Billionaires Up, America Down.

Wanna know why?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpOhWvOoraw&NR=1

The election of 2008 is not about terrorism, security, or the wars, even though energized people on the right and the left will tell you it is

The election of 2008 is about economics in America. About whether we rebuild public infrastructure, pay down our national debt, restore the borrowed funds to the Social Security Trust Fund, keep college accessible, and put an end to whether it's possible for any American citizen to be bankrupted on health care.
It is about whether we will or will not even attempt to limit corporate control of citizens.

If you wonder why Wall Street folks are doing so very, very well and the average citizen isn't, you need look no further than Bill Clinton lacking enough Democrats in the Congress of his terms, and the new Democratic Congress stuck with a Republican president. It's all about the tax code, and all about the "tone" of regulatory agencies controlled by a president.

It's possible that while us older folks argue around on this, that the 18-29 year olds will actually put a clear majority of Democrats into Washington for the first time in recent memory. Let's hope. Many older voters are set in their right-wing and left-wing ways.
We really are dependent on our young people to "get it" and swing the country. Maybe they will (or not.)

We will have peace when the last investment banker is strangled with the entrails of the last campaign manager. (Apologies to Diderot)

Here's an interesting experiment.

Try taking some of your 'one dollar' federal reserve notes into your bank and asking for an exchange for a silver dollar.

Lots of you, go try it. Please post here about what happens.

Try for $1, $10, $50, $100 or $1,000 (if possible) This will probably at least require getting the manager.

If enough people try to get real dollars in exchange for the fed's monopoly money, you never can tell what truths will come out.

Seems to be the trend now, even in poor countries. Wasn't Mexico just cited for producing the richest man in the world? Pretty telling, isn't it.

Thanks for the Libertarian contribution stinger. As ardent "free marketeers" libertarians seem in denial of the basic problems with extreme wealth/power concentration, but do have a lot to contribute.

Go to themoneymasters.com and order how money and banks steal you blind using the FED

http://www.themoneymasters.com/order.htm#mad

There is a liberty deeper than what both the left-progressives and right-libertarians would offer. But humanity has deviated an awfully long ways away from it. It needs to start out with strictly an up/down analysis. There is no such thing as left/right.

According to Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul (he of the tinfoil hat)the answer to this (problem?) is not progressive taxation, but the elimination of the IRS and a return to the wearing of three-cornered hats. This libertarian stuff is just a cover for the same old guff about "looking out for No. 1" and the "ownership society" fraud. Read Naomi Klein's new book THE SHOCK DOCTRINE to see what this unfettered free market capitalism has led to.

Thanks for putting it all in perspective. Depressing, isn't it? And they're talking about a bailout for the sub-prime mortgage industry.

"Try taking some of your 'one dollar' federal reserve notes into your bank and asking for an exchange for a silver dollar."

Do you advocate the gold standard?

ezeflyer, you are quite correct. For example, I can not agree with the concept of 'no property = no rights'. Who says? Why should my entitlement to quality of life and fair treatment before the law depend on how much stuff I have?

I have to agree with the lecturer on one point and that is the fraud of the Federal Reserve. When you combine free market fundamentalism and the ability to create money on a whim, then how can anything actually have a solid market value at all?

Answer? It can't. The system is broken.

For example, the subprime mess. My house is worth $500,000 of these FR notes, so one FR note is worth 1/500,000th of a nice suburban home, but now because of the subprime devaluation, my home is now worth only $200,000 they will say because of supply and demand conditions created by mass defaults/evictions.

But the FR note hasn't changed, so is it still worth 1/500,000th of a nice suburban home? If so that would mean that it now takes 2.5 FR notes to = 1 FR note, which is a financial paradox.

There is no solid value that a $1 FR note will always buy you, like Silver, since that is the commodity mentioned in the lecture.

It's play money and that's all it can be.

jakenewton. Yes sir, as a matter of fact I do. Gold, silver, sheep(harder to carry in numbers), a fixed weighted standard that will always = $1.

This up-suck effect makes trickle-down economics look good by comparison.

But isn't there a sort of poetic justice in this? We who have stood by while our rulers have exported this kind of society to the third world, are finally ourselves becoming a banana republic.

I for one am quite tired of being spanked by the "invisible hand." The cry from the right is "let the invisible hand guide the free market and everything will work by itself." That is the cry until something doesn't work in their favor, and then it's time for lower rates on capital gains, government bailouts of the big corporations and players, and in general laws that favor the big players that pay for them to be passed.

I've always been skeptical of the "invisible hand" and whether it would work. We still don't know because it hasn't really been applied; just like communism wasn't really applied by the Soviets

US political/economic algorithm:

Beginning state: X has more power than others.

A. X rewrites the rules to benefit X even more than the current rules do.
B. X further warps the culture and expectations to justify X coming out further ahead and to explain and justify the frustration and suffering of others.
C. X comes out even further ahead and accumulates even more wealth and power.
D. Go to A.

We are caught in an infinite loop and following the same old patterns will not break us out of that.

"It's time for Congress to roll back tax cuts for the wealthy and close the loophole letting billionaire hedge fund speculators pay taxes at a lower rate than their secretaries."

That's it? After such a stark, grim analysis, that's the only suggestion for change offered? Asking the Congress that rewarded credit card companies by ending bankruptcy, emptied the Treasury for three generations and managed to raise the min wage by pennies once in ten years to... do something for We The People? ARE YOU F**KING KIDDING?

Here's an equally helpful suggestion: let's all hold hands and wish for good things. How's that?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush asked Congress on Monday for $189.3 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Confused, this might actually help clarify just what that amounts to.

http://www.xinjo.com/interesting/a-little-visual-perspective-on-the-87-billion-being-spent-on-iraq?eref=rss_full

$315 billion spent by Sept 30 2006.
This pile is 125 feet wide, 200 feet deep, and 450 feet tall.

450 feet is the height of a 38-story building. It's the hieght of the Millenium Wheel in London. It is also the height of the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas and the Louisiana State Capitol Building.

If you were to stack the money in a single stack, your stack would be 19,887 miles tall, enough to wrap the Moon at its equator almost 3 times.

"Wealth is being redistributed from poorer to richer."

It's the natural order. It is what God wants. More rich people: the foundation of conservative thought.

Welcome to Reagan's America.

The capital gains tax rate of 15% is a hard one to justify in my opinion. Why should the richest of the rich only have to pay 15% on his hugh income from the stock market when the common joe had to pay a higher rate from the income from his job where he has to work from dawn till dusk. This is just not right. It is unamerican. No, wait! Maybe it is VERY American. The new rich get rich, poor get poorer American. So I am being very patriotic when I paid my hard earned money for taxes. I am making it possible for someone else to live the American Dream.

Sucks to be me!!!

is this what happens when the govt. gives carte blanche to businessmen to reap huge fortunes and then transfer those monies to offshore accts. to avoid taxes???

I am sure having a billion dollars plus of United States of Israel dollars is nice, compared to the norm of having less than zero dollars, but it not the same any more. For one thing, the moral worth of the American dollar is less than zero. Since the USI is dedicated through aggression, nuclear proliferation and over consumption to bring about the end of the planet as we know it, the investment in the dollar is an investment in death. So pile up those dollars if that is your favorite self gratification, but all the dollars in the universe cannot buy a new earth. Love of accumulated worthless dollars cannot buy an escape from a future of hell on earth.

When riches and virtue are placed together in the scales of the balance, the one always rises as the other falls. Plato
Much industry or connections and little conscience make a man rich.
Go figure: just how many mansions does one family need, or vacation homes and yachts, etc. when millions of children live in squalor, in ghettos, in neighborhoods ruled by drugs and crime? How can the rich even look in the mirror. The selfishness of the rich is mind boggling.

"The election of 2008 is not about terrorism, security, or the wars, even though energized people on the right and the left will tell you it is.

"The election of 2008 is about economics in America."

-- Daniel David

Exactly what does "terrorism, security, or the wars" NOT have to do with economics?

The real annual military budget is now about $1 TRILLION, almost equal to the total personal income tax revenue in the US.

In addition to the $10 billion/month spent for mass murder and occupation in Iraq, the US is spending another $2 billion/month to occupy and destroy Afghainstan.

If those abominations were to stop today, the bill would still be $ 1-2 TRILLION.

Also, US taxpayers must support about 700 US military facilities in more than 130 countries.

In addition, the US military is piling up TRILLIONS of dollars in legacy costs in terms of mass destruction and pollution throughout the world.

As long as the US economy is on a path of permanent war and imperialism, the standard of living for all but the richest (see Holly Sklar) will continue to decline.

These numbers are fairly simple. Even Clintonian DLCers should be able to understand them.

frank1569: you got it right dude.

I trace the problem to: YOUR CAR. That's right, your car is the basic enabler of corporate control. What else is the global economy but the disabling of local/regional economies, and your car the weak link in the transportation chain, from overseas producer to big box WalMart-type retail that you willingly drive the furthest distance to save a nickel on household krap.

The Iraq War is another oil war; refine it, ship it, truck it, fuel this that and the other engine, heater, electricity generator, industry and war maker.

And the newest billionaires? Why, hedge fund executives whose contribution to the US lifestyle is the subprime loan industry, producing grandiose suburban sprawl housing that always guarantees more profit from financing your cars than the houses, of course.

Yep. Your car is the problem.

i hate cars. cars are for the lazy.

"Nearly half the 45 new members, says Forbes, "made their fortunes in hedge funds and private equity. Money manager John Paulson joins the list after pocketing more than $1 billion short-selling subprime credit this summer.""

Just out of curiosity......does anyone know if this John Paulson is any relation to U.S. Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson who was instrumental in getting the government to bailout the wealthy hedge-funders and banks on Wall Street to the tune of $230+ billion in taxpayers money?

Cars are a transportation monopoly, a severe impediment to other means of urban/suburban travel, and thus a constitutional inequity kept in place by monied interests who profit from car dependency. The economies which spring up around car dependent development benefit producers of high quantity and shipping of the longest distances. The future car technology that comes closest to end car dependency is the plug-in hybrid, which does so by the way it creates an economic incentive to drive so much less that access to local economies no longer be exclusively by car. It's good to blame this inanimate object rather than the latest enemy suggested by misanthropists in power.

Time won't except our money,
cause our tender isn't valid.

G.Graffin

judi___ You ask how the billionaires can look in the mirror and feel good about hogging many times what they can even use. The answer is that most are Repulsives, they are religious and read the Scriptures. They like the part where the rich will inherit the earth. Also the one about the rich young ruler getting to heaven easily and riding his camel through the eye of a needle. No wonder they like to stack up their money so they can purchase the world.

Seriously, though, if we just wait another year or two, that wealth will begin to trickle down to we poor ones just like Saint Ronnie Reagan said.It will happen when we are listing our trillionaires which with inflation will be soon and then we will all be happy and fulfilled. We may need to cut taxes on interest and dividends again to make it work like it is supposed to. Bush says the previous cuts are paying off big now and reducing the deficit so we don`t want any tax and spend liberal lefties around. We also need to cut foolish programs like Social Security, Medicare and Caid, and that bad one, kids insurance. Those won`t be necessary after the trickle begins.

I believe that the last silver dollar was spent by LBJ on the Vietnam war game. What will GWB use to fund his war game - besides selling our children into slavery.

Like the song says "the filthy rich are getting even more..." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FldsUGZBX_A

Daniel David October 22nd, 2007 1:16 pm

"If you wonder why Wall Street folks are doing so very, very well and the average citizen isn't, you need look no further than Bill Clinton lacking enough Democrats in the Congress of his terms,"

Simply not true. Bill Clinton worked with both Democratic and Republican Congresses to pass trade bills that outsourced jobs and benefited no one except CEO's and stockholders. That is why wall street folk are doing so very very well and the average citizen isn't.

Lobo Gris

Remember the group.. Billionairs for Bush? They would dress up as rich people and do protests?

That could be a fun Halloween Costume.

But you know how this will be spinned.. right?

"See.. there are even MORE rich people now..."...

isn't that a good thing?

So.. 482 people out of what (what is our current population in the US?) 500, million?... nice distrubution..

I never understood why folks need 20,000 square foot homes and 5 swimming pools...

ugh. Yeah.. I am bashing the rich.. sue me... oh wait. no don't ;>)

yeah.. why don't some of these BILLIONAIRS just write a check each month to fund the war... they apparently are benefitting from it.. You have to investe to recieve right?

I am sure for most of these guys it is pocket change...

I am only willing to pay taxes if it helps my community... (healthcare, environment, infrastructure)

PRivatization is a scary road we are on. It will be a 2 tiered society... Rich can afford to pay for expensive toll roads.. while the poor scrabble along on pot holed highways.

What i don't understand is why the American people can't see their way to a peaceful revolution of good sense.

"Here's an equally helpful suggestion: let's all hold hands and wish for good things. How's that?"

ROF...

here's more-relevancy from the fellow in first-comment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbNIU2KEz4g

do we need any further proof that capitalism is a zero-sum game?

If you really want to screw the MNCs (multi-national corporations) that the CIA is now helping to do to the USA, what they've done to so many other countries, the notion of 'buy-nothing' days is laughably irrelevant as they will never happen in large enough numbers for long enough.

If you want to stop them dead in their tracks, nationwide, liquidate your debt. If you have a house, sell it, move to an affordable rental and use the equity to pay off your car, loans, credit cards and other high interest obligations. If this is a nationwide effort, the MNCs will take a fatal hit, right in the face. This really is the western world's contract of perpetual servitude and isolation. There's a reason mortgage, literally translated means 'death pact'.

The MNCs made a killing off of the first mortgage reset and thousands were kicked out of their homes. The reason they made killing is because it happened when they wanted it to. Ever wonder why all of these people, who signed up for mortgages at different times had them reset to a fee that would force a massive default all on the same day?

SHOCK!

Look carefully at the measures that were forced into effect shortly after to 'resolve' the issue. Imagine one major MNC buying up and refitting all of those homes, holding the mortgages and being backed by the CIA, installing all manner of hidden surveillance in the homes while they're empty.

More sub-prime waves will be repeated in other areas across the country. If the formula works, they'll keep using it. S'up to you. The free-marketeers seem to have gotten their claws into every industrialized nation at once, so this is even happening in our country. I've already made a successful exit from debt. Now I just have to watch and see what they do next.

Paul Bramcher,
Thanks for the reminder of a perspective that makes a difference. Like Noam Chomsky says, left and right have lost their meaning. The media are portraying Hillary Clinton as a left-winger. How absurd is that? On the up-down political scale, she favors the people on the upside, no question about it. We need to support Kucinich. If it comes down to the least of three evils, then I'd vote for Edwards.

Lobo Gris,

Trade agreements and tax policy are two different things, and adequate taxes on multi-nationals could have mitigated some of the effects of "free" trade. Whether you admit it or not, the combined Congress and White House have been lacking sufficient Democrats to maintain proper tax policy since 1994, and worse yet, actually took major, major steps backward in 2003 when Republicans held all the cards.

The implied notion from so many at CD that some third-party president is going to arrive and work with neither Democrats or Republicans, achieving therefore nothing, is a prescription for any of the Bush policies that require legislation for change to simply remain in effect forever. I'm aware you don't like Democrats, but your dislike of them does not in any way diminish America's need for them, a lot of them, and all at once, hopefully soon.

JohnR:

I don't think left/right ever really existed. There is the politics of community and self-determination, and then there is the politics of autocracy and oligarchy.

It is moot whether the entity demanding tribute is "public", "private" a distant bank, a distant layer of government, or the (in practice) hybrid of the two. Banks have the ability to control the means not merely of production, but of survival (home mortgage) -- while government is charged with the socialized/subsidized job of forcibly evicting people who don't obey the bank's rules.

The whole thing reeks not of a left/right analysis, but only of up/down. The formula in the West since the Roman Empire has been to uproot people from their traditional land and put a leeching bank or tax collector in the middle. Not merely the Native Americans -- but the Native Europeans before them.

It's amazing that nearly nothing is being reported by the MSM (main scam media) about the 'economy' as an issue for the '08 election. In fact, the only 'money issue' that the MSM seems to focus on in their '08 election coverage is which corporate candidate has gathered the most corporate bribe money for their phony campaign.

But now with the US economy being tipped into a second Great Crash in the crooked stock market, and probable Depression, some are starting to remember the economy as an election year issue. Some may even remember Bill Clinton's 1992 election phrase, "It's the economy, stupid", and be starting to talk about the economy in hopes that it will help sell phony, 'Wall Street' financed election campaign lies ---- as the Boston Globe reported on October 12th:

[Headline] Clinton hits Bill's theme - "The economy, stupid".

"Now his wife, Hillary, is making the same point in hopes of a return to the White House. The former first lady focused on economics this week as she campaigned for president in New Hampshire, where residents have struggled with job losses and an ailing housing market."

But this Hillary come lately mouthing of the famous phrase, "It's the economy, stupid" is just that ---- mouthing (and pandering) --- because Hillary's biggest contributors are precisely the Wall Street fat-cats, billionaires, and financial crooks that Holly Sklar excoriates in this article.

What the real populist and progressive catch phrase for the '08 election ought to be is NOT, "It's the economy, stupid", but rather more truthfully, "It's the EMPIRE, stupid!"

Yes, the economy is unfair, crooked, and wildly inequitable, as Sklar documents. But, it's not that the economy simply or naturally runs that way in a capitalist social democracy, it's only that way because we are in a well disguised, global corporate EMPIRE --- an EMPIRE which only poses as being normal productive capitalism, and only poses as being real democracy --- while it hides beneath the facade of this sham 'Vichy America'.

In 2008, as opposed to 1992, the half truth of the old campaign phrase, "It's the economy' stupid" is no longer capable or truthful in telling the whole story of our corrupted, looted, and undemocratic state of affairs in this guileful Empire's facade of 'Vichy America'. Today in 2008, the only real and complete truth to average Americans about to vote and hopefully decide the fate of their former great nation would be for the presidential candidates to level totally with them and shout: "It's the EMPIRE, stupid!"

"It's the EMPIRE, stupid" that has insidiously instituted this charade of corporate controlled media which lies to you about what our bought and owned phony candidates of both parties promise to do for average people, and then 'pull away the football' just like Lucy does to Charlie Brown after you are stupid enough to vote for them.

"It's the EMPIRE, stupid" that has perverted normal and productive Schumpeterian capitalism into this absurdly hierarchical elite Ponzi pyramid scheme of corruption, looting, and greed which Sklar writes about above.

"It's the EMPIRE, stupid" which, of necessity for its own self-interest and preservation, launches foreign wars of oil-imperialism that kill your kids and beggar your own moderate interests for ;life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness'.

"It's the EMPIRE, stupid" which commits monstrous war crimes abroad, even using mercenaries and torture to apply the 'point of their lance' to innocent peoples throughout their imperialist world's "oil-territories" ---- and now begins to employ those same Gestapo-like mercenaries against poor American blacks in the 'Blackwaters' of post Katrina New Orleans.

"It's the EMPIRE, stupid" of which Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, Eisenhower, and Hannah Arendt famously warned, "Empire abroad entails tyranny at home".

"It's the EMPIRE, stupid" which is the common thread of all the pathologies that we should clearly see in the lies, deceit, looting, murder of innocents, and death of the American dream of democracy both here and throughout their imperialist global corporate world.

Wake up and smell the coffee people. It's no longer as simple and easy as believing the 'happy talk' campaign phrase of Bill Clinton in 1992 that, "It;s the economy, stupid". And it's certainly not as comforting as believing the cynical and jaded regurgitation of this cover phrase by his guileful wife as she seeks to 'capture' the White House for her corporate backers.

No, it's no longer enough to mouth the appealing lie, "It's the economy. stupid" in our death-spiral of 2008. Today the only real honesty that can be presented to average American people oppressed and cheated by the ruling-elite of that 1/10% global corporate Empire, which Sklar exposes, and which rules this facade of 'Vichy America' is to shout the full truth:

"It's the EMPIRE, stupid."

"The very most important question that the American people should be asking of any candidate for president in '08 is not, "Where do you stand on the war?", or, "Where do you stand on the economy?", but, "Where do you stand on the EMPIRE that has taken over our country --- an Empire of which the war in Iraq and the torpedoing of average peoples' economy well being are only its biggest and most visible crimes ---- SO FAR?"

So go ahead, and ask the candidates the real questions for our deadly times that the MSM will not begin to ask:

Where do you stand on the issue of Empire?

Where do you stand on the issue of our American Republic having morphed into a well disguised, guileful, and sophisticated PR front for the global corporate Empire behind this façade of "Vichy America"?

Where do you stand on the existential threat and immutable truth that Hannah Arendt spoke when she warned: "Empire abroad (always) entails tyranny at home"?

Where do you stand on this Empire's murderous imperial oil-war abroad in the Middle East, and the tyranny necessary by the Empire to suppress liberty, democracy and open resistance against that Empire here at home?

And, BTW, lets just see if we get any answers on these crucial questions from any of the posing phonies from either party --- who are all well prepared and vetted to run our country for the benefit of their wealthy ruling-elite corporate bosses.

Daniel David,

Re: "The election of 2008 is not about terrorism, security, or the wars,... [it is] about economics in America. About whether we rebuild public infrastructure, pay down our national debt, restore the borrowed funds to the Social Security Trust Fund, keep college accessible, and put an end to whether it's possible for any American citizen to be bankrupted on health care."

Actually, the 2008 election will be about the same things the 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006 elections were about -- who has access to the vote counts. Nothing has changed since those elections.

We may take some small comfort in the results of the last election, which saw the Dems take control of congress. IMO, we can chalk that up to the Foley affair breaking just before the election, tipping the balance beyond the reach of a quick fix. Assuming there is an election, be prepared for some surprises.

Re: "It is about whether we will or will not even attempt to limit corporate control of citizens."

Unfortunately, American citizens are completely outgunned by corporate interests. Corporations have learned that their best investment by far is in the political campaigns of politicians who are, ummm, mindful of their needs. Such candidates are assisted by hefty donations to their "war chests", well-funded "think tanks" able to furnish ideological underpinnings for their campaigns, and media coverage casting them in a goldden glow, while reform candidates find themselves targeted by a barrage of ridicule if not outright slander.

While not strictly necessary in a day of unauditable electronic voting, staging an old-fashioned mud-slinging campaign does help to create cover for some of the otherwise inexplicable results that are now commonplace in our elections.

Wanna know why Hillary Clinton is the front-runner in campaign contributions even thought she's not a Republican? Because she is a Republican when it comes to understanding corporate interests and seeing to it that the gravy train stops at their stations. Obama is an unknown in that regard. Edwards is hopeless: therefore, he's the "Breck Girl" in media coverage, and his expensive haircut -- the bill for which inexplicably found its way to the Republican National Committee rather than to Edwards' home -- receives far more coverage than his policies.

There's not a whole lot we can do about dirty campaigns, but we can at least see to it that the vote is counted correctly. On this front however, don't expect a quick victory just because we're on to them. Judging from recent events, these people are determined to win by whatever means. Control of the voting machinery essentially confers control of the vote count upon Corporate America. They will do anything within their power to keep those machines in servicethrough the next election, delaying any moves to replace them in state legislatures and even the courts if necessary. As long as this remains the case, corporate control of US citizens will amount to a choke hold.

Daniel David October 23rd, 2007 10:39 am

"Trade agreements and tax policy are two different things, and adequate taxes on multi-nationals could have mitigated some of the effects of "free" trade."

And just how would tax policy have mitigated some of the effects of "free trade"?

In fact the multinationals held their funds offshore that they earned from their overseas ventures which kept them from being taxed at all. They only agreed to repatriate that capital when they were given special tax breaks to do so.

"I'm aware you don't like Democrats, but your dislike of them does not in any way diminish America's need for them, a lot of them, and all at once, hopefully soon."

And your slavish devotion to Democrats regardless of how much their policies and actions harm the country are the recipe for disaster that we are now living. It was the Democrats that passed NAFTA and started all of us down the "free trade" race to the bottom.

Lobo Gris

Lobo, yes, the Democrats started the NAFTA free-trade of jobs and manufacturing outsourcing and the "race to the bottom" of American industrial strength and stability.

But now the Republicans have started the next phase of the hollowing-out of America with the free-trade outsourcing of US capital funds and currency devaluation under the guise of the hedge fund whores' and private equity pirates' Ponzi scheme to freely move all money as well as jobs to off-shore tax havens for the crooks ---- who pay our phony politicians well for their deceit and treason of the American people.

Where's the problem in allowing hedge fund and private equity 'free market' financial services on a global basis --- which allows foreign 'debt bombs' to be planted in the US??

Answer: Look at the 15% deflation in the value of YOUR dollar (compared to the Euro just this YTD).

Wow, man, that almost looks like a 15% hidden hedge fund TAX on my money!. Wow, man, no wonder dollar denominated oil prices jumped from about $70 to about $90 this year. Wow, man, no wonder my house ain't worth shit except in this fiat currency tht these global corporate financial looters call the US dollar.

Wow, man, I'm almost starting to understand that gaming the well known 'market failure' of 'negative externalization' in the financial field with hidden currency 'debt bombs' is almost akin to making phony profits by gaming negative externalization of hidden 'cancer bombs' in the lungs of smokers by cigarette manufacturers.

Boy, the crooked Ponzi artists who were only making a phony profit by taxing our lungs and health care system with hidden 'negative externality cost'/taxes of cancer seemed to have learned that it is even more effective to apply their hidden taxes of negative externality costs to our financial lungs with currency cancer.

Oh, and Lobo, don't be worried if the Repugs can't get this scam all greased before Hillary wins ---- because that Wall Street campaign contribution whore will certainly help the financial pirates complete their looting.

I think i have a solution! Suburban America needs to breakout of the box we
began to be conditioned into in the 50's, that have breeded those generations into worker bees.Entrepreneurship is what this country was founded on, but know were breeded to go to college, get married, have 2 1/2 kids and retire. The rich are rich because they strive to be so stop bithcing about what breaks they get, you would get the same breaks if you were rich. We need to start thinking about the generations behind us and start laying up an inheritance for not only our grandchildren, but our grandchildren's grandchildren. So instead of being broke and and angry we can be wealthy and influential.

Mata Mavu,

Re: "What i don't understand is why the American people can't see their way to a peaceful revolution of good sense."

Because our society only pays lip service to good sense. Our society values style. It values machismo. It values money. It values in-your-face. It values extreme. It values danger, tragic drama, sexual allure, and winning at all costs. It values adrenaline. But it does not value good sense. Good sense can be dangerous, and is therefore portrayed as boring and perhaps a little ridiculous.

Think schools, TV, and video games. The unspoken objective of school systems is obedience training, usually instilled under the banner of "socialization". You may disagree, but then I ask you this: what does a school consider a worse infraction, neglect of studies or disobedience? Combine this with the fact that 80% of all schools in the US allow commercial advertising on the premises and the role of the schools in producing "good consumers" becomes evident. Our local high school even offers a class in "Consumer Studies".

Good sense? What percentage of your public education seems like it was trying to promote "good sense". As opposed to, say, citizenship training, the educational euphamism for cherry-picking history and social studies for the purpose of inculcating a particular world-view.

Or TV! How much TV programming seems to have promoting good sense or even providing the kind of information that good sense could draw on. Take a close look at even the school shows on Disney and Nickelodian. It's all about (from above) style, money, machismo, in-your-face, extreme, tragic drama, and sexual allure. Good sense? The class geek or the starlet's plain-jane sidekick have good sense. So even if good sense prevails in the end, it's still boring, dull, and geeky. As for the rest of TV programming is either lurid or titillating. Perfect vehicles to carry the barrage of commercial messages that accompany them.

And video games? The perhaps unintended consequence is a detachment from reality. Harmless enough in moderation, but such games have an addictive quality and addicted players spend a lot of time not interacting with the world at large, which is where interaction and real-life information form the foundation on which good sense is built.

All this would be beside the point, except that it produces an easily-manipulated population. To be successful in the society that has been presented to you, you will need nice clothes, a hot car, a big house, and lots of money to let the good times roll. Athough no one in high school (except maybe your parents) will tell you this, you will also need plenty of money for health care, utilities, gas, car repairs, interest and finance charges on credit cards, groceries, rainy days, ... you know, the "common sense" stuff that's too boring to talk about.

In other words, you're essentially going to be a serf for pretty much the rest of your adult life. A serf with lots of goodies that you never use anymore, but a serf nonetheless.

A peaceful revolution of good sense? There are forces arrayed in our society that are determined to see that that does not happen. It's going to be an uphill battle.