The Coming Economic Depression: March 05 Update

You, telling me the things you’re gonna do for me
I ain’t blind and I don’t like what I think I see
Takin’ it to the streets - Doobie Brothers

This month’s update is going to go over three basic issues. Social Security, Bankruptcy Reform and the Dollar.

Bush Social security proposals have caused such an uproar that I had intended to devote this entire edition to discussing Bush proposals in depth. I am not going to do that, there is a plethora of information on the web from every conceivable perspective and rather than reinvent the wheel, I will briefly cover this issue. First and foremost I will make this clear now in case some of you may have not read any of my previous updates on this, the Bush plan will be a boom to Wall Street and will send the markets to record highs perhaps, depending on the specifics of the plan, to well over 20,000. Such an infusion of capital into the markets would inflate the price of stocks well above any reasonable value and would be hailed as a great new boom to the US economy. This would enamor Bush with Wall Street and an unsuspecting public who simply will not understand that they have put their money in the same casino that has put pension funds across the nation into such deep financial trouble.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation has been forced to take over pension payments to a large number of funds that went bankrupt with the great Clinton financial bubble burst just after the millennium.

“Concerns about the future funding of Social Security have been matched by fears about the growing deficit faced by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, which insures defined benefit plans. It has swung from a surplus of $9.7bn (€7.3bn, £5bn) in 2000 to a deficit of $23bn. This deficit is expected to widen as bankrupt airlines such as US Airways and United move to terminate their plans, transferring liabilities to the corporation.” - FT

The promise to pay someone money at a later date money already paid is a matter of trust, public trust. This is ultimately the test that the nation is undergoing now in the guise of pension reform. Can our leaders be trusted to keep a promise to Americans who do not fill the coffers of campaign finance chests? Will they keep the legally binding agreement that allows them to take money out of your check every month to pay you a retirement? In short beyond the charts and graphs, demographics, and pronouncements, this is the fundamental issue at stake here. Another problem that has been longstanding is that Social Security used to simply be a retirement program. Now, unfortunately it includes certain groups of people with disabilities, drug addicts, handicapped and many other groups who admittedly, may need aid but have had an extremely debilitating effect on Social Security's fiscal health. Another major problem is Bush’s foolishness in attempting to give away large portions of it to Mexico. This is not only foolish but shows that this man has absolutely no desire to see Americans retire, he seems to be deliberately attempting to destroy the fund with proposals that take aim at specifically and deliberately undermine its fiscal health. How can such man stand before the nation and cry about Social Securities insolvency and then turn around and try to give large portions of it away to Mexico and illegal immigrants thus stealing from millions of hard working overtaxed Americans who have been paying into it all of their working lives?

1. Can the Social Security system in its present state, fulfill its obligations.

Yes and no. Yes it can for a few more years. No for those of us in our mid 40’s and younger. There is not enough money in the till for us to retire.

Yes. No doubt about it if those who are in their early 50's and younger are to get paid after paying into it all of their lives. There are really only two ways the present system can be salvaged. Either taxes must be raised or benefits cut. The third way is to do what Bush proposes or something equally radical.

“The bad news is that boomers, on average, who are expecting to retire at 65 will not be able to do so. Your individual situation is up to you, but the average boomer will work until at least age 70, and probably 72 or 73.”

To get a little background on the demographical problems that confront Social Security Click on this article by Mr. Mauldin. Click Here.

Is there a crisis? Well, not quite yet, but something must be done and within the next four years or real problems will begin to surface and be far more difficult to solve. So while I and many others have consistently chided Bush for his proposal that will grease the palms of the already filthy rich at the long term expense of those who pay into any new system he would propose, he is right (as much as it pains me to say it) in bringing this issue up and at least bringing into the public debate.

Bush's proposal is in all fairness is at least a solution. However it will only work if two things happen that are impossible to ensure with any degree of certainty. One, that Wall Street and its Titan brokerage houses, stock exchanges and money managers will not use the money to manipulate stocks, to fatten their own purses, and then when the time comes for millions of Americans to retire they, like Ken Lay, are never prosecuted for their crimes. This is a nagging doubt that will plague this proposal from day one. Some way must be found to keep any individual retirement accounts that people set up out of the hands of the quasi-criminal network of financial institutions that are part and parcel of Wall Street.

Frankly, it is not that the Government has done any better. There would be no problem at all except that Clinton took the money from the trust fund and essentially put it into the general operating fund of the US government. Do you remember how he got to a so-called balanced budget in his tenure? That is how he did it. He simply got Congress to codify what Bush the elder started and he himself continued. There was no balanced budget because what resides in the trust fund is essentially only IOU’s; no cash, no bonds and no easy way to come up with the trillions needed to keep Social Security solvent. From the time of the 1983 pay roll tax increase that was implemented to fix a funding shortfall that was foreseen and acted upon, Presidents since Bush the Elder have dipped into the till to fund pet programs until there was nothing left.

Bush The Elder, Clinton and Bush The Younger took your retirement fund and used it to fund the government which had reached a perilous point in its fiscal condition during the first years of the Clinton Administration. Clinton was in a pickle, believe me and he had to do something. I can remember listening to a representative years ago talking about this very issue saying something like ‘Well, Social Security is taxed by the government, it should be accounted in the general operating fund of the government’ or some such nonsense. That was the mentality of the day because they knew that when the baby boomers started to retire they would be long out of office living on the extremely comfortable retirement that all elected representatives get, which by the way, is not part of Social Security.

So while the Democrats rant and rave about what Bush is trying to do, they are as much if not mostly to blame for the mess we are in today. While Bush’s proposal is hardly a godsend it has stimulated a much needed debate.

Unless there is a change in policy, the trust fund will not have even $1 of real assets in 2018!" Smith points out that David Walker, Comptroller General of the Government Accounting Office (GAO), while speaking at a Washington luncheon, co-hosted by Centrists.Org and the Alliance for Worker Retirement Security on January 21, 2005, said, "The left hand owes the right hand, and that has legal, political and moral significance. But it doesn't have any economic significance whatsoever. There are no stocks or bonds or real estate in the trust fund. It has nothing of real value to draw down." From PR Newswire Story

While there is stiff opposition to Bush plan even in his own party, I strongly suspect that some sort of private account solution will eventually be brought into being. The problem will be to keep the pigs from eating at the trough and robbing Americans blind. Can they do this? This is not an economic problem so much as it is a political one and in my estimation, the primary problem that faces this kind of solution. I do not think these fears are over blown or unwarranted. The Labor department has documented a significant jump in cases if missing 401(k) funds. There were 1269 instances of missing 401(k) money last year. This is a 370% rise in malfeasance from those found in 1995. Frankly, protections for the workers/investors are feeble. This is the 'Mount Olympus' that must be climbed in the entire debate in this authors opinion. This is because if theft is going on at this rate right now after the flurry of corporate scandals that hit just after the millennium, what do you think will happen to the trillions that will pass through Wall Street if Bush’s proposals become law? One story of just how 'clean' Wall Street is reads like the scandals we saw back them. One Compliance Officer was indicted on federal charges for stealing $5.4 million. She said she spent the money on two beach houses, wine collections and a Porsche. The alleged theft went on for years. No one saw it until people wanted to get their money out. This is exactly what I see happening if real checks are not put in place and real loophole proof legislation is enacted to prevent this. The Justice Department (not the toothless SEC) really will have to look into these matters (as opposed to the cursory 'political' investigations) when malfeasance does take place and really prosecutes the offenders with long prison sentences in the Maximum security facilities. No, I’m not talking about ‘Camp Cupcake’ or ‘Golfers Island’ but the hard prisons where all criminals should go. Now let me tell you all right now, no beating around he bush; It ain’t gonna happen.

Another major problem this fund faces is more demographical. Will this solution really solve the problems of retirements for an aging population? Here the problems and solutions are somewhat less than clear, it behooves us to note here two things. The first is how irresponsible elected representatives are with your retirement money especially when they know that they will be out of office or dead by the time you come to collect on their promise. The second is a look across the pond to the little island of Britain and their problems in this very arena. One of the problems that Britain had can only be described as a marketing scandal in which people were told they would be making much more money than they actually did. Demographics, marketing and yes a degree of fraud are all part of a systemic problem of Western Democracies efforts to deal with the problem of public and private pensions. The issue is one of effective law enforcement coupled with effective laws in conjunctions with Courts that are capable of looking at the retiree as just an important member of society as the mega-corporation or the multinational bank. Since this administration in particular has shown reckless abandon when it comes to bowing before Corporate/Banking interests it does not seem likely that any proposal they make will favor individual taxpayers, nor will its Justice Department show any kind of due diligence to ensure the money that will flow into the Wall Street is not stolen or clearly malinvested.

I do not propose to have the answers to this perplexing problem. But let me give you some ideas that may make the idea work.

First, if Wall Street wants to get their hands on all this money they’re going to have to bear some responsibility for its proper disposition and provide some rock solid guaranties that if the money is lost, stolen, becomes a victim of fraud or is beamed away by aliens, they will make good.

Second people need to have some sort of legal protection against Congress when (not if) they try to change the laws years from now in semi-secrecy to remove those protections. Individual investors should be able to cash out 100% without taxes or penalties should any substantive change me made. This would be a strong dissuader from any changes as it would be in no ones interest, not the government treasury which would not see any revenues, not Wall Street who would have to pay out in cash, and not large corporations which might see their stocks decline if large numbers of people felt that they were getting the proverbial shaft.

Any entity who is authorized to set up and maintain these accounts must have on hand a large reserve of hard cash (not bonds, not securities, not T-bills). To pay out a substantial portion of these funds should the money be ‘misappropriated’. This fund should be deposited in the Federal Reserve Banks and held in trust. In other words 30% of all money that goes into these accounts cannot be invested in the markets. It must be held in cash. The other 70% can be invested in the markets according to the desires of the retiree. The cash must also be matched by investment house in the form of Cash and government guaranteed bonds. These assets cannot be claimed in corporate earnings statements and cannot be spent or borrowed against. If the laws change, the escape clause written above would be put into effect and a future retiree would then be able to cash out 100% no taxes, no penalties. The assets could be passed on to family members without taxes, should the person die before he collects on his pension. In other words, that money is YOURS and your asset, not Wall Streets or the governments. You own it and can do pretty much what you want with it except spend it before you retire.

Such a proposal would cool Wall Streets interest in this proposal but would also allow for the real debate to take place, how do you provide for the eventuality of theft and changing the rules (as they are doing now) when all the money is gone and people start to retire.

Another proposal is to have the choice for people to have their retirement money going into a government guaranteed system not dissimilar to what we have now but naturally on a smaller scale that allows people to invest in t-bills cash, Gold, Silver to be held in trust at the FED. Once again the money is untouchable and cannot be borrowed against by the government nor counted as assets by the treasury, No, not even in times of National Emergency, which we have been under technically since the 1970’s.

There will be many legal and legislative challenges to these proposals but it is this kind of ‘out of the box’ thinking that will be required before any solution that will really allow people to retire can come into existence. I, and many Americans are not looking for quick fixes that have large loopholes that will make us feel good now but will leave us impoverished when we retire. We want real solutions and real accountability and that can start with a clear sign from the President that he means business on financial fraud when people like Ken Lay are in a Maximum Security Prisons, right next to the gang-bangers and 6’6”, 280 pound shaved headed Bubba, who is looking for a new girl friend.

As many of you are aware the House is trying to remove much of the bankruptcy protection that Americans now enjoy. Once again this is a clear ‘bait and switch’ that the Banks are now trying to make the law of the land. They sent out millions upon millions of Credit Card offers to Americans based on one set of rules, now that many are in debt, the card companies do not want to bear the responsibility for their easy credit policies. Well, no one is changing the rules on how the banks operate. Some of the things some of these companies do are outrageous. Now let us make this clear, some companies are better than others, no doubt about it. Some however have methods that seem to hearken back to the days of the Mafia loan shark. Many unscrupulous practices have been noted and credit card holders are always bombarded with a flurry of ‘Notice of Change to Cardholder Agreement’ pamphlets. These changes are never in favor of the card holder and while one can always cut up the cards and send them back, that really does not help those who are already in debt. The Corporations are always looking for legal ways to take as much money as possible from the people and leave them with as little legal recourse as possible. Now they are going on a major frontal assault on Mr. and Mrs. America. They want to keep you in debt for the rest of your natural lives and make you a slave to the banks. You will not be able to walk away with a clean slate after you have liquidated your assets, or at least it will be very difficult. Now let us be clear here, this legislation being considered is primarily concerned with a Chapter 7 liquidation and not the Chapter 13 reorganization. You will probably have to pass some sort of ‘means test’ before such an action is even considered by a judge.

Yet it seems to me that a far more pressing problem that faces this industry is the whole issue of Identity Theft and the sale and ‘loss’ of personal data on customers without their knowledge. This is where Congress should be focusing but instead are obsessed with helping an extremely profitable industry (banking) become yet more powerful and giving them more legal tools to trample on ordinary Americans who have seen their good paying jobs get sent to India, China or Malaysia. Congress in short, wants to protect the banks from their own irresponsible lending^².

Yet the rate of Bankruptcy filings has roughly doubled in the past 10 years and this is something that the Banking industry is naturally concerned about. But one letter sent to Senator’s Specter and Leahy said,

It is a stark fact that the bankruptcy filing rate has slightly more than doubled during the last decade, and that last year approximately 1.6 million households filed for bankruptcy. The bill’s sponsors view this increase as a product of abuse of bankruptcy by people who would otherwise be in a position to pay their debts. Bankruptcy, the bill’s sponsor says, has become a system “where deadbeats can get out of paying their debt scott-free while honest Americans who play by the rules have to foot the bill.”

We disagree. The bankruptcy filing rate is a symptom. It is not the disease. Some people do abuse the bankruptcy system, but the overwhelming majority of people in bankruptcy are in financial distress as a result of job loss, medical expense, divorce, or a combination of those causes.1 In our view, the fundamental change over the last ten years has been the way that credit is marketed to consumers. Credit card lenders have become more aggressive in marketing their products, and a large, very profitable, market has emerged in subprime lending. Increased risk is part of the business model. Therefore, it should not come as a surprise that as credit is extended to riskier and riskier borrowers, a greater number default when faced with a financial reversal. Nonetheless, consumer lending remains highly profitable, even under current law. - A letter from several law professors to Senator’s Specter and Leahy

To be sure there have been abuses, yet the Congress is focusing on the abuses of the few and powerless and overlooks the abuses of the banks and the powerful, which are myriad and well documented. These too need to be addressed in the Congress. As the above letter so aptly observes, they are trying to shoot a mosquito with a shotgun.

Means testing is the main point of contention and to some degree the banks may have a small point. A simple test to determine if a persons income and debts really warrant bankruptcy should be clear, concise unambiguous and above all fair. Have there been abuses in the system? Yes there have been some abuses. Yet these abuses pale in comparison to the other abuses committed by the creditors, raising interest rates capriciously, finding new and better ways to ding your credit so that a higher rate can be charged, bait and switch marketing; these are the real problems that need to be addressed in the Congress, not this legislation which seems to be directed specifically at those Americans who have lost jobs, cannot find work and have used credit-cards to stake afloat during period(s) of unemployment.

Means testing, it is feared will be so difficult, or contain so much ambiguity that ordinary Americans will not have access to the courts. This is the dream of many a corporate Titan. This is how things were done in the middle ages with the serfs, they too did not have access to the courts and were beholden to the rich and powerful and their capricious justice. Keep the poor out of the courts; over the next four years keep that little phrase in mind when you hear more talk about 'tort reform', 'class action lawsuit reform', and other major changes to Federal laws that in the past held companies, corporations and the rich accountable for their actions.

Regionally speaking it seems clear that some states will suffer greater than others. States in the American heartland, where the bankruptcy filing rates are much higher (where many industries have picked up and moved abroad) will suffer much more than areas that have lower filing rates, such as Alaska. This bill will hurt not only individuals but local businesses that depend on patrons on having at least some disposable income. The ONLY beneficiary is going to be the creditors, also known as Banks.

Sadly there are other groups of people other than the recently unemployed who will suffer under this bill. Senior Americans are one of the fastest growing groups in America filing bankruptcy. What is driving these people into bankruptcy at such an alarming rate? Are these people simply deadbeats?

In 21^st Century America, Medical bills account for many and perhaps as much as half of all Bankruptcies. People get sick and simply cannot afford to bay bills when this happens.

Among individuals whose illness led to bankruptcy, out-of-pocket costs averaged $11,854 since the start of illness; 75.7% had insurance at the onset of illness. Medical debtors were 42% more likely than other debtors to experience lapses in coverage. Even middle class, insured families often fall prey to financial catastrophe when sick. - From a study done by Harvard University.

The above referenced study is sobering and shows that the battle lines are being drawn between the Banks, Credit Card Companies and the Medical establishment on who gets to take what from an increasingly financially strapped American household. This may not be a conscious and deliberate effort on the part of either, nevertheless these groups, in cases of bankruptcy brought on by Medical bills, are at least theoretically at odds. Each will benefit from this legislations as each are increasingly ‘on the prowl’ for real assets when their victims…uh…I mean customers do not have the ability to pay.

This bill is a naked attempt by the Banks and other corporations to protect themselves from a trend they see happening across America, namely the destruction of high paying jobs and the creation of new low wage paying jobs; bait the consumer with all kinds of offers with one set of rules then after they are in debt switch to a new set of rules that favor the banks. Essentially this bill if it becomes law will allow these economic behemoths to seize property of these people and still leave the victims in debt. This will be the eventual effect of such polices if put into law. Not at first, but as economic news continues to worsen and the dollar continues to slide, it is hard assets, (excluding the dollar) that companies will covet, assets that can be sold to foreign investors (international real estate speculators, rich individuals, new, well-heeled immigrants) that will pad the balance sheets of these companies. I know many of you will not agree, but I see this bill not as the end of the trend the GOP is bringing to America but as a key step to the enthronement of corporations and the enslavement of the American people.

This final section will merely address the activity going on with the dollar. Asian central banks gave the markets a scare in Mid February when the rumor was put out the some Asian Banks, the South Koreans in particular, had decided to diversify. Well this had the uncomfortable quality of being at least partly true, but far more importantly it was really a ‘non-event’. John Mauldin did an excellent job at explaining what is really going on with Currency reserves and why nations hold them. It is a good read if you are not that familiar with the mechanics of this. The Asians do appear to be diversifying (not dumping) and this is a trend that is quite unlikely to stop until the US gets its fiscal house in order.

When asked about the dumping of dollars. Greenspan said he saw little evidence of this; he did not say 'no' evidence but 'little', but the questions should not have been about dollar dumping but on dollar diversification, which the committee carefully failed to ask. And when listening to the audio contained at the CSPAN page, it seemed strange to me that when the Republicans spoke the audio was clear, when a key democrat spoke and listed a litany of Bush economic failures including record debts, high unemployment and other woes, the audio was very bad and in parts inaudible. Granted the problems may have been purely technical, then again...

These hearings are increasingly like a drama performed by students at an acting academy, the questions and answers seem to be rehearsed for the camera. As debts skyrocket and the government now is in a position that it knows it cannot meet its future obligations, it is trying to find ways to cut expenditures on the backs of ordinary Americans. All this happens while men like Greenspan the GOP senators cheer and say the economy delivered a ‘solid performance’ or is in the midst of a ‘solid expansion’ or is on ‘solid ground.’ If these things are true why is it necessary to revamp social security? Why are we far deeper in debt that we were just four years ago? Why to these politicians continually lie deceive and obfuscate basic fundamentals while extolling such subjective economic news as the ‘consumer confidence’ or other such highly subjective and often manipulated economic news.

It is also interesting to note statements by the IMF on America's fiscal situation. The managing director warned that the US needs to its need for external financing (borrowing) before banks decide to stop lending. precipitating a national crisis. What the BoK story did was to show how fragile the dollar is to a simple rumor from Asia. The dollar is a doomed currency, not all at once and right away but eventually it will go the way of Confederate script, suitable only for use as an incendiary, or perhaps as a novel decorative wallpaper motif. While I do not and will not give financial advice on this page, this is one thing I do think people need to keep in mind when making long term investment decisions; what will the dollars you are holding be worth?

Yet, the dollar has shown some resilience in recent months and it remains to be seen if and for how long this resilience will continue. Some feel that the dollar will rally for some time, if only because other nations, especially those of the EU, are experiencing wrenching economic problems most notably high unemployment. No dear readers, the employment situation in America is in reality not much better. To my readers out there please take note that I simply do not use the deceptive numbers used by the media pundits and Corporate-Foundation employed economists that are manipulated into existence by the BLS. However, I do use their universally avoided “Alternative measures of labor underutilization” which I think gives us a slightly better picture. That index hovers between nine and eleven percent.

Yet even in the media pundits cannot agree on what to report when it comes to employment. I was struck on Friday, the 4^th of March by two stories that came out and the utter divergence in tone and spin as to the effect the released unemployment figures. It really is amazing. Now granted one story is about the dollar and the other is about the stock market but look how the employment numbers are spun in each.

What does it mean? Not much really, just that financial news reporting is beginning to resemble a sideshow at a two-bit carnival than any real hard analysis or honest reporting.

The Vultures are circling overhead. They are scoping out the choicest morsels of the dying carcass thrashing in the American desert. That Carcass is middle and lower class America. The Vultures know the beast is dying, though that thought is only beginning to dawn on the American consumer as he thrashes wildly in the throes of death. As the beast continues to weaken, losing its financial strength and its ability to influence the political agenda of the Federal Government. The vultures strengthen themselves on the homes, cars, and savings of its victims. The Vultures are now preparing for a great feast and are looking at your domicile and possessions as eventually becoming theirs to feed their insatiable greed and avarice.

When Bush was still running for re-election, I said that this would be the result. The enthronement of corporations and the impoverishment of ordinary citizens, with special attention being paid to rob the old and the infirm (sick, medical bill laden families). They will go after the weakest first and then move on to those who are stronger before they finally turn and tear one another apart in their never-ending lust for other peoples money.

This is a dark picture and one that most of you have a hard time believing will ever come into being. I can only ask you to embark on an important and perhaps life saving endeavor. That being to read, learn from and really study history. Do you want to know why poverty is rampant in so much of the world and children are sold as slaves by their parents for a small amount of money? Do you want to know why evil dictators are so prevalent around the world as they repress their own people? Do you want to know why this is the picture around the world but America has been largely spared, until now?

America has been a shining beacon of light to the world for a long time primarily because we did look out for our poor our sick and our dying. We provided even the poorest of our citizens a day in court; to be heard, not impoverished. People could vote ‘the rascals out’ if they did not like what their representatives did. I tell you in the most solemn of terms, all of these things are under assault by the GOP and the Bush administration. I have covered the instances of verifiable vote fraud on this site, the GOP hacks who evaded subpoena’s in voter fraud cases, the forced testing of experimental drugs on orphans, without the guardians knowledge or consent, and those who refused having their child removed from their custody. I have covered these and many other issues that show a marked decline not only in our economic strength, but the backbone of that strength which comes from a basic sense of right and wrong and the basic knowledge that if you pay for something or invest in something you are entitled to what you pay for. This is the fundamental disconnect that the GOP PR firms, that permeate America's Airwaves like an odious smelling flatulence, hope you miss. Entitlements are entitlements, not because you are getting something for nothing, but because you have paid into them all of your life, as in the case of Social Security. It is a basic sense of fair play that is at stake here. I foresee many bad things if either of the two major bills covered in this article come to pass. Let me ask you a simple question; would you think it right to pay $1900 for a new computer, and never get it and the company keep your money? What do they call that? In the state I live in, it is called fraud, and there are some severe criminal penalties attached to it. Our politicians have abused their legal immunity to commit fraud on you and me and now they want to use the money they collect in taxes to use it, not to fund the government, but to send to their friends whose track record of financial integrity is sorely lacking.

No dear readers, the machine is working overtime with its lawyers and accountants, to find a legal way to rob you blind. You see, the machine doesn't produce anything anymore. It used to but now it's all lawyers, accountants, stock brokers, filing clerks and IT professionals who work in unison, not to produce wealth but increasingly, to steal it. We don't make TV's anymore though most American households have at least two, our textiles industry has been shipped to Asia, our entire industrial capacity has been systematically stripped down. We still make cars though our auto industry is in big trouble, making its profits not from selling cars but from its finance divisions. Now we do make lots of entertainment. This is still one of the most lucrative and 'in demand' things the nation produces. This productivity shift is one of the primary reasons America suffers massive trade deficits. We do not have much of anything the world wants at prices they can afford.

Sadly dear readers, because the vultures no longer have access to its former dietary supplements that came from corporate and industrial profits, they are in need of new forms of sustenance. They are quite hungry and in desperate need fresh meat.

Anyone interested in purchasing a copy of Conquer The Crash At A very reasonable price can e-mail me at offer-crash@markswatson.com
Only While Supplies Last!!

Financial Sense Online An excellent web site dedicated to giving sound financial information as well as investment advice. This site also has one of the best internet radio shows around. Highly recommended!

Peak Oil - One factor that is already beginning to weigh on the US economy in is the fact that oil production world wide is set to permanently decline in the near term. This paper deals with this issue.

Disclaimer: The above article is commentary and is not investment advice. The author is in no way connected to the 'wall street' gang and its financial institutions, banks, brokerage houses, lawyers or investment advisers and therefore cannot dispense financial advise within the parameters set forth by Wall Street and the legal profession, nor will the author attempt to do so. This article is not investment advise nor is should it be construed as such. Please do not e-mail me asking for financial advise. I cannot and will not give it on any level.

2I think culpability in this issue is a two way street each should bear the brunt, the banks want their cake and eat it too. I strongly feel that the current system is already laced with corruption. I know one person who went through the hell of the Bankruptcy system and she was devastated to find out first hand how crooked the was. The Lawyers and the Judges (in her California Case) seemed to be involved in a scam that involved payments that went missing, mailing addresses at which no delivery receipt could be obtained. The whole system was laced with a real and not imagined corruption that the members of the Bar appeared to be involved in.

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The Coming Economic Depression – March 2005 Update

(pdf version)

This is the latest update to a series. Earlier sections appear here.