With these government cuts comes some inevitable Federal job loss. Ron Paul has taken this into consideration and has created a system where these jobs are phased out rather than slashed immediately. Keep in mind, it is impossible for government to make a job without taking one from the private sector (read Henry Hazlitt). That said, the smaller the Federal Workforce the larger the private sector work force. Private sector jobs are more integral than Federal jobs to a strong economy as the private sector are the producers.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Ron Paul's Plan to Restore America Explained
With these government cuts comes some inevitable Federal job loss. Ron Paul has taken this into consideration and has created a system where these jobs are phased out rather than slashed immediately. Keep in mind, it is impossible for government to make a job without taking one from the private sector (read Henry Hazlitt). That said, the smaller the Federal Workforce the larger the private sector work force. Private sector jobs are more integral than Federal jobs to a strong economy as the private sector are the producers.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Herman Cain: Why You Can't Run Government Like A Business
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Herman Cain Exposed: Economically Incompetent
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I have seen several headlines in the recent past that Herman Cain’s economic knowledge is just what we need to get our economy running again; the “Cain-train” as some call it. Serving as ex-Federal Reserve chairman of the Kansas City branch from 1992 until 1996, why wouldn’t American’s trust his economic prowess? To be honest, until I scrutinized his 9-9-9 plan and read into his economic history, I bought into the “honest businessman” image. I encourage readers to drop all superficialities and examine each candidate’s economic histories as America cannot afford any more mistakes.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Herman Cain Exposed: The Federal Reserve Chairman
As most of us already know,
the Federal Reserve [Fed] came under expansive scrutiny in 2008 after the
housing bubble burst and reaped havoc on our dollar. What most people don’t
know is why the Federal Reserve came
under fire. The absence of that knowledge creates a lack of conviction and
rectifying our economic problems can only occur when both knowledge and
conviction are achieved. The majority of Americans perceive our Federal Reserve
as necessary and integral to our economy, as air is to our respiratory system.
Most people don’t understand the immoral inner workings of the Fed nor do they
understand the unconstitutionality of it. People are often surprised when they
learn that the fed is privately owned.
Ex-federal reserve chairman and now presidential candidate Herman Cain has
repeatedly defended the Federal Reserve claiming an audit would be “counterproductive”.
He also recently announced that he admired Alan Greenspan, the man who created
the giant bubble that led to our current crisis. Given the understanding that Herman Cain must certainly have
about the Fed, being that he was a Federal Reserve Chairman, his defense is
inexcusable, irresponsible and immoral to the wellbeing of the American people.
In this document, I will take you over the failures of fiat money, the corruption
it breeds and the negative effect it has on our savings. This document is for
those who want to understand the Fed more deeply, I offer a moderate history of
the Fed to hopefully elucidate the subject and display why Herman Cain would be a continuation
of bad economic policy and immorality against the American people.
History of Fiat Currency
In 1775 the Continental Congress
began issuance of a paper currency called the Continental in preparation of the war with Great Britain. Since the
notion of taxation was highly ridiculed and the war costs were so high, they
began printing Bills of Credit (short term public loans
to the government) in
order to fund the war.
This proved problematic as by
1776, due to inflation (diluting the money supply), the Bills of Credit
depreciated to 66% of initial value. In an attempt to combat the
depreciation the states made paper currencies legal tender for all purchases
and debts, enacted price controls and continued to print more money. In 1778
state and federal directed Procurement Officers (soldiers) to seize and pillage
the people giving certificates of debt in return, which also quickly diminished
in value. By 1780, hyperinflation led Congress to the conclusion that further
printing was futile; the money supply had been diluted to just 1% of its
original value in 6 years.
The overall failure of the paper Continental led our founders to authoring
Article 1 Section 10 of our Constitution, which declared that only gold and
silver were to be legal tender. This law was designed to protect us from
the immorality of a devaluating currency; the theft of wealth at the behest of
others.
The Federal Reserve Act
On December 23 of 1913 under Woodrow Wilson, the Federal Reserve Act
was instated, which, at the peril of our Constitution, was granted legal
authority to issue Federal Reserve notes. This system would be built around the
ideology of macroeconomics, (later labeled Keynesian economics
post 1936). Initially, as a safeguard, the dollar was fixed on the value of
gold and was to be redeemable in gold at a rate of $20.67 per ounce. This
assured low inflation and placed natural market restrictions on the Fed by
allowing the market to influence the economy (although notably hindered by
intervention).
During that time the Federal
Reserve comptroller assured the people that it was mathematically impossible to
have economic recessions, claiming that this form of economic planning was
superiorly more sophisticated; perfect. However according to the National
Bureau of Economic Research, this notion was quickly invalidated as between
1918 and 1919 we experienced our first bubble and recession.
Bubbles
Bubbles form when the Federal
Reserve lowers interest rates below the natural levels of a market, it
influences expansion of investments well beyond sustainable levels. This
distorts the signals that business uses to assess risk. These distortions then
lead businesses to believe that consumers have the savings to back up their
investments. However, artificially low (below market) interest rates don’t
generate new wealth to make good on investments. So when the bubble pops these
fallacies are realized in lost investments.
The bubbles and economic
recessions continued, just as they had with every other central bank. Bubbles
occurred in 1918 to 1919, 1920 to 1921, 1923 to 1924, 1926 to 1927, and 1929 to
1933. As you might be aware, 1933 was the year that President Franklin D. Roosevelt
issued Executive
order 6102 which not only
restricted Americans from owning gold but ordered the seizure of gold. The gold
fixed value of the dollar was then immediately changed from $20.67 to $35 per
ounce. The Bubbles continued, 1937 to 1938, 1945, 1948 to 1949, 1953 to 1954,
1960 to 1961, and 1969 to 1970. Then things changed with a new Chairman of the
Federal Reserve.
When Arthur Burns was
appointed Chairman of the Fed (1970-78), he pushed for more secrecy by ending minutes keeping
during meetings, allowing for concealment in meetings. He also made arguments for
elasticity in our dollar by removing the “restriction” of the gold standard. On
August 15, 1971 he got his wish.
We went off the gold standard and introduced ultimate elasticity to the Fed.
This afforded them the ability to control the value of the dollar at their whim. This allso allowed
the fed to interject the business cycle to make economic booms last longer,
which in turn allowed the recessions last longer. The presence of real market
restricts the boom from perpetuity, that is, every period of economic euphoria
must be respected by an equal period of economic misery.
The recessions from 1918 to
1970 were relatively short and went fairly unnoticed due to the dollars fixed
value. Once elasticity was granted and was perverted over time by intervention
through inflation and low interest rates, the severity of the recessions were
much more notable. Post gold fixed bubbles include 1973 to 1975, 1980, 1981 to
1982, 1990 to 1991 and 2000 to 2007, which brings us to our current crises.
The Great Bubble
The great bubble was largely
attributed to the bad policies of Alan Greenspan (Herman Cain’s hero) who was the
chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1987 until 2006. Greenspan intervened in
the recession that should’ve followed the dot-com bubble. Instead of accepting the natural
recession that should have occurred in 2001, the Fed began expanding the
Housing Market. This didn’t negate the previous bubble; it merely stalled it by
creating a bigger bubble. The Fed arrogantly continued its efforts to stop
recession through low interest rates and actual interest rates fell below
historical averages. At that point the Fed had abandoned all monetary rules in attempts to prop
the market.
Alan Greenspan slashed the
federal fund targets from 6.5% in January of 2001 all the way down to 1% by
June 2003. He fixed the rates at an artificial low of 1% for a full year, which encouraged more bad
investments and caused a massive expansion of the bubble. Then, by June of 2006,
Greenspan had raised it back to 5.25%, a move that popped the bubble and
unleashed the havoc of three overdue recessions.
- Rothschild Brothers of London, 1863
Surly a man of Alan
Greenspan’s intelligence saw what was happening as he undoubtedly understands basic
economics and the business cycle. Bearing that leads to the question, what
motive would Greenspan have for knowingly doing this? All one has to do is look
to who gets the money, and the answer is obvious. Alan Greenspan was protecting
the fed’s banking, big business and political interest by skirting the
financial burden on the people, essentially socializing loss.
Corruption
The Federal Reserve is falsely known as a politically neutral part of our
government. This cannot be further from the truth on either count. As a private institution the Fed succumbs to
the interest of its controllers and shareholders. The Federal Reserve, being
the most secret institution in our country, can give undisclosed money to
corporations and influence politics by adjusting (loosening) rates during
elections. An example of this, which can be found in Ron Paul’s best-selling
book “End The Fed”, is Arthur Burns (Fed Chairman
1970-78) attempt at seducing President Carter in 1976.
It is well documented that Arthur Burns, in an attempt to be reappointed,
cut discount rates and accelerated money growth to alter the perception of the
economy. He told Carter that reappointment would make him out to be a high
minded statesman and suggested that if reappointed he (Arthur Burns) would
stop criticizing everything near and dear to him (Carter). He failed and his
intervention in the market brought on the worst bout of price inflation in a
century and caused the democrats to lose the office to Regan.
People like this are the masters of our economy?
-Mayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild (Rothschild family is the largest Fed shareholder)
The Audit
Although they do have regular
audits, the auditors are extremely limited in what they can actually audit which
makes them irrelevant altogether. Contrary to Herman Cain’s claim that calling
the Fed will provide all the answers, the reality is that all past requests for
information have always been met with arrogance from Fed chairmen, turning them
down, as if the requests were outrageous.
In 2009 Ron Paul introduced
the Federal Reserve Transparency Act (H.R.1207), which requested a full audit of the
Federal Reserve, the first in its 100 year history. It gained wide attention
and support but what passed was Senator Bernard Sanders lite version titled Federal
Reserve Sunshine Act (s.604), which demanded a partial audit, and
here are their findings. (unelected.com)
Ben Bernanke & Quantitative Easing:
Ben Bernanke is the current
chairman of the Fed. He continues with the bad practices that Greenspan used. He
continues the inflation of our currency and devaluation of the dollar, a direct
tax on the people’s savings and earnings. Ben Bernanke believes that he can “fix”
our current economic crisis by printing money; stimulus through quantitative
easing. Essentially treating the illness with what caused it in the first
place.
Quantitative Easing (QE) is another form
of stimulus, an injection of money into our supply. QE happens as a result of artificially
low interest rates. To better understand this process I urge you to watch this
film QE Explained.
This is Ben Bernanke’s secret (and only) weapon, and its proliferating the
problem.
Each of the twelve Federal Reserve Banks is organized into a corporation
with shares. Those shares are sold to the commercial banks and thrifts
operating within each of the twelve Fed Bank's district. The shareholders get
to elect six of the nine the board of directors for their regional Federal
Reserve Bank, they also elect the president. I urge you to look over which
banks got bailed out and contrast them to the list below. Corporate interests
at its finest.
The shareholders are kept mostly confidential, however author Eustace
Mullins exposed some of the members in his bombshell book titled “Secrets
of the Federal Reserve” Citibank, Chase Manhattan,
Morgan Guaranty Trust, Chemical Bank, Manufacturers Hanover Trust, Bankers
Trust Company, National Bank of North America, and the Bank of New York to name
a few.
The Fed is guilty of secretly counterfeiting money and creating credit for private, corporate and political interest.
Herman Cain has been asked
time and time again if he believes the Federal Reserve should be scrutinized or
even audited and his answer is always a resounding “no”. During the Bloomberg
debate Ron Paul asked Mr. Cain, if he still thinks the Fed shouldn’t be
audited.
Herman Cain’s response:
A blatant, provable lie:
He claimed that it would be
“counterproductive” to do so, echoing Fed chairman Ben Bernanke’s words verbatim.
How can he say this when taking into considerations immoralities of inflation,
stimulus, bailouts, political intervention and war funding? How can he endorse
the secret nature of the Fed, while claiming to be a freedom loving American?
It certainly cannot be because he is ignorant of the facts.
Mr. Cain also claimed that
the fed wasn’t doing “the things that they are now” when he was Director of the
Kansas City branch from 1992 to 1996, which is another blatant lie. Alan Greenspan
was chairman from 1987 until 2006; his practices have always been the same. All
of his predecessors’ practices were the same and his successors practices are
the same. It’s the flawed Keynesian system that the Federal Reserve was founded
on.
Regarding the comment about
the $14 trillion in debt, that “we didn’t have” while he was Director. This was
a direct result of the policies that Herman Cain endorsed, an
accumulation of things including the tarp bailouts.
Mr. Cain, if time and time again the government has been wrong in the
allocation of our capital (nasdaq, housing, stimulus), then how can we trust
them to be right in the future? How can we trust you?
The flaws of the Fed, the
great depression and the current crisis can be proven syllogistically and down
to central economic planning, the departure from the gold standard and Keynesian
economics. The benefits of an elastic fiat currency allow for
rich men to prop up their interests (often overseas) at the expense of the
American people. It’s a morally corrupt system that claims ethical high ground,
this moral high ground drives us into socialism.
It’s the American people’s job
to stop encouraging the Fed’s existence by demanding benefits from congressmen
that can only be produced by printing fiat money. We are neglecting our future
and our children’s future and selling it out for the short term benefits of now.
We encourage the Fed by supporting wars which could only be funded with an
elastic money supply.
Often people make the reference that we should not “throw the baby out with the bathwater”. This is an ignorant notion as it cannot apply to a private institute with private interests. If the baby is the American Peoples interest, the baby has long since left the bathwater.
Resources:
A major resource was my copy of Ron Paul's book End The Fed
Many more included through the document.
Herman Cain Exposed: Lied to America
Lied to America Once
Lied to America Twice
He also said he didn't call speculators ignorant:
“Coverage of the Bush economy reads like a collection of Democratic Party press releases, calling a strong economy everything from struggling to volatile or dicey. That kind of ignorance makes homeowners fear that their most expensive possession could turn worthless overnight. That won’t happen.” - herman cain
Anyone who would still vote for this man has no moral compass and obviously have no problem inviting more deceptive politicians into their lives.
Don't make excuses for him, he lied.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Herman Cain Exposed: Immigration & Border Control
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Herman Cain’s immigration plan involves building a colossal wall well over 700 miles long and 20 feet tall envisioned in the same vein as the Great Wall of China.(link) He completes his vision by incorporating an electrified section at the top of the wall and an alligator moat on the other side.(link) Estimated costs would project at over $50 billion (link) His supporters embrace this idea, but do they really take into consideration what the repercussions could be? Furthermore, do we honestly believe that this expensive and immoral act would actually end illegal immigration?
Allow me to play devil’s advocate for a moment and jump ahead into a future where Herman Cain is president and he has successfully built the magnificent 1,000 mile electrified wall depicted in his grand vision for America. Obviously, one cannot tell the future, but I will offer my thoughts on a post wall future, please keep in mind this is mostly theoretical. Having said that, one cannot deny at least some validity of my forecast as I base them in logic and reality.
How would Herman Cain’s wall affect our relations with the Mexican people or all of Latin America for that matter?
Trade
Mexico currently exports between $160 and $200 billion dollars worth of product to America each year (link). Mexico imports about $130 to $180 billion dollars of product from America each year (link) for a combined total of well over $300 billion in trade per year. This is a considerable amount of revenue that directly translates into jobs and wealth for a good number of Americans. Herman Cain’s wall would be a direct hit to our national economy and a devastating blow to southern US ports such as Houston, Texas which conducts about $17 billion in business with Mexico each year. (link)
As Herman Cain’s Great Wall of America casts its shadow over Mexico it waves a blatant tribute to our rejection of her people. Deep resentment of us would naturally arise from the Mexican people. A growing bitterness that, for some, would undoubtedly evolve into hatred. One could be certain that groups of Mexicans would begin to rally for boycotts of American imports and exports, even at their own economic hazard. Those groups would expand.
Yes, wealthy men would prevail and trade would continue but only at a noted deficiency. Certain Mexican companies, especially smaller ones (who rely greatly on local business), would choose to discontinue exports to America as a means to end the boycotts, and the principle could trend.
Imagine if just 10% of companies stopped trading with us on account of Herman Cain’s wall. In this scenario, conservatively speaking, around $30 billion would be lost annually. This directly renders into tens of thousands of jobs lost alone. Now imagine an escalation of resentment on both sides pushing that number to 50%? What would that do to our Nation? To Texas?
Again this is all theoretical, yet plausible.
Travel & Threat
The resentment from the Mexican people, who are now confined to poverty, drug violence and a weakening economy, would be most certain.
Of course American tourists would still safely travel to major cities. It might be wise to stay near the attractions as even in the most tourist friendly areas would be interleaved with some dissent. Seeing wealthy Americans who travel to spend their surplus money; perhaps more in their brief visit than most Mexican families earn in a year. The same Americans who’s detest for the Mexican people is so great that they constructed a monstrous wall to keep them out. Americans would almost certainly meet with violent differ in other parts of Mexico.
During the lengthy construction of such a wall, workers could expect some insurgency from a variety of affected groups ranging from local guerrillas to drug trafficking gangs who see their window for profit closing.
Would it be too difficult to imagine a Mexican extremist? A person so outraged with our actions that they come here by plane and attack our people?
This could become more commonplace than you think. The War on Terror marches on.
Effectiveness
Back to reality.
Throughout time mankind has overcome just about every obstacle that has impeded his ambition. The Great Wall of America would be an incentive for such innovation. Although, undoubtedly, there would be a slight fall in the numbers of illegal immigrants this method would ultimately fall short of its intended duty. Unless the wall is made from magic - man will find a way past.
Mexican people will show up in record numbers to vote against Herman Cain.
Conclusion:
America was founded on immigrants, our ideas and philosophies were forged through the merging of different cultures. In fact, most of our ancestors immigrated here at one point in time. Our statue of liberty is a symbol of freedom and liberty, not just for the American people, but for all people through the world. The current system, Herman Cain included, has waged war on this philosophy as the illegal immigrant battle has become a racist act of isolationism in its truest form.
What we aren’t fully grasping is the current living conditions that the Mexican people struggle through. Their government either cannot or will not control the drugs and guns, their economy is in shambles and their children are at risk of everything from disease to human trafficking. For the people of Mexico, a better life urgently awaits them in America, yet we demonize them for wanting better for their families and having what we have.
The common argument to this is, don’t come here illegally then; if you want to come here do it on our terms.
I would agree in principle, however, it’s more complicated than that. Currently, the wait time to gain citizenship is over 5 years (link), and that’s if you’re granted citizenship at all. Furthermore, without an attorney it’s highly unlikely to attain citizenship period, which adds a hefty toll to that avenue. So rather than attempting the convoluted and unlikely road to legal citizenship. The preferable choice, as we have made it, is to come here illegally, besides the punishment for doing so is considerably lax.
The unfortunate truth is that this wall wouldn’t be effective at stopping the problem and could potentially cause serious problems with our relations to Mexico and to our already damaged economy. However, there is a much simpler solution to the illegal immigrant problem.
Remove the many attractive incentives that tempt illegal immigrants to come here such as cheap housing, welfare, food stamps, free medical care, tuition, birth-right citizenship, jobs and various other programs, as Ron Paul has suggested. Then if we made the pathway to becoming a legal resident easier, and they were held to the same requirements as we are, the overall immigrant flow would slow down all-together. This method is not only practical but it’s a moral approach as well. It would yield far superior results and be less costly for our nation than Herman Cain’s Great Wall of America solution.
Herman Cain Exposed: The 9-9-9 Plan
(updated 10/14/2011)
Herman Cain’s movement towards a flat tax is his widely coveted 9-9-9 plan which looks very attractive from a distance. However, upon further scrutiny one finds that this system may be much worse than the current flawed system.
For those of you unfamiliar with Herman Cain’s plan it’s a 9% business flat tax, 9% personal income tax and 9% national sales tax. At a glance, 9% is a very attractive number for anyone in the middle class with incremental tax rates ranging from 15% to 35%. What isn’t obvious is that Cain’s plan would be achieved by eliminating most deductions. With the current tax code deductions, a tax rate of 28% could drop to about 17%. That said, keep in mind the National Sales Tax at 9% is a new tax added on top, so this is really just shuffling of numbers.
The 9% business flat tax creates a perverse loophole incentive by lowering the taxation on capital gains and dividends to 0%. This naturally encourages businessmen to pay out 100% of their income as dividends or hide it by “reinvesting” it into the business rather than pay the 9%. So while the people pay both a state and federal tax (up to 33%), the businesses get away with paying no tax. Another thing to take into consideration is that smaller businesses wouldn't be able to utilize this 0% income tax to their advantage because often their only shareholder would be themselves. I find it hard to believe a businessman of Herman Cain's stature could mistakenly overlook a loophole like this.
Before continuing with the final portion of the 9-9-9 plan I’d like to take a moment to explain the challenge with transitioning into the 9-9-9 plan. With our current tax system our national revenue last year was about $2.2 trillion, leaving a national deficit of $1.7. Adjusted to the 9-9-9 plan the total national revenue would be $1.7 trillion, this inflates our deficit to $2.2 trillion. (source) Mr. Cain has not presented a spending proposal that would allow for our current boated government to function on $1.7 trillion dollars, nor has he detailed which, if any, cuts he’d make to make his plan plausible.
Now for the real evil of the 9-9-9 plan; the national sales tax. Since Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan is can’t be immediately instituted due to the sheer size of our government. Herman Cain has created a series of phases, that have, in my opinion a low probability of success. Initially the 9-9-9 plan would be more like a 9-9-25 (or so) plan. So initially we would need to begin with a National Sales Tax of 22-30% to fund our government. Which would undoubtedly have detrimental effects on our economy, as the author of the following scenario suggests.
The Detroit Free Press revealed today that Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan was written by Art Laffer. Laffer is the same man in this video who laughed at Peter Schiff when Schiff was correctly predicting economic collapse. An impossible plan written by and incompetent man.
References:
http://www.dailykos.com/