The Emergence of the New Aristocratic Era

I think we are headed back to a form of the Aristocratic era that preceded the Industrial Revolution (IR). The IR changed the world in an unprecedented manner. Jobs, Opportunity, wide spread Equality, and Wealth; the creation of a huge Middle Class. But no one saw it coming to an abrupt end; What futurists foresaw did not happen... e.g. a world in which all humanity enjoyed leisure (not enforced unemployment) and wealth (not minimum slave wages nor the humiliating dole). Think for a moment what "slave wages" are are: (eliminating "ownership" of the person) slave wages pay an amount that feeds and clothes and provides minimum housing - nothing more; exactly what slave holders of yore provided. 

The governments of the 1ST World are the new slave owners, but have not provided jobs for their slaves, nor income from those jobs with which to feed the kitty to keep the system going. Instead 1ST World Governments are simply dissipating the wealth that was generated during the IR period And worse they have borrowed against wealth that has for intents disappeared. Even emerging economies are dissipating their natural wealth: Venezuela, the Ivory Coast, etc. 

In the richest country, the USA, every man, woman, and child each face a community debt of over $60,000 - each!

  

What a glorious, albeit short, period the IR was. You and I received the best of it and are living to witness the end of it. The period we are in right now is what I'll call, for lack of a catchy phrase, the period of Equity Dissipation/Debt Acquisition; it will be shorter than the period of equity building that occurred during the latter stage of the IR since spending is quick, thoughtless, and requires neither skill nor effort. We are seeing it all around us: Governments of every stripe in debt up to their noses, most people struggling with debt, home ownership declining, home equities evaporating. Even a minimal college education encourages debt and in many fields requires huge debt levels. All only exacerbating and furthering the dissipation of wealth. 

I see it in my own family and in most of the families I am familiar with: the adult children of many would be poor if it weren't for government subsidy and dependence upon parents. Compare those to the economic health of the previous generation: that role was reversed! That generation aided in the financial support of their parents.

The near Future is not rosy: No jobs for the hoi polloi, no broadly enjoyed equity creation. Further concentration of enormous wealth into the hands of the few: Gates, Zuckerberg, Allen, Buffett, Trump, etc., the new Aristocrats. They wield enormous power both economic and political. They generate jobs, but few high paying jobs compared to the era of the IR. 

The new Aristocrat's vast wealth is a result of the nature of the Technological Revolution in which a handful of people (or even a single individual), using digital tools creates a product (using another digital tool, the simple computer, that needs no direct support of a broad spectrum of industrial might - as did say the IR era automobile industry) that when combined with modern financial resources generates - almost overnight - billions of dollars for the "inventors" of products like Facebook! 

The nature of that particular product needs little infrastructural support: little or physical industrial development, no wholesale or retail distribution apparatus... nothing but another $200 digital tool - the iPhone.... which, by the way, needs no telephone lines, no phone poles, no telephone operators, no switchboards, no phone repair men, no millions of miles of copper wires, etc.  

Cheers, Mel

This Screwy Election Can Get More Bazaar!

 How stupid I've been! Here I am, 75 years old and all those years I've thought that we had free and open elections. Closely following this current Presidential election cycle has opened my eyes: we don't. The election of the President and Vice President of the United States is an indirect vote in which citizens cast ballots for a slate of members of the U.S. Electoral College. Period.

The states hold primaries/caucus, wherein citizens choose a "preferred" candidate. After the state primaries the "Parties" hold a convention - that's where the real voting begins. Democrat's have something called Super Delegates; these actually pick the nominee: Those Supers Ds are the Ins that can use their votes for anybody, someone that might not have even appeared on a single primary/caucus ballot! They can simply "name" their candidate using the power of the Super D's. Similarly the GOP can at their convention choose anyone they wish to appear on the ballot.... Unless that GOP aspirant has won 1236 delegates thru the primary/caucus system prior to the convention; if none has won 1236 Delegates a "brokered" convention is set to make the choice of Nominee.  The number of "votes" citizens have cast for individuals is irrelevant.

Then once "The Parties" have chosen Nominees we the citizens can vote for one. But wait, there's even more: regardless for whom you have cast your vote, all you've done is made a choice. "Electors" then cast their vote, it could be for whomever they choose, for the Candidate.

Bottomline? Unless there is a landslide election - from Day 1 - your vote and mine are simply meaningless.

 

One Caveat: I think this was covered in my 7TH Grade Civics Class, but somehow I still thought our system was superior to the Soviets. All very confusing - on purpose I think - and I may well be wrong on the details....

Voting is simply a way of allowing ill informed citizens TO THINK that it was they who elected their President.

Cheers, Mel

The Conservative Republican Establishment?

 Who and what is the "Conservative Republican Establishment?"  Dinosaurs or Fantasy Creatures? We only know that they are unsatisfiable. They threaten to vote for an Independent, they threaten to vote for Hillary or Bernie. Or they threaten to not vote at all! Unless they get their way... Fine. Be the spoiled kid on the block... take your ball and go home.

  These folks are living in some sort of Fantasyland.

 So, who was the last President of these folks? Will no one will fit their bill this time.. again? It still comes down to two available choices. Choice One: Vote Trump or don't vote, which is a vote in favor of the status quo or worse, continued galloping socialism and reckless spending. Granted, you'll not be voting for the "Conservative," but you will be voting for the America that made us great.

 And then there are those mindless conservatives: Spiteful. They choose Choice Two: They would actually prefer the corrupt Clintons to Trump! The only rational I could guess at is that they are in the mental state of "happy-power-lite." Their elected are happy to enjoy the occasional ride in Air Force 1, and an invite to the occasional State Dinner, and of course get the perks of a comfortable life in D.C. (now the third richest City in America, in spite of the fact that they make nothing!). These are sycophants to power and in reality have no principles. But make the same sounds of the conceited elitist progressives that got us here. Where they ran for office there must have already been a "D" on the ticket... but hey, there was an "R" spot open! These mindless ones are free to continue their bitching without responsibility. There is the Third Choice: Don't vote. Don't vote don't care. Not a choice of the thinking person.

  The reality of the situation has to be confronted. There is no Conservative Republican Establishment  only a Fantasyland of Republican Conservatism... i.e. there is no "there" there. We have to wake-up and face reality.

  We will never get rid of most of the social welfare programs the progressives have been able to initiate but perhaps we could at least return to the concept of "country," security, and opportunity. Our government has become an organization of thugs and muggers. Those in power see citizens as targets and will do what ever is required to push their agenda. Cut-off their money you say? Go ahead, they'll just print it. And that's exactly what has happened... to the tune of twenty one trillion(!) dollars and growing! 

   

  We have to get real! 

 The national debt - - with the help and assistance of the Establishment Republican Party is drowning us. Imagine what will happen when interest rate rise? How will the debt be paid then? With confiscatory taxes or with the printing presses that will, with every dollar printed, eventually destroy the value of all those already printed? 

 I'm looking for a leader that can change the thinking process of government. A government that can help return America to a business oriented national agenda... away from the progressive one that will end in the destruction of the country that I see as America. 

  Profitable American Business - the only viable way to paying down the debt.

 Check out the short film below... Donald Trump is the orator. The Donald is the only candidate qualified to get us back on track.

http://www.ijreview.com/2016/01/511284-this-trump-campaign-video-just-released-is-sending-chills-up-peoples-spines/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=video-social-mobile-bar&utm_campaign=Sharing

Cheers, Mel

I Like Trump!

It's a matter of choices. The political establishment on both sides of the isle have had little regard for the Constitution since the turn of the last century, especially so since the years of the Great Depression. That said.... we aren't going back to an earlier time.... it just doesn't work like that. We move forward until the system breaks. To me Trump promises a partial restoration of our system. I say partial because we Americans, like all peoples are still humans, not perfect, but still better than the current crop. Obama has denied that - - Hillary promised last night to continue the Obama "legacy." Sanders wants to break the system. Neither Rubio, Kasich, Christie, nor Bush have the magic touch to pull us together, and they all represent the Establishment. Carly, Ben, Rand, Rick, or Huckabee have no chance of getting the nomination. Nice, earnest folk all, but they don't have the charisma required to win the Presidency, which Mr. Obama proved is necessary in today's celebrity crazed world.

That leaves Ted. Ted is a true Conservative but is disliked by both parties. Ted has no business experience - which is sorely needed. Can he get along with Congress? Not well if his record is any indication. And they know him... know his weaknesses and without a clear Mandate could ignore him. But my biggest concern is that he is an Ideologue. We, I think, have had our fill of Ideology.

America to survive must have good dose of business. Profitable Business. With the rest of the world joining the industrial/technological age competition is tougher than ever. Trump can deal with business. And business is the only route to prosperity. Prosperity is the only solution to the looming abyss of debt and insolvency: Twenty one trillion dollars(!) of government debt, perhaps Seventy trillion of unfunded total debt. The interest on these debts can only be paid with profits afforded by prosperity; or by inflation, insolvency and bankruptcy. 

Bringing it down to Trump this is the way I see it: 

1. He ain't in it for the money; he's got plenty, more than he knows what to do with
2. He has no commitment to any party nor to any lobby
3. His power will vanish if his base - the public - turns against him. Remember that he has no number 2 as ultimate support; only "the people."
4. His swagger, his self confidence, his "John Wayne" is powerful. I see him as the American I grew-up admiring.
5. He is very smart, very accomplished, very generous, and has a beautiful family... they are all winners! These things mean something to me.He's not perfect. None are.
5. Lastly, He is not an Ideologue; he does not scare me as did (and still does) Mr. Obama and Hillary and Sanders.

This last is important as he won't be shoving his "wouldn't it be wonderful if just..." ideas, as have been fostered upon us by the Establishment, down our throats. Like Ronald Reagan was, he is the throw-back now needed; the throw-back to the American that we loved on the big screen of AMERICA the GREAT. He is our last ratchet-latch. 

Trump: A Happy Warrior.

Cheers, Mel

Hillary Off the Bus?

Libya. As you know, our Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and 3 other government employees were murdered in Benghazi, Libya on 9/11/12. Ambassador Stevens is reported to have been horribly tortured and brutally raped before he died. No US Marines to protect him..... at Administration direction.... no guns, no bullets in these most dangerous Embassies of the Middle East (there was a "local" Libyan security man employed who "disappeared" when the attack occurred!) - - BUT we do have Marines, with weapons, in places like ....... PARIS!? AND all in spite of the FACT that our Libyan Embassy ASKED for 12 Security Men, BECAUSE THEY KNEW they were about to be attacked, but were still DENIED protection. 

During the VP debate Biden stated that "we didn't know the Embassy asked for help....." and this in spite of the FACT that under sworn testimony by State Intel this week that YES THEY WERE INFORMED!

Now the Administration is saying it was the State Dept.'s fault...... yep, get the bus door open, Hillary is about to go out and under! The White House is NEVER AT FAULT. NEVER. Always someone else's fault. ALWAYS. 

Think about it: 9/11; Libya; Al Qaida flags flying high; Embassy Begs for Marines....

I think about it: I think.... WHY?

I wonder if Bill will continue campaigning for BHO?

Cheers, Mel Shapiro

Our MONEY is at stake....

M O N E Y, our money, every country's money, has a reason behind its value: some (were) backed with gold, other's - oil (and every manner of natural resources), still others the value of their labor, or their geography, etc. Since America left the gold standard our money's value has been based on a couple of things, amongst them are the wealth of our natural resources: now depleting; our political stability: now polarizing; military strength: waning; the educational level of its citizens: dumbing-down; and perhaps the most important when combined with that list is the value of American's  industriousness: now being stifled .... by our own government!   The value of and therefore the purchasing power of the US dollar has, in the past decade, severely diminished - - all the while the country's foreign debt has grown dramatically. Just compare the purchasing-power of the American dollar to the NZ - DOUBLED, the Australian - DOUBLED, and the Canadian - UP 50%! American Illiteracy is deepening as the rest of the world's increases. Cultural icons, the American cultural touchstones, are being systematically destroyed, the traditional family exists in fewer and fewer homes; the church is on the way out.  The "profit" of an economy is, just as in a business, at the margins. By that I mean profits come at the end of efficient business practice; in a nation-wide economy that comes when there is effectively full-employment. A Big Government taking of an ever bigger slice of whatever success remains and giving it to non-producers is a recipe for a continuing downward slide! If these events continue on the course now carved-out, our wealth, yours and mine, will not be enough to keep us from poverty. it is imperative that our money continue to have value, since we are not rich enough to have "a diversified portfolio," i.e. our own off-shore bank as do the truly rich; they'll be rich regardless.  We need a businessman, in particular one that is a turnaround specialist as CEO - President, to restore value to our dollar. You've heard the adage: "Voters always vote their pocketbooks." Now that so many are in the pocket of the government either via employment or entitlement, and since we have been politically identified and segregated by the world's greatest community organizer, many voters will vote for more government entitlement - regardless of the final effect on our financial worth; like eating the goose that lays those shiny eggs.  This election is truly about choosing sides. I'm on the side of those values that made my country, -- going back to the boats -- successful.  What side are you on? Deciding to change the character, values and fundamental ethical positions of a country is dangerous. Like war plans; once the plan gets underway one can toss out the plan..... things don't necessarily work out the way one might wish. Ask Adolf, Hirohito, and Napoleon.  We are in trouble when so many simply want their fellow citizens' stuff! Next thing you know they'll want their heads too! Cheers, Mel

The Death of the American City

I've thought about this problem: John Ransom: Union Greed and Politician Apathy are Killing Cities, in the past, and although Ransom is right in his analysis of the immediate problem facing many cities, this is only part of what is "killing" cities. Some cities, like NYC, Boston, Seattle, and others are not being killed - - yet. What, in my opinion, has killed many cities are the same forces that have killed the mainstream media and is killing other sectors of the “old city” economy.... Societal Evolution and the Invention of the Internet. 

Today there is little need for big cities. Sweatshops have all but disappeared. Manufacturing has disintermediated, as has much of the old traditional economy: Supplier > Manufacturer > Wholesaler > Retailer to finally, Buyer, has been replaced with: Just-In-Time Manufacturer > Buyer; and this to large degree has been facilitated via the Internet. Even the traditional salesforce has been severely diminished. In the traditional economy, of just a decade or two ago, the old model business chain clustered in and around the city, providing millions with jobs. Many of those "jobs" have simply disappeared - never to return. Not just outsourced manufacturing jobs, but most "middleman" jobs as well.

Today, especially in the high-tech world of electronics, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices, "campuses" have sprung-up in the suburbs and even the exurbs. What little population support needed by workers quickly develops around these campuses as, what I call, "a city in a box." The box is nearly pre-manufactured and merely needs assembly. It generally consists of the familiar modern "town" of a few big-box stores, fast food franchises, and necessary services such as: a complete medical building, perhaps even a small hospital; various and sundry mechanical services including a local airport; educational facilities and minimal county government services.

Crowds, crime, the uneducated, the unemployed, the unemployable, the unwashed of the present, if you will; those are the peoples of the dying cities. Those folks do not pay substantial taxes and are supported to a large degree by government: police, the courts, other government service providers; the bureaucrats. The very presence of this growing segment of modern society is exacerbating the death of the city. President Obama, and others are attempting to stop and even reverse this trend, to financially gut and strangle those suburbs and exurbs in order to force the tax paying population back into the cities and thus support the old culture there. Drive-up the cost of fuel is one ploy, but is back-firing; the one-time commuter will look for work closer to home or move even further out rather than return to that which he/she ran from: the big (and now dirty and dilapidated) city; and simply use less fuel. Starting a business today requires, in city services, little more than an internet connection! Gone is the glamour of the city. Good food, culture and entertainment are all available just about everywhere, and once again the Internet aides and abets.

Cheers, Mel

P.S. Sorry Governor Brown (CA), High Speed Rail and other rapid transit public transportation schemes won't stop, let alone reverse, this trend. It's called: evolution. 

The importance of the next election

Romney's choice of Paul Ryan was the perfect decision for a CEO, a businessman and a President: an Accountant and a Comptroller.

Most don't realize where we, as a nation, sit today: on the brink. We have used-up most of the equities left to us by our forefathers: world power, prestige, and shear wealth. Even the equities in our homes have greatly diminished. Beyond that we have become a debtor nation that without serious recovery will slip over the edge. Economic collapse is the ultimate destroyer of every once great nation. Most recently it was the Soviets, now but a memory. Prior to the USSR it was Great Briton, France, Spain, Portugal, Rome, Greece, Egypt, etc. All fallen empires - all spent into debt. All history.

Ronald Reagan's exhortation, "....tear down this wall!" did not bring down the Soviets, it was their failed economy based on a false ideology: Communism. What reduced Great Britain was their loss of wealth through war and collapsed colonialzation. And so it goes. America is on the brink today because of a complex multitude of losses. Our lost sense of who we are: hard working, risk-taking, "a better life" opportunity seeking nation of individuals, with the absolute knowledge that this dream is obtainable only through a righteous life and hard work. But then we came to believe, and quickly - within a generation,  that we could leverage our way to success by borrowing against ever greater wealth that would accrue to us naturally. We were entitled to success. We were each deserving of a gold star, a medal, a trophy. We've done that....... When that failed we decided to take the "Kick The Can Down The Road," road: more of the same, but better, bigger. That hasn't worked either so we are trying the age old and failed technique of inventing wealth through the magic of words and paper.

But where's the beef?

The penultimate choice is the one we are contemplating now, and we will actually have the chance to vote on it: "Let's Take Someone Else's Wealth; our neighbors, the boss', the "corporation's," the Rich Guy's. Just take it, from whomsoever.

Okay, so we vote on it. We go for the, "Let's Take The Other Guy's Stuff" scenario. That should last, what, a couple years? After that where do we turn? That's the question we should be asking: What are the consequences of our choice? What do we do when we've used up the other guy's stuff? Because that is what's next and it is coming at us like a runaway train!

Seminars are given regularly in every major metropolis extolling the virtues of living a life AWAKE. Let's wake-up for a minute or two.... we can't really live long on someone else's effort.... to use the phrase of the day, that's not sustainable.

Ideology should be a personal thing: you believe what you want to believe, I'll believe what I want, but let's both believe that we are each responsible for "us and ours" and not entitled to that of others. It's the only sane and logical course - IF - we wish "America," not the country but the concept, to continue. We need a CEO - a real businessman and his bright Accountant/Comptroller, not ideologue, to awaken us to the opportunities we each have, and to return to our special place in the world. Each of us is entitled to his and her personal ideology, but governments of Ideology are doomed to fail and their people are doomed to the consequences of that failure. That's the choice we are faced with now. It can be seen clearly..... by those willing to awaken from their daydreams.

The alarm is ringing; It's time to Wake-UP and see America clearly.

Cheers, Mel

History As A Script

I've come to believe that men have simply "repeated" throughout their history. They can only do what they do.... invent new and better gadgetry which is always supposed to improve their lives, or conquer their neighbors. This men have done admirably. Beyond the gadgets however men are limited to the "map" of their DNA.... they are compelled by it and restricted by it to simply do what they do over and over again only that which they are capable of. Because their "stuff" is so marvelous... all the way back to the age of metal and beyond, even pottery at one time represented man's highest level of "technology"... they have fooled themselves into the belief that they can change, alter or at the least, control themselves and their neighbors in some new or better way. But it always results in individual and then city, state and national quest for power, which ultimately finds its own end, in a sense predestined by man's very essence: his DNA. The process then starts over. 

I think human civilization is quickly approaching that "start over" point. This time, as has happened previously, a collapse of fiat currency will help reshuffle the existing order.

 

 

Cheers, Mel 

Power

I've come to believe that power is a weird squishy kind of commodity; more a state of mind actually, with near invisible tentacles that lead into every agency and around every individual associated with government. When one looks back at history you can't help but wonder how it happened that entire countries - empires - were literally taken-over by usurpers... both elected and declared. 

There is something in the human psych that becomes sort of mesmerized and to some degree paralyzed by the potential fear of those that grab the reigns of power. Of course there is the fact that individuals are no more powerful than an individual when faced with the full force of government seized by a cabal.

Recent developments show us that the Constitution is not automatically adhered to. It all comes down to the individuals in power respecting the institutions that got them there. I'm sure that if Roosevelt had lived he'd have extended his presence in the White House indefinitely - he had no respect for the two-term tradition set by all those that preceded him.  I have no doubt that if President Obama could find a way to remain entrenched in power he simply would; America would have moved from an elective republic to an emperorship. We are more than halfway there with Congress having, over the past several decades, surrendered much their power to the President, without a shot, without a coup. 

Free bread (food stamps) and free circus (Jersey Shore!); ignorant stupid masses (with a deplorable high school dropout rate of more than 30% - nationwide!) without the cares of even personal survival does not auger well for the future of a free republic. 

History, it is oft said, is repeated by those who have failed to learn from it. The longer I live, the more I learn, the more I've come to believe that history is not something we learn from .... to avoid pitfalls .... but is learned more as a script. It teaches us not that which is to be avoided but that which is coming.

 

 

Cheers, Mel

America Needs a Competitive Edge

The key to American success today is a competitive edge. Prior to WW2 America was thriving as the engine of the Industrial Revolution for a couple of reasons: widespread opportunity and access to cheap energy and cheap labor. Today: opportunity has been strangled with a maze of government red tape; highly regulated labor; very costly energy. An American success plan should start with reduction of regulations, especially in the development of energy. Energy development in North Dakota has created a '49ers Gold Rush environment for job seekers in the Bakken area oil fields. More high paying jobs than job seekers! 


A Federal Government program subsidizing America's rolling stock to CNG would drastically reduce the demand for imported oil, driving down the cost of that resource which is used in virtually everything Americans consume. Imported oil is in effect a tax upon all Americans that goes off-shore, into the pockets of those opposed to our style of government and freedom, and unlike a legitimate tax is never returned as a government service! Development of CNG, clean coal, our own oil, and new nuclear energy would further drive down the cost of energy. Top-off this plan with the elimination of all taxes on all energy and suddenly you'd have very cheap energy costs, attracting manufacturers from around the world. Jobs: building and re-fitting CNG facilities across the country; building new nuke and clean coal plants, jobs developing our own oil resources - not allowed to be exported! Opportunities for the development of ancillary businesses surrounding these industries wouls spring-up across the country.


That's an American Recovery plan. Not wasted money kicking the can down the road. Not an ideology with a hidden agenda to "fundamentally change" what was and still has the capacity to be the greatest system ever created. We've already spent so much of our ability to repay that which we've already borrowed and now that scheme is busted. Proven, BUSTED! Time to go to work. Real work that makes stuff the world needs. 


Let's begin with energy! That's an edge the rest of the wold cannot beat. That's the edge we've still got. We've got the talent, we've got the resources, we've got the people. Let's unleash them - - let's compete!


Cheers,


Mel

Fed Budget Deficit Made Simple

From Bill Teitelbaum:

Numbers and political information can be so confusing.... 

I think this simple analogy will be helpful to gain an understanding whether we should be concerned or not... 

  

  

U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000 

Fed budget: $3,820,000,000,000 

New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000 

National debt: $14,271,000,000,000 

Recent budget cut: $ 38,500,000,000 

  

  

Let's remove 8 zeros and pretend it's a household budget: 

 

Annual family income: $21,700 

Money the family spent: $38,200 

New debt on the credit card: $16,500 

Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710 

Total budget cuts: $385 

  

Understand those "deep" cuts now? 

Cheers, Mel

I Love Stuart Varney, BUT......

Stuart, you proudly proclaim how you love America and want her to remain as she is - vis a vis Britain and the EU. But you just can't resist your genes. You have the tint, if not the color, of the socialist when you express the idea that a law requiring a key lockbox on the front door of ones home, allowing entry to cops and firemen (and who knows who else - what's wrong with just using a battering ram?) as okay! This is UNAmerican. I know it is because I come from a long line of folks born and raised here with American ideals. 

I'm an oldster, I and my parents were born and raised in the West of yore. We have witnessed the slow but inexorable and lamentable march of East Coast ideas destroy Western values. Like the folks that move to the desert, love it, but then can't help themselves and are impelled to plant a lawn - because lawns are in their genes - and thus destroy the desert climate they loved so much. Lawns may be a stretch but it's an analogy that works.

Please Stuart, don't plant a lawn..... they are so English.


Cheers, Mel

An American Solution to Stagnation

We have to get busy and work for a replacement to Obama and all those stifling energy development. One has to ask, is he and his supporters purposely trying to destroy the country? There is no other explanation for an administration and its cohorts: the Senate majority, and various special interest lobbyists, that have refused to develop energy, which is the life-blood of our civilization. Not just refused to develop it but work actively to shut-down development! 

That's not hyperbole, that's a fact. Energy, or lack thereof, was the prime mover of Japan's attack in 1941. It was the reason Adolph and Co. attempted to take-over Europe. Thanks to our abundant energy resources prior to WW2, and of course our distance from the front, we were able to prevail. Since then America has depleted the "low hanging fruit" - we have used-up much of our easy to get oil. But natural gas (NG/CNG) is abundant and available for the taking right here in the US and Canada.

Energy is what has gotten humans to their current high standard of living.

Without reasonably priced energy America cannot compete on the world industrial stage what with competitors like China, who have no EPA, OSHA, Dept of Energy, etc. to shackle and hinder growth and production. In China, a projects are identified, discussed, and if given the go, construction begins within days. At trip to China is absolutely mind-blowing!

I'm not suggesting that we become the dictatorship/oligarchy the likes of China, but we have to develop energy if we are to preserve our strength and our wealth, or we will fall under the  control this type of government.

Just imagine where we would be if energy was all but free! We have vast resources of NG. Many pipelines are already in place; every major city has them supplying most of the population now. Supply pipelines already criss-cross the country. Our government should offer tax incentives, and outright cash, to convert gas stations to CNG stations. Unlike Cash for Clunkers, a costly and complete failure, Cash for Conversion would yield a payoff every time one used their car or truck! Converting the USA rolling stock to CNG would all but shutdown the use of oil for transportation - our biggest use of the product. The money spent on oil, by the way, is essentially exported.... it's a tax without a return in the form of returned government services. A complete loss! Ironically, most of that money goes toward those at odds with our way of life.

The side benefit, and not a minor one, would be the radical drop in the cost of oil. Add to that scenario: the elimination of all taxes on energy. With these two ideas working together suddenly Made in America would have real meaning..... our products would be far more competitive in the world marketplace. In the EU gasoline/diesel/avgas costs range from $8 a gal on up to $16 a gal and more! In terms of costs of industrial production, we could beat them on every front. China uses coal for industry, but still must ship their finished product around the world, not a cheap enterprise. America, manufacturing locally - customers available localyl - both right where goods could be produced with cheap energy; that spells, what Charlie Sheen calls WINNING!

Add to that: American Cost Of Living would drop drastically. Heating/AC, cooking, traveling - all living costs are tied directly to energy costs - all would be a lot less expensive. This would in turn free-up cash for other uses improving American's lives. Farm products too would drop in cost, since fertilizer, tractor fuel, shipping, and refining costs would all drop - drastically.

Think of the jobs that would be created immediately, today, building systems and converting every service station to offer CNG; and every car and truck to run on CNG. This is the kind of government sponsored infrastructure that would actually pay returns back to citizens for generations. 

If energy was a lot less expensive, maybe we could actually afford to get sick! We have to put those in favor of developing NG into the driver's seat.

Cheers, Mel

Taking Easy Money

The Seniors of America are the last bastion of confiscatable  wealth. In practical  terms they can't leave the country; they can't sell their assets in a bad economy; they have children and grandchildren they can't leave. Their income, for the most part comes in the form of Social Security and Medicare. It just so happens that those two items are the largest part of the Federal budget. 

Now the best part; it's easy to take: 1) stop COLAs - done, 2) pare back Medicare coverage - underway; 3) demonize those two funds as, "The biggest part of the problem is not discretionary spending, it's entitlement spending," read: Social Security and Medicare. Also know that the discretionary spending is the source of pet project money of nearly every elected official. And lastly 4) Inflation, which is the ultimate theft from Seniors; they don't work, have limited ability to earn enough to keep-up, and survive by an ever lowering standard of living. 5) Easy to TAX.  They are the largest group of individuals in our society with paid for homes. Seniors do not use credit and are not a threat to the banking system. 

A weak and immediately identifiable group: Seniors are America's last bastion of hard earned and saved wealth.

Cheers, Mel

Frank View of the Big Picture

The following is from friend, NYU Stern School of Economics Economist, Price Waterhouse Accountant, Fortune 500 Co. Comptroller, entrepreneur, and now retired, Frank Fischer. This is his response to an ongoing email exchange concerning the future of America.


Hi Mel...

I think you already know some/most of my big picture suggested spending cuts to the Federal budget. Getting rid of entire agencies and departments, like the Dept of Education, EPA, Dept of Energy, Dept of Commerce and as big a hawk as I am, big cuts in the military/Pentagon. I'm sure there are others that could be eliminated. All other departments and agencies should take a 25% budget hit, bar none except veterans programs. I also believe the Feds should cut 25-40% of all Federal employees and implement wage, bonus and COLA pay increase freezes until the budget is balanced. I also believe it's an opportune time to get a balaced budget amendment passed.

Also, no more defined benefit pensions. Stop them all right now and immediately switch all Federal employees to defined contribution plans like 401ks. No more Cadillac health care programs either. Stick them all into Obamacare insurance pools, if Obamacare doesn't get repealed. Congress and Federal employees are exempt from Obamacare. WTF!!

I also believe we need term limits for all Congressmen/women (3 years) and Senators (6 years). Cut the hell out of their pay, or don't pay them at all, like it used to be. Or pay them something similar to what the military pays for a low-ranking officer. Same for their staff. Give them some frugal expense reimbursement plan. No pensions, no health care they take with them. No more per diem, that they just pocket for personal use. Build a decent barracks-type residence for all reps, or just convert one of the many unused buildings in DC to a residence hall type thing for when Congress is in session. Staff are on their own like the rest of us. Eliminate perks like paying off their school loans for them too. 

Get rid of all the BS money-draining subsidy programs like Ethanol and money sucking things like Amtrak and the Post Office. Privatize these things with no subsidies from the taxpayers. If they fail, they fail. If prices go up, tough shit. Pay the going rate or use something else.

That would reduce federal taxes for the folks which would help our 70% consumer spending based economy and set an example for frugality for state and local government. State and local gov'ts need to cut the fat and get rid of all of the money sucking union pensions, health care and big paychecks. The lower taxes that would result will also help the 70% consumer based economy. Privatizing a lot of what state and local govt's do will cut costs and make things much more efficient. Case in point - NYC Sanitation Dept. Why have a city run sanitation dept? Sub-contract the work out, including snow removal. There certainly wouldn't have been any slow-down in snow removal with that last storm that hit NYC. Waste Management does a great job. They've been picking up my trash for years at a very low cost and I don't know if they provide pensions or health care to their employees. Frankly, I don't care.

We need a national energy plan and as you know, I recommend CNG, nuclear and clean coal. Plus we need to drill for more domestic oil in the meantime and send these OPEC and other dictatorial financial rapists back to the stone age. This would probably be the biggest contributor to putting money into consumers pockets, thus helping the 70% consumer spending based economy.

Those are some of my "big picture" actions I'd like to see take place. I don't consider them small or insignificant.

As far as all of the smaller things I, and you, become aware of and bitch about all the time, a $ billion or two here, a few $ billion more there....it all adds up to tens or hundreds of $ billions. It's just like eliminating earmarks. Sure, they don't add up too much in the big picture scheme, but taken as a cumulative whole with everything else, they add up to a ton of money. Plus, it helps eliminate corruption. Corruption always starts small and grows from there as politicians become bolder and bolder and steal/waste more and more of our money. Case in point is the ethanol scam and the proposed cap & trade fraud.

As far as our economy goes, I still believe we're in the midst of our fist lost decade. And it may continue to another decade, not unlike Japan. Obama and Congress aren't going to get us out of this mess. Only the private sector can do this. Regretfully, I don't see any clear way out. I don't see any clear way to reduce unemployment, other than through attrition as folks fall off the unemployment roles. But then they're on welfare, food stamps, etc. The housing market has crushed us. The US economy has been riding on fictitious, non-existent wealth in the form of bogus home equity for the past 10 years.

For years, folks have been pulling this bogus equity out of their homes to buy cars, big screen TVs, take vacations, remodel their homes, buy 2nd homes, etc, etc, etc. Then there were the house flippers taking quick profits of bogus equity. It was all BS. Look at what happened when the bubble burst. IMO this is the main cause of unemployment in this country. All of the lost jobs including contractors/builders, sub-contractors, building suppliers, realtors, mortgage brokers, bankers, title companies, etc, etc, etc, plus all of the government related jobs, like those in building depts, inspectors, etc. Then the effect it had on the rest of the economy. Severely reduced auto/trucks sales, mall closings, restaurants closings, retail shops out of business.... you name it, it's gone. Then the foreclosures....well over a million, maybe 2 million and an estimated 3 million more coming. This has touched every part of our economy.

So the big question is: in what sector of the economy will jobs be created? I have no idea. Neither does anyone else, including Obama and Congress. The truth is I don't believe a significant number of jobs will, or can be created in any sector. Hence my forecast of 2 lost decades. Until such time as all of the millions of baby boomers (1946-1964) are finally out of the work force, we'll continue with 9-10% or higher unemployment. It's the norm now and may get worse. We need to create 140K jobs a month just to keep up with normal growth. Where are all the kids graduating high school and college getting jobs? They're not. They're moving back in with their parents or other family members. Folks that have lost their job and their houses are moving in with friends and relatives. It's a mess. All of this causing a lack of contribution to our 70% consumer spending based economy.Yet the population continues to grow.....with illegal aliens and babies from single parent mothers living in projects and ghettos. All needing entitlement support, further stressing out the financial situation in the country.

Sure, the stock market is doing better, but it's all BS. Most companies are recording increases in their bottom line profits, but little to no growth in their top line, revenues. This is all because they cut the hell out of expenses, mainly with headcount reductions. Productivity is way up. Wall St banks are making a killing since they're able to borrow money from the Fed at zero % interest and turn quick, daily profits by lending it to other banks on short terms. Business and consumer credit is still tight and tough to get. All of this Wall St and stock market crappola does nothing for our 70% consumer spending based economy. Consumers that do have an income aren't spending. Those that don't, can't. Many are terrified and either saving or paying down debt. Many are helping to support other family members, just to help them get by with the basic needs to survive. Bankruptcies are at a record high. Foreclosures the same. Huge numbers of unsold homes are out there and the numbers are growing. Home values are dropping like a rock and continue to do so.

That is the big picture. We're screwed. The truth is guys like you and me DO get it. It's the rest of them that don't.

Frank

Affordable Health Care..... Now

Just saw an ad on TV selling the Silver Sonic XL by Bell and Howell. This little baby looks just like a bluetooth cell phone ear piece you see mounted on dopes at Costco. Here's the deal. My dad and Rebecca's mom wore hearing aids. Their vanity wouldn't let them wear any device, let alone a honkin' wasp's nest on their ear, until science and engineering had invented a completely invisible device worn entirely inside the ear. The problem here was that these elegant tiny marvels of sound amplification were expensive - - $Thousands! But the Silver Sonic XL shows how humans adapt. And how we'll move forward into our brave new world - - cheaply, putting function before fashion. To wit: Now, you can get a fully featured audio enhancement device..... for only $19.95. And if you call right now you get 2 for the price of one!! One for each ear or one for you and one for your partner! So there you go.... what cost Bernie and Becky four grand every year or so.... trying to get one that really worked.... is now available, functionally anyway, for only ten bucks! Your future at work, bringing costs down! Aren't we creative funny creatures? The next thing you know that same world of hi-tech will bring us cheap knee replacements...... a simple amputation of the lower leg - above the faulty joint - and the ware-it-home replacement! A fully featured wooden-leg, but modern..... and much better; with - get these features: super light weight super tough kevlar "leg," no-rust titanium joints at both knee and heel!, super-stick silicone custom-fit breathable "cup" at the stump.  To make it a real winner it will be available with any number of shoe styles..... including slippers. One hell of a lot cheaper than the current "invisible" but very expensive "knee replacement procedure!" Cheers, Mel www.melvinshapiro.blogspot.com