MONEY: Prep for the USA bankruptcy?

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a8486284-fee9-11de-a677-00144feab49a.html

Bankruptcy could be good for America
By Gideon Rachman
Published: January 11 2010 19:47 | Last updated: January 11 2010 19:47

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The result is that the US is piling up debt. A budget deficit of about 12 per cent of gross domestic product is understandable as a short-term reaction to a huge financial crisis. What should worry Americans is that, with entitlement spending set to surge, there is no credible plan to bring the budget deficit under control over the medium term.

*** and ***

Perhaps the most memorable thing said so far by an official in Barack Obama’s administration was the remark by Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, that “you never want a serious crisis to go to waste”. Mr Emanuel was widely condemned for flippancy and cynicism. But an examination of world history over the last 30 years suggests he was definitely on to something. Those much discussed emerging powers, the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India and China) all needed a fiscal crisis to set them on the road to economic reform and national resurgence. America may one day be lucky enough to experience its very own national fiscal crisis. Let us hope it is not wasted.

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While it might be “good”, it’s hard to imagine it would be good for the “little people”. The poor, the middle class, the elderly, the young, those on fixed incomes. They all lose in any kind of problem. The rich, the political class, the bureaucrats all seem to make out just fine regardless of the problem. Some like Wall Street actually prosper when they should be going broke!

So that’s the USA going broke, with no plan.

Argh!

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POLITICAL: Nuke power for the USA!

Sunday, January 3, 2010

http://science.slashdot.org/story/10/01/02/1330245/Thorium-the-Next-Nuclear-Fuel
?from=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A
 +slashdot%2FeqWf+%28Slashdot%3A+Slashdot%29

Science: Thorium, the Next Nuclear Fuel? on Saturday January 02, @10:57AM
Posted by Soulskill on Saturday January 02, @10:57AM

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mrshermanoaks writes “When the choices for developing nuclear energy were being made, we went with uranium because it had the byproduct of producing plutonium that could be weaponized. But thorium is safer and easier to work with, and may cause a lot fewer headaches. ‘It’s abundant — the US has at least 175,000 tons of the stuff — and doesn’t require costly processing. It is also extraordinarily efficient as a nuclear fuel. As it decays in a reactor core, its byproducts produce more neutrons per collision than conventional fuel. The more neutrons per collision, the more energy generated, the less total fuel consumed, and the less radioactive nastiness left behind. Even better, Weinberg realized that you could use thorium in an entirely new kind of reactor, one that would have zero risk of meltdown. The design is based on the lab’s finding that thorium dissolves in hot liquid fluoride salts. This fission soup is poured into tubes in the core of the reactor, where the nuclear chain reaction — the billiard balls colliding — happens. The system makes the reactor self-regulating: When the soup gets too hot it expands and flows out of the tubes — slowing fission and eliminating the possibility of another Chernobyl. Any actinide can work in this method, but thorium is particularly well suited because it is so efficient at the high temperatures at which fission occurs in the soup.’ So why are we not building these reactors?”

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Here’s an excellent idea!

Why can’t we have nuke power here int he USA? France does it.

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NEWJERSEY: Public Pension have bigger problems

Saturday, January 2, 2010

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20091228/D9CSJBM80.html

NJ lawmaker proposes public pension reform
Dec 28, 5:49 PM (ET)
By ANGELA DELLI SANTI

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TRENTON, N.J. (AP) – A New Jersey lawmaker is planning to introduce legislation that would bar nongovernment workers from enrolling in the state’s taxpayer-funded pension system.

Assemblyman Paul Moriarty’s bill would restrict eligibility to the Public Employees Retirement System by keeping lobbyists and others out.

Currently, employees of some 17 private groups are eligible for state pensions.

“Why should the taxpayers pay even $1 to someone who is not a state employee, but a lobbyist who is trying to get special favors,” asked Moriarty, D-Turnersville.

*** end quote ***

Why do we have such “public pension funds”?

Private industry has gone to 401ks for “pensions”.

The “State” hasn’t made a contribution to the pension fund in a dog’s age. Surely that’s a bigger problem then a few bottom feeders pigging out at the trough.

Perhaps it’s time to “reform” the whole problem.

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MONEY: Intergenerational Theft

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

http://tslrf.blogspot.com/2009/12/book-review-generation-debt-why-now-is.html

Friday, December 25, 2009

Book Review: Generation Debt, Why Now Is A Terrible Time To Be Young

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I just finished the book Generation Debt: Why It Is A Terrible Time To Be Young. Honestly I think if you are 18-35 or have a kid in that age range you should read this book. Here are some interesting snippets of the book:

*** and ***

-The cause is not a temporary recession but structural changes in the economy. In income and occupation prestige, young adults are behind where their parents were at their age.

*** end quote ***

At Christmas eve dinner, we had a discussion on this topic.

The kids didn’t understand that we were talking about their economic future.

Unfortunately, they are going to have to live thru this economic disaster.

They will have to be smart with their money. Very smart. Which to date, I have NOT seen evidenced by any young people. Or some old ones either.

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POLITICAL: Carter calls for debt action

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

http://www.globalatlanta.com/article/23608/

President Carter to U.S.: Tackle Debt Before Lecturing China
Trevor Williams
Atlanta – 12.16.09

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The U.S. should focus on getting its own fiscal house in order and give up pressuring China to revalue its currency, the yuan, former President Jimmy Carter said during a Dec. 3 panel discussion at the Carter Center in Atlanta.

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Pretty bad when ex-President Carter talks financial sense. Guess a stopped clock can be right twice per day. Clearly, the debt should be a priority. If not first, (i.e., national defense, citizen protection, the economy), it’s got to be up there.

The cure is one that the Big Gooferment advocates don’t want to hear — cut spending.

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POLITICAL: Copenhagen caper

Sunday, December 20, 2009

http://channel-surfing.blogspot.com/2009/12/world-leaders-spent-two-weeks-in.html

Saturday, December 19, 2009
World leaders spent two weeks in Copenhagen and all we got was this?

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It took two weeks of talks in Copenhagen, after two years of preliminary talks and in the end, to much fanfare we got….

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Lucky for us that “climate change”, “global warming”, and “global kooling” are all just “barbara streisand” to get socialism ramped up. More “global gooferment”, wealth transfer, and guilt the rich to transfer wealth from the have’s to the gooferments of the have not’s. Note that you can pour money on the “poor” until the cows come home and ALL of it will go into some petty dictators’ or bureaucrats’ pockets.

But lucky for us, humans are like the flies on the cows butt. We can no more impact climate with our minuscule actions then we can make poverty go away.

Argh!

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POLITICS: Unemployment numbers are misleading

Saturday, December 19, 2009

http://www.jibberjobber.com/blog/2009/12/18/unemployment-lies-and-deception

Unemployment Lies and Deception

December 18th, 2009

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As far as I know, unemployment numbers are based on those who are reporting to the government — those who are collecting unemployment insurance.

Guess what… unemployment insurance RUNS OUT. And then, you are so worthless, you aren’t even counted as a statistic! You are essentially written off the books.

Yeah, this really gets under my skin. And we aren’t even talking about UNDEREMPLOYED people!!

*** end quote ***

And, don’t forget the underemployed and the old farts who are now “retired” for want of anything better to do.

I fault the gooferment and it’s absolute stupidity.

First, average wage in gooferment is twice that of private industry. Regardless of how they slice and dice the numbers, gooferment workers are in the ascendancy in both quantity and money. TARP — bailout to the banks; should have just let them fail. (Cynically, I’d bet that they’d have figured out how to survive. The bail out of AIG was a direct payoff to Goldman Sachs. The same Goldman Sachs that paid gigantic bonuses.)

Second, every dollar the gooferment “gives” in unemployment benefits has to come from some taxpayer. Remember Basiat and the unseen victim. In this case, we now have four generation of “welfare farmers”. Some of those on “welfare” are rich companies and individuals. Milk and sugar subsidies come to mind.

Third, the poor economy has landed hard on the young and old. Youth unemployment — especially minority — is skyrocketing. And, the older workers are being forced into early retirement; some after burning through their savings from reduced retirement portfolios.

My solution is reduce gooferment. They need to cut, cut, and cut some more. Some entities need to be killed — Agriculture and Education would be my starting point. We need to cut the corporate income tax from 30+ to say ZERO. (Corporations don’t pay taxes. Only real people do. Corps pass them along or go out of business.) When Ron Paul campaigned, he asserted that cutting gooferment back to 1990 levels would allow the income tax to be ZERO.

Not like any of this is going to happen. But I wouldn’t trust anything the gooferment says or does. This included “running health care or health insurance”.

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INTERESTING: A mini-FED to spark the States

Saturday, December 19, 2009

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2009/03/how-nation%E2%80%99s-only-state-owned-bank-became-envy-wall-street

How the Nation’s Only State-Owned Bank Became the Envy of Wall Street
  — By Josh Harkinson | Fri Mar. 27, 2009 5:33 PM PDT

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The Bank of North Dakota is the only state-owned bank in America—what Republicans might call an idiosyncratic bastion of socialism. It also earned a record profit last year even as its private-sector corollaries lost billions. To be sure, it owes some of its unusual success to North Dakota’s well-insulated economy, which is heavy on agricultural staples and light on housing speculation. But that hasn’t stopped out-of-state politicos from beating a path to chilly Bismarck in search of advice. Could opening state-owned banks across America get us out of the financial crisis? It certainly might help, says Ellen Brown, author of the book, Web of Debt, who writes that the Bank of North Dakota, with its $4 billion under management, has avoided the credit freeze by “creating its own credit, leading the nation in establishing state economic sovereignty.” Mother Jones spoke with the Bank of North Dakota’s president, Eric Hardmeyer.

*** end quote ***

An interesting way to attack the FED?

Reenforcing State sovereignty to cut into the FED’s action and fiefdom.

As much as don’t like the gooferment, this seems like a good idea.

Fifty mini feds without the power to inflate or to borrow seems better than one big central bank with enormous powers over fiat currency.

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MONEY: Making a Loan Shark look good

Friday, December 18, 2009

http://www.impactlab.com/2009/12/18/subprime-credit-card-issuer-raising-interest-rate-to-79-9/

December 18th, 2009 at 9:56 am

Subprime Credit Card Issuer Raising Interest Rate To 79.9%

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In a recent mailing for a preapproved card, First Premier lowers fees to just that limit — $75 in the first year for a credit line of $300. But the new law doesn’t set a cap on interest rates. Hence the 79.9% APR, up from the previous 9.9%.

*** end quote ***

Good law!

People can’t look to the gooferment for protection.

Self-defense is only course.

Worse than the Mafia?

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RANT: Tokens — another broken promise

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

http://thomsinger.blogspot.com/2009/12/whats-next.html

Monday, December 14, 2009
What’s Next?
  This decade is coming to an end.

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It came in with all the attention on Y2K and is going out with our world forever changed. Many things, big and small, have morphed our society: The terrorist attacks on 9-11, the mass adoption of cell phones, and the changes in communication due to social media are just a few things that have impacted the ways we live.

*** and ***

Polaroid Photo – Don’t count Polaroid out just yet, they are looking at releasing some new products.

Bank Deposit Slips – Ummmm I still use these.

Subway Token – I live in Austin, this city has avoided any real mass transit for decades, so I have no idea.

*** end quote ***

Tokens were replaced with Metro Cards in NYC. It allows the MTA to steal back all the unused rides by tourists, lost cards, and such. Tokens used to mean something.

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Akin to removing the country from the Gold Standard, which allowed the explosive growth of Gooferment, replacing the token with the metrocard allows the MTA to sell promises that it has no intent to deliver on.

And, close the token booths which provide some measure of persona security to the traveller.

Maybe I do need a tin foil hat?

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