Albert Einstein said that insanity is doing something again, expecting a different result. That kind of disoriented thinking is what plagues the Corporation of the United States (along with most of its 50 subsidiaries), the largest most inefficient, deficit-spending and wasteful company in America and the World.
So, why do the shareholders in this grossly inept company keep electing and re-electing chief executive officers and members of the board of directors, even though they have evolved into a costly self-corrupting culture of intrusive empire-building, with habitual losses and forced investments? Particularly, when the articles of incorporation clearly limit its powers, as outlined in its Constitution, yet are continuously subverted by the CEO, the Board and its legal team.
Considering the checkered history of the company, and the current economic climate, shareholders would do well to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy and re-organize to the original intent of the corporation: To provide justice, liberty, public safety, domestic tranquility and national security. Anything more would repeat the insanity, again.
Greenspan is designated fall guy
By Daniel B. Jeffs, founder DDC
October 28, 2008
It is glaringly apparent that former Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan is the latest designated fall guy in the frantic efforts by congressional Democrats to shift housing/financial meltdown blame away from themselves.
Though Greenspan played a part in the "perfect storm" economic crisis, he was certainly not the cause, as depicted by House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman, Henry Waxman. The root cause, of course, was congressional Democrats' affordable housing intimidation of mortgage lenders and banks to make subprime loans and accept unqualified homebuyers.
The question is, why is Waxman's committee doing this investigation rather than Barney Frank's Financial Services Committee and/or Christopher Dodd's Senate Banking Committee? The answer is, that would amount to prime suspects pointing the fingers of those who were instrumental in causing the crisis at those who were enticed into the disastrous results.
Indeed, being the principal investigative committee of the House, Waxman ought to be interrogating suspects from the Clinton administration, ACORN, Frank, Dodd, Franklin Raines and others. But that would be like peeling adjustable rate mortgage onions, or twisting their own arms.
The unintended consequences of failures of good intentions?
By Daniel B. Jeffs, founder DDC
October 25, 2008
I disagree with the 10/25/08 Los Angeles Times' editorial, 'Don't blame the victims.' The CRA, the Community Reinvestment Act, ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and those who irresponsibly used and abused the ideology that created them are certainly not the victims of what turned affordable housing into economic chaos. Surely, broken finger pointing cannot mask social, political and economic distortions caused by all of the above alleged victims, which are, in fact, the suspects of the failures of good intentions. Good intentions?
Can't trust government bankers
By Daniel B. Jeffs, founder DDC
October 27, 2008
Nationalizing banks and mortgage lenders with taxpayer debt, without our consent or reasonable, nonpartisan representation, is tantamount to treason.
The people are learning a brutal lesson about how our government is disenfranchising us as citizens of the United States of America, who once had all the privileges, protections and immunities of what was once our Constitution.
Indeed, we are on the dangerous path to becoming a socialist nation, under the heavy hand of a one-party government and a bloated bureaucracy. I recently learned that Congress passed legislation that charges homebuyers $400.00 for every mortgage, which is given to community organizing groups such as ACORN. As a retired independent voter, I am deeply concerned about our future.
Punish the cause of the economic meltdown not the result
By Daniel B. Jeffs, founder DDC
October 21, 2008
Congressional justice and the suspects who caused the housing/market meltdown are being ignored, even as the American people increasingly suffer the consequences. Worse, our society's watch dogs, the press, are either sleeping on the job, or tacitly admitting their complicity in these national crimes of epic economic proportions.
It all began with FDR and Fannie Mae, and LBJ and Freddie Mac. Then Jimmy Carter signed the CRA, and Bill Clinton used it to inject the mortgage/banking disease into the economy. ACORN began spreading the infection by intimidation. Then Fannie Mae turned it into a national epidemic under the direction of CEO Franklin Raines, and under the protection of Congressman Barney Frank and Senator Christopher Dodd, with Senator Chuck Schumer assisting in metastasizing the economic cancer, while former Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan yawned.
Two of the prime suspects are no longer with us. But the remainder of them should be held accountable, if that is at all possible. Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton should lose their titles and any further taxpayer compensation. Barney Frank, Christopher Dodd and Chuck Schumer should be removed from Congress without any further taxpayer compensation. And Franklin Raines should return the unearned $90 million to Fannie Mae, and be prosecuted for lying to Congress about the financial stability of Fannie Mae.
Blaming Wall Street is wrongheaded because it is the RESULT of the problem, not the ROOT of the problem, which is Washington.
Teresa Heinz Kerry has financed the secretive Tides Foundation to the tune of more than $4 million over the years. The Tides Foundation, a "charity" established in 1976 by antiwar leftist activist Drummond Pike, distributes millions of dollars in grants every year to political organizations advocating far-Left causes.
END OF PROSPERITY:
How Higher Taxes Will Doom the Economy--If We Let It Happen
Author: Arthur B. Laffer, Stephen Moore, Peter Tanous
Publisher: Threshold Editions
October 2008
Synopsis
Arthur Laffer -- the father of supply-side economics and a member of
President Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board -- joins economist Stephen
Moore of The Wall Street Journal editorial board and investment advisor
Peter J. Tanous to send Americans an urgent message: We risk losing the
exceptional standard of living that has made us the envy of the rest of the
world if the pro-growth policies of the last twenty-five years are reversed
by a new president.
Since the early 1980s, the United States has experienced a wave of prosperity almost unprecedented in history in terms of wealth creation, new jobs, and improved living standards for all. Under the leadership of Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, Americans changed the incentive structure on taxes, inflation, and regulation, and as a result the economy roared back to life after the anti-growth, high-inflation 1970s.
Now the rest of the world is following the American economic growth model of lower tax rates, more economic freedom, and sound money. Paradoxically, one country is moving away from these growth policies and putting its prosperity at risk -- America.
On the eve of a critical presidential election, Laffer, Moore, and Tanous provide the factual information every American needs in order to understand exactly how we achieved the prosperity many people have come to take for granted, and explain how the policies of Democrats Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Nancy Pelosi can cause America to lose its status as the world's growth and job creation machine.
The End of Prosperity is essential reading for all Americans who value our nation's free enterprise system and high standard of living, and want to know how to protect their own investments in the coming storm.
The Forgotten Man
by Amity Shlaes
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
June 2007
It's difficult today to imagine how America survived the Great Depression. Only through the stories of the common people who struggled during that era can we really understand how the nation endured. In The Forgotten Man, Amity Shlaes offers a striking reinterpretation of the Great Depression. Rejecting the old emphasis on the New Deal, she turns to the neglected and moving stories of individual Americans, and shows how they helped establish the steadfast character we developed as a nation.
Shlaes also traces the mounting agony of the New Dealers themselves as they discovered their errors. She shows how both Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt failed to understand the prosperity of the 1920s and heaped massive burdens on the country that more than offset the benefit of New Deal programs. The real question about the Depression, she argues, is not whether Roosevelt ended it with World War II. It is why the Depression lasted so long. From 1929 to 1940, federal intervention helped to make the Depression great-in part by forgetting the men and women who sought to help one another. The Forgotten Man, offers a new look at one of the most important periods in our history, allowing us to understand the strength of American character today.
Biography
Amity Shlaes is a senior fellow in economic history at the Council on
Foreign Relations and a syndicated columnist at Bloomberg. She has written
for The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal, where she was an
editorial board member, as well as for The New Yorker, Fortune, National
Review, The New Republic, and Foreign Affairs. Shlaes is the author of The
Greedy Hand. She lives in New York.
San Bernardino Sun
October 8, 2008
Depression of our own
After the excesses of the "Roaring 20's" and the stock market crash of 1929, President Herbert Hoover fumbled, Franklin D. Roosevelt took advantage of it, was elected and began his New Deal with a Democrat-controlled Congress, in which government took over the economy, changed the banking system, increased business taxes and prolonged the depression until World War II. The economy didn't fully recover until the 1950's.
What has happened in our economy since the the "Roaring 90's," the Clinton administration's stimulation of irresponsible Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac-driven subprime lending, and the turn of the century stock market and congressional-driven mortgage meltdown and government bailout takeover, is disturbingly similar to what turned into the previous depression.
President Bush and congressional Republicans made several attempts to avoid this economic train wreck with recommended controls and regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were blown-off by House and Senate Democrats. President Bush is the antithesis of President Herbert Hoover's failures and cannot be blamed or viewed in the same light.
Therefore, burning question is, if elected, will Barack Obama and the usual suspects of the Democrat-controlled Congress turn this recession into a new, New Deal for the next 30 years? More than likely, and it would be a very bad deal of CHANGE we can least afford.
Hopefully, voters who have been indoctrinated by the hypocrisy of the socialist education establishment, government and media will realize that they are being played as fools. Hopefully, they will realize that the state of the union is a disgusting betrayal of democracy. Not to realize it would surely result in a long, self-imposed social and economic depression.
Dan Jeffs
Apple Valley, CA
San Francisco chronicle
October 4, 2008
Press Enterprise
October 6, 2008
Debate Blunders
'F' for the candidates
Editor - In the 2008 vice presidential debate, when asked the first question, regarding what caused the mortgage financial meltdown, neither Sen. Joe Biden nor Sarah Palin would place the blame where it belongs: The three F's. The failures of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Sen. Barney Frank, D-Mass.
DAN JEFFS
Apple Valley, San Bernardino County
Who is responsible for this mortgage/financial train wreck?
By Daniel B. Jeffs, founder
DDC
Occtober 3, 2008
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were put under U.S. government conservatorship on September 7, 2008 at a taxpayer cost of $200 billion. Countrywide, the nation's largest mortgage lender failed, along with large Wall Street mortgage investment banks, and the nation's 4th largest bank, Washington Mutual. The American mortgage/financial collapse was underway.
President Bush proposed a $700 billion taxpayer bailout of the mortgage and banking industry meltdown. The Democrat-controlled Congress wanted to do it, but they would not without Republican support because they don't want to be blamed if it doesn't work. The bailout was, of course, approved. Not to do it would have undoubtedly caused further financial chaos here and throughout the world financial markets, to which we are inextricably tied.
Who (alive today) is primarily to blame for the easy mortgage madness, the inflation of housing costs and the mortgage/financial meltdown? Former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, and Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Representative Barney Frank.
Bailout Politics
The Congressional Dems who enabled this crisis are now being trusted to fix
it?
By Thomas Sowell
National Review Online
Nothing could more painfully demonstrate what is wrong with Congress than the current financial crisis.
Among the Congressional "leaders" invited to the White House to devise a bailout "solution" are the very people who have for years created the risks that have now come home to roost.
September 29, 2008, 2:30 p.m.
An ACORN Falls from the Tree
A congressional outrage.
By Ken Blackwell
National Review Online
As negotiations over Congress's emergency rescue bill continued over the weekend, repeated rumors leaked out that the Democrats were trying to funnel money to a hyper-partisan organization involved in criminal voter fraud. I'm speaking of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now - known by its acronym, ACORN. Although ACORN was cut from the final legislation, it's important to understand this organization and its long history with, of all people, Barack Obama. And it's important to see how partisan this emergency legislation has become.
As the weekend progressed, reports were constantly emerging of the sticking points preventing a final agreement. One of these reputed points of contention was whether 20 percent of the profit proceedings for asset sales in the future would go to what is called the Housing Trust Fund, subsidizing certain groups for ostensibly nonpartisan activity. One of these groups that this trust supports is ACORN.
The CRA Scam and its Defenders
Daily Article by Thomas J. DiLorenzo | Posted on 4/30/2008
American Prospect http://mises.org/story/2963
"Liberal" economists are overjoyed by the bursting of the housing bubble, for it provides them with what they believe is another "market failure" story. "Most analysts see the sub-prime crisis as a market failure," Robert Gordon gleefully declared in the April 7 online edition of The American Prospect magazine, edited by Robert Kuttner.
Gordon does not define what an "analyst" is, and does not cite any survey to support his claim. One suspects that his opinion is based on an informal survey of his like-minded, left-wing friends.
Gordon is a defender of the federal government's 1977 Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) under which the Fed and other financial regulators have pressured/extorted banks into making more loans to less-than-creditworthy borrowers than they would normally be willing to risk. As such, Gordon believes in the following propositions:
Anatomy of a Financial Crisis - The CRA and ACORN
Posted on September 15, 2008 by Riley
http://virginiavirtucon.wordpress.com/2008/09/15/anatomy-of-a-financial-crisis-the-cra-and-acorn/
There can be little doubt that the current financial crisis in this country can be attributed to the collapse of the housing market. But what created the conditions that allowed the whole subprime mortgage industry to flourish?
Familiarize yourself with the Community Reinvestment Act as revised in 1995.
First a little background from the Federal Reserve:
Concerns about the deteriorating condition of America's cities, particularly lower-income neighborhoods, led to the enactment of the Community Reinvestment Act in 1977. Many advocates for the passage of this new law believed that this deterioration was fueled by, among other things, limited credit availability. Some blamed the lack of credit availability on mainstream depository institutions, and charged that they were willing to accept insured deposits from households and small businesses in lower-income neighborhoods but unwilling to lend or invest in those same neighborhoods despite the presence of creditworthy consumers.
The Government-Created Subprime Mortgage Meltdown
by Thomas J. DiLorenzo
September 6, 2007
http://www.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo125.html
The thousands of mortgage defaults and foreclosures in the "subprime" housing market (i.e., mortgage holders with poor credit ratings) is the direct result of thirty years of government policy that has forced banks to make bad loans to un-creditworthy borrowers. The policy in question is the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), which compels banks to make loans to low-income borrowers and in what the supporters of the Act call "communities of color" that they might not otherwise make based on purely economic criteria.
The original lobbyists for the CRA were the hardcore leftists who supported the Carter administration and were often rewarded for their support with government grants and programs like the CRA that they benefited from. These included various "neighborhood organizations," as they like to call themselves, such as "ACORN" (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now). These organizations claim that over $1 trillion in CRA loans have been made, although no one seems to know the magnitude with much certainty. A U.S. Senate Banking Committee staffer told me about ten years ago that at least $100 billion in such loans had been made in the first twenty years of the Act.
The following commentaries provided by:
James Joseph Sanchez, PhD
President, EAIF
Liberalism and Minorities Caused the Subprime Crisis, Not Greed
September 27th, 2008
by James Buchanan
The Democrats are desperately trying to distance themselves from the subprime crisis. They're claiming that it was "corporate greed" (not liberalism) that caused the mortgage industry meltdown. There's just one little problem with their claim; it's not true. The mortgage industry has traditionally made money by sticking to a rigid set of requirements for home loans that include a substantial down payment, a good credit history and proof of employment. Relaxing those requirements and making loans to high-risk groups like poor Blacks and Latinos was NOT in their interest if they wanted to stay profitable. The truth is that our government coerced the mortgage industry into making these high-risk subprime loans to minorities, which has caused our current subprime crisis.
September 30, 2008, 0:30 p.m.
Googling the GSEs
Sunlight on Freddie and Fannie.
By Mark Hemingway
National Review Online
There's only one way to make sure that there is some accountability in the current financial crisis. Americans need to insist on absolute transparency.
Now that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's failures have forced the federal government to put both into conservatorship - costing taxpayers some $200 billion - Americans, who now own the two entities, are entitled to know what role the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) played in creating this mess.
Cancel the bailout
By Daniel B. Jeffs, founder
DDC
September 30, 2008
It's not too late to start over. It can be done canceling the bailout and responding to the economic crisis with a cautious, measured response, such as outlined by former Speaker Newt Gingrich on Sunday, September 21, 2008:
"Eliminate the "mark to market" accounting provision which is driving companies into bankruptcy unnecessarily.
Repeal the Sarbanes-Oxley law which failed in every case this year and which burdens new companies with a $3 million-a-year accounting fee.
Join China and Singapore in eliminating the capital gains tax and watch money pour into the system from private investors at no cost to the taxpayer.
Who is to blame for the easy mortgage/financial madness and meltdown?
By Daniel B. Jeffs, founder
DDC
September 29, 2008
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were put under U.S. government conservatorship on September 7, 2008. Countrywide, the nation's largest mortgage lender failed, along with large Wall Street mortgage investment banks, and the nation's 4th largest bank, Washington Mutual. The American mortgage/financial collapse was underway.
President Bush proposed a $700 billion taxpayer bailout of the mortgage and banking industry meltdown. The Democrat-controlled Congress wanted to do it, but they would not without Republican support because they don't want to be blamed if it doesn't work. The bailout was, of course, approved. Not to do it would have undoubtedly caused further financial chaos here and throughout the world financial markets, to which we are inextricably tied.
Who (alive today) is primarily to blame for the easy mortgage madness, the inflation of housing costs and the mortgage/financial meltdown? Former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, and Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Representative Barney Frank.
National Review Online
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Before D.C. Gets Our Money, It Owes Us Some Answers
By Newt Gingrich
Watching Washington rush to throw taxpayer money at Wall Street has been sobering and a little frightening.
We are being told Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has a plan which will shift $700 billion in obligations from private companies to the taxpayer.
We are being warned that this $700 billion bailout is the only answer to a crisis.
We are being reassured that we can trust Secretary Paulson "because he knows what he is doing".
Congress had better ask a lot of questions before it shifts this much burden to the taxpayer and shifts this much power to a Washington bureaucracy.
Imagine that the political balance of power in Washington were different.
Oil income, not tax increases for California
Daniel B. Jeffs, founder DDC
August 7, 2008
Rather than increasing the sales tax or any other foolish proposal that our inept state government has made, California should immediately embrace off-shore drilling and increase refining capacity as a constant source of revenue. If our government had done it decades ago, the state budget would not have been in jeopardy all these years.
Extreme environmental regulations and obstructions, along with an insane lack of energy policy, has kept California in a state of insecure flux, with the highest gas and energy prices, taxes, and businesses on the run. It's time to overhaul the engine of government, change the tires and go in the other direction. Otherwise, we will be breaking down on the road to ruin.
Sell or lease all federal land - pay off national debt
August 21, 2008
Daniel B. Jeffs, founder DDC
Facing a growing national debt that already exceeds $9 trillion, there is an immediate action that should be taken to resolve the problem.
With the exception of military bases, sell or lease all federal land, pay off the debt and place the remainder in a budget reserved for national defense, national security and national emergencies. Indeed, it's time for common sense to prevail, for a change.
Such a move would stabilize and bolster our economy and our national security for many years. Former federal lands would be open to commercial development, including the immediate development of our domestic energy resources.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Crisis
Daniel B. Jeffs, founder DDC
July 15, 2008
There are fundamental flaws in the government-backed mortgage organizations, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who own or guarantee a staggering $5.2 trillion in home mortgages, which amounts to half the mortgages in America.
Give Big Oil a break
Daniel B. Jeffs - Apple Valley, Calif.
It appears that USA TODAY has joined the congressional inquisition against Big Oil. This makes it painfully clear that USA TODAY has lost its common sense. Though oil profit percentages are up, taxes on the industry have long been double those percentages.
USA TODAY
April 29, 2008
Calm 'eco-frenzy'
Daniel B. Jeffs - Apple Valley, Calif.
Eco-friendly events that leave behind "trails of waste" serve as evidence of the "eco-frenzy" that has been hurting our country's economy for many years ("When eco-friendly events go unfriendly," Life, April 22).
A Global Intelligence Briefing For CEOs
by Herbert Meyer
Currently, there are four major transformations that are shaping political, economic and world events. These transformations have profound implications for American business owners, our culture and our way of life.
High fuel prices: the product of our complacency
October 11, 2005
As if we didn't know about the high cost of gasoline and diesel fuel each time we pay the price, the media reminds us on a daily basis. In addition, we are told to expect enormous increases in our heating costs this winter, and the resulting inflationary costs of almost everything.