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Monday, April 21, 2008

Campaign finance reform!

Barack Obama is leading his own campaign finance reform policy. He is doing so quietly and effectively by reaching out to the people. He has pulled in the most campaign contributions to date for the current presidential run of to the tune of about $234M. He has done this with 72% of his contributors giving less than $4,500. He has the largest percentage of contributors, that being 40%, giving under $200. Those giving over $200 - $2,300 is a staggering 32%.

The difference here is that Obama is finding most of his money through grass roots giving. The more corporate and business giving donations are going to Clinton and McCain. Clinton leads this pack with a total of $188M received of which 75% of her donations received come from gifts over $2,300. McCain runs a close second with over $76M raised of which 57% of gifts over $2,300. Although, one must also take into consideration the amount of money that McCain is receiving through the direct work of Mr. Bush and the republican party.

There is something very interesting in these numbers. That being that the average person, of which Barack Obama has received the most votes in the general election primaries and is receiving the most money from the average American. This tells us that America wants Obama, and corporate America is looking to Clinton or McCain.

Perhaps it is time that America gets what it is asking for! The days of Supreme Court lawsuits to choose our candidate or hanging chads and such should be over and let's just look at the hard numbers.

This is campaign finance reform at its best...so far.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Where is Robin Hood and Little John?

In the days of old
when knights were bold
and the only currency was gold
the lord's, and the kings
with all of their rings
would buy up all of their things
for the cleavage filled breasts
to believe they were best
the wars were fought to the test
of testosterone
that made them all feel so alone
until they marched their way back home

Doug Boggs, 2008

From the top of my head...

I will continue to ponder what it takes to right the wrongs we have brought on ourselves. At this point, anyone in our time whom has witnesses these past 30-40 years I would think would begin to understand that war is not good government policy.
It does create good economics for the war mongers. Think of Halliberton, Bechtel, Blackwater, KBR, DynCorp International, L3 Communciations, Fluor Corp., Perini Corp., Tetra Tech, General Dynamics, and so many more. There is nothing wrong with a company trying to make a living, as this is capitalism. Although making a living by finding or creating wars that kill millions of innocent people and destroy an entire country's infrastructure is simply repeating what Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao and others did. Our current administration has shown us that we simply have another leader trying to make society as a whole the way that they see it in their eyes.

In our ever changing (or is it) and shrinking world it would be best for the various governmental organizations to work together and bring societies and governments together. The past seven years have been dominated by an administration that is living in the past. Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney truly feel that if they ruffle their feathers enough the people of the world will still think that Amerika is the all around global leader, as we have been since 1945.

Those days are over people, and there is NOTHING wrong with that. To know when to stand down and work to unite people makes a much better man, woman and human being than simply trying to instill ones own beliefs on others and shoving it down their throats.

We, as Americans, have had to be recipients of this wrath as well. The fear based propaganda wheels must stop turning. I just don't believe that God, the one that I know of, told Mr. Bush that he was to attack Iraq. This is preposterous. Is there more than one God? And even still what ever happened to our separation of church and state. Keep your politics political and your religion separate. This is why the Middle East has been in chaos for tens of centuries as that region has been ruled through a faction of religious political systems for eons.

Now, McCain is on the same track to keep things more of the same. This has got to stop!

It doesn't take but only a moment to stop and listen to the words of so many of the prophets such as Jesus, Buddha, Mohammad, Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jr. and others that they are all saying the same things. I don't seem to remember that kill and destroy for the betterment of democracy, capitalism, and the dollar is any part of their messages...

Thursday, April 17, 2008

The disappearing dollar...

We are finding ourselves coming to a juncture in our nations history, or shall I say future. It is known throughout history that nations rise and fall. Economies and societies form and collapse. Trade is what makes up a capitalistic system and trade is what is happening to the world today. It is just that the world is beginning to trade the leading economic valuation of the dollar for something else. What will be the defining valuation we will come to see as the future unfolds, but to say that the dollar will remain is probably a bit naive.

For those that feel the dollar is still king are not living in reality. The dollar has shown is vulnerability to the Euro, Asian markets, Oil, Gold, Silver, Corn, Soy, Wheat, Copper, and more as the emerging Asian markets vie for more and more energy, food, materials and luxury goods. The power of the dollar continues to decline as wages continue to stay constant or fall. The buying power of the dollar has declined for much of the past three decades in relation to earning power. Most recently, within the past decade, the buying power of the dollar has seen much evidence of serious trouble.

The Fed has continued to attempt to rescue the buying power of the currency not by attempting to assist the administration to balance the budget or help to reduce any spending habits of the administration but by allowing the American consumer to get heavily debt ridden. With the departure of Alan Greenspan, who during his tenure as Fed Chairman helped to open the credit markets to anyone and everyone we saw the new Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke discredit the work of his predecessor for mishandling his job. Yet, now we see the Bernanke team following in the same footsteps of those with whom he stated did not know what they were doing.

It seems that The Fed feels that nothing can ever stop the U.S. economy. They anticipate that continued growth is inevitable and — the ultimate delusion — our officials appear to truly believe that they can control it. When the economy slows The Fed has declared lower and lower interest rates as a means for encouraging more and more debt. They continue to make the American people feel that is called sound policy. The debt load of the average American is reaching its highest point in our nations history based on inflation.

Just what is money and what is debt. The U.S. Government has worked hard convincing all of us that all of the dollars that get exchanged for work and consumer goods is actually money. When in fact, though, everyone knows they have no tangible value. I have discussed this before. When the Government decided to take a paperbacked currency and devalue it from gold we were on our way to our demise. Although, this action did allow us another 70 odd years of manipulation of global exchange and currency to our benefit. But this paradigm cannot sustain itself and it is now reaching its tipping point.

The dollar is backed by a promise of the government to honor the debt. The government goes on to continue to assure us that the dollar has the value of the dollar. This may be true in the United States, but the value of the dollar and its buying power in relation to global commerce has changed within the past decade. It has dropped by over half to many currencies and more to numerous commodities throughout the globe.

Thus the honor of the government to back the currency has diminished. How is it that the government continue to promise to pay its debts when the total of that debt keeps getting higher and higher? Our current administration has spent the past seven years spending money in the tune of trillions of dollars on borrowed funds. The war has been paid for by our children and their children's future earnings. At this same time we have found our own infrastructure and government programs be stripped of their balance sheets to create the facade to the American public that in fact the dollar is still worth a dollar. In fact, the implied promise that a dollar is worth a dollar has to be looked at with suspicion as well.

The near future could prove to be a financial disaster for anyone who continues to have faith in the strength of the dollar. In fact, a collapse is inevitable and it's only a question of how quickly it is going to occur. Greece fell, Rome fell, Egypt fell, America will fall. There will be declines in the stock market and savings will become worthless. The bond market will begin to fall apart. As the value of the dollar falls, that dollar will no longer be worth a dollar, as we have begun to see; it will be worth only pennies on the dollar. It will be an eye opening experience for those who have become complacent about America and their invulnerability. There is that word again. Complacent. When will we learn...?


How did we let things come to such a place? Our leaders have allowed foreign interests to take control of our economic destiny, and we cannot necessarily count those foreign interests as allies. This is how a global economy works and interacts with each other, however, this creates a facade of the balance of trade and power. We are not threatened by imminent invasion as we have spent at least the past seven years by over spending to our defense department. We are not threatened by a loss of freedom to move about as we find that democracy throughout the globe is a leading desire for most new countries. Although, the extravagant American standard of living is about to be changed, drastically and suddenly. This has come about by three changes in fiscal status.

First, the strength of the dollar and the level of interest rates are no longer in the control of the Fed. Second, good jobs have been sent overseas, and the so called recovery has consisted of low paying jobs. Third, because average wages are falling, Americans cannot afford inflation; even with our increasing credit card and mortgage based bubble economy, the illusion of prosperity cannot go on forever.

As I have stated previously that the administration holds a mirror to what eventually it's people act. What I mean by this is that it's not just the consumer who has spent beyond their means. The government has led the way by bad example. U.S. borrowing has expanded to the point that foreign central banks own major portions of the U.S. debt. The Bank of Japan held $ 668 billion of Treasury securities in 2004, compared to the Federal Reserve holdings of $ 675 billion. In other words, the Bank of Japan nearly matched the Fed in ownership of U.S. debt. Currently, with the addition of China, South Korea, and India the Asian banks own a lot more debt than the Fed does. What does this mean for the U.S. and the dollar?

With so many Asian currencies tied to the dollar, isn't it in their interests to keep dollar values high? Yes, but only to a point. Asian central banks will ultimately allow the U.S. dollar to fall to contain inflation in their countries. And the more debt those central banks control, the greater their control over the U.S. dollar — and over the standard of living in the United States. This helps not only their currency power over time, but their trade power and global bargaining power. Again, this is capitalism working correctly. It just depends on which side of the buying power one wishes to be on.

What about Asian inflation? In 2008, growth of gross domestic product (GDP) is continent - wide at an expected 9.8 percent, slightly less if you look at recent past performance in Vietnam (8.2 percent), Singapore (7.5 percent), Malaysia (6.1 percent), and South Korea (4.9 percent). Then there is China, where growth is still amazingly strong, although it is expected to slow down from 10.8 percent to 9.8 percent in 2008. With the exception of Japan, which is struggling at 1.5 percent, my point is real GDP growth in these countries is two and three times ours in the United States. Ultimately, these trends will lead to inflation. As inflation takes hold and a currency begins to lose its value the best way to fight inflation is to let your domestic currency grow in value. Therefore it is suffice to say that the Asians are hedging their currency with the dollar as they build their infrastructures and the consumer growth in their nations rise. So, here is where large holdings of U.S. debt become important.

We are now seeing a trend in Asia toward buying fewer U.S. dollars and then selling the holdings they already have, as well as selling off U.S. bonds. Perhaps since their currencies, which are pegged to the dollar, begin to have more global strength they no longer need the falling dollar to balance off their books. These changes will force the U.S. dollar to fall and interest rates to rise here at home. In other words, Asian inflation is held in check and transferred into U.S. inflation. This will ultimately be the price the United States will have to pay for allowing its federal and consumer debt to get out of control.

What can be done to stop this? We need to rebuild America rather than Iraq. Use our tax dollars for infrastructure and services rather than defense spending. We need to require a balanced budget rather than allow our government to continue to spend the next three generations of profits today. We need to control our consumer spending. We need to begin to augment our savings rather than continue our debt loads. All of this can be done, however, if we don't do these actions today, history will repeat itself...

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Big oil, small world...

It seems that the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming were unable to sway the profits of the 5 big oil firms - ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Cheveron, and ConocoPhillips to invest only 10% of their earnings into research for alternative energy development. This is not 10% of profit, but earnings. These companies earned a combined $123.3 Billion last year of 8.4% on sales of nearly $1.5 Trillion last year. However, Exxon did invest (1/2 of 1%) of earnings last year.

What will it take for the American complacency to make a stand against big oil. This world cannot get itself repaired from our damage without concern, action, and results from that action. The government promotion departments try to let the public know that corn and ethanol is a good way to go, however in order to produce enough to make a major impact we are cutting down rainforests to make room for crop fields. The over use of water necessary to raise this corn is in dire straits as well. Both of these actions are self defeating...

Friday, April 4, 2008

Sometimes a little regulation can go a long way...

Is this a chance for "The Man" or the powers that be to get a little farther in the global quest of big government. The most recent proposed overhaul of the financial industry since the Great Depression was announced recently by Secretary Paulson. If outlines the expansion of the Fed's ability to examine any financial institution posing risk to economic stability. Although with all of this it doesn't yet even come close to deal with the unregulated investments that most 'experts' don't fully understand. There has been much call for needed additional oversight in the fast growing deregulated financial business in which the new products these financial institutions have developed are more and more difficult to understand as to their true risk balance in relation to the economy.

I'm all for finding a way in to the system to help out all of the mortgage holders, but it seems all of the solutions coming to the table are not associated with the little guy. In the meantime, the average Joe and Joann, are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and with the new bankruptcy laws this makes things even harder for the Joneses to find their own solutions as they wait for the government to make decisions.

Oh, right, some people will receive their $600-$1,200 refund check. This isn't really a refund, but an advance from taxes to be paid by the children and grand children's generation. This could get tacked up there with defense spending on the war.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

If I had a Million Dollars...

I believe that this song, without checking, is by the Bare Naked Ladies...Yep, I'm right! I really like it. It shows us an interesting dilema of how our life is.


If I had a 1,000,000 (If I had a 1,000,000)
I'd but you a house ( I would buy you a house)
If I had a 1,000,000 (If I had a 1,000,000)
I'd buy you furniture for your house (maybe a nice chesterfield or an ottoman)
If I had a 1,000,000 (If I had a 1,000,000)
I'd but you a K-car ( a nice reliant automobile)
If I had a 1,000,000, I'd buy you love

If I had a 1,000,000
I'd build a tree fort in our yard
If I had a 1,000,000
You could help it wouldn't be that hard
If I had a 1,000,000
Maybe we could put a refrigerator in there
Wouldn't that be fabulous!

If I had a 1,000,000 (If I had a 1,000,000)
I but you a fur coat( but not a real fur coat that's cruel)
If I had a 1,000,000 (If I had a 1,000,000)
I'd buy you an exotic pet(like a llama or an emu)
If I had a 1,000,000 (If I had a 1,000,000)
I'd but you John Merick's remains (All them crazy elephant bones)
If I had a 1,000,000 I'd buy your love

If I had a 1,000,000
We wouldn't have to walk to the store
If I had a 1,000,000
We'd take a limousine cause it costs more
If I had a 1,000,000 We wouldn't have to eat Kraft dinner

If I had a 1,000,000 (If I had a 1,000,000)
I'd but you a green dress ( but not a real green dress that's cruel)
If I had a 1,000,000 (If I had a 1,000,000)
I'd but you some art ( A Picasso or a Garfunkel)
If I had a 1,000,000 (If I had a 1,000,000)
I'd buy you a monkey (haven't you always wanted a monkey?)
If I had a 1,000,000 If I had a 1,000,000 If I had a 1,000,000
If I had a 1,000,000 I'd be RICH!




Our life's dilema!

What is the meaning?

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

To uphold the Constitution...

Those are words spoken during the oath of the inauguration ceremony for the President of the United States.

I have been watching the HBO special "John Adams". My reading of the amazing book by David McCullough was a such a joy for me. I am intrigued by history and enjoy the history of our great country. To experience what took place through this grand book of our country, and its founding fathers, written to such detail and emotion to the time was a pleasure. This adaptation of the book for the 16 hour HBO series was done so well with an amazing acting staff. I recommend it highly.

It has given me a time to reflect on an aspect of my life that I am going through at this time, called complacency. I have come face to face with it. I have always been a person that believes that life is best when in motion. When something is pushing one forward with energy and vitality. When there is something that one looks forward to and is challenged by. Much like the men and women that forged an independent thinking trail that became these States United.

I have allowed some of the air to be let out of my sails as of recently. My challenges have slowed with lessening vigor. Due to this other hurdles have arisen based on the lack of attention to the previous challenges I had set out for myself. I have come to the realization that life had become complacent. I am not happy about finding myself in this situation. My wife and I have discussed this at length and have begun to find new avenues to create change and push ourselves into new territories and goals. We are setting out to a new open course to complete the initial challenges and move forward into these new goals and ideas.

The founding fathers and their countrymen and women fought hard for a feeling and life that they wanted to create for themselves. Their plight was to leave them either free from England and it's King or perhaps to be killed as traitors found guilty of high treason. But fought for freedom they did. It is because of them that we are able to enjoy the life of America.

But, we have become complacent as a country. Our leaders have quietly stripped away at our Constitution right before our eyes. We have not done anything about it! Where have the feelings of our quest for freedom gone. The current administration has shown us just how complacent we have become by chiseling away at the words and legality of them within the Constitution. Yet, when the oath of office was taken those words that were spoken, "to uphold the Constitution", were filled with lies.

The modern men and women leaders have not been challenged by those with whom we elected to the House and Senate and expected to do so. The administration is doing what they wish and have worked angles and or shown blatant disrespect to their oath of "to uphold the Constitution".

Our complacency has shown us how far off the path we have become.