Our Economic World is Shakier Than We’ve Been Told

 

The mainstream media, especially the European Media, are all the news all the time covering the Greek economic meltdown. Some of the more honest media has also included the crises that could be soon to topple as if dominoes all in a row of which Greece is but the first domino to be tripped to fall and they have shown how Spain and Portugal would be precariously hanging and soon toppled partly as a result of Greece’s defaulting though it might be likely they would have fallen eventually all on their own. These would trigger a crisis in Ireland and Italy as to which would be the fourth victim and which would follow as the fifth victim signaling the end of the most endangered Eurozone nations too close to default to be comforting. The real horrific effect of these five weaker economies finally tripping the default cable and snagging the economic webbing, which has held the European Union and the Euro together since 1999, doing irreparable damage to the delicate webbing, more fragile than the most slightly laced spider’s web, tearing enormous holes in its intricate weaves slashing at the most vital threads and upsetting the ever so precarious balance that underlies its supporting structures threatening to unbalance and collapse even the previously though stable economies of France, Poland and many of the other east European economies possibly pushing them right to the cliff-face and potentially tipping them beyond the cusp and into default thus lacerating the last remnants of the Eurozone and possibly taking with them Germany and the ECB (European Central Bank) causing unimaginable damage to the financial structure of Europe and beyond, the ripple effect causing a second deep recession well more serious and taking longer to tank-out and hit bottom and then begin a long sluggish scent clawing for every single Red Cent and Dollar and Euro after having taken its toll on Asia and beyond. But the Euro, Greece, and the rest of the European Union and the Eurozone is but one whirlpool looking to sink every last economic boat.

 

The Euro is what we have been led to believe is the only threat. Where previously economic ships only had to worry about rising and falling tides, now they are adrift and facing not just one whirlpool representing the Euro dying, but now there is a second even more massive whirlpool coming from deep within Asia. China has hit the road’s end and is attempting to push its enormous mountain of debt using a garden trowel while piling on fresh debt using Caterpillar 990K series front end loader shoveling an additional $19.3 billion in an effort to end their three week slide totaling $3.2 trillion downturn in the past three weeks alone. These losses were the result of a Chinese Stock Market where as many as two-thirds of the stocks were frozen in a further attempt to stem the torrents of dollars flowing from their stock market and their economy like the icy waters which flooded the lower decks of the Titanic as she slowly but inexorably fell beneath the waves, something somewhat prophetic for the Chinese markets and economy. There is actually a comparison between the situation in Greece and the downturn in China as one must remember that Greece is as socialist as a nation can be without being either fascist or Communist and Greece has retained their spirit of a democratic Parliamentary system despite it all but China has taken socialism that one final step to communism, the addition of mostly state owned corporations and central planning of the economic engines and manufacturing. Chinese leaders had been attempting to liberalize their economic sectors, though not all of them, selling a number of previously State run businesses and even permitted competition between companies in the same market hoping this would charge their economy further and it had been working but even free-market economic liberalization was unable to stave off this meltdown. The problem obviously is what will this mean for the liberalization of the Chinese economy as the leadership are still Communists who serve the Party and depend on the Party, may decide that much of their financial woes are the result of these new policies and curtail or even reverse some or all of the liberalized companies, markets and take a giant leap backwards to increased government control over every iota of the economy and the manufacturing and sales etc.

 

United States Treasury Secretary Jack Lew commented Wednesday on the current crisis in China stating at the Brookings Institution, that the economies of the United States and China are “still pretty much separated.” In further testimony Secretary Lew queried, “I think the concern … it is a real one … is what does it mean about long term growth in China?” Further in his speech he pointed to the main potential impacts which could emerge as a result to the Chinese Stock Market bleeding financially leaving the leadership seeing ‘Red’ in more ways than one. The leading question is to figure out as soon as possible what the reaction of the leaders of the Communist Party is and whether they may decide that the problem dictates such as appointing new leadership, freezing prices, injecting even more dollars into the markets through the banks and state owned businesses or closing the banks and Stock Market for a week or two cool down and reset to normalcy again; the choices and potential marrying of any two or three makes predictions near to impossible. The one thing which can be computed and predicted as long as the numbers being released and any steps taken are done so in plain view then the impact of the Stock Market freefall on the Chinese economy’s core condition and whether it appears that it will have much elasticity and dynamics when the end is finally reached and the rollercoaster slides on in to the station signaling the end of the ride, and what a ride it was with vigorous growth only to drop who knows how large a percentage of that growth in this correction, and what a correction. Secretary Lew’s closing thoughts are worthy of being repeated as he emphasized, “The question isn’t their commitment to the goal; the question is the pace at which they implemented it, and do they do it fast enough for it to be effective. I hope this is not something that slows down the pace of reform. If the reaction is to put the brakes on reforms, that will slow that process.”

 

With China making a long overdue correction which will be far more severe than it should or could have been if the leadership was not so intent on what numbers they released to the world and on making their predicted economic increase and meet all targets set within the government as to fail was unthinkable and would have been a terrible loss of face thus undermining faith in the economy. This has caused the Chinese to follow the example first used by President George W. Bush and turbocharged by President Barack Hussein Obama which was in the old school simply called a ‘stimulus package’ but is now known by a more enigmatic phrase of ‘Quantitative Easing,’ either of which hides the actual result and method being implemented as who would stand for the government announcing they were devaluing the money supply and taxing every single American by a minimum percentage directly proportional to the percentage increase the total added funding was doled out in stacks of hundred dollar bills, literally thousands of such stacks in the United States and unknown amounts though what is known is the Chinese leadership pumped close to twice the percentage of GDP as did the United States. Just as the United States took their hit starting back in late 2008 and continuing through 2011 and briefly relieved with another round of ‘Quantitative Easing,’ this was like the third pitcher of beer at a table trying to drink their way sober. The economic burst from that mid and late 2011 ‘Quantitative Easing’ gave the economy a burst of hope which appeared to continue due to lowered interest rates and the paring down and mostly neutering of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act gave the economy the needed push for President Obama’s reelection as he could run his campaign claiming to have turned the economy around and that great times lie ahead. Well, as far as that goes I’ll point to Greece and China and point out that the United States has followed similar patterns of fueling the economy and especially the Stock Market with borrowed monies and when loans were unavailable the Federal Reserve would electronically buy Treasury Bonds with funds they imagined into existence as a few strokes on a Federal Reserve keyboard and one produces and completed sale with funny money in that the receipt for the Treasury Bonds was used to balance the books as it represented the electronically derived cash used. This is a very convenient way to purchase items this way when you are the government or a very clever fraudster as just try using the sales slip from one register, say men’s clothing from a department store as cash at the Jewelry Counter and see how far that takes you. The catch, and there is always a catch, to ‘Quantitative Easing’ is that eventually you either have to pay back the money that was invented which can only be done some combination of these three methods, first is retire actual money from circulation which can also be done electronically by retiring any electronic payment made on credit cards, second is to remove the funds through higher taxes taking the money directly from the supply, and lastly one could raise the interest rates and siphon off a percentage of each loan to pay the Piper so to speak. The problem is that each of these methods actually hurt the consumer the most; it is the public that pays the price for the economic and financial misdeeds and ill-advised policies.

 

There are but a few redeeming features out of all of this and one serious and potentially unavoidable problem, and it is a big one. So, we will leave the bad news for last and the good news which will cause doom’s day to come and come quickly first. The best of news is that the meltdown in China is most likely to be relatively unfelt even amongst their Asian markets as China does not purchase many goods from outside and the few major needs she has will continue even if slightly abated, things essential like coal and petroleum. Further, the only nation carrying a trade deficit of any note is the United States and even should quotas be placed on any goods currently purchased from China will very likely have ten other sources with some popping up due to China cutting production. The European crisis is more likely to hit the United States harder than anything else on the economic horizon. Should the Eurozone break apart due to the collapse of several of their nations having financial difficulties and teetering at the edge of financial Armageddon plus one, Greece, which has in all honesty gone beyond the cusp and is currently running with his feet well away from solid ground just hanging there for that brief Wiley Coyote moment before collapsing into the darkness below only to make a small puff of dust rising depicting his hitting bottom. Even should the entire Eurozone collapse it may actually serve to keep a lid on inflation and allow for low interests rates, a necessity for the United States. That brings us back to the one thing that at first everyone would be glad to see, a real recovery with rising workforce participation which in the United States is down to approximately 63%, one of the lowest figures since the mid-1970s. This would also bring jobs, especially higher end job market opening up once again which would allow for a ripple effect. As the overqualified people working at menial or minimum wage jobs would leave those as jobs in their field became available and they gain employment thus making room for these other positions to employ more of the nations’ work force and soon inflation will return, something there has been no worry about as even the few months where such measurements showed a possibility for inflation to develop only for indicators to slide back the next couple of months with it often seeming like one big step forward and all promise breaking out only to be followed by three or four months of small to moderate steps backwards and everything gained to be lost and often more. When inflation does finally return for real then there will be a really bad situation. Once inflation starts to threaten then the interest rates will rise as a counter to inflation. Rising inflation takes a bigger bite out of people’s pockets all but actual theft. Inflation also helps with making the national debt somewhat more manageable by deflating the value of the currency taking the currency to new lows and the lessening to of the value of the debt and the purchasing power of that coinage. This was where Greece and the other nations in the Eurozone faced; they no longer had control over their coinage, their monetary worth so they were unable to simply lessen the value in order to get a handle on their debts and also make their nation more attractive to investors and new businesses. Perhaps leaving the Eurozone for a set period of possibly not less than two years and no longer than a decade or quarter century at which point they can reapply at the short end or must face a permanent decision at the longer end. Granted, this will possibly make some nations more reckless but the consequence is the only alternative to having the Eurozone nations turn their entire control of monetary and fiscal planning over to Brussels, they already control the monetary which is part of the problem, and most nations will refuse to be relieved of the power of the purse even if they are no longer able to control the coinage of said purse. Perhaps even a rotating schedule where every nation has to spend a decade using their own coinage would be another compromise. Until the Eurozone finds the answer they will be facing little impossible challenges as is Greece right now and others down the line. Let’s just hope their mistakes don’t become global economic-mines blowing the world markets haywire.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Obama Fighting War of His Making Ignoring Others

President Obama is fighting what he believes is the greatest of evils facing mankind in the world today. He is marshaling the Democrat troops, sending Vice President Biden across the oceans, having Democrat Senators enter meetings of the greatest urgency, hoping to coral as many Democrat House Representatives to hold their meeting concurrently as the Senate Democrat meeting, and calling for efforts on the ground in Israel to canvas the nation warning against the greatest evil challenging the world in hopes of gathering the Israeli public in his efforts to right the wrongs and defeat the greatest of evils. But what is the nature of this evil which demands such efforts and coordination across two continents marshalling the people to fight and finally put this menace to all that is holy to rest. Senators, Representatives, public leaders and political ground forces capable of raising awareness with resultant actions across two nations to face an evil; a pernicious and foreboding evil that has threatened the very ties between two civilizations risking a calamity which if not addressed immediately could result in explosive violence across the Middle East. This threat has taken the highest priority on the President’s plate, but first let’s take a look at the solutions the President has in place on some of the other problems before we debate the merits of the President’s present obsession.

There is a deadline approaching, well, not so much a deadline as the latest date by which the negotiations between the P5+1 (United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia, China and Germany) with Iran over their nuclear program and the concerns that they just may be working towards the manufacturing of nuclear weapons are to conclude. Secretary of State Kerry let slip this week the secret negotiating technique the State Department has been applying to this recent and seeming last ditch effort to reach an agreement by March 24 avoiding a third procrastinating setting of a new date which would probably set yet another date towards the end of summer. But the new negotiation technique should resolve any outstanding issues as the instructions are should the Iranians balk at any of the demands then they are to drop said demand and move along to the next position and hopefully there will be sufficient time to readdress the outstanding and dropped issues. It is far more likely that we will see some agreement which will allow for President Obama to announce the reopening of an United States embassy in Tehran during his visit to Tehran where he will join Iranian President Rowhani in a signing ceremony setting the parameters and inspection format permitting only peaceful and low level uranium enrichment under IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) oversight. What could ever go wrong with having the IAEA inspectors under the guidance and power of the United Nations?

Then there is the problem with the JV (Junior Varsity) of the terror world, ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), sometimes simply referred to by their preferred title of IS (Islamic State) or the Caliphate. They had swarmed across one third of Iraq’s central regions and almost half of Syria before being slowed and finally contained by the Kurdish militias, Peshmerga forces, contained them in northern Iraq and reinforced the Kurdish YPG (People’s Defense Unit) and its complimentary YPJ (Women’s Defense Unit) stopping ISIS dead in the northern Syrian town of Kobanê, <a href=http://ypgrojava.com/en/ target=blank>their official Internet Site</a> and slowly retaking their home town. Further, the allied efforts of sixty nations carrying out airstrikes have also prevented ISIS from taking the Iraqi capital city of Baghdad as well as assisting Kurdish efforts to take back some lands in Syria and northern Iraq. The areas liberated by the Kurdish forces in Iraq have revealed a telling and horrid tale spelled out by the mass graves of Yazidis and Iraqis with numerous of the dead having single bullet wounds to the back of their heads and some with signs of having had their hands tied. Many of the witnesses have retold stories spinning a tale revealing the atrocities and degradations committed by the forces under ISIS, many of which are too horrific to be spoken of except as an impetus to action by those opposing the butchers of ISIS. One such horror that was regaled before the world in a video showed the execution by immolation of the Jordanian pilot held prisoner by ISIS. This atrocity has steeled the Jordanian people in any efforts to avenge their countryman’s fate. Jordanian monarch, King Abdullah II referred to ISIS as “Islamic Extremists” and vowed that Jordanian military was able and readying to ramp up their efforts to destroy ISIS claiming they would be “relentless” with strikes upon “their own homes,” and to continue the fight until Jordan runs “out of fuel and bullets.” When the video which showed the Jordanian pilot’s fate was released to the world, King Abdullah was in Washington D.C. where President Obama refused the Jordanian King’s request to be supplied with drone aircraft to make reconnaissance and other tactical missions thus aiding and increasing the effectiveness of the Jordanian efforts against ISIS.

Another front facing the world and especially the United States as the head of NATO and presumably the free world, President Obama has been all but absent from the uprising and Russian interference in eastern Ukraine. The uprising has had the telltale signs of Russian intervention as many of the fighters, especially those manning the heavy weapons and armored vehicles, have what appear to be wearing Russian military combat fatigues with no rank, name, unit or other markings. These troops are further tied to Russia as they are most often noted in numbers immediately after there have been additional armor or heavy weaponry crossing the border from Russia into the eastern Ukraine. While the Europeans had installed deep sanctions on Russia which had been starting to have their full effect felt, President Obama was busy leading the way for calls to remove the crippling sanctions were made and eventually heeded by the Europeans. In return, the United States has delivered non-lethal equipment such as night vision equipment, blankets, meal packets and similar supplies. The United States will be debating the pros-and-cons of providing the Ukraine so-called “defensive lethal aid,” that might be permitted to include anti-tank, anti-air and anti-mortar systems. The Russians led by President Putin who will likely call President Obama and remind him of the message he had relayed through then President Medvedev stating that, “This is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility.” The aim is to put an end to the Russian adventurisms before Russian backed rebels rise up against the government in any NATO nation whose government then invokes Article V which requires the other NATO members to come to the aid of the nation facing such an invasion. Where the Ukraine is not as of yet a NATO member, they had been inching in that direction and it was the fears of their being accepted thus placing them under NATO Article V protection. The problem will boil over should Russian President Putin attempt the same scenario in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland or even Poland as Putin had boasted in a threat late last year when he described his feeling and disrespect for NATO implying that it was a hollowed out paper tiger completely devoid of the strength or will to prevent Russia from retaking the lands which had been under the influence of the Soviet Union. Such a threat would reveal the true intestinal fortitude of President Obama assuming that he has any to stand upon.

These problems would appear to be capable of filling the plate of even the greatest of leaders and of taxing their ability to fulfill their obligations as the leader of the free world. They surely have filled President Obama’s cup to overflowing, but as we have seen above, the President is right there with a resolute stance and the will to back that up if required. When the time comes to put up or go home he inevitably chooses to stay home and lead from behind. In Mali President Obama allowed the French to take the lead while he waited should any catastrophe require he stand up and be heard defining why this particular problem was not such a serious threat requiring any further actions, especially requiring American “boots on the ground.” He followed in Libya and then walked away with the job at hand only half completed. The refusal to step up and clear out all of the rats and their nests eventually assisted in leading to the tragedy which occurred in Benghazi where United States Ambassador to Libya John Christopher Stevens was murdered while the United States Consulate building was torched and burned to the ground. Also murdered were Sean Smith, U.S. Foreign Service Information Management Officer and aide to Ambassador Stevens along with two former Navy SEALS, Glen Doherty and Tyrone S. Woods who answered the desperate calls for assistance and eventually were murdered during the ensuing battle at the Central Intelligence safe-house where they managed to hold out for close to eight or nine hours calling for an air strike and any relief though none was ever going to be sent. Thus far investigations have yet to place the blame for giving the orders to “stand sown” to all units who were close enough to have rescued the two former SEALS who had rescued a number of Consulate staff and were fighting the insurgents attempting to save anybody still requiring their assistance.

The above challenges and the numerous scandals have the administration attempting to run out the clock until the term is complete and interest in them should die. Despite the appearance of great importance some of the situations such as with ISIS in both Iraq and Syria, Iran on the verge of producing nuclear weapons, and Russia threatening to overrun the Ukraine as well as potentially striking Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania or even Poland, and keeping the lid on the many scandals his Administrations, and especially Attorney General Erik Holder has produced, such as the Veterans administration keeping multiple lists to conceal their atrocious wait times which were actually killing many of the United States’ most vulnerable and destitute veterans, the NSA (National Security Agency) peering and hacking into personal files and other information stored on their computers as well as from credit card records and other such files, the Fast and Furious Program which could of added Fiasco to its alliterated name. The firearms placed intentionally in the hands of the Mexican drug cartels resulted in one dead American Border Patrol Agent, Brian Terry, and who even knows how many Mexican innocents, police officers and military forces assisting in their war on drugs. The rest of the tragedy which was Fast and Furious was that the firearms were never recovered nor were there any arrests or convictions attained due to the intentional arming of the worst criminals throughout Mexico and especially on the United States southern border. Add in the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) scandal where groups applying for tax exemption due to their nonprofit status were placed last to be processed and made to go through the most twisted demands and requirements to prove their nonprofit status including the answering of thousands of questions and even required them to turn over lists of their donors simply determined by if their name included words which were deemed suspicious and automatically placed the petitioner in the slowest and most intensive inquiries possible. What were some of these words? Words such as freedom, independence, guns, firearms, Constitution, Bill of Rights, Tea Party, 9/12 Organization, and other keywords which were considered to dictate the inquiry came from conservative or libertarian motivated organizations. There additionally were the attacks on the privacy of selected news and editorialists with whom the White House had difficulties or disagreements with their slant. These invasions of their private lives even went so far in at least one instance that the reporter’s parents’ files and information was run through the mill to see what may fall out. There is even more on the domestic scandal front but you get the idea.

Either side, the domestic scandals and the terror and Russian threats and other menaces on the world’s stage would be enough on their own plate and would lead anybody into a dizzying schedule just attempting to keep up, but the President has a singular mission he has placed before all others, the changing of the make-up of the Israeli government resulting in the replacing of Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu with the collaboration of Tzipi Livni and Yitzhak Herzog at any cost. Towards this end the White House has set up a funding headquarters in an office in New York City on West 38th Street under the name of the NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) V15/One Voice. In a surprising effort in Israel there exists another NGO with a name very similar to the NGO in New York, the Israeli one is named V2015 though on some of its material the name is shortened to V15. We have covered some of the particulars, and more should become available as we approach the March 17 Israeli elections. Our previous article was titled, <a href=http://wp.me/pIou8-1G7 target=blank>“Obama’s Deceits Over Israeli Elections”</a> and includes the letter written by Senator Ted Cruz and Representative Lee Zeldin who are both Member of Congress sent to Secretary of State John Kerry demanding to know and have an accounting over whether government funding of V15 and One Voice are being utilized in efforts to affect the Israeli elections. The efforts the White House is taking to attempt to embarrass Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu for accepting an invitation from Speaker of the House Boehner to address the combined houses of Congress on the Iranian nuclear issue and to give a summary of anything the Israelis might know that the State of the union address failed to mention. What is interesting about the protestations being staged by the White House is that they are premised on some false information. Firstly, the Prime Minister was going to be in the United States to speak to the AIPAC Conference the first week of March and it has been almost a given custom to have the Israeli Prime Minister address the Congress while he is in the United States. Additionally, the White House had been given notice that the Speaker of the House was going to request that the Israeli Prime Minister address Congress, the Speaker simply did not wait for an answer as the last time he made such a request it took the White House almost, if not all of, three months before granting him a reply. Additionally, the Speaker was aware that the White House would take an equally lengthy time this time as well so he decided that advising them of his intent to request such an audience was sufficient, for which there exists no reason that the Speaker of the House is required to have such invitations approved by anybody, the third in line to become President in a catastrophe where both the President and the Vice President were rendered unable to continue as the leader of the United States.

The White House has taken an additional step beyond their very public statement repeated numerous times stating that President Obama will refuse to meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu and that Secretary of State Kerry has been instructed not to meet with the Israeli Head of State; they have further made grand mentioned that Vice President Biden will also not be present as he will be out of town in the midst of travels on the date of Netanyahu’s speech. Adding insult to injury, Vice President Biden and Secretary of State Kerry both made particular effort to conspicuously hold excessively visible meeting with Israeli Labor Party leader Yitzhak Hertzog demanding the press make note of this public display intended to send a visceral message to Israelis that the White House has found their lackey with whom they can arrange what President Obama has wanted since he made his very first official call as President to Mahmoud Abbas, to force Israel to surrender all of Judea, Samaria and Most of Jerusalem returning to within the Green Line which guarantees a bloody war will soon ensue when Arab rockets close Ben Gurion Airport and destroy numerous skyscrapers in the heart of Tel Aviv. The lengthy discourse stressing the complete lack of any relations between the two groups have continued to the point of absurdity and cemented the ties in place for all to see if only they desire to seek the truth. In all honesty, Benyamin Netanyahu or his Likud Party have retained the services of a political group which assists with campaign organizational functions and all other aspects who have previously been used by Republican candidates. The difference is that the firm assisting the reelection of Prime Minister Netanyahu and the return of his predominant Likud Party has been done straight up without any denials or other shenanigans. The V15 or V2015 and One Voice campaign refuses to even come out and say for whom they are working. When approached they claim they are not supporting the Labor Party-Hatnua Party alliance list running under the name “Zionist Camp,” a misnomer intended to mislead the electorate, and even refuse to recognize that they are attempting to bring down Prime Minister Netanyahu from forming the next coalition and say instead that they desire to force a change in the government from the nationalist to something else. They do not presumably care as long as the governance changes, I wonder what their reply would be if somebody then stated they must be supporting Jewish Home Party leader Naftali Bennett which my bet is would elicit the response of dismissing such as a silly idea as Bennett is not the next in line should Likud not be tapped to form the next government. The final incriminating piece of evidence is the stated plan of feeding the Israeli staff through the New Israel Fund (NIF) which is an NGO which has a history of being a clearing house of sorts for progressive groups, NGOs and even political campaigns to funnel moneys from outside of Israel into Israel such that the entity receiving funding from NIF can sometimes be dirty money being funneled illegally into Israeli politics. This has been the method of choice by the Anthropomorphic Climate Change entities when receiving funding from European governments or even from the European Union (EU) or the United Nations (UN). The final push will come in the final week to week and a half which is also when the New York office intends to flush the monies into Israel hoping that its late entry will not be revealed and caught by the agency which monitors the election for irregularities. Perhaps once the Israeli elections have concluded then President Obama can address some of those trifling matters such as Russia’s President Putin threatening to return the world to the Cold War days or address ISIS who is intent on introducing the hottest conflagration of war possible to the whole of the world given sufficient time and munitions.

Beyond the Cusp

Too Many Americans Have Realized to Vote for Treasures

 

A great friend of America who was completely smitten with the people and the goodness of America was, of course, Alexis de Tocqueville. Tocqueville wrote “Democracy in America” which observed that America was capable of greatness because her people individually were of strong spiritual and religious convictions and were strongly self-reliant. He also foresaw the collapse of the concept of the wonder which was America and wrote of the arrow which would pierce America’s heart and end her greatness and eat itself until it became a hollow shell. His famous quote which described the nation he witnessed on his travels in the United States in the first half of the nineteenth century summed America as, “America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.” He also predicted her fall with an equally well recognized quote stating, “The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.” The horror derived from the recent State of the Union Address by President Barack Hussein Obama is that the government has a new direction and that this direction will now be the sole driving impetus for the future, or at least for the two remaining years of President Obama’s final term, is to bribe the people in as broad coverage as possible with government treasures even if it becomes necessary to place the government and the nation even deeper in debt. The government is now solely in the vote buying business and unless there is a change of direction then the greatness of America is mortally wounded and will simply limp ahead eventually stumbling repeatedly until she falls flat on her face drowning in her own largess of promises to the people of treasures which she no longer can gather.

 

This is not a new situation but simply the result of a predetermined endgame once the federal government realized that through their providing a safety net for senior citizens with Social Security and how it melded the elderly into a group able to demanded increases in the payout from Social Security and thus formed the first untouchable funding program and the first bribery of a group of citizens and their unifying as a voting block to forever protect their access and the amount they received from the government. Can anybody remember a politician winning an election running on a platform to cut Social Security payments or adding means testing to qualify to receive Social Security with lower amounts paid to the more wealthy? I know I cannot name one. Even the most conservative of politicians guarantee that any changes they plan on introducing to reform entitlement programs will promise that those currently receiving government payments need not fear their checks being slashed or even the promised increases figured by changes in economic situations tying their increases as cost of living allowances (COLA) will continue to be determined as in the past. With Social Security they usually guarantee that even those who will be retiring in the next decade or even two decades will still receive exactly the rates they have been promised. The impossibility of changing Social Security payments is simply the best known examples of the impossibility of altering, cutting or even ending any entitlement program due to the opposition of those receiving such payments and often many of the rest of the public for two main reasons, first the American people are a generous people and have deep heartfelt feelings which drives them to support the less wealthy or people having monetary difficulties or whatever reason exists that they receive their subsidies and because once the government is capable of lessening or terminating any subsidy then it becomes that much easier to reduce or terminate other subsidies which may include the subsidy you receive. The truth is that well over half of Americans receive some form of subsidy from the government, many without actually realizing they are receiving a subsidy.

 

I know, you demand to know how it could be that people are receiving a government subsidy without realizing they are receiving government payments. Many people receive a subsidy known as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) which results in many receiving a larger tax return than the amount of income tax they had withheld. Anyone receiving unemployment insurance is receiving a subsidy. Technically any deductions one takes on their income taxes is technically a form of subsidy. Many corporations receive subsidies from the government which benefits their employees indirectly which is an indirect form of subsidy for the employees of many governments. People with children in the public schools will benefit from subsidies, which cover part of the costs for the school lunch and other meal programs. Social Security is another subsidy which we benefit beyond the amount paid into the system even if they had been invested in the most profitable stocks and bonds provided we manage to live sufficiently long which many will according to the life expectancy. Across the United States the Federal Government pays farmers a milk subsidy for producing milk in areas which are not conducive for raising dairy cows in order to guarantee they will make a decent profit as otherwise milk would be scarce in many locations as shipping milk had been impossible thus making it worthwhile a hundred years ago for paying farmers to raise dairy cows. With modern refrigerated tankers both for railroads and trucks would allow the shipping of milk and dairy products to any location within the United States yet the subsidy had been maintained. Why? Because those farmers across the nation became dependent on that subsidy thus they voted politicians into office who guaranteed their continued dairy subsidies and with the Congressional agreement for mutual backscratching where I will vote for your subsidy and you will vote for my subsidy produces a system which extends every subsidy and for the predictable longevity for any new subsidy which is voted into existence. That alone should produce sufficient fright that the average politician would believe that it would be best to promise not to invent any new subsidies and their constituents would vote for such as it would be prudent and beneficial for the public and governance at large. But people will vote their own pockets and be quite selfish about such thus the politician who can promise the largest numbers of his constituents that he will provide them with treasures from the government endless monetary supply thus buying their votes. Thus, as Alexis de Tocqueville predicted and stated, “Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.” His prediction will prove true as the rising national debt is both the proof of de Tocqueville’s prediction and something that unless the people as a whole do not suddenly decide to end their selfish voting habits and start voting for candidates in droves who promise to end the candy train of subsidy after subsidy and elect such politicians universally. Thus far such a trend has shown little if any support from the general public thus we may be witnessing the American greatness teetering on the precipice to ruin and it is simply just a matter of time until America falls beyond the cusp and into the dark void of insolvency. Those few economists and others predicting the coming of difficult times for America are dead on right and predicting when America will fall beyond the cusp will not be difficult, it will come to be within a decade of the financial collapse of the European Union which has been leading the way into that financial void. Americans can watch and do nothing to alter their path or they can see the coming apocalypse and make the needed changes choosing a temporary period of strong austerity and then once the economic health has been reacquired then hopefully we will teach the coming generations of the pitfalls which almost brought America to ruin, but first it will be necessary to teach austerity and the urgent need to the body both politic and public before it becomes irreversible and America will be destined to fail. It is up to the Americans to choose to heal herself.

 

Beyond the Cusp