has been spearheading the crusade of global warming alarmism to the masses, holding seminars, clean energy initiatives, and even unveiling a critically acclaimed documentary.
The real “Inconvenient Truth” behind global warming? It is all a lie.
Al Gore spreads “global warming” propaganda for his own profit.
Have you been duped?
Imagine, for a moment, sitting at a prestigious steakhouse in Palm Beach, Florida, a hot spot for some of the wealthiest and most famous — Donald Trump, Tiger Woods, Oprah Winfrey, James Patterson, Rush Limbaugh, and hundreds more.
And, imagine dining with a handful of men you’ve only read about. Some of them are worth millions, others published best-selling books, and some have held prominent positions at the White House.
In essence, you’re sitting at a five-person table of VIPs.
Tom Luongo has worked extensively with the University of Florida on making crop yields more productive for third world countries, creating an intermetallic coating for gun barrels that dropped maintenance requirements on firearms by half, and assisting in the development of cures for diseases.
You’re about to take a bite of your New York strip when one of the men, a top U.S. intelligence agent, slams a 164-page document in the middle of the table.
This document, you soon find out, contains damning evidence that a network of politicians, corporations, and scientists have conspired together to promote the fear of “global warming” . . .
Despite evidence clearly stating no such “global warming” exists.
The motive: $22 billion per year.
That’s $22 billion of taxpayers’ money . . . to stop the “global warming” epidemic.
That comes out to $41,856 every minute.
That’s twice as much as what our government spends on securing our borders.
My name is Tom Luongo, and in the following few pages, I am going to show you the alarming research in the document that was laid before me that night in Palm Beach.
The man who put this document in my hands — the man whom Al Gore is personally attacking . . .
“In 1986, when the space shuttle Challenger tragically exploded, killing seven crew members, John Casey testified before Congress on the cause of the accident. After his testimony, Congress instructed NASA headquarters to bring John in to chair a special internal investigation into why these critical systems failed.”
John is a former White House space program adviser, consultant to NASA headquarters, and space shuttle engineer. He is now one of America’s most successful climate change researchers and climate prediction experts.
John then began looking into the global warming claims.
His findings: The theory that global warming is caused by an increase of greenhouse gases “is the greatest scientific fraud in history, and the evidence is damning.”
You see, John found evidence — buried right in the government’s own environmental studies — that destroys Al Gore’s argument for “global warming.”
Using their own data, John has proven, once and for all, “global warming” is a sham. And perhaps the most expensive — and lethal — sham in American history.
Think about that: Our government spends $22 billion a year of your money financing “global warming” initiatives.
Ask yourself: “Who is benefiting from this?”
Let’s start with Al Gore himself . . .
And he’s not alone.
Current and former presidents, CEOs, Washington representatives, politicians, and big business all have been documented with their hands in the global warming cookie jar.
You can see why green energy is such a profitable business — CEOs and executives get to rake in millions of dollars, while politicians get lucrative donations for their campaigns . . . and scientists get all the funding they need to keep them going . . . all on your dime.
I didn’t believe it either until I saw the evidence John compiled. And even then, it took me hours of talking to John to digest it.
You’ve heard how the earth is rapidly heating up . . . causing drought and mayhem.
For sure, the media jumps on the “global warming” story every time there is a heat wave and each time a hurricane hits the East Coast.
But how much has the world really warmed?
Well, according to NASA’s own data, the world has warmed .36 degrees Fahrenheit over the last 35 years (they started measuring the data in 1979).
I think you would agree that a .36 degree increase in temperature over the last 35 years is hardly anything to get in a panic about.
Granted, that does mean the world is warmer, right?
The problem with that argument is that we experienced the bulk of that warming between 1979 and 1998 . . . we’ve actually had temperatures DROPPING ever since!
The reality is this: The world is 1.08 degrees cooler than it was in 1998.
Just take a look at this chart from Remote Sensing Systems, which provides data to NASA, NOAA, and other scientific organizations.
If you’re like me, this makes a lot of sense.
We’ve had cooler summers and longer winters.
Again, take one more look at the chart above — global warming reversed its rise in 1998. In the dossier John handed me, he explains exactly why this happened . . . and what’s going to happen next.
But for now, just keep this fact in your back pocket: The case for “global warming” is dead in its tracks.
“Global warming” proponents have said for a long time we’d see a heating of the oceans.
This proposition is necessary, since it means all those big chunks of ice are supposed to melt, killing off polar bears and causing states like Florida to get swallowed up by water.
In 2007, while accepting his Nobel Prize for his “global warming” initiative (and quietly pocketing millions of dollars), Al Gore made a striking prediction . . .
“The North Polar ice cap is falling off a cliff. It could be completely
gone in summer in as little as seven years. Seven years from now.”
The arctic ice caps have increased in size by 43% to 63%.
It is seven years later, and recent satellite images show that not only have the icecaps not melted . . . but they’ve expanded in size by 43% to 63%.
Here’s what a Globe and Mail article had to say: “An area twice the size of Alaska — America’s biggest state — was open water two years ago and is now covered in ice.”
I think we know who’s using actual science, and who’s fear-mongering their way to wealth and fame.
Since 2002, the ocean temperatures have fluctuated less than 1 degree Fahrenheit. There is no warming.
Again, there is nothing to get hysterical about here.
You’ve heard for years how climate change has been caused by . . . well, you!
Al Gore and his liberal friends have stood onstage blaming you and your “gas-guzzling” car, standard four‑bedroom house, and the factory downtown.
Shame on you, right?
Of course, the hypocrisy of the claim is that Al Gore himself racks up annual electric and gas bills of $30,000, more than 20 times the national average.
Meanwhile, Al Gore spreads “global warming” propaganda for his own profit.
Now, while I am all for keeping the environment clean (I recycle, drive a fuel-efficient car, and reuse materials), humans have not caused “global warming” . . . nothing can be further from the truth.
Indeed, “global warming” alarmists and their allies in the liberal media are famous for saying that scientists agree that man has caused “global warming.”
President Obama even tweeted on May 16, 2014, “97% of scientists agree: climate change is real, man-made and dangerous.” John Kerry, Al Gore, and a host of others have championed this statistic.
As The Wall Street Journal reported, “The assertion that 97% of scientists believe that climate change is a man-made, urgent problem is a fiction.”
When further review was done, it was discovered that a mere 1% of scientists believe human activity is causing most of the climate change.
In outrage, a petition was signed by more than 31,000 scientists that states “there is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of . . . carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate.”
Indeed, even a founding father of the man-made “global warming” theory — Claude Allegre — recently came out and renounced his position by admitting, “The cause of this climate change is unknown.”
Dr. Ivar Giaever, a Nobel laureate, has taken a stand against the global warming claims. Giaever announced during a speech at the 65th Nobel Laureate Conference in Lindau, Germany: “I would say that basically global warming is a non-problem . . . The president said that 2014 is [the] hottest year ever. But it’s not true. It’s not the hottest . . . Global warming really has become a new religion. Because you cannot discuss it. It’s not proper. It is like the Catholic Church.”
Giaever was one of more than 100 co-signers in a letter to the president that was critical of his stance on global warming, saying, “We the undersigned scientists, maintain that the case for alarm regarding climate change is grossly overstated.”
What was the government’s response? Nothing.
Shortly after John exposed the truth about “global warming,” 1,000 emails and 2,000 documents from leading “global warming” scientists were found . . . revealing potential conspiracies, collusions, data manipulation, destruction of information, and even admission of flaws that were buried.
For example:
There are several other documents just like these.
More recently, Professor Robert Stavins — who helped write the 2014 United Nations Climate Report — came out to Breitbart News . . . and revealed that politicians demanded he change and edit parts of the report to fit their needs!
In short, governments, and government-funded scientists, want to make sure that any “global warming” research published . . . will say exactly what they want it to say.
Why would this network of politicians, corporations, and scientists do such a thing?
“Global warming” has been kept on life support for another crucial reason: It has been a practical ATM for every in-the-know political figure.
Al Gore, for example, has been one of the most vocally aggressive crusaders for “global warming.”
But the lies are starting to unravel . . .
John has made every effort to share this information. But instead of listening, the media and the left treated him like a leper and have done their best to smear his name.
Science and politics have worked this way for hundreds of years.
Galileo was ridiculed by scientists invested in the idea the sun revolves around the Earth.
Robert Goddard — the man who ushered in the Space Age and rocket ships — was ridiculed endlessly during his life for proposing . . . traveling to the moon.
William Harvey was ostracized for proposing the theory of blood circulation . . .
Opponents could never refute the science — they could only attack the man behind it. Just like they do with John today.
But there is a small group of scientists who are starting to listen, and take action.
John’s research has now been corroborated by 17 independent scientific individuals and organizations. These are some of the top scientific minds in the field of climate science . . . in the world.
John has done nothing but put his research up to public scrutiny for the last few years.
And now some of the top scientific minds in the world are rallying to him. Nearly 30,000 scientists have banned together to sue Al Gore for his global warming fraud. Here’s what they have to say . . .
Each of these scientists has reviewed John’s work and had no choice but to agree with his conclusion after seeing the evidence, just as I did.
And I think you will too.
That’s why, at a dinner in Palm Beach not long ago, John set a 164-page document in front of me. This document is the culmination of his years of work — it’s all his research in one bound volume.
John knew I would validate his claims, and upon doing so, take action.
Since that fateful night, John and I have teamed up to take that document and rewrite a good bit of it into a simple-to-read and easy-to-understand book, so that we could publish it, and get it into every home in America.
The book is called Dark Winter . . . and I want to send you a copy of it!
John holds nothing back. He shows the evidence. And he reveals the cold truth about “global warming.” Chronicled here is the groundbreaking research that forced John to reverse his belief in “global warming.” This book includes every alert, every warning, and every scrap of information he has sent urgently to our government.
See All of John Casey’s Urgent Warnings in This Book. Get It Now for Only $19.95. Click Here.
However, your copy of Dark Winter is just the first item you will receive today when you join the Cold Truth Initiative.
You will also receive . . .
We are holding nothing back for this Cold Truth Initiative.
Once John showed me the truth, there was no going back. And we know you will feel the same way. We decided to add one more exclusive gift for the first 1,000 people . . .
Today, we are releasing a new tool to battle the fraud that is global warming. We have reserved only 1,000 copies of this exclusive DVD. And I want you to see it . . .
In this special release, you will learn exactly how Al Gore and his team are defrauding the American people.
The Dark Winter DVD release exposes the real “Inconvenient Truth” that Al Gore doesn’t want you to know about. Learn the lengths to which the government has gone to scam you and your loved ones to line their pockets.
Scams like:
The story of the failed Solyndra green energy initiative, which cost taxpayers $500 million; President Obama took a lot of flak for that.
But here’s a little-known side of the Solyndra story I bet you haven’t heard: Obama, in essence, used taxpayer money to finance his re-election campaign . . . by funneling it through Solyndra.
When Solyndra fell on hard times, it passed into the hands of two large private equity investors . . . Goldman Sachs and George Kaiser. When $500 million in taxpayer money was given to Solyndra, both Goldman Sachs and George Kaiser benefited. Coincidentally, both have made contributions to Obama’s election campaigns adding up to roughly $1.25 million.
It doesn’t stop there.
In 2010, another federal loan of $400 million went Abound Solar. That resulted in a bankruptcy as well. But investors in Abound Solar seemed to do just fine . . . investors like billionaire heiress Patricia Stryker. Stryker has famously contributed $500,000 to the Coalition for Progress while throwing $85,000 toward Obama’s inaugural committee. It’s just a coincidence that the government handed a company she invested in $400 million just before bankruptcy . . . right?
There’s also A123 Systems, which paid one lobbying firm $970,000 to secure money from the government — and received $279 million in federal assistance. The CEO of A123 Systems went on to fund multiple Democratic senators and contributed to Obama’s campaign.
First Solar received $646 million in government loan guarantees, and has since contributed more than $180,000 to Democratic campaigns.
GE is notorious for spending tens of millions of dollars a year to “buy” green energy credits for its wind turbines and other green technologies — credits which helped the firm pay ZERO taxes in 2011.
This movie will change everything you thought you knew . . .
My hope is that you don’t walk away in silence as a network of dirty politicians, greedy corporations, and bribed scientists rob you year in and year out.
That’s exactly what they want you to do.
They want you to think that your voice won’t make a difference. They want you to think your voice is too small to change things.
Remember, this information isn’t just important, it is vital!
$22 billion of your money is being spent every year to keep the “global warming” lie alive . . .
John reveals the science behind his 11 accurate predictions in simple-to-understand terms, and why he foresees more significant events like tornadoes, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.
John also reveals 33 crushing scientific dissections he performs which make “global warming” even more of a farce.
Most importantly, the Cold Truth Initiative makes an alarming prediction. There is a looming cataclysm that will ruin every nation that’s not prepared . . . a calamity that has been accelerating for the last 17 years . . . and brewing for over 200 years. This event will cause international wars as governments topple and nations descend into chaos.
The Scams and Lies Have Been Revealed. Secure Your Cold Truth Initiative Package Now for $19.95
Imagine how the American economy might look if we weren’t effectively flushing this money down the toilet . . . imagine how much your taxes could drop if the government wasn’t spending your money on nonsense programs . . .
The only way we can win this war is if we unite together.
Thousands have already joined the Cold Truth Initiative. We are making headway, but we have a long way to go.
Now is your chance to make a difference.
Today, you can strike back at the lies, and more importantly, you can help other Americans protect themselves.
I urge you to click the button below and secure your copy of Dark Winter.
We’ll rush you the Cold Truth Initiative Introductory Packet that includes John’s book Dark Winter along with The Lost Video Interview, The Dark Winter Investment Guide, The Dark Winter Survival Guide, a three-month subscription to my Resolute Wealth Letter, a four-month subscription to the award-winning Newsmax magazine, and your special release copy of the Dark Winter DVD.
Just Click Here Now to Put an End to the ‘Global Warming’ Lie.
Sincerely,
Tom Luongo
Proud Member of the Cold Truth Initiative
Be prepared for any emergency with small increments of spendable gold. If you are starving and you have ounces or gold bullion, you would trade it for a loaf of bread. Yet, in 1932 you could buy 5 loaves of bread with a gram of gold. Today, a gram will buy you up to 50 loaves depending on the quality of bread you like. Army Special Forces are issued a necklace of gold buttons before going on a covert mission, so they can break pieces off and use small increments of gold to bribe their way out of a problem. Find out how you can earn a sizable income and get FREE Gold with your own International Gold Business with just a small investment. If necessary we can show you how to start off without any money. Go to Get Free Gold
What if the gold standard is not an antique but, rather, a “timeless classic” (as termed in a speech by Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann in September 2012)? High tech guru George Gilder deploys cutting-edge science to show why this is so, based on Shannon information theory. Gilder’s analysis is neither eccentric nor anomalous.
The intellectual pedigree of the classical gold standard runs through two of the greatest scientists in history: Copernicus and Newton. Nicolas Copernicus, in his Essay on the Minting of Money eloquently lays out the scientific foundations of the classical gold standard. (Full disclosure, I served as co-editor of a modern translation, by classicist Gerald Malsbary, published by Laissez Faire Books and recently republished by Cognella as part of a splendid compilation of source documents in classical economics in The Monetary Foundations of the Macroeconomy Volume 1 edited by Thomas Rustici, James Caton, Dima Shamoun, and Ted Shamoun).
Sir Isaac Newton, as Master of the Royal Mint of Great Britain, created what became the modern classical gold standard. This was a fact well known by President Jefferson, as astutely noted by Dr. Judy Shelton in erudite commentary to her definitive edition of Jefferson’s Notes on the Establishment of A Monetary Unit. Under the Newtonian gold standard, with variants, the world economy thrived for almost 200 years.
The gold standard also was one of the few things that both Jefferson, and his arch-rival in Washington’s cabinet, Alexander Hamilton, fully agreed. The gold standard’s intellectual provenance, both in deep scientific history and among the founders of America, really is impeccable.
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Copernicus and Newton, of course, are figures from the deep past. Jefferson, slightly more contemporary, was extolled by President Kennedy at a dinner honoring Nobel Prize winners when he greeted them as “the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”
Copernicus and Newton, timeless classics, remain appropriately revered as two of the greatest members of the scientific pantheon. Their discoveries — Heliocentricity, and the Three Laws of Motion — remain central to science. Old does not equal atavistic. Now let’s get modern.
It is less paradoxical than might superficially appear that George Gilder comes forward to exalt the scientific foundations of the classical gold standard. Gilder does so by drawing deeply upon modern Shannon information theory, work foundational to the high tech revolution very much alive and well.
So, a leading high-tech public intellectual attests to the ultra-modernity of the gold standard. Gilder, also known as the living author most quoted by President Reagan, went on to high tech iconic thought leader status as the author of Microcosm, Telecosm, The Silicon Eye, and Knowledge and Power among other highly-regarded works.
Gilder now presents a brilliant monograph, The 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money. In it he explores at greater depth some of the thoughts he first broached in a key chapter of his influential Knowledge and Power. The 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money was commissioned by the American Principles Project (whose sister organization I professionally advise). He therein explodes the pernicious myth of the gold standard as an atavism.
In 106 lucid pages, Gilder magisterially demystifies money. A very few choice excerpts:
The economy is not fundamentally an incentive system, it is an information system. Manipulating money cannot create growth, and it distorts the information economic actors need to acquire the learning that alone is wealth-creation.
Growth in wealth stems . . . from the progress of learning. It is accomplished by entrepreneurs conducting falsifiable experiments of enterprise, with the outcomes measurable by reliable money.”
Claude Shannon “resolved that all information is most essentially surprise. Unless messages are unexpected, they do not convey new information.” But “[i]f a carrier is to bear surprising contents, it must itself be unsurprising.” That is what makes it possible to distinguish the signal from the noise.
In economics money is part of the conduit or carrier. If money is to foster learning and knowledge, it cannot itself be surprising. . . . money must be the measure, rather than what is measured.”
Gilder is unusual, but not unique, among tech leaders in his regard for gold. No less than Peter Thiel in an interview observed:
If you really wanted to create an alternate currency, it would have to be gold-based,” he says. “There are enough people who already believe in gold that you could probably get it to the tipping point. Starting completely from scratch is a lot harder to do. I have a lot more thoughts, but I’d say—you probably want to go with gold.”
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In the hands of Copernicus, Newton, and Shannon as channeled by Gilder, money becomes simple and intuitive. Gilder gives us the real thing: science. In The 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money, George Gilder, true to his title, lays out a compelling 21st century case for the gold standard. Gilder reveals anew the gold standard’s deep scientific foundation. Buy a copy on old fashioned paper in better bookstores everywhere or download it and read it.
Delight in a very modern, scientific, demystification of money and discussion of why the classical gold standard repeatedly has proved itself beneficial. With The 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money George Gilder well may have delivered his next game changer.
Originating at Forbes.com
Read more at http://affluentinvestor.com/2015/07/copernicus-newton-jefferson-hamilton-and-gilder-on-the-gold-standard/#XGRL9DamRmxxRvA3.99
First a funny. I hope you laugh as loud as I did! Then read about the industrious, intelligent Japanese! You will agree they are smarter than we are.THE JOKE, WITH A HINT OF TRUTH:Well, I finally got around to visiting the new mall that opened near here.
As I was walking through the mall to check out what was there, I saw theyhad a “Muslim Book Store“. I was wondering just exactly what was in a“Muslim Book Store“, so I went in.As I was wandering around taking alook, the clerk stopped me and asked if he could help me.I imagine I didn’t look like his normal clientele, so I asked “Do you havea copy of the U.S. Immigration Policy book regarding Muslims?The clerk looked hard at me and said “F—Off, get out of here and stay out!”So I said, “Yes that’s the one. Do you have it in paperback?”
* Even though one of the richest people in the world, the Japanese do
not have servants. The parents are responsible for the house and children.
* There is no examination from the first to the third primary level because the goal of education is to instill concepts and character building.
* If you go to a buffet restaurant in Japan you will notice people only eat as much as they need without any waste because food must not be wasted.
* The rate of delayed trains in Japan is about 7 seconds per year!!
The Japanese appreciate the value of time and are very punctual to minutes and seconds.
* Children in schools brush their teeth (sterile) and clean their teeth after a meal at school, teaching them to maintain their health from an early age.
* Japanese students take half an hour to finish their meals to ensure proper digestion because these students are the future of Japan .
The Japanese focus on maintaining their culture. Therefore,
* No political leader or a prime minister from an Islamic nation has visited Japan not the Ayatollah of Iran , the King of Saudi Arabia or even a Saudi Prince!
* Japan is a country keeping Islam at bay by putting strict restrictions on Islam and ALL Muslims.
1) Japan is the only nation that does not give citizenship to Muslims.
2) In Japan permanent residency is not given to Muslims.
3) There is a strong ban on the propagation of Islam in Japan
4) In the University of Japan , Arabic or any Islamic language is not taught.
5) One cannot import a ‘Koran’ published in the Arabic language.
6) According to data published by the Japanese government, it has given temporary residency to only 2 lakhs, Muslims, who must follow the Japanese Law of the Land. These Muslims should speak Japanese and carry their religious rituals in their homes.
7) Japan is the only country in the world that has a negligible number of embassies in Islamic countries.
8) Muslims residing in Japan are the employees of foreign companies.
9) Even today, visas are not granted to Muslim doctors, engineers or managers sent by foreign companies.
10) In the majority of companies it is stated in their regulations that no Muslims should apply for a job.
11) The Japanese government is of the opinion that Muslims are fundamentalist, and even in the era of globalization they are not willing to change their Muslim laws.
12) Muslims cannot even rent a house in Japan .
13) If anyone comes to know that his neighbor is a Muslim then the whole neighborhood stays alert.
14) No one can start an Islamic cell or Arabic ‘Madrasa’ in Japan ..
15) There is no Sharia law in Japan .
16) If a Japanese woman marries a Muslim, she is considered an outcast forever.
17) According to Mr. Kumiko Yagi, Professor of Arab/Islamic Studies at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, ” There is a mind frame in Japan that Islam is a very narrow minded religion and one should stay away from it.”
The Japanese might have lost the war, but they are in charge of their own country.
Tchaikovsky Flashwaltz at Hadassah Hospital.
My desire is to bring some such blessing to the World!
I would love to help 1,000,000 poor people rise to a level of upper middle class!
The 1,000,000 can be World-wide, as long as the 1st 100,000 are USA citizens!
“With interest on deposits at next to nothing, or now slightly negative, the only reason for consumers to keep money in the bank is convenience. The more money you lose, … the more attractive your mattress becomes.”
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, by Michael Pento
image: http://affluentinvestor.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Money-decline.png
Despite all of the central bank manipulations over the past seven years, it is finally becoming clear economies will not be able to achieve escape velocity. The U.S. central bank has the longest track record of treading down the path of monetary manipulations. And has achieved anemic average annual growth of 2.2% since 2010. Therefore, to further demonstrate the failure of money printing to engender economic growth, the dismal Q1 GDP read of just 0.2 % displays the failure of this policy once again. Wall Street Shills have been quick to once again blame snow in the winter for the Q1 miss. However, it is becoming evident that Q2 will not produce any such anticipated rebound.
Markit’s Flash U.S. Services PMI (Purchaser Managers Index) for April indicated that business activity rose at a slower pace than expected. The April reading came in at 54.2, which was below the consensus of 56.2 and below March’s level of 55.3. Adding to the bad news was the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index that hit 95.2 in April. Economists polled by Reuters expected a reading of 102.5. And, the Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index fell into the minus column for the second month in a row at -3 for the start of Q2.
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Things don’t look much better across the globe. The Euro zone Purchasing Managers’ Survey disappointed investors with the German PMI index falling to 54.2, from March’s eight-month high of 55.4. France’s PMI also showed a slower expansion than forecast in the services sector and a worse contraction in manufacturing than predicted. Manufacturing PMI in France decreased to 48.4 in April, from 48.8 in March.
Japanese manufacturing activity contracted in April for the first time in almost a year, as domestic orders and output fell. The Markit’s Japan Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) fell to a seasonally adjusted 49.7 in April, from a final 50.3 in March. The index fell below the 50 threshold that separates contraction from expansion for the first time since May of last year.
We are in our seventh year of record-low interest rates and banks have been flooded with reserves. However, the developed world appears to be debt-disabled. That is, already saturated in debt, therefore unwilling and unable to service new debt due to a lack of real income growth.
So the problem for central banks and governments is how to get the money supply booming in an environment where consumers want to deleverage and save. Zero percent interest rates (ZIRP) are inflationary and negative real interest rates foment asset bubbles and encourage new debt accumulation. For decades central banks have used their control of the price of money to coerce boom cycles that eventually turn to bust. But for the past six years, their foray into ZIRP land hasn’t provided the boom cycle they were expecting. Sure, they have created massive bubbles in bonds and equities– but the economy has yet to enjoy the promised growth that is supposed to trickle down from creating these bubbles. They have set the markets up for a bust, yet the economy never enjoyed the boom.
This has left Keynesians scratching their respective heads and scheming new ways to encourage even more borrowing and spending. The Keynesians who rule the economy now control the price of money but are having difficulty controlling its supply and producing rapid inflation rates.
Bank deposits that pay nothing and ultra-low borrowing costs haven’t proved effective in boosting money supply and velocity growth. The growth rate of M3 has fallen from 9% in 2012, to under 4% today. And monetary velocity has steadily declined since the Great Recession began. Therefore, unfortunately, the next baneful government scheme is to push interest rates much further into negative territory in real terms; and also in nominal terms as well!
You would think this is absolutely absurd but it is already happening. The European Central Bank, has a deposit rate of minus 0.2 percent and the Swiss National Bank, has a deposit rate of minus 0.75 percent, as of May. On April 21st the cost for banks to borrow from each other in euros (the euro interbank offered rate, or Euribor) tipped negative for the first time. And as of April 17th, bonds comprising 31% of the value of the Bloomberg Eurozone Sovereign Bond Index, were trading with negative yields.
Could Negative Interest Rates Arrive In America?
They already have. Beginning on May 1st, JP Morgan Chase has announced they will charge certain customers a “balance sheet utilization fee” of 1% a year on deposits in excess of the money they need for operations. That amounts to a negative interest rate on deposits. Banks formerly competed for your money– now they want to charge you to park it with them.
With interest on deposits at next to nothing, or now slightly negative, the only reason for consumers to keep money in the bank is convenience. The more money you lose, money on your deposits in the form of a “utilization fee,” the more attractive your mattress becomes. But, as long as paper money and your mattress are available, the Fed will not be able to fully implement its negative rate policy in its quest to create inflation. After all, there would be a global run on the banking system if rates were to fall into negative territory by more than just a few percentage points.
So how can central banks and governments ensure rapid money supply growth and velocity if consumers have the option to hoard cash? Some of the “best minds” in Keynesian thought, like Kenneth Rogoff, have a solution to this. They are floating the idea that paper money should be made illegal and the evidence shows governments are listening. If you outlaw hard cash, and make all money digital, there is no limit to how much borrowers can get paid to borrow and how much savers get charged to save. This would make it unprofitable to hoard cash, and compel people to consume and borrow electronic currency as fast as possible. Money in the bank would become the “hot potato”: as soon as it hits your bank account the race would be on to move it to the next person’s account. Whoever gets stuck with the money when the music ends pays a fee; that would be some increase in velocity! And vastly negative real interest rates would force the amount of leverage in the economy to explode.
This idea sounds fairly Orwellian-allowing central banks to control every aspect of monetary exchange and giving the Federal Government an electronic gateway to every financial transaction. But when you think about it, the idea of a fiat currency and the Federal Reserve were radical ideas before they became common place. Indeed, this is exactly why the authors of our constitution tried to ensure gold and silver would have the final and only say in the supply and value of money.
Just as gold once stood in the way of governments’ desire to expand the money supply, physical cash is now deemed as a fetter to the complete control of savings and wealth by the state. History is replete with examples of just how far governments will go to usurp control of people under the guise of the greater good. Sadly, the future will bring the collapse of cash through its illicit status, which will in turn assist in the collapse of the purchasing power of the middle class. Wise investors would take advantage of the opportunity to park their savings in real money (physical gold and silver) while they still have a chance.
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PLEASE READ THIS ARTICLE BELOW FOR A FURTHER UNDERSTANDING OF ECONOMICS!
A specter, to paraphrase the opening line of The Communist Manifesto, is haunting America. That specter is the economics profession itself.
Economics has become immersed in arcane modeling. Modeling does not really work well, as even the cognoscenti sotto voce admit. Consider, for example, at the New York Fed’s excellent Liberty Street Economics: Choosing the Right Policy in Real Time (Why That’s Not Easy). This essay concludes, with refreshing integrity and candor:
In the end, we have shown that policy analysis in the very oversimplified world of DSGE [Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium] models is a pretty difficult business. Contrary to what it may sometimes appear from listening to talking heads, deciding which policy is best is very rarely a slam dunk.
Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium models? Economics has come to resemble more the model-based pseudoscience of astrology more than the observation-based science of astronomy.
As Prof. Reuven Brenner in Asia Times:
Most people are unaware of the fact that rulers perceived astrology for almost a century as “science” – pretty much as some perceive “macro-economics” these days. Monarchs, such as Charles I, as well as the learned and the nobility relied on Councils of Astrological Advisers. Books, presenting complex geometrical calculations linked to positions of stars, legitimized analyses and forecasts.
…
Abruptly, after a century, in part due to Galileo’s telescope destroying the science of political lies and hierarchies built on them, the astrological edifice disappeared in a puff – or so it appeared.
Except that macro-economics is now its modern incarnation: Only instead of stars, macro-economists look at “aggregates” gathered religiously by governments’ statistical agencies – never mind if the country has a dictatorial regime, be it left, right or anything in between, or has large black markets, as Italy and Greece do, where tax evasion has long been the main national sport. So let us first forget about this “macro” stuff, whose beginnings are almost a century old, and offer a simple alternative for shedding light on the situation today and on possible solutions, hopefully demolish this modern pseudo-“science” once and for all.
The most popular book demystifying economics of the 20th century was Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson. It sold a million copies.
Now, for the 21st century, comes John Tamny, Political Economy editor at Forbes, editor of RealClearMarkets.com (and a friend) again to muck out the Augean stables. Tamny has published a splendid new book: Popular Economics: What the Rolling Stones, Downton Abbey, and LeBron James Can Teach You About Economics. It reportedly already is going into its second printing. May it, like Hazlitt’s classic, sell a million copies!
If (admittedly a big If) even a single presidential aspirant reads it and takes it to heart Popular Economics could prove a significant factor in restoring what proto-Supply-Sider John F. Kennedy said at the dedication of Greers Ferry Dam: “A rising tide lifts all the boats….”
Big If, yet there’s hope. As I have argued here that great transformations in areas such economic growth policy almost always, in the modern era, have originated in the House of Representatives. I spend a great deal of time inside the Congress and am delighted to report that Tamny’s Popular Economics is written in the terms that Members of Congress speak and think. (Bonus points to Tamny for his many and extensive sports stories, the kind of stuff people actually talk about on Capitol Hill when the cameras are off.)
Tamny loves to be provocative. He’s good at it. He exalts income inequality. He celebrates (organic, rather than government-exacerbated) recessions. Tamny does an especially good job at stripping the bark off the fallacy that career civil servants somehow are smarter or nobler than entrepreneurs and executives in the private sector.
I myself spent several years as a career civil servant in the U.S. Department of Energy. From personal experience I admit to having become not a whit smarter once sworn to uphold the Constitution and issued the laminated badge. Nor were any of my colleagues made of the stuff of Plato’s philosopher-kings. Mere mortals all!
Some of Tamny’s jousts easily could be taken out of context and used, by Progressives and other dirigistes, to satirize his positions. Yet his points, to any fair reader, are clear:
Recessions are the cure for what’s wrong with an economy. They cleanse it of the bad businesses, bad investments, and labor mis-matches that got it in trouble in the first place. When the 1920-1921 recession hit, a wise political class sat back and did nothing, other than lower taxes slightly and slash spending. Unemployment dropped from 11.2 percent in 1921 to 1.7 percent by 1923, and the Roaring ‘20s took off.
Contrast that fast near-10% drop in unemployment with the record of the protracted Great Recession, and soggy recovery in which we are still mired, courtesy of the economic policies of both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations.
Tamny covers a lot of ground in this book, thoroughly covering the Big Four economic policies. Done right these support the achievement of equitable prosperity. Done wrong these mire us in stagnation and income immobility.
Tamny tackles taxes, regulation, trade, and money. He does so by reference to popular culture, making lucid that which, in the hands of less gifted writers, often is dull and dry. (Not for nothing did Carlyle call economics “the dismal science.”)
Here’s an example of how Tamny subtracts the dismal from the science:
Politicians may raise [by taxes] the cost of work for their citizens, but if the cost is too high, those citizens won’t stick around to be fleeced, especially when they’re well-to-do. … [Keith] Richards and the Rolling Stones did just that. (Quoting Richards:)
“The last thing I think the powers that be expected when they hit us with super-tax is that we’d say fine, we’ll leave. We’ll be another one not paying tax to you. They just didn’t factor that in. It made us bigger than ever, and it produced Exile on Main St., which was maybe the best thing we did. They didn’t believe we’d be able to continue as we were if we didn’t live in England. And in all honesty we were very doubtful too. We didn’t know if we would make it, but if we didn’t try, what would we do? Sit in England and they’d give us a penny out of every pound we earned? We had no desire to be closed down. And we upped and went to France.”
Tamny especially impresses with the clarity around the matter of money, to which he devotes five full chapters. For example:
In The Wealth of Nations-the masterpiece that laid the groundwork for the rise of modern capitalism-Adam Smith observed that “the sole use of money is to circulate consumable goods.” That was a throwaway line, for no serious thinker had ever considered money as anything but a measure. Money came into existence because men needed a way to measure the value both of their production and of the consumable goods they sought in exchange for the fruits of their labor. Smith was stating the obvious.
Smith would laugh at all the commentary in the media today about the need for a “strong dollar” or a “weaker dollar to boost exports” or the importance of convincing the Chinese to “boost” the value of the yuan. To Smith, that would be the equivalent of saying “increase the length of the meter” or “shorten the minute” or, because Kim Jong-Un is bothered by his diminutive five-foot-six- inch stature, there is a need to “devalue the foot” so the North Korean dictator can stand ten feet tall. Just as the foot is never long or shot, money should be neither strong nor weak. The foot is a standardized tool to measure actual things, and money should have the same constancy.
Popular Economics has attracted great praise from many of the leading public intellectuals dedicated to economic growth (as well as from no less than George Will). Steve Forbes, in his excellent Foreword, says it best: “By breaking the mold of what modern economics has become and by explaining in an engaging way what economics truly is, Tamny has done humanity an inestimable service.”
Buy Popular Economics.
Be provoked.
Originating at RealClearMarkets.com
Read more at http://affluentinvestor.com/2015/05/economics-so-simple-even-politicians-will-understand/#fB1zZGSIBH2SqvXT.99