Some Youtube videos of the event claim 1 to 2 million, and U.K.'s Daily Mail Online says up to 2 million. 2 million?? That's got to be a mistake, as the discrepancy in numbers (thousands to 2 million) is just too huge. Even if this 2 million number is a mistake, what I've seen in videos and photographs is pretty impressive. (Watch the time lapse video at the end of this post.)
"Up to two million people marched to the U.S. Capitol today, carrying signs with slogans such as "Obamacare makes me sick" as they protested the president's health care plan and what they say is out-of-control spending.
"The line of protesters spread across Pennsylvania Avenue for blocks, all the way to the capitol, according to the Washington Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency. "
A lot of signs look to be hand-made. According to the ABC News, "As he left Washington this morning aboard the Marine One helicopter, President Obama flew over the crowds forming near the Capitol."
That's kind of "Nixonian" moment. (Nixon flew over the protesters to go play golf.)
"WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama on Friday slapped punitive tariffs on all car and light truck tires entering the United States from China in a decision that could anger the strategically important Asian powerhouse but placate union supporters important to his health care push at home.
"The federal trade panel recommended a 55 percent tariff in the first year, 45 percent in the second year and 35 percent in the third year. Obama settled on slightly lower penalties -- an extra 35 percent in the first year, 30 percent in the second, and 25 percent in the third, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said."
So how big is this Chinese "threat" that warrants 35% tariff? According to AP article above,
"...from 2004 to 2008 and China's market share in the U.S. went from 4.7 percent of tires purchased in 2004 to 16.7 percent in 2008."
Wow I'm scared.
This is on top of the tariffs on Chinese steel pipes that were announced on September 9. The U.S. Commerce Department decided to slap as much as 31% tariffs on Chinese-made steel pipes for oil rigs, again under the strong pressure from the United Steelworkers Union, who also pushed for the tire tariffs.
"Sept. 10 (Bloomberg) -- China “strongly opposes” a ruling by the U.S. Commerce Department to impose duties of as much as 31 percent on steel pipes, the Ministry of Commerce said today. The U.S. decision doesn’t comply with rules set by the World Trade Organization, the ministry said on its Web site.
"The average duties on $2.8 billion in annual imports of the pipe, used in oil and gas wells, will be 21.3 percent, the Commerce Department said yesterday in a preliminary decision. The ruling agreed with American producers led by U.S. Steel Corp. that the imports were supported by unfair subsidies.
"The tariffs may help U.S. Steel and other domestic producers weather a drop in pipe demand following last year’s collapse in oil prices."
Hmmm. The pipe demand dropped because price of oil (and natural gas) collapsed last summer, hurting the U.S. producers. So they want to impose tariffs on the Chinese imports so their higher-priced pipes would be just as competitive as the Chinese pipes. Higher prices in low demand period, however, may discourage the users (oil/nat gas companies) from using these pipes. The users may simply source from different countries, instead of paying extra 21-30%.
When demand is low, what do you do to move your product? Cut price, not raise it.
When the demand was high due to higher oil price, the business was booming both for Chinese and American steel pipe manufacturers. Americans clearly didn't have any complaint while the boom was on. Chinese allege that the U.S. exporters receive fuel subsidies.
The U.S. move on Chinese steel pipes follows EU, who already slapped 17-40% tariff on Chinese steel pipes pre-emptively (i.e. they took the word of steel makers at face value that they are suffering, without actual proof of injury).
Who loses? Chinese companies, and the U.S. end-users - companies who use these pipes and tires - and the U.S. consumers as the extra high cost (up to 35%) will be passed on to them. Instead of the demand coming back, extra high cost due to tariffs will drive away the demand. In case of Chinese tires that are used as low-end replacement tires, it will hit people with limited income who can't afford pricier tires.
Cui bono? [Who benefits?] Union members? I doubt it. Jobs are unlikely to come back to them unless the demand comes back. But the perception of jobs returning to the U.S. at a high pay that union members expect may be enough to secure the votes for Democrats. So the beneficiaries are Democratic Congressmen and Senators in those districts where the United Steelworkers Union is strong. Who else? I can't think of anyone else.
A trade war with China is the last thing the U.S. needs. Particularly right before the G20 summit meeting in Pittsburgh on September 24/25. During the week of G20 summit, the U.S. Treasury Department will have to sell a lot of Treasury securities. China is the largest holder of the U.S. government debt. You would think we don't want to piss them off unnecessarily, wouldn't you?
But on this particular administration, common sense doesn't seem to register. Or they have a very different set of common sense from the rest of us. Placating the labor union (in these two cases, the United Steelworkers Union) and securing the union votes for Democrats for the mid-term election next year apparently trampled not angering one of the most important buyers of the U.S. debt, which the administration will continue to issue in greater quantities to fund their grandiose projects on top of what's already an unsustainable amount of debt. Obama is also counting on union support/pressure to pass the health care "reform" bills, as he is set to speak at a convention of the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation, next week.
It has started to smell more and more like we're in a "Herbert Hoover" era. Smoot-Hawley anyone? We are not in the "recovery phase" at all. We are just starting. Good grief, as Charlie Brown would say.
"Chinese State-owned enterprises (SOEs) may unilaterally terminate derivative contracts with six foreign banks that provide over-the-counter commodity hedging services, Chinese business magazine Caijing reported, citing unnamed sources.
"The report said that the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), China's SOE watchdog, has informed the financial institutions in written letters that SOEs reserved the right to default on those derivative contracts."
The derivatives in question are reported in the U.S. to be oil hedges. They certainly could include oil derivatives, but consider this peculiar phenomenon: it was gold, silver, and gold/silver miners that jumped big on the news.
Further checking this article, I found this paragraph [emphasis is mine]:
"The Caijing report, quoting an unidentified SASAC official, said that almost every SOE involved in foreign exchange or trade had some exposure to derivatives such as crude oil, non-ferrous metals, agricultural commodities, iron ore and coal, although only 31 SOEs were licensed to do so."
What are "non-ferrous metals"? According to GlobalSpec, "Nonferrous metals and nonferrous alloys are not based on iron and include alloys of aluminum, copper, titanium, zinc, nickel, cobalt, tungsten, precious metals, and refractory metals."
Long positions in oil, if they entered near high must be painful (as U.S. university endowments should know very well); also painful would be short positions in gold and silver, which they may have entered into to hedge their domestic operation (China is a large gold producer).
"Sept. 9 (Bloomberg) -- George Washington University is increasing holdings of commodities such as oil and natural gas out of concern that a return to inflation rates last seen in the 1970s may ravage the value of its $1 billion endowment.
"U.S. consumer prices may rise 8 percent annually within three to five years because of unprecedented government spending and deficits, said Donald Lindsey, the Washington school’s chief investment officer. Growth in the consumer price index averaged 7.4 percent from 1970 through 1979, a period remembered for economic stagnation and eroding values of fixed-income investments, compared with 0.1 percent in 2008."
George Washington University is hardly alone. The article also cites Pepperdine University and Notre Dame University, all intending to increase their holdings of real assets (and equivalents) as a hedge against inflation that they all see coming, due to massive government spending and resultant deficit set to grow even bigger.
Last year when these university endowments crowded the commodities market with their long-only positions, that was on conviction that commodities, particularly crude oil, would continue to rise because of increasing demand from BRIC (particularly C) countries. The commodity bubble spectacularly started to collapse in July, a harbinger for the stock market collapse 2 months later. As the result, the endowments lost huge chunks of their investment. Harvard University endowment lost 30%, as of June 2009. On the west coast, Stanford University endowment probably lost as much if not more.
(By the way, PIMCO's Mohamed Al-Erian was the president and CEO of Harvard Management Company until 2008. Lucky he got out in time.)
This time, the reason has changed to a fear of 1970s-style "inflation" or "stagflation". No matter the reason, what counts is their investment behavior/style which may not have changed: long-only, and buy and hold. And they weren't quite nimble traders last year when the collapse started in July; they had to hold a meeting first and decide what to do, and.... it was too late.
Let's see if there's a repeat, or if they get lucky this time and they get what they want - inflation.
Almost one year after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers that triggered the global credit crisis which in turn plunged the world into simultaneous recession.
Yet another chance for the president to blame his predecessor and claim "we saved the world".
(I personally don't understand what's the big deal. South Korean and Taiwanese parliaments break into fist fights; Japanese used to do that. Backbenchers of the British parliament have been heckling and shouting down the prime minister for several hundred years now.)
"WASHINGTON, Sept 10 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama will give a speech about the financial crisis on Monday, marking the anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the White House said.
""He will discuss the aggressive steps the Administration has taken to bring the economy back from the brink (and) the commitment to winding down the government's role in the financial sector," the White House said in a statement."
Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which won the Lower House election in a landslide at the end of August, may be turning out to be almost an exact copy of the U.S. administration under President Obama.
Right before the election when I checked what's in their "manifest" (policies) and found some special legal consideration to help "transgenders" and the words like "community renewal" (no this is not ACORN, it's DPJ), I had a feeling that Japanese would regret their choice sooner than later. (After all, a significant number of voters voted against LDP, just like a significant voters here voted against GOP (Bush/Cheney).)
Right after their win, almost the first thing that their leadership did was to announce the creation by a cabinet order of a bureau directly under the control of the Prime Minister that is intended to be the center for devising and implementing the core national policies and directing bureaucrats in the ministries and agencies. Much like President Obama's use of presidential appointees, popularly known as Czars, whose functions overlap almost all aspects of the formal government departments and agencies.
I thought, "If this DPJ is Obama II, then the next thing they'll do will be to announce that they are going to tackle some dire problem head-on, and it will not be the economy."
Sure enough. I was right. Yukio Hatoyama, the leader of DPJ who's slated to become Prime Minister, wants to tackle green house gas effect. Oh boy.
"Democratic Party of Japan leader Yukio Hatoyama on September 7th announced Japan's target for reducing the green house gas in 2020 as "25% reduction from 1990 level". In response, ministers and industry leaders have expressed fear that the economy will be damaged by enormous cost that would be incurred in achieving such a target.
"Mr. Nikai, Minister of Economy,Trade and Industry, said in the press conference after the cabinet meeting, "To achieve such a target will be extremely difficult. It is not enough to simply express his hope. He needs to come up with the detailed process in order to achieve the target." Mr. Hayashi, Minister of Economy and Finance, also suggested that more deliberation and discussion is needed. "Environmental issues should not be at the expense of economy. We need more discussion within Japan before we proclaim it as a national policy."
"Cabinet Secretary Kawamura sounded skeptical in the press conference. "I am not sure we would be willing to proceed with the understanding that we won't be able to drive any car powered by gasoline."
"Industry leaders strongly fear that the heavy burden of new energy initiatives will fall on their companies, reducing their international competitiveness. Mr. Ito, president of Honda Motors wasn't too happy when he spoke in a conference on new technologies. "The target vastly exceed our plan. Extremely difficult to achieve." Toyota's president urged DPJ to reconsider. "Difficult target. We would urge [DPJ] to proceed cautiously."
"Environmental Minister Saito, who is from Komei Party which has the same reduction target as DPJ, was the only one who welcomed the DPJ's target. He said his party would be willing to cooperate with DPJ."
Komei Party, who was a junior coalition partner to LDP, is jockeying for a better position in the DPJ-led Diet.
Did Japan's economy take the gravest hit ever since World War II last fall, because of global warming? Japan's machinery orders dipped more than 9% in July, and the unemployment is all-time high (5.7% in July, which is measured differently from the U.S.). The current global recession revealed the same structural problems that Japan has had but were masked during the bubble years. It's the economy, Mr. Hatoyama!
And the first thing that this Prime Minister-to-be wants to do is to combat global warming. He also wants to make Japan more livable for foreigners, and wants to give the voting right to foreigners who live in Japan long enough. And help transgenders. And Cap and Trade.
Mr. Hatoyama's nickname is "space alien". Maybe he is. With the wacky wife of his, he may have been to Venus himself in a UFO to see the effect of green house gas. Good luck Japan, you'll need it.
"Sept. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Gold prices that jumped above $1,000 an ounce this week are signaling that investors are buying metals to hedge against declines in currencies, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said.
"The gains are “strictly a monetary phenomenon,” Greenspan said today at an investment conference in New York. Rising prices of precious metals and other commodities are “an indication of a very early stage of an endeavor to move away from paper currencies,” he said."
Mr. Greenspan seems to be back to his roots ("Gold and Economic Freedom", 1966). Not only that, he seems to speak English that we the commoners can easily understand. That's refreshing.
His "very early stage" should be encouraging to gold investors, and to CEO of Barrick Gold Corp. who just announced that the company plans to eliminate all the gold hedges.
Greenspan also observes:
"“What is fascinating is the extent to which gold still holds reign over the financial system as the ultimate source of payment,” Greenspan said.
"China, the world’s fastest-growing major economy, will continue to be a “large consumer” of commodities, including energy and metals, Greenspan said.
"“China is turning out to be the 900-pound gorilla in the energy and commodity market,” Greenspan said. “The increase in oil consumption in China has been quite extraordinary.”"
And China may be turning out to be that in precious metals, too.
House Speaker "un-American" Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader "evil-monger" Harry Reid think they have the votes on health care "reform" that has so divided the country.
"The president told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., that it is important for them to pass health care reform bills soon, the sources said. "Both leaders told the president that despite the difficult rough and tumble of the legislative process in the last few weeks, they are optimistic that both the House and Senate can pass health care reform legislation.
"What will be in the bill remains an open question, though after the meeting, Reid told reporters that “we're going to do our very best to have a public option or something like a public option before we finish this work.”
The key word is urgency? The president wants to have these "reform" bills passed urgently for... what? Why because I say so! (If there is a reason, no one is saying.)
That probably means Democrats will pass the health care "reform" bills on their own, a strict partisan vote. As Reid indicated, the bill will probably include all the contentious sections - public option, extensive power to IRS (Section 141 , Section 245, Section 431, Section 453 of H.R. 3200), extensive power to an unelected Presidential appointee (Health Choices Commissioner, Section 141 of H.R. 3200), end-of-life care (Section 1233 of H.R. 3200), penalty/surtax for people without insurance (Section 401 of H.R. 3200); big pharma companies will be happy with their deal with the White House, no doubt. Oh, one more thing: Congress will be exemptfrom the "reform".
And one last thing: intrusive health care information technology (computerizing everything), the bulk of which was already signed into law with hardly any restraint (because it sneaked in in the stimulus bill in February), will no doubt be spearheaded by a dynamic Indian duo of Information Czar and Technology Czar. If the cash for clunkers program is any indication of the government idea of information technology in the 21st century, good luck to all of us. We will need it aplenty.
Democrats and the president will own it, if they ram the health care "reform" through Congress.
(Did "health care crisis" crash the stock market and plunge the whole world into a severe recession last fall? Maybe it did... Oh wait, it was "global warming" that did it, didn't it? Or was it "school crisis"?)
After reading it, what I don't quite understand is:
What's the point of the speech? He is supposed to be speaking to toddlers still in kindergartens all the way up to surly high school seniors. For kindergartners the speech would mostly be gibberish, and probably the same for the high school seniors who would be bored to death.
Why does the Department of Education need such a detailed lesson plan for a mundane speech like this?
Let's look at the point 1 above. WHO IS THE TARGET AUDIENCE?
Kindergartners (and probably high school seniors) do not have an attention span of 20 minutes. They would either not understand the speech or couldn't care less about the speech (high schoolers). So who is the president speaking to? Who's left?
It's elementary school and middle school students. That could be inferred from his reference to the author of Harry Potter series, quite popular with, guess who?: elementary school kids and middle school kids. They would understand the level of English the president would be using, and they are also malleable enough to listen to their teachers and follow instructions.
Equally mystifying to me is the point 2: Why elaborate lesson plan for a plain enough speech? It almost looks like the lesson plan is the main purpose, rather than the speech itself.
Sure, after her lesson plan (created by the "Teaching Ambassador Fellows" at DOE) drew much criticism, the Secretary of Education Duncan changed part of the plan on Sunday:
"On Sunday, the secretary acknowledged that a section about writing to the president on how students can help him meet education goals was poorly worded. It has been changed.
""We just clarified that to say write a letter about your own goals and what you're going to do to achieve those goals," Duncan said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
I'm looking for the actual revised text of the lesson plan, and I'll post it if I find one. I have already posted the old plan, and I suspect the revision is more semantic.
After looking at the speech itself and the lesson plan, my conclusion is that this is an exercise in branding - just like a ad firm on Madison Avenue would do - to sell this particular brand of "President of the United States" in the person of Barak Obama.
Other nitpicking:
He mentions Apple's iPhone. But he is a Blackberry addict.
He also mentions XBox. That's Microsoft. Is he doing the product/brand placement?
Whoever wrote the speech clearly decided to completely ignore his white grandparents who raised him. Rather, Obama is depicted as having a childhood in poverty being raised by a single mother on food stamps.
His mother's second husband was a well-to-do Indonesian. To say he couldn't go to the school that American kids went because his mother didn't have money doesn't ring true. Besides, his mother's extra lessons were likely to have been English language, as his first school (St. Francis of Assisi school, a private Catholic school in Jakarta's up-scale Menteng district) was taught in Bahasa Indonesia.
The career choices he offers in the speech are rather uninspiring, wouldn't you say? Writer (book or newspaper articles), inventor (who could invent things like iPhone), doctor, teacher, police officer, nurse, architect, lawyer, member of the military.
Google, Twitter, Facebook. Three more brand placements.
Lastly, why education is important, according to the president:
"You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy."
Cure disease like cancer and AIDS (health care) Develop new energy technology (climate policy) Protect our environment (climate policy) Fight poverty and homelessness, crime, discrimination (wealth redistribution) Make our nation more fair and more free (whatever that means) Build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy. (economic policy)
Except for the last one, these are this administration's agendas.
The last one would be tough to do with ever-increasing government oversight, intervention, and tax burden (both corporate and individual) set to increase even more. How about stop spending borrowed money so that you don't take away capital from the private sector that actually create jobs, Mr. President?
Just like the $780 billion stimulus bill was pushed through amid plunging stock indices and rising unemployment (at 7%) in February this year, as the President openly threatened "catastrophe" unless the stimulus bill was passed. (Remember the talk of "mushroom cloud"?)
Despite (I think it was more like "because of") the stimulus bill passage, the U.S. stock indices (Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, Nasdaq) accelerated the plunge into March 6 low, and the unemployment rate continues to rise to this day (latest 9.7%).
But no matter. A number of scholars, analysts, pollsters, pundits (however you call them) say that the health care issues haven't reached a crisis point yet to sell to the public. One of them says in fact that we need a crisis for that purpose.
"Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama returns to Washington next week in search of one thing that can revive his health-care overhaul: a sense of crisis.
"Facing polls showing a drop in his approval, diminished support from independents, factions within his Democratic Party and a united Republican opposition, Obama must recapture the sense of urgency that led to passage of the economic rescue package in February, analysts said.
"“At the moment, except for the people without insurance, we’re not in a health-care crisis,” said Stephen Wayne, a professor of government at Georgetown University in Washington. “You do need a crisis to generate movement in Congress and to help build a consensus.” "
Where could that crisis conveniently come from, I wonder? (Could it be over the swine flu panic or riots to get or avoid swine flu vaccine? At least the government seems well-prepared for the civil disturbance part.)
President Obama is set to speak with labor leaders on September 7, with school children nationwide on September 8, and in Congress on September 9. Effectiveness of such presidential speeches to promote a policy or sway the public opinion, however, is doubtful according to one expert quoted in the article:
"Presidential speeches historically do little to move public opinion significantly, said George Edwards, author of “The Strategic President: Persuasion and Opportunity in Presidential Leadership.”
"“This is almost like a Hail Mary, because they know that they’re substantially behind and the trajectory is negative for them,” Edwards said.
"Unlike the financial crisis he inherited, the health-care debate is of Obama’s making and places a different burden on him, Edwards said.
"“The best thing in presidential leadership is to recognize and exploit opportunities,” said Edwards. “The White House overestimated the nature of the opportunity.” "
Polls after polls, the public opinion shows the support dropping on the health care "reform". The recession is taking a toll on the household sentiment; health care "reform" seen more as hurtful rather than helping. Approval rating for the president himself is also dropping.
Let's see what kind of "Hail Mary" that the president may be able to pull off this week. It is hoped that he will be well-rested from his back-to-back vacations.
I do hope the July number was a blow-off top formation, but there are people calling for 1000 more bank failures in the next two years. That would be 10 failures per week for two years..
Van Jones, Obama's Green Czar, suddenly has a bright and unwanted spotlight on him. Articles on the Internet that he has a very radical past have been around since he was appointed , but they didn't catch much attention, until recently.
Now a Republican Congressman is calling for his resignation. There is a question how he or anyone in Congress could demand a resignation of a Presidential appointee, when he or anyone in Congress didn't have any say in the appointment. But that aside, Mr. Jones is being criticized for:
Being a 9/11 "truther"
Having called Republicans a**holes earlier this year
According to Congressman Mike Pence (R. Indiana), "His extremist views and coarse rhetoric have no place in this Administration or the public debate."
Having doubts about the official version of 9/11 is an extremist position? And calling Republicans a**holes coarse rhetoric? Well I have a surprise for you Congressman Pence. More than 1/3 of Americans suspect the government was involved in 9/11 or complicit in the affair, and there is no lack of Americans who want to call Republicans a**holes for what they have and haven't done particularly over the last 8 years.
(I wonder if he remembers then-Vice President Cheney's coarce rhetoric in 2004. Compared to that, "a**hole" is nothing.)
The latest attack is over a video clip from 2005 in which Van Jones is portrayed by the headlines in the news as saying "Only suburban white kids shoot up schools", the headlines implying he was trashing white kids, putting them in a very negative light.
The video clip is only 3 minutes long, and you don't know the full context of the speech. But contrary to what the news headlines were trying to convince us, I think what he was saying is POSITIVE. If anything, he was standing up for (hold your breath) white, suburban, boys. Not just kids, it's boys.
"Our young, white males are suffering in the society. Profoundly. PROFOUNDLY. And nobody is saying a word about it.
"We'll criminalize the black student, criminalize the black child, the Latino child, where there's whole discussion about whether they are animals, not animals, should we abuse them, should we help them, blah blah blah. And that young white boy sitting out there, suffering.
"You've never seen a Columbine done, by a black child. Never. They always say, "We can't believe it happened here, we can't believe that these were these suburban white kids." It's ONLY them.
"Now, a black kid might shoot another black kid. He ain't go shoot at the whole school. My cousin's up in here but I don't shoot up the entire school. I might hit my cousin. I might shoot your uncle.
"But these young white men, they are in so much pain and so isolated and so alienated that they will shoot up the entire school. Where is the concern? Where is the love? Where is the compassion for these young men?
"And it's doubling twisted because if anything that you're doing is wrong we wanna hurt you we wanna punish you we're not gonna help you we're not gonna love you, so rather than punish you and attack you and jump on you like we do to black kids we just ignore you and neglect you.
"We have got to begin to look at the idea of criminality, of evil, of wrong-doing, of mistakes as being a universal condition, requiring a universally loving response, and a universally embracing response, so that our society in trying to confront any evil in at any level does not in fact become evil.
"It is just as evil, in my view, to attack these young black and brown men. It is just as evil to neglect and ignore these young white men, who, as the best I can tell, have very little now in the way of loving, affirmative male leadership that can put the arm around, wipe away a tear, and show the kind of masculinity that is not brittle or mean-spirited."
There are a boat load of Obama Czars and advisers with some very "radical" ideas which should be examined and questioned vigorously before it's too late. (Science Czar, Safe School Czar, and Regulatory Czar come to my mind, as well as Dr. Emanuel on health care "reform".)
But this one particular view on young white boys from a former radical black activist doesn't look to be one of them. On the contrary, it's about time someone stood up for young white boys, and as a black, he can get away with it. Imagine if a white person said this, particularly a white man. He would be roundly condemned as "racist".
It would be very ironic and telling if he is forced to resign because he stood up for young white boys, because he doubted the official version of 9/11, because he called Republicans a**holes. All the wrong reasons, if I may say so.
(I found the youtube video of the original video that was posted at Breitbart.com, as the embed code of the video at Breitbart keeps doing the disappearing act, for some strange unknown reason.)
"Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Wegelin & Co., Switzerland’s oldest bank, is telling wealthy clients to sell their U.S. assets, or switch banks, because of concerns new rules will saddle investors with tax obligations in the world’s biggest economy.
"U.S. proposals to extend reporting requirements for banks whose clients buy American stocks and bonds coupled with estate tax liabilities that may be inherited by the heirs of people who have such holdings prompted the advice from the St. Gallen, Switzerland-based bank, said Managing Partner Konrad Hummler.
"“We came to the conclusion that it’s a threat to our clients,” Hummler, who is also president of the Swiss Private Bankers Association, said in an interview yesterday during a conference in Zurich. “It’s also a threat to us as a bank because as a custodian we are an executor to the estate. We find this aspect discomforting, so we recommend selling all American securities whatsoever.” "
""If a client decides to keep his U.S. investments, “then finally he has to change banks,” Hummler said. "
According to the article, the bank, for now, is considering using European-made derivatives and index funds that have exposure to American market. The bank manages more than 20 billion Swiss francs ($18.7 billion) in client assets.
This is on top of the news that Hong Kong is pulling their physical gold holdings from London back to Hong Kong to be stored in their newly constructed gold vault. (I read the news and commentary at Gary North's Specific Answers - paid site- but the news link itself is here.)
I have read about persistent rumors in gold-related sites that Germany and some nations in Middle East are demanding their physical gold back from London and New York.
It looks like a showdown time is fast approaching. A sudden huge-volume breakout in gold, silver, and gold/silver mining stocks in the last two days may be a harbinger.
Left: Kremer look : A model presents a creation by French designer Romain Kremer during the 080 Barcelona fashion week in Barcelona.(AFP/Josep Lago) Sneeze into your shirt.
Right: A mask to guard against flu virus, with adhesives. You put directly on your face, press it tight, and look like a duck. A Japanese pharmaceutical company will start selling soon. (Picture from 9/2/09 Yomiuri Shinbun)
The left one looks good, but for practical purposes I'd rather look like a duck.
"There's been a lot of discussion about the new and powerful federal agencies that would be created by the passage of a national health care bill. The Health Choices Administration, the Health Benefits Advisory Committee, the Health Insurance Exchange — there are dozens in all.
"But if the plan envisioned by President Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats is enacted, the primary federal bureaucracy responsible for implementing and enforcing national health care will be an old and familiar one: the Internal Revenue Service. Under the Democrats' health care proposals, the already powerful — and already feared — IRS would wield even more power and extend its reach even farther into the lives of ordinary Americans, and the presidentially-appointed head of the new health care bureaucracy would have access to confidential IRS information about millions of individual taxpayers."
"The presidentially-appointed head of the new health care bureaucracy" is none other than the Health Choices Commissioner, which is defined in Subtitle E Section 141 of H.R. 3200heath care "reform" bill. Not just him/her/it, but people working in that bureaucracy would have access. And the Commissioner would not be accountable to anyone but to the president.
The article continues:
"Under the various proposals now on the table, the IRS would become the main agency for determining who has an "acceptable" health insurance plan; for finding and punishing those who don't have such a plan; for subsidizing individual health insurance costs through the issuance of a tax credits; and for enforcing the rules on those who attempt to opt out, abuse, or game the system. A substantial portion of H.R. 3200, the House health care bill, is devoted to amending the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 in order to give the IRS the authority to perform these new duties.
"The Democrats' plan would require all Americans to have "acceptable" insurance coverage (the legislation includes long and complex definitions of "acceptable") and would designate the IRS as the agency charged with enforcing that requirement. On your yearly 1040 tax return, you would be required to attest that you have "acceptable" coverage. Of course, you might be lying, or simply confused about whether or not you are covered, so the IRS would need a way to check your claim for accuracy. Under current plans, insurers would be required to submit to the IRS something like the 1099 form in which taxpayers report outside income. The IRS would then check the information it receives from the insurers against what you have submitted on your tax form.
"If it all matches up, you're fine. If it doesn't, you will hear from the IRS. And if you don't have "acceptable" coverage, you will be subject to substantial fines — fines that will be administered by the IRS."
and determined by the Health Choices Commissioner.
The section of H.R. 3200 this article mentions that would amend the IRS Revenue Code of 1986 is this:
TITLE IV--AMENDMENTS TO INTERNAL REVENUE CODE OF 1986 Subtitle A--Shared Responsibility PART 1--INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY Section 401 TAX ON INDIVIDUALS WITHOUT ACCEPTABLE HEALTH CARE COVERAGE.
(a) In General- Subchapter A of chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the following new part:
`PART VIII--HEALTH CARE RELATED TAXES `subpart a. tax on individuals without acceptable health care coverage. `Subpart A--Tax on Individuals Without Acceptable Health Care Coverage `Sec. 59B. Tax on individuals without acceptable health care coverage. `SEC. 59B. TAX ON INDIVIDUALS WITHOUT ACCEPTABLE HEALTH CARE COVERAGE.
The above is the cut and paste from the actual bill as posted on the Library of Congress THOMAS.
Now, this Section 59B defines the penalty tax if you don't have the coverage, and also lists exceptions. That alone makes an interesting and frustrating reading, but the section that has to do with IRS comes right after Section 59B. It's Section 6050X. (So... that's after 59B? There must be some higher order of reasoning behind numbering that I just can't perceive.) You can see, with some effort, that the information that the Washington Examiner writer gleaned out for his article is basically correct. [emphasis is mine, comments in Italic]
`SEC. 6050X. RETURNS RELATING TO HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE.
`(a) Requirement of Reporting- Every person who provides acceptable coverage (as defined in section 59B(d)) to any individual during any calendar year shall, at such time as the Secretary may prescribe, make the return described in subsection (b) with respect to such individual. [This is the insurer part of the deal. Your insurer will have to file a report with IRS.]
`(b) Form and Manner of Returns- A return is described in this subsection if such return-- `(1) is in such form as the Secretary may prescribe, and `(2) contains-- `(A) the name, address, and TIN of the primary insured and the name of each other individual obtaining coverage under the policy, `(B) the period for which each such individual was provided with the coverage referred to in subsection (a), and `(C) such other information as the Secretary may require.
`(c) Statements To Be Furnished to Individuals With Respect to Whom Information Is Required- Every person required to make a return under subsection (a) shall furnish to each primary insured whose name is required to be set forth in such return a written statement showing-- [Then your insurer has to issue you a statement of your coverage so that you can file with your tax return. And these two'd better match.] `(1) the name and address of the person required to make such return and the phone number of the information contact for such person, and `(2) the information required to be shown on the return with respect to such individual. The written statement required under the preceding sentence shall be furnished on or before January 31 of the year following the calendar year for which the return under subsection (a) is required to be made.
`(d) Coverage Provided by Governmental Units- In the case of coverage provided by any governmental unit or any agency or instrumentality thereof, the officer or employee who enters into the agreement to provide such coverage (or the person appropriately designated for purposes of this section) shall make the returns and statements required by this section.'.
(2) PENALTY FOR FAILURE TO FILE- [This segment refers to the specific sections in the IRS Revenue Code to be changed. To see what kind of penalty awaits the insurer and you, you'd better have a courage to dig through the IRS Code.]
How to prevent tax cheating? That comes in the following sections under Sustitle D, particularly Section 453:
Subtitle D--Other Revenue Provisions PART 2--PREVENTION OF TAX AVOIDANCE SEC. 451. LIMITATION ON TREATY BENEFITS FOR CERTAIN DEDUCTIBLE PAYMENTS SEC. 452. CODIFICATION OF ECONOMIC SUBSTANCE DOCTRINE SEC. 453. PENALTIES FOR UNDERPAYMENTS
(a) Penalty for Underpayments Attributable to Transactions Lacking Economic Substance-
(1) IN GENERAL- Subsection (b) of section 6662 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by inserting after paragraph (5) the following new paragraph: `(6) Any disallowance of claimed tax benefits by reason of a transaction lacking economic substance (within the meaning of section 7701(o)) or failing to meet the requirements of any similar rule of law.'.
(2) INCREASED PENALTY FOR NONDISCLOSED TRANSACTIONS- Section 6662 of such Code is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
`(i) Increase in Penalty in Case of Nondisclosed Noneconomic Substance Transactions-
`(1) IN GENERAL- In the case of any portion of an underpayment which is attributable to one or more nondisclosed noneconomic substance transactions, subsection (a) shall be applied with respect to such portion by substituting `40 percent' for `20 percent'.
`(2) NONDISCLOSED NONECONOMIC SUBSTANCE TRANSACTIONS- For purposes of this subsection, the term `nondisclosed noneconomic substance transaction' means any portion of a transaction described in subsection (b)(6) with respect to which the relevant facts affecting the tax treatment are not adequately disclosed in the return nor in a statement attached to the return.
`(3) SPECIAL RULE FOR AMENDED RETURNS- Except as provided in regulations, in no event shall any amendment or supplement to a return of tax be taken into account for purposes of this subsection if the amendment or supplement is filed after the earlier of the date the taxpayer is first contacted by the Secretary regarding the examination of the return or such other date as is specified by the Secretary.'.
So, the section is saying that if IRS thinks there's is not enough disclosed, it would double the penalty, whatever the penalty currently is in that particular section in the IRS Code.
I can really see now that the government is indeed trying so hard to blow as many bubbles as possible to resuscitate the economy. It is already successfully blowing and growing the bubble in government-sponsored and subsidized subprime lending. Cash for clunkers "worked" well enough for the first week of the program; it achieved the result of bringing the sales forward, if that's what they wanted to achieve just to get 3Q GDP into green.
But the most tantalizingly promising bubble is the bubble of fast-growing, self-replicating and self-referencing bureaucracy. If the administration manages to pass its health care "reform", climate change bill (aka cap and trade) and vast financial "reform", imagine how many people can be employed by government agencies to be created! And to think we will be asked to participate in these grand schemes by paying for them!
I highly recommend that you go to the linked article and read the entire article. If the townhall meeting is still ongoing in your area, ask about this IRS further intrusion into private life. The last thing I wanted to quote from the article:
"In either scenario, the IRS would be the key to making the system work. Before you could receive any subsidy, whether through the IRS or not, the Health Choices Administration would have to determine whether you are eligible for it. To do so, the bills under consideration would give the Health Choices Commissioner the authority to demand sensitive, confidential information from the IRS about individual taxpayers. The IRS would have to provide it.
"Under current law, it is a felony for a government official to release taxpayer information in all but the most limited of circumstances. One such exception is for law enforcement; the IRS is allowed to give taxpayer information to prosecutors in criminal cases. The information can also, in some instances, be released to the Social Security Administration and the Veterans' Administration for the determination of benefits. The health care bills would change the Internal Revenue Code to permit the IRS to give similar information to the vast, new health care bureaucracy."
"A "pandemic response bill" currently making its way through the Massachusetts state legislature would allow authorities to forcefully quarantine citizens in the event of a health emergency, compel health providers to vaccinate citizens, authorize forceful entry into private dwellings and destruction of citizen property and impose fines on citizens for noncompliance.
"If citizens refuse to comply with isolation or quarantine orders in the event of a health emergency, they may be imprisoned for up to 30 days and fined $1,000 per day that the violation continues."
The bill is called "Pandemic Response Bill" 2028 . The article lists some of the sections in the bill, and they are downright frightening. Not the supposed danger of the swine flu itself but extremely militaristic response procedure of the state [the bullet points are copied from the article]:
to require the owner or occupier of premises to permit entry into and investigation of the premises;
to close, direct, and compel the evacuation of, or to decontaminate or cause to be decontaminated any building or facility, and to allow the reopening of the building or facility when the danger has ended;
to decontaminate or cause to be decontaminated, or to destroy any material;
to restrict or prohibit assemblages of persons;
to require a health care facility to provide services or the use of its facility, or to transfer the management and supervision of the health care facility to the department or to a local public health authority;
to control ingress to and egress from any stricken or threatened public area, and the movement of persons and materials within the area;
to adopt and enforce measures to provide for the safe disposal of infectious waste and human remains, provided that religious, cultural, family, and individual beliefs of the deceased person shall be followed to the extent possible when disposing of human remains, whenever that may be done without endangering the public health;
to procure, take immediate possession from any source, store, or distribute any anti-toxins, serums, vaccines, immunizing agents, antibiotics, and other pharmaceutical agents or medical supplies located within the commonwealth as may be necessary to respond to the emergency;
to require in-state health care providers to assist in the performance of vaccination, treatment, examination, or testing of any individual as a condition of licensure, authorization, or the ability to continue to function as a health care provider in the commonwealth;
to waive the commonwealth's licensing requirements for health care professionals with a valid license from another state in the United States or whose professional training would otherwise qualify them for an appropriate professional license in the commonwealth;
to allow for the dispensing of controlled substance by appropriate personnel consistent with federal statutes as necessary for the prevention or treatment of illness;
to authorize the chief medical examiner to appoint and prescribe the duties of such emergency assistant medical examiners as may be required for the proper performance of the duties of office;
to collect specimens and perform tests on any animal, living or deceased;
to exercise authority under sections 95 and 96 of chapter 111;
to care for any emerging mental health or crisis counseling needs that individuals may exhibit, with the consent of the individuals
"State and local agencies responding to the public health emergency would be required to exercise their powers over transportation routes, communication devices, carriers, public utilities, fuels, food, clothing and shelter, according to the legislation.
"Local public health authorities will be required to keep records of reports containing the name and location of all people who have been reported, their disease, injury, or health condition and the name of the person reporting the case. In addition, citizens may be subject to "involuntary transportation." "
And it is not just Massachusetts, in case you are wondering.
Zero Hedge has an article "CDC H1N1 forced quarantine docs leak", in which they show a blank 'forced quarantine' order forms from Florida and Iowa which they obtained from the CDC (Center for Disease Control) website. The Zero Hedge article also reminds us that "the NIH and CDC just held an H1N1 conference in DC -- August 19-21 2009 -- that focused on 'mass fatality management'". The Massachusetts state plan seems to closely follow the CDC guidelines presented at the conference.
My questions are:
Why does the government need quasi-military authority and command structure to address what is basically a health care problem?
What the hell is the government, federal and state, planning for? Riots and ensuing Martial Law?
Zero Hedge's take is:
"we are expecting a flock of economic black swans soon, and a pandemic -- whether real or hyped -- may be part of this flock. An economic collapse will be no doubt be triggered soon , and it will be convenient for the political elites to blame the collapse on an external factor, such as a pandemic or a war. Furthermore, the fall H1N1 pandemic may be a convenient pretext by which dangerous levels of expanding social control can be established by elites which have proven themselves utterly corrupt and morally bankrupt."
There is another take, I think: That the nation's health care system has been hollowed out and become so inefficient and ineffective because of excessive government intervention, not lack thereof. So, in case of emergency the only system left for the government to use that is still effective (in comparison) is police and military.
Vaccines, whether it's a Baxter one or Novartis one, don't look safe at all. Severe neurological damage and auto-immune diseases (MS, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, etc.) are among those feared by health care specialists. Tamiflu is known to have rather nasty side effect problems especially among young people. Not just physical but psychological. Japan has reported cases of adolescents jumping off a tall building or throwing themselves in front of speeding vehicles to their deaths after taking the drug for their flu/cold symptoms and becoming delusional and/or depressed.
CDC is giving out $40 gift card to young children who bravely volunteer for vaccine testing. And the government is planning for a social disturbance that will require police and military.
The Federal Reserve uses repo/reverse repo agreements. Repo (or repurchase) agreements to make collaterized loans to Primary Dealers, and reverse repo agreements to borrow money from Primary Dealers. (Here's information from the New York Fed.)
Might the New York Fed's president (see the video on my previous post) be referring to the reverse repo agreements when he said the Fed was using the excess reserves to buy Treasuries?
I checked the Fed's balance sheet (or what they are trying to pass as balance sheet). They have reverse repo agreements on the liabilities side about $67 billion worth. The footnote (15) says it is an estimate. Estimate. No one at the Fed is willing to disclose how much and what duration and with which Primary Dealer (if they know). The NY Fed says on their site that repo/reverse repo is usually overnight, but can be longer.
The official reverse repo amount is too small to account for POMO (Permanent Open Market Operation). The Fed has $1.5 trillion Treasuries, agencies, MBS. Currency component of M1 has been rising since the beginning of 2008 (see the chart; it was created at St. Louis Fed's FRED), so I do think the Fed has been printing money and quietly putting into circulation. They also get money about $100 billion each month from the Treasury through CMB sale (Supplementary Financing Program, or SFP, which started last September at the request of the Fed), and they are not saying specifically what they are using it for. If they are using the excess reserves for POMO, that sure sounds like a totally under-the-table operation.
Then I found this from the New York Fed's website in the press release on October 6, 2008 discussing the interest payment on reserves: [emphasis is mine]
"The payment of interest on excess reserves will permit the Federal Reserve to expand its balance sheet as necessary to provide the liquidity necessary to support financial stability while implementing the monetary policy that is appropriate in light of the System's macroeconomic objectives of maximum employment and price stability."
So... was this an oblique admission that the Federal Reserve would be using the excess reserves to do POMO, and the interest payment on the excess reserves had little to do with establishing "a lower bound on the federal funds rate" as the Fed said in the above press release but it was simply an interest the Fed would pay to borrow money from the member banks?
Remember, if the Fed is indeed using the excess reserves for Treasury and agency bond purchase, the Fed is borrowing 24-hour money to invest in notes (2 to 10 years) and bonds (up to 30 years).
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I am Japanese, and I not only read Japanese news sources for information on earthquake and the Fukushima Nuke Plant but also watch press conferences via the Internet when I can and summarize my findings, adding my observations.
"Magno Arms" What Does It Indicate? Nothing Good
-
*UPDATE *
As an affiliate of Elliott Wave International I'll be promoting the
following all week:
EWI has given me the OK to share Bob Prechter's April ...
SO WHAT'S NEXT
-
Just a list. Not too complicated, but time to think about the next few
months. We're in the "Quickening"......"the Fourth Turning"..... basically
we'r...
DOWN we go.......
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corona virus could be a black swan Hehehe
Information here is not meant as trading advice. Please do your own DD
before any decisions.
Well, this was, until March 11, 2011. Now it is taken over by the events in Japan, first earthquake and tsunami but quickly by the nuke reactor accident. It continues to be a one-person (me) blog, and I haven't even managed to update the sidebars after 5 months... Thanks for coming, spread the word. ------------------ This is an aggregator site of blogs coming out of SKF (double-short financials ETF) message board at Yahoo.
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