Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[zab]

The 1972-73 was almost the same car, my buddies wife had one also, she called the color baby shit brown, other than the chrome on the bumpers, or the beginning of the lack of it, they were almost the same identical car. Almost killed myself in that car a few times, took too many chances, but it was so low to the ground, that you could take turns perfectly.

[zab]

I too remember things of that movie that I did not know before. I also has a new perspective about the 1972 Munich Games, and how hard it must of been to continue with those games after the shooting of those Isreal Athletes.

There was also a high jumper I remember at the Drake Relays, he performed the Fosbury Flop as it was known in those days. But I am really dating myself, I tried that event, the only thing I did well was the flop part.

[basserdan]

<<<...you will sing a different tune when medical care in general simply does not match need. No matter the money. I have seen all this happen in Canada.>>>

Hi Geoff,
This is prolly old news to you....


Oh Canada!
Imposing Austerity on the World’s Most Resource-rich Country

Ellen Brown
April 1, 2012

Even the world’s most resource-rich country has now been caught in the debt trap. Its once-proud government programs are being subjected to radical budget cuts—cuts that could have been avoided if the government had not quit borrowing from its own central bank in the 1970s.

Last week in Ottawa, the Canadian House of Commons passed the federal government’s latest round of budget cuts and austerity measures. Highlights included chopping 19,200 public sector jobs, cutting federal programs by $5.2 billion per year, and raising the retirement age for millions of Canadians from 65 to 67. The justification for the cuts was a massive federal debt that is now over C$ 581 billion, or 84% of GDP.

An online budget game furnished by the local newspaper the Globe and Mail ( http://tinyurl.com/cvjuoac ) gave readers a chance to try to balance the budget themselves. Possibilities included slashing transfer payments for elderly benefits, retirement programs, health benefits, and education; cutting funding for transportation, national defense, economic development and foreign aid; and raising taxes. An article on the same page said, “The government, in reality, doesn’t have that many tools at its disposal to close a large budgetary deficit. It can either raise taxes or cut departmental program spending.”

It seems that no gamer, lawmaker or otherwise, was offered the opportunity to toy with the number one line item in the budget: interest to creditors. A chart on the website of the Department of Finance Canada titled “Where Your Tax Dollar Goes” ( http://tiny.cc/p603bw ) showed interest payments to be 15% of the budget—more than health care, social security, and other transfer payments combined. The page was dated 2006 and was last updated in 2008, but the percentages are presumably little different today.

Penny wise, Pound Foolish

Among other cuts in the 2012 budget, the government announced that it would be discontinuing the minting of Canadian pennies, which now cost more than a penny to make. The government is focusing on the pennies and ignoring the pounds—the massive share of the debt that might be saved by borrowing from the government’s own Bank of Canada.

Between 1939 and 1974, the government actually did borrow from its own central bank. That made its debt effectively interest-free, since the government owned the bank and got the benefit of the interest. According to figures supplied by Jack Biddell, a former government accountant, the federal debt remained very low, relatively flat, and quite sustainable during those years. (See his chart below.) The government successfully funded major public projects ( http://tiny.cc/hc13bw ) simply on the credit of the nation, including the production of aircraft during and after World War II, education benefits for returning soldiers, family allowances, old age pensions, the Trans-Canada Highway, the St. Lawrence Seaway project, and universal health care for all Canadians.

The debt shot up only after 1974. That was when the Basel Committee was established by the central-bank Governors of the Group of Ten countries of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), which included Canada. A key objective of the Committee was to maintain “monetary and financial stability.” To achieve that goal, the Committee discouraged borrowing from a nation’s own central bank interest-free, and encouraged borrowing instead from private creditors, all in the name of “maintaining the stability of the currency.”

The presumption was that borrowing from a central bank with the power to create money on its books would inflate the money supply and prices. Borrowing from private creditors, on the other hand, was considered not to be inflationary, since it involved the recycling of pre-existing money. What the bankers did not reveal, although they had long known it themselves, was that private banks create the money they lend ( http://tiny.cc/1f13bw ) just as public banks do. The difference is simply that a publicly-owned bank returns the interest to the government and the community, while a privately-owned bank siphons the interest into its capital account, to be re-invested at further interest, progressively drawing money out of the productive economy.

The debt curve that began its exponential rise in 1974 tilted toward the vertical in 1981, when interest rates were raised by the U.S. Federal Reserve to 20%. At 20% compounded annually, debt doubles in under four years. Canadian rates went as high as 22% during that period. Canada has now paid over a trillion Canadian dollars in interest on its federal debt—nearly twice the debt itself. If it had been borrowing from its own bank all along, it could be not only debt-free but sporting a hefty budget surplus today. That is true for other countries as well.

The Bankers’ Silent Coup

Why are governments paying private financiers to generate credit they could be issuing themselves, interest-free? According to Professor Carroll Quigley, Bill Clinton’s mentor at Georgetown University, it was all part of a concerted plan by a clique of international financiers. He wrote ( http://tiny.cc/vi13bw ) in Tragedy and Hope in 1964:

The powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences. The apex of the system was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world's central banks which were themselves private corporations.

Each central bank . . . sought to dominate its government by its ability to control Treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent economic rewards in the business world.

In December 2011, this charge was echoed in a lawsuit filed in Canadian federal court by two Canadians and a Canadian economic think tank ( http://tiny.cc/4m13bw ). Constitutional lawyer Rocco Galati filed an action on behalf of William Krehm, Ann Emmett, and COMER (the Committee for Monetary and Economic Reform) to restore the use of the Bank of Canada to its original purpose, including making interest free loans to municipal, provincial and federal governments for “human capital” expenditures (education, health, and other social services) and for infrastructure. The plaintiffs state that since 1974, the Bank of Canada and Canada’s monetary and financial policy have been dictated by private foreign banks and financial interests led by the BIS, the Financial Stability Forum (FSF) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), bypassing the sovereign rule of Canada through its Parliament.

Today this silent coup has been so well obscured that governments and gamers alike are convinced that the only alternatives for addressing the debt crisis are to raise taxes, slash services, or sell off public assets. We have forgotten that there is another option: cut the debt by borrowing from the government’s own bank, which returns its profits to public coffers. Cutting out interest has been shown ( http://tiny.cc/jp13bw ) to reduce the average cost of public projects by about 40%.

Game over: we win.

Ellen Brown is an attorney and president of the Public Banking Institute, PublicBankingInstitute.org. In Web of Debt, her latest of eleven books, she shows how a private cartel has usurped the power to create money from the people themselves, and how we the people can get it back. Her websites are http://WebofDebt.com and http://EllenBrown.com. The Public Banking Institute’s first conference is April 26th-28th in Philadelphia.

http://www.lemetropolecafe.com/kiki_table.cfm?pid=9885

[capgain]

Na lol!

[pantmaker]

Hmmm looks like they must need the cash market pumped up for something tomorrow...like...maybe selling? Ha!

pants

[capgain]

Must be my brokers data, that's screwed up. CME is showing nqs +11

[pantmaker]

Basser- I found this pretty interesting. I can be a bit of a numbers geek though so take it or leave it. :)

http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/Programs/ES/BPEA/2010_spring_bpea_papers/2010a_bpea_nalewaik.pdf

[capgain]

It's a moonshot open lol! YMs +64 ES +6 and NQs not showing open yet?

[gtober]

Yes, its all very emotional and I agree that something needs to be done. However, allowing your emotional to overrule your sense results in a program that doesn't help that much, bankrupts the Country, and cedes far too much control to the Federal Government.

You will sing a different tune when that same government starts rationing care, because they will have to. You will sing a different tune when you can't find a doctor to treat you and you will sing a different tune when medical care in general simply does not match need. No matter the money. I have seen all this happen in Canada.

Some form of socialized medicine is likely inevitable. However, the way it was done was nothing short of criminal. Does anyone remember "you'll have to pass it to find out what's in it"? Now, we know why. Because the Supreme Court is about to say what they did was not legal. And it's back to square one. So, instead of the Dem Congress, Senate and Pres passing something workable - for the benefit of the people - they passed this power grabbing abomination.

Think about that the next time you pull a lever for a Democrat that has YOUR best interests at heart.

[capgain]

That's what I'm hearing.

[fishweed]

Might it have something to do with the calendar date?

[capgain]

Glad I'm not a Ihubber anymore :)

[lee kramer]

"A rose by any other name...is still a rose." Sounds like a marketing plan/ploy. Guess we're all traders now.

[lee kramer]

It's news to me. We'll see.

[capgain]

Yup, left corner of my screen says Traders hub.

[lacymarie]

Hmmmmmmmmmm?

http://www.tradershub.net/temporary.asp

[Belgie24]

Zab, Prefontaine was a natural, a classic runner. I followed him here in the Pacific NW, since he went to Univ of Oregon. What a heart he had!

There were 2 movies made of him that I know of, they were cable TV like movies. I have one of them on VHS here on my bookcase, it is entitled "PREFONTAINE" by Hollywood Pictures, rated PG-13. I keep it to remind me of those times in my life around those years.

One of the 2 movies has some classic scenes showing his coach, Bill Bowerman, fooling wround with a waffle maker in his shop, refining the famous shoe that became one of Nike's first big hits, with the waffle sole.

[capgain]

IHUB is not IHUB anymore?

[lee kramer]

I had the same car, same color but I can't remember the year. Small yes, but so much fun to drive. No boinking in that car. MG...Morris Garage.

[lee kramer]

Yes zab, it's a terrible, often overwhelming problem. How we deal with it will say much about us as a society, as a nation.

[zab]

Saw it myself, it also showed the Drake Relays, and its beautiful running track. Now-a days the track is in blue, to match the Blue and White colors of Drake.

But it brought back a painful memory of him dying in that MGB, I had one myself, a 1973 British Racing Green, it was beautiful, but it was so small.

[zab]

Thats the problem I have been dealing with of late, I looked over my trades of this year, and so many of them are for such small profits, and then there would be that one bad trade which would wipe out alot of my gains. These were the mistakes I use to make when I first started trading.

I learned then to take the quick losses, but not after I had suffered some painful lessons.

But today I am not getting a chance to let a trade run for very long, even an entire day or two can be difficult in these times. A few times I have held the gain overnight only to see it disappear before the market even opens at 8am for pre-market trading. Very discouraging to start a day on a loss probable.

Thats why I keep telling Mary that I might have to come up with another way of making money each month. I have to pay for medical insurance each month, but now that I am finally covered those bills are still alot for me to deal with, and along with the yearly hospitol bill I seem to be incurring of late, along with the regular house bills.

At this age, 62, I have seen so many friends also have a health problem, and to watch a life of building equity can get wiped out quite quickly with an illness. Then there are those who have a sick grandchild that needs constant medical care. Those bills are just recurring, and even a close friend who has done quite well in life is feeling discouraged.

Thats why this latest issue on health care is so discouraging, to think that so many people will have to go back to square one in health care for there children is hard on the over-all economy. I was listening to Santorum and the medical bills of his child, he is a multi millionaire, and does quite well each year, but his bills would break the average american in just a few months.

People wonder why the economy is not doing better, the sky-rocketing cost of health care these past 15 years is one answer. Its killing, individuals, and companies alike, to think america wants to go back to health care before Obama signed into law this latest attempt to tackle the problem is absurd for millions of americans. Millions of children are effected.

When I had my lung cancer I would go to the Doctor's office every few weeks for treatment, and I would watch children be effected with this disease. I would tell myself that my lung cancer was the result of my stupidity in smoking cigarettes, but these children were so young.

Some were on there families insurance plan, but not for long, the cost of treating a child would break most small insurance plans that are paid for by a small business. Worse than that if the parent lost that job, then the child is now not covered by any insurnace at all. When the parent would apply for a job, that child would have a pre-existing condition, and now you have no chance of getting health insurance in america ever again.

Now the argument will start all over again about a new health plan, what about the millions of children who have pre-existing conditions, we are telling them to just wait for another 5-15 years to get health care, or go to the emergencey room when you get really sick. I have seen cancer in children, they cannot wait a few weeks, let alone any longer than that. Just something else to think about when you think that scrapping Obama's Health Plan.

[lee kramer]

I remember Ryun and Shorter. There was a documentary on Prefontaine on one of the cable channels. It's on occasionally, titled "Prefontaine."

[pantmaker]

Basser- thanks I have been watching that too. It's a tangled web for certain.

pants

[zab]

Unfortunately no, in my day it was Frank Shorter who was one of my many idols when it came to running, along with Steve Prefontaine, who I met at the Drake Relays the year before. Watching him run was amazing, he would start the race and end the race at perfect stride.

He never held back, he ran from the heart, and his coach went on to design the shoe that Nike eventually made into a multi-million dollar business.

Jim Ryun was another great runner of those days, but he was before I ever really started running.

[gottfried]

Dan, thanks for the link to the ECRI article: ECRI just won't admit they're wrong this time

[basserdan]

<<<The New Deal Democrat's singular obsession with ECRI has become absurd. He's like a paranoid David fighting an imaginary Goliath.>>>

Hi pantmaker, Might this be of interest?


Another Blow to ECRI’s Recession Call

By Tim Iacono
03/30/2012

http://iaconoresearch.com/2012/03/30/another-blow-to-ecris-recession-call/

[cannabis]

Buy any dip Mon-Thur for the b.s. jobs data on Friday.

[cannabis]

Who cares.AAPL will continue to mask the S&P weak earnings.

[myimp64ss]

Thank you sir.

[lee kramer]

I could list maybe 20 more reasons arilau.

[lee kramer]

Or Steve Prefontaine? When I was maybe 10 I saw Roger Bannister break the 4 minute mile. Wow.

[arilau]

One of the reasons this country is in trouble-

I usually listen to WQXR (classical music).
Today they wished me,several times: Happy April fools day.

[lee kramer]

...continued.

It's been said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. If this is true, I'm a prime candidate.

I repeatedly sell a position too early. I think this is a personality disorder. I fear that my gains will be "taken away" so I sell, only to see the stock or future continue in the direction I sought.

One thing I've been doing is to sell only half and hold half. It seems to be quite effective.

To be continued...

[lee kramer]

Myimp: If you pull up a one or two year chart of ALLT you can see some similarities to HTZ.

[lee kramer]

I remember the days zab when the biggest problem was deciding which stock would be up 10 or 15 points the next morning. Crazy, but there it was.

[lee kramer]

The Drake Relays, impressive. I used to watch the Millwood races. Did you ever see Wes Santee run?

[lee kramer]

Hi Myimp. HTZ has been in a nice uptrend since Sep.-Oct. 2011, that is, a series of higher highs and higher lows which took the stock from about 8 to it's current 15.04.

A pullback wouldn't surprise but a close under the prior pullback, [twice] at 13.50 or so would cause some concern.

I don't know your trading style so I'm hesitant to suggest anything, though I've found it prudent to sell a "bit" into strength, especially after a nice run.

[zab]

This will always be a stock forum, was is unfortunate is that so many issues that can change the direction of the economy and stocks. Stocks use to be so much easier before the daily issues, and world events took over. You can still own the best stocks in the world, but if other issues that over the economy, then trading them is that much harder.

[zab]

Please understand I love being wrong, close to half of my trades are wrong on a short term basis. AA, and FCX are two of my favortie companies, but I also believe in my charts, until I am proven wrong,

AA has been cut in half, and is barely above its lows of 2008-09, FCX is doing better, but I believe it is one of the true leaders of the real economy. But again, I am getting old, and what I thought has given way to a much more modern, and diverse world.

If they trun around that much quicker, that just bodes well for the economy as a whole. What I stated in my message was that they have not participated much in the Dow's rise from its lows. I would of figured at one time that these companies would of at least done better than they have.

The unemployment rate this friday should be respectable, 200,000 once again, thou I have heard higher numbers, but I don't want that either. I want an economy that just shows strength and endurance. I use to run long distance in high school and college, I even participated in the Drake Relays my last year. Getting up to stride took me almost 1/2 mile, but once I got there I could just keep running for the next 10-20 miles, thats what I want to see this economy do. I get tired of a these spurts, and then something happens and everything stops. All americans should want a good economy that keeps going for everyone, but now I am preaching instead of watching my charts.

[gottfried]

you will yank it? :)

[lee kramer]

Sure Yank.

[byankee]

Lee, I would request you delete my previous post as it was clearly political and served no purpose on this forum. Thanks and will try harder in the future. Appologies to the rest on here.

[myimp64ss]

Hello Lee,
I would very much appreciate your opinion re: HTZ if you can find a free moment between innings and bathroom breaks. I am currently enjoying a significant (to me) gain in the stock and I prefer to not see it go down the tube....so to speak.

[tinner]

They have no memories.

http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_what_is_alzheimers.asp

[byankee]

Good one gt.
Which one of these GOP yahoos running for the nomination is going to play "Reagan"?

[gtober]

More like Carter's.

[byankee]

You perhaps have dabbled in this nonsense longer than emptyhead and it's got to be costing you some real money.
While the notion of not fighting the fed is certainly good advice, I give investors more credit than you it seems. They will not prop up ether, IMO!
In my opinion, they (investors) are sophisticated as a whole and the drop that occurred in 2011 was because a lot of folks felt (incorrectly) we were going into another recession. They recovered quite nicely when it became obvious we weren't heading that way but there are a few die hards who just won't take that high hanging curve ball that is being served up. That's OK, because eventually we will go into another recession, and as long as you can hang on till then you will be fine.
As for the election, I suspect Obama's second term to go a lot like Clintons-you may need to hang on for quite a while. Heheh!

[fois gras]

Yankee, the markets float because of fiat. Get real.

Notin is substance except in the commodities..

when no more Fed purchasing ...kerplonk.

but, its an election.

[fois gras]

Zab- care to make a wager on those metal companies not participating...?