Gene's Footnotes

I have never been impressed by the messenger and always inspect the message, which I now understand is not the norm. People prefer to filter out discordant information. As such, I am frequently confronted with, "Where did you hear that...." Well, here you go. If you want an email version, send me an email.

June 29, 2011

Eve of desruction - has passed

Below is a piece from the WSJ.  It is intended to scare you, since that is how things get done in our country.

Here's the rub.  All the debt and GDP number crunching, almost always, ignores the entitlement debt of the U.S.  Nearly all the scare projections and the pooh-pooh advice ignore the real debt we owe. It is a nice policy to use statistics to lie, but we cannot afford that amymore.  It is fascinating how reality is ignored just when you need to know what is going on.  It is like not going to the doctor because you may year something bad. Here is a graph from dailymarkets.com.

HERE IS TODAY'S LESSON: 

The U.S. owes 369.7% of its yearly GDP

I haven't seen the numbers lately, but there are those who place the number at 700% when brining in all manner of contingencies. If the U.S. were a person, it might sell that 2,000th car and not buy anymore.

 Look:


Off the scale, any scale, but wait, there is more.  Let's lift the debt ceiling!
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The Deficit Is Worse Than We Think

Normal interest rates would raise debt-service costs by $4.9 trillion over 10 years, dwarfing the savings from any currently contemplated budget deal.

Washington is struggling to make a deal that will couple an increase in the debt ceiling with a long-term reduction in spending. There is no reason for the players to make their task seem even more Herculean than it already is. But we should be prepared for upward revisions in official deficit projections in the years ahead—even if a deal is struck. There are at least three major reasons for concern.
First, a normalization of interest rates would upend any budgetary deal if and when one should occur. At present, the average cost of Treasury borrowing is 2.5%. The average over the last two decades was 5.7%. Should we ramp up to the higher number, annual interest expenses would be roughly $420 billion higher in 2014 and $700 billion higher in 2020.
The 10-year rise in interest expense would be $4.9 trillion higher under "normalized" rates than under the current cost of borrowing. Compare that to the $2 trillion estimate of what the current talks about long-term deficit reduction may produce, and it becomes obvious that the gains from the current deficit-reduction efforts could be wiped out by normalization in the bond market.
To some extent this is a controllable risk. The Federal Reserve could act aggressively by purchasing even more bonds, or targeting rates further out on the yield curve, to slow any rise in the cost of Treasury borrowing. Of course, this carries its own set of risks, not the least among them an adverse reaction by our lenders. Suffice it to say, though, that given all that is at stake, Fed interest-rate policy will increasingly have to factor in the effects of any rate hike on the fiscal position of the Treasury.
The second reason for concern is that official growth forecasts are much higher than what the academic consensus believes we should expect after a financial crisis. That consensus holds that economies tend to return to trend growth of about 2.5%, without ever recapturing what was lost in the downturn.
Chad Crowe
But the president's budget of February 2011 projects economic growth of 4% in 2012, 4.5% in 2013, and 4.2% in 2014. That budget also estimates that the 10-year budget cost of missing the growth estimate by just one point for one year is $750 billion. So, if we just grow at trend those three years, we will miss the president's forecast by a cumulative 5.2 percentage points and—using the numbers provided in his budget—incur additional debt of $4 trillion. That is the equivalent of all of the 10-year savings in Congressman Paul Ryan's budget, passed by the House in April, or in the Bowles-Simpson budget plan.
Third, it is increasingly clear that the long-run cost estimates of ObamaCare were well short of the mark because of the incentive that employers will have under that plan to end private coverage and put employees on the public system. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has already issued 1,400 waivers from the act's regulations for employers as large as McDonald's to stop them from dumping their employees' coverage.
But a recent McKinsey survey, for example, found that 30% of employers with plans will likely take advantage of the system, with half of the more knowledgeable ones planning to do so. If this survey proves correct, the extra bill for taxpayers would be roughly $74 billion in 2014 rising to $85 billion in 2019, thanks to the subsidies provided to individuals and families purchasing coverage in the government's insurance exchanges.
Underestimating the long-term budget situation is an old game in Washington. But never have the numbers been this large.
There is no way to raise taxes enough to cover these problems. The tax-the-rich proposals of the Obama administration raise about $700 billion, less than a fifth of the budgetary consequences of the excess economic growth projected in their forecast. The whole $700 billion collected over 10 years would not even cover the difference in interest costs in any one year at the end of the decade between current rates and the average cost of Treasury borrowing over the last 20 years.
Only serious long-term spending reduction in the entitlement area can begin to address the nation's deficit and debt problems. It should no longer be credible for our elected officials to hide the need for entitlement reforms behind rosy economic and budgetary assumptions. And while we should all hope for a deal that cuts spending and raises the debt ceiling to avoid a possible default, bondholders should be under no illusions.
Under current government policies and economic projections, they should be far more concerned about a return of their principal in 10 years than about any short-term delay in a coupon payment in August.
Mr. Lindsey, a former Federal Reserve governor and assistant to President George W. Bush for economic policy, is president and CEO of the Lindsey Group.
MORE IN OPINION

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June 27, 2011

RIP: Wind Turbines

Rod sent in an extensive article concerning the death of wind energy systems.  At least, they are dead and dying in Europe, where the global warming/change hysteria took root, but the turbine companies are now talking to democrats in the U.S. Building pointless monsters would be good for the Spanish economy, as well as GEs.

If you still don't believe every word I publish:

Here

Tehachapi's dead turbines

I know I said I wouldn't just link to other articles, but after awhile, you get bored stating the obvious. What I am going to do, however, is start defining terms.  I am doing this so I can organize information for a book.

One of the reason for consensus knowlege is that terms have been redefined so any good, touchy-feely person has to arrive a preordained positions.



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June 25, 2011

Jim Roger's daughter has a Swiss account

I know you have read my hysteria for years, now, but here is a reminder.

Stocks and bonds are done. The dollar is done.

Watch Jim Rogers.

You and I didn't do this, except we voter for buffoons. However, you and I can prepare and even come out ahead. Perhaps, when the hurricane and flood run through us, Keyenes will actually be dead and we can return to a community based nation.

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June 22, 2011

Bildeberger list

Below is from Irene.  It is a roster of the Bildebergers.  These guys are one of the groups behind attempts to control you, your government, your reproduction, and your property.  You may want to do some homework on your masters.

The Bildebergers keep the running dog media inside.  They are brilliant at keeping media types under control and k=

----

Routinely, some members request that their names be kept off the roster so there will be additional Bilderbergers in attendance.

Infowars will be on the scene identifying other attendees not on the list.

Belgium
# Coene, Luc, Governor, National Bank of Belgium
# Davignon, Etienne, Minister of State
# Leysen, Thomas, Chairman, Umicore

China
# Fu, Ying, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs
# Huang, Yiping, Professor of Economics, China Center for Economic Research, Peking University

Denmark
# Eldrup, Anders, CEO, DONG Energy
# Federspiel, Ulrik, Vice President, Global Affairs, Haldor Topsøe A/S
# Schütze, Peter, Member of the Executive Management, Nordea Bank AB

Germany
# Ackermann, Josef, Chairman of the Management Board and the Group Executive Committee, Deutsche Bank
# Enders, Thomas, CEO, Airbus SAS
# Löscher, Peter, President and CEO, Siemens AG
# Nass, Matthias, Chief International Correspondent, Die Zeit
# Steinbrück, Peer, Member of the Bundestag; Former Minister of Finance

Finland
# Apunen, Matti, Director, Finnish Business and Policy Forum EVA
# Johansson, Ole, Chairman, Confederation of the Finnish Industries EK
# Ollila, Jorma, Chairman, Royal Dutch Shell
# Pentikäinen, Mikael, Publisher and Senior Editor-in-Chief, Helsingin Sanomat

France
# Baverez, Nicolas, Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
# Bazire, Nicolas, Managing Director, Groupe Arnault /LVMH
# Castries, Henri de, Chairman and CEO, AXA
# Lévy, Maurice, Chairman and CEO, Publicis Groupe S.A.
# Montbrial, Thierry de, President, French Institute for International Relations
# Roy, Olivier, Professor of Social and Political Theory, European University Institute

Great Britain
# Agius, Marcus, Chairman, Barclays PLC
# Flint, Douglas J., Group Chairman, HSBC Holdings
# Kerr, John, Member, House of Lords; Deputy Chairman, Royal Dutch Shell
# Lambert, Richard, Independent Non-Executive Director, Ernst & Young
# Mandelson, Peter, Member, House of Lords; Chairman, Global Counsel
# Micklethwait, John, Editor-in-Chief, The Economist
# Osborne, George, Chancellor of the Exchequer
# Stewart, Rory, Member of Parliament
# Taylor, J. Martin, Chairman, Syngenta International AG

Greece
# David, George A., Chairman, Coca-Cola H.B.C. S.A.
# Hardouvelis, Gikas A., Chief Economist and Head of Research, Eurobank EFG
# Papaconstantinou, George, Minister of Finance
# Tsoukalis, Loukas, President, ELIAMEP Grisons

International Organizations
# Almunia, Joaquín, Vice President, European Commission
# Daele, Frans van, Chief of Staff to the President of the European Council
# Kroes, Neelie, Vice President, European Commission; Commissioner for Digital Agenda
# Lamy, Pascal, Director General, World Trade Organization
# Rompuy, Herman van, President, European Council
# Sheeran, Josette, Executive Director, United Nations World Food Programme
# Solana Madariaga, Javier, President, ESADEgeo Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics
# Trichet, Jean-Claude, President, European Central Bank
# Zoellick, Robert B., President, The World Bank Group

Ireland
# Gallagher, Paul, Senior Counsel; Former Attorney General
# McDowell, Michael, Senior Counsel, Law Library; Former Deputy Prime Minister
# Sutherland, Peter D., Chairman, Goldman Sachs International

Italy
# Bernabè, Franco, CEO, Telecom Italia SpA
# Elkann, John, Chairman, Fiat S.p.A.
# Monti, Mario, President, Univers Commerciale Luigi Bocconi
# Scaroni, Paolo, CEO, Eni S.p.A.
# Tremonti, Giulio, Minister of Economy and Finance

Canada
# Carney, Mark J., Governor, Bank of Canada
# Clark, Edmund, President and CEO, TD Bank Financial Group
# McKenna, Frank, Deputy Chair, TD Bank Financial Group
# Orbinksi, James, Professor of Medicine and Political Science, University of Toronto
# Prichard, J. Robert S., Chair, Torys LLP
# Reisman, Heather, Chair and CEO, Indigo Books & Music Inc. Center, Brookings Institution

Netherlands
# Bolland, Marc J., Chief Executive, Marks and Spencer Group plc
# Chavannes, Marc E., Political Columnist, NRC Handelsblad; Professor of Journalism
# Halberstadt, Victor, Professor of Economics, Leiden University; Former Honorary Secretary General of Bilderberg Meetings
# H.M. the Queen of the Netherlands
# Rosenthal, Uri, Minister of Foreign Affairs
# Winter, Jaap W., Partner, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek

Norway
# Myklebust, Egil, Former Chairman of the Board of Directors SAS, sk Hydro ASA
# H.R.H. Crown Prince Haakon of Norway
# Ottersen, Ole Petter, Rector, University of Oslo
# Solberg, Erna, Leader of the Conservative Party

Austria
# Bronner, Oscar, CEO and Publisher, Standard Medien AG
# Faymann, Werner, Federal Chancellor
# Rothensteiner, Walter, Chairman of the Board, Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG
# Scholten, Rudolf, Member of the Board of Executive Directors, Oesterreichische Kontrollbank AG

Portugal
# Balsemão, Francisco Pinto, Chairman and CEO, IMPRESA, S.G.P.S.; Former Prime Minister
# Ferreira Alves, Clara, CEO, Claref LDA; writer
# Nogueira Leite, António, Member of the Board, José de Mello Investimentos, SGPS, SA

Sweden
# Mordashov, Alexey A., CEO, Severstal
Schweden
# Bildt, Carl, Minister of Foreign Affairs
# Björling, Ewa, Minister for Trade
# Wallenberg, Jacob, Chairman, Investor AB

Switzerland
# Brabeck-Letmathe, Peter, Chairman, Nestlé S.A.
# Groth, Hans, Senior Director, Healthcare Policy & Market Access, Oncology Business Unit, Pfizer Europe
# Janom Steiner, Barbara, Head of the Department of Justice, Security and Health, Canton
# Kudelski, André, Chairman and CEO, Kudelski Group SA
# Leuthard, Doris, Federal Councillor
# Schmid, Martin, President, Government of the Canton Grisons
# Schweiger, Rolf, Ständerat
# Soiron, Rolf, Chairman of the Board, Holcim Ltd., Lonza Ltd.
# Vasella, Daniel L., Chairman, Novartis AG
# Witmer, Jürg, Chairman, Givaudan SA and Clariant AG

Spain
# Cebrián, Juan Luis, CEO, PRISA
# Cospedal, María Dolores de, Secretary General, Partido Popular
# León Gross, Bernardino, Secretary General of the Spanish Presidency
# Nin Génova, Juan María, President and CEO, La Caixa
# H.M. Queen Sofia of Spain

Turkey
# Ciliv, Süreyya, CEO, Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri A.S.
# Gülek Domac, Tayyibe, Former Minister of State
# Koç, Mustafa V., Chairman, Koç Holding A.S.
# Pekin, Sefika, Founding Partner, Pekin & Bayar Law Firm

USA
# Alexander, Keith B., Commander, USCYBERCOM; Director, National Security Agency
# Altman, Roger C., Chairman, Evercore Partners Inc.
# Bezos, Jeff, Founder and CEO, Amazon.com
# Collins, Timothy C., CEO, Ripplewood Holdings, LLC
# Feldstein, Martin S., George F. Baker Professor of Economics, Harvard University
# Hoffman, Reid, Co-founder and Executive Chairman, LinkedIn
# Hughes, Chris R., Co-founder, Facebook
# Jacobs, Kenneth M., Chairman & CEO, Lazard
# Johnson, James A., Vice Chairman, Perseus, LLC
# Jordan, Jr., Vernon E., Senior Managing Director, Lazard Frères & Co. LLC
# Keane, John M., Senior Partner, SCP Partners; General, US Army, Retired
# Kissinger, Henry A., Chairman, Kissinger Associates, Inc.
# Kleinfeld, Klaus, Chairman and CEO, Alcoa
# Kravis, Henry R., Co-Chairman and co-CEO, Kohlberg Kravis, Roberts & Co.
# Kravis, Marie-Josée, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute, Inc.
# Li, Cheng, Senior Fellow and Director of Research, John L. Thornton China Center, Brookings Institution
# Mundie, Craig J., Chief Research and Strategy Officer, Microsoft Corporation
# Orszag, Peter R., Vice Chairman, Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.
# Perle, Richard N., Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
# Rockefeller, David, Former Chairman, Chase Manhattan Bank
# Rose, Charlie, Executive Editor and Anchor, Charlie Rose
# Rubin, Robert E., Co-Chairman, Council on Foreign Relations; Former Secretary of the Treasury
# Schmidt, Eric, Executive Chairman, Google Inc.
# Steinberg, James B., Deputy Secretary of State
# Thiel, Peter A., President, Clarium Capital Management, LLC
# Varney, Christine A., Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust
# Vaupel, James W., Founding Director, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
# Warsh, Kevin, Former Governor, Federal Reserve Board
# Wolfensohn, James D., Chairman, Wolfensohn & Company, LLC

Our BIlderberg 2011 coverage is sponsored by Midas Resources, the trusted name in precious metals. Visit them at http://www.midasresources.com/

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June 17, 2011

Variety Show

Just a few news bits that don't break through the Weiner and Palin reportage:

1.  Iran just launched its second orbiting satellite. It is a weather satellite, something the world needed,  a third world weather satellite. Interestingly, the Russians are now pushing Iran to submit to nuclear inspections.

2.  Everyone knows that Mr. Obama is not a naturally born citizen under the former Constitution, some of know that McCain, Rubio, and Jindal are also not eligible to be president, and now we are told that even the new birth certificate is a poor forgery. Ho Hum.  Here is a report on a 22 page felony complaint provided to the FBI, as though the praetorian guard will do anything.  In a real country you could go out and have a complaint sworn out in the face of a crime.

One may read Corsi's new book.  Since he has an earned Ph.d. from Harvard, I suppose even the left will have to figure out a novel way to destroy him.  Though I would say anyone from Harvard may be a kook.  He is the "Swiftboat" author who saved us from Mr. Kerry. 

Think this over, the focus of our recent government, the presidency, has been usurped by a fraud and his team, and no one seems interested. Judges find complainants have no standing to protest, so the facts are never raised in court.  This being so, how can you believe you are still in the same country?  The Eve of Destruction is already waning.

3.  I have been saying for years that Andrew Cuomo is a major cause of the financial collapse, having directed that banks must lend to bad risk clients - or else and my observations are not new. Now, however, jouirnalists from the New York Times,  the bible of half the country, have identified the financial collapse as stemming from the HUD under Cuomo. HUD threatened any bank that did not lend in identified poor risk areas. The banks turned around and got rid of the crappy loans by sedlling them to Fannie Mae, more government billiance. From, curiouisly, a summary on a  radio site:

...Now Morgenson and co-author Joshua Rosner have written a book about the origins of the financial meltdown. In Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon, Morgenson and Rosner describe how regulators {yes, the Clinton Administration} failed to control greed and recklessness on Wall Street.
Morgenson focuses on the managers of Fannie Mae, the government-supported mortgage giant. She writes that CEO James Johnson built Fannie Mae "into the largest and most powerful financial institution in the world."
(iStockphoto.com)
But in the process, Morgenson says, the company fudged accounting rules, generated big salaries and bonuses for its executives, used lobby and campaign contributions to bully regulators, and encouraged the risky financial practices that led to the crisis.
Morgenson is an assistant business and financial editor and a columnist for The New York Times and the author of the Forbes publication Great Minds Of Business. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 2002 for her "trenchant and incisive" coverage of Wall Street. Joshua Rosner is a managing director at the independent research firm Graham Fisher and Co., which advises regulators and institutional investors.
Just published, a NYT review by James Brooks.

Brooks just calls Johnson immoral, but Wikki gives your some interesting information, placing just where he can practice immorality.  He is not some free-floating evil genius who snuck into Fannie Mae.

James A. Johnson (born December 24, 1943) is a United States Democratic Party political figure. He was the campaign manager for Walter Mondale's failed 1984 presidential bid and chaired the vice presidential selection committee for the presidential campaign of John Kerry. He was involved in the vice-presidential selection process for the 2008 Democratic presidential nominee, Senator Barack Obama....
From 1991 to 1998, he served as chairman and chief executive officer of the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), the quasi-public organization that guarantees mortgages for millions of American homeowners. Previously, he was vice chairman of Fannie Mae (1990–1991) and a managing director with Lehman Brothers (1985–1990). An Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) report[2] from September 2004 found that, during Johnson's tenure as CEO, Fannie Mae had improperly deferred $200 million in expenses. This enabled top executives, including Johnson and his successor, Franklin Raines, to receive substantial bonuses in 1998.[3] A 2006 OFHEO report[4] found that Fannie Mae had substantially under-reported Johnson's compensation. Originally reported as $6–7 million, Johnson actually received approximately $21 million.
As of 2006, he is a vice chairman of the private banking firm Perseus LLC, a position he has held since 2001. He is also a board member at Goldman Sachs, Gannett Company, Inc., a media holding group, KB Home, a home construction firm, Target Corporation, Temple-Inland, and a former director of UnitedHealth Group.
Johnson has also served as chairman of both the Kennedy Center for the Arts (1996–2004) and the Brookings Institution (1994–2003). He is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Friends of Bilderberg, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Trilateral Commission. In 1994 he received the Honor Award from the National Building Museum for his contributions to the U.S.'s building heritage during his tenure at Fannie Mae.[5]
So, anyone want to tell my how Rebublicans are the fat cats who steal from the people?  In six years at Fannie, he made $100,000,000 personally and more than that has vanished, if I recall correctly.

Key Johnson items:  Princeton, Democratic National Committee, Mondale, Kerry, Obama, Perseus, Goldman Sachs, Brookings Institution, BILDEBERGs, Council of Foreign Relations and Trilateral Commission.  Of course, this could all be part of a crazy conspiracy theory...again.

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