01.28.10
Posted in Economy, Hebrew, Judaica, Kabbalah, Parsha, judaism, torah at 11:17 am by admin
Now that corporations can spend as much as they want on elections lets enlist their help in the following way.
Proposal: Create the MY AMERICA FUND
Require it to be funded by corporations and by Congress.
Congress will agree to put aside ten pencent of their campaign contributions for the MY AMERICA FUND
In addition Corporations will place matching funds to every contribution made inside the MY AMERICA FUND
Example: A Congressman or woman receives $10,000 in contributions from Corporation XYZ.
From this contribution the MY AMERICA FUND receives $1000 from the Congressman or woman and a matching $10,000 from Corporation XYZ.
In this way all contributions will have the added benefit of providing for those programs that the MY AMERICA FUND sponsors.
A limited tax credit will be given for that portion of the contribution that is the matching amount.
No tax credit will be given to the Congress person’s amount of contribution.
The MY AMERICA FUND may only be used on public works projects, education as in retraining our workers or to subsidize medical benefits.
The details can be worked out and expanded from the Federal Government to the local government.
Those who contribute the most will receive preferred status for government contracts.
What we have to do is make the success of America the success of the rich. Strange how no one ever thought of it that way.
Please let me know what you think.
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03.08.09
Posted in Economy at 11:05 am by admin
The question is constantly posed. What are we going to do with the banks? Let’s start out getting beneath the surface of this problem and shining the light of truth upon it. Okay first of all why are there banks in the first place? The quick answer is that banks help to finance the economy providing money in the short and long term for folks who are building a business or a life. Then we pay back the banks with interest which is how they make their money. Then there is the other reason for banks and that is so that we can place our money there for safekeeping instead of hiding it under the mattress which by now everyone has figured out that this is the first place a thief is going to look for it. For us placing our money in a bank used to mean making interest on that money in a sense we were partnering with the banks to make money. The bank loves to make money from our money. They lend it out and make their own investments and so the economy rolls on. What happened to this paradigm? Why isn’t it working anymore?
First of all the banks and their officers decided at some point that they were no longer investing our money but instead that it was their money to do with as they pleased. Because of this they thought they could gamble get around the rules and make new ones all for the sole purpose of enriching not their investors but their own pockets. This is why these bank officers and CEO’s of the large investment corporations take such huge bonuses. They think that here is all this money that waiting to be gobbled up and why not dip in for a little bit of that cash? After all there is so much of it no one will notice in the long run. Their boards of directors then vote to approve these bonuses knowing full well that they are next in line for the cash grab since after all the guy at the top got his so why not take ours and so on down the line. All the while this is going in the cash reserves are dwindling so that money for the actual operations of the bank and investment companies starts to run out meaning that everyone who wasn’t in on the cash out was left out of luck.
Now seeing the money running dry these same CEO’s and boards of directors, investment managers, et.al. say uh oh we’re in trouble and then they come to the government saying we can’t operate our business anymore see no money and if we have no money then there won’t be any money to lend of invest so too bad the economy goes in the tank. Give us more money they say otherwise doom. The people who they can’t pay they just fire because let’s face it we’ve all been there; that is the corporate way.
What do we do about the consciousness of entitlement that makes these corporate bankers, managers, investment board of directors think that they are entitled to our money? We prosecute them, take their money, and make an example of as many as we can find to put away for as long as we can. Isn’t that what we do with someone who embezzles money from their company, or steals from those same banks, or even robs a grocery store. The same principle has to apply and it has to apply directly now.
Those who are fighting to keep the “capitalist game” going are fighting for this entitlement for those that are able to steal the money. These bankers and investment people are crooks just as low and mean as someone who would rob a little old lady of her purse because you know what there are several little old ladies out their who lost their purse, their homes and their life savings.
No mercy for these bankers no way no how.
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11.11.08
Posted in Economy, humor, truth. at 2:18 pm by admin
Way back in the day in a small town plopped smack dab in the middle of the big country the business of daily living was taking place with some degrees of success. Billy, Ted and Suzie live at the northern end of town where the Rolling Lake emptied into the Rolling River which then fed into countless streams, creeks, rivulets, and eddies throughout the surrounding countryside. Now one morning while Billy, Ted and Suzie were playing a friend of theirs Nicky, from another town called Close By came to visit. They sat there by the lake and Nicky began lining up rocks this way and that separating the waters and making various designs in the lake siphoning off the waters a bit.
“What are you doing Nicky?” Suzie asked.
“Look now instead of one big lake there are four little ponds and then the big lake,” Nicky said smiling running now from pond to pond.
“Yes but the big lake is smaller now won’t the people downstream complain?” Billy asked.
“Well maybe but the lake is still very big and besides it will rain and there will be enough for all,” Nicky said as he jumped into one the ponds and started splashing about. This looked like so much fun soon all four were romping about. In fact it became their favorite pasttime. Because children get bored so easily and always want a little bit more they expanded their game. They moved along the river banks and here and there started damming up the flows that fed the various outlets for the water always allowing a little through but soon even that small amount grew less.
Eventually downsteam they had complaints about the streams and creeks turning muddy and there not being enough water for all. Those who built their homes expecting a steady flow of water were soon forced to leave. The downstream folks angrily approached the upstream movers and shakers and complained.
Nicky was still the oldest little boy and he was their spokesman. He said laughing to himself and then out loud, “Let them eat mudpies. They are good for everyone.”
The downstream residents were disappointed. They had put their trust in the upstream folks along the higher banks where the water flowed plentifully and now found that instead of being just stewards of the water that was meant for everyone they had cordoned off the flow in such over the top pursuits as mile high fountains that spewed water wastefully everywhere on the ground.
Time passed and there was a drought. The lake started to dry up. The upstream folks came begging to the downstream kids who had built a huge resevoir so that they didn’t have to rely on the whims of those upstream greedy kids. Now in order to persuade them that their need was crucial they gave them the argument unless you provide some of that downstream water to us no water will ever flow downstream.
The downstream people were being yakked at unbeknowst by a member of the upstream crowd that had by now figured out how to get their way with everything. The downstream people assented a little bit but then a large rainstorm came and they saw that the upstream kids had not changed their ways.
So they removed the artificial dams and placed their own people upstream to stop the fountains going nowhere. And yes they all did live happily ever after.
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Money is a stream that must move and flow. When money is siphoned off in the form of bonuses, faulty trading practices, fraud, and deliberate stealing it causes the flow of that money to slow to a trickle. Yes Trickle Down Economics does work exactly this way. It causes the money to slow to a trickle not just for us downstream folks but for everyone.
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11.10.08
Posted in Economy, Uncategorized, War at 6:34 pm by admin
The following is my theory of how to fit in both the current economic downturn with the troubles we’ve had in the past. It is by no means a conspiracy theory or even any establishing thinking on this subject it is simply a way to group together events under a common thread.
The term econonics refers to what happens to our money both locally and globally. From time immemorial Kings and various governments have been collecting money in the form of taxes in one form or another. Money which is collected then sits in some kind of central repository like the King’s treasury or the National Treasury. This money is then used for the Kings pleasure or absent a King for the peoples benefit channeling funds in to shared projects using shared resources. This makes sense since with shared resources all benefit from roads, defense, etc. The problem with having all this money in one place causes men to dream of ways to game the system in order to have that “public money” come their private way. Now for the most part this is okay as well since private work will always be rewarded by public compensation. This is a way of moving the money through the system again. There is a cycle to all of this of determinate time. However if you wanted to shorten that cycle you would have to invent or promote another kind of drain on that public money one that would introduce a maximum amount of turnover in the shortest amount of time. Then once you initiated this type of paradigm it would be up to you to keep it going for as long as you could before the system itself would break under the burden of demands that were unreasonable over time.
This other kind of drain on the public money is called War and Peace. During War we have the principle that might be called in another Universe the Ferengi theory of Acquisition by Attrition. In war products and goods are made and then destroyed whether they be uniforms, weapons or vehicles of transportation or any of the instruments of war including not last or least by any means man the ultimate expendable resource in terms of war.
When men are recycled as in their death or wounding new uniforms, new equipment, new demands on the resources needed to sustain them and new weapons for them to use are necessary to the war effort.
So what we have in war is really a kind of replicating demand that comes due every day depending upon the fortunes of war. Since this eats up resources and the money in that treasury it cannot continue for too long until either the money runs out, the resources run dry, or the combatants can no longer be replaced. All of this is of course detrimental in the extreme to a country or government may have become convinced due to ideological reasons that the war was entirely necessary but now finds itself in the uncomfortable position of bankrupting its treasury.
After a while some will begin to wonder, “Gee how did we get into this mess?” That is the beginning of the peace which is also costly but not as costly as the war itself.
Indeed how did we get into this mess?
The other side of this coin features tremendous profits as money from that national treasury is funneled into the hands of those who would benefit the greatest from War. These are the makers of arms, supplies, uniforms, medicines, etc.
These wartime benefits are then a result of the turnover that takes place initiating a cycle of production and destruction that keeps these factories turning out mass quantities.
The Ferengi’s long recognized this principle of wartime profit by including as a codicile to their rule 35, “Peace is good for business,” that “War is excellent for busines as long as you are on or support the winning side, or can take advantage of being on the losing side.” Those Ferengi’s sure had it covered.
The Chaos Theory of Economics would say that War provides for the ramped up production of goods on an ever increasing margin of those goods, provided that these goods will be imminently replaced doing away with the quality of these goods since they won’t be used for long anyway due to their loss or destruction.
In the language of a Field of Dreams, If we build it make sure it gets lost or destroyed and then charge an arm and a leg for any replacements.
It really isn’t hard to figure out that one of the best money making operations in the world is war. Quick profits without a business plan, guaranteed repeat business and increasing margins the longer the war is pursued. Forget about the cost to society because once the war is over those who profitted do not have to pay for any of that collateral damage.
So once again I ask how did we get into this mess? Well our last really good war was over pretty quickly in Iraq. It made a lot of money but was not self sustaining. Also due to the lack of lives it did not recycle properly for a good war. Then Bosnia which really sucked in terms of keeping a cycle of war and construction going. Afganistan has promise of keeping us there for a long time but we will have to see about that. Iraq was a perfect storm of a war. On the heels of 9-11 they could sell that war without really any oversight at all. Once engaged they turned and said, “yeah now try to get out.”
Well we will get out as the arms makers their enablers (Bush and Company) sigh despondently. The lesson here is to see them coming a mile away and recognize that they would do anything to promote another war.
After all what fun is it being an arms maker in a world at peace. There are only so many police actions and there is always a lot of competition for these events. This Iraq War was great because Bush eliminated the competition with no bid contracts. How cool is that?
To summarize: Economic Chaos Theory: Production equals Destruction equals Production. Repeat ten times for a really good run at War.
The same hold true with the recent Financial downturn. Production in this case represents the illusory mortgages that were sold and resold turning out to be worth (Destruction) and then have government bail you out, (Production again). Or as the Ferengi see it, ” Sell something anything and then pull the old switcherooney substituting something worthless walking about with your profit collecting both at the beginning and the end (bailout) of the transaction.
Mark Siet Author
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