[A-List] US fiscal crisis

[Anne Williamson]

No, you haven't missed my point, Seth - you have just come at it
in a little different language.  You asked, "Do you mean the erosion
of property rights as in a decline in buying-power?"  I answer,
yes, yes, yes!  Only I usually say it another way - the property
(money) which the worker takes in exchange for his labor (also property)
has been debased through the fiat money system - yet his labor
is still his labor, unchanged - but his recompense is devalued.
It the same as paying a man $5 an hour, and 2 years later paying
him $4.95.

Central bankers are like thieves who slip through the back door
so quietly the screen door doesn't even slam -- and they are robbing
each man, each woman, each child, each family night and day.  The Fed is
so demanding a monster, the pillage of US citizens is not enough;
thus America loots the third world by abusing the dollar's status
as the world's reserve currency lest the dumb bunnies at home
catch on that all is not right.  (Foreigners give us real goods and
services in exchange for pieces of paper - what a deal!  The euro
is, inter alia, an attempt to get in on a very sweet deal.)

The dollar is based on exactly nothing, and each note no matter the
denomination only costs 4 cents to produce - thus giving the bankers
a 96 cent "profit" the moment it rolls off the printing press.  And they
charge all Americans interest on that 96 cents, as a Federal Reserve
Note is merely a promissory note, a debt instrument.  Overall, the dollar
is a pyramid scheme, and pyramid schemes are only viable so long as
the base continues to expand.  And that is the explanation for US
foreign policy in a nutshell.  No greater swindle has ever been devised
in the history of man than fiat money in which value is slowly leached
away through an irresponsible and manipulative expansion of the monetary
base.

And no one is harmed by this ugly system more than the poor and the
working class, who have no defenses against it.  The system costs on
average every single American 2.25% of the value of their assets each
year.  So, let's do the numbers; a modest savings account at 5%,
inflation of 2.5%, and then pay the tax on the gain - a person is lucky to
clear 1-2% since earned income is taxed at the highest rate.  Today there
is no 5% return on savings accounts, more like 1.5% and that means money
in the bank is delivering a negative return to savers.  So why save?

Another way to understand it - despite all the taxes, tariffs, fees, and
licenses Americans have paid over the last 90 years, they have lost
cumulatively 95% of the value of all their assets.  The dollar in a baby
boomer's pocket is worth but a nickel in their grand father's purse.  Think
of the bloody theft that's been executed among people who most need to
save, i.e. workers.

Now, on top of all that misery add in the debt people have been assuming
over the last 20-30 years through the magic of credit cards and easy money.
A very great disaster lies ahead.  We are not free people, we are slaves of
the money monopoly.

Regarding foreigners' willingness to keep shipping us their savings, that
will pass too.  Eventually you people will realize this nation is bankrupt
and carrying over $40 trillion in unfunded liabilities. This is why the
profit
crisis in US firms I mentioned at the beginning of our discussion is so
critical.  Drawing closer and closer is the day of reckoning when foreigners
realize the return on their money is negative.  Think of fiat money as
a claim on property that may or may not be honored.  Eventually foreigners
are going to cash in their "claims" (dollars), and America will be undone.
We have cannabalized our own future, we have hollowed out our own asset
base (giving foreigners claims to it) in favor of the banksters!

This is why there is so much propaganda now, why Greenscam is trying
to talk up the "recovery" - what a crock.  There is no recovery.  There can
be no recovery until the over-indebtedness is cleared, i.e., a recession - a
recession/depression is when debts are paid.  What's happening now is a
sucker's rally, there'll be a dip this spring, and then perhaps one more
"blow
off top" and then it'll be "Look out below!" along about October.

It often amazes me that foreigners do not realize how easily this country
could
be undermined with our chief product, i.e., paper dollars.  Foreigners now
own
something like 47% of all US debt, and cashing in all those T-bills would
certainly put a damper on the American empire.  You don't need soldiers, or
diplomats - you just need to present your claims for payment.  And one day,
you shall.

Best,

Anne

----- Original Message -----
From: Seth Sandronsky <ssandron at hotmail.com>
To: <a-list at lists.econ.utah.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, March 20, 2002 2:06 AM
Subject: Re: [A-List] US fiscal crisis


> Anne wrote:
>
> I see the plight of American workers as a consequence of the erosion of
> property rights, not in Marxian terms of SV.  American workers haven't
> enjoyed a true wage increase since 1968!
>
> Seth replied:
>
> Do you mean the erosion of property rights as in a decline in buying-
power?
>
> To be sure, in the U.S. there has been an attack against labor, which has
> lengthened the working day and intensified work.
>
> Twenty-five years ago I could rent an apartment on a minimum wage job.
>
> As you say, indebtedness has also allowed U.S. workers to make ends meet.
>
> Yes, but how long will foreign lenders supply the $2 billion a day to keep
> this debt-driven U.S. boat afloat, as Rob S. has asked.
>
> Or have I totally missed your point, Anne?
>
> Regards,
> Seth
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> From: "Anne Williamson" <annewilliamson at msn.con>
> Reply-To: a-list at lists.econ.utah.edu
> To: <a-list at lists.econ.utah.edu>
> Subject: Re: [A-List] US fiscal crisis
> Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2002 09:45:52 -0500
>
> Seth wrote:
>
> One question about the thread below.  Is the problem of capitalism in the
>  > U.S. caused by pinched profits or a result of a working class that
can't
>  > absorb the surplus-value (SV) produced at home and abroad?  By the way,
> an
>  > economist friend has said that in the U.S. profits account for about
>  > one-fifth of the SV.
>  >
>  > What do you think?
>
> There are many problems with the US economy, but what I meant about
> "no profits" in my earlier response directly referenced the anticipated
and
> much-hyped new bull market.  Just ain't gonna happen.
>
> But what that means for American workers is equal to what it means for
> small investors, pension funds, etc.  Without profits, job losses are
> inevitable
> as is greatly reduced or nearly flat capital investment - meaning no new
> jobs,
> no new wealth creation.
>
> As the credit cycle collapses, the lack of national savings will also
> influence
> negatively capital investment.  As jobs are lost and the price level
> accomodates
> Greenscam's money pumping, even the ability to save will be precluded.
>
> Citizens have borrowed the money to support demand - that is the problem!
> And our economy/culture is designed to direct them into such cannabilitic
> behavior;
> sadly, they have already consumed their future but it is the bankers who
> will
> enjoy the holiday feast.
>
> I'd like to take issue with your description of the US economy as an
example
> of "capitalism."  Not hardly.  What we have is a managed and limited
market
> economy - one managed for and by the political/financial elite that
requires
> interventions - which pervert market signals and thereby mislead the
> outsiders
> which is all the better for the manipulators but thoroughly destructive
for
> the
> national economy.  Just like the phony "free trade" the US touts, which is
> really
> managed trade, i.e. trade managed on behalf of and by the political and
> financial
> elite at everyone else's expense (natives and foreigners).
>
> I see the plight of American workers as a consequence of the erosion of
> property
> rights, not in Marxian terms of SV.  American workers haven't enjoyed a
true
> wage
> increase since 1968!  How have they been managing?  Two workers per
> household,
> overtime, and credit cards.  The availability of easy credit has made
> workers
> complacent, and the fiat system has fooled them.  In a true free market
> system,
> money is property.  A man's labor is property, and when he "sells" his
labor
> he must
> be paid market price and that price can only be fairly determined with
> competition,
> which government interventions try to prevent or contain on behalf of
their
> money-
> giving patrons.  Additionally, the seller of labor can not be paid with
> fraudulent
> financial instruments of ever-decreasing value.  It is the money, banking
> and credit
> system that is robbing the workers -- and I would wager the profits to the
> manipulators
> far exceed 20%.  When the collapse comes, all their property will be at
risk
> to the
> bankers who provided the credit.  (When credit cards were introduced,
> taxpayers
> could deduct the interest charges.  That got everybody hooked, and then
once
> the job
> was done, about 20 years ago, the interest deduction was disallowed.  See
> how it
> works?  Step by step, day by day......don't think these capers aren't
> planned well in
> advance.)
>
> Another problem for the worker is our tax system, which taxes earned
income
> the most.
> The antecedents of "Progressive Thought" sold the income tax on the basis
> that only
> the rich would pay.  Ha-ha.  Within but a few years the burden was
> transferred to the
> middle class, and tax levels began to escalate to the current level in
which
> a worker
> labors now half a year for the mad, self-indulgent and bankrupting schemes
> of folks
> like the thoroughly repellent and self-serving Hitlary Clinton, who could
be
> the mascot
> of our corrupt congress and debased culture. (Caligula delivered his horse
> to the Roman
> Senate, but Bubba - that merry joker - presented us with his political
> mule.) In other words,
> citizens were thoroughly defrauded long ago.  "Reform" is a very tricky
> thing; after all, the
> Federal Reserve Act was a banking reform bill!
>
> Setting up IRAs will be shown to have been another scam - money flowed to
> Wall
> Street on a conveyer belt month after month.  Oh, how they froliced, how
> gleeful were
> the traders in the late 90s, chuckling about how it was all "the greatest
> voluntary
> transfer of wealth in world history."  And so it will be shown to have
been.
>
> Grrrrrrrrr, the entire mess and coming upheaval that will ruin so many
just
> blows
> my circuits.  I am sick at heart about the whole of it, but the system is
so
> entrenched,
> so little understood that I have come to the conclusion there's no
stopping
> it short
> of a total monetary meltdown.  When will that happen?  I don't know.
Could
> be next
> month, this coming year, five years, maybe even fifty.  But it will
happen.
>
> Anne
>
> PS  It's important to remember that the only investment capital of which
any
> nation
> can be certain are national savings.  (A country may well attract foreign
> investment,
> but that is money that flees at the first sign of trouble or crisis.)  By
> devaluing the
> peoples' savings through the printing of monetary instruments out of thin
> air, and
> exporting them in volume (which gives foreigners claims to US assets that
> must be
> paid eventually), the US has set itself up for a mighty fall.  Or will the
> giant, thoroughly
> lunatic worldwide military adventure the US is now pursuing save it?  I
> think not.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Seth Sandronsky <ssandron at hotmail.com>
> To: <a-list at lists.econ.utah.edu>
> Sent: Sunday, March 17, 2002 3:02 PM
> Subject: Re: [A-List] US fiscal crisis
>
>
>  > Mar. 17
>  >
>  > Anne,
>  >
>  > Hi.  Apologies to you and the list for mistakenly forwarding Subject:
>  > [A-List] Enron, Anatomy of a Cover Up.  I meant to send it to a friend
> who
>  > is following the story.  Sorry.
>  >
>  > One question about the thread below.  Is the problem of capitalism in
the
>  > U.S. caused by pinched profits or a result of a working class that
can't
>  > absorb the surplus-value (SV) produced at home and abroad?  By the way,
> an
>  > economist friend has said that in the U.S. profits account for about
>  > one-fifth of the SV.
>  >
>  > What do you think?
>  >
>  > Regards,
>  > Seth
>  >
>  > From: "Anne Williamson" <annewilliamson at msn.con>
>  > Reply-To: a-list at lists.econ.utah.edu
>  > To: <a-list at lists.econ.utah.edu>
>  > Subject: Re: [A-List] US fiscal crisis
>  > Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 09:55:29 -0500
>  >
>  > I must agree with Rob as I can't see how this monstrously
>  > fraudulent "globalized economy" the US enjoys could
>  > possibly be sustained until 2006 per Goldmans.  And an
>  > external shock as catalyst for collapse along the lines Rob
>  > outlines is certainly a possiblity at any time (Japan is worrisome),
>  > but there is an ongoing crisis now, i.e., no profits.  Zip, zero, and
>  > what's been claimed over the past five years is mostly fraudulent,
>  > and deeply massaged.  The manipulators are doing a great job of
>  > keeping the market running over-priced on vapors, but since there
>  > are no profits, there can be no new bull market -- our debts must
>  > be paid first, and without profits for jobs, capital investment, and
>  > ultimately savings, we lack the wherewithal to pay the debts (but
>  > they will be paid!  Out of our individual hides, alas....) -Anne
>  >
>  > ----- Original Message -----
>  > From: <bantam at dingoblue.net.au>
>  > To: <a-list at lists.econ.utah.edu>
>  > Sent: Friday, March 15, 2002 7:25 PM
>  > Subject: Re: [A-List] US fiscal crisis
>  >
>  >
>  >  > Sorry 'bout that ...
>  >  >
>  >  > I have to read Michael's ever-welcome messages in reply mode because
>  >  > they're suddenly coming through unwrapped -and then I punched 'send'
> by
>  >  > accident as I reached for the ciggies.  Anyway, I agree very much
with
>  >  > the thrust of Goldman's argument, but wonder why he doesn't point to
>  >  > potential shocks already in the system.  All that's needed is for
>  >  > something to stop capital pouring into the US at $2bn per day.
> Internal
>  >  > factors include evidence that the ever-so-indebted US consumer is
>  >  > reaching her card's limit, that we might be only days away from new
>  >  > revelations about large accounting fibs by large players, that the
> US's
>  >  > groaning auto makers might find steel a bit dear  post-steel-tariff
> and
>  >  > sales a little slow with rising oil prices and the fact (or so it
> would
>  >  > seem to me) that those who did not buy cars at zero interest are not
>  >  > likely to buy now, that telcos look absolutely embarrassed by excess
>  >  > capacity (exacerbated by all this wireless hype we're wearing at the
>  >  > moment).  External factors include the possibility of a Japanese
> banking
>  >  > system having to recall its overseas investments to make up for the
> fact
>  >  > its reserves to loans ratio is based on equity holdings valued at
>  >  > pre-Nikkei-swoon levels.  I suppose a good imagination can conjure
> such
>  >  > lists at any point in time, but the above look neither ridiculously
>  >  > unlikely nor necessarily years away.  What say you?
>  >  >
>  >  > Cheers,
>  >  > Rob.
>  >  >
>  >  >
>  >  >
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  >
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