It is all about control. Below is a repost in Re government healtcare’s lively debate on the March 10, Weekend show. July 4th will be celebrated in the midst of high irony.
On March 10, 2012 at 8:00 am,
Dennis M. O’Neil says:
Prior to World War II healthcare insurance was rare.
Because the government initiated wage controls employers were forced lure top employees with fringe benefit packages in lieu of direct compensation.
Gradually health insurance subsidized by the employer became a major bargaining chip. In 1950 GM offered to pay 50 percent of the health care costs of their employees. GM then majored in automobiles but had a significant minor the health care business. In 1961, retirees were added. and in 1964 GM began paying 100 percent of health care bills for workers and retirees. This is when on the show room floor sticker price increases were perversely rationalized away by saying that 20%….25%…..30% of the cost of the car was attributed to UAW healthcare cost. Or you were supposed to be somehow soothed by knowing your payment was more dedicated to employee healthcare than it was steel. It is not then a coincidence that the government was looked to to relieve the burden.

How could Mr. Houle point his finger at Nixon and Reagan without taking LBJ’s Medicare fiasco to task. This would be akin to blaming Nixon for abandoning the Gold Standard without placing it in the context that LBJ guns and butter programs of the sixties were rapidly emptying Fort Knox. Do you remember DeGaulle requesting his bullion?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DEbrLJnYUIg

Vietnam, Medicare and the War on Poverty compelled Nixon to do something.
LBJ’s fiddler had to be paid.

For decades healthcare, education and housing all increased in multiples higher than the CPI. It was significant subsidies from the government that created a false market. When government pumps in money malinvestment is sure to follow. We now see how this turned out for the housing sector. It was unsustainable.
So to it will be for healthcare and education. What government subsidizes you get more of AT HIGHER COSTS. Whatever happened to house calls and the Dr.’s little black bag. Dr.’s were once paid with chickens from the coop. Now we must dedicate 17% of our economy to attempt to sustain the unsustainable.

The problem with housing was relatively painless…..mere plunges in fair market value.
The problem with government creating an unsustainable situation in healthcare will be bleak. It is dangerous to confuse ‘healthcare coverage’ with healthcare. Ultimately we want care not coverage. Stark healthcare rationing is the result of government’s over involvement in healthcare. It is odd that Mr. Houle sees this as a solution when it is the problem. We should not so glibly look to government for the answer. It was the unintended consequence of government wage controls which delivered us here in the first place. The healthcare crisis will be over when patients reach into their wallet to pay their Dr. instead of calling Hartford Connecticut.
When stroke patients in their seventies are denied a neurologist there will be disbelief how we let ourselves arrive at such a place. Unless of course you are a Eugenicist seeking to reduce the population.

Big Al and all,
I am an investor in SIlvercrest mines. That was one my first investments in the junior resource sector. A “go-getter” company and on the road to success. On a side note, I am NOT an investor in all of these companies that have banners on this website. BUT, let’s just put it this way – to get by all the stringent investment criteria by BIG AL, you better know what you are doing and HAVE A PLAN! NOT investment advice, but people like BIG AL and GRANDICH dont get involved in companies that have NO CREDIBILITY……ditto Bob Moriarity, Dr. Michael Berry, etc. Take a close look and all the best in this sector……..that WILL HAVE ITS DAY in the sun!
Marc

Al and Del, Thank you for the update on PEM.
Looking forward to the markets changing for the better (hopefully)
Have a nice Canada-Day Weekend folks!

BTW,
Big Al, that last little line about “tearing down a house versus “just” remodeling the house is, I believe, an excellent analogy to what the politicians are up to. Hey, tearing down is way too painful and “messy”! Let’s just TRY to remodel and “possibly” paper over the ugly parts and move on…good luck with that! Got gold, silver, oil, food, and anything else the ‘leaders” CAN’T “paper over”? Finally, the political leaders have a pig for pet. Their pet is called “massive debt versus GDP pitfall that is sinking the entire GLOBAL financial infrastructure”. HEY, let’s not KILL the pig…let’s just put lipstick on it and call it a “thoroughbred race horse”…c’mon!
Marc

I hate to ponder what our country will look like 40 years from now.

🙁

I especially appreciated Al and Peter’s final segment.
My law practice has been limited to Trust & Estate planning since 1992.
As I type our Federal Unified Gift Estate Tax Exemption is 5 million dollars however on January 1, 2013 it (unless modified) will reset to $1 million dollars with a scaling tax level of 41% to 55%. Married couples should strongly consider planning their estates with Revocable Living Trust which include credit bypass provisions. Such a trust will preserve both spouse exemptions while also protecting the financial security of the surviving spouse. Avoiding probate is a mere fringe benefit. For larger estates or for those motivated to expand their legacy without being subject to estate taxes an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT) is a great tool. For married couples who are relatively healthy a second to die policy can leverage up premiums incredibly. By owning the policy in such a trust it is not included in your taxable estate.
Hard assets provide creative estate planning solutions. Like anything in life time on task will arrive you at a better result.

As Peter indicated even modest estates need to plan ahead. Obama ran on and budgeted an exemption level of 3.5 million…but I think this is pure poitics. When the velocity of all the recent monetary inflation picks up we will see price inflation. Your taxable estate may very well increase while your lifestyle stays the same or even diminishes. Congress can be counted on to be slow to raise the exemption levels as the average estate grows only nominally. Estates are a favorite target of the tax man……dead people do not vote (except in Lake County Illinois) and beneficiaries are often happy what they net receive. Unless the family business is liquidated to pay the estate tax beneficiaries are often oblivious the burden the estate suffered.

With over 10,000 baby boomers reaching entitlement age every day for the next 18 years the combination of inflation and more onerous taxes should not be allowed to catch you by surprise.

The third tenet of the communist manifesto is an abolition of all right of inheritance.

So you might ask……Do we have it easy?

Sometimes I think I would rather have blatant outright tyranny instead of this water torture creep to socialism.
Like a stock putting in a solid bottom…it could only get better.
Unfortunate for us we have not hit the bottom of our slide to socialism/fascism….Thursday was very bad….but we have several more Thursdays to come.

PROFESSIONAL ATHELETE…..?….IS THAT AN OXYMORON….?

People who vote don’t count as much as the people who count the votes. Free and fare elections? LOL!

Comment on segment 4, needing to vote for a change.
I watched Jon Stewart the other night, he showed Obama making speeches about the medical plan, then he showed Romny, Romney was saying he wanted to change things then said the exact same things as obama. Mr. Stewart got alot of laughs showing they are exactly the same.
There is no diference between them. I think Doug Casey is correct that not voting might be the thing to do just to show them that the people dont want their charade anymore. That I doubt would work as they dont care 1 way or another so the thing to do I believe is write in Ron Paul as there is no other choice. To be honust the only thing writing in RP will do is allow a person to look their children in the eye, I dont see it actually doing any good either.

Morning John,

You make an interesting point!

Big Al

Actually, I might have been wrong about writing in RP not doing any good. If enough people were to write in RP (millions) it might tell the american people that there are many that know what the government is up to, You never know, knowing there are many that believe in liberty might give people hope and the courage to continue fighting for liberty. So maybe there is more to writing in RP than looking our kids in the eye.

Hi Big Al,
Thanks for your weekend show. 100 oz silver bars by Johnson Mathey, delivered this AM sure puts a smile on my face. Best to you

Big Al and ALL,
Here is our future and the future is now: MASSIVE DEBT MONETIZATION. Wiping out most of all the people in its path – American, European, middle class,etc………http://www.kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/King_World_News.html
Brutal…absolutely brutal…..I drive around PB looking at these young, vibrant kids having fun and say to myself “There future has been mortgaged off”.Sad….very sad…..
Marc

How do you think I feel about my three girls and their families!

Big Al

I don’t agree with Trader Rog’s analysis of gold. I still think we have a smidgen of downside. Gold’s big move up left a lot of gap and markets don’t like gaps. Also, I think we are experiencing an A-B-C counter-trend rally in the markets, with Wave C starting in late June. My target on the end of that wave would be around 1396 to 1407 on the S&P. If we see decreasing volume as the market trends higher, I would expect more downside weakness to be expressed in the future and if the market falls below the mid June low, then I would say that we are going to see ALL assets deflate. Sorry, but until I see three consecutive days of gold closing above $1650, I ain’t drinking any more of the “upward and onward” koolaid. I do however, believe that everyone and their dog should be buying gold and silver on the dips because by year end, we should see a nice price in both metals.

stay frosty.

Hi Al,
What happened in the Supreme Court is very troubling. First of all this administration looks at the constitution as an obstacle to their agenda of control. The Supreme Court was suppose to be the back stop to protect the constitution thereby protecting the people from an overpowering government. Instead of ruling on the constitutionality of the commerce clause, Justice Roberts changed it into a tax bill in order to pass the bill. I knew the Supreme Court was corrupt ever since they voted in favor of eminent domain in 2005 but what Roberts did was an attack on liberty and freedom. His actions are disgraceful and immoral.

Al and Gang: I just received this message from Governor Mitt Romney about the Obama care health ruling. Tell me what you think.
————————————————————————————–
“Yesterday, the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare. But regardless of what the Court said about the constitutionality of the law, Obamacare is bad medicine, it is bad policy, and when I’m President, the bad news of Obamacare will be over.

It was always a liberal pipedream that a 2,700 page, multi-trillion-dollar Federal Government takeover of our health care system actually could address the very serious problems we face with health care. With Obamacare fully installed, government will reach fully half of the economy — that is the recipe for a struggling economy and declining prosperity.

On Day One, I will work to repeal Obamacare to stop the government’s takeover of our health care and intrusion in our lives. I will push for real reform to our health care system that focuses on helping patients and protecting taxpayers.

We cannot afford Barack Obama’s on-the-job learning, Big Government proposals, and irresponsible spending. Our basic liberties are at stake — and I will fight to restore our freedoms, renew the respect for our Constitution, and halt the government takeover of health care.

This November it’s all on the line. The stakes couldn’t be higher.

Donate $10 or more to put a stop to the policies of Barack Obama and the liberal Democrats.

Thanks,

Mitt Romney”

Hi clay,
I think this is just one of many fund raising committees. They are authorized by the RNC so probable ok.

“No Worse Enemy” by Ben Anderson describes the chaos in Afghanistan by the Federal Government in washington d.c. and how State Dept. and Dept of Defense are in all sense so corrupt or incompetent that the damages they have caused the US, Afghanistan and many peoples of the world that they truly are “No Worse Enemy”.

http://commoditywatch.podbean.com/2012/04/12/ben-anderson-no-worse-enemy/

Below s a post from a board circa 1 year ago after the May 1 smack down…
For your consideration: DO THR MATH

They have done the math as well!
They are swimmers stranded in an ocean of debt struggling to avoid their next breath being their last.
As they struggle to keep above water they flail and flail until they fail.
This is why I just bought more silver.
You are now a monetary prophet to own sub $5 physical silver.
It will not be long that amazement in given to those who own sub $50 physical silver.
Do the math. Buy silver.

As they debate the raising of the debt ceiling you have to ask yourself how broke is the US?
Who will buy US debt on July 1, 2011 if the Fed stops doing so?
At what yield?
History suggests PM perform their best when interest rates are used to fight inflation.
The monetary mayhem rodeo is in the 4th inning. If it keeps raining it is not even an official game yet.
Volatility gives concern but like mid through late January it is healthy for the later innings.
A pause that refreshes!

Here is my math:
Below are two links.
The first is to Treasury debt Auction Schedule.
Suffice it to say there will be auctions until the National Guard hits the streets.
The other link is the National debt clock. Kick around that one for a while and then I dareyou to place aggressive bids at the next US debt auction. The math is simple the US has an admitted 14.2 thousand billion debt. And that figure does not include already insolvent Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. OH!!!!! and what about Federal Pensions, Veteran benefits…….
Oh and what about the USD is soon to lose the World Currency status….
As Keynes wrote in the early 20’s the easiest way to destroy capitalism is to destroy the currency in which it conducts business. Look at the debt clock and do the math figuring your grandkids likely Income Tax rate. Oh forget it your grandkid will be a slave.
Who said to the effect “The saddest thing is a slave who falsely thinks he is free.”

Health care is not a problem.
We need Jobs & Demo have no idea.
GOP is still fighting union.

rog, Why do take doctor court?
use angies list & save 80% of health bill!!

Hyperinflation in Germany-A wise senior gives firsthand accounts

a utube video, what a listen

Love the interviews on specific companies. Gives me new ideas for investing.
Keep em coming.

Cheers,
James
http://www.pennyminingstocks.com

Al,

I always kinda cringe when you let yourself think inside the financial orthodoxy. The banks got trillions since 2008, yet we`re supposed to be worried about the deficit? The people could simply decide to print the money (as they`ve been doing anyway) without issuing debt commitments for every new dollar. THAT is the root of all the corruption and attempt at controls we see.

The Government should create, issue, and circulate all the currency and credits needed to satisfy the spending power of the Government and the buying power of consumers. By the adoption of these principles, the taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest. Money will cease to be master and become the servant of humanity. – Abraham Lincoln

Otherwise, what Carlin describes will never change:

George Carlin ~ The American Dream
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q

Mark- you point on more downside is correct but I think we need to finish the next three up waves in the sequence first. Normally a complete wave rally is composed of five up; and abc of three sideways OR is followed by a full five down instead of the ABC. On the weekly chart a complete run from bottom to top to the bottom takes six weeks. We should see one more downer in later July on our work. When we say up on this site it means in the shorter term. We do offer ideas on shorter term (a few days) intermendiate (2-4 weeks) and longer term of 3-6 months. I have work from 2005 forecasting gold to $2960 and its still holding over y ears. The year 2017 is my projection of the end of the PM rallies. A few good anaslyts are saying til 2024 – Traderrog

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