POLITICAL: Unwinding the Social Security Ponzi scheme

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

http://tslrf.blogspot.com/2009/01/entitlements-part-15-social-security.html

Friday, January 9, 2009

Entitlements Part 1.5- Social Security

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This brought up enough discussion that some things deserve to be addressed in a venue more public then the comments section. I will address as much as I can in no particular order. Here it goes.

First of all I did not mean anything seriously bad to the older folks who read the blog or your peer group. I poked some fun but it is just that, fun. I take a few friendly shots at just about everyone given the right setting. I am enough of am asshole that if I wanted to say something really mean I would.

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The most interesting idea that came out of the comments was what happened in Chile with their SS plan in the 1970’s. If you are as familiar with that as I was three hours ago then read this. I think that is sort of idea is probably the best chance of making our system viable but I still have the same big question/ concern I had about going to a privatized system before reading that article.

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Guess who made that comment? It is a good discussion about the Social Security Ponzi scheme and how to plan around it. No need to rehash it here or repeat my comments. You can read them over there.

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QUOTE: Gooferment debases the currency … ALWAYS! – Friedrich von Hayek

Saturday, January 17, 2009

“With the exception only of the period during which the gold standard was in effect, virtually all governments throughout history have used their exclusive power to issue money, as a method to defraud and plunder the people.” – Friedrich von Hayek

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MONEY: Questions for the investment climate

Friday, January 16, 2009

http://www.investorsinsight.com/blogs/john_mauldins_outside_the_box/archive/2009/01/07/setting-the-bull-trap.aspx

Setting the Bull Trap
John Mauldin’s Outside the Box
Posted Jan 07 2009, 05:00 PM

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   * Shouldn’t the consumer, after decades of over-consumption, be allowed to digest the over-indebtedness and save, rather than be encouraged to take risk?

   * Shouldn’t companies, no matter what state they reside in from a political point of view, if run poorly, be allowed to fail or forced to restructure?

   * Should taxpayer money be used to make up for the mishaps at financial institutions or should we allow them to wallow in their own mistakes?

   * Shouldn’t free markets be free?

   * When did Socialism make its way to our shores?

   * How do we choose who is bailed out and who loses?

   * Shouldn’t we place blame on the politicians, bureaucrats and other “decision makers” and put skilled people in place that know how to run the businesses?

   * Shouldn’t investors, led blindly down the primrose path of “buy and hold, diversify and don’t open your brokerage statement except once every 10 years” be allowed to follow the Prudent Man Rule?

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Certainly excellent questions to ask ourselves about what kind of country we are living in?
Investing in?
The investment climate we’ll all be taking investment risks!
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RANT: Some Habitat Homes are falling apart; flawed concept imho

Sunday, January 11, 2009

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article5439388.ece

January 4, 2009

Charity homes built by Hollywood start to crumble

John Harlow in Los Angeles

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RESIDENTS of a model housing estate bankrolled by Hollywood celebrities and hand-built by Jimmy Carter, the former US president, are complaining that it is falling apart.

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Another liberal love fest goes down in flames.

There is no substitute for someone saving their coins and buying their own home by the sweat of their brow.

Liberals ignore the learnigns over eons at their own peril.

There ain’t no such thing as free lunch.

The determination to get out of poverty must come form the individual. Sure there can be “help” along the way. Or at least, no concerted effort like the Liberal’s psuedo-drug-war, to keep the poor down trodden or the LBJ “war on poverty” which destroyed the “black family”, the “black churches”, and the “black neighborhoods”.

To me the biggest crime has been “gooferment education”. Huge amounts of money flushed down ratholes. The illusion of education. That’s the tradgey of our generation. A lost generation.

Second, is abortion. We’ve killed all those children who would have made who knows what contributions to society.

We are fools!

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RANT: Judge Green’s Bell breakup did more than ruin people’s lives.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

FROM LINKEDIN

News Discussion: AT&T Alumni
Does the AT&T Break UP Still Matter? – NYTimes.com
From: New York Times | December 19, 2008

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   When AT&T grudgingly agreed to break itself up 25 years ago, it was seen as a truly momentous event in the history of the teleco Read more at New York Times »

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Gene Russell
   * This article was submitted on December 19, 2008 at 09:00 AM PST

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I wrote the marketing and financial sections of the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph “Evaluation of Post Divestiture Provision of Customer Premises Equipment” Business Plan while on Jim Moberg’s team reporting to Sam Ginn. Ultimately many of Judge Green’s rules and regulations destroyed a lot of business strength and growth opportunities. For example the newly minted baby Bells were prohibited from manufacturing telephone equipment i.e. CPE. Ultimately we went off shore and created an intense stream of jobs to go away. We went to LG in Korea, some minor players in Hong Kong and ultimately to China. This lightly written and short article needs a much more serious study and review of all aspects of the break up, the restrictive rules imposed by a Judge without a business background. Many people speak about the break up in terms of their personal experience with their phone and phone service. The deeper industrial and corporate wastage and inefficiencies need to be given serous academic review. PhD proposal anyone?

By Gene Russell President and CEO

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I know first hand the personal disruption this caused. Family and friends were hurt. I landed on my feet. In some ways, much better off. However, those friends and family never recovered. My mom was forced out after 45 years. She was expecting to work for another 5 years. They did give her 2 years pay. But, she was “her job” and never recovered. My friend was bounced around, ill-treated in the spin outs, and basically tossed. He was out for several years trying to find a slot. There went his “retirement”.

As a country, having been at the Labs a few times, that was the country’s crown jewel. That was nuked.

Western Electric, the manufacturing arm, was nuked as well.

A tremendous cost in people, hardware, and potential.

Down the drain by a bureaucrat in a funny dress.

Argh!

Collective stupidity.

Supposedly to save money?

I just shake my head.

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MONEY: THe FED is the “root of all evil”!

Monday, January 5, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig2/stewart9.html

The Crisis in 10 Points
by Robert Stewart

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2. The Federal Reserve System (the Fed – created in 1913) has accommodated government’s policy of spending to excess by inflating the money supply and keeping interest rates artificially low. Today’s dollar will buy what in 1913 would cost less than a nickel. This easy-money policy has not only led to inflation but has resulted in investments taking place that would not be justified had the money supply been constrained, and had interest rates more clearly reflected economic reality.

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IMHO, this is the root of so many evils since 1913. Even the “income tax” wasn’t as bad as this. The FED allows the political class to extract value from the poor and middle class without the “bother” of taxes. It’s the hidden silent tax. And, it extracts more “wealth” than even the “death tax”.

I can’t believe that people are so stupid!

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RANT: Don’t listen to celebs

Saturday, January 3, 2009

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article5401129.ece

From The Times
December 27, 2008
Don’t take health tips from celebs if you know what’s good for you
David Rose

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From Madonna’s quest to “neutralise radiation” to Tom Cruise’s dismissals of psychiatry, celebrities are seldom shy about expressing their views on health and science – even when they appear not to know what they are talking about.

A roll call of public figures such as Cruise and Delia Smith have offered bogus advice or “quackery” this year, according to scientists and doctors. The charity Sense About Science is concerned that celebrities mislead the public when they endorse theories, diets or health products while misrepresenting the science involved.

Some – such as Oprah Winfrey and Kate Moss – espouse “detox” regimes, while others, such as Sharon and Kelly Osbourne, believe (mistakenly) that the Pill can cause cancer.

Nor are politicians exempt from lending credence to health myths. The US President-elect is among several American public figures who continue to suggest that the MMR vaccination is a potential cause of autism, despite an overwhelming weight of scientific evidence to the contrary.

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Why do people take anything from a celebrity?

Health advice, scientific advice, or political advice. Anything!

At least when Ted Turner gets up and pontificates his liberal agenda, he has made a contribution to the world. While I don’t agree with him, he has earned a listen. Madonna, Tom Cruise, and Kate Moss — please give me a break. They have the right to free speech; I have a right to ignore them.

Oprah is a special case of “speak with forked toungue”. Her Obama endorsement was plainly racist. She fell a bunch of notches in my opinion. Like Rosie O’D who was the “Queen of Nice” until she let fame get to her, there was a double cross.

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

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Politics: The Gooferment is the Problem, imho!

Monday, December 29, 2008

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123033898448336541.html

There’s No Pain-Free Cure for Recession
Belt-tightening is required by all, including government.
By PETER SCHIFF
* OPINION * DECEMBER 27, 2008

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Governments cannot create but merely redirect. When the government spends, the money has to come from somewhere. If the government doesn’t have a surplus, then it must come from taxes. If taxes don’t go up, then it must come from increased borrowing. If lenders won’t lend, then it must come from the printing press, which is where all these bailouts are headed. But each additional dollar printed diminishes the value those already in circulation. Something cannot be effortlessly created from nothing.

*** end quote ***

When will folks recognize that GOVERNEMENT IS THE PROBLEM.

It starts from a flawed set of paradigms (i.e., perceptions) and memes (i.e., ideas).

One flawed paradigm / perception is that the “benefits bestowed” come like magic rainfall from the heavens. It’s a miracle. What we don’t see, or chose not to see, is the sausage being made. Money extracted by force (Who voluntarily pays the mob in gooferment?) to fund the “benefits”. Minus of course the huge “handling fee” to do the “extracting” and “bestowing”!

One flawed meme is that there is such a thing as “government”. In our minds, we create the Wizard of Oz illusion that there something, (or even more laughable, that we are part of something), bigger than ourselves. No, what I see are craven immoral human beings dress up in fancy clothes pretending to have power over us. To “govern” us.

In the beginnings of human civilization, there were Tyrants. Then, came Kings. Now, we have Politicians.

There are all just people. Give them no more defference than you would a street thug. Be careful they can hurt you. But, don’t kid yourself that the Politician is any different than the Mafia Don.

Keep your pitchfork and torch at hand. Their time is coming.

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RANT: Autoworkers Union Keeps $6 Million Golf Course

Sunday, December 28, 2008

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,472304,00.html

Autoworkers Union Keeps $6 Million Golf Course for Members at $33 Million Lakeside Retreat

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And we are BAILING everyone out?

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POLITICAL: Gooferment bailouts mere prolong the inevitable

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

http://www.lewrockwell.com/tucker/tucker115.html

The End of the US Piano Industry by Jeffrey A. Tucker

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Today government is even more arrogant and absurd, and it actually believes that by passing legislation it can save the US car industry. It can subsidize and pay for uneconomic activities, and pay ever more every year. The government can also pay millions of people to make mud pies because mud pies are deemed to be an essential industry. You can do this, but at what cost and what could possibly be the point? Eventually, even the government will have to accord itself to the reality that economics reminds us of on a daily basis.

*** end quote ***

It’s hard to envision a sadder time in American History.

The gooferment bailing out the UAW union.

That’s what this is all about.

The unions wield enormous political power.

And, like a parasite, they eventually kill their hosts.

Look at the Teacher’s Union and education. The ports with their union. The railroads with their union. Government workers and their unions.

And, don’t make the mistake that the Union is looking out for its members.

Sure, they do from time to time, but that’s to preserve the illusion.

Example, State of New Jersey hasn’t contributed to the pension plan for several administration. It’s under funded by 3T$. Think the Union has grabbed the politicians by their privates and insisted. No, they are all in bed together.

Example, UAW hasn’t insisted that Automakers align the executive’s interest with the worker’s. It’s a scandal that a CEO makes more than the line worker in salary. CEO’s shouldn’t make more than a 1$/year anytime. Give them stock options that vest in 5 year increments (i.e., 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, …). Then stand out of the way as the thinking shifts to long term value.

Example, the Delta bankruptcy screwed all the retired pilots. Hear anything about that?

Unions are an institution that needs to be reinvented.

Where’s my “union” for bloggers?

Argh!

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