NEW STRUCTURE STARTING JULY 1, 2007

Greetings:

The only thing that doesn't change is the "change" itself.

We have tried to do our best since 2001 and we're very proud of our mega-database which will continue to remain available. No Panic!


However because we're faced with growing new opportunities to take action and the challenge to meet with industry professionals to give our screenplay (entitled "Alice In Debtland") a chance, we are no longer able to sustain the pace of two or three weekly updates.

From July 1st, we will update The Money Files every weekend and if possible on Wednesday. We'll keep the following sections only. :

1. guest columnist submissions
2. the world bear series
3. pro-freedom insights

Editorials will still be published twice weekly.

Over the years internet competition has increased at a rapid pace and despite donations we still cannot hire a webmaster full time. In order to keep up, we need up to 4 or 5 times monthly the donations we currently receive. We thank our supporters very sincerely.

Feel free to click on the donation tab if you wish to contribute and/or help finance the 5 minute animated movie/trailer of Alice In Debtland, which will be online by the end of the 3rd semester.

Also, we think that our goals to expose the global (monetary) elites have been attained quite successfully and that spending more time to sell a screenplay might be worth the sacrifice to put our "moneyfiles duties" aside for a while.


Please email us if you wish to be considered as a guest writer.


Thank you for your attention and have a great day!

I’ve been thinking about baggage by Fred Cederholm

Column for on/after June 24^th, 2007

I’ve been thinking about baggage. Actually I’ve been thinking about the 2008 elections, dissatisfaction, recent polls, partisanship, Michael Bloomberg, and perceptions. While the traditional kick off for the earliest (presidential) campaigns is the Labor Day before the primaries – well over a year before the actual election; in this 2008 go around, the circus brouhaha began ten months earlier than even that. US/us is now a society quagmired in BOTH warfare AND campaigning.

You see the public is anything but happy about where we are as a nation and where we are headed. Despite the promises made to the electorate in 2006, the hot-button issues are being side stepped or ignored altogether. Opinion favorability polls for government performance are in the tank and continue to head south. The President’s “plus” ratings are in the high 20’s, the Veep’s “plus” ratings are in the high teens, and Congressional “plus” ratings are now in the low teens. Candidates are running from their parties and from their incumbencies. Last week, the Vice President attempted to solidify “his” position(s) by seceding his office from the executive branch. Huh…what gives?

The field of candidates is already at an all time high with still more prospective candidates lurking in the wings. Fred Thompson announced last week that he will announce his candidacy from Nashville this week. Al Gore, who still hasn’t overcome his “twilight zone” (du-du du-du, du-du du-du) persona from 2000, appears to be transforming his current global warming celebrity into another oval office run. Despite the spin, hype, and manufactured brouhaha, nobody seems to be catching on. Even lame attempts to undercut the other guy’s (excuse me, other person’s) position by dredging/ “Drudge”ing up negative baggage from the past hasn’t caught on to any great extent either. While chorus of the candidates grows in members and volume, the public is rightly tuning them out.

Negative campaigning is a fact of life and despite the hollow promises to run this time on the issues, that’s not apparently going to happen – again! We’ve seem that the partisan finger pointing – blaming the other major party for our travails, problems and situations may make a great sound bite, but where is the follow-up/ follow-thru with a remedy/ solution? The 2006 election was first and foremost a referendum on Iraq. What has been changed by the new Congress? We’ve seen “passage” of a continued funding resolution that was so amended by “earmarks” for pork projects/ self-serving errata that one questions whether this appropriation bill was for the benefit of the troops, lobbyists, or special interests. When you throw in the lame attempt to “fix” Uncle $ugar’s illegal immigrant problem by refusing to enforce existing laws or to secure our borders first, but rather to grant blanket amnesty and goose up an already inept bureaucracy – none of which the voting public wants; is there any wonder why Congressional approval is hovering at 14% - the worst showing in US history?

Last week self-made billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg (and present Mayor of New York City) formally became an Independent and thereby severed his ties to the Republican Party. He has had it with both major parties - being an EX-Democrat and now an EX-Republican, too. He financed his first campaign (and re-election) with his own money. He has been highly successful in both business and government. He turned New York’s huge deficit into a surplus. He surrounds himself highly competent people who challenge him. He believes government must listen and satisfy because “voters are customers.” He is characterized by “common sense, professionalism, and accountability.” He has brought Democrats, Republicans, and splinter groups together for the good and betterment of the city. The only thing “shady” in his past appears to be his ongoing plan to plant a million trees in a ten year period. Does all this posture him to run for the White House as an independent candidate in 2008? He currently says no, but time will tell. The plot thickens… Bloomberg appears to have no baggage, but boy, does he have the “luggage” working FOR him!

Both major parties have major image, perception, and baggage problems - rightly so, given their track records of reneging on promises and sidestepping the hot-button problems. Is it surprising that “DEM” appears to be “Deny Election Mandates” and “GOP” now appears to be “Grab Overseas Petroleum? I’m Fred Cederholm and I’ve been thinking. You should be thinking, too.

Copyright 2007 Questions, Inc. All rights reserved.

To “audit” this column and to learn more about the subjects discussed, please check out:

Official Site of Mike Bloomberg http://www.mikebloomberg.com/

Bloomberg: The CEO Mayor http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/jun2007/db20070614_393071.htm?chan=top +news_top+news+index_top+story

Mayor Michael Bloomberg - biographical profile New York City Website. http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.e985cf5219821bc3f7393cd401c789a0/

For 2 Years, Bloomberg Aides Prepared for Bid

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/21/us/politics/21bloomberg.html

N.Y. Mayor Is Eyeing '08, Observers Say

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/25/AR2007032501334.html

Profile: Michael Bloomberg http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1640778.stm

Michael Bloomberg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bloomberg

I’ve been thinking about inflation by Fred Cederholm

Column for on/after June 17^th, 2007

I’ve been thinking about inflation. Actually I’ve been thinking about definitions, indexes, housing, real estate taxes, education, and energy. Inflation is the situation when the prices of things increase - where you end up paying more for the same goods/ services; or the price appears to stay the same, but you end up getting less in return. It is commonly defined as “too many dollars chasing too few goods.” Traditionally… it is broken down two ways – cost-push inflation: when driven from the sellers’ side, or demand-pull inflation: when driven from the buyers’ perspective. In both cases, it has it roots in the excessive liquidity afforded by a US dollar money supply run amok, enhanced by debt financed consumption when the nominal interest rates are below “the rate of inflation.”

You see the subject of inflation in the news as been rearing its ugly head on a number of fronts – both domestically and internationally. Wall Street and Main Street have finally come to the realization that current economic “truths” have precluded any interest rate cuts on the horizon – if anything interest rates will be pushed upward. While the US FED has sat tight on rates, central banks elsewhere around the globe have been raising their rates. Inflation is a global problem with many economies (that is, inflation rates) heating up to a point where red flags/sirens abound. The magic US benchmark ceiling for inflation is supposedly just under 3%. If you believe that our domestic price increases have been running below that so- called magic number, dream on. This deflated rate of inflation exists only because so much of what a household really consumes/ buys is conveniently excluded from the core indexes. How can most housing costs, property tax costs, education costs, insurance costs, food costs, or energy costs be excluded as factors in the inflation computations?

Obscene levels of liquidity and cheap money (arbitrarily low interest rates) have fueled many bubbles. For the last ten years, we have witnessed a housing boom unseen in our nation’s history. As prices (or at least expenditures on housing) escalated, the bubble fed on itself. This growth went way beyond the normal needs for family dwellings as housing came to be looked upon as an investment/ speculation and the paper appreciation of family home became a cash cow to be milked via equity loans to fund expenditures of all kinds. Between 30% to 40% of recent job growth/ expansion has been attributable to the housing boom. The median house price did drop 1.8 percent to $212,300 in the first quarter of 2007, the lowest since 2005 when it was $199,700. This average price for a single - family home has recently fallen in 62 of 145 America’s metropolitan areas. However, this rise in house prices has also impacted the prices of existing and older homes as well and thereby caused a significant rise in the annual real estate tax bill.

In the past four years the Real Estate taxes on my 100+ year old property have increased well over $1,500. These taxes now account for over 25% of my total expenditures for the entire year. My various insurance premiums now account for over 15% of my expenditures and every renewal brings more exclusions/exemptions from the coverage. Energy/utility costs now account for another 20% to 25% of yearly expenditures. My weekly food costs have risen 50% over the past four years for the same items and quantities. I don’t TH*NK my household is that much different from most others in this regard when I figure that my personal inflation rate has been running 12% to 15% per year – a far cry from the official BELOW 3% currently hawked by Uncle $ugar.

Last week I heard from my Alma Mater, the University of Illinois at Urbana that Fall 2007 tuition would be raised to $204 per credit hour. My total tuition there in Fall 1968 was just over that for the entire two semester course load of 32 credit hours - a cumulative increase of 3,200% over the 39 year time period. The State of Illinois’ share in picking up the costs of elementary and secondary education costs has dropped from over 50% to less than 30% so the schools must reply more on local property taxes to fund education just as the state Universities must rely more on tuition payments.

I also just heard from the gas company that if I wanted to go on the “budget plan,” it would cost me $129.00 a month – up $35 a month or 37% from the very same proposal of only just two months ago. What does that say about where energy costs are headed for the coming heating season? An annualized inflation rate of under 3%... who are they kidding? I’m Fred Cederholm and I’ve been thinking. You should be thinking, too.

Copyright 2007 Questions, Inc. All rights reserved.

I’ve been thinking about fluff by Fred Cederholm

Column for on/after June 10th, 2007

I’ve been thinking about fluff. Actually I’ve been thinking about distractions/diversions, the news, global conflicts, immigration, the presidential debates, investments, and “the Golden K.” Anyone familiar with my columns knows that I am a CPA, forensic accountant, and a news junkie who vents his frustrations and concerns about events, policies, and topics in the effort to alert and to inform my readers.

You see accounting trains you to achieve fair presentations, to seek substance over form, and to disclose an overview of what is real and important. Fluff, on the other hand, is whipping, frothing, and spinning the insignificant or the inconsequential in the effort to distract/ divert attention. Given the excess of newsprint, airtime, and web space devoted over the weekend, one might TH*NK our planet hung in the balance on the pathetic saga of “poor” Paris Hilton’s return to jailed custody. Fluffers are highly active in “segments” of the motion picture industry, the news media, politics, product marketing, and investment decisions. Fluffers are everywhere because, face it, fluff sells.

In the preparing/ researching this column a “Google” news search revealed 9,100 news entries about the 2007 Immigration Bill, 4,800, entries about the Paris re-incarceration, 4,100 entries about the G8 summit in Germany, 1,800 entries about Putin’s threatened missile posturing and a possible return of the “Cold War,” 980 entries about the 2008 presidential debates, 540 entries about the opening of “Oceans 13,” 380 entries about ousting US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Pace, and barely 90 entries about Turkey’s recent amassing of 250,000 troops along the Iraqi border.

We have upwards to 170,000 young service men and women now actively serving in Iraq. Their situation is already perilous given the violence within the confines of the occupied zones and borders. Last week’s amassing of a quarter of a million Turkish troops on the Iraqi border (plus any completely undisclosed equivalent by Iran) should certainly be more newsworthy than the miniscule coverage it received this weekend. Did everyone forget what happened on June 25, 1950 in Korea?

The compromise of the recent bipartisan immigration “fix” did come in first in this non- scientific ranking of what was newsworthy - but only selectively so. The public’s support for this “fix” is minimal and the lame fluff attempts by its supporters are waning. The Coburn amendment (Senator Tom Coburn R-Oklahoma) which would require the US to enforce existing immigration laws was shot down on June 7th when 54 US Senators effectively voted not to enforce the US laws.

Thus far in this earliest ever run for the White House in 2008, there have been four debates of the candidates – two for each of the two major political parties. There are already upwards to twenty candidates – both declared plus a couple more lurking in the wings. If you watched the debates, or read the on-line transcripts of what was said, you were probably under-whelmed by both message and performance. Most danced around the issues/ problems facing this nation and even fewer proposed any solutions what-so-ever! The two noteworthy exceptions were former Senator Mike Gravel (D-Alaska) and Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas). These two were clearly not the ones favored by the party power brokers, or the media – despite their highly exceptional showings in the subsequent polling of who scored best on identifying the issues and proposing the solutions.

Last week the equity markets continued their highly volatile roller coaster spiking and dipping. Many financial pundits “explanations” behind the swings went beyond fluff to boarder on the ludicrous. Were the markets not both over-bought AND over-sold but shared trading valuations based upon some historical norms of their asset worthiness, or the predictable future cash flows from earnings; trading pricing and transactional volumes we saw would have some “semblance” of order.

On Thursday, June 14th I’ve been asked once again to be the breakfast speaker for the weekly meeting of the “Golden K” chapter of the Rochelle. Kiwanis Club. My topic will be an overview of “money” – specifically the US dollar. The late Clara Peller had her 15 minutes of fame by “fluffing” the question “Where’s the beef?” Remember that terms of fluff, the questions are twofold: Where’s the substance? And… what’s the complaint? I’m Fred Cederholm and I’ve been thinking. You should be thinking, too.

Copyright 2007 Questions, Inc. All rights reserved.

asklet@rochelle.net

Down with G8 Power! By Joost van Steenis

Dear reader.

The G8 has power, too much power.

But how do anti-globalists confront this power?

Just like ten years ago with no result at all.

They want to "bring forward their opposition against the Iraq-War" or "the message that another world is possible". In demonstrations – can't they think of different actions? - they only ASK leaders to take other decisions, they refuse to use power to FORCE other decisions.

The G8 meeting in Germany is a splendid example how the world is split in two parts, the temporarily eliteworld of the G8, separated from the rest of the world by a fence of twelve kilometres, and the massworld.

Neither peaceful nor violent demonstrations have any influence on G8-leaders. This kind of actions are contained by the police, while the G8-leaders undisturbed discuss the development of the world in their own safe, prosperous and isolated eliteworld.

The organisation of the anti-globalisation movement is a copy of our elitist world. The demonstrators are hardly allowed to bring forward some own ideas, they must follow the policy of the leading group. I read somewhere that "the Dutch part of the demonstrators got instructions from the central organisation about what was expected from their contribution".

Those demonstrators are never creative, independent or autonomous , they follow leaders who make decisions on the same way as leaders in the big make decisions over masspeople.

Many violent demonstrators call themselves Autonomous. But their autonomy is very restricted. They also have only the purpose to make leaders clear that another world is possible, without using any instruments of power to force leaders to behave on a different way. They are only violent against other masspeople – policemen and soldiers – on places far away from the world of the G8 leaders.

About fighting against the police I refer to my thirteenth Letter ( http://members.chello.nl/jsteenis/letter13.htm). It is useless because the police is only an instrument of power. By fighting with the police, the unequal power relations between elite and mass will not change.

The so-called autonomous demonstrators are also part of a well-knit mass organisation. There is hardly room for creative, independent and autonomous actions.

The demonstrators only repeat what in the past has been proven to be worthless. Mass demonstrations have never changed the world. The world can only be changed when the energy of individual masspeople is expressed in individual, creative and autonomous actions against people who possess power. The world will change when then power of leaders is undermined by a multitude of small actions – big actions like demonstrations demand for an organisation that suffocates the participants.

Another action policy is needed. Not a policy of reaction but a policy of action in which the initiative lies with the masses. Why should you only be active when leaders have a special meeting? When G8-leaders return to their own country demonstrations and other actions against them become rare.

I propose continuous actions in the private living sphere of elitepeople on the time, the place and the way masspeople decide for themselves. I propose really autonomous actions by humans that are the only living beings that can act in an creative and independent way.

Your truly, Joost van Steenis

http://members.chello.nl/jsteenis

Ways to increase masspower

I’ve been thinking about budgets by Fred Cederholm

Column for on/after June 3rd, 2007

I’ve been thinking about budgets. Actually I’ve been thinking about fiction, constitutional procedures, partisanship, and “the Lisa factor.” Fiction is the telling of a “made-up” story that is presented in the context of being something that is real, is based in fact, and is true. It is meant to stir the imagination and to provoke thought. Governmental budgets are fictions that often border on fantasy.

You see our governments are required by their overriding constitutions to prepare an annual budget for their coming fiscal years. The rules of the game (and the whole budget process is a game) begin the process by the respective chief executive submitting a budget proposal to their respective legislative bodies. This is nothing more that a pre-story line where the chief executive provides the plot proposal as to how they would “like” the coming year’s financial resources to be allocated and spent by the governmental entity under their “leadership.” The real budget story line effectively develops in the financial committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate. These must be “reconciled” and voted upon before the mutually acceptable budget is sent to the chief executive for signing. Technically, all spending legislation “originates” in the House of Representative. This, too, is somewhat of a fiction.

As a CPA and a forensic accountant, I have spent a great deal of time on assignments and audits which focus in the “la-la” land of governmental accounting. Accounting is a science, an art, and a language which attempts to present the financial picture of an entity using numbers during a finite period of time. The goal is to make that presentation fair, consistent, comparable, and comprehendible to the user of the financial information. Every year, I devote much time to observe the budgeting process at the federal and state levels and to review the respective outcomes. Like reading a work of fiction, I have always been entertained by the process. I am frequently shocked, or even outraged, by the outcomes. The fiscal 2008 versions of these fictions continue to live up to (or rather down to) my expectations.

Uncle $ugar needs an approved budget by the start of his 2008 fiscal year on October 1. The President’s request for a record budget of $ 2.9 TRILLION has been blessed by Congress. There was an apparent meeting of the minds with the federal legislators agreeing that: “sure… we can appropriate/ approve/ spend $ 7.945 BILLION a day in fiscal 2008!” The final details of who gets how much, for what, and when they get it will be hammered out in various individual appropriation bills. Somewhere between a fifth and a third WILL be financed by evergreen national debt. 2008 trust fund surpluses like Social Security will be raided and spent elsewhere. We are told future economic growth will eliminate any deficit in just 4 to 5 years. We’ve heard this every year for the past 26 budgets - it hasn’t come true.

Illinois needs its approved budget by the start of its 2008 fiscal year on July 1. Like the Feds, Illinois accounting is on a cash basis - recognizing income when received and expenses when paid. The BILLIONS of contractual obligations already owed by the state only surface if someone is crass and tacky enough to bring up the subject of accrual accounting. Illinois is something like two years behind in paying health care providers for Medicaid bills owed, and the state’s share of local education expenses has declined from a roughly 50% share to less than a 30% share. Real estate tax increases “were” to pick up the slack – they haven’t as roughly 7 of 10 school districts still find themselves in deficit situations.

On March 7^th, the Democratic Governor proposed “paying” for his aggressive agenda of programs by a new tax on services and the one time selling of state assets and the rights to future state cash flows. The last of any so-called surpluses in pensions and road funds were raided last year to “balance” the 2007 budget. Even though Democrat majorities controlled the Illinois House and the Senate, no budget was passed by the midnight deadline last Thursday. Now a special legislative session (costing God only knows how much) will be called for June and the here-to-fore totally ignored Republican minorities will be “consulted” because a SUPER majority is now required for a budget and their votes are essential.

Illinois has been highly partisan in its budget funding along both party lines and “the metropolitan Chicago vs. balance-of-state” lines. Speaker of the House (and Democratic majority leader) Mike Madigan doesn’t want to tie the hands of future Governors by fiscal missteps in 2008. His daughter Lisa is now Illinois Attorney General, has done an excellent job as such, and WILL be running for Governor down the road. The fictional plots of “Desperate Housewives” pale in comparison to the real plots of “Desperate Politicians.” I’m Fred Cederholm and I’ve been thinking. You should be thinking, too.

Copyright 2007 Questions, Inc. All rights reserved.