The Love of Money, continued...
...Starting in January 2006 food manufacturers and processors will be required to list trans-fat explicitly in the products nutritional information on labels. In the past, they have not had to do so. I understand all those hydrogenated and partially-hydrogenated ingredients will have to be labelled as what they are, trans-fats. And once again from what I read - I am certainly not a nutritionist and this site is for entertainment only, do your own due diligence, blah, blah... - trans-fats are bad for you, period. In any amount.
...What brought this to my attention again this morning was an article in The Daily Reckoning extolling the virtues of Bunge (symbol BG), since it is a soybean producer and is coming up with a product to help companies that have formerly relied on hydrogenation.
...Not picking on the Kellogg company, I am a cereal lover from way back, and there are several Kellogg's brands that are personal favorites, but I notice that Kellogg has announced that starting early next year, they are going to start using soybean oil from genetically modified soybeans in some of its products in order to reduce the amounts of trans-fatty acids and saturated fats in some of their products. Sounds good, and you can decide for yourself whether the timing of the product change is coincidental to the timing of the new product labeling regulations or not.
...But it speaks to a bigger issue, IMO. If it is agreed that hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated fats are bad for you in any amount, and can lead to health problems, then why use them at all? Answer: increased shelf life for the products that use them.
...So the government's solution to help you? Is it to outlaw harmful products? No, it is to put a label on the product so that you are advised the product contains ingredients that may be harmful to you.
...Isn't that reminiscent of the whole tobacco issue? With all the documentation out there about the dangers of smoking and secondhand smoke, do you outlaw cigarettes? No, you require manufacturers to put a warning on the package that the product might be harmful to you. Does that make sense? From a health standpoint, I don't see how one can argue that it does.
...It only makes sense when you look at it from an economic standpoint. The economic costs to the corporations that make their profits from tobacco and from food products containing hydrogenated fats would be enormous if their products were outlawed. Look at all the people who would be put out of work. Look at the economic impact on the states which house those facilities. And that's just the direct consequences. Looking further down the food chain, pardon the pun, look at the potentially reduced revenues for the medical establishment if people quit using tobacco and quit ingesting hydrogenated fats.
...Do the medical and pharmaceutical industries make their money by your being healthy, or by your being sick and diseased?
...There's a lot of money on the line in these issues. And it seems to me that our health is of a lot less concern to the powers that be (PTB) in our society than people making money off our illnesses.
Monday, December 19, 2005
Saturday, December 17, 2005
Hey, You Resource, You!
...Text of the Federal Reserve Press Release following the meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting December 13, 2005:
For immediate release
The Federal Open Market Committee decided today to raise its target for the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to 4-1/4 percent.
Despite elevated energy prices and hurricane-related disruptions, the expansion in economic activity appears solid. Core inflation has stayed relatively low in recent months and longer-term inflation expectations remain contained. Nevertheless, possible increases in resource utilization as well as elevated energy prices have the potential to add to inflation pressures.
The Committee judges that some further measured policy firming is likely to be needed to keep the risks to the attainment of both sustainable economic growth and price stability roughly in balance. In any event, the Committee will respond to changes in economic prospects as needed to foster these objectives.
Voting for the FOMC monetary policy action were: Alan Greenspan, Chairman; Timothy F. Geithner, Vice Chairman; Susan S. Bies; Roger W. Ferguson, Jr.; Richard W. Fisher; Donald L. Kohn; Michael H. Moskow; Mark W. Olson; Anthony M. Santomero; and Gary H. Stern.
In a related action, the Board of Governors unanimously approved a 25-basis point increase in the discount rate to 5-1/4 percent. In taking this action, the Board approved the requests submitted by the Boards of Directors of the Federal Reserve Banks of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Richmond, Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Dallas, and San Francisco.
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...Did you catch the part about possible increases in resource utilization? In plain English, that is the unemployment rate. In other words, if the unemployment rate continues to fall, that could put pressure on employers to raise wages due to scarcity of labor and thus add to the inflation rate. In lordandmasterspeak, what might be good for you and your family individually might not be good for the homeland or our new global village as a whole - and you are defined as a 'resource'.
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Senate rejects extension of Patriot Act. We need our Washington rulers to stop their partisan bickering and to get moving on the threats to our nation. That said, I was glad to see this. There are some important issues here that merit much more discussion. On the one hand, it is our government's duty to protect its citizens, but on the other hand, we are a free people with Constitutional rights, and little by little those rights are being taken away by those who are charged with protecting us. Our government needs freedom to move against terrorists and anyone who would threaten our nation, but at the same time, we need to preserve the freedom of our citizens. That is a tough one, and I'm not sure that the folks we have in Washington from either party have what it takes to get it right. We need to pray for wisdom for our leaders, and pray the Lord's continued mercy on our nation. The biggest thing that worries me about my perception of this issue is that I'm coming down on the same side as the ACLU (Anti-Christian Lobbying Union according to some homegamers) on this one - doesn't happen often.
..."Those that would give up essential liberties in pursuit of a little temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security," said Sen. John Sununu, R-NH, recalling that quote was originally made by Benjamin Franklin during the days of our nation's formation.
...Term limits might well be constructive in helping our elected public servants get it right on the tough issues. There is an old saying that the first and most important job for any politician is staying in office. Their motivation to stay in once they are in accounts for a lot of the catering to special interest groups and lack of fiscal discipline. Nobody wants to make the tough choices to put our nation back on track. Perhaps if the pols knew that they were going to be there for one term and one term only no matter what they did, they might be more willing to work out tough issues for the collective good. Our nation was never intended to have a ruling class, and that's what those senators with 30 years tenure have become in this nation.
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...And then we have the secret eavesdropping programs since 2001. This news was bad timing for our President, as it likely contributed to the blocking of the Patriot Act extension. Once again, powers granted are not easily taken away. There is another old saying that when you give a politician a hammer, everything looks like a nail to him or her.
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...What about our borders? Doesn't it seem silly to go through all the security checks at airports nowadays, and then realize that literally thousands of people every day cross our borders with Mexico illegally? And speaking of silliness, I wonder who thought up that catch and release program along the border. At least that program, now that it has come out into public view, is going away. Check out Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo's website for a lot more on the border issue. Mr. Tancredo seems to be leading the fight to protect our borders.
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WTO Talks? We see all the coverage of demonstrations, but have you seen any real coverage about what the issues are, and why there are so many demonstrators and why they are so well organized? They are portrayed as anti-globalization forces. I'd rather see some coverage about the substantive issues on the table and why some folks are so violently opposed, rather than just sensational coverage of the street protests. What are the issues? The linked article mentions two specific issues of concern to the U.S.: we are concerned about textile imports to our country, and we have offered to stop government subsidies for exported farm products by 2010, and to reduce by 60% the government's support for our farmers over the next five years.
...Once again, as with most issues these days, it sounds like it depends on whether you are putting or taking. Our masters see the big picture apparently, although sometimes it seems what is good for the global village and multinational corporations is sometimes not so good for the U.S. working person. I know lots of folks in my part of the country who once upon a time had good jobs, with benefits and retirements, but have seen those go away. Who's right? That's beyond me. But it does speak to the intent of this blog - living free. If folks could get themselves out of debt and develop an independent stream of income on their own, maybe we wouldn't feel so helpless against these bigger than life issues, and maybe we'd have more dignity as an individual rather than as a 'resource', just another cog in a big machine.
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Thursday, December 15, 2005
12/15/05 Globalization? How's It Working For You?
...Ran across a thought provoking article today, The Big Bet: Why the U.S. will not solve its economic, educational, health, retirement, energy, and other major structural problems until it suffers a major financial crisis. Opinionated article about some of the things threatening our nation now and in the future. Whether you agree with all his assessments or not, it addresses some very real problems. Mr. Janszen laments that we have built a system that uses credit and leverage and relies on the savings of foreign workers to fund our system and central banks to cover the risks. While we over consume and go further into debt, both individually and as a nation, foreigners are buying up our debt so that they can produce more goods and build their economies and sell us more goods and give us the financing to do it.
...Many people think it is only a matter of time before that is going to stop. Mr. Paul Volcker, Alan Greenspan's predecessor as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, warned back in February 2005 at a speech at an economic summit sponsored by the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research that "...there are disturbing trends: huge imbalances, disequilibria, risks -- call them what you will. Altogether the circumstances seem to me as dangerous and intractable as any I can remember, and I can remember quite a lot. What really concerns me is that there seems to be so little willingness or capacity to do much about it." Mr. Volcker later related an anecdote attributed to another economic observer, "...what can be left to later usually is -- and then, alas, it's too late."
...Mr. Volcker further commented, "The difficulty is that this seemingly comfortable pattern can't go on indefinitely. I don't know of any country that has managed to consume and invest 6% more than it produces for long. The United States is absorbing about 80% of the net flow of the international capital. And at some point, both central banks and private institutions will have their fill of dollars."
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...Many people think it is only a matter of time before that is going to stop. Mr. Paul Volcker, Alan Greenspan's predecessor as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, warned back in February 2005 at a speech at an economic summit sponsored by the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research that "...there are disturbing trends: huge imbalances, disequilibria, risks -- call them what you will. Altogether the circumstances seem to me as dangerous and intractable as any I can remember, and I can remember quite a lot. What really concerns me is that there seems to be so little willingness or capacity to do much about it." Mr. Volcker later related an anecdote attributed to another economic observer, "...what can be left to later usually is -- and then, alas, it's too late."
...Mr. Volcker further commented, "The difficulty is that this seemingly comfortable pattern can't go on indefinitely. I don't know of any country that has managed to consume and invest 6% more than it produces for long. The United States is absorbing about 80% of the net flow of the international capital. And at some point, both central banks and private institutions will have their fill of dollars."
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Saturday, December 10, 2005
12/10/05 Notes
National ID Card Being Considered? This week, attendees at an Infosecurity conference in New York debated the merits of a national ID card system. Mr. Tom Ridge, the former head of the Homeland Security Department, called them 'inevitable'. He said national security requirements would bring the cards into being.
...Along those lines, did you know that President Bush issued an executive order back in 2004 directing the Homeland Security Department to come up with an identification system that would establish government-wide standards to identify Government employees and contractors, and that once the standard was in place, that the use of the identification would be required to gain physical access to Federal facilities and logical access to Federally controlled information systems.
...Not much to argue with there. We need security, no doubt about it. But we are going further down a road that may take us to a place we didn't want to go and end up at a point of no return. Here's a prediction. The day is coming when no one will be able to access a computer system anywhere without providing identification. Computer terrorism, hacking, viruses, identify theft, online fraud, thievery,etc. all will bring about support for this initiative. All financial transactions will be handled electronically, without the need for people to carry cash or credit cards. This will help reduce crime further, I suppose we will be told, because it should reduce muggings and strongarm robberies since no one will be carrying cash. Incidentally, as you may have guessed, here's the source of that prediction: "And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he had that mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of is name." Revelation 13: 16,17.
...The apostle John was recording what he saw in a vision. He had no understanding of machinery or computers or the world in which we live. I have read fanciful predictions of how we will all will be wearing some kind of tattoo. People who say that indicate it will somehow be considered by everybody in the world to be a beauty mark. The mainstream opinion from the end times writers I have read is that it will be some sort of chip implanted under the skin so that scanning devices can read it.
...On the other hand, I wonder if what the apostle John saw was people putting their hands into biometric scanners, or holding their heads in front of optical recognition retinal scanners, and he assumed that there was a physical mark, not realizing that there would someday be machines sophisticated enough to positively identify a person by their unique God-given physical attributes. It seems to me that the biometric scanning would be more secure than a chip that could be taken out of one person and put into another.
...Here's a section of the President's above-mentioned Executive Order that details the requirements of the ordered identification system:
"Secure and reliable forms of identification" for purposes of this directive means identification that (a) is issued based on sound criteria for verifying an individual employee's identity; (b) is strongly resistant to identity fraud, tampering, counterfeiting, and terrorist exploitation; (c) can be rapidly authenticated electronically, and (d) is issued only by providers whose reliability has been established by an official accreditation process.
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...Looks to me like that system, once in place could easily be expanded to positively identify everyone else, too?
...If you are interested, here's another link that links to a lot of other sites (and countries) regarding this issue. Apparently it is being debated all around the world.
...Along those lines, did you know that President Bush issued an executive order back in 2004 directing the Homeland Security Department to come up with an identification system that would establish government-wide standards to identify Government employees and contractors, and that once the standard was in place, that the use of the identification would be required to gain physical access to Federal facilities and logical access to Federally controlled information systems.
...Not much to argue with there. We need security, no doubt about it. But we are going further down a road that may take us to a place we didn't want to go and end up at a point of no return. Here's a prediction. The day is coming when no one will be able to access a computer system anywhere without providing identification. Computer terrorism, hacking, viruses, identify theft, online fraud, thievery,etc. all will bring about support for this initiative. All financial transactions will be handled electronically, without the need for people to carry cash or credit cards. This will help reduce crime further, I suppose we will be told, because it should reduce muggings and strongarm robberies since no one will be carrying cash. Incidentally, as you may have guessed, here's the source of that prediction: "And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he had that mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of is name." Revelation 13: 16,17.
...The apostle John was recording what he saw in a vision. He had no understanding of machinery or computers or the world in which we live. I have read fanciful predictions of how we will all will be wearing some kind of tattoo. People who say that indicate it will somehow be considered by everybody in the world to be a beauty mark. The mainstream opinion from the end times writers I have read is that it will be some sort of chip implanted under the skin so that scanning devices can read it.
...On the other hand, I wonder if what the apostle John saw was people putting their hands into biometric scanners, or holding their heads in front of optical recognition retinal scanners, and he assumed that there was a physical mark, not realizing that there would someday be machines sophisticated enough to positively identify a person by their unique God-given physical attributes. It seems to me that the biometric scanning would be more secure than a chip that could be taken out of one person and put into another.
...Here's a section of the President's above-mentioned Executive Order that details the requirements of the ordered identification system:
"Secure and reliable forms of identification" for purposes of this directive means identification that (a) is issued based on sound criteria for verifying an individual employee's identity; (b) is strongly resistant to identity fraud, tampering, counterfeiting, and terrorist exploitation; (c) can be rapidly authenticated electronically, and (d) is issued only by providers whose reliability has been established by an official accreditation process.
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...Looks to me like that system, once in place could easily be expanded to positively identify everyone else, too?
...If you are interested, here's another link that links to a lot of other sites (and countries) regarding this issue. Apparently it is being debated all around the world.
Monday, December 05, 2005
12/05/05 Quotes
..."No generation can contract debts greater than may be paid during the course of its own existence." Thomas Jefferson in a letter to James Madison.
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..."Today, the child born in
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...Today's Daily Reckoning is a recommended read. I check them out on a regular basis. I don't always agree with their assessments, and I certainly don't appreciate some of their opinions, but I usually find them interesting. I like getting a viewpoint that is often the polar opposite of the mainstream media. And I think that Bill Bonner turns a phrase as well as about anyone out there, so I tune in sometimes just for his writing.
...Here's some tidbits from the article: American households spent $531 billion dollars more than their after tax income in the 3rd quarter 2005... According to the Heritage Foundation, national debt is expected to be $16 trillion by 2017.
12/05/05 Financial Calculator
...The CNN/Money website has a debt calculator on it. Don't know if it is there all the time, but here's the link.
...I plugged some numbers in just to see how it worked. It was eye opening when it came to credit card debt in particular. I used an $8500 balance and 18% interest rate and adjusted the minimum payments to see how the numbers worked out.
...At $150 a month payments it would take 67 years and 9 months to pay off the debt, and the total interest paid would be over $38,000.
...At $200 a month it would take 27 years and 1 month to pay it off, and the total interest would be over $13,000.
...Anything below $140 a month or lower the calculator kicked out an error message saying the amount had to be higher because the debt would never be paid off.
...If you want to know what you have to do to be out of debt within a certain amount of time, the calculator handles that, too. For example, I asked what payments would be needed to pay off the debt in 5 years. That would require payments of $212.65 and total interest paid would drop to $4200+, quite a difference. Note that increasing the monthly payment from $200 to $213 drops the total interest paid by over $8000.
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...Questions: How much money have you earned over the course of your life? After counting up all your assets, how much of it do you have now? What happened to the rest of it? Do you know? These are important questions if you ever want to get a handle on your finances and take conrol of your financial life back from the bankers.
...More questions: How much money have you earned in the past month? How much of that do you have now? Where did the rest go? Do you know? Many debt consultants advise keeping track of every expenditure you make, even a pack of gum from the vending machine, for a month so you can accurately track where your money is going. It can be an eye opening experience.
...I plugged some numbers in just to see how it worked. It was eye opening when it came to credit card debt in particular. I used an $8500 balance and 18% interest rate and adjusted the minimum payments to see how the numbers worked out.
...At $150 a month payments it would take 67 years and 9 months to pay off the debt, and the total interest paid would be over $38,000.
...At $200 a month it would take 27 years and 1 month to pay it off, and the total interest would be over $13,000.
...Anything below $140 a month or lower the calculator kicked out an error message saying the amount had to be higher because the debt would never be paid off.
...If you want to know what you have to do to be out of debt within a certain amount of time, the calculator handles that, too. For example, I asked what payments would be needed to pay off the debt in 5 years. That would require payments of $212.65 and total interest paid would drop to $4200+, quite a difference. Note that increasing the monthly payment from $200 to $213 drops the total interest paid by over $8000.
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...Questions: How much money have you earned over the course of your life? After counting up all your assets, how much of it do you have now? What happened to the rest of it? Do you know? These are important questions if you ever want to get a handle on your finances and take conrol of your financial life back from the bankers.
...More questions: How much money have you earned in the past month? How much of that do you have now? Where did the rest go? Do you know? Many debt consultants advise keeping track of every expenditure you make, even a pack of gum from the vending machine, for a month so you can accurately track where your money is going. It can be an eye opening experience.
Saturday, December 03, 2005
12/02/05 misc notes
...Mr. Greenspan's comments regarding the upcoming retirements of the 78 million baby boomers and what effect that will have on the economy, since the government has likely promised them more in social security and other benefits than can be delivered. He warns that unless those benefits aren't reworked in some way that they would add to the budget deficits and threaten the future living standards of Americans.
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Does globalization matter to you?
...Here's a quote from Federal Reserve Board Chariman Mr. Alan Greenspan in a recent speech:
"In simple terms, some U.S. domestic businesses previously purchasing components from domestic suppliers switched to foreign suppliers. These companies generally view domestic and foreign suppliers as competitive in the same way that they view domestic suppliers as competing with each other."
...One's perception often depends on one's situation. The old joke is that when your neighbor is out of work, it's a recession. When you are out of work, it's a depression. From the viewpoint of central bankers and multi-national corporations, things are progressing quite nicely. But does it look the same for Joe SixPack who just found out his whole world changed because he just lost his job because somebody in another country doesn't have to be paid as much as Joe?
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...Here's the last paragraph of the speech. Words to ponder from one of the world's most powerful men.
"If the currently disturbing drift toward protectionism is contained and markets remain sufficiently flexible, changing terms of trade, interest rates, asset prices, and exchange rates will cause U.S. saving to rise, reducing the need for foreign finance and reversing the trend of the past decade toward increasing reliance on it. If, however, the pernicious drift toward fiscal instability in the United States and elsewhere is not arrested and is compounded by a protectionist reversal of globalization, the adjustment process could be quite painful for the world economy."
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"In simple terms, some U.S. domestic businesses previously purchasing components from domestic suppliers switched to foreign suppliers. These companies generally view domestic and foreign suppliers as competitive in the same way that they view domestic suppliers as competing with each other."
...One's perception often depends on one's situation. The old joke is that when your neighbor is out of work, it's a recession. When you are out of work, it's a depression. From the viewpoint of central bankers and multi-national corporations, things are progressing quite nicely. But does it look the same for Joe SixPack who just found out his whole world changed because he just lost his job because somebody in another country doesn't have to be paid as much as Joe?
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...Here's the last paragraph of the speech. Words to ponder from one of the world's most powerful men.
"If the currently disturbing drift toward protectionism is contained and markets remain sufficiently flexible, changing terms of trade, interest rates, asset prices, and exchange rates will cause U.S. saving to rise, reducing the need for foreign finance and reversing the trend of the past decade toward increasing reliance on it. If, however, the pernicious drift toward fiscal instability in the United States and elsewhere is not arrested and is compounded by a protectionist reversal of globalization, the adjustment process could be quite painful for the world economy."
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Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Our National Debt As Of Today
...The Bureau of the Public Debt on the U.S. Treasury website displays the national debt updated daily. Depending on how you look at it, this is business as usual or truly scary stuff. In any event, here's the link. Check it out once in a while.
http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdpdodt.htm
...As of 11/18/05, the number was $8.082 trillion dollars.
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http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdpdodt.htm
...As of 11/18/05, the number was $8.082 trillion dollars.
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