“Official” national debt as of 2015 is currently reported at more than $18 trillion. That means that under Barack Obama and with the aid of the private Federal Reserve, U.S. debt has nearly doubled since 2008 — quite an accomplishment in only seven years’ time. But this is not the whole picture.
Official GDP numbers published for mainstream consumption do NOT include annual liabilities generated by programs such as Social Security and Medicare. These liabilities are veiled through the efforts of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which reports on what it calls “debts” rather than on the true fiscal gap. Through the efforts of economists like Laurence Kotlikoff of Boston University, Alan J. Auerbach and Jagadeesh Gokhale, understanding of the fiscal gap (the difference between our government’s projected financial obligations and the present value of all projected future tax and other receipts) is slowly growing within more mainstream circles.
The debt created through the fiscal gap increases, for example, because of the Social Security program - since government taxes the population for Social Security but uses that tax money to fund other programs or to pay off other outstanding debts. In other words, the government collects "taxes" with the promise of paying them back in the future through Social Security, but it spends that money instead of saving it for the use it was supposedly intended.
The costs of such unfunded liabilities within programs like Social Security and Medicare accumulate as the government continues to kick the can down the road instead of changing policy to cover costs. This accumulation is reflected in the Alternative Financial Scenario analysis, which the CBO used to publish every year but for some reason stopped publishing in 2013. Here is a presentation on the AFS by the St. Louis branch of the Federal Reserve. Take note that the crowd laughs at the prospect of the government continuing to “can kick” economic policy changes in order to avoid handling current debt obligations, yet that is exactly what has happened over the past several years.
Using the AFS report, Kotlikoff and other more honest economists estimate real U.S. national debt to stand at about $205 trillion.
When the exposure of these numbers began to take hold in the mainstream, media pundits and establishment propagandists set in motion a campaign to spin public perception, claiming that the vast majority of this debt was actually “projected debt” to be paid over the course of 70 years or more and, thus, not important in terms of today’s debt concerns. While some estimates of national debt include future projections of unfunded liabilities in certain sectors this far ahead, the spin masters' fundamental argument is in fact a disingenuous redirection of the facts.
According to the calculations of economists, unfunded liabilities are adding about $8 trillion in total debt annually. That is $8 trillion dollars per year not accounted for in official national debt stats. For the year ending Dec. 31, 2011, the annual accrued expense of Medicare and Social Security was $7 trillion of this amount.
This annual hidden debt accumulation has resulted in a current total of $205 trillion. This amount is not the unfunded liabilities added up in all future years. This is the present value of the unfunded liabilities, discounted to today. How is the U.S. currently covering such massive obligations on top of the already counted existing budget costs? It’s not.
Taxes collected yearly in the range of $3.7 trillion are nowhere near enough to cover the amount, and no amount of future taxes would make a dent either. This is why the Grace Commission, established during the Ronald Reagan presidency, found that not a single penny of your taxes collected by the Internal Revenue Service is going toward the funding of actual government programs. In fact, all new taxes are being used to pay off the ever increasing interest on current debts.
For those who argue that an increase in taxation is the cure, more than 102 million people are unemployed within the U.S. today. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Current Population Survey (CPS), 148 million are employed; about 20% of these are considered part-time workers (about 30 million people). Around 16 million full time workers are employed by state and local government (meaning they are a drain on the system whether they know it or not). Only 43 percent of all U.S. households are considered “middle class,” the section of the public where most taxes are derived. In the best-case scenario, we have about 120 million people paying a majority of taxes toward U.S. debt obligations, while nearly as many are adding to those debt obligations through welfare programs or have the potential to add to those obligations in the near future if they do not find work due to the high unemployment rate that no one at the BLS wants to acknowledge.
Looking at reality, one finds a swiftly shrinking middle class paying for an ever larger welfare class. Do the math, and an honest person will admit that no matter how much taxes increase, they will still never make up for the lack of adequate taxpayers.
Another dishonest argument given to dismiss concerns of the national debt is the lie that Domestic Net Worth in the U.S. far outweighs our debts owed, and this somehow negates the issue. Domestic Net Worth is calculated using Gross Domestic Assets, public and private. It's interesting, however, that Domestic Net Worth counts 'Debt Capital' as an asset, just as GDP counts debt creation as production. Debt Capital is the “capital” businesses and governments raise by taking out loans. This capital (debt) is then counted as an asset toward Domestic Net Worth.
Yes, that’s right, private and national debts are “assets.” And mainstream economists argue that these debts (errr… assets) offset our existing debts. This is the unicorn, Neverland, Care Bear magic of establishment economics, folks. It’s truly a magnificent thing to behold.
Ironically, debt capital, like the official national debt, does not include unfunded liabilities. If it did, mainstream talking heads could claim an even vaster supply of “assets” (debts) that offset our liabilities.
This situation is clearly unsustainable. The only people who seem to argue that it is sustainable are disinformation agents with something to gain (government favors and pay) and government cronies with something to lose (public trust and their positions of petty authority).
With overall Treasury investments static for some foreign central banks and dwindling in others, the only other options are to print indefinitely and at ever greater levels, or to default. For decades, the Federal Reserve has been printing in order to keep the game afloat, and the American public has little to no idea how much fiat and debt the private institution has conjured in the process. Certainly, the amount of debt we see just in annual unfunded liabilities helps to explain why the dollar has lost 97 percent of its purchasing power since the Fed was established. Covering that much debt in the short term requires a constant flow of fiat, digital and paper. Not only does REAL debt threaten our credit standing as a nation, it also threatens the value and full faith in the dollar.
The small glimpse into Fed operations we received during the limited TARP audit was enough to warrant serious concern, as a full audit would likely result in the exposure of total debt fraud, the immediate abandonment of U.S. Treasury investment, and the destruction of the dollar. Of course, all of that will eventually happen anyway.
No society or culture has ever successfully survived by disengaging itself from its own financial responsibilities and dumping them on future generations without falling from historical grace. Not one. Does anyone with any sense really believe that the U.S. is somehow immune to this reality?
Friday, March 20, 2015
Stock Market Mania
We are getting near a disasterous market blow-off and nobody sees it or smells it. Look around, open your eyes. Ignoring reality is no way for a society to go through life.
Going short this vertical mania is still for losers but pay attention. The market decline is simply being postponed by the Fed and Europeans raining down free money to the 1%. It is all about the Central Banks printing liabilites forward on the backs of future Americans still a twinkle in the eye of their Mom. I would say Dad but Fathers are in short supply these days.
Here is a headline you need to ponder.
"US Fed balance sheet liabilities increased to USD 4.458 TRILLION in the latest week."
For those of you in Mandaree or Pine Ridge, (I use those two villages rather loosely, I lived in both of them for about 8 years, I know well the definition of "wild dog packs") who are aware of the massive bailouts given to banks, (at least $6 trillion so far, plus $10 trillion of swaps with foreign banks) I can only hope you are paying taxes to help with the coming carnage. With the banks off the hook for derivative debt, now saddled onto the back of the American taxpayer there is another collapse coming. Greed guarantees it.
The Bush and Obama regimes had to bail out the banks to "Save" America. That is funny as hell. They should have nationalized the investment banks and the depository banks and wiped out the shareholders, bondholders and management. They should have allowed them to fail.
Instead we have what we have today. A bailout nation. We all are losing.
Going short this vertical mania is still for losers but pay attention. The market decline is simply being postponed by the Fed and Europeans raining down free money to the 1%. It is all about the Central Banks printing liabilites forward on the backs of future Americans still a twinkle in the eye of their Mom. I would say Dad but Fathers are in short supply these days.
Here is a headline you need to ponder.
"US Fed balance sheet liabilities increased to USD 4.458 TRILLION in the latest week."
For those of you in Mandaree or Pine Ridge, (I use those two villages rather loosely, I lived in both of them for about 8 years, I know well the definition of "wild dog packs") who are aware of the massive bailouts given to banks, (at least $6 trillion so far, plus $10 trillion of swaps with foreign banks) I can only hope you are paying taxes to help with the coming carnage. With the banks off the hook for derivative debt, now saddled onto the back of the American taxpayer there is another collapse coming. Greed guarantees it.
The Bush and Obama regimes had to bail out the banks to "Save" America. That is funny as hell. They should have nationalized the investment banks and the depository banks and wiped out the shareholders, bondholders and management. They should have allowed them to fail.
Instead we have what we have today. A bailout nation. We all are losing.
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Home gamers remember................
There has never been a better time to sell stocks said no broker ever.
48 hours later ...........
He said that his long hair "got in the way of things" over the weekend. Whatever that means.
I hardly recognized him when he drove up!
I hardly recognized him when he drove up!
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Jordan Parisian, Prom, 2015
Jordan had a great time at the Prom this year. He doesn't get dressed up in a tux very often as he prefers wearing Carhartt, Sitka, Merino wool and Berretta gear.
Check out this video he put together over the last year or so when he wasn't on a football field or in the weight room!
Friday, March 13, 2015
Money Managers WAKE UP !!
Retail Investor Name
Retail Investor Mailing Address Line 1
Retail Investor Mailing Address Line 2 (Optional)
Retail Investor City, State, Zip
Retail Brokerage Name
Attention:
Compliance Department
Retail Brokerage Mailing Address Line 1
Retail Brokerage Mailing Address Line 2 (Optional)
Retail Brokerage City, State, Zip
RE:
Order Routing Instructions
To Whom It May Concern:
In accordance with the definition of
a directed order under Regulation NMS 242.600 and pursuant to FINRA Rule 5310 Supplementary
Material .08: Customer Instructions Regarding the Routing of Orders, please allow me to direct my orders for any purchase or
sale of National Market System equity securities during normal market hours (i.e.,
9:30AM ET to 4:00 PM ET) to IEX Services LLC (MPID IEXG), except to
the extent that I have otherwise directed you to route any of my
orders elsewhere, and provided that there is
no known technical issue preventing IEX Services LLC from receiving or
processing my orders. These standing
order routing instructions apply to the following account(s) held at your firm:
•
Retail Account
Number 1
•
Retail Account
Number 2
I hereby acknowledge that, pursuant
to FINRA Rule 5310, by routing my order(s) to IEX Services LLC, your firm is
not required to make a best execution determination beyond this specific
instruction, although you remain obligated to process my order(s) promptly and
in accordance with the terms of the order(s).
I further acknowledge that IEX Services LLC is required to meet best
execution requirements with respect to handling my order(s), including possibly
routing such order(s) to other market centers.
As such, any of my orders sent to IEX Services LLC as a result of this
instruction should be marked “Routable” which would enable my orders to be further routed via IEX
Services LLC according to their routing methodology to other nationally
protected market centers. “Routable” ensures that if IEX cannot satisfy
the full quantity of my order, IEX will seek to complete the remainder of my
order up or down to my specified buy/sell limit price on other market
centers.
I understand that IEX Services LLC
charges a fee of $0.0009 per share for orders executed on IEX Services LLC’s platform, or $0.0001 per share for orders routed by IEX
Services LLC to another market center for execution (plus any fees charged by
any such market center).
Please be sure to contact me if you
have any questions regarding this request.
Likewise, please notify me if you are unable to honor this request,
including when you will be able to honor the request, and whether I will be
charged any additional fees specific to this request. I can be reached via the contact information
below.
Sincerely,
Your name and signature
Contact Information (telephone and/or email)
Thursday, March 12, 2015
A Voice in the Native American "Wilderness"
Monogamy and Lakota society today By Ivan F. Star Comes Out
I went to the Oglala Post Office the other day and found it unusually crowded. There were small groups gathered outside the building happily talking and shaking hands while some kept to themselves and still others scurried in and out as if they were extremely busy. I decided to wait for the crowd to clear out a bit and listened to KILI and watched people come and go.
Anyway, I noticed that most were young like in their 20s, 30s and 40s. I assumed that most have little ones to take care of. Then I thought about how many of these people are actually in a union where both the mother and father provide nurturing guidance and emotional stability for their children.
Based on what I have seen in my lifetime, I could almost guarantee that most were single parents and that this phenomenon is reservation-wide. In other words, most of today’s children are growing up without the benefits of a father and a mother within the context of a self-sufficient family.
From the teachings, stories, and songs I’ve heard in my 60-plus years on the homeland, I understand that such a union was not allowed until both man and woman were capable of self-sufficiency. I am referring to their ability to provide the necessary cultural teachings to their children as well as their ability to provide the necessities for them to grow up physically and emotionally healthy and stable.
Instead, I see young people “shack-up,” have children, and live off of and with their parents. This is bad enough but when one of the two decides to move on to another relationship because they did not like the one they are in, it is a devastating emotional blow to their children. The little ones have no choice but to survive in a less than healthy setting. The multi-family homes don’t help matters either.
I see that self-contained families are steadily becoming extinct. Such families were part of the structure of a tiospaye which comprised the nation. A child received the necessary nurturing within this unit. The strength and morality of a nation, or in this case, the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires) was founded on the nuclear family unit.
Today, we are scrambling to “get a handle on” an alarming situation by identifying the cause (s) in order to arrest it. This is good and I apologize for not being able to participate. Standing to be corrected, we that finger of blame pointed at everything from alcohol/drugs to racism to bullying, but I contend that the absence of the nuclear family unit has played a major role in our overall situation.
Granted, there are single-parent families that came into existence through no fault of their own. We have no control over many things in this life. I applaud those single-parents and the few two-parent families who strove to raise their children in a good way. However, being few in numbers, these parents and their children are quickly overcome by the crushing distresses of our current morose society.
The nuclear family is not strictly a traditional contrivance as Christianity has its views on it too. Most Christian authorities and entities view marriage (also called holy matrimony) as a state instituted and ordained by God for the lifelong relationship between one man as husband and one woman as wife. They consider it the most intimate of human relationships, a gift from God, and a sacred institution.
Christ emphasized the importance and sacredness of lifelong marriage in his own teachings. He said that God had created mankind as man and female and that in marriage, “…the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
Christian theology also affirms the secular status of marriage, but moreover views it from a moral and religious perspective that is above all social interests. In other words, even man-made civil laws recognize marriage as having social and political statuses.
Yet, I see that even mature and staunch traditionalists and Christians often don’t have a clear basis for their beliefs and/or principles. A sound perspective on the nuclear family unit or marriage is vitally important today as each new generation has been redefining the family unit to fit their particular social need or personal agenda.
I have to ask who is bearing the brunt of this societal shortcoming. Yes, our children are the only ones to suffer. I see that any original cultural teachings have steadily diminished with each generation. For one, my late father said that once a man and woman have a child, that child becomes a priority and their personal goals and desires are secondary. Only one of our children is following this protocol.
One debilitating but popular concept among Lakota people is polygyny. Primarily, polygyny is a Christian view of a man married to more than one wife at a time. I find this idea in government documents and American history in relation to the “Indian.” As a Lakota person, this concept always rubbed me the wrong way and caused me to search for answers. I share my findings.
First, tiospaye life was such that orphans, single parenthood, and homelessness did not exist, among other modern social troubles. So, very basically, if the male died during a hunt or a fight, his oldest brother’s or cousin’s obligation was to take in his surviving children and widow and would actually live in his home until the mother was able to enter another relationship/nuclear family for the children.
I can only imagine early European “explorers” seeing this, and being of sound Christian influence, saw polygyny. Today, polygyny is legal only in most nations on the African continent, in the Middle East, and for Muslims only on the island nations of Malaysia, Philippines, and Sri Lanka. Sadly, Lakota men seem to have been influenced by this model, even today. Thus, single parenthood.
Second, we must realize that when one nation overpowers another, widespread genocide takes place to ensure the smaller group does not regain stability and power. Thusly, the enervating idea of the Lakota practicing polygyny was implanted in our written history. It is not discussed openly. Instead I am continually hearing men joke and talk about their ancestor who had more than one wife.
Yes, we may be a broken group of people but that does not mean we have to accept it. As a group of mature adults, I have confidence in our ability to look past our petty biases and agendas and see our predicament for what it is. Perhaps, we need to look at Planned Parenthood guidelines for starters. Our ancestors used it within the nuclear family unit and were better for it.
(Ivan Star Comes Out, POB 147, Oglala, SD 57764; (605) 867-2448; mato_nasula2@outlook.com)
I went to the Oglala Post Office the other day and found it unusually crowded. There were small groups gathered outside the building happily talking and shaking hands while some kept to themselves and still others scurried in and out as if they were extremely busy. I decided to wait for the crowd to clear out a bit and listened to KILI and watched people come and go.
Anyway, I noticed that most were young like in their 20s, 30s and 40s. I assumed that most have little ones to take care of. Then I thought about how many of these people are actually in a union where both the mother and father provide nurturing guidance and emotional stability for their children.
Based on what I have seen in my lifetime, I could almost guarantee that most were single parents and that this phenomenon is reservation-wide. In other words, most of today’s children are growing up without the benefits of a father and a mother within the context of a self-sufficient family.
From the teachings, stories, and songs I’ve heard in my 60-plus years on the homeland, I understand that such a union was not allowed until both man and woman were capable of self-sufficiency. I am referring to their ability to provide the necessary cultural teachings to their children as well as their ability to provide the necessities for them to grow up physically and emotionally healthy and stable.
Instead, I see young people “shack-up,” have children, and live off of and with their parents. This is bad enough but when one of the two decides to move on to another relationship because they did not like the one they are in, it is a devastating emotional blow to their children. The little ones have no choice but to survive in a less than healthy setting. The multi-family homes don’t help matters either.
I see that self-contained families are steadily becoming extinct. Such families were part of the structure of a tiospaye which comprised the nation. A child received the necessary nurturing within this unit. The strength and morality of a nation, or in this case, the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires) was founded on the nuclear family unit.
Today, we are scrambling to “get a handle on” an alarming situation by identifying the cause (s) in order to arrest it. This is good and I apologize for not being able to participate. Standing to be corrected, we that finger of blame pointed at everything from alcohol/drugs to racism to bullying, but I contend that the absence of the nuclear family unit has played a major role in our overall situation.
Granted, there are single-parent families that came into existence through no fault of their own. We have no control over many things in this life. I applaud those single-parents and the few two-parent families who strove to raise their children in a good way. However, being few in numbers, these parents and their children are quickly overcome by the crushing distresses of our current morose society.
The nuclear family is not strictly a traditional contrivance as Christianity has its views on it too. Most Christian authorities and entities view marriage (also called holy matrimony) as a state instituted and ordained by God for the lifelong relationship between one man as husband and one woman as wife. They consider it the most intimate of human relationships, a gift from God, and a sacred institution.
Christ emphasized the importance and sacredness of lifelong marriage in his own teachings. He said that God had created mankind as man and female and that in marriage, “…the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
Christian theology also affirms the secular status of marriage, but moreover views it from a moral and religious perspective that is above all social interests. In other words, even man-made civil laws recognize marriage as having social and political statuses.
Yet, I see that even mature and staunch traditionalists and Christians often don’t have a clear basis for their beliefs and/or principles. A sound perspective on the nuclear family unit or marriage is vitally important today as each new generation has been redefining the family unit to fit their particular social need or personal agenda.
I have to ask who is bearing the brunt of this societal shortcoming. Yes, our children are the only ones to suffer. I see that any original cultural teachings have steadily diminished with each generation. For one, my late father said that once a man and woman have a child, that child becomes a priority and their personal goals and desires are secondary. Only one of our children is following this protocol.
One debilitating but popular concept among Lakota people is polygyny. Primarily, polygyny is a Christian view of a man married to more than one wife at a time. I find this idea in government documents and American history in relation to the “Indian.” As a Lakota person, this concept always rubbed me the wrong way and caused me to search for answers. I share my findings.
First, tiospaye life was such that orphans, single parenthood, and homelessness did not exist, among other modern social troubles. So, very basically, if the male died during a hunt or a fight, his oldest brother’s or cousin’s obligation was to take in his surviving children and widow and would actually live in his home until the mother was able to enter another relationship/nuclear family for the children.
I can only imagine early European “explorers” seeing this, and being of sound Christian influence, saw polygyny. Today, polygyny is legal only in most nations on the African continent, in the Middle East, and for Muslims only on the island nations of Malaysia, Philippines, and Sri Lanka. Sadly, Lakota men seem to have been influenced by this model, even today. Thus, single parenthood.
Second, we must realize that when one nation overpowers another, widespread genocide takes place to ensure the smaller group does not regain stability and power. Thusly, the enervating idea of the Lakota practicing polygyny was implanted in our written history. It is not discussed openly. Instead I am continually hearing men joke and talk about their ancestor who had more than one wife.
Yes, we may be a broken group of people but that does not mean we have to accept it. As a group of mature adults, I have confidence in our ability to look past our petty biases and agendas and see our predicament for what it is. Perhaps, we need to look at Planned Parenthood guidelines for starters. Our ancestors used it within the nuclear family unit and were better for it.
(Ivan Star Comes Out, POB 147, Oglala, SD 57764; (605) 867-2448; mato_nasula2@outlook.com)
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