Monday, February 18, 2013

John Fund - Fun Person - Good Presentation!

In further conversation with John Fund he believes we will go back into a recession because what Obama has proposed and is doing will not work.

I am not in agreement with John, within his time frame, because The Fed will continue to pump money in the economy to avoid such though its actions will not bring about what it hopes, ie. reduction in unemployment statistics .  Thus, I acknowledge John could be right down the road but not this year.

My fear is what happens when 'Obamascare' really kicks in in 2014, the Fed begins its withdrawal and foreign buyers of our  debt begin to hesitate and start asking for a greater return, ie. higher rates. That is when we run the greater risk of both inflation (which we already have) along with a slump or 'in-flump' as I term it.

A very liberal friend of mine recently had a LTE published in the local paper and he was laying the predicate for blaming Republicans when, and if, things go awry.  He wrote, since Republicans are unwilling to go along with Obama, should everything hit the fan voters must blame them not Obama.

It is amazing how no one is willing to objectively analyze the impact of Obama's policies and are so quick to give him a pass when it comes to connecting him to a problem.  Obama is so Teflon, nothing sticks!

At some point, however, even his staunchest defenders will be forced to admit 'Obamaism' has failed. His efforts to reduce unemployment have not worked yet, have cost trillions.  His health care proposals are failing and are accomplishing everything he said they would not, less health care, higher costs more bureaucracy and inefficiencies. His foreign policies have not gained us any friends, made the world saner and safe and in fact he has withdraw and will continue to withdraw sending Chamberlain like signals to our adversaries.  Yes, we have some..

Eventually the dots will be connected and the path  of Obama's failures will reach into the Oval Office but there will still be a large cadre, particularly in the press and media, in denial and fending the saviour they created and must continue to keep filled with helium.

At breakfast this morning, a person, who knew John in his former Wall Street career days, came over to chat about his ideas regarding global warming, fracking. He brought published articles he has written on these subjects etc. and spoke convincingly that the various issues had been politicized beyond what was scientifically observable or even rational.He is a PHD chemical engineer and it became evident as he spoke  he confirmed my many thoughts.  Far too many politicians and single advocate devotees lie and engage in hysteria to add emphasis to their zealous viewpoints when, in fact, I believe they may attract attention but they do not serve their narrow cause.

This evening John spoke at a full room of some 240 people and he had two basic messages.

1)  Republicans do not be discouraged that you lost. Seldom has a two termer been succeeded by his own party.

Obama outworked and out strategized the Republicans . But that shoould not have to be a permanent condition.

Democrats tend to go with someone they truly do not know and Republicans go with what went before.

John believes , as I indicated above, Obama's policies will not work and thus an opportunity will be created from failure but Republicans have to do what it takes message wise, technologically etc. to win.

2) The second point related to voter fraud. It has become so evident there is voter fraud (he discussed how Al Franken won through fraud and as a result we have' Obamascare'). Now that voter fraud is known the next effort to be concerned about will be altering voting rules, ie. same day voting, total registration based on various categories etc.

This too must be fought vigorously.

Obama has appointed a commission to propose changes and  is headed by a Democrat and Republican but that is a facade.

John then answered three or four questions from the audience.  He does not believe Dr. Carson will run for public office.

Jack Kingston was present and he is running for Saxby's Senate seat and is raising money for the campaign.

I am totally behind Jack's efforts and hope you will consider helping him overcome whatever obstacles he has coming from Savannah and lacking broad statewide name recognition.

John knows Jack and though he does not make endorsements he pointed out Jack was for reform long before reform became a popular and talked about issue.  Jack, on the other hand, rearranged his schedule in order to attend the affair because I know personally Jack has a high regard for John.

Time will tell.  It always does. (See 1 and 1a below,)
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Israel's double agent? (See 2 below.)
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Dick
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1)

Johns Hopkins' Carson: Obama’s Policies Don’t Elevate US

By Amy Woods




Ben Carson, the director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins whose comments during a presidential prayer breakfast have gone viral, said Sunday the remarks about taxation were not meant to be political.

“I don’t think it was particularly political,” Carson said on ABC’s “This Week,” adding he was “overwhelmed” by the response.

His comments at the prayer breakfast were in regard to the biblical concept of tithing.

“If you make a kazillion dollars, you pay a kazillion dollars,” he said. “If you make very little, you pay very little, but everybody contributes.”

He described President Barack Obama as a “talented politician” but said he disagrees with a lot of the leader’s policy making.

“I’m a physician,” Carson said. “I like to diagnose things. There are a number of policies that I believe don’t lead to the growth of our nation and don’t lead to the elevation of our nation.”

He also likened members of Congress to third graders.

“What we really need is to be able to tone down on the rhetoric and be able to discuss things in a reasonable and rational way and come to conclusions, rather than one side or the other side winning,” he said. “It’s unbelievable to me the way people act like third graders, and if somebody doesn’t agree with him, they’re this, and they’re that. It’s so infantile.”

As for his own ambitions, Carson, 61, is retiring from practicing medicine this summer. But he said he’s not ruling out a future bid for political office.

“That’s not my intention,” he said. “But I always say, ‘I’ll leave that up to God.’”

1a)Dick Bove: US Dollar Will Be ‘Overthrown’ as World’s Reserve Currency

By Glenn J. Kalinoski



There’s plenty of evidence supporting the belief that the dollar’s days as the preeminent currency are coming to an end, a development that would be catastrophic for the world’s largest economy.

“Generally speaking, it is not believed by the vast majority that the American dollar will be overthrown,” Dick Bove, vice president of equity research at Rafferty Capital Markets, said in a note obtained by CNBC. “But it will be, and this defrocking may occur in as short a period as five to 10 years.”

The greenback is declining as a percentage of the world’s currency supply. Compared with its peers, it has dropped to a 15-year low, as nations show a willingness to use other currencies to conduct business, according to the International Monetary Fund.

The dollar’s share of global money supply has plunged from nearly 90 percent in 1952 to approximately 15 percent. Bove stated that “the Chinese yuan, the yen and the euro each have a greater share of that total,” according CNBC. 

“To the degree that China succeeds in increasing its market share of the world’s currency market, the United States is the loser,” Bove said. “For years, I have been arguing that the move of the Chinese makes perfect sense from their point of view but no sense for the Americans.”

The U.S. dollar losing its status as the world’s currency reserve would be critical.

“If the dollar loses status as the world’s most reliable currency, the United States will lose the right to print money to pay its debt,” Bove wrote. “It will be forced to pay this debt. The ratings agencies are already arguing that the government’s debt may be too highly rated. The United States Congress, in both its houses, as well as the president, are demonstrating a total lack of fiscal credibility.”

The struggle regarding budget sequestration could amplify fears of fiscal stability.

“If [dollars] no longer offer the safety that investors have come to expect, they will not function as the stable collateral required by bank funding markets,” Barry Eichengreen, a professor at the University of California, Berkley, warned in a Financial Times commentary last year. “They will not be regarded as an attractive form in which to hold international reserves. And they will not be seen as a convenient vehicle for merchandise transactions.”

The Federal Reserve’s loose monetary policy that drives down the value of the dollar could have the side effect of causing the dollar to lose its reserve currency status, according to Fortune magazine. 

The low dollar could spark trade wars and upset trading partners, warns Allan Sloan, Fortune’s senior editor at large.

“The Fed is playing a complicated, high-stakes game here. The dollar is the world’s reserve currency, which allows us to suck in money from all over the world to fund our trade and budget deficits without having to balance our accounts,” Sloan wrote.

“There’s a tension between our internal situation (a lower dollar is good) and our role as a reserve currency (a dollar that falls too rapidly risks spooking investors and costing us our reserve-currency status),” he said.
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2)'Zygier gave Mossad secrets to Australian agency'

By JPOST.COM STAFF, LAHAV HARKOV


ABC mock up of Ben Zygier passport.
ABC mock up of Ben Zygier passport. Photo: ABC News
Alleged Mossad agent Ben Zygier, who killed himself in an Israeli prison in 2010, was arrested by his Mossad handlers for giving intelligence information to Australia's domestic intelligence agency, ASIO, the Australian TV channel ABC quoted sources as saying on Monday.r
ABC, which originally broke the story of Zygier's suicide in an Israeli jail under a fake name last week, reported Monday that Zygier gave detailed information about various Mossad operations, including a major operation in Italy, that had been planned over a period of several years.
According to the report, Zygier had applied for a work visa to Italy on one of his trips back to Australia.
ABC emphasized that it was not clear whether Zygier or ASIO had initiated the contact.
The ABC report came as the investigation into Zygier's death are being ramped up in Israel. A group of MKs will investigate the “Prisoner X” case, the Knesset announced on Sunday night.
The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Subcommittee for Intelligence plans to hold an “intensive examination” of the circumstances surrounding the prison suicide of Zygier.
Meanwhile, State Comptroller Joseph Shapira on Monday said at a conference in Ra'anana that he would wait a few days before deciding whether to review the affair.
He said he wanted to wait to see how the Knesset State Control Committee, the Attorney-General and the government in general treated the issue.
Shapira acknowledged receipt of a request to investigate the matter by Labor MK Nachman Shai.
According to Shapira, it is not obvious that the issue comes under his jurisdiction, and he has not received an official request from the State Control Committee, the committee he most directly answers to, to investigate.
Shapira said that it is better for his office to get involved only when a formal request is made by proper channels, not by request by individual Knesset members.
A number of MKs had called for the state comptroller or a government inquiry commission to probe the events. MK Uri Ariel (Bayit Yehudi), the chairman of the control committee in the last five months of the 18th Knesset, had requested that the temporary Knesset House Committee reinstate the panel and put him at its head, in order to discuss the incident and vote to form a government inquiry commission.
In letters to temporary Knesset Speaker Binyamin Ben-Eliezer (Labor) and interim Knesset House Committee chairman Ze’ev Elkin (Likud Beytenu), Ariel had explained that “a temporary chairman for the control committee must be appointed in light of the difficult findings in this case.”
“There was a slip-up here,” Ariel told Army Radio. “We don’t understand what happened here; therefore the Knesset needs to have its say and form an inquiry commission.”
MK Nachman Shai (Labor) called for State Comptroller Joseph Shapira to investigate the “Prisoner X” case.
“We are witnessing failures in many aspects of this incident: Intelligence, legal, public, media and parliament,” Shai stated.
The Labor MK warned that the Australian government will soon publicize further information on the case and Israel will be “an empty vessel” facing international public opinion.
“Time is a crucial factor, and I demand that the state comptroller limit the time of the investigation and commit to publicizing his findings for the public to see as soon as possible,” Shai said.
Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.
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