Recent Site Excerpt From: Wednesday, December 1st, 2010
I sure hope that the President’s Deficit Reduction Commission isn’t misused, merely as a partisan political platform upon which to improve an approach to the 2012 elections. Fine kettle of fish that would be …along a growing line of self-serving disservices to “…We the People …”
For more posts …please visit my blogsite at: www.geoblography.com
Preface: Updated February 10th, 2011
Bravo! Way to go Senator Simpson!!!
Way to go Congressman Ryan. On glide path. On glideslope.
Move spending cuts deeper into the national conversation!!!
Yesterday, after contacting my web host …I realized that my blog’s hits and visits were down from December’s exponential rise over and above the prior months’ increased traffic.
And while I realize that I went on vacation and have also been rather slack in blasting my posts …via e-mail; my host’s technical support staff member made me to take note and mark that the foreign component of my site’s followers had altogether dropped to zero.
This compares to visits from 23 countries over the last four previous months …traffic which has essentially increased to become parabolic in December.
So, after listening to my tech support staff member, I asked what may have caused this phenomenal drop-off in foreign traffic …outside of the fact that I was no longer solely relying upon e-mail blasts.
And the answer I was given was quite startling.
This is rather shocking; yet altogether revealing …if true …discounting any degradation in the quality of my writing and or content. God forbid that I should be regressing in these manners.
None-the-less, a more plausible answer I was given pertains to what pertains to what is known as proxy servers …and more specifically …to whom and with what technical measures provide for how traffic may come to be filtered …or censored …and or altogether totally blocked.
After contemplating the impact of this possibility, I instantly became confronted with the reality which may have caused Google to make the decision to exit and leave China behind.
After all, freedom of speech is not free if it is restricted and not allowed to flow freely.
Freedom of speech is simply just another oxymoron if it is first of all …not free from fear.
Therefore, I am returning to e-mail blasting as a complimentary practice whenever I post my work to Geoblography.com.
To this end, I would like to ask you for your help and continued deliberate support in order to circumvent whatever means and barriers may have been raised to maliciously thwart and stifle the free flow of my expressions and thought in what was meant to other wise be an open forum supported by free and unimpeded processes which promote diversity and choice.
After all, if it is the case that my work should come to naught, what does the likes of China …and or, the U.S. State Department have to fear from the likes of little ole me?
Therefore, I am e-mailing you my last two posts I made to Geoblography.com.
With all humility, thank you for your continued support, patience and understanding.
As such, I humbly wrote the following post ….earlier this month on Friday, February the 4th.
Posted: Friday, February the 4th. 2011
In keeping with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s address to the Washington Press Corps today, I am taking the liberty to look back at a letter which I sent out via e-mail on Tuesday, June 06, 2006.
Today, the strength of our nation is tied to our weak dependence upon borrowing …as much today as we were, when I wrote the piece below …back in 2006.
A wise man once asked; “…What good is actually realized …if, in order to strengthen the weak …the strong are made weak?”
Truth be told, America may have simply become weaker …and more dependant upon borrowed foreign capital, merely for the fact that our creditors are becoming more and more reluctant to lend to us …leaving us no choice than to print and buy our own debt with nothing more than fluff vis. QE’s means and methods.
And that’s serious weakness in anybody’s book.
Sort of reminds me of a less than creative means than robbing from Peter to pay Paul.
And this would not be so bad if it were not for the case that this weakness will impact Americans ability to afford to retire …let alone the ability to do so comfortably.
One needs look no further to Germany after the costs of reunification came home to severely reduce pension benefits …the demise of Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
And that, in and of itself …is a sin which is eclipsed in our commission …in that we know it …but are not able even to be honest enough with ourselves to even be able to admit it.
This is why I posted my last post.
Interesting is it not; that the announcement to extend QE was made while China’s president was visiting Washington?
And wouldn’t you know; no sooner than I had drawn up my last post’s rough draft …the announcement was made that QE was going to be extended beyond the proposed March-April scheduled expiration of the program.
That’s right, the close-out of QE has been postponed and pushed back to July. And interest rates are the only consideration …confidence …or rather the lack thereof …altogether not withstanding.
I do not take this mere coincidence lightly, but rather a deliberate avoidance of transparency …the planned dodge to avoid the publicity and rancor which such poor timing would otherwise be draw into the national conversation at a time (March-April) …coinciding …or rather colliding with Congress’ debate which will precede their inevitable raise of the debt ceiling’s limit.
So, that is a recap of my last post in a nutshell …any rise interest rates, not withstanding, because that is the central and pivotal …jobs …housing …liquidity …debt load (public debt costs) treasury yields …bond prices and lastly …the Fed’s balance sheet all not withstanding.
God knows we couldn’t have these two items (The end of QE and …the rise of the debt limit) scheduled side by side.
No, we will now …not have these items on the calendar at the same time. God forbid!
Think of it; rising interest rates impact upon the service costs of our public debt. Good Lord! We wouldn’t want to send our foreign creditors the message that we need to borrow more money …just to float the note.
That was one aspect of Chairman Bernanke’s address which drew a laughable response from the Press Corps.
None the less, today …Ben Bernanke’s call to cut spending and embrace physical responsibility was about as weak as his attempts were to justify down-playing QE’s impact upon commodity prices and the unmistakable presence of inflation …passing them off as factors attributable chiefly to the expansion of demand stemming from developing emerging market nations.
No matter how the Ben Bernank slices it, and no matter what components he can rightly, justly, or otherwise care to conveniently factor out of the inflation indexes, low wages and or labor components are no means worthy to justify the excuse to continue down a path which destroys the strength of the American dollar …for merely a greater interest …that which allows thee government to skate free …merely to justify paying a lower (weak-dollar) interest service costs …merely to afford to carry the public debt ….merely to be able, primarily …just to float the note we tote.
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain …INDEED!
Clarity? Transparency? Preposterous!!!
That’s a service which Ben Bernanke has allowed to eclipse the primary purpose of the government …namely to serve the interests of “…We the People …” much more over in service primarily to the all mighty dollar.
To this, I ask; where is our discernment? Where is our view of priority? Where is our order? Where is our honesty gone? What justice is served then …if we can not even be honest …let alone see our ways clearly …just to honestly see the transparent truth?
Is it any wonder that Mr. Bernanke would admittedly recognize QE-2”s impact upon equity markets (STOCKS) rather stronger than he would …and did it impact or recent part in driving inflation and commodity prices.
Pay no attention to the opportunity costs behind the curtain.
This excuse for QE is worthy only to of the time which has been purchased and squandered so as to merely avoid the more pressing matters …namely prudent and reasonable efforts to execute spending cuts and deficit elimination.
Enough said, here below is the text of the e-mail which I blasted out to CNBC, Fox News and the editorial staff of the Wichita Eagle dated ….
Tuesday, June 06, 2006.
Enjoy the read.
666 China’s Currency Evaluation
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Dear Editors,
In light of President Bush’s recent appointment of Mr. Paulsen as Secretary of the Treasury, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Paulson#U.S._Secretary_of_the_Treasury) there has been no small speculation that this move (in a large part) was based upon an apparent need to place more pressure upon China to float its currency and allow its currency to rise against other currency valuations in a fair market manner.
(http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/30/news/economy/snow_replacement/ Note the reference to the reliance upon foreign capital …herein.â€
http://giftplanning.com/?pageID=30&docID=343
All speculation aside, despite all that the shaking and moving this administration seems to be engaged in, I’ve got to ask what truthfully is shaping and affecting the administration’s China policies and actions? This question also begs another question. How committed to our own relative national interests are we as a democratic people?
Are we not a sovereign nation? Then why do not our national interests reflect this with regard to over spending, over barrowing, and international foreign policies which favor economic globalization instead?
If Washington’s message is so urgent …so as to be deserving of more than mere political lip-service, then, why do we continue in the same laughable and ineffective currency policies with respect to China?
If the Chinese are not willing to play ball in their refusal to float their currency valuations (exchange rates) using generally accepted international practices, why not adopt a plan to gradually implement an escalating program of systematic tariffs until they are willing to play fair?
http://www.metalworkingadvocate.org/news.asp?id=2005
In other words, rather than continue in laughable, ineffective, adverse policies, and playing with an unfair player whose play is detrimentally affecting us nationally; …why not instead provide the Chinese with motivations which place a goodly portion of forced reason for plain fair play? In other words give them motives to make them want to participate internationally in good spirit.
Why can not Washington confidently place our own Homeland and national economic interests on equal footing, if not, then …than on higher ground in highly sensitive matters, interests and issues surrounding Taiwan and Korea?
Could it be that our leadership is afraid of being bullied by a nation to whom we are becoming more and more dependant upon as a creditor?
I rather think that this may already be the case.
Are we as a nation not unlike a parent who has more than well spoiled a child?
Have we not enabled China’s ability to purchase more and more of our Treasury Notes and thus buy into our public debt at a greater and greater pace? As we have barrowed more and more, is this not, after all, a problem we all have had a hand in making?
As we go into the mid-term elections, it is paramount to elect public servants who will be willing and able to address these and other issues and thus serve our national and international interests in a perspective of honesty and clarity with an emphasis upon the relative good priorities of our own national interests. We need to be healthy and strong to go forward.
But we need first to be willing to straightforwardly address these issues and avoid the temptations to overshadow the tough issues by sidetracking these issues using smoke and mirrors to avoid responsibility to the greater good.
A wise man once said, “If, in order to serve the weak, the strong are made to become weak; who, if at all, is served?”
Hopefully, our choices will reflect an openness which places an emphasis upon priorities which best look out for all of our interests here at home while not diminishing our abilities to look out for our allies who count on our abilities to react in healthy manners to international issues. We need to be able to be responsive to crisis from positions of strength and from a base of honorable honest leadership.
We must not leave our homeland vulnerable in any weak position of state; …especially not fiscally.
Let us make sure that the issues before us and the candidates are clear and thoroughly well understood.
Let us make sure we also understand where our representatives stand on these difficult issues.
And above all, let us not be diverted, sidetracked nor deceived by those which merely seek power for power’s sake.
The ultimate check in our system of checks and ballances is fast approaching in terms of a secondary referendum …the 2012 General Election.
On glide path; on glideslope. Spending cuts …moving toward a return to fiscal responsibility.
Thank you,
Bill Landman
For more a more in depth profile of Henry Paulson, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Paulson
For more a more in depth profile of Ben Bernanke, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Bernanke
More on Ben Bernanke from “The Telegraph.â€
From the WallStreet Journal’s “Real Time Economics
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/02/09/live-blog-ben-bernanke-talks-budget-on-the-hill/
On Spending Cuts:
From a WallStreet Journal Article entitled; The $100 Billion Question
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704858404576128211508503184.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Muni Bond Concerns and Issues:
On Glideslope, on Glide path …
Paul Ryan: Hiding Spending Doesn’t Reduce Spending
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPxMZ1WdINs
Ryan Videos
1st Congressonal Dist. Tim Huelskamp
http://huelskamp.house.gov/about-me/full-biography
Committee on The Budget
http://budget.house.gov/About/BudgetCommitteeMembers.htm
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