If you read the book "Maid" by Stephanie Land, you will grasp what a child tax credit check can do for a single WORKING mom and her kid. The Republicans are too busy reading Ayn Rand, who was a psychopath. They wouldn't care about what it's like to be caught-up in a cycle of poverty in one of the richest countries in the world. It tracks though, they have chosen a psychopath to lead them.
We should all bless the hands and pocketbooks of the people that do the real work in this country. The term working-poor and the fact they exist EVERYWHERE around us is an American disgrace.
Let's get rid of these right-wing, cult following, crazy damn Republicans. I hope the ones that have pledged to not certify the vote feel the wrath of the people they try to disenfranchise.
As for maid Stephanie Land, she used the check to buy a car to get to work. It eased her situation and her mind. And then, she was able to do so much more!
Oh, but didn't you know that the republican party is the party of family???? (please note there is derisive smirk on my face as I type this!)
They are pro-life until it comes time to take care of that life, then it's, "pull yourself by your bootstraps, we don't give handouts to people like you!
I don't believe in an afterlife but if there is one I sure in 'hell' hope that it's really HOT where they're headed, you know, that kind of hot that non-existent climate change just so happens to be producing around the world!
Ali's, I think the Republicans want the childless cat ladies and men to pay more in taxes to support all the good Christian breeders, who aren't even mentally fit to raise children, just as long as the babies can be made into soldiers slaves and servants and if they're criminals take them to the extermination camp!
The childless are littering the street as homeless already and they already pay about four times as much in taxes as the billionaires per thousand dollars. The GOP are the biggest bunch of socialist and Communists around! They just want all those they hate to pay them money or to steal it from them. They have no clue how government works, all they know is they want to loot all they can for as long as they can. It's like putting a baboon in charge of a nuclear power plant when you vote for a religious right winger.
SCOTUS has already ruled that whatever POTUS does is an official act, and that POTUS is immune from prosecution. Now is the time for Biden to strike at MAGA and Trump, do what he will do, use Project 2025 with a liberal bentand agenda.Fire cabinet members that are no sufficiently progressive, appoint acting progressive cabinet members, have the US Marshall service arrest Alito, Gorsuch and Thomas for corruption.appoint acting members of the Supreme Court, and so on.
It was obvious that interest rates needed to begin increasing back during the Trump presidency. But the Fed held off and did not begin raising rates until after Biden was elected, making sure that all negative fallout was felt during the Biden presidential term. And now that rates obviously need to be pulled back the Fed chooses to sit on its hands, trying to squeeze out some more negative fallout to be felt during the Biden presidency. So yes, Jerome Powell is supporting Trump.
Our money is created out of debt (the fractional reserve system). A decrease in interest rates leads to an increase in debt an increase in debt leads to an increase in money,and increase in money leads to an increase in spending (demand) and that leads to an increase in employment, Raise interest rates and the reverse happens.
The charter of the Fed, a for profit corporation with a federal monopoly, is to mange the credit of the nation, and the Fed does it for political purposes, and to serve it's masters.
Paul Volcker, Chairman of the Fed when Nixon was president, said that his job was to decrease the standard of living of the American. You do that by raising interest rates.
There is a problem with that. Americans are addicted to debt, we can't live without our credit cards,car loans, mortgages, and thus our demand for debt is inelastic (in economic terms it doesn't respond to supply or availability, we will pay whatever the price is to get what we want)
The excuse that Powell gives, to cool inflation is specious. It will reduce the demand for debt, and thus the money supply, somewhat but not drastically
And there are two inflation's, short term which is what the Fed manages or tries to via interest rates and long term the, reason that a Snickers once cost 25 cents now costs $1.50
Long term inflation is caused by the accumulated interest on all debts, government, corporate, private, because the act of borrowing (debt) that created the money, does not create the money to pay the interest on the debt.
Money created out of debt goes bye bye, as the debt is paid down and paid off, double entry bookkeeping.
If it didn't, then dollar bills would have to be blown off our lawns with a blower.
I borrow $100 at 10%, the bank creates $90 if there is a reserve (set by the Fed) of 10%. When I pay off that $100 it disappears, wiped off the books, but not the interest and the bank did not create the $10 I must pay in interest. Thus I must come up with the extra ten dollars by hook or crook and if I am a producer or store owner, I must raise prices, and/or reduce quality and quantity.
Money created out of debt. People like Musk, Thiel, etc loan to themselves; the rate is inconsequential. The interest is not taxed. Meanwhile they control their own currency, crypto,
As I have said many times, If I were king I'd arbitrage the national debt. Borrow in countries like Japan, Switzerland where rates are about 1%. Retire our high interest debt.
Traders in currencies make big money. The Fed members must be either oblivious to that market or members are players.
I was around when Nixon let the dollar float. The beneficiaries were his wealthy oil donors like the Hunt family. I was also the victim when Mexico, our largest trading partner, devalued the peso in 1982...another function of petrocurrency. Whatta disaster.
Interesting I remember the aftershock when Mexico devalued the Peso.
The thing about money out of debt, it is only the fractional reserve banking system, where a bank only needs to hold in reserve, a portion (fraction) of the money it will create when it loans the consumer whether it be a house, boat, plane, car pr credot card. A big racket.
Musk loaning money to himself is lack you and I taking it of the right pocket and putting in the left pocket, only they use shell companies and they are not creating money, but they are avoiding taxes, They can eventually write off the "loan" to themselves, and the shell company they report it to does not report it as income, anymore than you or I report a debt as income.
No surprise with what looks like an attempted economic hit job this close to the election by friends of Make America Go Away. Jerome Powell has been a dormant disaster - seems as though he's been activated. I can't stress enough what these people are willing to do gain/ retain power - use your darkest imagination, multiply it by infinity, then believe it. That's the reality we're living in and it's imperative for all of us to fight back
Nobody seems to be talking about the fact that when interest rates are raised, it's the bankers, insurance companies, money managers, and hedge funds who benefit, while workers suffer due to unemployment and wage competition. It's high time we stop tolerating this unfair system. We can't even ensure everyone has access to health insurance. Our country is in desperate need of change.
Biden, if he had balls, could fire Jerome Powell, although whether or not he has the authority is up in the air
Here is the facts about the Fed and the Chairman.
The Federal Reserve. Inc is the only for profit corporation that is chartered by the U.S. Government, there are other corporations like the Red Cross, but they are non profit. The Fed has a legal monopoly to manage the credit of the nation (Title 12 USC)
The Fed is owned by Member Banks, but the lead bank, the bank from which Chairmen are usually drawn, and the bank that actually directs the fed is the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY).
Timothy Geithner, Obama's secretary of the Treasury Geithner in 2003was named president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. As president of the New York Fed, he served as Vice Chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee.Geithners route to power was via Henry Kissinger, Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Geithner
Robert Rubin spent 26 years at Goldman Sachs and was Clintons Secretary of the Treasury.
Lawrence Summers is the Emminence Grise behind the Administrations of Clinton, Obama and Biden.and the reason we had that diaster Rahm Emanuel.
Trump's Secretary of the Treasury, Steve Mnuchin spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs, because his father Robert was a Senior Partner. he left GS in 2002 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Mnuchin
The 1st District of the Federal Reserve is Boston
The 2nd District is New York, there are 12 districts in all. I knew the VP of the San Francisco Fed, a retired AF Colonel.
Here are the banks that belong to the 2nd District
Currently 23 members there have been as many as 25, membership comes and goes, notice how many are foreign.
I first looked up the members of the APGDS in 1983, and there have been changes, but consistent has been Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.
Follwing is my 1983 List From Federal Reserve Docments
Dealer Parent
ACLI Government Securities Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette
Donaldson,Lufkin & Jenrette Not listed as subsidiary or parent
Balch Halsey Stuart Shields Prudential
Bank of America NT & SA Parent
Bankers Trust Parent
A.G. Becker Inc Becker Warburg Parabas G.P. Subs of Financiere de Paris et Pays Bas S.A.
Briggs Schaedle & Co Not listed
Chase Manhattan Parent
Chemical Bank Chemical NY Corp Citicorp
Citibank NA Citicorp Continental Ill National Bank&Tr . Continental Ill Corp
Crocker National Bank Midland Bank Ltd, UK subs Of Hongkong Shanghai Bankers Corp (also known as the CIA bank, or the Bush Bank).
Discount Corp of NY
1st Boston Corp Schweizerisch Kredit. S.W.
First Nat'l Bank of Chicago First Chicago Corp Parent?
Goldman Sachs & Co Parent?
Harris Trust & Savings Bank Harris Bancorp Inc.
E.F. Hutton
Kidder Peabody & Co. Inc
Aubrey G. Lanston & Co Inc
Lehman Gov't Securities Lehman Bros Kuhn Loeb subs of Banca Della Suizzera Italiana S.W.
Merrill Lynch Gov't Securities Merrill Lynch & Co, USA
Morgan Guaranty Trust Co of NY J P Morgan &Co
Morgan Stanley & Co Inc J P Morgan & Co
Northern Trust Co North Trust Corp
Paine Webber Jacksen & Curtis Financiere de Suez Sal Franco
Wm E Pollock & Co
Charles E Quincy &Co
Salomon Bros Philbro Salomon
Smith Barney Harris Upsham & Co Inc.
Securities GroupHanseatic Div
Bear, Steams & Co. Inc. C
Carol McEntee & McGinley Inc
Refsco Partners
Ist Interstate Bankof Calif. Ist Interstate Corp
Dean Wittier Reynolds Sears & Roebucks
Ist Interstate_ Corp Sears Roebucks.
Following are the Commercial Paper Brokers and Dealers Reporting to the NY Fed.
Ashwell & Co
A.G Becker & Co Inc Financiere de Paris
First Boston Corp Schweizerisch Kreditanstalt Goldman Sachs & Co
Lehmann Commercial Paper Inc. Banca Della Suizzera
MerrillLynch Government Securities
Paine Webber Jackson & Curtis Financiere de Suez Sal France
Piper, Jaffray & Hopwood Inc Saloman Bros
Saloman Bros Phibro Salomon
Some of those investment banks were wiped out in the 2008 Too Big to Fail, like Lehman Brothers, others were gobbled up by larger investment banks, and management corporations Like the Lazard Group, formerly Lazard Freres.
Forgive them for they know not what they do! They are monkeys running a nuclear power plant! All they want is all the money they can grab like monkeys grabbing bananas. They believe God made America wealthy and it wasn't Franklin Delano Roosevelt!
I get at least four of these "fundraising" texts a day. First thing I do is check the phone number to see if it can be blocked and if yes, I block the phone number. I then use the "report junk" link (or something like that) on my Iphone, deleting the text and reporting it as junk. I've only given through ActBlue once - and that was for Senator Warnock - and checked with ActBlue to see if they shared my info. They replied they do not share data and that most likely candidates share the data...🤷🏻♀️. I buy postcard stamps, instead, and support candidates via postcards to voters in their districts.
I don't have a cell phone and don't have that problem, I do get tens of solicitation emails, but all from or supposedly from Democrats and they wind up in my Gmail promotions box.
Heather Cox Richardson mentioned the $10 million bribe from Egypt to Trump in his 2016 Campaign and then Trump loaned his campaign the same $10 million, but Trump was not President then, yet I think he violated the law, money laundering can be easily proven. Sen Menendez also receive money from Egyptians. Why is Trump being investigated. Silly me, Trump is untouchable and everyone is afraid of Trump.
Corruption, cowardice, complicity no wonder we are on the verge of a fascist dictatorship. The same conditions existed in the Weimar Republic.
William, I for one appreciate yorur vast knowledge re the scope of high financial operations, and your exhaustive
clarification that reveal the intricasies of how they affect us all. I suspect many are as clueless as I. In regards to elected Dem politicians, I trust Elizabeth Warren more than any other within this particular and crucial venue. I think she gets it.
I hope she is given rein and power by Harris to bring clarity and change. I suspect many elected Democrats are sitting hidden in the opposite sides' dugout. Money, money, money.
Here is how it affects us all, so called "inflation" is a fact of life, like growing old, there is no cure, no end, regardless of how many is created, be it printing press, debt or even silver and gold.
The Spanish mines of Potosi, Bolivia created a silver inflation that ruined the Spanish Empire and led to them losing the low countries. It was in the low countries, that Spanish Silver and Gold were smelted and made into jewelry, dinner ware, religious objects and coin, it in fact spurred if not started the renaissance, but so much silver flowed in, that it became as valuable as base metal and the Empire of Spain, crumbled and never rose again.
In America things chugged along just fine when silver was the coin of the realm, then a silver load in Nevada, The Comsock lode,produced so much silver that there was inflation,, and the reaction was to demonetize silver.
The result of that was a 7 year depression 1853-to 1860, wikipedia says it was 5 years and a recession, but wikipedia has been wrong many times, many times. as a former editor I can attest to that.
AS we recovered, we were still beset with recurring depressions, recessions and panics, 15 of them, some lasting over three years.
It led to the Cross of Gold Speech by William Jennings Bryan. Because we were in a perpetual depression because we were on a gold standard.
There just is not enough gold to act as a standard of value and money.
Presidents McKinley and Garfield were bimetallists, (silver and gold). Garfield was from the beginning, , McKinley was not at first, but changed his mind by 1901, and was assassinated and that idea fell into the trash.
Have you seen the movie, It is a Wonderful live" it is about a local bank, who loaned money to farmers, neighbors and saved the town, but a competitor started circulating that they didn't have enough money to cover all of their deposits.
In those days,Banks would print their own money, that is why they were called Bank Notes, a note is an obligation, a debt, a promise to pay. And if you held a bank note, you could walk into the tellers window and demand to redeem it for gold.
But all banks operate the same, the loan out money they don't have, on the basis of the reserve they have in the vault. And there was no Fed so each bank set it's ownr reserve, and some banks had no reserves or very little but printed out bank notes without constraint.
Here I tell you about the Bank of England. It received a monopoly charter from Charles II in return for loaning him money. The Bank no sooner opened its doors then there was a run on the Banks gold. They almost went bankrupt, but some quick thinker on the board, said "let's hire Isaac Newton as the 1st Warden of the mint", all of England knew the reputation of Isaac as an alchemist, and they believed an alchemist could change base metal into gold... the run was stopped.
That ploy worked in the 17th century but not in the 19th.
Kind of long winded, sorry.
Back to your comment. There is no cure, I am afraid, All systems have built in inflation, depression, devaluation cycles
The Soviet Union adopted the Marxist idea of gold as the STANDARD of value (not the labor theory of value). and valued a ruble as .981 grams fine, and only put into circulation the number of rubles which equaled the gold on hand, and the result was a perpetual depression, which was conveniently explained as the exigency of the cold war. Don't complain because it is treasonous.
Printing press money (the real and only fiat money) doesn't work, the German Hyperinflation of 1922, the examples of Latin American countries, especially Argentina demonstrates the tendency of government to try and print its way of financial difficulties.
And we have seen what debt money can do.
But of all worlds it is the best, though it is gamed and people suffer.
Elizabeth Warren promises to solve that problem, but I don't know how, the CFB is a start, the Fed needs right supervision, but the problem is this, it will always be controlled by politicians and financial interests. We need a selfless person, sans any ideology, that is moral, can not be blackmailed, threatened, intimidated, cajoled into granting favors or bending to the will of anyone or any institution to run the Fed.
The fractional reserve system, the brainchild of Paul Warburg who was also the first president of the Bank for International Settlements.. the central bank of central banks - the MFWIC of Banks, is the very best system known or tried for creating and managing the credit and money. I know of no better.
But it is subject to politics and manipulation by the financial institution.
Thus the problem with Jerome Powell, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, 1st Boston, Bank of america.. they have too much power
People like Elizabeth Warren are a possible solution, not as President but as Secretary of the Treasury or Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
By the way the Chairman of the Fed is not selected by the President, a name is put on his or her desk,and the name is sent to the Congress where it is rubber stamped by Senators.
I have no idea who puts the name on the Presidents Desk, I suspect it was Larry Summers for Democrat presidents, but for the Bush's and Trump I would say the or a Wall Street financial backer.
Money, money, money is right. I is addictive, like gambling only worse, money, ego, power, revenge that is what drives them.
Wouldn't it be nice if we could be 'shocked' anymore by what we find out about the Felon-in-Chief? It would just be so refreshing to read a headline like that & say something like, "Oh, I wouldn' never have thought that would happen!" Instead, at least for me the reaction is: "Oh, ANOTHER ONE!" Angry, you bet, shocked, "NOPE".
Now, I will say that for some reason I'm still shocked that so many people still believe all the garbage that trump & Vance spew. I should not be shocked by that, especially since it's obvious that these folks are so caught up in the cult they really don't know right from wrong, I guess I'm just hoping that a few light bulbs will go off & they'll realize what the 'eff' is going on. "Hope" ???? spring eternal I guess!
If I get into a conversation with a cult follower, instead of arguing with them I just say that they deserve a dictatorship! That makes them think! And I really mean it! I can't lose this next election unless the grocery stores run out of food or the whole economic system collapses, what's a very real possibilities between 1 month and 5 years? With a dictator who is clueless about how the economy runs.
You could also mention that Project 2025 could very well fire a knowledgeable civil servant in your area & replace them with a "loyalist" trump follower that only knows loyalty, not how to do the job!
One of the other fronts in the war against democracy is the swing states as we know.
This week I started looking in detail at Georgia.
Here is the latest:
*There are already thirteen counties in Georgia where election deniers are in positions to disrupt certification.
*These are mostly populous purple counties, so this is a BIG deal.
*The latest date to watch concerning the MAGAs in control at the state level is Aug. 19. A so-called public hearing is to be held then. Surely though, they will get past that speed bump, and the legislature will soon pass the change to the law they have crafted, which will enable the deniers in the counties to disrupt the Nov. 5 Georgia results.
In other words, it looks like there will be MULTIPLE MIKE PENCES in the Georgia counties, and they will be EAGER to do the bidding of MAGA this time, and with BACKING this time from the state level.
I am just a normal person researching these goings on, not a lawyer or scholar.
However, it looks to me like there is definitely going to be a HUGE train wreck Nov. 5 in Georgia.
Yesterday Medias Touch posted a video where Project 2025 leader Kevin Roberts bragged about things they are cooking up that we don't know about yet ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2KPp_9Ed4I&t=20s ).
...Well... I DO know about it now, at least the Georgia part, and it is really twisted!
The Kevin Roberts clips are right at the beginning of the video I linked above. Rachel Maddow on Tuesday pointed out Trump has been telling MAGA he doesn't even need their votes on Nov. 5, because everything is in place. Kevin Roberts obviously agrees. I just dug into the ugly details in Georgia, as I just said.
I apologize for not reading thoroughly your Democracy Docket link in your article, Thom, before putting my comments down here.
The Democracy Docket article is a bit vague, but still well written and encouraging.
I saw nothing in the article that makes me less convinced that they won't create chaos in Georgia. The state level and county level MAGA appear way too determined to collude to make sure chaos does indeed happen in that state.
I appreciate your discussion, Mike. I was kind of panicked by the Maddow reporting: she gave the impression it was a slam-dunk. Then I was just breathing a sigh of relief at Thom's post, "the Democrats are ready." Then your follow-up showed up. There is SO much going on in Georgia, your "train wreck" looks like a sure thing. Isn't it Georgia where (I think it was Thom this week) reporting that there was a new State website for cancelling your registration if you move, but it required personal info, so the State ("accidentally") released a huge leak of voters info? Georgia, right?
It will probably be more detailed than the Democracy Docket article. I will read it now, hoping it relates to what looks like will happen in Georgia. 🙂
I read the 48 page PDF, and it emphasized again that certification is meant to be a clerical thing and if it is instead used to interfere and grandstand, someone does a mandamus writ to shut that nonsense down.
So... Next I just read the proposed new additions to the "tabulating results" part of the Georgia election laws.
Here are my first impressions:
1. They focus on local officials who might claim there were more votes than voters. As critics claim, they allow such official(s) to really get into all the records in their jurisdiction.
2. But they only get six days before they have to certify.
So, are the additions encouraging shenanigans on Nov. 5, or skillfully restricting them before they happen, by spelling out exactly how much nonsense will be allowed and for how long?
I am still thinking about that. But I am glad the changes at first read by a non lawyer like me at least MIGHT seem to be crafted to stymie expected nonsense rather than enable it.
Maybe it won't matter how many deniers are in local positions. They can be bypassed right away with mandamus writs. (More idiots will just mean more writs.) If they want to play longer before they get slapped down, it has to be over a claim of more votes than voters. But they will only be allowed in that playpen for six days. So the train wreck in Georgia will probably be big news until about November 7, then the more votes than voters idiots will be in the news later in the week, then on Monday, Nov. 11, they will certify, or else the courts will do it for them probably right away. Finally, by the 15th, the Georgia numbers will be official, even though they should have been on November 6.
Another reason for hope is that nobody anymore still believes the GOP is still a political party. Even the most uninformed realize it is now only an authoritarian movement and a cult.
All their cards are on the table now. Kevin Roberts talked in that video I linked to as if they still have surprises waiting for us. They will not be surprises at all. They will just be the dirty moves we have been preparing for.
Personally I like the 5% rate I am getting on my Money Market Accounts versus trying to play the stock market and with Trillions of Dollars in those accounts, I think it is helping keeping the economy chugging along.. Unfortunately most banks are paying still well below the 5% level for general savings accounts but still charging the 18% plus for credit cards..
I've thought old Powell of the Feds was a Trumpie for a long time. Be glad when "privitizing" deJoy is gone too (before he can destroy our Post Office). Too many Trumpies left...and the DESTROYERS want to put Trumpies everywhere. Ewww! So glad you are hanging in there, Mr. Hartmann, telling what it's like, and over and over. Ruthie B
All the actions of the Fed chair for the entire term of Biden has been against rational policy of any kind. Not that that has been any different for any Dem administration while the opposite has been true for Repub administrations. I fail to understand why Biden or any Dem leader would put these Repub office holders back into office. There are plenty of Dem officers to run them. This is a self-inflicted error.
If you read the book "Maid" by Stephanie Land, you will grasp what a child tax credit check can do for a single WORKING mom and her kid. The Republicans are too busy reading Ayn Rand, who was a psychopath. They wouldn't care about what it's like to be caught-up in a cycle of poverty in one of the richest countries in the world. It tracks though, they have chosen a psychopath to lead them.
We should all bless the hands and pocketbooks of the people that do the real work in this country. The term working-poor and the fact they exist EVERYWHERE around us is an American disgrace.
Let's get rid of these right-wing, cult following, crazy damn Republicans. I hope the ones that have pledged to not certify the vote feel the wrath of the people they try to disenfranchise.
As for maid Stephanie Land, she used the check to buy a car to get to work. It eased her situation and her mind. And then, she was able to do so much more!
Oh, but didn't you know that the republican party is the party of family???? (please note there is derisive smirk on my face as I type this!)
They are pro-life until it comes time to take care of that life, then it's, "pull yourself by your bootstraps, we don't give handouts to people like you!
I don't believe in an afterlife but if there is one I sure in 'hell' hope that it's really HOT where they're headed, you know, that kind of hot that non-existent climate change just so happens to be producing around the world!
Ali's, I think the Republicans want the childless cat ladies and men to pay more in taxes to support all the good Christian breeders, who aren't even mentally fit to raise children, just as long as the babies can be made into soldiers slaves and servants and if they're criminals take them to the extermination camp!
The childless are littering the street as homeless already and they already pay about four times as much in taxes as the billionaires per thousand dollars. The GOP are the biggest bunch of socialist and Communists around! They just want all those they hate to pay them money or to steal it from them. They have no clue how government works, all they know is they want to loot all they can for as long as they can. It's like putting a baboon in charge of a nuclear power plant when you vote for a religious right winger.
Von trump corrupts everything he touches! Caramba. What a nasty asshole
Egyptgate should be top of the page headlines.
Is it too late to charge Bill Barr with corruption?
Obstruction of justice.
You meant von Schitzenpantz.
NO! Von Shitzhispants!
I stand corrected, Thanks, muy mejor.
"President Biden will have to decide if he’s going to do what Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln did: ignore the Supreme Court and do what’s right."
My prediction, (FWIW):
1. Kamala will win the popular vote and the EC.
2. Trump will escalate fraud charges to SCOTUS.
3. SCOTUS will (keep an arranged promise?) rule in Trump's favor.
4. Biden will IGNORE the SCOTUS ruling, and reject executing it.
SCOTUS has already ruled that whatever POTUS does is an official act, and that POTUS is immune from prosecution. Now is the time for Biden to strike at MAGA and Trump, do what he will do, use Project 2025 with a liberal bentand agenda.Fire cabinet members that are no sufficiently progressive, appoint acting progressive cabinet members, have the US Marshall service arrest Alito, Gorsuch and Thomas for corruption.appoint acting members of the Supreme Court, and so on.
I sure hope you are right!
David, I predict Biden will honor the United States Supreme Court ruling!
And allow Trump to become president again if he has a chance to.
It was obvious that interest rates needed to begin increasing back during the Trump presidency. But the Fed held off and did not begin raising rates until after Biden was elected, making sure that all negative fallout was felt during the Biden presidential term. And now that rates obviously need to be pulled back the Fed chooses to sit on its hands, trying to squeeze out some more negative fallout to be felt during the Biden presidency. So yes, Jerome Powell is supporting Trump.
Our money is created out of debt (the fractional reserve system). A decrease in interest rates leads to an increase in debt an increase in debt leads to an increase in money,and increase in money leads to an increase in spending (demand) and that leads to an increase in employment, Raise interest rates and the reverse happens.
The charter of the Fed, a for profit corporation with a federal monopoly, is to mange the credit of the nation, and the Fed does it for political purposes, and to serve it's masters.
Paul Volcker, Chairman of the Fed when Nixon was president, said that his job was to decrease the standard of living of the American. You do that by raising interest rates.
There is a problem with that. Americans are addicted to debt, we can't live without our credit cards,car loans, mortgages, and thus our demand for debt is inelastic (in economic terms it doesn't respond to supply or availability, we will pay whatever the price is to get what we want)
The excuse that Powell gives, to cool inflation is specious. It will reduce the demand for debt, and thus the money supply, somewhat but not drastically
And there are two inflation's, short term which is what the Fed manages or tries to via interest rates and long term the, reason that a Snickers once cost 25 cents now costs $1.50
Long term inflation is caused by the accumulated interest on all debts, government, corporate, private, because the act of borrowing (debt) that created the money, does not create the money to pay the interest on the debt.
Money created out of debt goes bye bye, as the debt is paid down and paid off, double entry bookkeeping.
If it didn't, then dollar bills would have to be blown off our lawns with a blower.
I borrow $100 at 10%, the bank creates $90 if there is a reserve (set by the Fed) of 10%. When I pay off that $100 it disappears, wiped off the books, but not the interest and the bank did not create the $10 I must pay in interest. Thus I must come up with the extra ten dollars by hook or crook and if I am a producer or store owner, I must raise prices, and/or reduce quality and quantity.
Money created out of debt. People like Musk, Thiel, etc loan to themselves; the rate is inconsequential. The interest is not taxed. Meanwhile they control their own currency, crypto,
As I have said many times, If I were king I'd arbitrage the national debt. Borrow in countries like Japan, Switzerland where rates are about 1%. Retire our high interest debt.
Traders in currencies make big money. The Fed members must be either oblivious to that market or members are players.
I was around when Nixon let the dollar float. The beneficiaries were his wealthy oil donors like the Hunt family. I was also the victim when Mexico, our largest trading partner, devalued the peso in 1982...another function of petrocurrency. Whatta disaster.
Interesting I remember the aftershock when Mexico devalued the Peso.
The thing about money out of debt, it is only the fractional reserve banking system, where a bank only needs to hold in reserve, a portion (fraction) of the money it will create when it loans the consumer whether it be a house, boat, plane, car pr credot card. A big racket.
Musk loaning money to himself is lack you and I taking it of the right pocket and putting in the left pocket, only they use shell companies and they are not creating money, but they are avoiding taxes, They can eventually write off the "loan" to themselves, and the shell company they report it to does not report it as income, anymore than you or I report a debt as income.
No surprise with what looks like an attempted economic hit job this close to the election by friends of Make America Go Away. Jerome Powell has been a dormant disaster - seems as though he's been activated. I can't stress enough what these people are willing to do gain/ retain power - use your darkest imagination, multiply it by infinity, then believe it. That's the reality we're living in and it's imperative for all of us to fight back
Nobody seems to be talking about the fact that when interest rates are raised, it's the bankers, insurance companies, money managers, and hedge funds who benefit, while workers suffer due to unemployment and wage competition. It's high time we stop tolerating this unfair system. We can't even ensure everyone has access to health insurance. Our country is in desperate need of change.
Biden, if he had balls, could fire Jerome Powell, although whether or not he has the authority is up in the air
Here is the facts about the Fed and the Chairman.
The Federal Reserve. Inc is the only for profit corporation that is chartered by the U.S. Government, there are other corporations like the Red Cross, but they are non profit. The Fed has a legal monopoly to manage the credit of the nation (Title 12 USC)
The Fed is owned by Member Banks, but the lead bank, the bank from which Chairmen are usually drawn, and the bank that actually directs the fed is the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY).
The board (Governors) of the Federal Reserve: https://www.federalreserve.gov/aboutthefed/bios/board/default.htm#:~:text=The%20seven%20members%20of%20the,full%20term%20is%20fourteen%20years.
Janet Yellen preceded Jerome Powell https://www.federalreservehistory.org/people/janet-l-yellen#:~:text=Governors%2C%201994%E2%80%931997-,Janet%20L.,degree%20in%20economics%20in%201967. she is currently Secretary of the Treasury.
Timothy Geithner, Obama's secretary of the Treasury Geithner in 2003was named president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. As president of the New York Fed, he served as Vice Chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee.Geithners route to power was via Henry Kissinger, Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Geithner
Robert Rubin spent 26 years at Goldman Sachs and was Clintons Secretary of the Treasury.
Lawrence Summers is the Emminence Grise behind the Administrations of Clinton, Obama and Biden.and the reason we had that diaster Rahm Emanuel.
Trump's Secretary of the Treasury, Steve Mnuchin spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs, because his father Robert was a Senior Partner. he left GS in 2002 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Mnuchin
The 1st District of the Federal Reserve is Boston
The 2nd District is New York, there are 12 districts in all. I knew the VP of the San Francisco Fed, a retired AF Colonel.
Here are the banks that belong to the 2nd District
https://www.newyorkfed.org/banks.html
The real power is via the Primary Dealers in Government securities
https://www.newyorkfed.org/markets/primarydealers
ASL Capital Markets Inc.
Bank of Montreal, Chicago Branch
Bank of Nova Scotia, New York Agency
BNP Paribas Securities Corp.
Barclays Capital Inc.
BofA Securities, Inc.
Cantor Fitzgerald & Co.
Citigroup Global Markets Inc.
Daiwa Capital Markets America Inc.
Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.
Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC
HSBC Securities (USA) Inc.
Jefferies LLC
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC
Mizuho Securities USA LLC
Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC
NatWest Markets Securities Inc.
Nomura Securities International, Inc.
RBC Capital Markets, LLC
Santander US Capital Markets LLC
Societe Generale, New York Branch
TD Securities (USA) LLC
UBS Securities LLC.Wells Fargo Securities, LLC
Currently 23 members there have been as many as 25, membership comes and goes, notice how many are foreign.
I first looked up the members of the APGDS in 1983, and there have been changes, but consistent has been Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.
Follwing is my 1983 List From Federal Reserve Docments
Dealer Parent
ACLI Government Securities Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette
Donaldson,Lufkin & Jenrette Not listed as subsidiary or parent
Balch Halsey Stuart Shields Prudential
Bank of America NT & SA Parent
Bankers Trust Parent
A.G. Becker Inc Becker Warburg Parabas G.P. Subs of Financiere de Paris et Pays Bas S.A.
Briggs Schaedle & Co Not listed
Chase Manhattan Parent
Chemical Bank Chemical NY Corp Citicorp
Citibank NA Citicorp Continental Ill National Bank&Tr . Continental Ill Corp
Crocker National Bank Midland Bank Ltd, UK subs Of Hongkong Shanghai Bankers Corp (also known as the CIA bank, or the Bush Bank).
Discount Corp of NY
1st Boston Corp Schweizerisch Kredit. S.W.
First Nat'l Bank of Chicago First Chicago Corp Parent?
Goldman Sachs & Co Parent?
Harris Trust & Savings Bank Harris Bancorp Inc.
E.F. Hutton
Kidder Peabody & Co. Inc
Aubrey G. Lanston & Co Inc
Lehman Gov't Securities Lehman Bros Kuhn Loeb subs of Banca Della Suizzera Italiana S.W.
Merrill Lynch Gov't Securities Merrill Lynch & Co, USA
Morgan Guaranty Trust Co of NY J P Morgan &Co
Morgan Stanley & Co Inc J P Morgan & Co
Northern Trust Co North Trust Corp
Paine Webber Jacksen & Curtis Financiere de Suez Sal Franco
Wm E Pollock & Co
Charles E Quincy &Co
Salomon Bros Philbro Salomon
Smith Barney Harris Upsham & Co Inc.
Securities GroupHanseatic Div
Bear, Steams & Co. Inc. C
Carol McEntee & McGinley Inc
Refsco Partners
Ist Interstate Bankof Calif. Ist Interstate Corp
Dean Wittier Reynolds Sears & Roebucks
Ist Interstate_ Corp Sears Roebucks.
Following are the Commercial Paper Brokers and Dealers Reporting to the NY Fed.
Ashwell & Co
A.G Becker & Co Inc Financiere de Paris
First Boston Corp Schweizerisch Kreditanstalt Goldman Sachs & Co
Lehmann Commercial Paper Inc. Banca Della Suizzera
MerrillLynch Government Securities
Paine Webber Jackson & Curtis Financiere de Suez Sal France
Piper, Jaffray & Hopwood Inc Saloman Bros
Saloman Bros Phibro Salomon
Some of those investment banks were wiped out in the 2008 Too Big to Fail, like Lehman Brothers, others were gobbled up by larger investment banks, and management corporations Like the Lazard Group, formerly Lazard Freres.
Forgive them for they know not what they do! They are monkeys running a nuclear power plant! All they want is all the money they can grab like monkeys grabbing bananas. They believe God made America wealthy and it wasn't Franklin Delano Roosevelt!
I get at least four of these "fundraising" texts a day. First thing I do is check the phone number to see if it can be blocked and if yes, I block the phone number. I then use the "report junk" link (or something like that) on my Iphone, deleting the text and reporting it as junk. I've only given through ActBlue once - and that was for Senator Warnock - and checked with ActBlue to see if they shared my info. They replied they do not share data and that most likely candidates share the data...🤷🏻♀️. I buy postcard stamps, instead, and support candidates via postcards to voters in their districts.
I don't have a cell phone and don't have that problem, I do get tens of solicitation emails, but all from or supposedly from Democrats and they wind up in my Gmail promotions box.
Heather Cox Richardson mentioned the $10 million bribe from Egypt to Trump in his 2016 Campaign and then Trump loaned his campaign the same $10 million, but Trump was not President then, yet I think he violated the law, money laundering can be easily proven. Sen Menendez also receive money from Egyptians. Why is Trump being investigated. Silly me, Trump is untouchable and everyone is afraid of Trump.
Corruption, cowardice, complicity no wonder we are on the verge of a fascist dictatorship. The same conditions existed in the Weimar Republic.
William, I for one appreciate yorur vast knowledge re the scope of high financial operations, and your exhaustive
clarification that reveal the intricasies of how they affect us all. I suspect many are as clueless as I. In regards to elected Dem politicians, I trust Elizabeth Warren more than any other within this particular and crucial venue. I think she gets it.
I hope she is given rein and power by Harris to bring clarity and change. I suspect many elected Democrats are sitting hidden in the opposite sides' dugout. Money, money, money.
Here is how it affects us all, so called "inflation" is a fact of life, like growing old, there is no cure, no end, regardless of how many is created, be it printing press, debt or even silver and gold.
The Spanish mines of Potosi, Bolivia created a silver inflation that ruined the Spanish Empire and led to them losing the low countries. It was in the low countries, that Spanish Silver and Gold were smelted and made into jewelry, dinner ware, religious objects and coin, it in fact spurred if not started the renaissance, but so much silver flowed in, that it became as valuable as base metal and the Empire of Spain, crumbled and never rose again.
In America things chugged along just fine when silver was the coin of the realm, then a silver load in Nevada, The Comsock lode,produced so much silver that there was inflation,, and the reaction was to demonetize silver.
The result of that was a 7 year depression 1853-to 1860, wikipedia says it was 5 years and a recession, but wikipedia has been wrong many times, many times. as a former editor I can attest to that.
AS we recovered, we were still beset with recurring depressions, recessions and panics, 15 of them, some lasting over three years.
It led to the Cross of Gold Speech by William Jennings Bryan. Because we were in a perpetual depression because we were on a gold standard.
There just is not enough gold to act as a standard of value and money.
Presidents McKinley and Garfield were bimetallists, (silver and gold). Garfield was from the beginning, , McKinley was not at first, but changed his mind by 1901, and was assassinated and that idea fell into the trash.
Have you seen the movie, It is a Wonderful live" it is about a local bank, who loaned money to farmers, neighbors and saved the town, but a competitor started circulating that they didn't have enough money to cover all of their deposits.
In those days,Banks would print their own money, that is why they were called Bank Notes, a note is an obligation, a debt, a promise to pay. And if you held a bank note, you could walk into the tellers window and demand to redeem it for gold.
But all banks operate the same, the loan out money they don't have, on the basis of the reserve they have in the vault. And there was no Fed so each bank set it's ownr reserve, and some banks had no reserves or very little but printed out bank notes without constraint.
Here I tell you about the Bank of England. It received a monopoly charter from Charles II in return for loaning him money. The Bank no sooner opened its doors then there was a run on the Banks gold. They almost went bankrupt, but some quick thinker on the board, said "let's hire Isaac Newton as the 1st Warden of the mint", all of England knew the reputation of Isaac as an alchemist, and they believed an alchemist could change base metal into gold... the run was stopped.
That ploy worked in the 17th century but not in the 19th.
Kind of long winded, sorry.
Back to your comment. There is no cure, I am afraid, All systems have built in inflation, depression, devaluation cycles
The Soviet Union adopted the Marxist idea of gold as the STANDARD of value (not the labor theory of value). and valued a ruble as .981 grams fine, and only put into circulation the number of rubles which equaled the gold on hand, and the result was a perpetual depression, which was conveniently explained as the exigency of the cold war. Don't complain because it is treasonous.
Printing press money (the real and only fiat money) doesn't work, the German Hyperinflation of 1922, the examples of Latin American countries, especially Argentina demonstrates the tendency of government to try and print its way of financial difficulties.
And we have seen what debt money can do.
But of all worlds it is the best, though it is gamed and people suffer.
Elizabeth Warren promises to solve that problem, but I don't know how, the CFB is a start, the Fed needs right supervision, but the problem is this, it will always be controlled by politicians and financial interests. We need a selfless person, sans any ideology, that is moral, can not be blackmailed, threatened, intimidated, cajoled into granting favors or bending to the will of anyone or any institution to run the Fed.
The fractional reserve system, the brainchild of Paul Warburg who was also the first president of the Bank for International Settlements.. the central bank of central banks - the MFWIC of Banks, is the very best system known or tried for creating and managing the credit and money. I know of no better.
But it is subject to politics and manipulation by the financial institution.
Thus the problem with Jerome Powell, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, 1st Boston, Bank of america.. they have too much power
People like Elizabeth Warren are a possible solution, not as President but as Secretary of the Treasury or Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
By the way the Chairman of the Fed is not selected by the President, a name is put on his or her desk,and the name is sent to the Congress where it is rubber stamped by Senators.
I have no idea who puts the name on the Presidents Desk, I suspect it was Larry Summers for Democrat presidents, but for the Bush's and Trump I would say the or a Wall Street financial backer.
Money, money, money is right. I is addictive, like gambling only worse, money, ego, power, revenge that is what drives them.
,
Wouldn't it be nice if we could be 'shocked' anymore by what we find out about the Felon-in-Chief? It would just be so refreshing to read a headline like that & say something like, "Oh, I wouldn' never have thought that would happen!" Instead, at least for me the reaction is: "Oh, ANOTHER ONE!" Angry, you bet, shocked, "NOPE".
Now, I will say that for some reason I'm still shocked that so many people still believe all the garbage that trump & Vance spew. I should not be shocked by that, especially since it's obvious that these folks are so caught up in the cult they really don't know right from wrong, I guess I'm just hoping that a few light bulbs will go off & they'll realize what the 'eff' is going on. "Hope" ???? spring eternal I guess!
If I get into a conversation with a cult follower, instead of arguing with them I just say that they deserve a dictatorship! That makes them think! And I really mean it! I can't lose this next election unless the grocery stores run out of food or the whole economic system collapses, what's a very real possibilities between 1 month and 5 years? With a dictator who is clueless about how the economy runs.
You could also mention that Project 2025 could very well fire a knowledgeable civil servant in your area & replace them with a "loyalist" trump follower that only knows loyalty, not how to do the job!
One of the other fronts in the war against democracy is the swing states as we know.
This week I started looking in detail at Georgia.
Here is the latest:
*There are already thirteen counties in Georgia where election deniers are in positions to disrupt certification.
*These are mostly populous purple counties, so this is a BIG deal.
*The latest date to watch concerning the MAGAs in control at the state level is Aug. 19. A so-called public hearing is to be held then. Surely though, they will get past that speed bump, and the legislature will soon pass the change to the law they have crafted, which will enable the deniers in the counties to disrupt the Nov. 5 Georgia results.
In other words, it looks like there will be MULTIPLE MIKE PENCES in the Georgia counties, and they will be EAGER to do the bidding of MAGA this time, and with BACKING this time from the state level.
I am just a normal person researching these goings on, not a lawyer or scholar.
However, it looks to me like there is definitely going to be a HUGE train wreck Nov. 5 in Georgia.
Yesterday Medias Touch posted a video where Project 2025 leader Kevin Roberts bragged about things they are cooking up that we don't know about yet ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2KPp_9Ed4I&t=20s ).
...Well... I DO know about it now, at least the Georgia part, and it is really twisted!
The Kevin Roberts clips are right at the beginning of the video I linked above. Rachel Maddow on Tuesday pointed out Trump has been telling MAGA he doesn't even need their votes on Nov. 5, because everything is in place. Kevin Roberts obviously agrees. I just dug into the ugly details in Georgia, as I just said.
I apologize for not reading thoroughly your Democracy Docket link in your article, Thom, before putting my comments down here.
The Democracy Docket article is a bit vague, but still well written and encouraging.
I saw nothing in the article that makes me less convinced that they won't create chaos in Georgia. The state level and county level MAGA appear way too determined to collude to make sure chaos does indeed happen in that state.
I appreciate your discussion, Mike. I was kind of panicked by the Maddow reporting: she gave the impression it was a slam-dunk. Then I was just breathing a sigh of relief at Thom's post, "the Democrats are ready." Then your follow-up showed up. There is SO much going on in Georgia, your "train wreck" looks like a sure thing. Isn't it Georgia where (I think it was Thom this week) reporting that there was a new State website for cancelling your registration if you move, but it required personal info, so the State ("accidentally") released a huge leak of voters info? Georgia, right?
I just downloaded a 48 page PDF from the Brennan Center for Justice called "CERTIFICATION AND NON-DISCRETION: A GUIDE TO PROTECTING THE 2024 ELECTION". ( https://law.stanford.edu/publications/certification-and-non-discretion-a-guide-to-protecting-the-2024-election/ )
It will probably be more detailed than the Democracy Docket article. I will read it now, hoping it relates to what looks like will happen in Georgia. 🙂
I read the 48 page PDF, and it emphasized again that certification is meant to be a clerical thing and if it is instead used to interfere and grandstand, someone does a mandamus writ to shut that nonsense down.
So... Next I just read the proposed new additions to the "tabulating results" part of the Georgia election laws.
Here are my first impressions:
1. They focus on local officials who might claim there were more votes than voters. As critics claim, they allow such official(s) to really get into all the records in their jurisdiction.
2. But they only get six days before they have to certify.
So, are the additions encouraging shenanigans on Nov. 5, or skillfully restricting them before they happen, by spelling out exactly how much nonsense will be allowed and for how long?
I am still thinking about that. But I am glad the changes at first read by a non lawyer like me at least MIGHT seem to be crafted to stymie expected nonsense rather than enable it.
Maybe it won't matter how many deniers are in local positions. They can be bypassed right away with mandamus writs. (More idiots will just mean more writs.) If they want to play longer before they get slapped down, it has to be over a claim of more votes than voters. But they will only be allowed in that playpen for six days. So the train wreck in Georgia will probably be big news until about November 7, then the more votes than voters idiots will be in the news later in the week, then on Monday, Nov. 11, they will certify, or else the courts will do it for them probably right away. Finally, by the 15th, the Georgia numbers will be official, even though they should have been on November 6.
Yes, that indeed was Georgia!
I always like to find reasons to be hopeful.
Here is a recent Salon article that is hopeful because it talks about so many groups ready to stand up against the bad actors in Georgia:
https://www.salon.com/2024/07/12/experts-georgia-officials-lay-groundwork-to-obstruct-and-subvert-certification/
Another reason for hope is that nobody anymore still believes the GOP is still a political party. Even the most uninformed realize it is now only an authoritarian movement and a cult.
All their cards are on the table now. Kevin Roberts talked in that video I linked to as if they still have surprises waiting for us. They will not be surprises at all. They will just be the dirty moves we have been preparing for.
United States of America: Rotten to the core. I could cry but I’m too sad.
Personally I like the 5% rate I am getting on my Money Market Accounts versus trying to play the stock market and with Trillions of Dollars in those accounts, I think it is helping keeping the economy chugging along.. Unfortunately most banks are paying still well below the 5% level for general savings accounts but still charging the 18% plus for credit cards..
Thanks, Thom.
I've thought old Powell of the Feds was a Trumpie for a long time. Be glad when "privitizing" deJoy is gone too (before he can destroy our Post Office). Too many Trumpies left...and the DESTROYERS want to put Trumpies everywhere. Ewww! So glad you are hanging in there, Mr. Hartmann, telling what it's like, and over and over. Ruthie B
All the actions of the Fed chair for the entire term of Biden has been against rational policy of any kind. Not that that has been any different for any Dem administration while the opposite has been true for Repub administrations. I fail to understand why Biden or any Dem leader would put these Repub office holders back into office. There are plenty of Dem officers to run them. This is a self-inflicted error.