Tuesday, November 24, 2009

JOHN PIERPONT MORGAN MAKES BERNIE MADOFF LOOK LIKE AN AMATEUR



"Today's history lesson is on..."

With those faithful words my high school history teacher would proceed to put half the class (often myself included) into a near catatonic state. Education is another one of those things 'wasted on the young'.


Well now I am at an age -- and living through a moment in history -- when what has happened in the past really does offer all of us some insight into the future. A good piece of 'a long time ago' holds an incredible power to help us come to grips with today . In case you haven’t noticed, we are living at the very edge of a financial precipice from which many Americans will soon fall to their death. Let me set the stage.


Michael Douglas had a famous line in a 1987 movie called Wall Street. He said: “Greed is good.” Thankfully he and his protegee (Charlie Sheen) ended up reaping what they sowed and the Securities and Exchange Commission finally ended the party, just like in Bernie's case. Too bad Hal Holbrook couldn't at least have saved Bud.



But last year’s Bernie Madoff debacle -- as painful as it was to many private investors -- pales in comparison to J.P. Morgan’s ruthless ways. He was the man who destroyed America’s monetary system in the early 1900’s simply so he could be an extremely rich and powerful man.


Morgan’s banks held a lot of commercial loan paper at the time allowing him to rule a rather large financial empire. When President Teddy Roosevelt betrayed his former backers and went after banks in 1907, Morgan first set out to crush his biggest competitor, the H. J. Heinz Banks (yes, the pickle people).


After creating a ‘run’ on the Heinz banks Morgan crafted a propaganda campaign that spread across the country, skillfully conviencing people that they needed to hoard money. That dried up funds for many other banks leaving the J.P. Morgan group as the only game in town.


Along with sweet talking Congress (what we are going through now with corruption is nothing new), Morgan got permission to print $200 million in Morgan Bank Notes so he at least had unsecured credit -- ‘funny money’ -- to put out for loans. Along the way he also managed to get Congressional approval to swallow the Heinz family’s greatest asset, Heinz Steel. This was a sticky deal because he had already purchased U.S. Steel and to own both was your average textbook example of ‘antitrust’.


These are the type of people, specifically in large financial institutions, who have been actually running this country for more than a hundred years.


Why is that so important? Simple. Commentator Bill Still puts it this way: “It’s not what backs the money, it’s who controls its quantity. Big Banks are always going to be in the governing business as long as government borrows money from them. ”


I pointed out in my “Auditing the Fed” article recently that the Federal Reserve Bank is NOT a government agency (even though it has a ‘.gov’ URL address on the Internet. It is comprised of a group of privately held banks and people at the Federal Reserve click their heels every week and make money (in the form of credit) magically appear.


When Morgan created that $200 million years ago, he was doing exactly the same thing!


So what have they been up to lately at J.P. Morgan?


According to stats from the end of June in 2009, J.P. Morgan is holding $80 Trillion in commercial paper or 5.7 times the entire value of the U.S. GDP ($14 Trillion). That’s not 1/5 of the GDP, that’s 5 times the value of everything our country produces.


In fact, it holds 1.18 times the entire value of the World’s GDP. It is a company that holds 40% of all the assets in the world. But truth is, it could not sell a fraction of these assets (derivatives) to perhaps 99.9% of the people or companies on earth.


Why should we care? That’s where the ‘too big to fail’ mantra has come from in the past twelve months.


But is there really anything the United States government can really do about things? Here’s a hint.


J.P. Morgan holds nearly $80 TRILLION in virtually worthless commercial paper as ‘assets’. It’s hard assets (those that might actually be salable) total $1.57 Trillion to back up the debt. So that means it’s funny paper is 50 times more than its real money.


Let’s take a look at the other financial players.


Goldman Sacks has $40,477,262,000,000 in dubious paper.

( $40 Trillion or 333 times its $120 Billion in assets)


Bank of America $39,064,884,000,000 in dubious paper.

( $40 Trillion or 27.6 times its $1.45 Trillion in assets)


Citi National Bank $31,943,721,000,000 in dubious paper.

( $32 Trillion or 27.47 times its $1.165 Trillion in assets)


When all four of these financial institutions are combined the misery index nearly climbs out of sight.


Together they own $191.427 Trillion in questionable paper. Do you really think that when our government drops by the cashier’s window in China and asks for 100 Billion from time to time for ‘bail out money’, they are doing anything more than spitting at a typical California wild fire?


So now perhaps you realize things are indeed very bad. The politicians were lied to. The politicians lied to everyone else. Americans were kept too busy living a life beyond their means to pay any attention and they all got away with it. Think Barney Frank was doing any of us any favors? Not a chance. I believe he isn't stupid, just ruthless like J.P. Morgan. I hold to the belief that Frank wanted everyone to own a home because taxes on real estate are the number one source of income for government. You don't own your own home. You merely rent it from the government. Strange how the United States Constitution recognizes the Right To Own Property as one of its core beliefs...


President Obama spoke the other day of a ‘double dip’ Recession. That means just when it looks like our economy might come out of the woods, we are going to realize it’s actually on the verge of doing it all over again. He wasn’t talking about somewhere down the road in say five or ten years. He meant that like a little fawn struggling to climb to her feet, one small challenge could easily come along and knock Bambie right to the ground. Do you realize that our country has a history (there's that word again) of living through a 30 year downturn in its economy? Are you ready for that to happen again?


It’s time to learn to live with less. A lot less. Some adults may be able to grasp that concept but there will be many who will chose to live selfishly in a state of denial. Those are the ones who will star in the sequel for Escape From New York. Heaven help the young people who have rarely had to go without thanks to our abused credit laden society. They will take what they want and God help you if you are in the way.


Many people have often said that the “Gun Control” agenda was to prevent the citizens of the United States from launching an uprising against an unresponsive government. While there is a great deal of truth in that, all of us may have a much more local and immediate need to protect what is theirs from the world at their doorstep.


Good luck and God's speed to each of you.


HOLLYWOOD ED BEGLEY JR PULLS AN ALAN GRAYSON ACT ON FOX!

For those of you who may not have been in front of a TV Tuesday afternoon you missed a real tragedy. There in living color, during a live broadcast "discussion" on Global Warming, Ed Begley Jr. became a screaming lunatic for all to see.

Ed has been a hard core environmentalist for many years and one might easily guess the last two days have been very, very hard on him. With the release of hundreds of e-mails that prove beyond any doubt that the 'Global Warming' agenda is a total fraud -- meant only to create self-serving reputations and mega riches for Al Gore and others, Ed took to the same track as many far, far Left Liberals.

If you scream loudly and long enough and don't allow any fact to get in the way of your opinions, you may actually crush others and rule the day. Ed, those days are clearly drawing to an end.

It reminds me of one of our bumper stickers. "A Prius isn't an Eco car, it's an Ego car."

Just remember that one the next time you see a Prius driver going ten or twenty miles an hour over the speed limit (on their own) as they use the HOV lane on a highway. I'm one person who wouldn't mind seeing California or some other states have a $500 moving violation fine for just such a situation.

Ed, give it a rest.

THE "WAR TAX" IS JUST ANOTHER SAD JOKE

Just when you think there couldn't be another insane idea from the Democrats in Washington, they confirm there is more idiocy where the previous nonsense came from.

The idea of a "war tax" that was floated Monday leaves just about everyone scratching their heads.

I guess it's time to remind people taxes are the Democrats drug of choice. They don't even need a reason to grab the needle and shoot up again, it is quite simply an addiction. When, as a group, the Democratic Party finally destroys the entire economic structure of the United States and every single citizen in the country is on the lowest level of poverty, what will the party do then?

The whole idea of a "war tax" hits me two ways.

(1) We already have a Defense Budget that relies on the current collection of taxes from Americans. It reminds me of Massachusetts (yes, that state that is going broke paying for the preview of Pelosi's crushing National Health Care fiasco) and New Hampshire. Over the past few years politicians in both states (both of which are controlled by Dems and copy each other in dreaming up new taxes or fees), have enforced a new tax on home owners. From day one a portion of real estate tax valuations have been based on the age old phrase "location, location, location".

In other words, if your home was located in a nice neighborhood it would be worth more. Along with that concept was if your home was on a hillside with a view, it obviously was considered in the best location of that same neighborhood. Again that affected the valuation and the amount of taxes you would have to pay. Then in the middle of the night some Democrat somewhere bolts upright in bed with their latest brainstorm... "Let's create a 'view tax'!!!

Of course it doesn't matter that a nice view from the home was already part of the valuation, it just sounds so politically correct to bill the "lucky ones" who have a nice view.

(2) The second thing that must be pointed out is this. Unfortunately, just a few months ago when Ted Kennedy died (did you forget already?), Democrats were caught with their hand in the cookie jar trying to steal money from the Defense Budget to build a memorial to Ted.

If a "war tax" were to be instituted EVERY SINGLE DIME of increased tax income would have a counterbalancing raid on the existing share of the Defense Budget. Congressional Reps would justify their theft, thinking that the military is still getting a lot of money and they will 'get by'.

Congress has become the biggest brothel in the country and citizens aren't getting any of the action, only the bills. SHAME ON THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY and any REPUBLICANS who chose to attend the money orgy along with them.


Sunday, November 22, 2009

GLENN BECK CALLS FOR NATIONAL MEETING AT LINCOLN MEMORIAL


During his appearance at The Villages in Florida Saturday, National TV host Glenn Beck unvieled some bold plans for 2010 in his efforts to end the craziness in Washington (with both Democrats and Republicans).

Along with holding major, educational and support conferences in seven major cities (starting with March 27 at UCF in Orlando, Florida), Beck is also calling upon Americans everywhere to attend a national meeting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC on August 28, 2010.

In support of that gathering Satire Works has created a product series that we hope all Americans will become aware of and share with their friends and associates!

Please drop them an e-mail and encourage them to go to Washington in August and to pick up a t-shirt or sticker now to help spread the news. Bulk orders are available.

Thanks!

http://www.SATIREWORKS.com