Poor
Man Survival
Self
Reliance tools for independent minded people…
ISSN
2161-5543
A Digest of Urban Survival Resources
While campaigning a politician is one who offers the voter a nice dinner
but once elected he or she steals the dinner along with the utensils, the table
and the chair! >>The Poor Man
The Washington-Wall Street Cartel
& Why Your Vote Really Doesn’t Matter
For more than 25 years I’ve told my
readers [via my various newsletters and columns] that your vote is a waste of
time. The main objective of the power
elite which runs our country is to enhance their wealth and power at your
expense. It should be apparent that
NOTHING has changed for the better in this country despite boatloads of
meaningless promises.
Our standard of living has fallen, the purchasing power of
dollar has declined, inflation has caused everything to skyrocket while wages
have fallen while politicians and bureaucrats continue to make more money and
enjoy more benefits.
In my previous issue I suggested watching the movie The
Big Short, which demonstrate how the self anointed on Wall Street shape
economic reality while enjoying the revolving door of Washington cabinets and
regulatory agencies [or lobbying firms].
It reminds me of George Orwell’s tome, Animal Farm where some
are more equal than others and keep in mind, not since the Great Depression has
there been such a huge divide between the haves and the have nots in this
country!
Main street citizens have become collateral damage from what
is commonly called the Mugging of
American by dishonest politicians and corporate robber barons which have
continually undermined wages and benefits of American workers. When Bill Clinton repealed the Glass-Steagall
Act no one in this country seems to notice or care – nor has anyone done
anything since to repair the damage.
The same families and people, just under different
administrations continue to benefit while the average worker continues to have
a difficult time making ends meet or saving for a decent retirement. Politics and finance are driven by those
whose relationships keep each other in power – this pwer-politics-finance
tripod shapes global and domestic economics.
No matter who sits in the oval office, things will remain
the same.
US presidents have close multigenerational connections with
bankers [the ones who have helped rig the system for generations…[JP Morgan,
Chase, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley} and these financial elites
have altered the very nature of the financial system so they can run the world.
President Eisenhower warned us of the military-industrial
complex and its influence in Washington.
We’ve gone far beyond that. Wall
Street now controls the political elite at the state and the federal
level. Consider that after more than 10
years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan Wall Street needed another profit center
so they bribed politicians to buy their technology so the NSA could spy on
‘terrorists’ which in reality meant US citizens vis vis passage of the
so-called Patriot Act.
Politicians Can Always Count on the
American Sucker
Whenever Wall Street needs a bailout [or the auto industry
or in MI a $100 million failed jail construction project in Wayne County, or
the "Bridge to Nowhere,"a bridge in Alaska connecting the town of
Ketchikan (population 8,900) with its airport on the Island of Gravina
(population 50) at a cost to federal taxpayers of $320 million] the ignorant
taxpayer can always be stuck with the bill without any vote or questions asked!
We’ve All Been Sold Out
An article from CNN titled "Foreign Governments Are Dumping U.S. Debt Like Never
Before."
"In a bid to raise cash, foreign central banks and government institutions sold $57.2 billion of U.S. Treasury debt and other notes in January, according to figures released on Tuesday. That is up from $48 billion in December and the highest monthly tally on record going back to 1978. It's part of a broader trend that gathered steam last year when central banks sold a record $225 billion of U.S. debt."
For years, I've been warning that the low interest rates can't last forever. And that the federal debt (currently $19 trillion and rising) couldn't keep growing without the interest rate they (actually you and I) pay rising. Other nations selling U.S. debt is the next step down the path to higher rates. The time when paying the interest on federal debt crowds out other spending (fill in your favorite program here) is coming… sooner than we think.
"In a bid to raise cash, foreign central banks and government institutions sold $57.2 billion of U.S. Treasury debt and other notes in January, according to figures released on Tuesday. That is up from $48 billion in December and the highest monthly tally on record going back to 1978. It's part of a broader trend that gathered steam last year when central banks sold a record $225 billion of U.S. debt."
For years, I've been warning that the low interest rates can't last forever. And that the federal debt (currently $19 trillion and rising) couldn't keep growing without the interest rate they (actually you and I) pay rising. Other nations selling U.S. debt is the next step down the path to higher rates. The time when paying the interest on federal debt crowds out other spending (fill in your favorite program here) is coming… sooner than we think.
Governments and banks have essentially removed all pretenses
of a free market and they no longer bother to deny it. What astonishes me even more is how the
public seems to blindly accept it without a word or a whimper. It is as if most of them have collectively
bent over, spread their cheeks, handed over the Vaseline and shouted “have at,
go ahead and screw me!’
Public debt-to-GDP ratios have increased domestically and
throughout the world and it is not been done through productivity but through
the nonsensical quantitative easing [a slick trick initiated by the Fed and
‘helicopter Ben]. They won’t be able to
keep the shell game afloat a whole lot longer in my opinion.
In fact, much of what government does is nothing more than a
shell game, designed to screw the public much like the bill of goods no fault
insurance has become. Initially sold as
a means of lowering auto insurance premiums, states such as Michigan where it
was implemented now boast the highest premiums in the nation. Obamacare, another fiasco, was huge for
insurance and pharmaceutical mergers because beg national insurers received
more captive customers and bought their competitors with the extra premiums AND
it failed to offer Tort Reform or eliminate Workers Comp costs for small
business!
If Hillary wins the presidency as is expected [the GOP has
spent too much time shooting itself in the foot over Trump to achieve a win in
my opinion], you can expect the status quo to remain the same – it will be like
Bill Clinton’s third presidency and Wall Street will be singing all the way to
the bank [that $640K Goldman Sachs paid Hillary will be repaid in spades].
If for some reason Trump wins the defense industry will come
out a big winner and most likely, the American people will too…after all, Trump
knows what it takes to run a business.
Not so Hillary who is better known for her rudeness and carpetbagger
ways.
No matter who wins, Wall Street will come away smiling as no
one will break up the banks, stop rampant speculation, revamp the tax system,
force Wall Street to pay decent wages or do much of anything to upset the apple
cart.
My suggestion for most folks…take most of your money out of
the markets and banks to the greatest extent possible and use that money for
real estate, perhaps investing a small parcels of farmland as I have along
seeds and long term food stores of food.
The banks are not paying interest on any instruments and the stock
market is a crap shoot. I would also
advise investing in silver US coins – I caution against buying gold, instead,
obtaining a variety of denominations of pre-1964 ‘junk silver’ coins. If you do invest, do so in businesses that
help people or serve people, preferably on a local level.
As citizens we’re powerless to change the state of affairs,
our democracy and election process is a façade designed to make citizens think
they are making a choice but in reality, elections do little to change the
dynamics of how this country is operated.
After 50 years of witnessing how the power elite promise much and
deliver little while bankrupting the nation, I feel I’m on mighty firm
ground. I have the academic and business
background to feel safe in making this call.
Damned Good Resources You Can Use
& Share
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The sooner you accept whatever your new normal is and
learn to live within it, the better off you'll be. And when life does
improve, you'll be positioned to enjoy the better times when they do come. Read
more.
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The
following group of how-to materials is among the most useful you will anywhere
& I’m offering to you free of charge.
I would appreciate a donation, if you’re so inclined-just use the
donation tab at the top of the page. The
average donation is $10
How to Survive the War on the Middle Class
14 of the best
reports I’ve assembled on protecting your freedom…Here is the download link.
--A sampling”
·
Final Days of the Dollar
·
The Big Book of Free
·
What You Should Know About Inflation
·
Guide to Self Reliance
·
Middle Class Survival Guide
·
Becoming Self Sufficient for Six Months
·
The Big Drop
·
How to Survive the War on the Middle Class
·
A Man’s Right to Happiness
Simply go here and you can download each of
these PDF ebooks to your computer
Yours for better living,
Bruce ‘the Poor Man’
Books, Art, Video – the saucy, the odd, the retro,
even the practical…
A Smoking Frog Feature, Shallow
Planet Production
