• Advertising by the National Association of Realtors in 2005

and 2006 after home prices had doubled in five years telling all
Americans it was the best time to buy and that buying a house is
always a great investment.

• Both liberal and conservative ideologue pundits skewing

every issue in order to prove their pre-ordained position.

• Corporate titans like GE own TV networks and slanting

the reporting of the news in a way that aligns with their corporate
interests.

• Paid political consultants train politicians to not answer the questions

they are asked. They are trained to repeat their talking points, not answer questions
truthfully.

• The mainstream media use their power and influence

to mislead the public regarding the true state of the economy
and the truth about the future finances of the country.

• Companies like GMAC/Ditech used misleading TV

commercials to lure the ignorant and poor into loans which
they could never repay.

• The negative ads run during political campaigns are made up of smears,

innuendo, half truths, and bold faced lies intended to destroy the character of opponents.

• Using polls in order to slant your message in a way that

appeals to the most voters.

• Using advertising techniques to convince people to buy

products they can’t afford by appealing to their emotions and biases.

• TV shows that glorify killers, immoral lifestyles, crime, drug

use, etc. in order to push their agenda on children.

• The media exaggerating risks of pandemics, terrorism,

crime, and weather events in order to increase ratings.

After slogging through this depressing list I’m sure there will be many in the status quo crowd
who will argue that most of the examples I’ve listed are not illegal, therefore they are not evil.
This is where the elite in control of the country and the average American part ways. The elite will
make the case that we live in a modern world with modern standards, based on modern thought.
They use the media to manipulate the masses into believing that evil is actually good. As the citizens
of the country allow this to happen, the hangman’s scaffold grows ever larger. Our parents taught us
right from wrong. It is black and white. Only those in power want the world to be bathed in shades of
grey. This allows them to commit fraud, manipulate public opinion, utilize leverage to make risky bets
with taxpayer funds, and use wealth and power to secure more wealth and power. The unelected
bureaucrats in the back pocket of the banking cartel designed a bailout plan that attempts to keep
the evil bankers in control of our economy. Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz, whose sound advice
has been ignored by government central planners, described the bailout recently:

“The designers of the bailout are either in the pocket of the banks or they’re incompetent.
It’s a real redistribution and a tax on all American savers. This is a strategy trying to recreate
the bubble. That’s not likely to provide a long-run solution. It’s a solution that says let’s kick
the can down the road a little bit. They haven’t thought enough about the determinants of the
flow of credit and lending.”

The business pundits think it is wonderful that criminally negligent banks can borrow at 0% from
the Fed and lend to the public at 6%. Meanwhile, senior citizens get .50% on their money market
funds and 2% for 5 year CDs. Until we bring the country back from its acceptance of immorality
and evil as common place, we are destined for the tragic fate of the Roman Empire.

Money is the Root of Evil

Now a couple hours past, and I was sitting in my house, the day was winding down and coming
to an end, so I turned on the TV, and flipped it over to the news, and what I saw I almost couldn't
comprehend, I saw a preacher man in cuffs taking money from the church, he stuffed his bank
account with righteous dollar bills but even still I can't say much cause I know were all the same,
oh yes we all seek out to satisfy those thrills.

                                                 Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked – Cage the Elephant

Money is not inherently evil. It is useful to buy food, pay for utilities, education, and transportation.
It can be used to support charities, take vacations, or be saved for a rainy day. It can be invested
in capital equipment, research, or technology, which has the potential to generate more money
for the investor. It can also be squandered on depreciating assets such as unnecessarily luxurious
houses, luxury cars, TVs, stereo systems, Blackberries, iPods, and other baubles and trinkets.
Spending money on these things is not evil or wrong. Buying these things with borrowed money
that you are not capable of paying back is wrong. Lending money to people and companies that
cannot pay you back in order to generate short term profits to enrich management is wrong.
Creating financial leverage products whose sole purpose is to mislead investors, regulators,
accountants and the public in order to enrich management is wrong. Debt which is not used
for productive purposes only leads to sorrow and heartbreak.
  

Total credit market debt as a percentage of GDP has risen from 130% of GDP in 1952 to
 350% of GDP today. The various bailout and stimulus schemes enacted in the last year
will drive this percentage above 400% in the near future. When a country allows this much
debt to accumulate versus its GDP, they have done something seriously wrong. The country’s
politicians, business leaders, and citizens have all contributed to this disaster. If the debt had
been used for constructive fruitful purposes such as building refineries, laying pipelines,
replacing decaying water pipes, building nuclear power plants, repairing the 156,000
structurally deficient bridges, or researching and developing cutting edge energy, biotech,
or nanotech technologies the increase may have had some merit.

Instead, banks created new forms of debt to benefit themselves through excessive CEO pay,
stock options to reliable lieutenants and stock buybacks to make EPS appear better.
Government used debt to pay for useless wars of choice, tax cuts for the rich, expansion of the
unfunded Medicare program, ethanol subsidies, and other payoffs to the 40,000 lobbyists
scurrying around Washington DC like cockroaches. Of course, I didn’t intend to insult cockroaches.
Americans used the debt buy and sell houses to each other, leasing cars they couldn’t afford,
taking vacations they couldn’t afford, and buying doo-dads they didn’t need. Corporations used
debt to buy and sell divisions to each other, bought back their own stock, rewarded management
with $50 million compensation packages, while shipping millions of jobs to China. Reckless
companies used leverage to do $3 trillion of mergers and acquisitions in 2006, at the top of the
market.

The debt was wasted on non-productive assets, useless financial gimmicks and complex
fraudulent products sold to investors. No one knows at what level the debt will swamp the ship of state.
A rogue wave has just crashed across our bow and washed many overboard. A captain of state that
cared about the remaining passengers would reverse course and take responsible evasive action.
Our captain and his crew of gamblers have decided to speed up and take the ship of state headlong
into a perfect storm. We all know how this will end it is only a matter of when.

 We also know how it all began:

“Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who
makes its laws.”

            Mayer Amschel Rothschild

When the banking cartel succeeded in creating the Federal
Reserve Bank in 1913, control of money in the United States
was put into the hands of bankers whose sole purpose is to enrich
themselves at the expense of the citizens of the country. Their
relentless printing of money has resulted in the dollar losing 96%
of its value since 1913. The printing of dollars has allowed
politicians to spend money today and make unfunded commitments
decades into the future. The systematic inflation created by the
Federal Reserve is immoral as it impoverishes the middle class
and senior citizens for the benefit of bankers, the elite rich and
entrenched politicians. Much of the moral decay in our nation
can be traced to the manipulation of money in the last 8 decades.
During the 1950’s, 1960’s and into the 1970’s, a family of five could
be supported with a father working and a mother staying at
home with the children. Today, due to relentless inflation, the
average family of four needs to have both parents working to
maintain a similar lifestyle. Inflation adjusted median household
income has been stagnant since 1970. The social pressures
caused by the Federal Reserve induced inflation such as
increased divorce, children raising themselves, and focus
on material possessions has resulted in a society whose fabric
is tearing. 

The Federal Reserve’s mandate to keep short term interest rates steady and conducive to
long-term growth has been a farce. The interest rate policies of the Federal Reserve have
caused every financial crisis since 1913. The Great Depression from 1929 to 1940 is debated
endlessly regarding FDR’s social programs and whether they helped or hurt. What is rarely
discussed is the fact that the Federal Reserve’s loose monetary policies in the 1920’s created
the disastrous stock market crash and the depression that followed. Milton Friedman explained
the decadent relationship between banks and the Federal Reserve:

“Banking is a major sector of the economy in which no enterprise ever
fails, no one ever goes broke. The banking industry has been a highly
protected, sheltered industry. That’s because the banks have been the
constituency of the Federal Reserve.”

Alan Greenspan’s interest rate decisions and belief that financial institutions did not need to
 be regulated during his reign as Federal Reserve Chairman from 1987 to 2006 were by far the
most significant cause for the worldwide financial system collapse. Greenie trained Wall Street
to expect the Federal Reserve to bail them out whenever their horrific financial bets went south.
He created the moral hazard that eventually led to the recent collapse. He did it in 1987 after the
stock market crash, in 1990 when Citicorp was rescued for the 1st time, during the Reagan
initiated S&L crisis, the Mexican peso rescue, the Asian currency bailout, when Myron Scholes
and his models brought down Long Term Capital Management, prior to the Y2K fake crisis,
after 9/11, and lastly during the 2003 false deflation scare. These bailouts encouraged the
extreme risk taking and 40 to 1 leveraging that occurred between 2003 and 2008. Allowing
financial institutions to not have to accept the consequences of their irresponsible actions
was and is wrong. Ben Bernanke has continued this immoral policy of bailing out corrupt
bankers at the expense of prudent bankers and prudent citizens.

The reduction of interest rates to 1% in 2003 by Greenspan encouraged consumers, investors,
banks, hedge funds, and investment banks to go on the greatest debt financed buying
binge the world has ever seen. By “saving” the idiots who lost their shirts in the internet
bubble, Greenspan created a debt bubble of epic proportions. Lessons about margin debt
and excessive leverage that should have been learned during the 2000 – 2002 stock market
crash were forgotten by 2004, with margin debt reaching $381 billion in 2007, 40% higher than
the NASDAQ peak in 2000. Investment banks increased their leverage from 10 to 1 to as high
as 40 to 1. Consumers used home equity and credit cards to live way above their means. All of
these choices were bad decisions. Very simply, these decisions made freely by millions of
people were wrong.

The chart below is the clearest visual representation of why those proclaiming green shoots
sprouting are either, liars, knaves, or fools. The green shoots are actually poison ivy. Real
disposable income has only risen fourfold since 1960. Real household debt rose at virtually
the same rate as disposable income from 1960 to 1980. By 2009, real household debt had
increased by twelvefold. The miraculous Reagan Revolution was nothing but a debt induced fraud.
All of the apparent wealth in America has been a gigantic sham. The McMansions, fancy cars,
HDTVs, jewelry, and other “essential” gadgets were not bought with earned income. The Federal
Reserve and their banking brotherhood leant billions to delusional Americans, convincing them
 to live for today and not worry about tomorrow. But now tomorrow has arrived. Housing “wealth”
continues to plummet, stock “wealth” is down 40% in 18 months, and our old friend household
debt remains stubbornly in place. This debt must be paid down before any green shoots can take
permanent root. Any policy that encourages the expansion of consumer debt would be
 immoral, wrong and foolish. This is the policy that the Obama administration has chosen.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

“No one in this world has ever lost money by underestimating the
intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone
ever lost public office thereby.”

H.L. Mencken

Americans are still infatuated with President Barrack Obama. He is a dynamic speaker
and shrewd manipulator of public opinion. After eight years of George Bush’s narrow
minded demagoguery, Obama’s appearance of intelligence and moderate rhetoric have
been refreshing to many. His words may be comforting but his policies, if fully implemented,
will lead to an irreversible decline of the American Empire. The chances of reversing our
current misguided course get slimmer by the day. The Keynesians who have taken control
of our government pick and choose the wisdom of this renowned economist. His assessment
of how aging populations act describes a major roadblock to fixing our broken society.

“Most men love money and security more, and creation and
construction less, as they get older.”

The government has promised to protect us from terrorists, protect us from swine flu,
protect us from Wall Street, protect us from foreign corporations, protect our car industry,
protect our union jobs, protect our retirements, and protect us from having to take
responsibility for our actions. We have sacrificed liberties, rights, responsibilities,
and entrepreneurial spirit for a false sense of security provided by a corrupt, inefficient,
morally bankrupt government. Our rapidly aging population has chosen security over
creative destruction and renewal of the American Dream.

The polarized extremists that dominate the dialogue in our country
make rational necessary change virtually impossible. The public relations
maggots have taken the “green” agenda into elementary schools and the
mainstream media has done their usual job of misinforming the masses.
As the “green” guru Al Gore continues to live in his 20 room mansion with
8 bathrooms while raking in millions as a partner in a joint venture firm, his
 misleading agenda is directing the country down the wrong path. The
average Joe now believes that solar energy, ethanol, and higher mileage
cars will save the earth and make the U.S., energy self sufficient.
This is a big lie and will lead to suffering and economic calamity
when oil prices soar past $200 a barrel in the foreseeable future. 
The U.S. no longer has the moral authority to tell other countries
how to manage their finances. Our fiscal deficit as a % of GDP
 in 2009 will exceed 12%. Countries we have scoffed at and
ridiculed like Italy, Mexico and Argentina will have deficits less than
4% of GDP. This is only the beginning.

The deficit projections from the Obama administration and CBO are dead on arrival. When tax
revenues don’t materialize and the predicted V shaped recovery turns into an L shaped depression,
 deficits will far exceed the already horrific projections. The government continues to spend our
children’s and grandchildren’s money at an ever increasing rate on bailouts, non-investment
stimulus, healthcare waste and subsidies for friends of Congress. P.J. O’Rourke humorously
explained government drunk with power.

 “Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and
car keys to teenage boys.”

The dilemma facing our country is that the elite ruling class in control of the nation
wants to maintain the status quo. The 50% of Americans who pay no Federal taxes
 will gladly support increases in taxes on the 50% of Americans who do pay taxes. T
hose without health insurance will vote for anyone who promises them government
healthcare at no cost. There are 306 million Americans. I often refer to the average
American in my articles. Part of our problem is that by definition, half of Americans are
below average. After spending Memorial Day weekend at the Jersey shore, I know where
a large number of below average Americans like to vacation. They give themselves away
fairly easily. If your body is more than 50% covered in tattoos, you have more than 10 body
piercings, your gold chain weighs more than 5 pounds, and your idea of cuisine is a fried
Oreo, you’re a below average American. These zombie-like citizens have absolutely no
 interest in deficits, GDP, the National Debt or shared sacrifice. The majority prefer not to
be bothered.

 An entitlement society will eventually wither and die. Only societies that produce something
of value to other societies will prosper. Using financial hocus pocus and enormous amounts
of leverage creates nothing of value to anyone except the criminals who created the financial
weapons of mass destruction. Bailing these criminals out will waste essential capital and
lead to our ultimate demise as a world power. Dr. John Hussman clearly lays out our future:

“The bottom line is that the attempt to save bank bondholders from losses – to provide
monetary compensation without economic production – is not sound economic policy but is
instead a grand monetary experiment that has never been tried in the developed world except
in Germany circa 1921. This policy can only have one of two effects: either it will crowd out over
$1 trillion of gross domestic investment that would otherwise have occurred if the appropriate
losses had been wiped off the ledger (instead of making bank bondholders whole), or it will
result in a stunning and durable increase in the quantity of base money, which will ultimately
be accompanied not by a year or two of 5-6% inflation, but most probably by a near-doubling
of the U.S. price level over the next decade. As I've noted previously, the growth rate of
government spending is better correlated with subsequent inflation than even growth in
money supply itself, particularly at 4-year intervals. Regardless of near-term deflation
pressures from a continued mortgage crisis, our present course is consistent with double
digit inflation once any incipient recovery emerges.”

The following graphs tell the story of a country in decline and a country on the rise. We
proudly proclaim that we are a consumer society that creates 70% of its GDP by buying
stuff and saving nothing. Instead of encouraging and rewarding saving, which leads to
productive investment, our government pours an additional $7.5 billion into GMAC and
demands them to lend the money to millions of subprime borrowers, because they
deserve to drive a BMW just like any big time Corporate Treasurer. While America was
“inventing” Twitter so Americans could waste more time on useless bullshit, China built
three nuclear power plants and two refineries.

China on the other hand is sailing an entirely different course. With gross national saving of
52% of GDP it is only a matter of time before China becomes the world economic leader. The
21st Century will be China’s century. There is much wrong with their society. Pollution, human
rights abuses, and fraud are major issues, but the enormous amount of saving and investment
in infrastructure, manufacturing plants, nuclear power plants and refineries will overcome those
issues. As the Obama administration and the Federal Reserve double down on failed socialist
policies that will bankrupt our country, the Chinese increase their productive capacity and use
their depreciating dollars to buy up natural resources around the globe.

We have been confronted with stormy seas in the last two years. Our leaders’ inept management
and inane solutions caused the crisis. They have committed hundreds of billions in the last six
months. This has resulted in the seas receding from the shoreline. There is an unusual calmness.
An alert and dutiful government would be warning Americans to run inland by paying off debt and
preparing for rough times ahead. Our government is encouraging Americans to venture out to
where the violent waves were recently breaking and pick themselves up a new car or an “affordable”
house. When the tsunami warning is sounded, it will be too late.  

We are in our current predicament because we have allowed evil men to gain control of our g
overnment and financial institutions. These men have enriched themselves at the expense of
taxpaying citizens. Trillions have been stolen from the American people and no one goes to jail,
no one is punished, and no responsibility is taken by the culprits. If we stand by silently while criminal
bankers are bailed out and policies are put into place that increases our crushing debt, the Hangman’s
scaffold will loom ever larger. On Memorial Day, when we honor those who died heroically to protect
and defend our way of life, the lesson of shared sacrifice should bear out that it is morally wrong to
spend money today and pass the bill to unborn future generations. If you have ideas to share,
join me at www.TheBurningPlatform.com.

THE BOTTOM LINE: "...I did no more than you let me do."