November 2010

The Money Party Deficit Reduction Scam and Social Security

Michael Collins

President Obama announced the new National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform on February 18 to address astronomical federal budget deficits. There has been considerable speculation that this commission will target current and future benefits for Social Security recipients to achieve its goals.

Why would this be the case? We need look no further than the treatment of major retirement funds over the past 20 years to get the answer. When the mob needed cash, it looted the Teamsters retirement fund. When large corporations or government entities get in trouble, they effectively borrow from their employee retirement funds by delaying required payments or otherwise gaming the programs. This provides a source of ready cash, a quick vehicle to cover management errors, or jack up their bonuses.

Think of the Social Security Trust Fund (trust fund) as the most lucrative retirement fund in the country, the ultimate pot of gold, and you'll immediately understand why it is that for decades, big business has plundered the trust fund. How does this happen?

The Biggest Retirement Fund Rip Off Ever

New York Fed Claims Consumers Are not "Defaulting as Much"

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The Federal Reserve released their monthly consumer credit report for September 2010.

Consumer credit declined 1-1/2 percent at an annual rate in the third quarter. Revolving credit declined 8-3/4 percent at an annual rate, and nonrevolving credit increased 2-1/2 percent. In September, consumer credit increased 1 percent at an annual rate.

The Luck of the Irish

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4leafIt seems Ireland is basically insolvent. All hail the banks.

The Ireland "Dr. Doom":

WHEN I wrote in The Irish Times last May showing how the bank guarantee would lead to national insolvency, I did not expect the financial collapse to be anywhere near as swift or as deep as has now occurred. During September, the Irish Republic quietly ceased to exist as an autonomous fiscal entity, and became a ward of the European Central Bank.

Morgan Kelly is an Irish Economist who is predicting an 80% drop in Ireland home prices. He estimates their own bank bail out is sinking their nation:

This €70 billion bill for the banks dwarfs the €15 billion in spending cuts now agonised over, and reduces the necessary cuts in Government spending to an exercise in futility. What is the point of rearranging the spending deckchairs, when the iceberg of bank losses is going to sink us anyway?

What is driving our bond yields to record levels is not the Government deficit, but the bank bailout. Without the banks, our national debt could be stabilised in four years at a level not much worse than where France, with its triple A rating in the bond markets, is now.

Pickin' The Bones of Election 2010

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political graveyard We now have various analysts pickin' the bones on election 2010, many trying to justify some political position or cause. This site already had it's say and proclaimed it was about jobs. What say others?

Public Citizen says Democrats who had strong positions on reforming trade agreements and policy won and those who didn't lost.

House Democrats that ran on fair trade platforms in competitive and open-seat races were three times as likely to survive the GOP tidal wave than Democrats who ran against fair trade, according to a comprehensive 182-race, 70-page report released by Public Citizen. The GOP tsunami obliterated many candidate-specific features of the midterm contests, but trade, job offshoring and/or government purchases of foreign-made goods were a stunningly persistent national focus of midterm election campaigns, with 205 candidates campaigning on these issues. A record number of 75 Republicans adopted some fair trade messaging as well, 43 of whom won their races. More than sixty races became “fair trade offs,” where both the Democrat and Republican ran on fair trade themes. Only 37 candidates campaigned in favor of more North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)-style trade agreements - about half of these candidates lost.

14% of Americans are on Food Stamps

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Here's a statistic to go along with the unemmployment report. 14% of Americans are on food stamps with a 17% increase in one year. That's 42,389,619 people.

Idaho had a 38.8% yearly increase in food stamp use for the year. No state had a decrease.

The Wall Street Journal broke down the percentages of State populations on food stamps. By the way, the government calls this the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or SNAP, which of course is nice and nondescript.

The district of Columbia has 21.7% of it's population on food stamps. Mississippi has 20.1% of it's population on food stamps. Tennessee, 20% and Oregon is 19.2%.

People are so desperate kids are coming in for school lunch, while school is out:

Even during the summer children returned to schools to take advantage of free lunch programs where they were available. Nearly 195 million lunches were dished out in August and 58.9% of them were free. Another 8.4% were available at reduced prices. That number will surge when the fall data are released because children will be back in school. Last September, for example, more than 590 million lunches were served, nearly 64% of which were free or reduced price.

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