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POPSReport: 237 millionaires in Congress
Senators’ estimated median reportable worth sunk to about $1.79 million from $2.27 million in 2007. The House’s median income was significantly lower and also sank, bottoming out at $622,254 from $724,258 in 2007. But CRP’s analysis suggests that some lawmakers did well for themselves between 2007 and 2008, even as many Americans lost jobs and saw their savings and their home values plummet. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) gained about $9.2 million. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) gained about $3 million, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) had an estimated $2.6 million gain, and Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) gained about $2.8 million. Some lawmakers have profited from investments in companies that have received federal bailouts; dozens of lawmakers are invested in Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America. Vice President Joe Biden has often tagged himself as an original blue collar man. The CRP backs him up, putting his net worth at just $27,000.
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POPSIs the Economy Recovering? The Curious Case of 1920 vs. 1929
The basic questions we need to ask here are: 1. Why do economies recover? 2. Are we recovering? Q. Why do economies recover? A. They recover because bad investments made during the bubble are liquidated, valuable capital is no longer being wasted on them, new capital is formed from savings, and profitable enterprises attract new capital to expand. Low real interest rates caused by increased savings encourage borrowing, manufacturers use the capital to make new machines, producers of consumer goods buy them, cash goes through the system, consumers see things are getting better, more consumer goods are produced, and consumers buy them. It has to happen this way or the recovery will fail. The difficult part of a recovery is ugly. Bankrupt firms need to fail so that valuable capital resources are not wasted on their continuing activities. This means that unemployment rises (10.2% now) and business bankruptcies are high. Trillions of dollars of asset values are wiped out.
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POPSGoldman Sachs Banksters Knew and Bet on Meltdown Filthy lucre on the backs of investors and then got Bailout money from taxpayers too, with the help of their "insider" (and Treasury Secretary) Timothy Geithner. (It helps to have pals in high places.--see Goldman-Geithner connections )
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POPSObama offers millions in muslim technology fund Yeah? Stupid. The results will be : a) 3/4 will be skimmed off by corrupt officials b) the rest will be spent on developing primitive tools to destroy us or prevent us from attacking them effectively. Please understand... muslims are incapable of building or creating anything. They only know how to destroy and kill.
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POPS 6 Arrested in Inside Trade Case Robert Khuzami, director of enforcement at the Securities and Exchange Commission, said the charges show Rajaratnam's "secret of success was not genius trading strategies." "He is not the master of the universe. He is a master of the Rolodex," Khuzami said. Rajaratnam, 52, was ranked No. 559 by Forbes magazine this year among the world's wealthiest billionaires, with a $1.3 billion net worth. Also charged in the scheme are Rajiv Goel, 51, of Los Altos, California, a director of strategic investments at Intel Capital, the investment arm of Intel Corp., Anil Kumar, 51, of Santa Clara, California, a director at McKinsey & Co. Inc., a global management consulting firm, and Robert Moffat, 53, of Ridgefield, Connecticut, senior vice president and group executive at International Business Machines Corp.'s Systems and Technology Group. The others charged in the case were identified as Danielle Chiesi, 43, and Mark Kurland, 60, both of New York City.
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POPSGeithner says Americans will have to save more What is this man talking about? Exactly which sector of Americans is he insisting they save more? Why do I want to change the "global economy"? If Washington would leave the "private sector" alone, couldn't it grow more? Why doesn't Washington take this man's advice and "Save More!!"?? Oh...and get your behind home and do some work for the US.
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POPSLegalized Bribery in American Politics Just one in a thousand adult Americans contributed $1,000 or more to any candidate in the last election, yet candidates for the 2004 presidential nomination raised more than 80 percent of their individual investments from these elites. In other words, with regard to using money to influence presidential candidates, 0.1% of Americans account for 80% of the influence. 2300 energy companies lobbied Congress between 1998 and 2004, with $984 million paid for lobbyists. Why pay a lobbyist $300,000? Because it’s a great investment, of course. Does anyone believe the legal fiction that the purpose of a lobbyist is to educate politicians on the issues? Of course not. Those huge bucks are paid out for skilled middle-men and women to discreetly (or not so discreetly) convey the message that a politician will be handsomely rewarded for screwing over his or her constituents in favor of the lobbyist’s employer.
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POPSTrickle Down Economics they may choose not to reinvest that money, meaning that no funds “trickle down” to people in lower socioeconomic classes. The tax burden on the middle class may also increase as the government struggles to keep tax revenues high enough to fund itself.
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POPSGovernment Owned and Operated AIG Failing Another example of what happens when government sticks its nose into private industry. FAILURE! AIG was failing before US taxpayers were forced to bail them out, and guess what they are still failing. How much more taxpayer money is going to be needed to continue to prop up this failed company? And OBAMA wants to run our health care! GET REAL!
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POPSEver Wonder Where the RC Church gets its Money From? According to a BBC programme last night, the investments are in 'household names' that make millions from porn. Can't mention those names here, of course. When the collection plate next comes round, remember that blessed are the rich.
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POPSLetter to Nancy Pelosi, from Dennis Guthrie, Attorney
...I find it interesting that you and your husband are multi-millionaires with much of your fortune being made as a result of your “public service”. You have controlled legislation that has enhanced your husband’s investments both on and off shore. At the same time you redistributed the wealth of others. Our system of a free market economy is being destroyed by the likes of you, Harry Reid, and now our President. You ride around in a Gulfstream airplane at the tax payer’s expense while criticizing the presidents of companies who produced something for the economy. You add nothing to the economy of the United States; you only subtract therefrom. I would like to suggest that you return to the city of fruitcakes and nuts and eat your husband’s canned tuna and pineapple produced by illegal immigrants and by workers who have been excluded from the protection that 90% of the legal workers in the United States have. I await your defeat in the next election with glee.
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POPSThis Is Why You Are In Debt If any of these reasons sound familiar, click through and read the full article to understand more about the ways we financially sabotage ourselves on a regular basis.
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POPSGovernment Hype Against Skype and VoIP--"Security Threat" It's not just Russia that is opposed to private internet telephony applications. Buried deep in the article the real reason comes out: Delegates at the meeting also warned that it has been impossible for police to spy on VoIP conversations The NSA has admitted the same thing here --enough to tap the hacker market to find a "solution". (Offering big money to those who would help break our privacy, for their own gain). Too bad. It's not only cheap to place calls this way, but so far very private.
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POPSSun Signs and Break-ups What a riot! :lol: Go to the source if yours isn't here. I'll try to link it: <a href="http://www.astrologyexpressed.wordpress.com/">AstrologyExpressed</a>
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POPSMicrosoft Millionaire: Why I Should Pay More Taxes He wants to rescind the tax breaks given to the wealthy to help the U.S.!? I’ll bet he’ll be banned from the country club and a place at the round table now. The Bush-era tax cuts gave $700 billion in breaks over eight years to those with annual incomes more than $200,000. The U. S. borrowed money to make these tax cuts possible, even as our schools, infrastructure, research institutions and social services were in need of new investments. “Taxes are the price we pay to live in a civilized and healthy society. Those of us who have disproportionately benefited from public investments have a responsibility to pay back our society so that others can have similar opportunities.” I like this guy. He says “it is just and fair that our generation make comparable investments in our future to ensure that America continues to offer our children and grandchildren the same kind of opportunities it offered me.”
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POPSFinding new and inventive ways to raise taxes I just wonder how high these taxes will have to be in order to also cover the cost of adding the monitoring equipment to every vehicle in the country and then keep that equipment working (as I suspect it will malfunction frequently...).
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