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Biased Media • 7 Things About The Mainstream Media That They Do Not Want Yo
7 Things About The Mainstream Media That They Do Not Want You To Know
By Michael, on May 20th, 2013
Have you ever wondered who controls the mainstream media? In America today, we are more "connected" than ever. The average American watches 153 hours of television a month, and we also spend countless hours watching movies, playing video games, listening to music, reading books and surfing the Internet. If someone could control the production of all of that media, that would make them immensely powerful. They would literally be in a position to tell people what to think. Well, what if I told you that there are just six enormous media conglomerates that combine to produce about 90 percent of all the media that Americans consume. Would that alarm you? It should alarm you. The truth is that our attitudes, opinions and beliefs are greatly shaped by what we allow into our minds. After all, they don’t call it "programming" for no reason. Even those of us that realize that we are connected to "the matrix" probably greatly underestimate the tremendous influence that the media has over us. We live at a time when it is absolutely imperative to think for ourselves, but most Americans are being absolutely overwhelmed with information and seem more than content to let others do their thinking for them. Sadly, this is greatly contributing to the downfall of our society.
And of course the mainstream media desperately does not want you to look at "the man behind the curtain". They just want you to stay plugged into the "programming" that they are feeding you without asking any questions.
Fortunately, a growing minority of Americans are waking up and are starting to reject the mainstream media. An increasing number of people are beginning to recognize that the mainstream media is the mouthpiece of the establishment and that it is promoting the agenda of the establishment.
So why is the mainstream media so bad? The following are 7 things about the mainstream media that they do not want you to know…
#1 The Mainstream Media Has Very Deep Ties To The Establishment
Did you know that the president of CBS and the president of ABC both have brothers that are top officials in the Obama administration?
The big news networks have developed an almost incestuous relationship with the federal government in recent years. But of course the same could be said of the relationship that the media has with the big corporations that own stock in their parent companies and that advertise on their networks.
This is one of the reasons why we very rarely ever see any hard hitting stories on the big networks anymore. The flow of information through the corporate-dominated media is very tightly controlled, and there are a lot of gatekeepers that make sure that the "wrong stories" don’t get put out to the public. As a result, many of the "big stories" that have come out in recent years were originally broken by the alternative media.
#2 The Mainstream Media Gets Things Wrong Very Frequently
Even prominent members of the mainstream media admit that this is the case. For example, during a recent speech at Quinnipiac University CBS anchor Scott Pelley confessed that journalists in the mainstream media "are getting big stories wrong, over and over again"…
"Let me take the first arrow: During our coverage of Newtown, I sat on my set and I reported that Nancy Lanza was a teacher at the school. And that her son had attacked her classroom. It’s a hell of a story, but it was dead wrong. Now, I was the managing editor, I made the decision to go ahead with that and I did, and that’s what I said, and I was absolutely wrong. So let me just take the first arrow here."
#3 The American Public Does Not Consider The Media To Be Very Trustworthy
Trust in the mainstream media has definitely been slipping. In fact, a Gallup poll taken last year found that distrust of the media had reached an all-time high. According to that poll, 60 percent of Americans "have little or no trust" that the media is reporting the news accurately.
A separate Rasmussen Reports survey found that only 6 percent of all Americans consider the news media to be "very trustworthy".
Hopefully this trend will accelerate and a lot more people will stop trusting the media blindly.
#4 The Mainstream Media And The Politicians That They Worship Hate The Fact That They Cannot Control Internet News Sites
In the old days, the mainstream media had a virtual monopoly on the news. But these days, anyone with an Internet connection can put up a news site, and this is driving the establishment absolutely bonkers.
For example, Barack Obama is known to have a great dislike for the alternative media. The following is from a recent WND article…
NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd says President Obama was making it “clear” at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner over the weekend how he feels about the rise of Internet news sites like Politico, Buzzfeed and … well, WND.
“He hates it.”
Appearing on “Meet the Press” Sunday morning following Saturday night’s media, politics and celebrity soiree, Todd explained the president’s disdain for independent online news sources was showing during his speech.
“It did seem … I thought his pot shots, joke-wise, and then the serious stuff about the Internet, the rise of the Internet media and social media and all that stuff – he hates it, OK? He hates this part of the media,” Todd said. “He really thinks that the, sort of, the buzzification – this isn’t just about Buzzfeed or Politico and all this stuff – he thinks that sort of coverage of political media has hurt political discourse. He hates it. And I think he was just trying to make that clear last night.”
#5 The Mainstream Media Is Extremely Liberal
When it comes to politics, the mainstream media is far more liberal than the general population is.
For example, one survey found that 41 percent of American voters believe that the average reporter is more liberal than they are, while only 18 percent believe that the average reporter is more conservative than they are.
A very disturbing UCLA study on media bias discovered that the vast majority of media outlets are "left of center"…
Of the 20 major media outlets studied, 18 scored left of center, with CBS’ “Evening News,” The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times ranking second, third and fourth most liberal behind the news pages of The Wall Street Journal.
And even MSNBC has confirmed the liberal bias of the media. According to MSNBC, mainstream journalists are far more likely to donate their own money to Democrats than they are to Republicans…
MSNBC.com identified 143 journalists who made political contributions from 2004 through the start of the 2008 campaign, according to the public records of the Federal Election Commission. Most of the newsroom checkbooks leaned to the left: 125 journalists gave to Democrats and liberal causes. Only 16 gave to Republicans. Two gave to both parties.
#6 Six Mammoth Media Corporations Produce About 90 Percent Of The Media That Americans Consume
As I mentioned at the top of this article, there are six giant media behemoths that control almost all of the media that we consume. These corporate giants own television networks, cable channels, movie studios, newspapers, magazines, publishing houses, video game makers, music labels and even many of our favorite websites.
The media ownership chart posted below originally comes from a previous article that I authored entitled "Who Owns The Media? The 6 Monolithic Corporations That Control Almost Everything We Watch, Hear And Read", but it has been updated to reflect some of the latest information. The power that these companies have is so vast that it is hard to put into words…
Time Warner
CNN
Home Box Office (HBO)
Time Inc.
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
CW Network (partial ownership)
TMZ
New Line Cinema
Time Warner Cable
Cinemax
Cartoon Network
TBS
TNT
America Online
MapQuest
Moviefone
Castle Rock
Sports Illustrated
Fortune
Marie Claire
DC Comics
People Magazine
Walt Disney
ABC Television Network
Disney Publishing
ESPN Inc.
Disney Channel
The History Channel
SOAPnet
A&E
Lifetime
Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Buena Vista Theatrical Productions
Buena Vista Records
Disney Records
Hollywood Records
Miramax Films
Touchstone Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures
Pixar Animation Studios
277 Radio Stations
Buena Vista Games
Hyperion Books
Viacom
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Home Entertainment
Black Entertainment Television (BET)
Comedy Central
Country Music Television (CMT)
Logo
MTV
MTV Canada
MTV2
Nick Magazine
Nick at Nite
Nick Jr.
Nickelodeon
Noggin
Spike TV
The Movie Channel
TV Land
VH1
News Corporation
Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Fox Television Stations
The New York Post
TV Guide
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Beliefnet
Fox Business Network
Fox Kids Europe
Fox News Channel
Fox Sports Net
Fox Television Network
FX
My Network TV
MySpace
News Limited News
Phoenix InfoNews Channel
Phoenix Movies Channel
Sky PerfecTV
Speed Channel
STAR TV India
STAR TV Taiwan
STAR World
Times Higher Education Supplement Magazine
Times Literary Supplement Magazine
Times of London
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
20th Century Fox International
20th Century Fox Studios
20th Century Fox Television
BSkyB
DIRECTV
The Wall Street Journal
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Interactive Media
FOXTEL
HarperCollins Publishers
The National Geographic Channel
National Rugby League
News Interactive
News Outdoor
Radio Veronica
ReganBooks
Sky Italia
Sky Radio Denmark
Sky Radio Germany
Sky Radio Netherlands
STAR
Zondervan
CBS Corporation
CBS News
CBS Sports
CBS Television Network
CNET
Showtime
TV.com
CBS Radio Inc. (130 stations)
CBS Consumer Products
CBS Outdoor
CW Network (50% ownership)
Infinity Broadcasting
Simon & Schuster (Pocket Books, Scribner)
Westwood One Radio Network
Comcast
NBC
Bravo
CNBC
NBC News
MSNBC
NBC Sports
NBC Television Network
Oxygen
SciFi Magazine
Syfy (Sci Fi Channel)
Telemundo
USA Network
Weather Channel
Focus Features
NBC Universal Television Distribution
NBC Universal Television Studio
Paxson Communications (partial ownership)
Hulu
Universal Parks & Resorts
Universal Pictures
Universal Studio Home Video
#7 The American People Are Absolutely Addicted To The Mainstream Media
In a previous article about the media, I noted that the average American watches 153 hours of television a month.
When you allow that much information to be downloaded into your brain, it is going to have a dramatic impact on how you think.
Americans are more "connected" than they ever have been before. This is especially true of our kids. They are constantly on one sort of electronic device or another. The following is a brief excerpt from a recent article by Daniel Taylor…
According to a 2010 LA Times report, young people spend on average 53 hours a week watching TV, playing video games, and sitting at the computer.
Facebook users spend about 15 hours a month on the social networking site.
People are walking – and driving – blindly while texting, sometimes walking into fountains and even falling off cliffs.
If that Los Angeles Times report is true, that means that our young people are spending more than 200 hours a month connected to the media.
But we are only awake for about 480 hours a month.
When it comes to influencing the American people, nobody has more power than the big media companies do.
And until we can break this sick addiction to the mainstream media and get people to start thinking for themselves, we will never see widespread changes in our society. As long as people are being "programmed" by the mainstream media, they will continue to express the opinions, attitudes and beliefs that have been downloaded into their minds.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/arch … ou-to-know
Statistics: Posted by yoda — Mon May 20, 2013 4:31 pm
View full post on opinions.caduceusx.com
7 Things About The Mainstream Media That They Do Not Want You To Know
Have you ever wondered who controls the mainstream media? In America today, we are more “connected” than ever. The average American watches 153 hours of television a month, and we also spend countless hours watching movies, playing video games, listening to music, reading books and surfing the Internet. If someone could control the production of all of that media, that would make them immensely powerful. They would literally be in a position to tell people what to think. Well, what if I told you that there are just six enormous media conglomerates that combine to produce about 90 percent of all the media that Americans consume. Would that alarm you? It should alarm you. The truth is that our attitudes, opinions and beliefs are greatly shaped by what we allow into our minds. After all, they don’t call it “programming” for no reason. Even those of us that realize that we are connected to “the matrix” probably greatly underestimate the tremendous influence that the media has over us. We live at a time when it is absolutely imperative to think for ourselves, but most Americans are being absolutely overwhelmed with information and seem more than content to let others do their thinking for them. Sadly, this is greatly contributing to the downfall of our society.
And of course the mainstream media desperately does not want you to look at “the man behind the curtain”. They just want you to stay plugged into the “programming” that they are feeding you without asking any questions.
Fortunately, a growing minority of Americans are waking up and are starting to reject the mainstream media. An increasing number of people are beginning to recognize that the mainstream media is the mouthpiece of the establishment and that it is promoting the agenda of the establishment.
So why is the mainstream media so bad? The following are 7 things about the mainstream media that they do not want you to know…
#1 The Mainstream Media Has Very Deep Ties To The Establishment
Did you know that the president of CBS and the president of ABC both have brothers that are top officials in the Obama administration?
The big news networks have developed an almost incestuous relationship with the federal government in recent years. But of course the same could be said of the relationship that the media has with the big corporations that own stock in their parent companies and that advertise on their networks.
This is one of the reasons why we very rarely ever see any hard hitting stories on the big networks anymore. The flow of information through the corporate-dominated media is very tightly controlled, and there are a lot of gatekeepers that make sure that the “wrong stories” don’t get put out to the public. As a result, many of the “big stories” that have come out in recent years were originally broken by the alternative media.
#2 The Mainstream Media Gets Things Wrong Very Frequently
Even prominent members of the mainstream media admit that this is the case. For example, during a recent speech at Quinnipiac University CBS anchor Scott Pelley confessed that journalists in the mainstream media “are getting big stories wrong, over and over again”…
“Let me take the first arrow: During our coverage of Newtown, I sat on my set and I reported that Nancy Lanza was a teacher at the school. And that her son had attacked her classroom. It’s a hell of a story, but it was dead wrong. Now, I was the managing editor, I made the decision to go ahead with that and I did, and that’s what I said, and I was absolutely wrong. So let me just take the first arrow here.”
#3 The American Public Does Not Consider The Media To Be Very Trustworthy
Trust in the mainstream media has definitely been slipping. In fact, a Gallup poll taken last year found that distrust of the media had reached an all-time high. According to that poll, 60 percent of Americans “have little or no trust” that the media is reporting the news accurately.
A separate Rasmussen Reports survey found that only 6 percent of all Americans consider the news media to be “very trustworthy”.
Hopefully this trend will accelerate and a lot more people will stop trusting the media blindly.
#4 The Mainstream Media And The Politicians That They Worship Hate The Fact That They Cannot Control Internet News Sites
In the old days, the mainstream media had a virtual monopoly on the news. But these days, anyone with an Internet connection can put up a news site, and this is driving the establishment absolutely bonkers.
For example, Barack Obama is known to have a great dislike for the alternative media. The following is from a recent WND article…
NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd says President Obama was making it “clear” at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner over the weekend how he feels about the rise of Internet news sites like Politico, Buzzfeed and … well, WND.
“He hates it.”
Appearing on “Meet the Press” Sunday morning following Saturday night’s media, politics and celebrity soiree, Todd explained the president’s disdain for independent online news sources was showing during his speech.
“It did seem … I thought his pot shots, joke-wise, and then the serious stuff about the Internet, the rise of the Internet media and social media and all that stuff – he hates it, OK? He hates this part of the media,” Todd said. “He really thinks that the, sort of, the buzzification – this isn’t just about Buzzfeed or Politico and all this stuff – he thinks that sort of coverage of political media has hurt political discourse. He hates it. And I think he was just trying to make that clear last night.”
#5 The Mainstream Media Is Extremely Liberal
When it comes to politics, the mainstream media is far more liberal than the general population is.
For example, one survey found that 41 percent of American voters believe that the average reporter is more liberal than they are, while only 18 percent believe that the average reporter is more conservative than they are.
A very disturbing UCLA study on media bias discovered that the vast majority of media outlets are “left of center”…
Of the 20 major media outlets studied, 18 scored left of center, with CBS’ “Evening News,” The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times ranking second, third and fourth most liberal behind the news pages of The Wall Street Journal.
And even MSNBC has confirmed the liberal bias of the media. According to MSNBC, mainstream journalists are far more likely to donate their own money to Democrats than they are to Republicans…
MSNBC.com identified 143 journalists who made political contributions from 2004 through the start of the 2008 campaign, according to the public records of the Federal Election Commission. Most of the newsroom checkbooks leaned to the left: 125 journalists gave to Democrats and liberal causes. Only 16 gave to Republicans. Two gave to both parties.
#6 Six Mammoth Media Corporations Produce About 90 Percent Of The Media That Americans Consume
As I mentioned at the top of this article, there are six giant media behemoths that control almost all of the media that we consume. These corporate giants own television networks, cable channels, movie studios, newspapers, magazines, publishing houses, video game makers, music labels and even many of our favorite websites.
The media ownership chart posted below originally comes from a previous article that I authored entitled “Who Owns The Media? The 6 Monolithic Corporations That Control Almost Everything We Watch, Hear And Read“, but it has been updated to reflect some of the latest information. The power that these companies have is so vast that it is hard to put into words…
Time Warner
CNN
Home Box Office (HBO)
Time Inc.
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
CW Network (partial ownership)
TMZ
New Line Cinema
Time Warner Cable
Cinemax
Cartoon Network
TBS
TNT
America Online
MapQuest
Moviefone
Castle Rock
Sports Illustrated
Fortune
Marie Claire
DC Comics
People Magazine
Walt Disney
ABC Television Network
Disney Publishing
ESPN Inc.
Disney Channel
The History Channel
SOAPnet
A&E
Lifetime
Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Buena Vista Theatrical Productions
Buena Vista Records
Disney Records
Hollywood Records
Miramax Films
Touchstone Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures
Pixar Animation Studios
277 Radio Stations
Buena Vista Games
Hyperion Books
Viacom
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Home Entertainment
Black Entertainment Television (BET)
Comedy Central
Country Music Television (CMT)
Logo
MTV
MTV Canada
MTV2
Nick Magazine
Nick at Nite
Nick Jr.
Nickelodeon
Noggin
Spike TV
The Movie Channel
TV Land
VH1
News Corporation
Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Fox Television Stations
The New York Post
TV Guide
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Beliefnet
Fox Business Network
Fox Kids Europe
Fox News Channel
Fox Sports Net
Fox Television Network
FX
My Network TV
MySpace
News Limited News
Phoenix InfoNews Channel
Phoenix Movies Channel
Sky PerfecTV
Speed Channel
STAR TV India
STAR TV Taiwan
STAR World
Times Higher Education Supplement Magazine
Times Literary Supplement Magazine
Times of London
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
20th Century Fox International
20th Century Fox Studios
20th Century Fox Television
BSkyB
DIRECTV
The Wall Street Journal
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Interactive Media
FOXTEL
HarperCollins Publishers
The National Geographic Channel
National Rugby League
News Interactive
News Outdoor
Radio Veronica
ReganBooks
Sky Italia
Sky Radio Denmark
Sky Radio Germany
Sky Radio Netherlands
STAR
Zondervan
CBS Corporation
CBS News
CBS Sports
CBS Television Network
CNET
Showtime
TV.com
CBS Radio Inc. (130 stations)
CBS Consumer Products
CBS Outdoor
CW Network (50% ownership)
Infinity Broadcasting
Simon & Schuster (Pocket Books, Scribner)
Westwood One Radio Network
Comcast
NBC
Bravo
CNBC
NBC News
MSNBC
NBC Sports
NBC Television Network
Oxygen
SciFi Magazine
Syfy (Sci Fi Channel)
Telemundo
USA Network
Weather Channel
Focus Features
NBC Universal Television Distribution
NBC Universal Television Studio
Paxson Communications (partial ownership)
Hulu
Universal Parks & Resorts
Universal Pictures
Universal Studio Home Video
#7 The American People Are Absolutely Addicted To The Mainstream Media
In a previous article about the media, I noted that the average American watches 153 hours of television a month.
When you allow that much information to be downloaded into your brain, it is going to have a dramatic impact on how you think.
Americans are more “connected” than they ever have been before. This is especially true of our kids. They are constantly on one sort of electronic device or another. The following is a brief excerpt from a recent article by Daniel Taylor…
According to a 2010 LA Times report, young people spend on average 53 hours a week watching TV, playing video games, and sitting at the computer.
Facebook users spend about 15 hours a month on the social networking site.
People are walking – and driving – blindly while texting, sometimes walking into fountains and even falling off cliffs.
If that Los Angeles Times report is true, that means that our young people are spending more than 200 hours a month connected to the media.
But we are only awake for about 480 hours a month.
When it comes to influencing the American people, nobody has more power than the big media companies do.
And until we can break this sick addiction to the mainstream media and get people to start thinking for themselves, we will never see widespread changes in our society. As long as people are being “programmed” by the mainstream media, they will continue to express the opinions, attitudes and beliefs that have been downloaded into their minds.
Please share this article with as many people as you can. It is crucial that we wake as many people up as possible while we still can.
View full post on The Economic Collapse
Crony Hollywood really wants the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement, And they don’t want you know about it.
SOPA, PIPA, ACTA, CISPA, the freedom of the Internet is under assault from crony industry and governments. It’s about control. It is about the reining in of information. It is about restricting innovators and protecting dinosaur business models.
Hollywood knows that the way it is built will not survive in the 21st century. The studio model, with heavily unionized work forces just doesn’t make sense when it costs 1/100th of what it used to cost to make a quality film or show. The cronies in Southern California know that their expiration date is up. Their time is over. But they still have a lot of money and with it a lot of political influence. These guy’s desperately want the TPP and the expansion of copyright to go through. They don’t care that it will stifle innovation and make the world a worse place. Hollywood has decided to use the state to protect them from the public rather than innovate.
Thankfully the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and of course many others, is paying attention to the ongoing, and very secret negotiations going on at the Trans Pacific Partnership talks.
By the way there are concurrent talks with Europe about creating a similar “partnership” going on right now too.
(From Black Listed News)
As during the ACTA negotiations, Hollywood and other Big Content industries have a stronghold over international policymakers. As a result, U.S. trade delegates are pushing forth provisions that, if enforced, would have huge chilling effects on everyone including innovators, hackers, makers, students, researchers, and people with reading and learning disabilities. These provisions are designed to limit how anyone can share and interact with digital content so they will impact everyone.
View full post on AgainstCronyCapitalism.org
Help Poor People in Bangladesh by Buying the Clothes They Make
K. William Watson
The tragic building collapse in Bangladesh two weeks ago, killing over 900 people, has focused public attention on working conditions for garment workers around the world. The attention has intensified calls for Western clothing brands to insist on better working conditions in the factories around the developing world where their products are made. According to the New York Times, some companies are responding to consumer concerns by marketing their “fair labor” practices on product labels.
The development of a fair trade movement for clothing is in many ways encouraging. It demonstrates the power of consumers in a free market to impose their preferences on the supply chain. Businesses succeed or fail based on how well they meet consumer demand, and if consumers demand certain labor practices enough to cover the added costs, businesses will respond.
This voluntary mechanism does a much better job than government mandates. Even a requirement that companies merely put labels on their clothes does a poor job of informing consumers. Any mandated label is insulated from accuracy-enhancing, consumer-driven competition and vulnerable to capture by special interests.
On the other hand, refusing to buy clothes made in “sweatshops” is a terrible way to help the people of Bangladesh. The fact remains that despite the terrible working conditions, workers chose their sweatshop jobs over worse alternatives. Outlawing sweatshops or refusing to buy things made in Bangladesh removes those workers’ best option and forces them to settle for less. (LearnLiberty.org has an excellent video explaining the “Top 3 Ways Sweatshops Help the Poor Escape Poverty.”)
More foreign investment in industrial production would help the people of Bangladesh even more. It’s true that Bangladeshis’ poverty enables you to buy cheap t-shirts because they will work for next to nothing in dangerous factories. But the systemic effect of Western investment means more opportunity, and opportunity is the opposite of poverty.
That said, consumer demand for “fair trade clothing” may actually help factory workers, whereas a flat-out refusal to trade would not. This particular disaster seems to be largely the result of rampant cronyism, inept bureaucracy, and official corruption—problems that could be alleviated by reducing the discretion of local middlemen. If concerned consumers have more specific information about labor practices, they won’t have to rely on purely origin-based information. It would be a shame if someone decided not to buy a shirt just because it was “Made in Bangladesh.” Positive and voluntary inducements to improve working conditions are much, much better than refusing to do business with poor people.
View full post on Cato @ Liberty
They Are Murdering Small Business: The Percentage Of Self-Employed Americans Is At A Record Low
The percentage of Americans that are working for themselves has never been lower in the history of the United States. Once upon a time, the United States was a paradise for entrepreneurs and small businesses, but now the control freak bureaucrats that dominate our society have created a system that absolutely eviscerates them. This is very unfortunate, because by murdering small business, the bureaucrats are destroying the primary engine of job growth in this country. One of the big reasons why there are not enough jobs in America today is because small business creation is way down. As I mentioned yesterday, entrepreneurs and small businesses are being absolutely devastated by rules, regulations, red tape and by oppressive levels of taxation. If anyone doubts that small business in the United States is dying, just look at the charts below. Sadly, this is what the bureaucrats that run things want. They don’t want us to be independent of the system. Instead, they are much more comfortable when as many of us as possible are heavily dependent on the system in one way or another. If all of us have to go running to the government or to one of the big corporations for a job, then we are much easier to control. But as the control freaks continue to construct their bureaucratic utopia, they are also killing off what once made the U.S. economy so great.
The other day I came across the following two charts in an article by Charles Hugh Smith, and I was absolutely stunned by what I saw. This first chart shows that the number of unincorporated self-employed Americans has dropped back to levels that we have not seen since the mid-1980s even though our population has increased by tens of millions of people since that time…
As you can see, from 1970 to the mid-1990s the number of unincorporated self-employed Americans rose steadily. But in the mid-1990s it began to level off and now it is falling rapidly.
This next chart shows the percentage of self-employed Americans as a share of non-farm employment. In other words, those that work on farms are excluded from this chart. The percentage of self-employed Americans was fairly stable between 1970 and 1990, but since 1990 it has been steadily eroding and it has now reached a level never seen before…
At this point, only about 7 percent of non-farm workers are self-employed. That is depressingly low. That means that an overwhelming majority of those that are employed in America are working for the system in one capacity or another.
But isn’t that what we pound into the heads of our children these days? We teach them to work hard in school so that they can “get a good job” when they grow up. From a very early age we train our children to plug themselves into the system.
Not that working for someone else is wrong. Of course not. It is just that we are not fostering a spirit of entrepreneurship in America today. In fact, we seem to be doing everything that we can to kill it off.
In a previous article, I detailed how the number of new businesses (and the number of jobs those businesses create) has been steadily declining. In particular, this decline has accelerated dramatically under the Obama administration. According to an analysis of U.S. Department of Labor data performed by economist Tim Kane, the following is how the decline in the number of startup jobs per 1000 Americans breaks down by presidential administration…
Bush Sr.: 11.3
Clinton: 11.2
Bush Jr.: 10.8
Obama: 7.8
Is that a good trend or a bad trend?
It doesn’t take an advanced degree in economics to figure out where things are going.
Kane speculated about why we are witnessing such a decline in his paper…
There is anecdotal evidence that the U.S. policy environment has become inadvertently hostile to entrepreneurial employment. At the federal level, high taxes and higher uncertainty about taxes are undoubtedly inhibiting entrepreneurship, but to what degree is unknown. The dominant factor may be new regulations on labor. The passage of the Affordable Care Act is creating a sweeping alteration of the regulatory environment that directly changes how employers engage their workforces, and it will be some time until those changes are understood by employers or scholars. Separately, there has been a federal crackdown since 2009 by the Internal Revenue Service on U.S. employers that hire U.S. workers as independent contractors rather than employees, raising the question of mandatory benefits. New firms tend to use part-time and contract staffing rather than full-time employees during the startup stage. According to Labor Department data, the typical American today only takes home 70 percent of compensation as pay, while the rest is absorbed by the spiraling cost of benefits (e.g., health insurance). The dilemma for U.S. policy is that an American entrepreneur has zero tax or regulatory burden when hiring a consultant/contractor who resides abroad. But that same employer is subject to paperwork, taxation, and possible IRS harassment if employing U.S.-based contractors. Finally, there has been a steady barrier erected to entrepreneurs at the local policy level. Brink Lindsey points out in his book Human Capitalism that the rise of occupational licensing is destroying startup opportunities for poor and middle class Americans.
In my previous article, I also pointed out some of the other statistics that show that small business in America is dying…
-According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. economy lost more than 220,000 small businesses during the last recession.
-As a share of the population, the percentage of Americans that are self-employed fell by more than 20 percent between 1991 and 2010.
-As a share of the population, the percentage of “new entrepreneurs and business owners” dropped by a staggering 53 percent between 1977 and 2010.
Unfortunately, this is a crisis that has taken decades to develop and that there are not any easy solutions for. But there are certain factors that should be addressed immediately. The following are some of the things that are contributing to the murder of self-employment and small business in America…
#1 Taxes: The IRS seems to especially enjoy tormenting entrepreneurs and small businesses. In fact, things have gotten so bad that even late night talk show hosts are joking about it. Recently, NBC Tonight Show host Jay Leno joked that if Barack Obama really wanted to close down Guantanamo Bay, he should “do what he always does: declare it a small business and tax it out of existence”
#2 Ridiculous Regulations: If you have ever tried to start a small business, you probably know how frustrating it can be dealing with government red tape. In particular, the federal government has burdened our small businesses with gigantic mountains of rules and regulations and it gets worse with each passing day.
#3 State Governments That Are Openly Hostile To Business: A perfect example of this is the state of California. In 2011, the state of California ranked 50th out of all 50 states in new business creation, and yet they just continue to pass more legislation that hurts small businesses.
#4 Obamacare: Our broken healthcare system is a tremendous burden on small businesses, and Obamacare is going to make things much worse.
#5 The One World Trade Agenda: In many industries, U.S. small businesses simply cannot compete against products made by workers that are being paid slave labor wages on the other side of the globe.
#6 Predator Corporations: Time after time we have seen corporate giants extract huge tax breaks and other enormous concessions from local officials which give them an overwhelming advantage. But once the corporate giant moves into town, many of the existing small businesses find that they cannot compete and are forced to shut down.
#7 Our Corrupt Political System: On the national level, elections are almost always won by the politician that raises the most money. Our politicians know that their careers depend on raising money, so they tend to be very good to those that they get big money from. There is a reason why big corporations spend billions of dollars on campaign contributions and lobbying. They do it because it works. Over the decades, the big corporations have been able to shift the rules of the game massively in their favor, and this has been to the detriment of entrepreneurs and small businesses.
Can you think of any other factors that you would add to this list? Please feel free to share your opinion by leaving a comment below…
View full post on The Economic Collapse
Liberals say military is a form of “stimulus,” cutting Pentagon not as important as they thought
When it comes down to it, there are people who believe that taking money from the real economy, putting it through the sausage machine of government, and then spitting it back out into the real economy is smart, and there are those who know better.
Some people are so committed to the pro-government religion they are willing to abandon key principals in the name of the faith. The military budget is a great example. For years “liberals” talked a good game about reducing the size of the military. But now as at least small cuts have become real, there is gnashing of teeth. The military is the government and liberals and ”progressives” want to make sure the government footprint expands, even if it is at the cost of an expanded military industrial complex. Whatever happens just keep the money out of the private sector! So what if we fought against it for 70 years?
At least old Bernie Sanders has some remorse. He’d rather we just paid people just to do nothing at all.
“I don’t want to see anybody lose their jobs,” said Sen. Bernard Sanders (Vt.), an independent who caucuses with Democrats. “We are in the midst of a terrible recession. When you cut military spending you lose jobs, and that’s a terrible thing.”
On the other hand, Sanders said, military spending should not be preserved just because it keeps people employed. “You can hire millions of people digging ditches and hire millions of people to fill the ditches,” he said.
View full post on AgainstCronyCapitalism.org
American • America’s Hijackers – Where Are They Now?
America’s Hijackers – Where Are They Now?
In Open Thread on Sunday, October 7, 2012 at 4:45 pm
Spoiler Alert: They’re mostly still in office (so much for building suspense).
http://acrossthestreetnet.wordpress.com/
On October 3, 2008, 338 elected officials (263 House reps, 74 Senators and 1 President) took it upon themselves to save America from certain financial doom by passing the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, completely ignoring the will of the American people, opting instead to fulfill a Thomas Jefferson prophesy:
“The end of democracy and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur when government falls into the hands of lending institutions and moneyed incorporations.”
~ Thomas Jefferson
Texas representative Ron Paul had this to say:
“The money for this bailout does not just materialize out of thin air. The entire burden will be borne by the taxpayers, not now, because that is politically unacceptable, but in the future….our children and grandchildren will be burdened with increased taxes in order to pay that increased debt…. For years, many people have been warning about the housing bubble and the inevitable bust. Congress ignored the impending storm, and responded to this crisis with a poorly thought-out piece of legislation that will only further harm the economy. We ought to be ashamed.”
The most memorable component of that piece of treason legislation was the $700B TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program), which was scrapped by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson 11 days later in favor of the Capital Purchase Program (CPP), which injected money directly into banks. In February 2009, new Treasury Secretary Turbo Geithner ended the CPP and announced the Capital Assistance Program (CAP), which also blasted money directly into banks.
Fun Fact: Hankenstein Paulson worked at Goldman Sachs for 32 years and served as Treasury Secretary for 31 months.
So TARP never happened; making discussions of the program’s merits every bit as psychotic as analysis of Ross Perot’s presidency, but that didn’t stop CNBC from having a birthday cake for TARP, nor does it prevent politicians from claiming that the fictitious program was somehow profitable. To make that claim, you must use accounting techniques pioneered by Homer Simpson in “Lard of the Dance” :
Homer Simpson: Okay, boy. This is where all the hard work, sacrifice, and painful scaldings pay off.
Employee: Four pounds of grease… that comes to… sixty-three cents.
Homer Simpson: Woo-hoo!
Bart Simpson: Dad, all that bacon cost twenty-seven dollars.
Homer Simpson: Yeah, but your mom paid for that!
Bart Simpson: But doesn’t she get her money from you?
Homer Simpson: And I get my money from grease! What’s the problem?
Some of us prefer using this one:
Q: Since the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 explicitly states that all profits from TARP be used to pay down the National Debt, the true measure of the program’s success can be found at the Treasury’s “Debt to the Penny” website. How much of the national debt has been paid off since October 3, 2008?
A: Negative Six Trillion Dollars.
Fun Fact (if you’re into child abuse): America’s kids have been saddled with more debt in the past 48 months than the Nation accumulated from the signing of the Declaration of Independence to 9-11-2001 (225 years).
That $6 Trillion in debt has produced a grand total of $1.17T in nominal GDP growth ($361B in chained 2005 dollars). Using the nominal, each dollar of GDP growth has cost taxpayers $5.13 (assuming you understand that deficit dollars are tax dollars put on a deferred-payment plan. A concept Greece and Spain are just now beginning to grasp).
EESA-approving-congressman-turned-Chicago-Mayor Rahm Emanuel observed:
You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before (i.e. Looting the Country in broad daylight without passing a budget).
Which brings me to the point: Despite all the kicking, screaming, TEA-partying and Occupying, of the 338 elected officials who saw fit to pass the EESA, no less than 229 still hold public office:
One became President, one didn’t.
One’s Vice-President, one wants to be.
The speaker of the House and the House minority leader swapped titles after both voted in favor of the bill.
Two have already been promoted to Senator and 5 more currently running for that privledge.
One got demoted to Secretary of State while another got demoted to Mayor of Chicago.
One retired to a 1600 acre off-the-energy-grid ranch in Texas, 23 more will join him in retirement in January 2013.
168 face re-election next month.
The next un-funded war is already in the works and there’s another economic crisis on the horizon. The so-called “Fiscal Cliff” is what happens if we DON’T continue $Trillion-plus deficits, and I must admit I find myself somewhat in awe of how grossly mis-framed this discussion has become.
So here’s your opportunity to reward these (heroes/traitors) as you see fit, because every nation gets the government it deserves.
Senators who voted in favor of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008:
SenatorStatus
Alaska
Lisa MurkowskiRe-elected 2010 (2016)
Ted StevensOut of office
Alabama
Arkansas
Blanche LincolnOut of office
Mark PryorRe-elected 2008 (2014)
Arizona
Jon KylRetiring
John McCainRe-elected 2010 (2016)
California
Barbara BoxerRe-elected 2010 (2016)
Dianne FeinsteinRunning for re-election
Colorado
Ken SalazarOut of office
Connecticut
Christopher DoddOut of office
Joseph LiebermanRetiring
Delaware
Joseph BidenVice President
Thomas CarperRunning for re-election
Florida
Mel MartinezOut of office
Georgia
Saxby ChamblissRe-elected 2008 (2014)
John “Johnny” IsaksonRe-elected 2010 (2016)
Hawaii
Daniel AkakaRunning for re-election
Daniel InouyeRe-elected 2010 (2016)
Iowa
Charles “Chuck” GrassleyRe-elected 2010 (2016)
Thomas “Tom” HarkinRe-elected 2008 (2014)
Idaho
Larry CraigOut of office
Illinois
Richard DurbinRe-elected 2008 (2014)
Barack ObamaPresident
Indiana
Evan BayhOut of office
Richard LugarLost renomination
Kansas
Kentucky
Mitch McConnellRe-elected 2008 (2014)
Louisiana
Massachusetts
John KerryRe-elected 2008 (2014)
Maryland
Benjamin CardinRunning for re-election
Barbara MikulskiRe-elected 2010 (2016)
Maine
Susan CollinsRe-elected 2008 (2014)
Olympia SnoweRunning for re-election Retiring
Michigan
Carl LevinRe-elected 2008 (2014)
Minnesota
Norm ColemanOut of office
Amy KlobucharRunning for re-election
Missouri
Christopher “Kit” BondOut of office
Claire McCaskillRunning for re-election
Mississippi
Montana
Max BaucusRe-elected 2008 (2014)
North Carolina
Richard BurrRe-elected 2010 (2016)
North Dakota
Kent ConradRetiring
Nebraska
Charles “Chuck” HagelOut of office
Ben NelsonRunning for re-election
New Hampshire
Judd GreggOut of office
John SununuOut of office
New Jersey
Frank LautenbergRe-elected 2008 (2014)
Robert “Bob” MenéndezRunning for re-election
New Mexico
Jeff BingamanRetiring
Pete DomeniciOut of office
Nevada
John EnsignResigned
Harry ReidRe-elected 2010 (2016)
New York
Hillary ClintonSecretary of State
Charles SchumerRe-elected 2010 (2016)
Ohio
Sherrod BrownRunning for re-election
George VoinovichOut of office
Oklahoma
Thomas CoburnRe-elected 2010 (2016)
Oregon
Gordon SmithOut of office
Pennsylvania
Robert CaseyRunning for re-election
Arlen SpecterOut of office
Rhode Island
John “Jack” ReedRe-elected 2008 (2014)
Sheldon WhitehouseRunning for re-election
South Carolina
Lindsey GrahamRe-elected 2008 (2014)
South Dakota
John ThuneRe-elected 2010 (2016)
Tennessee
Lamar AlexanderRe-elected 2008 (2014)
Bob CorkerRunning for re-election
Texas
John CornynRe-elected 2008 (2014)
Kay HutchisonRetiring
Utah
Robert BennettOut of office
Orrin HatchRunning for re-election
Virginia
John WarnerOut of office
Jim WebbRetiring
Vermont
Patrick LeahyRe-elected 2010 (2016)
Washington
Patty MurrayRe-elected 2010 (2016)
Wisconsin
Herbert “Herb” KohlRetiring
West Virginia
Robert ByrdOut of office
John “Jay” RockefellerRe-elected 2008 (2014)
Wyoming (no “yes” votes)
House Representatives who voted in favor of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008:
RepresentativeStatus
Alaska (0 of 1)
Alabama (6 of 7)
Jo BonnerRunning for re-election
Terry Everettout of office
Michael “Mike” RogersRunning for re-election
Robert “Bud” Cramerout of office
Spencer BachusRunning for re-election
Artur Davisout of office
Arkansas (4 of 4)
Robert “Marion” Berryout of office
Victor “Vic” Snyderout of office
John BoozmanPromoted to Senator
Mike RossRetiring
Arizona (4 of 
John Shadeggout of office
Edward “Ed” PastorRunning for re-election
Harry Mitchellout of office
Gabrielle GiffordsResigned
California (36 of 53)
Michael “Mike” ThompsonRunning for re-election
Walter “Wally” HergerRetiring
Daniel LungrenRunning for re-election
Doris MatsuiRunning for re-election
Lynn WoolseyRetiring
George MillerRunning for re-election
Nancy PelosiRunning for re-election
Barbara LeeRunning for re-election
Ellen Tauscherout of office
Jerry McNerneyRunning for re-election
Jackie SpeierRunning for re-election
Anna EshooRunning for re-election
Michael “Mike” HondaRunning for re-election
Zoe LofgrenRunning for re-election
Sam FarrRunning for re-election
Dennis CardozaRetiring
George Radanovichout of office
Jim CostaRunning for re-election
Lois CappsRunning for re-election
Howard “Buck” McKeonRunning for re-election
David DreierRetiring
Howard BermanRunning for re-election
Adam SchiffRunning for re-election
Henry WaxmanRunning for re-election
Hilda Solisout of office
Diane Watsonout of office
Maxine WatersRunning for re-election
Jane Harmanout of office
Laura RichardsonRunning for re-election
Jerry LewisRetiring
Gary MillerRunning for re-election
Joe BacaRunning for re-election
Ken CalvertRunning for re-election
Mary Bono MackRunning for re-election
John CampbellRunning for re-election
Susan DavisRunning for re-election
Colorado (3 of 7)
Diana DeGetteRunning for re-election
Thomas “Tom” Tancredoout of office
Ed PerlmutterRunning for re-election
Connecticut (4 of 5)
John LarsonRunning for re-election
Rosa DeLauroRunning for re-election
Christopher Shaysout of office
Christopher MurphyRunning for Senate
Delaware (1 of 1)
Michael Castleout of office
Florida (13 of 25)
Allen Boydout of office
Corrine BrownRunning for re-election
Ander CrenshawRunning for re-election
Adam Putnamout of office
Vern BuchananRunning for re-election
David “Dave” WeldonRunning for re-election
Tim Mahoneyout of office
Kendrick Meekout of office
Ileana Ros-LehtinenRunning for re-election
Robert Wexlerout of office
Debbie Wasserman SchultzRunning for re-election
Ron Kleinout of office
Alcee HastingsRunning for re-election
Georgia (4 of 13)
Sanford BishopRunning for re-election
John LewisRunning for re-election
James “Jim” Marshallout of office
David ScottRunning for re-election
Hawaii (2 of 2)
Neil Abercrombieout of office
Mazie HironoRunning for Senate
Iowa (3 of 5)
Bruce BraleyRunning for re-election
David LoebsackRunning for re-election
Leonard BoswellRunning for re-election
Idaho (1 of 2)
Michael “Mike” SimpsonRunning for re-election
Illinois (13 of 19)
Bobby RushRunning for re-election
Jesse JacksonRunning for re-election
Luis GutiérrezRunning for re-election
Rahm EmanuelMayor of Chicago
Danny DavisRunning for re-election
Melissa Beanout of office
Janice “Jan” SchakowskyRunning for re-election
Mark Kirkout of office
Gerald “Jerry” Wellerout of office
Judy BiggertRunning for re-election
Bill FosterRunning for re-election
Phil Hareout of office
Ray LaHoodout of office
Indiana (4 of 9)
Joe DonnellyRunning for Senate
Mark Souderout of office
André CarsonRunning for re-election
Brad Ellsworthout of office
Kansas (1 of 4)
Dennis Mooreout of office
Kentucky (3 of 6)
Ron Lewisout of office
John YarmuthRunning for re-election
Harold “Hal” RogersRunning for re-election
Louisiana (4 of 7)
Charles Melanconout of office
James “Jim” McCreryout of office
Rodney AlexanderRunning for re-election
Charles BoustanyRunning for re-election
Massachusetts (8 of 10)
John OlverRetiring
Richard NealRunning for re-election
James “Jim” McGovernRunning for re-election
Barney FrankRetiring
Niki TsongasRunning for re-election
John TierneyRunning for re-election
Edward “Ed” MarkeyRunning for re-election
Michael CapuanoRunning for re-election
Maryland (7 of
Wayne Gilchrestout of office
Dutch RuppersbergerRunning for re-election
John SarbanesRunning for re-election
Donna EdwardsRunning for re-election
Steny HoyerRunning for re-election
Elijah CummingsRunning for re-election
Christopher “Chris” Van HollenRunning for re-election
Maine (1 of 2)
Thomas “Tom” Allenout of office
Michigan (9 of 15)
Peter “Pete” Hoekstraout of office
Vernon Ehlersout of office
David “Dave” CampRunning for re-election
Dale KildeeRetiring
Frederick “Fred” UptonRunning for re-election
Joseph “Joe” Knollenbergout of office
Sander LevinRunning for re-election
Carolyn Kilpatrickout of office
John DingellRunning for re-election
Minnesota (5 of
John KlineRunning for re-election
James “Jim” Ramstadout of office
Betty McCollumRunning for re-election
Keith EllisonRunning for re-election
James Oberstarout of office
Missouri (5 of 9)
Russ CarnahanLost renomination
Ike Skeltonout of office
Emanuel CleaverRunning for re-election
Roy BluntPromoted to Senator
Jo Ann EmersonRunning for re-election
Mississippi ( 1 of 4)
Charles “Chip” Pickeringout of office
Montana (0 of 1)
North Carolina (6 of 13)
Bob Etheridgeout of office
David PriceRunning for re-election
Howard CobleRunning for re-election
Sue MyrickRetiring
Melvin “Mel” WattRunning for re-election
Bradley “Brad” MillerRetiring
North Dakota (1 of 1)
Earl Pomeroyout of office
Nebraska (1 of 3)
Lee TerryRunning for re-election
New Hampshire (0 of 2)
New Jersey (8 of 13)
Robert “Rob” AndrewsRunning for re-election
James “Jim” Saxtonout of office
Frank PalloneRunning for re-election
Michael “Mike” Fergusonout of office
William “Bill” PascrellRunning for re-election
Rodney FrelinghuysenRunning for re-election
Rush HoltRunning for re-election
Albio SiresRunning for re-election
New Mexico (1 of 3)
Heather Wilsonout of office
Nevada (2 of 3)
Shelley BerkleyRunning for Senate
Jon Porterout of office
New York (26 of 29)
Timothy BishopRunning for re-election
Steve IsraelRunning for re-election
Peter “Pete” KingRunning for re-election
Carolyn McCarthyRunning for re-election
Gary AckermanRetiring
Gregory MeeksRunning for re-election
Joseph CrowleyRunning for re-election
Jerrold NadlerRunning for re-election
Anthony Weinerout of office
Edolphus “Ed” TownsRetiring
Yvette ClarkeRunning for re-election
Nydia VelázquezRunning for re-election
Vito Fossellaout of office
Carolyn MaloneyRunning for re-election
Charles RangelRunning for re-election
Eliot EngelRunning for re-election
Nita LoweyRunning for re-election
John Hallout of office
Michael McNultyout of office
John McHughout of office
Michael Arcuriout of office
James “Jim” Walshout of office
Thomas Reynoldsout of office
Brian HigginsRunning for re-election
Louise SlaughterRunning for re-election
John “Randy” Kuhlout of office
Ohio (10 of 18)
Jean SchmidtLost renomination
Charles WilsonRunning for re-election
David “Dave” Hobsonout of office
John BoehnerRunning for re-election
Patrick “Pat” TiberiRunning for re-election
Betty SuttonRunning for re-election
Deborah Pryceout of office
Ralph Regulaout of office
Timothy RyanRunning for re-election
Zachary “Zack” Spaceout of office
Oklahoma (4 of 5)
John SullivanLost renomination
Dan BorenRetiring
Tom ColeRunning for re-election
Mary Fallinout of office
Oregon (3 of 5)
David WuResigned
Greg WaldenRunning for re-election
Darlene Hooleyout of office
Pennsylvania (12 of 19)
Robert BradyRunning for re-election
Chaka FattahRunning for re-election
John Petersonout of office
Jim GerlachRunning for re-election
Joe Sestakout of office
Patrick Murphyout of office
William “Bill” ShusterRunning for re-election
Paul Kanjorskiout of office
John Murthaout of office
Allyson SchwartzRunning for re-election
Michael “Mike” DoyleRunning for re-election
Charles DentRunning for re-election
Rhode Island (2 of 2)
Patrick Kennedyout of office
James “Jim” LangevinRunning for re-election
South Carolina (6 of 6)
Henry Brownout of office
Addison “Joe” WilsonRunning for re-election
James “J. Gresham” Barrettout of office
Bob Inglisout of office
John Sprattout of office
James “Jim” ClyburnRunning for re-election
South Dakota (0 of 1)
Tennessee (5 of 9)
Zach Wampout of office
Jim CooperRunning for re-election
Barton “Bart” Gordonout of office
John Tannerout of office
Steve CohenRunning for re-election
Texas (15 of 32)
Kevin BradyRunning for re-election
Al GreenRunning for re-election
Michael ConawayRunning for re-election
Kay GrangerRunning for re-election
William “Mac” ThornberryRunning for re-election
Rubén HinojosaRunning for re-election
Silvestre ReyesLost renomination
Thomas “Chet” Edwardsout of office
Sheila Jackson-LeeRunning for re-election
Charles “Charlie” GonzalezRetiring
Lamar SmithRunning for re-election
Solomon Ortizout of office
Henry CuellarRunning for re-election
Eddie JohnsonRunning for re-election
Peter “Pete” SessionsRunning for re-election
Utah (1 of 3)
Christopher “Chris” Cannonout of office
Virginia (5 of 11)
Eric CantorRunning for re-election
James “Jim” MoranRunning for re-election
Frederick “Rick” Boucherout of office
Frank WolfRunning for re-election
Thomas “Tom” Davisout of office
Vermont (1 of 1)
Peter WelchRunning for re-election
Washington (4 of 9)
Rick LarsenRunning for re-election
Brian Bairdout of office
Norman “Norm” DicksRetiring
Adam SmithRunning for re-election
Wisconsin (5 of
Paul RyanRunning for re-election & V.P.
Tammy BaldwinRunning for Senate
Ronald “Ron” KindRunning for re-election
Gwen MooreRunning for re-election
David “Dave” Obeyout of office
West Virginia (2 of 3)
Alan Mollohanout of office
Nick RahallRunning for re-election
Wyoming (1 of 1)
Barbara CubinRunning for re-election
Sources:
Official House vote:
Official Senate vote:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/110-2008/h681
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/110-2008/s212
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Sta … ions,_2012
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Sta … ions,_2012
Debt to the Penny
Caveat:
The compilation of the data contained herein is the product of hundreds of pieces of data manually collected, keyed-in and tallied by the author, who by his own admission is somewhat of a dunce. Readers are encouraged to verify data points before operating heavy equipment. The mess of a spreadsheet used to assemble this data can be found here: EESA 2008 votes CALCULATIONS, and the way the author actually wanted the infomation to display can be found here: EESA 2008 yes votes This information may be re-broadcast in the interest of truth, Justice and the American way, without the consent of Major League Baseball, or the author.
Correction: Maine Senator Olympia Snowe’s status changed from “Running for re-election” to “Retiring”
Statistics: Posted by DIGGER DAN — Fri Apr 26, 2013 9:09 pm
View full post on opinions.caduceusx.com
Mourn For America: Whenever A Tragedy Happens They Take Even More Freedom From Us
What in the world is happening to America? Over the past couple of decades, the federal government has used just about every major national tragedy as an excuse to take even more liberty and freedom away from us. And without a doubt, the Boston Marathon bombing was a great national tragedy. I don’t think that any of us will forget the images that we have seen over the past week. All of those responsible for this attack should be exposed, hunted down, tried and punished. Unfortunately, what always seems to happen is that it is the American people that seem to get punished the most for these tragedies. Over the past couple of decades we have been told again and again that if we will just give up a little bit more freedom that the authorities will be able to keep us safe. But you know what? It is IMPOSSIBLE for them to keep us safe. There is no way in the world that the federal government can protect us from all of the bad guys in the world. We are a country that is absolutely teeming with “soft targets” – malls, churches, schools, concerts, sporting events, etc. No matter how much money we spend, there is no way that the federal government will ever be able to provide enough security for all of those soft targets. Even if our society morphed into something that resembled George Orwell’s “1984″, the government would still never be able to guarantee our safety. Unfortunately, in the aftermath of this attack there will inevitably be calls for “increased security” and “more anti-terror legislation”. The answer always seems to be to expand the emerging police state. But it is getting to the point where all of this “security” is becoming absolutely suffocating, and yet it doesn’t seem to be keeping us any safer. So where does all of this end? Are we going to completely throw out the entire U.S. Constitution in a desperate attempt to feel a little bit safer? Or are we going to choose to live our lives without fear no matter what others may try to do to us?
Benjamin Franklin once made the following statement…
“Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
Sadly, the way that the American people have responded to national tragedies over the past couple of decades would have made our founding fathers greatly ashamed. The American people have been way too willing to give up liberty in exchange for the promise of safety.
We have been told that the terrorists hate us because of our liberties and freedoms. But we have also been told that in order to be “safe” from those terrorists we have got to give up those liberties and freedoms.
So who is really winning?
We seem to have forgotten some of the most basic lessons in life.
If you cower in fear when a bully comes after you, what is the bully going to do?
The bully is just going to keep coming after you because his actions are being rewarded.
Those that are trying to create fear love it when you become fearful. It is exactly what they want.
The appropriate response to a great national tragedy is to reject fear and to continue to boldly live our lives as if nobody could ever shake us.
But instead, the atmosphere of fear in America continues to grow.
And yes, there are common sense things that our government should be doing to keep bad guys away from us.
For example, the number one thing that the federal government should be doing is to secure the border. Every single day, thousands upon thousands of people that we don’t know anything about pour into this country. And yet the federal government has absolutely refused to secure our borders for decades.
Until the federal government secures our borders, they should not ask any of us to sacrifice a single ounce of liberty or freedom in the name of “national security”.
But even as the Obama administration treats our border security like a joke and continues to import huge numbers of people from radical areas of the Middle East, they continue to tell us that “domestic terror” is the next great threat that we are facing.
Many of our other politicians are buying into this philosophy as well. Senator Lindsey Graham says that the attack in Boston is a perfect example of “why the homeland is the battlefield“.
So if “the homeland is the battlefield”, then who is the enemy?
Well, a U.S. Army Reserve training presentation recently identified evangelical Christians as “religious extremists“, and since Barack Obama entered the White House there have been numerous government reports that have identified Christians, “constitutionalists”, patriots, anti-abortion activists, conspiracy theorists and gun owners as “potential terrorists”.
So where does all of this end?
Are the American people rapidly becoming the enemy?
Will we be constantly scared to death of one another?
Will the entire nation exist in a never ending environment of fear?
Will we eventually have the TSA and the Department of Homeland Security patrolling every mall, every church, every school, every concert and every sporting event?
Unfortunately, the bad guys will always be able to find a soft target, and there will be more terror attacks in the future no matter how much security we pour on. Once upon a time this nation was greatly blessed with peace and security, but now that hedge of protection is gone. The federal government could give the Department of Homeland Security trillions of dollars a year and it would not make much of a difference. We live in a world that is becoming increasingly unstable, and bad guys are going to do bad things.
Yes, there are some common sense things that we can do to make our nation more secure. At this point, the federal government is not doing most of those things.
But no matter how hard we try, bad things are going to happen. When those bad things happen, what we can control is how we respond to them.
That is why what just happened in Boston is so alarming. The entire city was put into a complete lockdown for nearly two days. It was a preview of what could happen nationwide if martial law was declared. It was an over the top display of force that clearly demonstrated to the rest of the world how incredibly frightened we are.
Some of the things we saw in Boston were absolutely disgraceful. For example, you can see video of an innocent Watertown family being ripped out of their home at gunpoint right here.
Do you know what this tells the rest of the world?
It tells them that terrorism works.
It tells them that one small incident is enough to send the entire nation into a full-blown panic attack.
You can see some more photos of martial law in Boston right here. Instead of making things better, this is just going to make the atmosphere of fear in this nation even worse.
And you know what? None of those heavily armed men even found the second suspect. He was actually found by a neighbor that had gone out to take a smoke.
Like most Americans, I absolutely hate terrorism in all the forms that it takes.
But we are not going to prevent future terrorism by treating the U.S. Constitution like a piece of trash. We have now shown the world that we are willing to throw out our most important constitutional rights the moment that a “threat” arises, and this is just going to encourage even more terrorism.
You see, those that engage in terrorism want attention and they want to create fear. When we give them attention and we allow them to create fear we give them exactly what they want.
Is there anyone out there that can defend what we just saw in Boston? I can’t imagine any American that still loves the Constitution being proud of what just happened. I think that Karl Denninger put it quite eloquently the other day…
By effectively occupying a part of the Boston metro area they made an utter mockery of the 4th Amendment. There was no “hot pursuit” and thus no argument available to them allowing searches of private property without consent or a warrant. Not only did they search without a warrant there were multiple reports through the day of seizure of firearms, among other things.
Sadly, most Americans seem to be more than willing to disregard the U.S. Constitution these days. Most of them are incredibly scared and they just want someone in a position of authority to assure them that they will be safe.
So I am sure that in the months ahead we will see “security” get even tighter in this country. With each subsequent tragedy, it will just get tighter and tighter until we can barely even breathe.
This is not the answer to any of our problems. In fact, it is just going to make many of the problems that we are facing as a nation far worse.
View full post on The Economic Collapse
Gold and Silver • Why Are The Banksters Telling Us To Sell Our Gold When They
Why Are The Banksters Telling Us To Sell Our Gold When They Are Hoarding Gold Like Crazy?
By Michael, on April 10th, 2013
The big banks are breathlessly proclaiming that now is the time to sell your gold. They are warning that we have now entered a "bear market" for gold and that the price of gold will continue to decline for the rest of the year. So should we believe them? Well, their warnings might be more credible if the central banks of the world were not hoarding gold like crazy. During 2012, central bank gold buying was at the highest level that we have seen in almost 50 years. Meanwhile, insider buying of gold stocks has now reached multi-year highs and the U.S. Mint cannot even keep up with the insatiable demand for silver eagle coins. So what in the world is actually going on here? Right now, the central banks of the world are indulging in a money printing binge that reminds many of what happened during the early days of the Weimar Republic. When you flood the financial system with paper money, that is eventually going to cause the prices for hard assets to go up dramatically. Could it be possible that the banksters are trying to drive down the price of both gold and silver so that they can gobble it up cheaply? Do they want to be the ones sitting on all of the "real money" once the paper money bubble that we are living in finally bursts?
Over the past few weeks, nearly every major newspaper in the world has run at least one story telling people that it is time to sell their gold. For example, the following is from a recent Wall Street Journal article entitled "Goldman Sachs Turns Bearish on Gold"…
Another longtime gold bull is turning tail.
Investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said Wednesday that gold’s prospects for the year have eroded, recommending investors close out long positions and initiate bearish bets, or shorts. The shift in outlook was the latest among banks and investors who have soured on gold as its dozen-year runup has been followed by a 12% decline in the last six months.
Goldman began the year predicting gold would decline in the second half of 2013, but said Wednesday the drop began earlier than expected and doesn’t appear likely to reverse. Like others, the firm said the usual catalysts that have been bullish for gold during its run are no longer working.
Major banks over in Europe are issuing similar warnings about the price of gold. The following is from a Marketwatch article entitled "Sell gold, buy oil, Societe Generale analysts say"…
Analysts at Societe Generale predict in a note Thursday that gold prices will fall below $1,400 by the year’s end and continue heading south next year.
They cite two main reasons:
1. Inflation has so far stayed low and now investors are beginning to see economic conditions that would justify an end to the Fed’s quantitative easing program.
2. The dollar has started trending higher, which should make gold prices move lower as the physical gold market is extremely oversupplied without continued large-scale investor buying.
And even Asian banks are telling people to sell their gold at this point. According to CNBC, Japanese banking giant Nomura is another major international bank that has turned "bearish" on gold…
Nomura forecast gold prices will fall in 2013, on Thursday, becoming the latest bank to turn bearish on the precious metal which has been a favorite hedge for investors who fear aggressive monetary stimulus will lead to rising inflation.
"For the first time since 2008, in our view, the investment environment for gold is deteriorating as economic recovery, rising interest rates and still benign Western inflation (for now) will likely leave some investors rethinking their cumulative $240 billion investment in gold over the past four years," wrote Nomura analysts in a sector note on Thursday.
A lot of financial analysts are urging people to dump gold and to jump into stocks where they "can get a much better return". They make it sound like it is only going to be downhill for gold from here. The following is from a recent CNBC article entitled "Gold’s ‘Death Cross’ Isn’t All Investors Are Worried About"…
Gold is flashing the "death cross" but the bearish chart pattern is not the only thing scaring investors.
The magnetic appeal of a rising stock market has pulled some investment funds away from the yellow metal. Since the beginning of the year, stocks are up nearly 7 percent and gold is down nearly 6 percent.
But if gold is such a bad investment, then why are the central banks of the world hoarding gold like crazy?
According to the World Gold Council, gold buying by global central banks in 2012 was at the highest level that we have seen since 1964…
Worldwide gold demand in 2012 was another record high of $236.4 billion in the World Gold Council’s latest report. This was up 6% in value terms in the fourth quarter to $66.2 billion, the highest fourth quarter on record. Global gold demand in the fourth quarter of 2012 was up 4% to 1,195.9 tonnes.
Central bank buying for 2012 rose by 17% over 2011 to some 534.6 tonnes. As far as central bank gold buying, this was the highest level since 1964. Central bank purchases stood at 145 tonnes in the fourth quarter. That is up 9% from the fourth quarter of 2011, and the eighth consecutive quarter in which central banks were net purchasers of gold.
This all comes on the heels of decades when global central banks were net sellers of gold. Marcus Grubb, a Managing Director at the World Gold Council, says that we are witnessing a fundamental change in behavior by global central banks…
Central banks’ move from net sellers of gold, to net buyers that we have seen in recent years, has continued apace. The official sector purchases across the world are now at their highest level for almost half a century.
Meanwhile, insiders seem to think that gold stocks are actually quite undervalued right now. In fact, insider buying of gold stocks is now at a level that we have not seen in quite some time. The following is an excerpt from a recent Globe and Mail article entitled "Insider buying of gold stocks surges to multi-year highs"…
The TSX global gold index has lost about a third of its value over the past two years. The S&P/TSX Venture Exchange, stock full of gold mining juniors, hit a multi-year low this month.
Yet, executives and officers who work within those businesses are showing remarkable confidence that the sector is poised for better times.
In addition, the demand for physical silver in the United States seems to be greater than ever before. According to the U.S. Mint, demand for physical silver coins hit a new all-time record high during the month of February.
And demand for silver coins has not abated since then. Just check out what has been happening in April so far…
The US Mint has updated April sales statistics for the first time since last week, and to no surprise, the Mint again reported more massive sales, with another 833,000 silver eagles reported sold Monday! The April total through 6 business days is now 1.645 million ounces, bringing the 2013 total to a massive 15.868 million ounces. In response to the continued massive demand for silver eagles, the mint also has begun rationing sales of silver eagles to primary dealers resulting in supply delays! Just as was seen in January, tight physical supplies have seen premiums on ASE’s skyrocketing over the weekend and throughout the day, as ASE’s are rapidly becoming as scarce as 90%!
Something does not appear to add up here.
I also found it very interesting that according to Reuters, Cyprus is being forced to sell most of their gold reserves in order to help fund the bailout of their banking system…
Cyprus has agreed to sell excess gold reserves to raise around 400 million euros (341 million pounds) and help finance its part of its bailout, an assessment of Cypriot financing needs prepared by the European Commission showed.
So exactly who will they be selling that gold to?
And I also found it very interesting to learn that Comex gold inventories have been falling dramatically over the last few months. The following is from a recent article by Tekoa Da Silva…
A stunning piece of information was brought to my attention yesterday. Amid all the mainstream talk of the end of the gold bull market (and the end of the gold mining industry), something has been discretely happening behind the scenes.
Over the last 90 days without any announcement, stocks of gold held at Comex warehouses plunged by the largest figure ever on record during a single quarter since eligible record keeping began in 2001 (roughly the beginning of the bull market).
In particular, something very unusual appears to be happening with JP Morgan Chase’s gold…
JP Morgan Chase’s reported gold stockpile dropped by over 1.2 million oz.’s, or rather, a staggering $1.8 billion dollars worth of physical gold was removed from it’s vaults during the last 120 days.
So what does all of this mean?
I don’t know. But I would like to find out. Someone is definitely up to something.
Meanwhile, the central banks of the globe seem determined to put their reckless money printing into overdrive.
For example, the Bank of Japan actually plans to double the monetary base of that country by the end of 2014 as a recent Time Magazine article described…
On Thursday, the new governor of the Bank of Japan (BOJ), Haruhiko Kuroda, announced that the central bank would double the monetary base of the country — adding an additional $1.4 trillion — by the end of 2014 in an attempt to end the deflation plaguing the economy. To achieve that, Kuroda will buy government bonds and other assets to inject cash into the economy — what has now become familiar as quantitative easing, or QE — to bump inflation up to a targeted 2%. The plan is part of a greater strategy ushered in by new Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to restart the economy through massive fiscal and monetary stimulus. It also expands on the efforts by the Federal Reserve, Bank of England and European Central Bank to stimulate growth and smooth over financial turmoil by infusing huge sums of new money into the global economy.
Many in the western world have been extremely critical of this move, but the truth is that we actually started this "currency war". The Federal Reserve has been recklessly printing money for years, and even though we are now supposedly in the midst of an "economic recovery", the Fed is actually doing more quantitative easing than ever.
Anyone that thinks that gold and silver are bad investments for the long-term when the central banks of the world are being so reckless should have their heads examined.
However, I do believe that gold and silver will experience wild fluctuations in price over the next several years. When the next stock market crash happens, gold and silver will go down. It happened back in 2008 and it will happen again.
But in response to the next major financial crisis, I believe that the central banks of the globe will become more reckless than anyone ever dreamed possible. At that point I believe that we will see gold and silver soar to unprecedented heights.
Yes, there will be huge ups and downs for gold and silver. But in the long-term, both gold and silver are going to go far, far higher than they are today.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/arch … like-crazy
Statistics: Posted by yoda — Wed Apr 10, 2013 7:58 pm
View full post on opinions.caduceusx.com
Why Are The Banksters Telling Us To Sell Our Gold When They Are Hoarding Gold Like Crazy?
The big banks are breathlessly proclaiming that now is the time to sell your gold. They are warning that we have now entered a “bear market” for gold and that the price of gold will continue to decline for the rest of the year. So should we believe them? Well, their warnings might be more credible if the central banks of the world were not hoarding gold like crazy. During 2012, central bank gold buying was at the highest level that we have seen in almost 50 years. Meanwhile, insider buying of gold stocks has now reached multi-year highs and the U.S. Mint cannot even keep up with the insatiable demand for silver eagle coins. So what in the world is actually going on here? Right now, the central banks of the world are indulging in a money printing binge that reminds many of what happened during the early days of the Weimar Republic. When you flood the financial system with paper money, that is eventually going to cause the prices for hard assets to go up dramatically. Could it be possible that the banksters are trying to drive down the price of both gold and silver so that they can gobble it up cheaply? Do they want to be the ones sitting on all of the “real money” once the paper money bubble that we are living in finally bursts?
Over the past few weeks, nearly every major newspaper in the world has run at least one story telling people that it is time to sell their gold. For example, the following is from a recent Wall Street Journal article entitled “Goldman Sachs Turns Bearish on Gold“…
Another longtime gold bull is turning tail.
Investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said Wednesday that gold’s prospects for the year have eroded, recommending investors close out long positions and initiate bearish bets, or shorts. The shift in outlook was the latest among banks and investors who have soured on gold as its dozen-year runup has been followed by a 12% decline in the last six months.
Goldman began the year predicting gold would decline in the second half of 2013, but said Wednesday the drop began earlier than expected and doesn’t appear likely to reverse. Like others, the firm said the usual catalysts that have been bullish for gold during its run are no longer working.
Major banks over in Europe are issuing similar warnings about the price of gold. The following is from a Marketwatch article entitled “Sell gold, buy oil, Societe Generale analysts say“…
Analysts at Societe Generale predict in a note Thursday that gold prices will fall below $1,400 by the year’s end and continue heading south next year.
They cite two main reasons:
1. Inflation has so far stayed low and now investors are beginning to see economic conditions that would justify an end to the Fed’s quantitative easing program.
2. The dollar has started trending higher, which should make gold prices move lower as the physical gold market is extremely oversupplied without continued large-scale investor buying.
And even Asian banks are telling people to sell their gold at this point. According to CNBC, Japanese banking giant Nomura is another major international bank that has turned “bearish” on gold…
Nomura forecast gold prices will fall in 2013, on Thursday, becoming the latest bank to turn bearish on the precious metal which has been a favorite hedge for investors who fear aggressive monetary stimulus will lead to rising inflation.
“For the first time since 2008, in our view, the investment environment for gold is deteriorating as economic recovery, rising interest rates and still benign Western inflation (for now) will likely leave some investors rethinking their cumulative $240 billion investment in gold over the past four years,” wrote Nomura analysts in a sector note on Thursday.
A lot of financial analysts are urging people to dump gold and to jump into stocks where they “can get a much better return”. They make it sound like it is only going to be downhill for gold from here. The following is from a recent CNBC article entitled “Gold’s ‘Death Cross’ Isn’t All Investors Are Worried About“…
Gold is flashing the “death cross” but the bearish chart pattern is not the only thing scaring investors.
The magnetic appeal of a rising stock market has pulled some investment funds away from the yellow metal. Since the beginning of the year, stocks are up nearly 7 percent and gold is down nearly 6 percent.
But if gold is such a bad investment, then why are the central banks of the world hoarding gold like crazy?
According to the World Gold Council, gold buying by global central banks in 2012 was at the highest level that we have seen since 1964…
Worldwide gold demand in 2012 was another record high of $236.4 billion in the World Gold Council’s latest report. This was up 6% in value terms in the fourth quarter to $66.2 billion, the highest fourth quarter on record. Global gold demand in the fourth quarter of 2012 was up 4% to 1,195.9 tonnes.
Central bank buying for 2012 rose by 17% over 2011 to some 534.6 tonnes. As far as central bank gold buying, this was the highest level since 1964. Central bank purchases stood at 145 tonnes in the fourth quarter. That is up 9% from the fourth quarter of 2011, and the eighth consecutive quarter in which central banks were net purchasers of gold.
This all comes on the heels of decades when global central banks were net sellers of gold. Marcus Grubb, a Managing Director at the World Gold Council, says that we are witnessing a fundamental change in behavior by global central banks…
Central banks’ move from net sellers of gold, to net buyers that we have seen in recent years, has continued apace. The official sector purchases across the world are now at their highest level for almost half a century.
Meanwhile, insiders seem to think that gold stocks are actually quite undervalued right now. In fact, insider buying of gold stocks is now at a level that we have not seen in quite some time. The following is an excerpt from a recent Globe and Mail article entitled “Insider buying of gold stocks surges to multi-year highs“…
The TSX global gold index has lost about a third of its value over the past two years. The S&P/TSX Venture Exchange, stock full of gold mining juniors, hit a multi-year low this month.
Yet, executives and officers who work within those businesses are showing remarkable confidence that the sector is poised for better times.
In addition, the demand for physical silver in the United States seems to be greater than ever before. According to the U.S. Mint, demand for physical silver coins hit a new all-time record high during the month of February.
And demand for silver coins has not abated since then. Just check out what has been happening in April so far…
The US Mint has updated April sales statistics for the first time since last week, and to no surprise, the Mint again reported more massive sales, with another 833,000 silver eagles reported sold Monday! The April total through 6 business days is now 1.645 million ounces, bringing the 2013 total to a massive 15.868 million ounces. In response to the continued massive demand for silver eagles, the mint also has begun rationing sales of silver eagles to primary dealers resulting in supply delays! Just as was seen in January, tight physical supplies have seen premiums on ASE’s skyrocketing over the weekend and throughout the day, as ASE’s are rapidly becoming as scarce as 90%!
Something does not appear to add up here.
I also found it very interesting that according to Reuters, Cyprus is being forced to sell most of their gold reserves in order to help fund the bailout of their banking system…
Cyprus has agreed to sell excess gold reserves to raise around 400 million euros (341 million pounds) and help finance its part of its bailout, an assessment of Cypriot financing needs prepared by the European Commission showed.
So exactly who will they be selling that gold to?
And I also found it very interesting to learn that Comex gold inventories have been falling dramatically over the last few months. The following is from a recent article by Tekoa Da Silva…
A stunning piece of information was brought to my attention yesterday. Amid all the mainstream talk of the end of the gold bull market (and the end of the gold mining industry), something has been discretely happening behind the scenes.
Over the last 90 days without any announcement, stocks of gold held at Comex warehouses plunged by the largest figure ever on record during a single quarter since eligible record keeping began in 2001 (roughly the beginning of the bull market).
In particular, something very unusual appears to be happening with JP Morgan Chase’s gold…
JP Morgan Chase’s reported gold stockpile dropped by over 1.2 million oz.’s, or rather, a staggering $1.8 billion dollars worth of physical gold was removed from it’s vaults during the last 120 days.
So what does all of this mean?
I don’t know. But I would like to find out. Someone is definitely up to something.
Meanwhile, the central banks of the globe seem determined to put their reckless money printing into overdrive.
For example, the Bank of Japan actually plans to double the monetary base of that country by the end of 2014 as a recent Time Magazine article described…
On Thursday, the new governor of the Bank of Japan (BOJ), Haruhiko Kuroda, announced that the central bank would double the monetary base of the country — adding an additional $1.4 trillion — by the end of 2014 in an attempt to end the deflation plaguing the economy. To achieve that, Kuroda will buy government bonds and other assets to inject cash into the economy — what has now become familiar as quantitative easing, or QE — to bump inflation up to a targeted 2%. The plan is part of a greater strategy ushered in by new Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to restart the economy through massive fiscal and monetary stimulus. It also expands on the efforts by the Federal Reserve, Bank of England and European Central Bank to stimulate growth and smooth over financial turmoil by infusing huge sums of new money into the global economy.
Many in the western world have been extremely critical of this move, but the truth is that we actually started this “currency war”. The Federal Reserve has been recklessly printing money for years, and even though we are now supposedly in the midst of an “economic recovery”, the Fed is actually doing more quantitative easing than ever.
Anyone that thinks that gold and silver are bad investments for the long-term when the central banks of the world are being so reckless should have their heads examined.
However, I do believe that gold and silver will experience wild fluctuations in price over the next several years. When the next stock market crash happens, gold and silver will go down. It happened back in 2008 and it will happen again.
But in response to the next major financial crisis, I believe that the central banks of the globe will become more reckless than anyone ever dreamed possible. At that point I believe that we will see gold and silver soar to unprecedented heights.
Yes, there will be huge ups and downs for gold and silver. But in the long-term, both gold and silver are going to go far, far higher than they are today.
So what do you think will happen to gold and silver in the years ahead? Please feel free to post a comment with your thoughts below…
View full post on The Economic Collapse