ditto on the physical demand………

WE NEED TO RETRACE HISTORY………a renewing of OLD traditions……..ONE PERCENTERS in reverse.

Frank : Past income tax rates before WW2 are not comparable . The us government used to collect large taxes from government land sales . Almost all the land past the Allegany mountains was sold piece by piece over about 80 years to people who wanted to buy farmland in Alabama, Ohio , Indiana , Iowa etc. Also custom dutys were extremly high in those days . The current fed incometax is not to high or to low, its just not being enforced . best to you all S

But you must agree, Mr. Hamilton, that there are much fairer taxation methods out there. Steve Forbes’ ideas as an example.

“income tax rate before ww2 are not comparable”….

Well, then let us compare federal income tax form after WW2……….I have an OLD FEDERAL TAX FORM DATED 1948…. which my dad submitted,.. which was the size of a 3×5 card and the rate was a lot lower than 35%. 🙂

FFM – I’m on board with the plan to bring back the 1% tax rate. Where’s the petition to sign?

Scott………I think most of the land grant govt. sales were after about 1770- and before the civil war.(1860). Most of the grants for territory sold west of the CUMBERLAND GAP, (Tenn.) was Territory held by the FRENCH and Indians, was FRENCH AND INDIAN TERRITORY. Large tract were in deed sold or granted to pioneers to settle the land, but, a lot of scalping took place the late 1770 to 1816………Scalping by the govt, and scalping by the Indiana…..

correction……Indiana to INDIANS……(white men also , I think started the scalping)

GENERAL NOTE……..CONCERNING THE 1% income tax at the time of the CIVIL WAR , which was 1%……..that was for the WAR, and not a continued practice…..but, then that would bring us up to the ACT OF 1871…………

Agree about smaller government, Professor.

Yes, I’m thinking about that conference, but we’ll have just returned from the West coast a few weeks before that. Cheers!

Are you planning on visiting Seattle on your trip to the West Coast?

Yes in September.

Morning heathen,

You make an interesting point.

Al

Heathen, if QE in the US is specifically intended to make the nation endebted, what would you suggest is the point? I.e. Why is the US having its debt increased by QE, in your opinion?

Financiers and corporations with a mainline to gov’t $ wanting to suck America’s blood dry (i.e. transfer all its’ wealth into their pockets). No? Seems pretty obvious.

Ultimately CFS it is to gain the resources of the nation.

2 people explain how its done and why, James Perloff and John Perkins.

They work independently of one another, Perkins actually did the work for banks in many nations, his book “Confessions of an economic hitman”

Greece is being ‘hit’, there’s no doubt about it,” exclaims John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, noting that “[Indebted countries] become servants to what I call the corporatocracy … today we have a global empire, and it’s not an American empire. It’s not a national empire… It’s a corporate empire, and the big corporations rule.”

John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, discusses how Greece and other eurozone countries have become the new victims of “economic hit men.”

John Perkins is no stranger to making confessions. His well-known book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, revealed how international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, while publicly professing to “save” suffering countries and economies, instead pull a bait-and-switch on their governments: promising startling growth, gleaming new infrastructure projects and a future of economic prosperity – all of which would occur if those countries borrow huge loans from those organizations. Far from achieving runaway economic growth and success, however, these countries instead fall victim to a crippling and unsustainable debt burden.

That’s where the “economic hit men” come in: seemingly ordinary men, with ordinary backgrounds, who travel to these countries and impose the harsh austerity policies prescribed by the IMF and World Bank as “solutions” to the economic hardship they are now experiencing. Men like Perkins were trained to squeeze every last drop of wealth and resources from these sputtering economies, and continue to do so to this day. In this interview, which aired on Dialogos Radio, Perkins talks about how Greece and the eurozone have become the new victims of such “economic hit men.”

Michael Nevradakis: In your book, you write about how you were, for many years, a so-called “economic hit man.” Who are these economic hit men, and what do they do?

John Perkins: Essentially, my job was to identify countries that had resources that our corporations want, and that could be things like oil – or it could be markets – it could be transportation systems. There’re so many different things. Once we identified these countries, we arranged huge loans to them, but the money would never actually go to the countries; instead it would go to our own corporations to build infrastructure projects in those countries, things like power plants and highways that benefitted a few wealthy people as well as our own corporations, but not the majority of people who couldn’t afford to buy into these things, and yet they were left holding a huge debt, very much like what Greece has today, a phenomenal debt.

“[Indebted countries] become servants to what I call the corporatocracy … today we have a global empire, and it’s not an American empire. It’s not a national empire … It’s a corporate empire, and the big corporations rule.”

And once [they were] bound by that debt, we would go back, usually in the form of the IMF – and in the case of Greece today, it’s the IMF and the EU [European Union] – and make tremendous demands on the country: increase taxes, cut back on spending, sell public sector utilities to private companies, things like power companies and water systems, transportation systems, privatize those, and basically become a slave to us, to the corporations, to the IMF, in your case to the EU, and basically, organizations like the World Bank, the IMF, the EU, are tools of the big corporations, what I call the “corporatocracy.”

And before turning specifically to the case of Greece, let’s talk a little bit more about the manner in which these economic hit men and these organizations like the IMF operate. You mentioned, of course, how they go in and they work to get these countries into massive debt, that money goes in and then goes straight back out. You also mentioned in your book these overly optimistic growth forecasts that are sold to the politicians of these countries but which really have no resemblance to reality.

Exactly, we’d show that if these investments were made in things like electric energy systems that the economy would grow at phenomenally high rates. The fact of the matter is, when you invest in these big infrastructure projects, you do see economic growth, however, most of that growth reflects the wealthy getting wealthier and wealthier; it doesn’t reflect the majority of the people, and we’re seeing that in the United States today.

“In the case of Greece, my reaction was that ‘Greece is being hit.’ There’s no question about it.”

For example, where we can show economic growth, growth in the GDP, but at the same time unemployment may be going up or staying level, and foreclosures on houses may be going up or staying stable. These numbers tend to reflect the very wealthy, since they have a huge percentage of the economy, statistically speaking. Nevertheless, we would show that when you invest in these infrastructure projects, your economy does grow, and yet, we would even show it growing much faster than it ever conceivably would, and that was only used to justify these horrendous, incredibly debilitating loans.

Is there a common theme with respect to the countries typically targeted? Are they, for instance, rich in resources or do they typically possess some other strategic importance to the powers that be?

Yes, all of those. Resources can take many different forms: One is the material resources like minerals or oil; another resource is strategic location; another resource is a big marketplace or cheap labor. So, different countries make different requirements. I think what we’re seeing in Europe today isn’t any different, and that includes Greece.

What happens once these countries that are targeted are indebted? How do these major powers, these economic hit men, these international organizations come back and get their “pound of flesh,” if you will, from the countries that are heavily in debt?

By insisting that the countries adopt policies that will sell their publicly owned utility companies, water and sewage systems, maybe schools, transportation systems, even jails, to the big corporations. Privatize, privatize. Allow us to build military bases on their soil. Many things can be done, but basically, they become servants to what I call the corporatocracy. You have to remember that today we have a global empire, and it’s not an American empire. It’s not a national empire. It doesn’t help the American people very much. It’s a corporate empire, and the big corporations rule. They control the politics of the United States, and to a large degree they control a great deal of the policies of countries like China, around the world.

John, looking specifically now at the case of Greece, of course you mentioned your belief that the country has become the victim of economic hit men and these international organizations . . . what was your reaction when you first heard about the crisis in Greece and the measures that were to be implemented in the country?

I’ve been following Greece for a long time. I was on Greek television. A Greek film company did a documentary called “Apology of an Economic Hit Man,” and I also spent a lot of time in Iceland and in Ireland. I was invited to Iceland to help encourage the people there to vote on a referendum not to repay their debts, and I did that and encouraged them not to, and they did vote no, and as a result, Iceland is doing quite well now economically compared to the rest of Europe. Ireland, on the other hand: I tried to do the same thing there, but the Irish people apparently voted against the referendum, though there’s been many reports that there was a lot of corruption.

“That’s part of the game: convince people that they’re wrong, that they’re inferior. The corporatocracy is incredibly good at that.”

In the case of Greece, my reaction was that “Greece is being hit.” There’s no question about it. Sure, Greece made mistakes, your leaders made some mistakes, but the people didn’t really make the mistakes, and now the people are being asked to pay for the mistakes made by their leaders, often in cahoots with the big banks. So, people make tremendous amounts of money off of these so-called “mistakes,” and now, the people who didn’t make the mistakes are being asked to pay the price. That’s consistent around the world: We’ve seen it in Latin America. We’ve seen it in Asia. We’ve seen it in so many places around the world.

This leads directly to the next question I had: From my observation, at least in Greece, the crisis has been accompanied by an increase in self-blame or self-loathing; there’s this sentiment in Greece that many people have that the country failed, that the people failed . . . there’s hardly even protest in Greece anymore, and of course there’s a huge “brain drain” – there’s a lot of people that are leaving the country. Does this all seem familiar to you when comparing to other countries in which you’ve had personal experience?

Sure, that’s part of the game: convince people that they’re wrong, that they’re inferior. The corporatocracy is incredibly good at that, whether it is back during the Vietnam War, convincing the world that the North Vietnamese were evil; today it’s the Muslims. It’s a policy of them versus us: We are good. We are right. We do everything right. You’re wrong. And in this case, all of this energy has been directed at the Greek people to say “you’re lazy; you didn’t do the right thing; you didn’t follow the right policies,” when in actuality, an awful lot of the blame needs to be laid on the financial community that encouraged Greece to go down this route. And I would say that we have something very similar going on in the United States, where people here are being led to believe that because their house is being foreclosed that they were stupid, that they bought the wrong houses; they overspent themselves.

“We know that austerity does not work in these situations.”

The fact of the matter is their bankers told them to do this, and around the world, we’ve come to trust bankers – or we used to. In the United States, we never believed that a banker would tell us to buy a $500,000 house if in fact we could really only afford a $300,000 house. We thought it was in the bank’s interest not to foreclose. But that changed a few years ago, and bankers told people who they knew could only afford a $300,000 house to buy a $500,000 house.

“Tighten your belt, in a few years that house will be worth a million dollars; you’ll make a lot of money” . . . in fact, the value of the house went down; the market dropped out; the banks foreclosed on these houses, repackaged them, and sold them again. Double whammy. The people were told, “you were stupid; you were greedy; why did you buy such an expensive house?” But in actuality, the bankers told them to do this, and we’ve grown up to believe that we can trust our bankers. Something very similar on a larger scale happened in so many countries around the world, including Greece.

In Greece, the traditional major political parties are, of course, overwhelmingly in favor of the harsh austerity measures that have been imposed, but also we see that the major business and media interests are also overwhelmingly in support. Does this surprise you in the slightest?

No, it doesn’t surprise me and yet it’s ridiculous because austerity does not work. We’ve proven that time and time again, and perhaps the greatest proof was the opposite, in the United States during the Great Depression, when President Roosevelt initiated all these policies to put people back to work, to pump money into the economy. That’s what works. We know that austerity does not work in these situations.

“What I didn’t realize during any of this period was how much corporatocracy does not want a united Europe.”

We also have to understand that, in the United States for example, over the past 40 years, the middle class has been on the decline on a real dollar basis, while the economy has been increasing. In fact, that’s pretty much happened around the world. Globally, the middle class has been in decline. Big business needs to recognize – it hasn’t yet, but it needs to recognize – that that serves nobody’s long-term interest, that the middle class is the market. And if the middle class continues to be in decline, whether it’s in Greece or the United States or globally, ultimately businesses will pay the price; they won’t have customers. Henry Ford once said: “I want to pay all my workers enough money so they can go out and buy Ford cars.” That’s a very good policy. That’s wise. This austerity program moves in the opposite direction and it’s a foolish policy.

In your book, which was written in 2004, you expressed hope that the euro would serve as a counterweight to American global hegemony, to the hegemony of the US dollar. Did you ever expect that we would see in the European Union what we are seeing today, with austerity that is not just in Greece but also in Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, and also several other countries as well?

What I didn’t realize during any of this period was how much corporatocracy does not want a united Europe. We need to understand this. They may be happy enough with the euro, with one currency – they are happy to a certain degree by having it united enough that markets are open – but they do not want standardized rules and regulations. Let’s face it, big corporations, the corporatocracy, take advantage of the fact that some countries in Europe have much more lenient tax laws, some have much more lenient environmental and social laws, and they can pit them against each other.

“[Rafael Correa] … has to be aware that if you stand up too strongly against the system, if the economic hit men are not happy, if they don’t get their way, then the jackals will come in and assassinate you or overthrow you in a coup.”

What would it be like for big corporations if they didn’t have their tax havens in places like Malta or other places? I think we need to recognize that what the corporatocracy saw at first, the solid euro, a European union seemed like a very good thing, but as it moved forward, they could see that what was going to happen was that social and environmental laws and regulations were going to be standardized. They didn’t want that, so to a certain degree what’s been going on in Europe has been because the corporatocracy wants Europe to fail, at least on a certain level.

You wrote about the examples of Ecuador and other countries, which after the collapse of oil prices in the late ’80s found themselves with huge debts and this, of course, led to massive austerity measures . . . sounds all very similar to what we are now seeing in Greece. How did the people of Ecuador and other countries that found themselves in similar situations eventually resist?

Ecuador elected a pretty remarkable president, Rafael Correa, who has a PhD in economics from a United States university. He understands the system, and he understood that Ecuador took on these debts back when I was an economic hit man and the country was ruled by a military junta that was under the control of the CIA and the US. That junta took on these huge debts, put Ecuador in deep debt; the people didn’t agree to that. When Rafael Correa was democratically elected, he immediately said, “We’re not paying these debts; the people did not take on these debts; maybe the IMF should pay the debts and maybe the junta, which of course was long gone – moved to Miami or someplace – should pay the debts, maybe John Perkins and the other economic hit men should pay the debts, but the people shouldn’t.”

And since then, he’s been renegotiating and bringing the debts way down and saying, “We might be willing to pay some of them.” That was a very smart move; it reflected similar things that had been done at different times in places like Brazil and Argentina, and more recently, following that model, Iceland, with great success. I have to say that Correa has had some real setbacks since then . . . he, like so many presidents, has to be aware that if you stand up too strongly against the system, if the economic hit men are not happy, if they don’t get their way, then the jackals will come in and assassinate you or overthrow you in a coup. There was an attempted coup against him; there was a successful coup in a country not too far away from him, Honduras, because these presidents stood up.

We have to realize that these presidents are in very, very vulnerable positions, and ultimately we the people have to stand up, because leaders can only do a certain amount. Today, in many places, leaders are not just vulnerable; it doesn’t take a bullet to bring down a leader anymore. A scandal – a sex scandal, a drug scandal – can bring down a leader. We saw that happen to Bill Clinton, to Strauss-Kahn of the IMF; we’ve seen it happen a number of times. These leaders are very aware that they are in very vulnerable positions: If they stand up or go against the status quo too strongly, they’re going to be taken out, one way or another. They’re aware of that, and it behooves we the people to really stand up for our own rights.

You mentioned the recent example of Iceland . . . other than the referendum that was held, what other measures did the country adopt to get out of this spiral of austerity and to return to growth and to a much more positive outlook for the country?

It’s been investing money in programs that put people back to work and it’s also been putting on trial some of the bankers that caused the problems, which has been a big uplift in terms of morale for the people. So Iceland has launched some programs that say “No, we’re not going to go into austerity; we’re not going to pay back these loans; we’re going to put the money into putting people back to work,” and ultimately that’s what drives an economy, people working. If you’ve got high unemployment, like you do in Greece today, extremely high unemployment, the country’s always going to be in trouble. You’ve got to bring down that unemployment, you’ve got to hire people. It’s so important to put people back to work. Your unemployment is about 28 percent; it’s staggering, and disposable income has dropped 40 percent and it’s going to continue to drop if you have high unemployment. So, the important thing for an economy is to get the employment up and get disposable income back up, so that people will invest in their country and in goods and services.

In closing, what message would you like to share with the people of Greece, as they continue to experience and to live through the very harsh results of the austerity policies that have been implemented in the country for the past three years?

I want to draw upon Greece’s history. You’re a proud, strong country, a country of warriors. The mythology of the warrior to some degree comes out of Greece, and so does democracy! And to realize that the marketplace is a democracy today, and how we spend our money is casting our ballot. Most political democracies are corrupt, including that of the United States. Democracy is not really working on a governmental basis because the corporations are in charge. But it is working on a market basis. I would encourage the people of Greece to stand up: Don’t pay off those debts; have your own referendums; refuse to pay them off; go to the streets and strike.

And so, I would encourage the Greek people to continue to do this. Don’t accept this criticism that it’s your fault, you’re to blame, you’ve got to suffer austerity, austerity, austerity. That only works for the rich people; it does not work for the average person or the middle class. Build up that middle class; bring employment back; bring disposable income back to the average citizen of Greece. Fight for that; make it happen; stand up for your rights; respect your history as fighters and leaders in democracy, and show the world!

I may me mistaken, but wasn’t this posted earlier?

James Perloff, “Truth is a lonely warrior”

Jay Taylor interviews him.

reposted so cfs could see how its done and why.

Heathen, I understand the U.S. “hitting” small countries in order to gain resources, but why is the Federal Reserve doing the same to the US. What is there to gain?

I.e. I understand why someone might shoot someone else. What i don’t understand why someone would shoot himself.

Depends on just how big their foot happens to be!

Perkins explains, its not the U.S. it is what he calls the “corportocracy”.
It is a corporate empire that has no boarders.

The U.S. is also a victim.

But CFS, how is it they’re shooting themselves in the foot? It’s not like we’re one big happy family. The worst enemies of a nations’ people have often, if not usually, been homegrown rather than external threats.

oops, this is in the wrong place. should have been in response to CFS’s quedry above.

But the 31 actual traders will NOT lose money. Any absence of physical metal will be cash settled at the LOW price.

They do not have to buy back. That is the point.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/china-wants-to-steal-gold-market-reins-from-new-york-london-2015-07-09

Agree, Gabriel

Gabriel, isn’t that what the sge is about?

Its possible tho that the owners are the same, no matter what country they operate from.
Remember, western banks have had interest in China for decades at minimum.
It could all be a rouse to get people to accept more fiat.

Gabriel,
Great comments and spot on!

That’s right Listener, you caught on, lol

TP, Booze and Cigarette companies wont go broke. Among other essentials.

A boatload of tp to Venesuala would have made a fortune.

No, they will not go broke. (Well, maybe cigarettes!)

Well that will be useful for you at least …

https://www.dropbox.com/s/z7fvsmilzw23za4/us%20paper.jpg?dl=0

You never know. Perhaps you will.

Funny and true story.

After I finished my first Marathon, Portland, the first thing that I did was drink a cup of black coffee and smoke a Marlboro.

I am really lucky that I am still alive considering my former lifestyle!

So you’d run a marathon for a camel? 🙂

Sounds like Kenny Stabler. I heard he was a smoker and he managed to win a Super Bowl.

Yeh, but I got smart Eddie and quit 30 years ago.

Legend has it that Kenny Stabler won a contest of throwing a mullet the furthest at a local bar in Gulf Shores Alabama. Since then the bar ( FloraBama Lounge, on the line and on the beach) have had the annual mullet toss for years. Great place, lots of fun for years.

In honor of Ken Stabler. ( great QB, great man)

Heck of a quarterback!

I am really lucky that I am still alive considering my former lifestyle!

It’s like I always say, Big Al Korelin is indestructible.

Three weeks ago, while in the emergency room, I might have disagred!

Great care and common sense from Kathy saved the day!

CFS: You are providing disinformation. Why don’t we talk about the country in the Middle East with 400 nuclear weapons?

The agency’s inspectors, who have had almost daily access to most of Iran’s nuclear production facilities, reported finding no evidence that Iran was racing toward a nuclear weapon, and said Tehran had halted work on facilities that could have given it bomb-making capabilities.

NYTimes is certainly not a credible source. They were cheerleaders, and dishonest, leading into the 2003 war in Iraq.

You know with the turnouts that Trump seems to be getting, maybe the tide is turning at least a little bit!

Gator: America is the enemy of Iran. Iran is not the enemy of the US. Iran did not lead us into a war with Iraq, Iran did not con us into a war with Libya, Iran hasn’t ordered us to attack Somalia or Sudan. Iran did not come up with the Yinon plan in 1982 to disrupt the entire middle east so they could dominate the area. And they don’t have 400 nuclear weapons. And they haven’t threatened the world with the Samson option.

http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/the-jewish-plan-for-the-middle-east-and-beyond.html

“death to America” is an expression.
“death to…..” is used for a lot of things.
A bad dentist “death to dentists”
Dishonest politician “death to politicians”

It merely means they don’t appreciate us, why would they? It isn’t what it sounds like to us.

I watched a comedian last night talking about Iran, he was saying Iran doesn’t play the “risk” game, they would stop threatening us if they realised we just killed two countries next to them. Among other Iran “jokes”.
Sounded to me he and the audience were convinced Iran is a threat and enemy.

Your right Bob, but people are not going to inform themselves and nobody really cares.

Just read an article about the American military industrial complex and why Americans put up with so much of their taxes supporting it. Really simple, Americans love war.

Don’t forget our rulers have been meddling in Iran for over half a century. And in the ’50s overthrew their gummit and installed a New World Odor puppet.

And of course supplied Sadam with weapons (including chemical) during the Iran and Iraq War.

Probably true, Eddie!

The U.S. is the enemy of Iran ?That’s BS.
The U.S. allowed to have 13 tonnes of gold shipped from S. Africa.

Rumor has it the “stalled” negotiations “can only be at pre-arranged times and approved by Iran”
And their research facility is off limits for inspection.

Recently Iran shipped 100 tons of military supplies into Syria.
, has has provided un-quantified amounts into other countries where the U.S. is supposedly fighting “terrorism”. And Iran is still on the sponsor of terrorism list, despite the big zero’s attempts to get it taken off.

I don’t know why anyone would think the US is an enemy of Iran. We only threaten to bomb them on a regular basis. And overthrew their gov’t in the 50s and imposed a brutal dictator on them for 25 years. And egged Saddam on to wage war on them. But I’m sure our military industrial complex has their best interests at heart.

+1 GH

Geez CFS, I didn’t realise just how “brainwashed” you are.
No offence but wow.

CFS brainwashed? Never heard that one before!

CFS says:
The U.S. is the enemy of Iran ?That’s BS.

The U.S. is a friend of Iran?
Well, they wouldn’t need enemies I guess.

I did not say the U.S. was a friend of Iran.
Obama maybe, but not the US.
Fact: the U.S. has allowed 13 tonnes of gold, owned by Iran, but held in South Africa under the sanctions imposed by the US, to be returned to Iran.

GH, you claim the U.S. threatened to bomb Iran. Care to produce evidence for that statement?

CFS — Threats to bomb, maybe not as official policy statements, but certainly important people in our gov’t like Hillary Clinton and John McCain have made plenty of noise about it.

Given the U.S. track record of destroying countries in the Middle East, if I were Iran, I would find this worrisome.

Oh, and I forgot to mention the years of financial warfare that we have waged against them. For what offenses exactly? Spurious allegations about nuclear weapons that, as Bob M. mentioned, have been denied by our own intelligence agencies?

Paul Craig Robert argues, persuasively, that this whole nuclear issue is bunk, and that the US will continue to attack Iran one way and another until it gets what it really wants–for Iran to bend the knee and become another vassal state.

I have to echo Heathen’s ‘wow’. I welcome disagreement, as long as it’s honest. That’s how we learn. But for a highly educated man to gloss over so many relevant details…what’s going on here?

Becoming “another vassal state” will not happen!

That is kinda interesting/worrisome, but not shocking. PCR sure has a grasp of things.

Was it Mcain that sang “bomb,bomb,bomb?”
I think Iran is surrounded by American bases.

I remember that, truly sickening.
How proud Americans must be of their congress.
Makes Obama out to be the best of the lot.

I agree that many members are bought and corrupt.

You think?

Absolutely no question. I lived in DC for a few years, and the last 10 years in Latin America. Once you learn how to recognize corruption, there is no question the U.S. is drowning in it. It’s just that it’s high-level, not cops hitting you up for $20 like in Latin America.

Listen to some Jack Abramoff interviews from after he got out of prison. He’s telling the truth, in my opinion.

I recently met a lady who worked in DC for a defense contractor 40 years ago. She saw people carry brief cases of money to capitol hill, ‘just like in the movies’. And ‘all those disgusting, big bellied old men just want to sleep with you’.

That’s my thinking too Al, that’s why I find him hard to figure.
We know all presidents are “placed” in the presidency for a reason, what was Reagans?
Maybe every so often one is to keep people believing it makes a difference?
Course, I may not know everything about him, and PCR believed in him.
I just find him hard to figure out.

Maybe he was as Al says, but the deeper plot was that TPTB used his appealing public persona to get the disgusting Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld in with him.

canine American..good one…I like dogs more than people anyway….

Actually she is known as our “third daughter”

Speaking of being too careful…

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2103175/Boy-7-branded-racist-asking-schoolmate-Are-brown-come-Africa.html#ixzz1mvH9PR3J

Eddie, you’re a caution.

I guess you don’t know that people who stay in China town are the lower class. They stay together to run small business. China town was started by Chinese in a small region around canton area, there gambling is far more prevalent. It is why Macau is there. People in chinatown are mostly still from that area plus Vietnamese immigrants. For rest of country, I would say gambling is higher than US but not much higher. I rarely go to China town and I don’t understand what people speak unless they speak mandarin to me. For people who get education, they rarely stay in Chinatown.

Fred Wong, a good friend and a valuable member of our Weekly Discussion Group, recommended a book called “The New Age of Ambition” which I would recommend highly to anyone who want to learn about the new China.

Lawrence, investing in the stock market is not considered gambling by you, that is probably because you don’t buy stocks, Yes or No!

I am investing and I have no choice. I don’t consider it gambling since i don’t buy any stock just thinking it may go up. If I save, my money is stolen by inflation. I don’t speculate, at least not any major way. I buy dividend Paying stocks and PM.

Plus real estate forbrent

I am glad you see buying real estate isn’t gambling and now you will probably tell me that your real estate holdings in Calgary were a good investment.

Eventually, real estate is always a good investment. Notice I said eventually.

So far so good. The price went up with inflation and I am collecting more than 4k a month. There is cash flow. The small town houses I bought has not gone down. There is always risk but by investment you have cash flow and by gambling you get less than zero sum game like in casino. So I can only say that there is good investment and bad investment but there is never good gambling.

Your real estate holdings in Calgary are a good investment, that is what I thought you would say and you just reinforced my beliefs in you.

I bought several years ago and price was lower. Are you so near sighted? I guess you always want to make instant money. What is wrong with cash flow? As I am paying down the mortgage I get more and more income.

Very definitely a good move on your part Lawrence!

Well okay. A lot of Russians also like to drink alcohol as do a lot of Irish. So what?

I have never insulted The Chinese you show me where and I will gladly apologize, I have been through this before with you and it is always the same you can’t explain yourself, I’m waiting………..!

You just read what you typed again. You said Chinese don’t invest in stock since it is not gambling. Logic says you mean Chinese are interested only in gambling.

Don’t agree on this one Lawrence. I really don’t think that Mr. Tracy was being derogatory.

I am not sure just how anyone in their right mind could insult the Chinese folks!

there , to their………….(66 and I am losing my mind)

Thant’s okay Indy, I have already lost mine!

OR maybe donkey methanol

I guess starvation and poverty scare a lot of people. Once people is addicted to the free money, it is too hard to quit. A lot of drug addicts lose everything and end up dead.

Hope Spain can pull it together. They have had tougher times. People seems still remember it

Ditto on SPAIN