Agencies and their RULES.

When Speaker Pelosi said, "we won't know what is in it [Health Care Bill] until we pass it," she was accurate. The Agency will write the RULES, not Congress and RULES are not subject to Congressional votes.
Congress, whether under Democrats or Republicans, creates Agencies with the power to make and enforce RULES including but not limited to jail time and/or fines for violators. With RULES come ENFORCERS pseudo federal police to arrest and charge violators.
Secretary Napolitano writes RULES for the TSA which put an average traveler into a zone without Constitutional rights. Speech or a flinch can result in arrest and/or detention without reading of rights. End up in the TSA's Plexiglas prison and your rights are gone. A mother is detained for over 40 minutes and misses her flight as she attempts use printed RULES showing breast milk may bypassing X-RAY. She cannot sue the TSA agents?
The Endangered Species Act is immune from individual's property rights meaning a farmer on encountering an endangered species might be more prone to shoot the thing and bury the evidence then risk losing their livelihood. RULES often backfire.
2/3rds of poisonings are from prescription drugs, yet the FDA, created to 'protect us' from snake oil sales, is not questioned or held responsible and now has additional powers to require expensive testing and approvals of natural or holistic products bankrupting small producers in favor of monopoly pharmaceuticals. Corporatism/Fascism at its worst.
SWAT teams raid a private club for raw milk and cheese purchases. "Some people balk at restrictions on selling unprocessed milk and other foods. 'How can we not have the freedom to choose what we eat?' one says. Regulators say the RULES exist for safety and fairness." Notice "RULES;" not "LAWS"
During the 1930's, families rented rooms and provided board at minimal rates but today the RULES require separate entrances and private baths meaning many live on the street instead. That's CRAZY.. but since Congress doesn't specifically pass RULES, we cannot repeal or even modify them.
To save us from the encroaching federal police state based on enforcing RULES never passed by Congress, can our new Congress require AGENCY's RULES either be advisory or subject to Congressional votes to be enforced like LAW?
The new Congress cannot mend our economy without access to Agency RULES. I hope its corrected quickly.

Gold Standard lasted Until Nixon

All 44 Allied nations met in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire and signed Agreements during the first three weeks of July 1944.

FDR had taken our currency off the Gold Standard. Bretton Woods was a system of rules, institutions, and procedures to regulate the international monetary system, -- chief among them were --an obligation for each country to adopt a monetary policy that maintained the exchange rate of their currency within a fixed value—plus or minus one percent—in terms of gold and the ability of the IMF to bridge temporary imbalances of payments.

Don't let anyone tell you the gold standard is archaic and wasn't used recently. Nixon was fighting the war in Viet Nam and did not want to raise taxes (sounding familiar yet?) to pay for the war. When he ended Bretton Woods, in 1971, precious metals were stolen from our coinage. The 1960's quarters had silver worth over $5 today. The Federal Reserve had no limits to their power of expansion or inflation.

I feel so much better now that I've got that off my chest. More from NYTs.

And a hearing explaining rising prices and federal reserve actions

What Jefferson thought of English Politics

"The parliament is, by corruption, the mere instrument of the will of the administration. The real power and property in the government is in the great aristocratical families of the nation. The nest of office being too small for all of them to cuddle into at once, the contest is eternal, which shall crowd the other out. For this purpose, they are divided into two parties, the Ins and the Outs, so equal in weight that a small matter turns the balance. To keep themselves in, when they are in, every stratagem must be practised, every artifice used which may flatter the pride, the passions or power of the nation. Justice, honor, faith, must yield to the necessity of keeping themselves in place. The question whether a measure is moral, is never asked; but whether it will nourish the avarice of their merchants, or the piratical spirit of their navy, or produce any other effect which may strengthen them in their places. As to engagements, however positive, entered into by the predecessors of the Ins, why, they were their enemies; they did every thing which was wrong; and to reverse every thing they did, must, therefore, be right. This is the true character of the English government in practice, however different its theory; and it presents the singular phenomenon of a nation, the individuals of which are as faithful to their private engagements and duties, as honorable, as worthy, as those of any nation on earth, and whose government is yet the most unprincipled at this day known."
-- Thomas Jefferson to Governor John Langdon, March 5, 1810
Doesn't this apply to DC insiders now.

Oxymoron

Mr Buffett and Mr. Gates openly lobby others who have amassed great wealth to avoid capital gains taxes and inheritance taxes by donating to a foundation. They also freely espouse paying higher taxes is not only necessary, but the right thing to do... Am I the only one who sees this as an oxymoron?
In Nebraska, Buffett's capital gains taxes @ 7% of $Billion would produce $70Million in revenue and make up much of our budget shortfall.
After capital gains and later, death taxes are paid, foundation donors can still fund their charities only using after tax dollars. Better yet, research promising new industries in the US and fund them. The Bloom box, only one idea, creates electricity using 1/2 the fuel of current methods and is smaller than a dumpster. Americans are full of ideas and have literally changed the world. Investing creates jobs, grows the economy and teaches folks how to 'fish' rather than feeding them for a day. Risk means some winners and some losers, but many jobs.
By shielding their wealth, their dividends and real estate from the tax man, they should know the result is selfishly leaving the rest of us to make up the difference. Isn't the removal of billions from our struggling economy also a problem? Although I have no doubt their goals are unselfish, possibly they haven't thought through the "unseen" [Bastiat] lost benefits of added production, growth in the economy, job creation and worker independence that could have developed.
Mr. Buffett and Mr. Gates, the least you can do is offer to drop your Foundation's tax exempt status to show you are sincere and do desire to pay a fair share of taxes.
Sent to the hill on 12/17/10

WikiLeaks

Dear readers, listen to audio of Naomi Wolf as she warns that TSA and Wikileaks are Master-Slave fights, not Left-Right.

A deeply worried Naomi Wolf, author of The End of America, fears that both TSA actions and the threatened use of the 1917 Espionage Act against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, a journalist, signal a rapid escalation on multiple fronts toward the end of liberty for all of us. Historically, the state always uses the excuse of national security as a tactic to subjugate citizens, forcing nakedness and sexual intrusions upon us, unless and until, courageous acts of resistance and mass opposition finally force these totalitarians, like the TSA, to back down. But we must act if we are to have a chance.


I love smart people who see past the rhetoric. This post from a Fox News from daisypug about WikiLeak's insurance file of unredacted data which exists to be 'unlocked' if they are shut down.

One of the stated goals for the release of the diplomatic cables is to expose American hypocrisy about freedoms of the press and speech. They chose to work with certain companies, like Amazon, specifically to show how quickly the government will demand censorship and how easily those corporations do cave. The U.S., Australian, and even Canadian governments have shown themselves to be no better than China when it comes to the distribution of information that actually has the power to change how those governments conduct themselves. They immediately start trying to shut down the website by any means legal, illegal, or completely against any sense of American democratic values.

You won't see anything that substantial on televised news, in the failing print publication industry, or even on mainstream websites.

How Cabal of Wall st bankers, federal reserve, & DC get rich

Let's assume you are an everyday guy who has saved 10,000 and buys a savings bond paying 7% interest compounded annually. Your bond would be worth $19,671.51 after 10 years. Your taxes on capital gains of $9,671.51, if you live in Nebraska with 7% capital gains plus 15% federal, would be $2,127.73 leaving you a net gain of $7,543.78 in currency.

Now lets assume inflation (amount of money the federal reserve was creating for the bankers) was at 5% over those 10 years. The amount of money needed to buy the same goods as 10 years ago when you made your investment would be $16,288.95 in currency.

That reduces your actual gain in buying power to $3,382.57 in today's currency. If we subtract the capital gains taxes paid from the actual gain in buying power, your gain was only $1,254.83 and your actual capital gains tax rate was more like 63% on actual gains.

Meanwhile, the banks are receiving federal reserve notes BEFORE the inflation rolls down hill to the pool of existing currency. Is it any wonder the divide between mega-rich and the average person is growing?

Added 12/5/10

The Fed creates all bubbles and inevitable bursting of all of the bubbles, by manipulating money supply & interest rate <<< pass it on.

Although we are all debt slaves to the Federal Reserve's ability to inflate, ballooning student loans-not forgiven by bankruptcy-may violate the Constitution. Many young adults after college are working in virtual 'involuntary servitude' to pay off loans--a clear violation of the 13th amendment. Why are college loans not challenged?

If the Supreme court ruled college loans violated the 13th, at first, fewer would go to college but very quickly colleges would recognize that market forces could put them on the street unless they tighten their belts so tuition could drop. Profs would take fewer paid trips, double up in offices again, and teach more hours. Also, many skills previously learned in technical high schools, might return meaning fewer community colleges classes needed. Think of the productivity from two years of work rather than two years of classes.

Added 1/11/11 A video explanation of paper money.

What causes bubbles?

Matt Taibbi, an author I do admire, has read Cato's take on the housing bubble and written about it here in Rolling Stone. Now I doubt Rolling Stone will pick up on my humble response, but I do have a point or two to make.

• 1) Community Redevelopment Act[CRA] as originally written had nothing to do with the bubble but was a factor in Credit Default Swaps [CDS] as a hedge against loss. Banks were judged on their CRA rating and that 'forced' them to make loans in areas where a trend was showing crime, vacancies and business pulling out made them a bad risk. The buyer wasn't a risk, the house was well constructed, but if the homeowner were injured or lost their job, the home might be worthless on the market. Banks don't print money (Fed reserve aside,) so they cannot make loans of their depositors money except on sound risk.
• 2) After CDS became the norm and pushed off from the mother ship (the banks,) loans became a commodity. If a broker sold a house and wrote the loan for maximum amount, their % of commission was higher and they could actually 'sell' the loan to a CDS broker. This caused brokers to run around making second mortgages in the 10's of thousands on kitchen remodels with no concern that the loans exceeded the value of the home. Again they sold them for % profit.
• 3) On C-SPAN I have had very informed sources answer this question: If Americans were negative savers (because both Greenspan and Bernanke kept interest at 1% which discouraged savings and encouraged spending,) where did the US$s that financed all these risky home loans come from? The normal process is a saver puts money in bank at a certain interest rate and the bank loans that money at a higher interest rate on good solid 'risks' to make bucks.. But, we had no savings. The answer was the federal reserve created the money used to fuel the bubble. Its like a forest fire with lots of downed trees, branches and brush.. it burns very hot and destroys the trees.
  
• 4) So the circle was complete; the bubble grew. Greenspan or Bernanke could have (should have) raised interest rates like Volcher did to let the bubble deflate and give us several good years of growth again. The only way to deflate a bubble is to deflate it--in our case by not printing so much money and raising interest rates. The pain is hard, but its over fast. No Politician wants that. The federal reserve is very much in tune with politics and the administration in power.
• 5) Yes there was greed with flipping homes and some got caught with the hot potato when the bubble burst. There was greed in Goldman and other banks selling a faulty investment. There was greed in the loan makers who would shop the neighborhood to find a home that sold for a huge amount so they could make the loan (and their commission) higher.