Real Wealth Society

SPECIAL MADOFF MARCH 09

2009-03-06T11:22:00.000-08:00

GO TO FEBRUARY HEADLINES

WEEK 25 - 31
Trustee Says He’s Found $75 Million of Madoff’s
Democrats hold on to Madoff money
Madoff sell-off of Judaic items
Judge freezes Madoff's brother's assets
Inside Bernard Madoff's ponzi scheme
Money From Madoff Is Rerouted
Madoff's Wife Got $2 Million from UK Unit: Report
Madoff Fraud Charges Could Be Filed in UK This Year
Madoff Liquidator Says $2.6 Billion Will Pay Victims of Fraud
'Madoff Cheated on Wife' & Other D-Bag Accusations
Peter Madoff Will Seek to Challenge Asset Freeze, Lawyer Says
Geneva Whispers About New Money From Mumbai Amid Madoff Scandal

WEEK 17 - 24
I'm Bernard Madoff--I'm Telling All. Right Here. Trust Me
Madoff Congo scandal
Madoff’s Accountant Is Charged With Fraud
Madoff's lawyers to ask court to release him
Madoff Scheme Sinks Austrian Bank
Madoff the Magus
What Did Madoff Clan Really Know?
Madoff’s 19th Century Forerunner Shows Rules Can’t Stop Thieves
Email Scammers Support Harsh Sentence For Madoff
French officials to seize Ruth Madoff's chateau
Lawyer says Madoff assets reach $1 billion mark
Madoff, the Sit-Com
Why So Many Smart People Invested with Madoff

WEEK 09 - 16
Ruth Madoff to hire own attorney
Madoff Serfs Were Faking Trading Tickets
The Yeshiva World » Madoff Investors Prepare For Court ...
Madoff case sparks calls for global court over finance fraud
Sesame Street Explains The Madoff Scandal (VIDEO)
Madoff Had Accomplices: His Victims
Bernard Madoff swaps penthouse for a wardrobe-sized cell
Bernard Madoff is Small Potatoes Compared to the Government
Madoff Victims Want Answers, Not Apologies
Madoffs' assets totaled $823 million at end of '08
Bernie Madoff's Billionaire Victims
Ruth Madoff's assets may be frozen by Feds

WEEK 01 - 08
Madoff investors prepare for court confrontation
On the trail of Bernie Madoff
Madoff's Ponzi Scheme: $50 Billion Figure May Be Fictitious
Madoff Deal In the Works Crafted by Holder (Crafter of the Marc Rich Pardon)?
SEC Will Scrutinize How It Handles Tips After Missing Madoff
UBS loses ruling on Madoff documents
140 Madoff Victims Treated As One Person
Former Merril execs invested in Madoff funds: report
Synagogue taps eBay as Madoff losses reduce donations
BNP Loses Cases Against UBS Over Madoff
Bernie Madoff: Mystery Man
Unleashes on Madoff
Madoff Attorney Receiving Death Threats
Madoff's World
It's Official: Mrs Madoff is Delusional
Madoff's Wife Smart Enough Not To Get Fooled By Ponzi Scheme
Recovering taxes for Madoff victims is tough
Madoff Feeder Bank Medici Probed Criminally In Vienna
Bernard Madoff whistleblower on ‘60 Minutes’
Presumed Innocent? Bernie Madoff?
Family That Peddled Madoff Fund Now Social Pariahs
Big selloff...Madoff wants millions...Snow woes
Madoff clients' lawsuits look to others for recompense

SPECIAL MADOFF - FEB 2009

2009-02-02T16:18:00.000-08:00

go to December 08-January 09

WEEK: 02/22--2/28
Madoff moved $164 million from UK firm to U.S.: receiver
Madoff Whistleblower On 60 Minutes: A Sneak Peak
Why SEC missed Madoff
90-Year-Old Madoff Client Goes Back to Work
Conn. lawmakers hold hearing on Madoff scandal
Connecticut Town Sues Over Madoff Losses
Elie Wiesel and Bernard Madoff
Madoff 101: Total Immersion for Lawyers
Obama Seeks SEC Overhaul With 13 Percent Budget Boost
Family feud! Lautenberg kin sue Madoff kin
Madoff and Merkin - the Pioneers of Odianthropy
Madoff-style economics: killing our country?
Madoff stashed $182 million in his nonprofit foundation as tax ploy
The dark lesson of Bernie Madoff
Luxembourg warns UBS on Madoff fraud
The investment scam-artist's playbook
IRS Under Pressure to Offer Tax Relief to Madoff Victims
Judge tosses New York company's Madoff suit
For Madoff, Reputation Is Apparently a One-Way Street
Judge Rules Against Late Investor With Madoff
Have Mexican Jews lost their wealth in Madoff-like scheme
Madoff Must Have Had Help, Lawyers Say, Citing Trustee Report
New York Mag makes up Madoff as a Monster
Bernard Madoff, “The Monster Mensch”
Bernie Madoff Turned Down $1 Billion
The Stock Market Blog: Bernie Madoff Victim Map
Beyond Basics: Madoff Scandal for Beginners/Conspiracy Theory

WEEK: 02/16--2/21
Madoff distortion makes some hedge funds look good
Austin Capital sued by pension fund over Madoff loss
BATS Exchange gets subpoena in Madoff case
The Tangled Web of Bernard Madoff's Network
Kucinich Launches Investigation: SEC Was Told To Back Off Stanford Group In 2006
Who’s behind Madoff?
Madoff ‘trades’ were illusions
Madoff trustee: No securities bought for customers in 13 years
Madoff scandal boon for mutual funds, DWS exec says
Madoff Brokerage Liquidator Subpoenas 13 Financial Institutions
Bank’s Madoff Settlement Doesn’t Impress Investors
Smash Bernard Madoff (The Doll) For $99.95
Stanford And Madoff: What Happens When People Want Their Money
Stanford, Madoff gave lots of dosh to politicians
Wall Streeters Kept Mum on Madoff Doubts: Report
The Madoff Bill
Madoff Victim Billionaire Walter Noel's Tropical Refuge
The 'Boston whistleblower' fingered Bernard Madoff for fraud
Madoff Trustee Picard Subpoenas Jefferies in Liquidation Case
Madoff aide falls under suspicion
Madoff doll a smashing success?
His foundation plundered, Elie Wiesel again rebuilds on ruins
Decade at Bernie’s

WEEK: 02/09--2/14
Madoff Whistleblower Harry Markopolos Tells Congress FDA Is Captured!
Bankers kept silent over Madoff fears
Investigator Details Bernie Madoff’s Relationship With Organized Crime
Madoff’s Wife Could Face Legal Trouble Attorneys Tell CBS
Does Ruth Madoff Need Her Own Lawyer?
Madoff Scandal Ensnares Order of Patron Saint for Moralists
Madoff Key Aide Recruited Her Neighbors as Investors
Donors want financial transparency for churches
Pursuer of Madoff blew a whistle for nine years
Imprisoned Felon Was Adviser to Madoff Investor
Another Madoff Investor Commits Suicide
Video: How Much Did Madoff Family Know?
Fragments From “Madoff! The Musical”
Understanding the Madoff Scandal
Madoff and blest credit
Web Abuzz With Madoff Sites Offering Info, Kitsch
More fraud possible, Madoff whistle-blower says
Let the whistle-blower run the SEC
Who Gets the Rest of Madoff's Money?
Madoff in Accord With SEC Ahead of Criminal Deadline
Madoff Claims Another Victim
Interview with Madoff client Ian Thiermann
Put your money into Madoff, bank urged wealthy clients
Lose money to Madoff? Don't cry to Uncle Sam.
Madoff's minions
Madoff's famous and sophisticated victims

WEEK: 02/02-02/07
Fairfield County 'ground zero' for Madoff scandal, victim list shows
Madoff Victim: "Bernie is Nobody's Friend"
Minn. economist: Madoff losses could cost state
Sharpton calls for justice outside Madoff’s home
SEC looks to reassure investors (Reuters) - Government
Bernard Madoff, the Mafia, and the Friends of Michael Milken
Savings lost to Madoff, elderly forced back to work
Treasury Has Overpaid $78B In TARP Transactions - Even better than Madoff
Madoff's Mark on Montana
Madoff victim: It all seemed legitimate
Those Closest To Madoff Got Burned Too
New SEC Chair Off and Running With Enforcement Measures
Madoff scandal affects prominent Seattle families
Madoff Marketer Met With UK’s Prince Charles, Markopolos Says
Bank Sent Clients’ Cash to Its Madoff Account
Did middleman know about Madoff losses beforehand?
Bulletproof Madoff
More famous names emerge among the thousands in Madoff client list
The Canadian link to Bernard Madoff is becoming clear
Madoff Marketer Met With UK’s Prince Charles, Markopolos Says
US law firm files Madoff class action in New York
Notable on Madoff List, Mets Say They’re Fine

Markopolos RIPS SEC - C-SPAN - part 1
Markopolos RIPS SEC - C-SPAN - part 2

SEC's failure to catch Madoff baffles panel
Greatest Sports Deal Undone ... By Madoff?
Lawmakers accuse SEC of hindering Madoff probe
SEC's Madoff Miss Fits Pattern Set With Pequot
How to Run a Financial Fraud
The Madoff fallout continues
Jewish foundations lost at least $2.3 billion with Madoff
Madoff exposes the real failings of the Jewish world
Man who warned about Bernard Madoff to testify
Madoff: The Broker of Greed and the Myth of the Pyramid
Reporter Arrested At Madoff’s Front Door
Inside Bernie Madoff's Offices
Expose Corrupt Courts: Dreier Bail Decision by Friday; Madoff ...
Harry Markopolos, Madoff Whistleblower, Feared for His Safety
Report: 3 Million Madoff Victims
Mich. Teens Say They Pranked Madoff
Petras: Bernard Madoff
U.S. court asked to halt Santander's Madoff payout
Madoff Liquidator Gets $535M In Brokerage Assets
Hedge Fund Sues Auditors Over Madoff Reports
Bernie Madoff bodyguard to quit
How Madoff's Ponzi scheme was unravelled
Bernard Madoff - Another Layer "of the Onion" is Peeled Away
Madoff investors getting bailout

SPECIAL MADOFF

2008-12-13T06:55:00.000-08:00

To February Headlines

WEEK: 01/25-01/31
Bulletproof Madoff
The Madoff files: Bernie's billions
Young Jeezy vs. Bernie Madoff
In Jail for Fraud, Inmate Claims Madoff Cheated Him
Madoff and America’s (poorer) Foundations
Madoff results were impossible to replicate
Psychologist profiles Madoff
JPMorgan Exited Madoff-Linked Funds Last Fall
JPMorgan Pulled Out Of Madoff Funds In Fall 2008: What Did They Know?
Madoff: SEC defends its role
Bernard Madoff paper trail leads to NYC warehouse
Is Bernard Madoff’s Wife an accessory to a crime?
SPIN METER: Congress missed SEC napping on Madoff
Live-Blogging the Senate’s Madoff Hearing
Madoff investors: Not so innocent after all
Santander Reimburses Clients Who Lost Money With Madoff
Bernie Madoff’s Gullible Investors and Guileless Regulators
Ignorance is not bliss
Many fruitless probes into Madoff
Trust-Fund Kids Strike Back at Madoff
Madoff in Manhattan
Zsa Zsa Gabor lost up to $10 million with Madoff
Madoff Associate Ordered by Court to Attend Interview
Signs Madoff’s Victims Are Flushed With Anger
Bayou Group Ponzi scheme case poses questions for Madoff investors
Is Madoff a psychopath?

WEEK: 01/19-01/24
Madoff Movie Takes On "Slumdog Millionaire"
The Talented Mr. Madoff
Moral of the Madoff scandal: Check out financial advisors
Larry King the Latest Big Loser in Bernie Madoff Scandal
US SEC needs complete overhaul after Madoff
Not Just Super Rich Getting Destroyed By “The Madoff
SEC Charges Missing Florida Fund Manager
Jews struggle to come to grips with Madoff
Millionaire widow cleans houses after losing Madoff investment
Madoff's trading fiction
Trustee Wants to Ditch Madoff’s Fleet of Luxury Autos
Madoff Shows Banks Must Become Whistleblowers
Exception Is Sought for Some Madoff Cash
Probers Work Backward on Madoff
Broker with ties to Madoff will miss 2d state hearing
The Latest in Madoff Madness: New York Judge Denies Plaintiffs
Paris prosecutors open probe into Madoff fraud
Madoff’s Nephew Forced To Sell Home
1992 Ponzi Case Missed Signals About Madoff
Madoff-hit Luxembourg funds halt redemptions
How did so many smart people fall for Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme?
Madoff case a boon for law firms
Readers outraged by Madoff scandal's damage
Madoff 'curse' dwarfs terrorist rockets for US Jews
Brazilians Lost ‘Millions’ in Madoff Funds
Madoff ties were never pursued
Wall Street Powerhouses Invested Alongside Madoff

WEEK: 01/11- 01/17

Bernie Madoff, Frat Brother
Madoff’s “How To Sell” Business Book!!!
Madoff's mother tangled with the feds
Cuomo Subpoenas Madoff Investor
Schapiro Pledges Vigilance as SEC Chief
Mo. employee retirement fund takes $3.5M hit from Madoff
Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Clients Said to Invest in Madoff Fund
Madoff Brokerage May Fetch No More Than $10 Million
Madoff-Swindled Kevin Bacon Admits 'I Need To Work'
Advice for Bernard Madoff - Gothamist
Man Plans Madoff Lawsuits
Madoff’s Fashion Statement: a Bullet-Proof Vest
Madoff Mayhem in the Intersection!
Madoff remains free as second judge rejects bid to jail him
’92 Ponzi Case Missed Signals About Madoff
But Is Madoff Not So Good for the Jews? Discuss Among Yourselves
HSBC, UBS May Be Liable on Madoff as Fund Custodians
A Madoff Cookbook Has a Secret, Too
Lawyers Seek to Keep Madoff Free
Spain: prosecutor probing Madoff fraud
Madoff Might Not Have Made Any Trades
Was Bernie Madoff a Mafia Front?
Planned Parenthood cuts staff after Madoff scandal causes funding loss
Biggest Listed Hedge Fund to Sue over Madoff Exposure
What Madoff could learn from Ponzi
Hedge Funds Post Record $350 Billion Loss in 2008 Amid Turmoil
Madoff Associate Fails to Make Massachusetts Hearing
Madoff and Mutual Funds
Cuomo Probing Charity Fraud Tied to Madoff Scandal
The Trouble With Bernie: Nine Ways to Avoid a Madoff When You Meet Him
Bernie Madoff's Victims: Why Some Have No Recourse
Will Someone Kill Bernie Madoff?
Madoff Sparks French Fund Lawsuit to Pry EU30 Million From UBS
Madoff’s Freedom Ignites Rage of Neighbors Who Want Him Jailed
Bernard Madoff avoids jail
Ruth Madoff’s Cookbook Got Shut Down for Trademark Infringement
Jail or penthouse? NY judge to rule on Madoff bail
Obama's SEC pick could face bumpy ride over Madoff
Madoff Apologizes to Neighbors for the Ultimate Co-Op Crime
Half of Madoff loss borne by foreigners
Madoff whistleblower wants to be left alone
Bernard Madoff - chaos still emerging
Ponzi's Original Swindle
"That union money is gone"
The real Madoff game
Madoff Gets One More Weekend Without Bars
“Hellishly hot” sauce dedicated to Bernard Madoff
Bernard Madoff pair among fraud victims
The Other McCain: Bernie Madoff, pro-lifer?
Brace for more Madoff scandals
Madoff 'had $173m in cheques in office'
New Timing on Madoff’s Confession
Report: Madoff's Sister Among Scammed Victims
'Victims' of Madoff Scandal Do Math, Realize They Profited

WEEK: 01/04- 01/10
Madoff Crony Ezra Merkin Resigns as GMAC Chairman
Here's Why Madoff Smiles
Madoff Crony Abruptly Resigns From Broward Arts Center
How Madoff Is Burning the SEC (SEC circa 1992)
Madoff Trail Leads to Washington
Madoff’s [Nantucket] island ties
Madoff Brother, at Arm's Length?
GMAC Chairman With Ties to Madoff Steps Down
Madoff affair 'needs Scots probe'
'Madoff-ed' best-selling writer back at work
Mackenzie Hedge Fund Loses Money With Madoff, Globe Says
New Timing on Madoff’s Confession
Where Has Bernie Madoff Buried His Loot?
When it Comes to Bernie Madoff, Congress is More ...
Madoff, the Most Trusted Name in Securities ...
Madoff Scandal Hits Labor Union Pension Funds
Marc Rich Among Those Facing Madoff Losses
Accused swindler Madoff "warm and charming": report
Prosecutors: Madoff tried to protect $300M
Another Day, Another Ponzi
Madoff scam seemed hard to miss
Three Cases of Madoff Anger Syndrome
The Harvard Crimson Grant Foundation Hit in Madoff Scheme
Debate rages over whether Madoff should be in jail
Madoff and me: 1 victim's story
Was Our Whole Economy One Giant Ponzi Scheme?
Madoff ties bring down a brash Viennese banker
'The Rabbi' who was pivotal in fundraising
Austria’s ‘Woman on Wall St.’ and Madoff
Harley International Fund Said to Have Invested With Madoff
Bernard Madoff investors may begin recovering funds in a month
Madoff Tried to Stave Off Firm's Crash
Madoff should be jailed - US
Madoff Received $250 Million Ten Days Before Firm's Crash
N.Y. Judge Restrains Merkin Funds In Madoff Lawsuit
Thousands of claim forms sent to Madoff customers
Welcome to Ponzi purgatory
Madoff Chasers Dug for Years, to No Avail
How Madoff suckered an expert on gullibility
How Did Madoff Fool the SEC?
Bernie Madoff Leaves Apartment, Headed To Bail Hearing (VIDEO)
Madoff scandal, SEC role under scrutiny
US Seeks to Imprison Madoff for $1 Million Transfer
Madoff Gets Break As Lawmakers Hammer SEC
Madoff Remains Free as Judge Considers Prison Request
Congress Demands SEC Speed Madoff Inquiry to Improve Oversight
Prosecutors Want Madoff’s Bail Revoked
Madoff's Sons Told U.S. Prosecutors About Transfer of Jewelry, Lawyer Says
SEC Watchdog to be Questioned about Madoff Scandal
Regulators Said to Probe Madoff Eight Times Over 16 Years
SEC watchdog to be questioned about Madoff scandal
Journal Finds More Regulatory Failures on Madoff : CJR
We are all Madoff investors
Wall Street ‘red light’ on Madoff
How Palm Beach's ultrarich are recovering from the financial scandal
Madoff 's Victims Unlikely To Recover Much Money
SEC watchdog to be questioned about Madoff scandal
Madoff probed by regulators at least 8 times: WSJ
SEC Must ‘Defend Its Existence’ After Madoff Lapses
BALTIMORE PENSIONS Baltimore pensions lose $3.5M in Madoff fund
Madoff Crimes Hurt ACLU and Other Groups
Madoff Paraphernalia, of All Sorts, Landing on eBay

WEEK: 12/29- 01/03

Madoff crony charged with bilking house-cleaner of $124,000 life savings
Why We Keep Falling for Financial Scams
SPIC: $500,000 to each Madoff victim
Metro Views: Madoff and the 'miraculous dollar'
How to Avoid Getting Burned by the Next Bernard Madoff
Madoff Investor’s Suicide Was an ‘Act of Honor,’ Brother Says
NY business sues Madoff to get back $10 million
Madoff Exposed Investors' Weak Spots
The End of the Financial World as We Know It (related)
The Jewish federation in Tornoto lost $500000 in Madoff scheme
The time is right for Madoff: The Movie
Austria Says It's Taking Control Of Bank Medici After Madoff Hit
Madoff Accepted $10 Million From Investor 6 Days Before Arrest
Madoff’s Asset List Won’t Be Made Public, US Regulator Says
Madoff Investor’s Suicide Leaves Questions
Madoff Investors’ Lawyers Investigate Role of Connecticut Bank
Madoff gives SEC list of his assets
Madoff's assets to be kept secret
How much money does Madoff really have?
Madoff lists assets for SEC; agency mum on details
What if Bush Pardoned Bernie Madoff?
Tremont Sued by Investors Over Losses to Madoff ‘Ponzi Scheme’
Austria Weighs Overseer for Bank in Madoff Case
Thieves return Madoff statue, with note attached
Montana Investors Lost $18 Million With Madoff, Regulator Says
In Ironic Twist, Taxpayers ...
Madoff and me
Thanks To AIG, Taxpayers May Be On The Hook For Madoff Losses

SEC Halts $23 Million Ponzi Scheme Targeting Haitians

SEC inaction that helped fuel scheme

What Happened To Madoff's Money?

Latest developments of the Madoff case, with CNBC's Mary Thompson
Latest Madoff Victim: You
Judge approves release of Madoff assets
Madoff Sued by Three New York Investors Over Fraud, Payments
Kyra and Kevin Victims of Madoff Investment Scandal
Charities Wiped Out By Madoff Mess
Yeshiva’s Madoff Losses Based on ‘Fictitious’ Profits
Madoff Spotlight Turns to Role of Offshore Funds
Mary Schapiro & Madoff family ties - map
Madoff attorneys explore insanity defense
If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?

Blog Runner special Madoff page (tons of articles)

In Palm Beach, tt was an honor having Bernard Madoff handle your fortune. Yesterday Madoff was arrested and accused of running what probably will prove the greatest Ponzi scheme in the history of the world. Dec 12, 2008

Bernie Madoff Comes Out of the Closet
by: SA Editors December 12, 2008

Madoff Case: The World's Biggest Ever Heist
Felix Salmon December 12, 2008

Wall Street's Latest Downfall: Madoff Charged with Fraud
December 12, 2008

Specifically, we're hearing that the smart money KNEW Bernie had to be cheating, because the returns he was generating were impossibly good. Many Wall Streeters suspected the wrong rigged game, though: They thought it was insider trading, not a Ponzi scheme. And here's the best part: That's why they invested with him. Dec 12, 2008

http://www.madoff.com/
COURT PAPERS
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/madoff.pdf

How Can You Spot A Wall Street Crook?
December 12, 2008

$50 billion at stake after Wall St broker Bernard Madoff is arrested over ‘world’s biggest swindle’: December 13, 2008

Lessons For Madoff Investors From The Bayou Fund Ponzi Scheme
Dec 12, 2008

Madoff case to rock already shaky hedge funds
2008-12-14

Geneva banks lost more than $4 bln to Madoff-paper
Sat Dec 13, 2008

SEC got tips about Madoff several years ago
December 13th

Is Bernie Madoff Jewish? Very. Oy.
December 12, 2008
http://www.jewishjournal.com/

Investor Furor Over '$50B Scam'
December 13, 2008

SPECIAL FANNIE MAE-FREDDIE MAC (7/11-18)

2008-07-17T01:11:00.000-07:00

Top funds may have lost $4 billion on Freddie, Fannie this week
Fannie and Freddie in danger
U.S. Weighs Takeover of Two Mortgage Giants
Worst Fears Ease, for Now, on Mortgage Giants’ Fate
Fannie, Freddie insolvent, Poole tells Bloomberg
We're All Homeowners: Nationalization of Fannie, Freddie Unavoidable
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and a nightmare on Wall Street
Fannie and Freddie - Indeed, Too Big To Fail
Who's to Blame for the Current Economic Situation?
Paulson Seeks Authority to Shore Up Fannie, Freddie
The True Hollywood Story of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
Fed launches rescue plan for stricken mortgage firms
Operation "Rescue Fannie" Underway - Paulson a Blatant Liar
Long Protected by Washington, Fannie and Freddie Ballooned
Marc Faber: Bernanke, Fed a 'Joke'
Top funds may have lost $4 billion on Freddie, Fannie this week
The Fannie and Freddie doomsday scenario
Fed says Fannie and Freddie are the last to get bailed out
Fannie and Freddie: A Run on the Bank?
Fannie, Freddie, Fascist
Freddie, Fannie, and Curses on FDR
Fannie, Freddie May Need to Lose $77 Billion First
Treasury statement on Fannie and Freddie
A New American Reality: Government As Provider
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae future may rest with US Treasury
Time to Let Fannie and Freddie Wither?
Fannie Plan a `Disaster' to Rogers; Goldman Says Sell
Obama Says U.S. May Not Take Any Action to Aid Fannie, Freddie
The 'Canary in the Coalmine' for Fannie, Freddie
Fannie & Freddie: Myth vs. Reality, Part 2
Fannie, Freddie and You
The Saga of Fannie and Freddie
Japan's Freddie, Fannie exposure totals $56 billion
VIDEO Rogers: Fannie and Freddie - let the patient pass away
How Fannie, Freddie Became Kings Of The Hill
Why the central bank is real winner of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac woes
Opposition, From Both Parties, Over Bailout Plan
Bailout of Fannie and Freddie fails to calm nerves
Fannie And Freddie Are Fine, Bernanke Says
Finish the Companies Off Fannie, Freddie troubles ominous for Asia
Investors Flee
Fannie, Freddie spent $200M to buy influence
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac every year are required to meet affordable housing goals
Naked Short Sellers Attack Fannie Mae!
Will Fannie and Freddie Go to Zero?
American Dream turns to nightmare
And now, for Fannie and Freddie

Thinking about flip-flops By Fred Cederholm

2008-06-27T12:40:00.000-07:00

Column for on/after June 22nd

I’ve been thinking about flip-flops. Actually I’ve been thinking about the 55 words of the Miranda warning, Election 2008, the candidates, being silent, the court of public opinion, attorney(s), and the government picking up the tab. The 1963 court case of Miranda vs. Arizona ultimately gave rise to the ever-pervasive Miranda warning which advises individuals who are being arrested of their rights. Those 55 words so often pop up in the TV dramas that the American public has committed them to memory.

You see as the Election 2008 Presidential Campaign continues to unwind; it also appears that the reading of these rights should be done to our political candidates as well. This is shaping up to be a particularly aggressive slug fest. In the 2004 election, “flip-flops” entered our lexicon as a derogatory assessment of what a candidate was doing. They said one thing, made promises, and divulged strategies only to change their minds and recant on the earlier positions. This is nothing new! The advent of the internet and proliferation of web blogs, chat rooms, and netizen monitoring has picked up the slack in news coverage and analysis by the traditional media forums. It is harder and harder to deny statements, positions, and policy declarations when clips of them are so readily available (in perpetuity) on the net.

In recent weeks I’ve noted an escalation in blog commentaries, pseudo news stories, and emails which are trashing one presidential candidate --- or the other: 100 reasons to NOT vote for…, “X” plans to greatly increase taxes and oppressive government regulation, “Y” has sold out to special interests and will sell out the country, the “wars” in Afghanistan or Iraq) will be abruptly ended (OR continue indefinitely) to the detriment of our entire way of life. Even if completely fabricated and untrue, once out there; a candidate must commit valuable time and resources to counter, deny, or refute such points.

Whoever “wins” the November election, effectively “loses!” The victor faces diplomatic, military, economic, financial, energy, social, AND philosophical powder kegs – any one of which could prove devastating to our system(s). There are NO simple, quick, and painless fixes. We need REAL leadership, but there will be a REAL temptation to resort to the security of the points of the Miranda warning.

You have the right to remain silent: What candidate has ever NOT regretted saying “something?” Even if a comment (or word choice) was sincerely and innocently made, there is safety in resorting only to clichés, platitudes, and “pabulum.” We’ve already experienced “great” rhetoric --- saying nothing!

Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law: Here the court of public opinion of the electorate will be the jury come November. Despite careful vetting of words, policies, and statements geared to appeal to the respective core party bases; mistakes will be made. These will require costly backtracking and/ or damage control - thus keeping the candidates from being honest and forthright with US/us. This does a major disservice to the electorate and we deserve far better than this.

You have the right to speak to an attorney, and to have an attorney present during any questioning: What candidate does NOT already have an army of attorneys, pollsters, political consultants, or spinmeisters? These were all “needed” to get the current party frontrunners to the point where they (in theory) have sewed up their respective nominations BEFORE their party’s conventions. One wonders if the messages being hawked (or planned to be hawked) are truly those of the candidates, or they are the consensus of respective campaign teams as to what the public wants to hear, are essential in firing up the party base, and are ultimately essential to winning the November Election?

If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be provided for you at government expense: If the candidate’s team does NOT feel they can raise the necessary bucks from the party faithful, the lobbyists, the PACs, and the special interests; they can agree to abide by the constraints of accepting Federal Election Monies and suck in Uncle $ugar’s cash. This will effectively limit their final run for the White House to $100 MILLION per major party. Upwards to a HALF a BILLION was spent on the primaries!

I hope and pray the 2008 candidates don’t resort to the confines and protections of the Miranda warning. This would be a disservice to the functioning of a real horserace election. A campaign limited to “muted” debates and silent posters featuring perfect hair, pearly smiles, and postcard families; just isn’t going to cut it. I’m Fred Cederholm and I’ve been thinking. You should be thinking, too.

Thinking about installments By Fred Cederholm

2008-06-18T15:27:00.000-07:00

Column for on/after June 15th

I’ve been thinking about installments. Actually I’ve been thinking about the housing bubble, property taxes, pecking orders, escrow payments, deficits, and cash flow. The housing bubble continues to pass its gas. While this is a huge problem that refuses to go away and continues to grow in magnitude, the stories on page one and newscasts have devoted little if any time, space, and ink to it. Fuel prices, food prices, election 2008 and “the flood” of natural disasters; have pushed it to the back burner.

You see last Friday the first installment of our property tax bills for Calendar 2007 billings came due for those of us in Ogle County, Illinois. This was particularly fitting that this time it fell on Friday the 13th. In my case, the two RE tax payments are the hands-down largest checks I write every year. The insurance premiums on my home, auto, and life policies are in distant third, fourth, and fifth place. I suspect this order of magnitude ranking is also true for a great many American households.

It will be interesting to see a few weeks down the road how many households were late (or delinquent) in meeting this critical deadline. While there might be a press release detailing the parcels which failed to get the first installment paid, it is more common to publicize the specific delinquencies about a month or so after the second installment comes due and was not paid. This usually precedes the “tax sales” publicized by the county officials responsible for the collection of the real estate taxes. The dates of these events vary from county to county - and from state to state. Still… the system of “selling” the unpaid taxes to third parties will occur on a prescribed timetable everywhere across America.

Amounts owed to the respective property tax collectors stand in the FIRST position of the pecking order of who gets their money when a homeowner falls behind in their payments. Virtually every local and regional governmental (and quasi-governmental) entity depends upon the proceeds from real estate tax revenues to underwrite the lion’s share of their expenses, salaries, and pensions. These include the county, township, and municipal governments; and the school, fire, library, and park districts as well.

Late payment or non-payment of these taxes could prove costly for the property “owners.” At the very least, there will be fines and penalties accessed. If the unpaid balances are “auctioned” off to third party investors, these investors are entitled to rates of interest that far exceed the going rates paid elsewhere right now. Annualized rates of 10%, 12%, 14%, or more are not uncommon. After a varying prescribed period of time - should the property “owner” not make full restitution for the taxes, penalties, AND interest – the third party investor could take full title to the property.

Most property occupants make supplemental monthly payments to the holders of their mortgages for the payment of the respective property taxes. These are held in escrow and tendered to the RE tax collectors by the “lenders” when the installments come due. If the mortgage escrow payments are not being made timely by the borrowers, the lenders must advance their own money to cover the taxes to “perfect” or secure their liens on the properties. Or… they simply do not make the payments on behalf of the occupants. I would suspect that since arrears in mortgage payments are escalating to record levels on a month by month basis, escrow payments are growing increasingly in arrears as well.

I would be hard pressed to cite ONE local (or regional) governmental or quasi-governmental entity that isn’t facing deficits, budgetary mismatches, and/ or cash flow problems now. Costs of this past winter far exceeded estimates/ projections. Current costs of fueling their fleets of vehicles are thru the roof. Since most of these entities have June 30th year ends, the public will not be made fully aware of these deficiencies and deficits until financial statements are made public sometime later this Summer, or Fall. These entities are counting on the RE tax proceeds right now!

Even if your household is lucky enough to be mortgage free, you are still “renting” from the local taxing bodies which appear as line items on your real estate tax bill. If you don’t believe me, just try NOT paying your property tax bills for a couple taxing cycles and see how long you are allowed to stay in your “own/ owned” home. I’m Fred Cederholm and I’ve been thinking. You should be thinking, too.

Thinking about running mates By Fred Cederholm

2008-06-11T10:56:00.000-07:00

Column for on/after June 8th

I’ve been thinking about running mates. Actually I’ve been thinking about Campaign 2008, strategies, Vice Presidents, Lieutenant Governors, and “term” life insurance. The election/ selection process for Campaign 2008 is entering the next phase before the national party nominating conventions are held later this summer and the really hard-core campaigning begins in earnest before the November elections. We the People… pretty much know who will head the two major party tickets at this point, but who will run as the candidates for the Veep position is still a huge unknown.

You see the position of the Vice President is hardly the deciding factor in why voters cast their ballots for this nation’s chief executive. Still… the position is very important in that this is the individual who is literally a “heartbeat” away from the Oval Office in the event that the President (for whatever reason) cannot complete their term of office. Despite all of the lobbying and arm twisting from special interests and party poobahs, the final decision rests with the person at the top of the ticket. This is as it should be. It must be noted that initially in our history, the Veep was the person who came in second.

Strategies and political maneuvering do enter into the choice for positive (and negative) reasons. It should be important that the choice is an individual (who if the unTH*NKable occurs) can effectively function as the nation’s chief executive. That has not always been true. Vice Presidential running mates are sometimes selected to achieve geographical, philosophical, and political balance. This is done to garner “wider” appeal for the ticket with the general electorate, to placate special interests within the party, and even to stroke the ego/ personalities of the candidate running for President. The Veep choices maybe be made to complement the strengths of the lead candidate, or they may even be made to focus the jokes and the criticism away from the Chief executive once they are elected. We’ve seen all of this.

In my adult lifetime, there have been Vice Presidents who were eminently qualified, while there have been others who have proven to be “real pieces of work.” Really strong candidates/ personalities for the Oval Office (who felt confident of their election because of the “legacies” of their immediate predecessors) tended to pick running mates who left the voting public asking: “WHY?” When Nixon selected Agnew in 1968, the headlines ran: “What is a Spiro Agnew?” This choice proved very strategic because in the aftermath of Watergate, Nixon was secure in his tenure as the President ONLY as long as Agnew remained as the Vice President. All bets were off once Spiro was ousted, Nixon was forced to resign, and the replacement Veep Jerry Ford ultimately assumed the Presidency. Some twenty years later the electorate saw headlines: “What is a Dan Quayle?” Quayle took the brunt of the jokes and frivolous criticism. Papa Bush finished his first administration, but the team was not re-elected for a second term.

Presumed democratic candidate Barack Obama is now under a great deal of pressure to choose Mrs. Clinton as his running mate. There are strong historical precedents for this; and, in essence, this “kind of” follows in the founding fathers’ original method whereby the “second” vote-getter receives the nod. I don’t see this happening as the pre-convention campaign was too bitterly fought between the two. Despite all of the major in-party arm twisting; concerns of a troika (three horse driven vehicle) with an Obama, Clinton, AND Clinton co-presidency should more than sway Obama away from that choice.

In Illinois, we have seen similar “political” posturing in the selection of our Lieutenant Governor. There are common threads with some different twists. Corrine Wood proved to a “term” life insurance policy for former Governor Ryan. She was eminently qualified to be Lieutenant Governor and to replace the Governor - having a long history of Illinois elected office. She was a hard nosed politico who had stepped on a lot of toes over the years and made a lot of foes in the process. Despite the corruption and scandals surrounding George Ryan, the legislature left him to finish his term - in-part to preclude making Wood the Illinois Governor. George Ryan was tried, convicted, and sentenced to the slammer; AFTER he left office. Corrine Wood was denied the governorship in the process.

We in Illinois are now again enduring letting the clock run out for a highly controversial (and very negatively perceived) Governor. Rod Blagojevic can actually be said to make George Ryan look like an effective chief executive who does proud for the citizens of Illinois! His understudy, the Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn, had an almost “Dan Quayle laughableness” to him when he came into his office. Yet in his six years tenure; he has literally remade his image and the do-nothing perception of the Office of Lieutenant Governor. I’m Fred Cederholm and I’ve been thinking. You should be thinking, too.

asklet@rochelle.net

Thinking about respect And semantics By Fred Cederholm

2008-06-05T07:46:00.000-07:00

Column for on/after June 1st

I’ve been thinking about semantics. Actually I’ve been thinking about books, hypothetical contingencies, our financial messes, election 2008, and USA - the United Spinning(s) of America. Semantics are word games. Semantics involve choosing/ using “loaded words and phrases” to bias opinions in favor of your agenda, your objective, and your side. In the alternative, careful word choices undercut your opponent’s position, strategy, and objectives. Accentuate the positive(s) and mitigate the negative(s) are first and foremost the game plan in economics, finance, marketing, and politics!

You see the forthcoming “tell-all” by former Presidential Press Secretary, Scott McClellan, that the American Public was mislead to war in Iraq by the Bush Administration and that the American Press/ media dropped the ball in the reporting of the events/ justifications leading up to the invasion on March 19th, 2003 got a great deal of media brouhaha last week. The snips and snibbets leaked during the book’s pre-release condemning the Administration (and the media) for the “non-truths” divulge nothing new. (McClellan doesn’t use the word “lies” behind the justifications for war or outing of Valerie Plame by Veep Chief of Staff Libby.) Most of US/us already “knew” or at least suspected as much. No smoking guns are revealed here. If there were… we’d have heard about them! The White House and the “speaking” friends have been amazingly silent in their direct denials – choosing rather to discredit the book as merely the disgruntled musings of a frustrated former employee seeking to cash in on his Executive Branch tenure. This also is nothing new. Truth, or true “reality,” lies somewhere in between.

Famed prosecutor and New York Times best selling author of Helter Skelter (the Tate- LaBianca murders by the Charles Manson cult), Vincent Bugliosi, has only just penned a “fictional” work – The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder. The McClellan book’s premises/ speculations pale in comparison to the implications of this Bugliosi work. While pre-distribution/ marketing presents “Prosecution” as a tight, meticulously researched legal case putting George W. Bush on trial in an American courtroom for the murder of nearly 4,000 American soldiers fighting in Iraq, there is already festering speculation abroad that future actions could be brought against Bush, Cheney, Powell, Rice, and/or Rumsfeld in ex-patriot jurisdictions for atrocities of war and crimes against humanity. While such may have been ultimate the fate of Noriega, Pinochet, Saddam, and Hussein’s co-horts; any extradition of Bush poobahs to face the music at some international tribunal just isn’t going to happen – trust me!

There will undoubtedly be more leaked disclosures of concerted “non-truth” telling justifying the war. I’m certain there were “good” reasons for this war, we just haven’t been made privy to them. It is not the rich, the well-born, and the powerful who pay the price of major conflicts with their blood, their injuries, their sacrifices, and their deaths. Wars for economic benefit of corporations, financial moguls, or vested interests just “don’t play well in Peoria” – you need to fire up the patriotism and the intangible beliefs of the masses to garner the necessary support as the casus belli – the justification for acts of war. The post-election Congress will undoubtedly convene more hearing investigations “to put the matter to rest” (as in bury it for a generation or more). There will be the obligatory: “Mr./Miss/Ms… what did the President know, and when did he know it?” Like Watergate of some 30 years ago, not much will come of the costly Congressional hearings, and not much will really change – cynical yes, but ultimately true.

The public was not only left out of the loop regarding the real justifications for war, we are still being kept in the dark regarding the severity and duration of our looming financial messes. Things are far from well in Mudville. Uncle $ugar is stepping up to the plate like the mighty Casey to turn the game around, but despite the $70+ plus BILLION “invested” in the US by foreign sovereign wealth funds since last August and a MUCH larger amount of freshly printed bail-out bucks from the FED; things are NOT improving. We the people… don’t as yet have a clue what will be the ultimate costs in write-offs/ write-downs for ALL that looming exposure out there. Those who might be in the know, aren’t talking.

This week should finalize the Democans and Republicrats candidates for this Presidential run in 2008. Will they fess up to the American public in their campaign messages of “change” and “straight talk” with truthful and honest disclosures of where we are, and where “they” plan to take US/us in their administrations? After all… there is tradition at stake, the USA prevails - the United Spinning(s) of America is as American as apple pie. I’m Fred Cederholm and I’ve been thinking. You should be thinking, too.

Author’s Note: I didn’t circulate last week’s column TH*NK*NG (RESPECT) because at the time it seemed too local in focus. Plus… I didn’t have access to email for almost 4 days while my ISP service provider did a MAJOR system’s upgrade and conversion. Still… there are points made in that one which take on special meaning in light of this week’s TH*NK*NG (SEMANTICS).

Column for on/after May 26th

I’ve been thinking about respect. Actually I’ve been thinking about the Memorial Day 2008 observances, Woodlawn Cemetery, the St. Johns Program, Richard Erickson, small town patriotism, and the 1 plus percent. Memorial Day is observed on the last Monday in May. It began to honor the soldiers who died in the American Civil War, and after World War I - “the war to end all wars.” It was expanded to include those who died in any war or military action as well as honoring living veterans. In the widest context, it provides an opportunity to honor anyone who is no longer with us.

You see my hometown - the little Village of Creston - like many thousands of small communities across this land make special observances on Memorial Day. Local businessman, Lyle Headon, a US Marine and Vietnam War Veteran coordinates the ceremonies and program which this year occurred at both Creston’s Woodlawn Cemetery and St John’s Lutheran Church. Woodlawn is a beautifully pastoral setting about a mile North of Creston. There is a meandering stream on two sides. Just to the North is Brody’s Grove where the original settlement was located before the railroad came thru and the village of “Dement” relocated to a “crest of a hill” along the iron horse tracks becoming Creston (nee Crest-town).

It has been a Creston tradition to gather at the cemetery to pay respects to those who have served this nation in the military in both times of war and in times of peace. Every year there is a roll call of names of all the departed veterans interred there. Woodlawn is the final resting place for veterans from the War of 1812, the America Civil War, the Spanish American War, World War I, Word War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Each veteran’s grave displays the appropriate bronze flag holder (for their service) and an American flag. Normally, weather permitting, there were patriotic songs, a special speaker, taps, and a bagpipe medley before a fellowship meal was shared by the participants at the cemetery. This year most of the program, and the common meal occurred in town at St. Johns Church.

The 2008 keynote speaker was Richard Erickson (US Army Reserves) who has only just recently completed his second tour of duty in Iraq. Richard is a quiet, soft spoken man of few words; but in his presentation, he so eloquently shared thoughts on an experience that will forever be a part of his life experience (and now ours). He looked upon his action as both a duty and a responsibility requiring sacrifices and support beyond his own person. He drew upon his family, his community, his faith, and his friends. He singled out his brother John, Leslie (John’s wife) and his mother Donna, for taking care of his two teen age children during his 23 month absence for special thanks. And…he thanked the audience of friends and neighbors for their letters, packages, and prayers. He was SO glad to be home!

In describing the ongoing conflict over there, Richard made a distinction that is so often missed in the discussions about both Iraq and Afghanistan. This is “a war,” but it is a war without distinct borders, without distinct sovereign players, without distinct ethnicities, or even distinct nationalities. (Richard’s words.) So often you just don’t know who is a friend, or a foe, until the shooting begins. These are very important components because without distinctly definable players, it is almost impossible to define success, failure, or achieve a conclusion. It is a warfare of “-ISMs” - (Fred’s words, not Richard’s.) The 150, or so, attendees hung on his every word, and were all deeply moved. The same was true for oldest attending veteran’s (Carl Hill) presentation about the “Spirit of Creston” which followed Richard’s.

In the conversations across many of the tables during the communal meal held in the Church’s fellowship hall, a primary focus remained about our ongoing presence in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is very understandable given that literally everyone in this little Northern Illinois community of under 600 has at least one family member, friend, and/ or loved one (or more) presently serving in Afghanistan, or Iraq, (or has one in training and soon to be deployed there). There is Jason (1), Greg, Jason (2), Ann, Kevin, and Derek already over there. Adam is in training at Camp Pendleton, and Charlie is in training at Fort Benning. I should point out that these are ONLY the names of those who are aged 24 and younger! This alone equates to well over 1% of our total local population (of all ages). Please TH*NK about the implications of THAT for a moment!!!

For us in this small rural community in America’s Heartland each name equates to a face with a family – all of whom we know and love. We are the “Land of the Free, Because of the Brave.” Please remember these young people (and their families) in your Memorial Day thoughts and prayers. I’m Fred Cederholm and I’ve been thinking. You should be thinking, too.

Thinking about contractions By Fred Cederholm

2008-05-23T10:01:00.000-07:00

Column for on/after MAY 18th, 2008

I’ve been thinking about contractions. Actually I’ve been thinking about the Summer 2008 driving season, recessions, the March 2008 trade numbers, our trade deficits, our energy deficits, and worldwide gas prices at the pump. Official numbers for our trade deficits, the cumulative trade deficit(s) for the calendar year thus far, our energy import sources, and the “at the pump pricing” for gasoline around the world for this past March were released last week. The results and implications for US/us were actually quite surprising - at least they were not what I had expected.

You see the Summer of 2008 driving season usually kicks off on this coming Memorial Day weekend. Like everyone else I am already shelling out more per week to fuel up my vehicle(s) and am re-allocating expenditures on convenience (and junk) food, eating out, summer apparel, and anything else I don’t absolutely need to buy. I’ve never been a “power shopper” and only frequent the Malls/ retailers when I am pretty much buying gifts for others. From recent conversations, this is becoming common. The definition of recessions is based upon a contraction in spending and consumption. Recent stats for many large retailers showed contraction(s) in 2008’s first quarter.

Our eight largest trade deficits for the month of March 2008 (and 2008 Year to Date) are as follows: China $16.072 Billion ($54.745 Billion YTD), Japan $7.490 Billion ($20.959 Billion YTD), Canada $6.483 Billion, ($18.798 Billion YTD), Mexico $5.974 Billion ($16.613 Billion YTD), Germany $4.483 Billion ($10.802 Billion YTD), Nigeria $3.283 Billion ($9.580 Billion YTD), Venezuela $2.754 Billion ($8.773 Billion YTD), and Saudi Arabia $2.697 Billion ($9.584 Billion YTD), Our hands-down overall biggest dollar denominated imports are for crude oil and petroleum distillates. While dollar values for energy suppliers rose, trade deficits with the others tended to decrease slightly. The March 2008 energy imports (in barrels) were mostly down from a year ago.

The top eight sources of Uncle $ugar’s crude oil imports for March 2008 were: Canada (1.727 Million barrels per DAY--MBPD) down 3%, Saudi Arabia (1.535 MBPD) up 26%, Mexico (1.232 MBPD) down 24%, Nigeria (1.138 MBPD) down 12%, Venezuela (0.858 MBPD) down 17%, Iraq (0.773 MBPD) up 48%, Angola (0.375 MBPD) down 46%, and Algeria (0.232 MBPD) down 54%. Uncle $ugar’s top eight sources of total petroleum imports for March 2008 were: Canada (2.303 MILLION barrels per DAY--MBPD) down .1%, Saudi Arabia (1.542 MBPD) up 24%, Mexico (1.351 MBPD) down 23%, Nigeria (1.158 MBPD) down 14%, Venezuela (1.015 MBPD) down 21% , Iraq (0.773 MBPD) up 48%, Algeria (0.427 MBPD) down 41%, and Russia (0.394 MBPD) down 13%. Crude imports averaged 9.385 MBPD at a March import average price per barrel of crude oil (@ $89.85) was a record. It is important to note that last Friday’s crude pricing reflected an all-time high of over $ 127 per barrel. While consumption may be contracting, the escalating per barrel price will negatively skew the trade deficit figures for April and May when they later become available.

“Pump” prices now hover nationwide at the $4.00 range. US/us are not used to this… and we collectively feel grossly ripped off – we shouldn’t! The worldwide March “at the pump” prices rank the USA (@ $3.45/gallon in March) in the 108th position globally. Gas prices (in dollars per gallon equivalents) then were $9.58 in Eritea, $ 8.73 in Norway, $8.38 in the UK, $ 8.37 in the Netherlands, $8.31 in Monaco, $8.28 in Iceland, $8.22 in Belgium, $8.07 in France, $7.86 in Germany, and $7.84 in Portugal. Working from the lowest worldwide pricing, ranks the US in the 44th position from the bottom. Venezuela was the cheapest at 12 cents per gallon, Iran followed at 40 cents, Saudi Arabia was at 45 cents, Libya was at 50 cents, and Swaziland was at 54 cents. Don’t you wish you could “fill up” in Caracas??? I’m Fred Cederholm and I’ve been thinking. You should be thinking, too.

World Food Crisis (non partisan explanation)

2008-05-17T12:46:00.000-07:00

(04/08-10) OTC: $100 trillion needed to rebuild energy infrastructure | Feud: Oil in the Family | Peak Oil Doomsters debunked, end of civilization called off

(05/05-07) The End of Cheap Food | Level Two - Save Consumables | White House says farm bill cost still too high - $300bn | A Slap at Schoolchildren - Farm Bill | Bankrupt policies, empty stomachs | VIDEO: Bush Addresses 'Global Food Crisis' , Calls for $1 billion for 'global food | With food costs rising, ethanol benefits now questioned | Are We Running Out of Food?

(05/01-04) Amid mounting food crisis, governments fear revolution of the hungry | World Bank tackles food emergency | Biofuels under fire | Next bubble: Food | The new bogeyman: Worldwide hunger and biofuels | Agricultural corporations boast huge profits in midst of food crisis | Ethanol Policy Raises Food Prices | Ethanolics Anonymous | Global Famine | UN Urges Biofuel Investment Halt | A Perfect Storm of Stupidity (Food vs. Fuel)

(04/27-30) Big Corn and Ethanol Hoax | Ethanol part of food crisis, says Durbin | Deadly Greed: The Role of Speculators in the Global Food Crisis | Ethanol: It Looks Cheaper, But Looks Can Be Deceiving | The Real Cost of Tackling Climate Change | Wall Street Grain Hoarding Brings Farmers Near Ruin, Losses to Food Makers | US secretary concedes biofuels may spur food price rises | Let them eat ethanol? | The Biofuels Disaster Must End | The Lords of Capital Decree Mass Death by Starvation

(04/24-26) Biofuel Madness: Environmentalism exploited for political purposes | Soaring food prices due to demand, not investor speculation | The Washington food crisis consensus | Financial speculators reap profits from global hunger | Funding the food price fiasco | Bankrupt policies, empty stomachs Food Crisis Eclipsing Climate Change| The Political Economics of Greenwashing | Wheat Crop Failures Could be Total, Experts Warn | Hunger stalks millions of poor Americans | Food Riots 'Going to be More Commonplace' | Global Food Prices and Africa's Economic Famine

(04/21-23) Bryce on the Ethanol Explosion | Leaders warn on biofuels and food | Gore's Alarmism Failing: Concern for Global Warming Same as 19 Years Ago! | Biofuels Under Fire at International Energy Forum | Food Rationing Confronts Breadbasket of the World | How The Rich Starved The World Food rationing in the U.S.? | Food protectionism could provoke a crisis on a par with 1970s oil shocks | Bio-Foolishness | Biofuels: Who bears the cost? | Our climate numbers are a big old mess | Where's the food? | Fox news reports food rationing at Costco and Sams | Ethanol Kills Wildlife - People only starved

(04/13-16) North Korea 'faces food crisis' | Prices soaring as biggest grain exporters halt foreign sales | Why has the Global Food Crisis reached Emergency Proportions? | France’s answer to global food crisis is EU protectionism | EU defends biofuel goals amid food crises | Economic Pain Of Carbon Cuts Will Be Global | Global warming: The hidden assumption |

(04/10-12) Grains Gone Wild | World Bank Climate Profiteering | FAO chief warns of food riots, calls global meet on food security | A foolish overreaction to climate change | Nations make secret deals over grain | THe REAL invonvenient truth, Zealotry over Warming Could Damage Earth More than Climate Change | Is A Food Riot Coming To YOUR Neighborhood? | Gore Admits Financial 'Stake' In Advancing Global Warming Hysteria | Global Famine Upon Us | Two carbon-market millionaires take a hit as UN clamps down | Our global warming rage lets global hunger grow

more
http://www.moneyfiles.org/elites08.html
or
http://www.un-debt.net/elites08.html

The Rich: How They Operate and Glossary By James Jaeger

2008-05-15T05:43:00.000-07:00

Glossary of Cultural & Eco/Political Terms by James Jaeger
http://www.mecfilms.com/universe/articles/glossary.htm

Read a book called EMPIRE OF DEBT. Bonner makes the case that the only people that win in the stockmarket are insiders. He defines insiders as broker-dealers, big players and people that make their money off related stock market industries, similar to the people that sold picks and shovels to the gold miners. Also if you look at where rich, middle class and poor people hold their assets, only the rich hold a substantial portion of their assets in stocks and bonds. Only the middle class holds as large of a percentage of their assets in real estate as the rich hold in stocks/bonds. The poor, of course, hold neither asset, stock/bond or real estate for the most part.

For me, the moral of the above observation is this: if you aren't rich, don't try to play a rich man's game ... you will just become food for the rich. And this is exactly what has happened since mutual funds have enticed the middle class (even some poor) into the stock market since the early 1980s. All these people were slaughtered by the last debacle ended around 2002.

I predict the new allure is the "international market." 'Middle class suckers, come play the new INTERNATIONAL MARKET -- its better than just a mutual fund,' is the call. So Tharsaile, don't get suckered in. The reason the group you are occasioning is called DIEHARD.COM is because these "diehard" suckers refuse to acknowledge the game they're in. They desperately want to be rich, so they figure that by playing a rich man's game they will eventually BECOME rich. Wrong. The way to get rich is to:

A. Buy real estate for the rest of your life and continue to improve it and rent it, never selling anything;

B. Using equity and bank debt start some sort of business that provides a product or service that is, or goes into, great demand. Go public with the business or sell the business as an exit strategy.

C. Never drink alcohol or use drugs; work on your education, ethics and generosity constantly.

THEN when you are rich, dump these earnings into stocks and bonds where you only care basically about preservation of capital, i.e., growth rate of 5 to 10 percent.

I realize what the long-term growth rate of the stock market has been, but when you temper this with the fact that the dollar has lost over 95% of its purchasing power since the inception of the Federal Reserve System, the long term appreciation basically preserves capital and provides a slow, but granted, EXPONENTIAL growth.

Remember: the rich don't CARE about making money.

They only CARE about NOT LOSING money. I know it's difficult to understand this if you are young, dumb and hard-on bent for 20 to 30 percent ROIs (not saying this is you Tharsile), but when you get even a STABLE 5% on the relatively modest, rich-guy sum of say, $10 million, which is parked in stocks and bonds -- this is an annual income of $500,000 per year. Sure, the IRS is going to take at least 33% of this (without deductions), but who cares, you are still left with $330,000 per year.

And remember, to be a good rich guy: you don't want to work. You especially don't want to be hassled by employees, tenants, maintenance or business decisions -- you want to be "free." You want only two employees at most: your unbelievably aggressive tax accountant (who will preserve your capital) and your conservative Republican business manager (who will invest it in safe, stable stocks and bonds and get you your 5%.

Now, with your rich-guy system in place you are one of the HILTON sisters. Able to get drunk every night, travel the world (to get away from hangers-on), screw every chick or guy that has a nice ass. You are generally able to play the part -- and move to new states or countries (or take trips) when things get too hot or too boring. THIS is what it's all about, and as soon as more people in the world arrive at THIS position in life -- something the Robin Leaches of the world and Hollywood endlessly vomit -- we will all be happier and more satisfied. We will all be more fully living off the backs of the poor slaves we left in the dust, people enslaved by drugs and pharmaceuticals and cheese, and someday, AI robots. THIS state of planetary arrival is probably the basis for the Fermi Paradox. Why would other planetary societies -- that have arrived at this state -- desire to go through all the hassle of communicating with someone billions of miles away, let alone travel there. On the other hand, I DID say the rich like to travel -- so maybe they DID arrive at Roswell and infiltrate the government. This WOULD explain a lot.

Just some thoughts for you to pass on to your DIEING-HARD group Tharsaile.

>I don't understand why having an interest in investing means that nothing more important exists. Can't we be into more than one thing at the same time? Technology, perhaps?

See "Technology" and other terms in my new Glossary below.

>1000 of you saving the world. Sounds like that Ayn Rand novel. By the way, I think you're a few years too young to be a baby boomer.

Thanks for the compliment but I'm actually 99 years old.(1)

>>Well take a message back to all the morons at diehard.org: You're already dead.

>I can't -- they would delete it.

Well take the above message back, that they WILL be dead because they are playing a rich-mans' game.

James Jaeger

-------------------
(1) I'm not really 99. I just wanted you to think I was for 20 words-time. :)

Thinking about strategies By Fred Cederholm

2008-05-15T05:18:00.000-07:00

TH*NK*NG (STRATEGIES) – Column for on/after May 12th, 2008, By Fred Cederholm)

I’ve been thinking about strategies. Actually I’ve been thinking about the 15 cent increase, inflation, the FED, energy and food, investigations, and conspiracies. A strategy is a coordinated or concerted plan of action undertaken to achieve a pre-desired end to something.

You see last Thursday we all saw an across the board increase in the price we pay for fuel at the pump of 15 cents. While I use the 10% ethanol blend in my PT Cruiser, lawnmower, weed wacker, and chain saw; the 15 cent price spike pretty much applied to regular unleaded, premium, and diesel fuel as well. This must have been some pricing strategy by all of the fuel retailers because the spike occurred everywhere (regardless of the company or the brand) at almost the same moment. In actual truth, the jump occurred at the locations to get fuel in Rochelle and DeKalb in ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching unison while the harmonious jumps to the prices of 13 cents in Creston and Malta occurred about two hours later. There was a brief window of opportunity to top off your tanks at these locations at the not-so-excessive prices and many took advantage of the brief arbitrage.

The fact that the apparent unitary price bump/ spike occurred everywhere at virtually the same instant for the same amount led me to TH*NK that this had to be some coordinated strategy of the oil companies to “ding” the consumers. I had already been on-line checking world-wide news and developments when a friend and neighbor stopped at the house to tell me I had better fill up immediately because a price jump was coming. I logged off and topped off my gas supplies for all of my fuel thirsty vehicles and gizmos. I then went back on-line to find out why the spike occurred. I found not one single development, catastrophe, or explanation. I found nothing to justify the jump!

This jump was not unexpected by me because I had felt that the recent further cut in interest rates by the FED of a quarter of a point would trigger a further drop in the comparative value US dollar relative to the basket of other world currencies and crude oil would re-price accordingly. The Dollar may still be the “official” currency of OPEC, but it is the value of the Euro, the British Pound, and the Japanese Yen relative to the US dollar which sets the market price for crude world-wide. When the dollar drops relative to the Euro, the Pound, and the Yen; the global price of crude (and distillates) adjusts accordingly. Sometime down the road the “at the pump price” increases occur as well. It is tragically funny how quickly the upward pricing occurs while the downward trends take their sweet time. This must be all a part of the grand strategy at work. It’s no accident, is it?

Since fuel costs figure so predominately in the pricing of our food supply, it can’t be too long before we witness the “cost push” factor of inflation in what we all pay at the stores for what we eat. Since this is an election year and the electorate is clearly not a group of “happy campers” over the perceived gouging of their households for energy and food consumed, there will undoubtedly be more Congressional investigations forthcoming. The record setting first quarter announcements of profits reaped by the oil companies triggered a barrage of hearings, investigations, and inquiries. We didn’t learn anything from them, now did we? There will be bravado/ grandstanding but little relief!

A strategy is a coordinated or concerted plan of action undertaken to achieve a pre-desired end to something. There is a distinction which must be made here. The coordinated or concerted plan of action is only a “strategy” when the ultimate goal is for the common good or general well-being. In my dictionary, when the ultimate goal achieves bad (or negative) things; we don’t have a strategy, we have a conspiracy. I TH*NK that subtle line of distinction has been crossed! I’m Fred Cederholm and I’ve been thinking. You should be thinking, too.

Thinking about registrations By Fred Cederholm

2008-05-07T06:27:00.000-07:00

Column for on/after May 5th, 2008

I’ve been thinking about registrations. Actually I’ve been thinking about the 2008 elections, the endless campaigns, the Supreme Court, endless payment increases, and a growing malaise affecting all US/us. It is really difficult to get fired up for the coming elections which are still some six months off into the future. This is no small observation coming from me – the all-time news and political junkie! I am not alone in this feeling of weariness as many of my readers agree on this.

You see the Tuesday primary elections in Indiana and North Carolina “may” determine who will be the standard bearer for the Democratic Party in the 2008 Presidential election, but I am not counting on it. Both Senators Clinton and Obama claim they are in the fight until the 2008 Denver Convention. Senator McCain has “locked in” the Republican Party spot on the ballot. Campaigning has gone on for two years. The conventions, real debates, and podium combat still loom before us. I was disgusted and undecided about my choice options in 2004. I voted for President last and ended up actually flipping a coin - John Kerry “won” the toss! That is no way to make a voting decision.

This time I’ve threatened to write in “none of the above” and check THAT as a protest vote. Mrs. Thomas, one of my all-time favorite teachers (and League of Women Voter member), lectured me that THAT is a sorry cop-out and that she was absolutely ashamed of me for even joking about it! As always… she is completely correct. Choosing our next President is a sacred right, an honor, and a privilege - one dearly paid for by those who have gone before us and defended this land, its constitutional processes, and the American way of life. This country is in a mess no matter how you TH*NK about it. The current Newsweek cover story talks about “The Post American World” and how over 80% of our population believe the nation is on the WRONG track – a 40 plus year high!

We need leadership and a major change of course. Our next president must not only be Chief Executive and Commander in Chief, they must be an inspirational Cheerleader-in-Chief. Their oratory from the “bully pulpit” of the Oval Office must be backed with a specific bullet-point listing of the details of their agenda and plan of action with a timetable. Platitudes, clichés, and sound bites are NOT going to cut it. We need the leadership of a John Kennedy or a Ronald Reagan to fire up the populace and unite them in the hard choices we must face as a nation. Details on their plans for a turnaround have NOT been forthcoming from McCain, Obama, or Clinton. Shame on them! And… shame on US/us for not demanding such from them. Heck… they haven’t fully IDed the problems!

The recent US Supreme Court ruling upholding the Indiana photo ID requirement caused me to research voting requirements. I was shocked by what I learned. The steps necessary for voter registration, residency requirements, and time frame requirements for registration vary greatly from state to state – even for the national office elections. If you are not registered, you cannot vote. The Illinois system has shorter eligibility and registration time frames (before elections) than most states. Some require almost a full year of residency and a minimum 90 day window of registration before the elections. Illinois even has “motor voter” where you take care of the necessary paperwork at the Secretary of State’s offices for drivers’ licenses changes and renewals. This couldn’t be easier!

It is so tempting to be focused on the never ending (and escalating) bills and payments that we face every month. The barrage of the daily negatives calluses us into a numbed stupor of malaise that we can readily forget how “we” are the problem, but “we” are the solution. If you are not registered to vote; please call your County Clerk’s Office, get the relevant information, and get registered! There is still time. I’m Fred Cederholm and I’ve been thinking. You should be thinking, too.

Thinking about subtleties By Fred Cederholm

2008-04-29T15:01:00.000-07:00

Column for on/after Apr. 27th, 2008

I’ve been thinking about subtleties. Actually I’ve been thinking about inflation, gas and food, frozen pizzas, my green bean casserole, instant coffee, and T-paper. Runaway inflation is a fact of life that far exceeds the under 3% that is still presently being hawked by the spin meisters for the Bush Administration and the Federal Reserve Bank. By definition “core inflation” conveniently excludes energy and food items which might be OK if we didn’t have to power the things we own and feed ourselves and our families. These two categories of necessities will continue to constitute a growing part of our expenditures. We now pay more for what we buy, or pay the same and get less!

You see last Friday I topped off my PT Cruiser which was down to about half a tank. After the most recent jump to $3.749 per gallon for the 10% ethanol blend, this cost me $26.80. When I got the car in June of 2000, I could coast up to the same pump “on the fumes in the tank” and fill it up for about $22.00. This represents almost a 144% increase over the eight years. My weekly trips to the grocery store to purchase/ replenish the same items cost me a bit over 60% more since my mother’s death five-and-a-half years ago. I was aware of THESE spiraling costs every time I opened my wallet to pay. However, I am (and all of US/us are) also paying more for the same stuff even if the so-called “sticker price” has NOT changed. These are the subtle (or covert) increases for which we get dinged because the quantities and/or the packaging have conveniently been “downsized.”

Last Saturday evening I treated myself and my little Scottish Terrier, Mac II, to a frozen pizza when “we” watched the Harry Potter movie on ABC. When I put the pizza on the pan before I slipped it into the oven, I noticed that there was at least 3/4^th of an inch of more pan showing around the edge. The pan hadn’t spread; the pizza’s diameter had shrunk by an inch and a half! Mac gets the pepperoni and sausage chunks, and I swear the little guy counts. At the end of the pizza, I got “the look” that I had held back on his allotment – I hadn’t, but he didn’t TH*NK so! This was a subtle price increase of about 8 to 10% even though I thought I had paid the same price for the same brand.

The culinary repertoire of things I fix for pot luck or cooperative meals at church is kind of limited. Two weeks ago I made my green bean casserole. I opened the usual four cans of green beans, drained them off, and emptied them in the usual bowl to mix them with a can of crème of mushroom soup. Not only was the bowl not at its normal level, but the grey-brownish goop of the condensed soup didn’t have any visible mushroom pieces! I had to open and drain a fifth can of beans and add a can of mushroom stems and pieces to restore my concoction to its regular level and appearance. I already knew from recent experience that I had to add a cup of self-rising flour and three tablespoons of cocoa powder to the get the usual volume of batter I needed for the brownies I make to take to events. These actions also mark a “food-flation” increase - subtle yes, but still there!

A recently purchased jar of instant coffee was compared to a jar from a year ago that I had saved to store nuts and bolts in my basement. The new jar was about an eighth of an inch shorter and narrower by the same measure. With all this in mind, I also noticed that the chrome shaft of my T-paper holder was now showing a visible inch when I replaced the roll. Without my realizing, the roll had actually evolved/ narrowed by an inch for the same brand at the same price. Hum, what gives?

“Eternal vigilance” in not only the price we pay for freedom, it is also what we must all do to truly know the price we are actually paying for the things we purchase. Like so many households across America we are finding that there is just too much month left at the end of the money – and the roll! I’m Fred Cederholm and I’ve been thinking. You should be thinking, too.

Discussion about the people and the forces that are bringing down America

2008-04-27T13:41:00.000-07:00

Saturday, April 26, 2008

The entire show this week originates from the GATA Conference in Washington, DC.

Segment 1 - Al discusses the possibilities of gold manipulation with Bill Murphy, Chris Powell and Ed Steer of GATA.

Segment 2 - Al continues the discussion began in Segment 1.

Segment 3 - Al discusses GATA, gold prices and other issues with James Turk, founder of GoldMoney.

Segment 4 - More discussion at the GATA conference with a panel consisting of James Turk, Bill Murphy, Chris Powell and Ed Steer.

Segment 5 - Al discusses gold and resource investing with John Embry, Chief Investment Strategist of Sprott Asset Management.

Segment 6 - Al and Joe Martin, Chairman of Cambridge House, discusses the value of the GATA conference.

Hear the entire program
http://www.kereport.com/audio/0426.mp3

Thinking about shakiness By Fred Cederholm

2008-04-23T13:29:00.000-07:00

Apr. 20th, 2008

I’ve been thinking about shakiness. Actually I’ve been thinking about earthquakes, the US dollar, the February 2008 trade numbers, our trade deficits, our energy deficits, interest rates/ the “auction,” and inflation. Official numbers for our energy imports and our trade deficit(s) for this past February, and the cumulative trade deficit(s) for the calendar year thus far were released last week. While the media may have focused on the anomalies of a growing cluster of hundreds of unexplained quakes in the Pacific Ocean off the State of Oregon and the Friday morning 5.2 shaker in Southeastern Illinois, the real “shakiness stories” should have chronicled the further downward slide of the US Dollar relative to the other major world currencies. Unfortunately there is presently no “Richter Scale” for the precarious shakiness of the Buck. The Dollar is having major seizures!

You see while equity markets appeared to enjoy a favorable performance for the week just ended, this is a fluke reflecting that certain “index heavy” companies had a better first quarter from their international operations - mainly because the Dollar continued to tank. Because we import far in excess of what we export, we all have paid dearly for the benefits of these few. We now see the repercussions of recent interest rate cuts and the continued printing of more dollars. There is a time value to money and that is called interest. Each cut or anticipated cut in interest rates paid to holders of Dollars results in a downward re-pricing in the purchasing value of the Buck. This is the true cause of the run amok inflation we are ALL experiencing at BOTH the gas pump and grocery store.

Our eight largest trade deficits for the month of February 2008 (and 2008 Year to Date) are as follows: China $18.355 Billion ($38.667 Billion YTD), Japan $6.877 Billion ($13.469 Billion YTD), Canada $6.450 Billion, ($12.316 Billion YTD), Mexico $5.467 Billion ($10.638 Billion YTD), Saudi Arabia $3.501 Billion ($6.891 Billion YTD), Germany $3.416 Billion ($6.320 Billion YTD), Nigeria $2.884 Billion ($6.297 Billion YTD), and Venezuela $2.600 Billion ($6.020 Billion YTD). Our hands-down overall biggest dollar denominated imports are for crude oil and petroleum distillates, so just WHAT all are we still hocking our souls for in what we are getting from China, Japan, and Germany? February imports AND exports were both at records, yet imports grew faster!

The top eight sources of Uncle $ugar’s crude oil imports for February 2008 were: Canada (1.888 Million barrels per DAY--MBPD), Saudi Arabia (1.614 MBPD), Mexico (1.231 MBPD), Nigeria (0.982 MBPD), Venezuela (0.927 MBPD), Iraq (0.780 MBPD), Angola (0.341 MBPD and Kuwait (0.261 MBPD). Uncle $ugar’s top eight sources of total petroleum imports for February 2008 were: Canada (2.419 MILLION barrels per DAY--MBPD), Saudi Arabia (1.627 MBPD), Mexico (1.324 MBPD), Venezuela (1.112 MBPD), Nigeria (1.025 MBPD), Iraq (0.780 MBPD) Russia (0.451 MBPD), and the Virgin Islands (0.351 MBPD). Crude imports averaged 9.514 MBPD at a February import average price per barrel of crude oil ($84.76). It is important to note that last Friday’s crude pricing reflected an all-time high of $ 117 per barrel. Pump prices locally are now $3.57/ gallon for a 10% ethanol blend, $3.67/ gallon for regular, and $4.18/ gallon for diesel!

The FED has cut their lending rate to banks by 3.0% to 2.25% to “save the banks and their borrowers,” but it is the savers who really took the hit on their deposits. Borrowers actually saw their rates rise, or MAYBE stay the same! Last week’s Treasury auction composite average rate at 1.38% for 26 weeks “suggests” further rate cutting by the FED. Should this major error in policy occur, the Dollar will plummet, and crude will soar above $130. A few may benefit; but… we will ALL pay at the pump AND the store! I’m Fred Cederholm and I’ve been thinking. You should be thinking, too.

Foreclosure, Fraud, Internal Revenue forms 1099-A's and 1099-C's By Barbara A.Jackson

2008-04-23T13:27:00.000-07:00

Using my name and social security number, Wells Fargo filed a
falsified form 1099-A  --and it could happened to anyone who had or has
a mortgage loan.  Inaccurate or false information on an Internal
Revenue form 1099-A is significant.  The salient problem about an
untrue form1099-A, or 1099-C, is that either forms could cause
extensive and NEEDLESS tax consequences for TAX FILERS -especially, if
the tax filer is oblivious that a1099-A has been reported!

Lenders and creditors probably receive undeserved tax write-offs and
have distorted Securities Accounting as a result of untrue 1099's.
Also, particularly when real estate is being illegally, fraudulently
FLIPPED; and when Investors are being deceived; when foreclosures
occur via frauds, after evidence of Wells Fargo filing FALSIFIED
1099's surfaces, THERE IS CAUSE FOR SWEEPING PROBES INTO the 1099's
that Wells Fargo files with the IRS!  In fact, such an investigation
is probably warranted nationwide in communities which Wells Fargo does
business and reports tax information on 1099-A's and 1099'C's.

I am Katrina-displaced from New Orleans.  In LOUISIANA, Wells Fargo is
among certain  mortgage companies involved in REAL ESTATE and MORTGAGE
FRAUD schemes.  Because scores of people were displaced by the
hurricanes of 2005, companies like Wells Fargo have much greater
capacities to expand its various frauds and deceptive practices.
Emphatically, the fact that thousands of people become displaced via
disaster, the conceivability for Wells Fargo (and any other companies)
to file false 1099-A's or 1099-C's is vast and very easy to carry off.

This past February of 2008, I learned from the IRS that in year 2006,
WELLS FARGO filed a 1099-A for my former New Orleans property.  (Wells
never gave me a copy of that 1099-A.)   The year 2005 tax transcript I
obtained from the IRS shows that Wells Fargo filed an "acquisition" /
"abandonment" form 1099-A, wherein Wells Fargo represents May 19, 2005
as the date of my home being "abandoned" / "acquired" by Wells Fargo.

To the contrary, ON MAY 19, 2005, allegedly ON BEHALF OF GE Capital
Mortgage Services, Inc., a debt collector foreclosed and made his own
auction bid in an amount of $120,000.00. THE DEED to my home was
recorded IN THE NAME of GE Capital Mortgage Services, Inc.  Thus,
clearly Wells Fargo DID NOT acquire my property as Wells Fargo
reported to the IRS; and at the least, a 1099-A would appear more
logical if filed by GE Capital Mortgage Services.  Also, Wells Fargo?s
1099-A reported $12,000.00 as the Fair Market Value for my property.
However, IRS publication 544 states that the FMV is deemed by the
auction bid price -$120,000.00.  Another notably fraudulent thing
about Wells Fargo's 1099-A, is its FALSE representation of my owing to
Wells Fargo $86,149.00!  There's more I could point out, but the fact
of the matter is that I filed a form 3949-A to rebut the 1099-A that
was filed by Wells Fargo.

Also, it is worth investigating and comparing how many properties
Wells Fargo under-reported the Fair Market Value to IRS, and what
benefit(s) did Wells Fargo derive from those lower fair market values
-which, as in my case, the FMV that Wells Fargo reported was
absolutely and verifiably false.  (There is MORE to this particular
real estate fraud scheme -including a July 2005 report of Freddie Mac
paying $86,150.00 to GE Capital Mortgage Services, Inc., for my
property; Freddie Mac's purchase was printed in the August 2005 local
newspaper real estate transfers section.  Thus, even Freddie Mac?s
payment refutes the FMV reported on the 1099-A filed by Wells Fargo.
Another twist to this saga is the fact that GE Capital Mortgage
Services became DEFUNCT on October 25, 2002!  See the Louisiana
Secretary of State website, Corporations Division.)
_______________________
Barbara Ann Jackson
Law & Grace, Inc.
www.lawgrace.org

Thinking about art By Fred Cederholm

2008-04-17T07:46:00.000-07:00

Column for on/after April 13th, 2008

I’ve been thinking about art. Actually I’ve been thinking about beauty, St. Johns, the Erickson family, memorials/ remembering/ honoring, peace, and joy. Presently there is so much happening in the world that is negative, hateful, and destructive to the human spirit that we so often forget (or choose to ignore) the counterbalancing side to the human condition which builds our spirits, and gives us the strength to cope and continue on. Sometimes we need to stop and appreciate the things of beauty, of hope, of love, and of peace which are there to enrich and to strengthen us.

You see this past Sunday my little hometown congregation of St. Johns Lutheran Church in Creston officially became the permanent home of “I have prepared a place for you,” the latest creation of artist, illustrator, and muralist extraordinaire - Randy Halverson. This roughly four foot by thirteen foot mural surrealistically depicts the Christ figure with outstretched arms walking on air from the golden heavenly place he has prepared for us to the earth below. The clouds to the right and left subtlety suggest people and angels in prayer. It is truly an inspirational masterpiece.

This marks the fourth Halverson mural painting/ creation in our area. His “Life of Christ” and “The Last Supper” can be viewed in Trinity Lutheran Church in DeKalb. His outdoor work “Communiversity” (which commemorates DeKalb’s Sesquicentennial) can be seen when driving to the West on the Lincoln Highway in the downtown area. Art is often used to celebrate memorials, remembrances, and commemorations. Art in churches plays a major role in Western Civilization.

The Erickson family has a long history in the Creston area and at St. Johns Lutheran Church. The mural is the gift of the surviving seven children of Clarence and Mary Alice Erickson and their families. It is given in their parents’ memory and the memory of their brother, Lt. Colonel Alan Erickson, USAF. It is a fitting tribute to a wonderful couple who served their community and their church in so many ways. It honors a brother who served his country in Korea and Germany. Clarence Erickson was selected to receive Creston’s Annual Cederholm Award for Community Service in 1997. He was unable to participate in those festivities as he remained by the side of his very ill wife who passed away just weeks later. He joined her in death the following year. Their son, Alan, joined them in 1999.

It is a common tradition that families remember and honor their parents with memorials and/ or gifts to their communities. This is in keeping with the commandment to “honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God has given thee.” The gift to St. Johns is a truly beautiful additional to the church sanctuary. It is all the more special in that the artist, Randy Halverson, is both the grandson of Clarence and Mary Alice, and the nephew of Lt. Colonel Alan Erickson. After the dedication service, which was part of the Sunday worship; the family, guests, and members of the congregation joined together in fellowship for a meal together. It was a celebration of remembrance and sharing. We often forget how we draw upon our family, our friends, our neighbors, our communities for strength, for love, and for support in times of challenge.

As the members and guests took one last look at the newest addition to St. Johns before leaving the church, you could literally sense the love and joy and peace that they felt. They “knew” that Jesus the Christ had prepared a place for them as depicted by the mural. I thought of the words from John Keats epic “Endymion” written in 1818 and how they captured the essence and spirit of this dedication day: “A thing of beauty is a joy forever; its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness.” I’m Fred Cederholm and I’ve been thinking. You should be thinking, too.

What is a BILLION?? By James Jaeger

2008-04-12T04:13:00.000-07:00

What is a BILLION??

This is too true to be funny

The next time you hear a politician use the word 'billion' in a casual manner, think about whether you want the 'politicians' spending YOUR tax money.

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its releases.

A. A billion seconds ago it was 1959.

B. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.

C. A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

D. A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.

E. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.

While this thought is still fresh in your brain, let's take a look at New Orleans. It's amazing what you can learn with some simple division.

Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu (D), is presently asking the Congress for $250 BILLION to rebuild New Orleans. Interesting number, what does it mean?

A. Well, if you are one of 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman, child), you each get $516,528.

B. Or, if you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans, your home gets $1,329,787.

C. Or, if you are a family of four, your family gets $2,066,012.

Washington , D.C .. HELLO!!! ... Are all your calculators broken??

The Liquidity Society By Michael J. Panzner

2008-04-11T05:43:00.000-07:00

April 01, 2008

TV pundits and Wall Street "strategists" believe that "cash on the sidelines" can only mean one thing: it's time to be bullish. In their view, such a build-up of liquidity has always signaled a pent-up demand for stocks.

But what if the money's there (and growing) because individual investors, in particular, are beginning to realize that:

Equities are a riskier asset class than they thought (or were led to believe by their brokers and the rest of the financial services industry)
True diversification means having a portion of their portfolios in an asset class called "cash"
Portfolio volatility may not be such a good thing, especially for those who are in or near retirement

If any or all of these apply, then the recent cash-raising, which the "experts" -- I use that term loosely -- believe is bullish, may actually be pointing to a secular change in attitudes towards the stock market. If so, such perspectives could weigh on share prices for the foreseeable future....

http://www.financialarmageddon.com/2008/04/the-liquidity-s.html

Lehman Loses $300 Millon on Stated Loans By Mr Mortage

2008-04-11T05:40:00.000-07:00

Lehman brothers has anounced today that they have lost $300 million from one borrower on their super stated income loan business....

So these are the banks that we need to bail out? Did they "lend" $300 million to a couple of Modern Day Ocean's 11 style financial heist crew? They realized there was a problem when they didn't get the payment?! Maybe they should have examined a little more than two executives and some letterhead. Mr.Mortgage's opinion regarding your tax dollars is NO BAILOUT!

more
http://thegreatloanblog.blogspot.com/

Blood From Student Stones Loans By Elaine M.Supkis

2008-04-11T05:38:00.000-07:00

April 8, 2008

First of the big student loan security sales organizations files for bankruptcy. This annoys me no end. No student is ever allowed to file for bankruptcy! But the guys peddling this stuff may protect themselves this way! Charming. Hedge funds are no longer the destination of trillions of inflationary dollars and they are going under, one by one. Roubini and Misch and others debate the letter that describes the recession we are in. Is it a W, a U or an L. One commentator says, it is an F-U-C-K recession. I say, this is correct. And rail roads are sidelining much of their rolling stock due to lack of customers: a classic depression gage of dropping commerce....

http://elainemeinelsupkis.typepad.com/

The Fed Is Terrified By Mish

2008-04-11T05:07:00.000-07:00

The Wall Street Journal is reporting Fed Weighs Its Options in Easing Crunch.

The Federal Reserve is considering contingency plans for expanding its lending power in the event its recent steps to unfreeze credit markets fail.

Among the options: Having the Treasury borrow more money than it needs to fund the government and leave the proceeds on deposit at the Fed; issuing debt under the Fed's name rather than the Treasury's; and asking Congress for immediate authority for the Fed to pay interest on commercial-bank reserves instead of waiting until a previously enacted law permits it in 2011.

The Fed holds assets to manage the nation's money supply and influence the federal-funds rate, which banks charge each other on overnight loans. When the Fed buys Treasurys or makes loans directly to banks, it supplies financial institutions with cash; in effect, it prints money. The cash ends up as currency in circulation or in banks' reserve accounts at the Fed.

Since reserves earn no interest, banks lend cash that exceeds their required minimum. That puts downward pressure on the federal funds rate, currently targeted by the Fed at 2.25%. The Fed could purchase securities and make loans almost without limit, expanding its balance sheet. That would cause excess reserves to skyrocket and the federal funds rate to fall to zero. The Fed would contemplate such "quantitative easing" only in dire circumstances. The Bank of Japan took this step this decade after years of economic stagnation.

Weighing the Possibilities

So the Fed is seeking ways to expand its balance sheet without causing the federal funds rate to drop. The likeliest option, one the Fed and Treasury have discussed, is for the Treasury to issue more debt than it needs to fund government operations. The extra cash would be left on deposit at the Fed, where it would be separate from bank reserves on deposit and thus would have no impact on interest rates. The Fed would use the cash to purchase an offsetting amount of Treasurys in the open market; for legal reasons, it generally cannot buy them directly from Treasury.

Treasury's principal constraint is the statutory limit debt. Treasury debt was $453 billion below the limit Monday. In the past, Congress always has responded to administration requests to raise the limit, sometimes only after political theatrics.

Fed officials also are investigating the feasibility of the Fed issuing its own debt and using the proceeds to purchase other assets or make loans. It has never done so; the legality is unclear. Some foreign central banks, such as the Bank of Japan, do so.

....

The Fed is Terrified

Read the entire WSJ article. It's a good one. That the Fed officials are having these kinds of discussions at all shows just how terrified of the perception setting in that we are following Japan, which of course we are.

The Fed is effectively in a position of not to being able to print money to buy Treasuries from banks, because of restrictions mentioned in the WSJ article and also because the banks are insolvent. Simply put, banks do not have the cash to accumulate Treasuries on their books to sell to the Fed this time around. And more writedowns on commercial real estate, auto loans, credit card debt, Alt-A mortgages, and pay option arms are coming. This will require still more capital raising efforts.

more
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/04/fed-is-terrified.html

Thinking about couple By Fred Cederholm

2008-04-11T05:04:00.000-07:00

Column for on/after April 6th, 2008

I’ve been thinking about couples. Actually I’ve been thinking about the 2008 Presidential Election, spouses, financial disclosures, money, power, the cult of celebrity, and “two-fers.” The American public is being treated to a temporary hiatus in the media blitz of the 2008 Presidential campaign. It’s not that the race for the oval office is over – far from it. Because of the gap in the timing of the remaining primary elections and caucuses before the political conventions are held this summer and the “real campaigns” begin in earnest after Labor Day, we are getting a breather.

You see from just about any angle you approach it, this is a campaign for the record books. It is the longest campaign ever. It will be the costliest campaign ever. It began with the most number of contestants. It features the first potential African-American candidate, it features the first potential female candidate, it is the first race involving a former President as a direct player, and it already features the first real “World Wrestling Federation tag team bout” involving the battle of the potential first spouses. Never before have “significant others” of candidates been so formidable.

The recent revelations from the Clintons going public with their tax returns since they left the White House were noteworthy. Sure the disclosures about the MEGA- millions earned by them since they vacated 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue were eye-openers, but… this should really come as no surprise. Former Presidents and their spouses have opportunities to make HUGE amounts of money. There are book deals, paid public appearances, corporate board directorships, and highly lucrative speaking engagements. Such opportunities are NOT available to mere mortals like us or even the glitziest of entertainers, ex-corporate chieftains, sports figures, or those celebrities who are famous for being nothing more than “famous!” This is unique in that it was/is the first time we have been privy to an actual accounting/ publication of just how much “loot” is available to our “ex’s!”

We are a nation captivated and preoccupied by the cult of celebrity. Such status not only comes from power and money, it also breeds even more power and money. Never before in my adult lifetime have our Presidential candidates had spouses whose stage presence, articulation abilities, groupies/ fans, and celebrity aura eclipsed those of the actual candidates themselves in the election phase. This is REALLY something to watch. One actually has reason to ask if it is Barack and Hillary who is the true lime-light magnet? Or… is it Michelle and Bill?

Meanwhile on the GOP side of the coming election, the McCains – the presumed Republican nominee for President and First Spouse – have been amazingly silent, with the media coverage of them being virtually non-existent. There was a recent flurry of activity casting Senator John as some sort of “Dr. Strangelove/” warmonger character in the coverage of his pilgrimage to the Middle East and Israel (with Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman in tow as a rabbinical “spiritual” advisor) to assure the Israelis and AIPAC that any McCain administration would mark NO change in US policy for the region. His beautiful spouse Cindy has followed the more traditional role of being supportive - yet soft-spoken, non-controversial, and in the background. Given the center stage roles and hoopla/ free-for-all surrounding the Democrat’s candidates’ spouses, subdued silence is proving GOLDEN!

It is a fluke in this go around that the “coupling” on the ticket does not involve the usual spin, hype, and Kaka del Toro about who will be President and Veep. The spotlight on the duo/ “two-fers” this time (and the ensuing debate thereon) could well prove to be all about just who will be the President, who will be the First Spouse, and what will be the ultimate role for each of them in any coming administration. I’m Fred Cederholm and I’ve been thinking. You should be thinking, too.

asklet(at)rochelle.net

Thinking about “standing and standings By Fred Cederholm

2008-04-01T04:18:00.000-07:00

Column for on/after March 30th, 2008

I’ve been thinking about “standing and standings.” Actually I’ve been thinking about the S&L crisis vs. our current banking/ financial mess, cash flow, foreclosures, liens and “perfection,” and rankings by locale. The more things change, the more they seem be the same. The bad NEWS just keeps on coming with more daily negatives seemingly eclipsing the (bad) “records” set just weeks or months prior. We are seeing a synergy at work now where the cumulative sum of the components of the single negatives are producing an increasing gloom for the picture as a whole. You see the statistics for real estate delinquencies and foreclosures are growing on a weekly/ monthly basis. Most communities, counties, and states now find themselves having more of both than at any time since the Great Depression of the 1930s. In some cases the current status is already worse than that horrific time frame of some 70 years ago. Despite the “don’t worry, be happy – we have the situation under control” chanting(s) from the Administration, the Treasury, and the FED; reality suggests otherwise. We are a long way from turning the bend on this anytime in 2008 or even in 2009! “Prosperity is right around the corner” didn’t prove true for Herbert Hoover – and neither will it prove the case during the last year of Bush - nor during the first YEARS of his successor.

There are similarities between the national S&L crisis of some 20 years ago and the national banking crisis weighing on us now. There are also differences. This one is far greater and will prove more costly in both time and money to resolve. Both have their roots in a building boom done in an environment of deregulation run amok. In both cases financial institutions were being dragged down by a deficiency of cash flow. The S&Ls hemorrhaged money because they lent long term and funded those loans short term with funding that ended up costing more than the loans generated. The banks currently hemorrhage money because they just aren’t receiving the mortgage payments timely – that is, if they are receiving them at all! It’s impossible to meet the interest payments to your depositors (or investors) if you aren’t receiving payments, you are having problems foreclosing on your delinquent properties, and you can’t readily sell them even if you get them and TRY to market them.

Foreclosure is a time consuming and costly process in the best of times. In optimal conditions you are looking at a minimum 90 to 180 days before you get title/ possession to even have a chance to put the property up in a decent sale’s market. This is predicated on your having a “perfected” lien with all “I”s dotted and all “T”s crossed showing you have proper “standing” before the judge in the foreclosure proceedings. It is also predicated on that the delinquent occupant will vacate “premises” without requiring eviction. Here we are now seeing that people are increasing unwilling to move out voluntarily or quickly. We have also seen (in three different court jurisdictions in three different states) where judges threw out the cases because the plaintiff/ investors (in the mortgage derivatives) could not prove they had standing to foreclose, showing a lien to the actual properties in foreclosure. When the mortgages were packaged/ sold to investors, necessary lien transfer work was not done!

Foreclosure stats are now the worst in Nevada, Florida, and California. Illinois is #17. Ogle County (where I live) has some of the fewest (31) in our State. My hometown of Creston presently has 1 and nearby Rochelle has 7. DeKalb County just East currently has 710 with 217 in the City of DeKalb, 135 in Sycamore, and 14 in Malta. Winnebago County to the North has 2,438 with 729 in Rockford. Stephenson County to the Northwest has 47 with 33 in Freeport. While these numbers are bad and will grow, they pale in comparison to the rank standings of those on the East coast, the West Coast, and the South. I’m Fred Cederholm and I’ve been thinking. You should be thinking, too.

To “audit” this column and check out the current stats on your community, please check out:

http://www.foreclosure1.com (Foreclosure listing database updated thru March 31, 2008)

http://www.realtytrac.com/freesearch.asp (Foreclosure rankings and database updated thru January 2008

Grown Men Are Crying In Florida By B. Jones

2008-04-01T04:16:00.000-07:00

The Bradenton Herald reports from Florida. “In February, the prices of existing-homes continued to fall - to $254,200 from $319,000 from February to February. Locally, the median price of a single family home was down 20 percent, tying with Miami for the second-largest price tumble. Punta Gorda experienced the largest price fall with a median price 25 percent below where it was just one year ago… according to numbers released by the Florida Association of Realtors.”

“Condos in Bradenton/Sarasota fared much worse. Only five of Florida’s 20 Metropolitan Statistical Areas saw fewer sales than Bradenton/Sarasota despite a 41 percent drop in condo prices from February 2007, bringing the median cost of a condo to $211,500.”

“‘We’re seeing that beginning offers are low even if the house is priced appropriately,’ said broker Michael Taylor.”

“Short sales may be a large reason behind the continued drop in prices. Joanne Owens, operating principal of Keller Williams of Greater Manatee has 54 listings and 40 percent of those are short sales. ‘I’ve had grown men coming into our office crying,’ Owens said.”

more
http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/?p=4312

Inside Bear Stearns By D. Schechter

2008-04-01T04:14:00.000-07:00

March 28, 2008

INVESTMENT NEWS: Fiscal sky is falling, Goldman Sachs says. The final tab of the current financial crisis will $1.2 trillion globally — with almost half that amount borne by Wall Street.

more
http://www.newsdissector.com/

'We're From the Government And We're Here to Help' By M J. Panzner

2008-04-01T04:12:00.000-07:00

Maybe it's my imagination, but it seems like a lot of people -- rich and poor, young and old, Republican and Democrat -- are expecting the Federal Reserve, the President, Congress, the Treasury Department, or sundry federal, state and local agencies to "rescue" America from the clutches of a growing financial crisis.

Yet few are asking the obvious question: based on past experience, is it really likely that their efforts will succeed? In fact, you don't have to be all that cynical to believe that rather than solving the problems we now face, our "leaders" -- elected or otherwise -- will, in fact, make matters worse.

That appears to be the view of Tom Engelhardt, who runs the Nation Institute's Tomdispatch.com (a regular source of interesting and insightful commentary) and who is the co-founder of the American Empire Project. In "The Little Administration That Couldn't" (which is included in a broader post, "Tomgram: The Fate of the Bear Market"), he aptly sums up, in my view, the prospects for a Washington-led turnaround.

more
http://www.financialarmageddon.com/2008/03/were-from-the-g.html

The $1.1 Trillion HELOC Problem By Mish

2008-04-01T04:06:00.000-07:00

The New York Times is writing Home Equity Loans as Next Round in Credit Crisis.

Americans owe a staggering $1.1 trillion on home equity loans — and banks are increasingly worried they may not get some of that money back.

When borrowers default on their mortgages, lenders foreclose and sell the homes to recoup their money. But when homes sell for less than the value of their mortgages and home equity loans — a situation known as a short sale — lenders with first liens must be compensated fully before holders of second or third liens get a dime.

In places like California, Nevada, Arizona and Florida, where home prices have fallen significantly, second-lien holders can be left with little or nothing once first mortgages are paid.

Consider Randy and Dawn McLain of Phoenix. The couple decided to sell their home after falling behind on their first mortgage from Chase and a home equity line of credit from CitiFinancial last year, after Randy McLain retired because of a back injury. The couple owed $370,000 in total.

After three months, the couple found a buyer willing to pay about $300,000 for their home

CitiFinancial, which was owed $95,500, rejected the offer because it would have paid off the first mortgage in full but would have left it with a mere $1,000, after fees and closing costs, on the credit line.

“If it goes into foreclosure, which it is very likely to do anyway, you wouldn’t get anything,” said J. D. Dougherty, a real estate agent who represented the buyer on the transaction.

Underscoring the difficulties likely to arise from home equity loans, a Democratic proposal in Congress to refinance troubled mortgages and provide them with government backing specifically excludes second liens. Lenders holding a second lien would be required to write off their debts before the first loan could be refinanced. That could leave out a significant number of loans, analysts say.

People with weak, or subprime, credit could be hurt the most. More than a third of all subprime loans made in 2006 had associated second-lien debt, up from 17 percent in 2000, according to Credit Suisse. And many people added second loans after taking out first mortgages, so it is impossible to say for certain how many homeowners have multiple liens on their properties.

“This is turning out to be a real impediment to solving this problem,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Economy.com, “at least, solving it quickly.”

The article notes that 5.7 percent of home equity lines of credit were delinquent or in default in December 2007, up from 4.5 percent in 2006, according to Moody’s Economy.com. It's not unreasonable to assume with the the recession picking up steam that 10-15% of those $1 trillion in HELOCs and second mortgages will default. If so, add another $100-$150 billion in writeoffs. That number can easily be low.

more
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/

DEBT INC SEEKS FILM MAKER/PRODUCER

2008-04-01T04:04:00.000-07:00

If you are interested in this material that could save the world from itself, please email your full details and a resume to: interest_free_money(at)juno.com

All kinds of predatory lending practices are exposed in this psychological dramatization punctuated by the discovery of economic flaws and crimes. From credit cards to the so-called humanitarian packages.

In short, it is not a script for veterans-conspiracy theorists but educating the masses that never heard of the economic serfdom. Thus not too conspiratorial and its economic jargon is understandable by high school students.

Thinking about disclosures By Fred Cederholm

2008-03-26T14:20:00.000-07:00

Column for on/after March 23rd, 2008

I've been thinking about disclosures. Actually Ive been thinking about calendar 2007, financial statements, the auditors opinion letter, notes to the financial statements, contingencies, and NEWS. Calendar 2007 is now (almost) history. It was a year that was a far cry from the best of times and I fear that 2008 is shaping up to be well, a year of challenges of even far greater dimensions. Things are moving ever so quickly and it seems that we increasingly only learn about events, not as they unfold, but when the deeds are done and the crises are thus behind us. It is often said: that it aint over until the (horizontally challenged) lady sings. We are about to be treated to a concert!

You see in very short order the independent external audits of calendar year entities and corporations will be concluded; and the reports will be issued to management, the shareholders, and the general public. Audited financial statements are really things of beauty. As a forensic accountant, auditor, and writer; I am in awe of how they fairly present the activities and status of the smallest of businesses to largest of MEGA corporations for an entire year in a scant 15 to 25 pages. The general public doesnt have a clue what all goes into these annual examinations which culminate in the issuance of these reports - with their auditors letters, financial statements, and the notes to them. These are so critical and informative to both the public and the workings of our financial, economic, investment, and governmental systems (and society) as a whole. The reports for the events of 2007 will soon be issued and in many cases will become the fodder for the NEWS stories on page one.

The auditors report letter represents a formal opinion, qualification, or disclaimer as to the veracity and material fairness of the contents and summaries which follow. The opinion letter provides assurance and comfort that data/information included was examined in accordance with Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (GAAS) and presented in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). These are terms of arts and have specific meaning within the vast array of the users of the reporting as well as within the accounting profession itself. Accounting is clearly an integrity profession where firm and staff reputations reign paramount.

With all that has happened (and is happening) within the business, financial, and investment world; the release of the 2007 reports will receive more than the usual scrutiny. Was the auditors opinion letter unqualified indicating a clean bill of health? Was it qualified as in subject to or except for - indicating specifically identified problems or issues pending further resolution? Was it qualified as to the going concern of the entity for another year? Or was it adversely written that the financial information SHOULD NOT BE taken at face? This last option is RARELY issued.

In times of uncertainties and rapidly moving developments, the notes to the financials take on added significance. This is particularly true for pending litigation and other known contingencies. Such are generally covered in separately noted explanations where outcomes are either described as reasonably possible, probable, or remote. These projected outcomes are very important as they forewarn the readers/ users about possible impact. Coming media coverage should prove interesting!

Certain events and industries now find themselves under the microscope of public scrutiny. They make the NEWS and are the fodder in the reporting of it. This is as it should be in a free and open society. Timely and complete reporting is essential in these times of change and/or looming crisis. The public has the right to know and the media has the obligation to inform them. TH*NK of the NEWS as coming from all directions - North, East, West, and South hence, the NEWS!

Im Fred Cederholm and Ive been thinking. You should be thinking, too.

The Fed Ropes Nothing - You All Hung Yourselves By HT

2008-03-19T05:35:00.000-07:00

The top controls all the markets of the world...

The top sells and all the speculators (Bottom) get taken to the cleaners...

The top, you know people with wealth? Well you all (Speculators) bid up their wealth...

It's a bet speculators are making...when is the top going to sell?

They sell when they sell...and they buy when they buy...speculators are along for the ride... more

http://hypertiger.blogspot.com/

Global systemic crisis – End of 2008: Pension funds go off the rails

2008-03-19T05:33:00.000-07:00

Public announcement GEAB N°23 (March 16, 2008)

According to LEAP/E2020, by the end of 2008, a formidable debacle will affect pension funds all over the world, endangering the entire system of capital-based pensions. This financial calamity will bear a particularly dramatic human dimension because it will come at the precise moment when the first wave of baby-boomers phase out of the labour force in the US, EU and Japan: pension fund revenues are collapsing at the very moment when they should be making their first large series of payments to pensioners. In this 23rd edition of the GEAB, our team anticipates the evolution of the upcoming pension fund crisis, details which countries are the most exposed (in particular in Europe) and provides a number of operational and strategic recommendations to face the situation.... more

http://www.leap2020.eu/

Ron Paul Third Party, 2008-2012: How to Do It By Nelson Hultber

2008-03-19T05:30:00.000-07:00

by Nelson Hultberg
(Libertarian)

The political revolution spawned by Ron Paul will not be won in one campaign. No profound paradigmatic change in society comes so easily. Unfortunately those "sunshine patriots" who expected this to be easy sailing with no setbacks will now abandon the fight and accuse Ron Paul of selling out. Such is human nature.

This being said, however, we do have to acknowledge that the Ron Paul campaign had some serious flaws, and the most important one was this: He ran as a Republican! To anyone with a sense of history, it should be obvious that trying to change the Republicans into Jeffersonian individualists is a fool's game. They sold out the cause of freedom way back in '68 when they embraced Richard Nixon, and then furthered their capitulation by accommodating the neo-con infiltration of the 70s and 80s..... more

http://www.nolanchart.com/article3139.html

China is not a menace By Joost van Steenis

2008-03-19T05:28:00.000-07:00

Xiamen, March 19 2008

Dear reader, this is the 97th Letter of an Autonomous Thinker

The elite needs enemies to control the own masses and to persevere its privileged position.

The Russian menace has withered away, so new menaces are created.

The Muslim menace is welcome but the few poor and weak countries of the "Axis of Evil" are not much of a threat. When the Western troops withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan, the Muslim menace will also disappear.

A more lasting menace is needed.

The elite invented the threat of the "booming" economy of China.

India is useless as a menace because this country never leaves the economic morass because of corruption, the caste system, fights between fundamentalist Hindus and Muslims, the secondary place of women and the weak central government, the prime cause of a failing infrastructure.

CHINA has become the target!

"China is growing so fast that it will soon overtake us!"

So what, are only Westerns allowed to be on top of the world?

I cannot imagine that Chinese leaders can be worse than the war-mongering and greedy American leaders.

The Chinese menace is based on lies.

According to figures of the IMF about the per capita GDP based on PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) the distance between the West and the rest is increasing (all figures in dollars).

Land 1980 2000 2005 2006 growth 2002-2006

in % in dollars

China 420 3853 6193 6760 74 2907

India 643 2402 3262 3490 45 1088

Thailand 1366 6202 8542 9166 48 3027

USA 12104 34344 41517 43538 27 9194

Holland 9896 27144 30363 31643 17 4499

China overtook India but the Western economies expanded much more than the Eastern.

The elite emphasizes the growth in percentages. But in real figures the American economy grew three times more than the Chinese.

Is China overtaking the West? Rubbish!

The GDP figures do not say much about the earnings of common people as for example workers with the lowest wages.

The minimum wage of workers in the manufacturing industry (if paid out and if a worker has work) in Bangkok (Thailand) is about 200 bath a day, 100 euro a month, slightly more than the minimum wages in Guangdon, the richest Chinese province, and more than twice the highest minimum wage in India. The earnings in the country side where more than half of the population lives are much lower.

Those earnings are peanuts compared with a minimum of more than one thousand (1000) euro in my country (The Netherlands). And in my country everybody, millionaires as well as beggars, get 1000 euro a month when they are over 65 years old.

The minimum wage in California is about 8 dollar an hour, maybe 650 euro a month. Elsewhere in the USA it is lower - with a minimum in Kansas of only 2.65 dollar. It seems that some parts of China can indeed overtake some parts of the USA.

But I do not see the difference in welfare between the richer parts of the West and the East are disappearing in a short time.

Once more the elite is telling fairy-tales.

The figures tell a clear story. Though the economy of China is growing, the per capita GDP in the West is growing more. In this way China will never catch up with the developed world.

China is not a menace.

The Chinese leaders (by the way much better than the leaders of so-called democratic India) increase the purchasing power of the own masses. But just as in the West most of the growth goes to a small group of rich and privileged people at the top. There is some progress for the masses but it will take ages before the Chinese masses will have a comparable decent life as the Western masses.

The Western elite creates non-existing menaces.

At the same time it supports the coming into being of a Chinese elite that will curtail the own masses.

This globalised elite will rule forever when its basic, safe, prosperous and privileged way of life is not made impossible.

Yours truly, Joost van Steenis

http://members.chello.nl/jsteenis

Ways to increase masspower

Thinking about implosions By Fred Cederholm

2008-03-19T05:24:00.000-07:00

Column for on/after March 16th, 2008

Ive been thinking about implosions. Actually Ive been thinking about warehousing, leverage, multipliers, magnified expansion/ contraction, fractional reserve banking, and the FED. When I learned last week that the FED had created yet another accommodation to swap newly minted US Treasury securities for $200 BILLION in par value Cleverly Rigged Accounting Ploy (CRAP) financial derivatives that were actually worth less, or even worthless, I was livid. I saw this as yet another lame attempt to bail out the banking industry for their wayward past actions. I asked myself: Why, why, why? Then it hit me I was looking at all this from the WRONG direction!

You see our banking, financial, and economic system(s) are highly leveraged - meaning the fractional margins used to enhance the transactions allow one to make the big bucks in an upturn, but cause one to take equally huge hits/ losses in any contraction. This newest accommodation by the FED was not to get the declining (in value) derivative paper off the books of the banks - much like ENRONs tactics - to obfuscate the losses by warehousing them elsewhere until a turnaround or some other miracle happened. There was really a far greater clandestine agenda at work here.

A write-down/ write-off of this CRAP paper by those holding the items was only a few general ledger tickets and adjusting journal entries away from hitting their regulatory capital. This not only might force an insolvency; it would, at the very least, it impact the allowable amounts of their outstanding loans. By the FED assuming the warehousing of these, this forestalled a ballooning contraction for 28 days. Of course, the presumption is that the FED will roll them over and over and over until a time when the institutions can redeem them and write them down/ off on their own.

Under the concept of fractional reserve banking with the current multiplier of 10, banks need only hold 10% of their regulatory capital/ deposits in reserve for cash payouts to depositors. The rest can be loaned out to borrowers. While this does not directly mean that banks can immediately (or directly) loan out 10 times what they have in deposits, the recycling of the money in the system effectively yields that result. It would take the fictional math geek Charlie Epps of CBSs hit show NUMB3RS to explain the calculus behind the ten fold magnification from deposits to loans. Please bear with me in my highly simplified explanation of how $200 BILLION becomes $2 TRILLION!

To bring the levels of outstanding loans back in compliance/ sync with a reduced regulatory capital, the banks would contract their loan portfolios. Theyd start by voiding the unused lines and outstanding letters of credit. As the short term commercial (lending) paper came due in 30, 45, 60, or 90 days. These would NOT be renewed! This would (more than likely) be done against the most creditworthy - not those in financial difficulties. I mean its hard to get blood from a turnip. This would cause those whose loans were called to put the screws to those parties who owed them money, who would do the same to those who owed them - and so on and so on and so on. Do you see where this is headed? In short order, the $200 BILLION becomes a $2 TRILLION contraction.

Bernanke, Paulson, and the FED Governors literally had a gun to their head regarding this accommodation. Of course they didnt explain the rationale behind it like I just did. How could they? A $2 TRILLION contraction of outstanding loans would be devastating in the best of times. In this environment of declining employment, the questionable status of the US dollar, and record levels for the EURO, the Yen, the Pound, and a barrel of oil; I dont even want to go there! Was this most recent $ 200 BILLION accommodation enough to stem a $2 TRILLION contraction? Time will tell. Im Fred Cederholm and Ive been thinking. You should be thinking, too.

asklet(at)rochelle.net

The Gift Economy - Receiving stimulates giving By Sepp Hasslberger

2008-03-10T04:51:00.000-07:00

One of the alternatives to our current economic system, which is based on money created by banks as a debt and heavily laden with a cost called interest, is what has been termed the gift economy. Few would disagree that life could be much better if everything - or at least a good part of what we need for our daily survival - were freely available just for the taking. But alas - the current economic reality is just the opposite - scarcity rules. Everything has a price, and the more scarce something is, the higher the price. To obtain anything we need to pay that price - in other words exchange something of ours for what we wish to receive.

At times - actually I would argue more often than not - scarcity is brought about artificially to manipulate the price and therefore the "exchange value" of goods. Making a profit and paying the piper requires it.

more
http://blog.hasslberger.com/

Fed Official: Mistakes Were Made (No Kidding) By Michael J. Panzer

2008-03-10T04:49:00.000-07:00

March 05, 2008

It's not often that regulators -- or any public officials, for that matter -- acknowledge their mistakes. Unfortunately, when they do, the revelations usually come well after the fact, which is not much use to anyone.

More importantly, those mea culpas often serve to make matters worse, because they end up justifying a dramatic response -- often a tightening of the screws -- that proves ill-timed, to say the least. In "Fed Admits Missteps on Banks," the Wall Street Journal's Damian Paletta details one such example.

more
http://www.financialarmageddon.com/2008/03/fed-official-mi.html

The debt load will destroy us By D. Schechter

2008-03-10T04:47:00.000-07:00

The debt load will destroy us
http://www.newsdissector.com/blog/

Global Elites Gone Bonkers By SB Kayser

2008-03-10T04:44:00.000-07:00

March 10, 2007

Before addressing our global monetary infectious disease, a serious correction has to be made: in many articles 'capitalism bashing' has gone unabated especially since the subprime housing bubble has burst. This is irritating because the notion of big government and central banking (the commerce of usury included) are the two main planks of the Communist Manifesto. Capitalism goes along with limited government and hard currencies. There is no shortage of disconnects in logic. In fact it is kind of appalling to read leftist and pro-globalist editorials and essays vilifying greedy-capitalism restlessly while they merely depict the deep flaws inherent to the centralization of power - aka the Socialist Ideal.

Although Darryl Schoon shows up as a hard currency advocate, he still asserts that capitalism sets in motion its demise, the greater the expansion the greater the debt. Well... well, while we're at it, it would be useful to add: as long as the populace buys this fallacy and fail to realize that savings is impossible when living beyond one's means. This has nothing to do with capitalism but market indoctrination. The boomers thought that they would enjoy retirement and most of them are going to fall very short. Wan Lixin at the ShangaiDaily.com, like many, is fed up and for him everything is crystal clear: The Monster US supercapitalism eats the middle class and democracy. Instead of 'Supercapitalism' he should write 'Superdebtism'. Lixin cites many prominent names but never condemns the credit conditions during the events he describes in length. Again debt addiction and currency debasement are among the recurring fallacies used by the Global Elites to get richer and quicker 'is' anti-capitalist, period. Thinking that the panacea for debt is credit is a 'universal delusion'.

Lenin's famous quote: 'The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency' - ditto, congratulations, mission accomplished!

Frank Shostak explains why too much debt alone sets in motion a series of random shocks: 1) The act of debt liquidation forces individuals into distressed selling of assets - 2) as a result of the debt liquidation the money stock starts shrinking and this in turn slows down the velocity of money - 3) a fall in money leads to a decline in the price level - 4) the value of people's assets falls while the value of their liabilities remains intact, which precipitates bankruptcies...

Whatever systems is in place, none can survive lies and frauds in the long run and this can be traced back to most omnipotent governments that have ruled since the beginning of Mankind. Even the gold standard couldn't prevent the Kings and Emperors from embarking on ruinous military expeditions or reevaluating their coins when they felt in the mood to do so, which is the same as giving an arbitrary value to today banknotes. Markets must define the price or precious metals, fluctuating according to the supply and demand. Neither governments nor central banks can fix their prices by controlling the interest rates as they see fit. 'Price-fixing' lawsuits are nothing new. So why should we let some powers-that-be commit the same crime? What we are really witnessing are the damages of collectivism and debtism, such as described by A. Hayek in 'The Road To Serfdom'.

MORE/LONG
http://www.moneyfiles.org/sbk09.html

Published on: opednews.com

Thinking about checkbooks By Fred Cederholm

2008-03-10T03:41:00.000-07:00

Column for on/after March 9th, 2008

Ive been thinking about checkbooks. Actually Ive been thinking about fire sales, the housing bubble, credit card balances, employment/ unemployment, the equity markets, the FED, interest rates, the dollar, and oil prices. Last week saw plenty of economic/ financial news about US/ us being covered not only abroad, but also by our domestic media. All of it was negative. In fact, the most ardent of news junkies were hard pressed to find one story in the plus column - that is, unless you referred to an ongoing string of announcements heralding record profits for oil companies.

You see America is up for sale right now. When the going gets tough (and I mean really tough), the tough dont go shopping; they put their superfluous stuff on the market and try to unload. They dont just sell what they no longer need, they also try to unload what they can no longer afford! It is a buyers market for just about anything you can imagine houses, vehicles, furniture, equity investments... The problem is there arent a whole lot of buyers out there with checkbooks backed by the necessary deposits to cover the purchases.

Those with the cash are sitting tight for now. The attractive bargains of this week should prove bigger, even more attractive, by waiting. As a consequence, prices continue to drop and the fire sales heat up. This is not necessarily a good thing because it is not our own citizenry who are in the best positions to buy, and the foreign $ugar daddies just arent interested in what main street America has to offer and needs to unload. This applies to those US investment equities held as well.

The housing bubble (passing its gas) has put a record number of properties on the sale block, in pre-foreclosure, and in foreclosure. Real estate values are being deflated big time not so much in the Mid-West as in the West, the East, and the South where a run up in paper appreciation was far greater. This is a natural, but painful swing of the pendulum. For about a decade now, the family home was used as a household ATM providing a seemingly endless source of funds for re-stocking checkbooks and funding what amounted to a profligate shopping spree run amok on steroids.

Outstanding credit card balances grew in sync with the proliferation of home equity loans. Now maxing out the plastic money reserves is the sole avenue to keep many households afloat.

The January figures just out show outstanding consumer credit (plastic money borrowings) hit a record $2.52 TRILLION after rising $6.9 BILLION in January, rising $3.7 BILLION in December, and rising $4.5 BILLION in November. With no cash and a bone dry checkbook, families charge necessities! Many have chosen to stop paying the monthly mortgage to meet credit card minimums.

The most recent employment figures were equally depressing. Payrolls fell by 63,000 in February following a decline of 22,000 in January. The percentage of unemployed workers also went down, but this is only a superficial anomaly. The number of unemployed didnt truly decline; what we are seeing is those long term without jobs are being excluded from the stats because their benefits have expired. This is no surprise as roughly 60% of jobs growth had been due to the housing boom.

Friday, the markets retreated back to the levels of Oct. 2006 - eliminating any gains from the prior 17 months. The employment figures, housing negatives, and burdens of debt clearly took their toll on Wall Street. Pressure is now on the FED to cut interest rates by a half to three-quarters of a point at their March 18^th meeting IF they wait that long! This will not fix anything, but will cause an immediate drop in the relative value of the US dollar. Import costs (particularly for energy) will surge. I expect at least a 15% spike in the barrel price of crude and the pump price of fuels right out of the chute. OUCH!!! Im Fred Cederholm and Ive been thinking. You should be thinking, too.

Poole, Paulson, Bernanke on Bailouts and Bank Failures By Mish

2008-03-02T08:49:00.000-08:00

Saturday, March 01, 2008

Bernanke Does Not Understand The Problem

Banks have every reason to decrease lending. There is rampant overcapacity in housing, commercial real estate, and the service sector. In addition there is over-leverage in hedge funds and over concentration of bank loans tied to real estate.

Bernanke wants banks to lend more, but all that will do is increase losses. The man clearly does not understand what the basic problem is. Yes, banks should be raising capital, but not to increase lending. Banks need to raise capital in advance of the approaching tsunamis in commercial real estate and credit card writeoffs, and the continuing tsunami in residential housing, all of which are going to further impair bank balance sheets.

MORE

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/

Purchasing Mexico & Other Countriesby James Jaeger

2008-03-02T08:48:00.000-08:00

OVERVIEW:

After the U.S. regains its financial and moral position with the world it should purchase the rest of the American continent. This might be done by offering a sizable and reasonable sum of money to the PEOPLE of Mexico, Canada, Central America and South America, in roughly that order. As the U.S. purchases pieces of each country, it should admit each new territory into the U.S. as a state, thus bringing the U.S. up to 100 states -- and eventually 1,000 states. It should be kept in multiples of 100 so the word Senate has some meaning. When the U.S. has 1,000 states, we could rename it a SuperSenate or Continental Senate or something. Each one of the new states would then come in under the U.S. Constitution and the people that live in each new state would be full-fledge US citizens. Sale should be VOLITIONAL and the money should go DIRECTLY to the PEOPLE of each country purchased -- NOT the government. The US is buying their loyalty, NOT their land, and the purchase money will allow each new citizen the opportunity buy a house and/or business and/or get off drugs. The difference between this plan and the one the CFR and it's devotees have is this plan keeps the US Constitution intact. The other plan basically sets up global organizations and then stuffs you and your fellow Americans into THESE organizations. Then the US Constitution is abolished and YOU are now stuck in a one-world totalitarian government where most of your freedoms and inalienable rights have been trashed. The details of this have been worked out elsewhere, so before you pooh-pooh it, get the details.)

http://www.mecfilms.com/universe/articles/mexico.htm

Shayne McGuire: The Early Innings of a Gold Boom by John Rubino

2008-03-02T08:46:00.000-08:00

2/26/2008

My new friend Shayne McGuire is director of global research at Texas’ $115 billion Teacher Retirement System, which means he oversees a vast portfolio of high-grade bonds, Blue Chip stocks, and cash. Not the kind of environment that’s usually hospitable to atavistic assets like gold. Yet he recently published a book—a very good book—titled “Buy Gold Now”, in which he explains his belief that the dollar, U.S. bonds and many stocks are headed south, while gold is going to the moon. Here he is on why this will happen and how best to play it:

DollarCollapse: You're a rarity: A mainstream money manager recommending gold, an asset that usually does well when bonds, your pension fund's mainstay, do badly. Why?

Shayne McGuire: On the surface, gold makes sense in today’s environment. Gold does well when both bonds and stocks are doing badly, when there is insufficient compensation for the risks inherent in owning either asset class. In the 1970s, gold did very well in part because the stock and bond arenas were mine fields. Investors found that pulling money out of financial assets made sense. Simple as it sounds, the concern was with staying away from things that were going down, and this collective concern pushed gold up as more investors bought it, as is occurring today.

more
http://www.dollarcollapse.com/iNP/view.asp?ID=64

The Crash That’s Coming: More Bubbles Will Burst By Danny Schechter.

2008-03-02T08:44:00.000-08:00

The Crash That’s Coming: More Bubbles Will Burst

“The public, fortunately, doesn’t understand how bad the situation is. If it did, we might have a real panic on our hands.” — David Ignatius, Washington Post

Now that this year’s Oscars are history, imagine if you will, an awards ceremony honoring not the best of the best but the worst of the worst, not just spinoffs like the “Razzies” (the Golden Razberries) for movies. Who should we single out as the biggest slime balls and sleazoids who caused the most damage to our society in the year gone by?

Can you envision an Academy Award like statuette to “honor” the people we should be despising the most?

The political among us will immediately visualize potential awardees among our own devil incarnates. On the right, perhaps it would be that Dick Cheney or even Bill O’Reilly; on the liberal left that ever evil Bubbaman, Bill Clinton, or the liberal media’s NY Times might be pounced on by the “wingers,” like red meat, at least before the recalls.

Others would conjure up offending glitterati, easy targets like Paris Hilton or Lindsey Lohan, and others among the most photographed famous for being famous non-functionals among us....

Compound Rates of Interest: A Four-Thousand Year Overview by Dr. Michael Hudson

2008-03-02T08:38:00.000-08:00

The Mathematical Economics of Compound Rates of Interest: A Four-Thousand Year Overview by Dr. Michael Hudson, ISLET ©

part1
“Whoever enters here must know mathematics.” That was the motto of Plato’s Academy. Emphasizing such abstract ratios as the Pythagorean proportions of musical temperament and the calendrical regularities of the sun, moon and planets, its philosophy used the mathematics of nature to reveal an underlying harmony and order in the universe and hence, in an ideal society. But there was little quantitative analysis of economic relations. Although the Greek and Roman economies were increasingly wracked by debt, there was no measurement of this phenomenon, or of overall production, distribution and other macroeconomic measures....
http://www.michael-hudson.com/articles/debt/CompoundInterest1.html

part 2
The past century’s economic schoolbooks have described a universe running down from entropy. Production is assumed to be plagued by diminishing returns, so that each additional unit of input produces less and less output. Even if technology were recognized to raise the productivity of labor, capital and land over time, neoclassical models hold that each additional unit of consumption or wealth yields diminishing psychological utility. Not only will economies grow less rapidly, they will feel poorer....
http://www.michael-hudson.com/articles/debt/CompoundInterest2.html

Thinking about Sysiphus By Fred Cederholm

2008-03-02T07:13:00.000-08:00

Column for on/after March 2^nd, 2008,

Ive been thinking about Sysiphus. Actually Ive been thinking about our current mess(es), Bernanke, Paulson, the equity markets, our presidential candidates, and masochism. Poor old Sysiphus was a character from Greek mythology who was condemned to ceaselessly roll a rock to the top of a mountain to solve his problem(s); whence the stone would fall back of its own weight leaving him from where he had begun. Does THAT task not characterize the futile situation set before our political and fiscal/ economic personages/ leaders in calendar 2008?

You see Uncle $ugar finds himself in one @#$%^&* heck of a mess. The entire planet of Earth finds itself in one @#$%^&* heck of a mess! This one @#$$%^&* heck of a mess has been a long time coming, and the solution to the one @#$%^&* heck of a mess will not be quickly/ easily, resolved! While Sisyphus was the wisest and most prudent of mortals in his day, he was faced with cumulative challenges not experienced by any personas in the entire history of mankind up to that point in time ditto for those who aspire to deal with the one @#$%^&* of a mess facing us. Even those who give their face time to media cameras dont give a true clue to the dementia of the mess.

Bernanke, as the Chairman of the FED, is jogging on quicksand with leaden shoes. Anyone familiar with my columns knows that I am NOT a fan of the Bush administration, but Ben Bernanke is one of the few Bush appointments with which I approve. Following Maestro Alan Greenspan is a thankless task in TRUMP spades. The only more difficult job is following W Bush in the Oval Office. Mistakes were made colossal mistakes were made but hindsight is always 20/20! The FED has limited ammo left in a crisis this gargantuan and we are talking about financial losses in the TRILLIONS maybe in the MULTI-TRILLIONS. This is a crisis about solvency, not liquidity. Drawing a line in the water and lowering interest rates, may buy time; but it will not fix a blasted thing. Helicopter Ben has a reputation to live down to. His actions thus far have reinforced myth.

Treasury Secretary Paulson has said Uncle $ugar cannot bail out those who irrationally took on more debt than they can handle. The government should not cover the banks, Wall Street, nor the markets for THEIR ill-conceived actions. But the policy/proposals thus far say the opposite! Have interest rate cuts on the cost of funds been matched by comparable drops in rates paid by borrowers? No way! Just like Japan in 1990s, policies were designed to buy time for banks.

Pick a market, any market. The graphs show the same 100 point + declines again and again - retrenching from false bumps engineered by market fluffing from any alleged-conspiratorial activity of a plunge protection team, the market makers of Wall Street, or the cash rich sovereign wealth investment funds - dumping their dollars. Is such not truly the invisible hand of a market correcting to some sane pricing of equities based upon historical multiples of earning per share (or their perceived future EPS)? Market graphs of late show a futile Sysiphus at work up and back.

In an election year, the public is geared up for hearing - not the truth - but a song and dance. We have been exposed to both eloquence and - trust me - Ive got the experience and know how to get US/ us thru this. Who has even specifically IDed what this is? Just what are their solutions - to the problems which they dare NOT even speak the names? Our next President will face hurdles of Olympian proportions. Are they nuts, or merely ODed on Prozac? (Beat me, hit me, kick me more, more, more Im still not satisfied.) Hello Im running for President, my name is but just call me Sysiphus. Im Fred Cederholm and Ive been thinking. You should be thinking, too.

Thinking about benchmarks By Fred Cederholm

2008-02-27T03:58:00.000-08:00

Column for on/after February 24th, 2008

Ive been thinking about benchmarks. Actually Ive been thinking about the December 2007 trade numbers, the recession, our trade deficits, our energy deficits, a line drawn in the water, and mushrooms. The official numbers for our energy imports and our trade deficit(s) for this past December, and the cumulative trade deficit(s) for the calendar year just ended were released last week. There are some real eye openers in the figures. These should be filed away for comparison because 2008 is already shaping up for US/us to be a year of many changes mostly downward!

You see financial pundits (me included) are looking to the year ahead as a year of downturns. Some have already postulated that the dreaded R-word of recession actually began in the final months of 2007. Others predict its beginnings in the first or second quarter of 2008. Because this is a presidential election year, the government will pull out all the stops to put forth a smiley face during the third quarter before the actual election in November. Weve heard their mantra of dont worry, be happy (and spend) before. Congress and the Bush Administration already have approved a $150 Billion rebate package giving tax-paying citizenry a spring windfall to soften coming downturns. This means of course, a supplementary bump in our National Debt by the same amount. All coming downturns should be reflected in our consumption of goods and energy. Dollar slide will continue.

Our eight largest trade deficits for the month of December 2007 (and 2007 Year to Date) are as follows: China $18.792 Billion ($256.269 Billion YTD), Japan $6.593 Billion ($82.799 Billion YTD), Mexico $6.511 Billion ($74.258 Billion YTD), Canada $4.656 Billion, ($64.674 Billion YTD), Germany $3.874 Billion ($44.712 Billion YTD), Venezuela $3.651 Billion ($29.697 Billion YTD), Nigeria $3.431 Billion ($29.984 Billion YTD), and Saudi Arabia $2.704 Billion ($25.227 Billion YTD). Considering that our hands-down overall biggest dollar denominated imports are for crude oil and petroleum distillates, just WHAT all are we hocking our souls for in what we are getting from China, Japan, and Germany? As an aside our biggest trade surpluses are with the Dutch with a December surplus of $1.513 Billion and a YTD surplus of $14.566 Billion.

The top eight sources of Uncle $ugars crude oil imports for December 2007 were: Canada (1.780 Million barrels per DAY--MBPD), Saudi Arabia (1.675 MBPD), Venezuela (1.246 MBPD), Mexico (1.234 MBPD), Nigeria (1.210 MBPD), Angola (0.439 MBPD), Iraq (0.378 MBPD), and Algeria (0.348 MBPD). Uncle $ugars top eight sources of total petroleum imports for April 2007 were: Canada (2.326 MILLION barrels per DAY--MBPD), Saudi Arabia (1.686 MBPD), Venezuela (1.382 MBPD), Mexico (1.322 MBPD), Nigeria (1.271 MBPD), Algeria (0.600 MBPD), Angola (0.439 MBPD) and Iraq (0.378 MBPD). The December import value of crude oil ($24.9 Billion) and the December import average price per barrel of crude oil ($82.76) were records. Despite all the December saber rattling between Washington and Caracas, Venezuela regained its historic slot as our overall number three energy provider. Mexican production/ sales to US/us continued to decline.

How we fare in 2008 should be reflected in the numbers presented to the public. In the recent past, such reporting has been spun, hyped, or even eliminated altogether. We stopped getting the M-3 money supply data last March and more economic reporting by Uncle $ugar is scheduled for elimination this March. The FED and the Administration have drawn their line in the water, seeing more liquidity as the solution - not the problem. The US citizenry is being treated like mushrooms; kept in the dark and fed PR (public relations). Correction: make that another two alphabetical letter acronym. Im Fred Cederholm and Ive been thinking. You should be thinking, too.

I've been thinking about guns By Fred Cederholm

2008-02-21T12:32:00.000-08:00

Column for on/after February 17th, 2008

Ive been thinking about guns. Actually Ive been thinking about the Northern Illinois University shootings, reason and logic, legislation, twenty-seven words, profiling, and the NRA.

Last Thursday on St. Valentines Day, a deranged individual took five innocent lives and wounded sixteen others in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University just ten miles east of my home. This horrific incident comes on the heels of the shooting-murder of a well-respected attorney in nearby Rockford as he cleared the snow in front of his home. THAT was preceded by a mass shooting of shoppers at a suburban mall near Chicago just weeks before these other recent killings. The NIU shooter took his own life, while the two (or more) other killers still remain at large.

You see last Saturday when I volunteered to register voters at the League of Women Voters booth as part of the Rochelle Business Expo, several of my local readers stopped by to comment about my recent columns. All hoped I would address the escalation of this senseless armed violence which has of late been the story on page one. This is NOT a column I particularly want to write because everyone has a personal opinion on the subject - it is a lose/ no win situation for me. These shootings are on everyones mind as well they well should be. Something must be done, but what?

While I personally have not owned a firearm, I dont have a problem with those who own rifles for hunting and sport target practice. I also dont have a problem with those who own handguns to protect their homes, families, and persons as long as they are properly vetted, licensed, and trained. I do have a big problem with the over-the-counter sales of assault, automatic, and semi- automatic weapons plus the unrestricted sales of armor piercing ammo to any civilian who desires to own/ possess them. Could someone please explain to me why a private individual would need (or even want) such weaponry? Ive never understood the rationale behind this and am totally baffled.

In the coming months, there will be a renewed push to enact additional legislation that will try to protect us from ourselves. Most recently there was the attempt to create gun free zones. This sounds good on paper, but is any criminal or deranged person going to honor it? The NIU campus was a gun free zone and just what (in hindsight) did that accomplish? Not much!

Once again we will see the twenty-seven words of the Second Amendment to the US Constitution dissected and debated. These are: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. Just what was the intent of the framers, and how have the conditions/ logic behind such evolved or changed since 1791? Until repealed/ modified, the Second Amendment remains the law of the land.

Since 9-11, profiling a segmenting of the population by certain demographic characteristics for investigative purposes has gotten a bum rap. There are certain factors and characteristics which history has shown to be central to identification of perpetrators. Every horrific mass shooting (since Columbine) has involved persons who were identified with certain problems, had taken specific medications, or had stopped taking them. It all cases there were lapses in the availability of such information for the existing vetting process. The issue reduces to whether the right to privacy supersedes the protection or welfare of the general population. This presents no small dilemma!

The National Rifle Association is more than a well-funded gun lobby. It is fine organization that is really about safety, respect, and training. Their informational materials/ videos are excellent. As a private organization, membership by ALL gun owners cannot be required, but it should be highly recommended. Im Fred Cederholm and Ive been thinking. You should be thinking, too.

nvoluntary Thrift By Michael J. Panzner

2008-02-21T12:28:00.000-08:00

February 05, 2008

Many factors have contributed to the mess our economy is in right now. One has been the popular fantasy, encouraged by retailers, financial institutions and the mass media, that there is no reason why every American can't have it all, right now -- regardless of whether there is any basis for that assertion.

Now, though, attitudes are changing. The current downturn is forcing many of those who might once have blindly accepted the tenets of the cult of consumerism to have a serious rethink. In "Economy Fitful, Americans Start to Pay as They Go," the New York Times suggests the new, more prudent perspectives are also spawning what could be a far-reaching change in spending patterns.

http://www.financialarmageddon.com/2008/02/involuntary-thr.html

The Plague of the Witch Doctors By Nelson Hultberg

2008-02-21T12:27:00.000-08:00

February 11, 2008

"Here we are yet again in the midst of another 'global economic crisis'," says financial analyst, Nicholas Vardy, editor of The Global Guru. Vardy is not reporting, but mocking. For he is one of the establishment cheerleaders respected by Wall Street, and he does not look kindly upon those considered to be bears in today's world. There was a lot of castigation in his latest missive to us in the hinterland (2/5/08). So what I wish to do in this essay is investigate some of Vardy's derisive barbs and see how substantive they really are. His comments are in italics; my answers follow in regular font.

Before you liquidate your financial assets, buy gold bullion, and move to a cave in Montana, you may wish to consider that current predictions of global economic collapse may be simply hyperbole. It has happened before.

Yes, hyperbole accompanies all economic crises in history, most of which do not result in collapse. But the presence of hyperbole does not negate the disastrous policies that create the potential for a collapse. It is the policy sources of the potential collapse that we must investigate here, not the tenor of the voices exclaiming its coming.

Comparing economic statistics is inevitably a "glass is half empty" versus "glass is half full" kind of game. Both Pollyannas and Cassandras can marshal endless statistics to support their version of events.

more

http://www.afr.org/Hultberg/20080211.htm