World’s Money Men Winning the Jackpot of OUR money

The experts tell us there will be another “bloodbath” on Wall Street today. There may be, or it may be another “dead cat bounce”. All that matters is that the American public was told if the big 700 billion dollar bailout package passed, all the problems would be fixed. Anyone who bought into that line probably falls for the e-mails saying “you won the European Lottery…”

If Congress ever did its job correctly, which will happen when I win that European Lottery, they would have passed long ago all the “sweeteners” that enabled the bailout bill to rush through the House on Friday. I find it an insult on my intelligence that these people think we are all so dumb to not see what they are doing. They sit on legitimate bills that honestly help the American taxpayer and then throw them all on a doomed bailout package to pick up votes from nervous Representatives worried about re-election in their districts.

So, now that we all get to pay for wooden arrows and rum, we get the privilege of watching the government try to stop the economy from hemorrhaging by placing a band aid on the gaping wound. Within days of this latest “fix”, the wound will erupt again, pumping the very life of the country out onto the street.

Back “in the day”, they used to deliberately cut a person and drain some of their blood in hopes the diseases and toxins making the patient sick would drain out in the blood. Perhaps that is happening today in the financial sector, but there is a very high risk the economy might “bleed out”. Everyone who watches CSI knows that most murder victims die when their body loses so much blood, there is no life left in them.

The human body’s natural way to deal with wounds is for the blood to clot. Once the blood clots at the site of the wound, the bleeding stops. This is unless too much blood is lost before the clotting takes place. I happen to believe the economy could have and would have clotted on its own if the politicians promoting their own agendas had not started trying to “fix” the problem. Just exactly how much good did the Economic Stimulus checks mailed out to most of us in May and June do? I know Wal Mart and Target liked them.

That money was gone as quickly as it came, for that is what the President told Americans to do with it. It was our Patriotic duty to spend the money the government “gave” us (which was our money to begin with before we paid it in taxes). All America has to show for that money is a bunch of things. New cars, televisions, furniture and clothes are found in many family’s homes. A few extra hundred dollars are not found in too many people’s savings accounts.

Not too many months ago, we were suffering though endless weeks of $4.00 per gallon gasoline and almost $5.00 per gallon diesel. During this time, the “experts” (such as the Treasury Secretary and President) kept telling us that all was fine, even with the high fuel costs. The high price of fuel was blamed on oil being $140 per barrel. Hmmmm. Last I just checked, oil was under $90 per barrel this morning. That should translate into $2.50 per gallon gas. Last I looked, ours was still over $3.40 per gallon.

Those who through their greed want every penny they can steal from us will not stop their endless shenanigans until they manipulate markets and tax codes to get it all. Whether through increased taxes or decreased buying power; one way or another the world’s money men will not rest until they rake in their winnings like the winner of the world’s biggest poker tournament. How unfortunate it is that those winnings are our earnings.

Its Not Just the Wall Street Bleeding to Death Financially–Me Too

I am not a fan of big government. I do not believe the government should be intruding upon people’s lives, but rather working to make our lives better and to protect our country from those wanting to destroy it. Government should work for the citizens of this country and not the other way around.

If the American people knew the details of why the 700 billion plan to take the “toxic” bad mortgages and loans off the books of banks, perhaps there would be more support for the plan on Main Street. But, the only thing told the masses is that there is a huge problem that is threatening to cause a depression. Such vague language is not conducive to universal support of a huge outlay of resources.

In 1928, President Herbert Hoover had this to say about the state of the American economy and what to look forward to: “We in America are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land. The poorhouse is vanishing from among us.” A year after making this statement, the Stock Market crashed and the country entered 15 years of economic depression with more poverty than at any time in the country’s history.

Even after the Stock Market crash, people such as J.D. Rockefeller said: “These are days when many are discouraged. In the 93 years of my life, depressions have come and gone. Prosperity has always returned and will again.” Although he was right in the sense that prosperity did return, by the time it did, he would have been 108 years old.

Many years ago my wife and I invested what little money we had in a very conservative mutual fund account. We later each opened a Roth IRA. In the year 2008, we have seen the mutual fund drop so much that we have succeeded in losing almost 10% of the money initially invested. Not only have we lost all the money market made over the “good years”, our “investment” is now losing money. Our Roth IRA’s which were designed to grow and give us money later in life hover at 5% over the initial amount invested.

An investment is supposed to grow. When money is invested, especially in retirement accounts, the entire purpose was to see growth over an extended period of time so as to be able to provide security upon retirement. When that money does not grow, it produces a problem. When the investment shrinks; that produces a major problem.

A gentleman I have known for many years loves to gamble. He and his wife go to the riverboat casino every week. He takes pride in winning more than he loses (or so he says). Last week I was at his business and he was bragging about how he made $11,500 the previous Friday when the Market went up almost 500 points. He loves to buy and sell stocks all day. When leaving I congratulated his wife on their windfall, with a sour expression she asked, “did he tell you how much he lost the day before?” As it turned out, he had lost $15,000.

Our home, which is in the country in what used to be a rapidly growing county west of St. Louis, was appraised at a certain value in September of 2007. By June of 2008 when we were trying to see if we could even think of selling the house to move, the appraised value of the house had dropped almost 30% since the previous September. In fact, the value of the home was less than what we paid for it in 2004. Oh, by the way, we did $50,000 of improvements to the home before we moved in.

We, like so many other Americans, have lost all our financial leverage. We cannot re-finance our mortgage due to its supposed drop in value. To sell our investments would be pure folly, for we would be selling at a loss. Where does that leave us when emergencies come up?

Recently our well went out, our roof sprung a leak we had to replace one of our vehicles and we had to pay to get our hay cut, baled and stored in the barn to sell all winter. Out of desperation we had no choice but to charge our normal expenses to use the cash to pay for these emergencies. We were good stewards, in that we had invested our money wisely (we were told). But, when the cards were laid on the table, we lost.

The politicians in Washington need to quit playing games with us and just come out and spill the details of how bad things are and how bad they are going to get. There is no profit in speaking in vague generalities about the situation. Tell us what is happening and what to expect. Then we can decide what to do with whatever we have left that hasn’t already been flushed down the toilet of this ongoing economic downturn.

You know, if I knew today the value of my mutual fund investment was going to drop another 20% in the next six months, I would probably call my broker today and sell. Why keep it and take more losses. That is the very reason nobody is telling us the truth about how bad things really are. They don’t want everyone to sell all their assets and cause the economy to crash and burn. The way it looks, it is going to do that anyway, so why not sit us as a nation down and tell us the truth. I would much rather “the truth be told” than to find out later all that was told was a lie.