Cato vs. Mises (was Re: Party goals)

[lpsfactivists]

Derek,

Yes, it is painful to be outcompeted; and as the U.S. market becomes
outcompeted in more and more goods and now also services (think
telemarketing, product support, overseas medical procedures), the
pool of wage earners to whom I am refering becomes larger and
larger. See Phil's new e-mail on the general lack of soundness in
our current U.S. economy; his statement that there are now more youth
in the U.S. selling ice than making cars is right on target.

Again, I am not advocating government interference in the markets;
since we are outcompeted in part *because* of government
interference: minimum wage, government payments to the unemployed,
welfare. I am only suggesting that we pay attention to the
weaknesses in the U.S. economy and see how libertarian principles
could apply.

Marcy

--- In lpsf-discuss@yahoogroups.com, "Derek E. Jensen "
<derekj72@g...> wrote:

Marcy:
The difference is specifying what a wage earner or a consumer is.

By wage

earner / consumer I meant anyone in the US who may be buying goods.

For

these people, I believe outsourcing can be shown to be a net

benefit in

terms of lower prices for consumer goods. I now believe, from your

last

email, that you had in mind the actual employees of companies that

are

participating in outsourcing of jobs to foreign countries. If this

is what

you had in mind, then I agree with you that it is obvious there is

no reason

to expect they would automatically participate (through higher

domestic

wages) in the gains made by their firms' investments in

outsourcing. It sure

is painful to be outcompeted.
-Derek

>
> Marcy:
> It's clear now we're talking about different things with regard

to

> benefits accruing to wage earners. I'll explain myself better

later.

>
> >
> > Derek,
> >
> > Thanks for the CPI, which will be good for me to keep for future
> > reference.
> >
> > No, I do not agree that lower cost to producers automatically
> > translate into net decrease in price to the consumers in our
> > discussion i.e. wage earners; producers have a choice as to

where to

> > invest any net gain: capital (foreign or domestic), owners
> > (stockholders may sometimes also be wage earners, but not in

the

> > majority of cases), management (again not the wage earners we

are

> > discussing), or wage earners.
> >
> > Yes, I agree with you that there is no reason at all why wage

earners

> > should be the beneficiaries of lower costs to producers; I

never said

> > they should.
> >
> > Marcy
> >
> >
> >
> > --- In lpsf-discuss@yahoogroups.com, "Derek E. Jensen Sr."
> > <derekj72@g...> wrote:
> > > Marcy:
> > > I think you are thinking of the "core" CPI. The CPI which is

most

> > widely
> > > quoted includes:
> > >
> > > - FOOD AND BEVERAGES (breakfast cereal, milk, coffee, chicken,
> > wine,
> > > service meals and snacks)
> > > - HOUSING (*rent of primary residence, owners' equivalent

rent,

> > fuel
> > > oil*, bedroom furniture)
> > > - APPAREL (men's shirts and sweaters, women's dresses,

jewelry)

> > > - TRANSPORTATION (new vehicles, airline fares, *gasoline*,

motor

> > > vehicle insurance)
> > > - MEDICAL CARE (prescription drugs and medical supplies,
> > physicians'
> > > services, eyeglasses and eye care, hospital services)
> > > - RECREATION (televisions, pets and pet products, sports
> > equipment,
> > > admissions);
> > > - EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION (college tuition, postage,
> > telephone
> > > services, computer software and accessories);
> > > - OTHER GOODS AND SERVICES (tobacco and smoking products,
> > haircuts and
> > > other personal services, funeral expenses).
> > >
> > > In the presence of competition, a decrease in cost to

producers

> > will surely
> > > translate into a net decrease in price to the consumer/wage

earner.

> > I don't
> > > think you would dispute this. I agree with you that "a

decrease in

> > cost to
> > > producers does not necessarily translate into an *equivalent
> > > *decrease in price to the consumer/wage earner" but, why

should

> > > consumer/wage earners expect to capture all of this surplus?

One

> > should
> > > expect capital to reap the benefits as well.
> > >
> > > >
> > > > Derek,
> > > >
> > > > The U.S. job market shrinks as producers wisely invest their
> > capital
> > > > abroad, mainly in search of lower labor costs; the choices

in

> > > > domestic jobs shrink as the spectrum of services offered

abroad

> > > > widens. The domestic unemployment rate does not rise, since
> > > > discouraged workers who stop searching for jobs are no

longer

> > counted
> > > > as unemployed.
> > > >
> > > > Anticipating a sentiment such as you have expressed I

emphasized

> > the
> > > > word *equivalent* benefit to wage earners, since a decrease

in

> > cost
> > > > to producers does not necessarily tanslate into an

equivalent

> > > > decrease in price to the consumer/wage earner; witness the
> > salaries
> > > > of CEO's, for instance. BTW the CPI, as I recall, does not

include

> > > > real estate or energy in its "basket of goods;" rendeirng it
> > rather
> > > > useless, IMHO.
> > > >
> > > > However, please do not surmize that I am "against"

outsourcing, or

> > > > foreign capital investment, or import/export deficits, or

any of

> > the
> > > > other U.S. market carachteristics. Whatever happens in the
> > markets,
> > > > happens in the markets.
> > > >
> > > > Marcy
> > > >
> > > > --- In lpsf-discuss@yahoogroups.com, "Derek E. Jensen Sr."
> > > > <derekj72@g...> wrote:
> > > > > 1. By what measure is the US job market ever-decreasing?
> > > > > 2. What's wrong with outsourcing if it leads to higher

returns

> > to
> > > > capital?
> > > > > (and I may add net increases in overall USA standard of

living

> > > > through lower
> > > > > prices of consumer goods and lower prices of factor

inputs)

> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > I am not presuming to speak at the level of

understanding

> > > > exhibited
> > > > > > by Phil and others who have contributed to the subject

of our

> > > > current
> > > > > > illusion-based economy. I am simply hoping that someone

out

> > there
> > > > > > will run with Phil's suggestion that perhaps CATO

(currently

> > the
> > > > most
> > > > > > visible libertarian group) has not spoken out

sufficiently

> > > > forcefully
> > > > > > on such subjects as our huge external debt, our even

huger

> > > > internal
> > > > > > debt, our hyper-active printing press (producing faith-

based

> > > > money),
> > > > > > our ever-increasing dependence on oil and thus our need

to

> > > > continue
> > > > > > our imperialist course, our ever shrinking U.S. job

market

> > (think
> > > > > > outsourcing without *equivalent* benefit to U.S. wage
> > earners),
> > > > our
> > > > > > clearly unsustainable real estate market, our aging

population

> > > > > > (coupled with low savings rates) etc. etc. I do not

think it

> > wise
> > > > to
> > > > > > wait until the fascists and the liberals oblitarate

each other

> > > > (yes,
> > > > > > they are definitely two distinct and opposing groups) --
> > maybe the
> > > > > > versed among the LP could contribute some hard facts

(not the

> > > > usual
> > > > > > smoke and mirrors) to the political discourse, as Phil
> > suggests?
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Marcy
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > --- In lpsf-discuss@yahoogroups.com, "ricochetboy"
> > > > < philzberg@e...>
> > > > > > wrote:
> > > > > > > If you believe the government statistics on cpi and
> > > > unemployment,
> > > > > > then
> > > > > > > some research on your part might be advised. I don't

know

> > if the
> > > > > > Mises
> > > > > > > Institute sees unrest in our future, but it seems to

this

> > > > obsrever
> > > > > > > that there is a great deal of suffering going on in

the

> > cities
> > > > the
> > > > > > > suburbs and the hinterlands, and that when viewed

through an

> > > > > > Austrian
> > > > > > > lens, our economy and our people are in for a very

rough

> > ride.I
> > > > > > think
> > > > > > > that the failure to educate the public , or even the

elite

> > > > about the
> > > > > > > fundamentals of Austrian economics is a gret

tradgedy. for

> > as
> > > > > > > conditions worsen Americans will be looking for

someone to

> > > > blame,
> > > > > > and
> > > > > > > it won't be the true culprits, the Fed. Usually the
> > socialists
> > > > and
> > > > > > the
> > > > > > > faschists fight it out. Already the battle lines are

being

> > > > drawn.
> > > > > > > Cato has absolutely failed on this score. I vividly

remeber

> > one
> > > > Cato
> > > > > > > scholar on C Span smugly telling folks, if they just

put

> > thier
> > > > 401 k
> > > > > > > into stocks they will be OK. Well anyone who retired

in

> > 1929 or
> > > > > > 1966
> > > > > > > would have waited 20 years for the purchasing power

of thier

> > > > > > portfolio
> > > > > > > to break even. By not explianing to the American

people

> > that we
> > > > do
> > > > > > not
> > > > > > > have capitalism, but centrally planned corporate

socialism

> > at
> > > > the
> > > > > > > finacial core of our economy, and that the problems

of

> > > > inflation and
> > > > > > > deflation are not inherant in capitalism, but the

result of

> > > > systemic
> > > > > > > banking errors, leaves the public open to Socialism or
> > Faschist
> > > > > > > leanings when times get tough, as they inevitably do.

We

> > have
> > > > > > > undergone an historic credit expansion under

greenspan. It

> > has
> > > > been
> > > > > > a
> > > > > > > great ride. But all credit expansions end in trdgedy.

They

> > > > always
> > > > > > > have. This one being global due to Bretton Woods, and
> > unlimited
> > > > due
> > > > > > to
> > > > > > > the worldwide adoption of a faith based paper money

system,

> > > > will end
> > > > > > > very badly. Even the ultimate insider Paul Volker in a
> > recent
> > > > > > > Washington Post Op ed, understated his concern and
> > questioned
> > > > wether
> > > > > > > anything can be done at this late date to fix the

world

> > economy.
> > > > > > > Talking to San Fransiscans who are riding high on the

real

> > > > estate
> > > > > > > credit bubble about trouble ahead is like talking to a
> > flapper
> > > > in
> > > > > > > August 1929 about what her life will be reduced to in
> > > > 1933.Nobody
> > > > > > > drinking from the punch bowl cares to listen. Even is

this

> > > > group,
> > > > > > > economic campaceny is the prevailing sentiment. We;;

I can't

> > > > tell
> > > > > > you
> > > > > > > how or when the party ends, but my bets are on

worldwide

> > > > > > > hyperinflation.The pity is the socialist will blame

the

> > greedy
> > > > > > > corporations and the faschists will blame the revenge

of God

> > > > for the
> > > > > > > loose morals of the liberals and nobody will blame

the Fed.

[dej72]

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[lpsfactivists]

Derek,

Regarding the last comment in your e-mail: you sound (are)
knowlegeable and engaging. Thank you for your insights.

I will let Phil tackle the statistics, way too deep for the likes of
me. I will just say 1) no need for gloom and doom; lets just be
aware of the weaknesses and work on them; 2) Hummmm, "well paying
jobs"; I don't know about that; minimum wage hikes, maybe.

Marcy

--- In lpsf-discuss@yahoogroups.com, "Derek E. Jensen "
<derekj72@g...> wrote:

Phil:
I'm going to state some facts. If you would indulge me, I'd like

to hear

your response.
In the last twenty years from June 1985 until June 2005, the CPI

has

increased 80.55%, which is a CAGR of exactly 3.0%.
In June 1985, there were 106,505,000 civilian jobs in the US. 20

years

later, June 2005, there are 141,638,000 civilian jobs. US

population in 1985

was around 245 million. Today it is around 300 million. This

implies that

the % of the population holding civilian jobs has grown from 43.5%

to 47.2%

Average hourly earnins for private jobs was $15.96 an hour in June

2005. In

June 1985 it was $7.77 per hour. Notice this increase of 105.4% has
outstripped the CPI over the same time period, all while the US

economy was

adding 35 million jobs.
Over this same timespan, M3 has gone from $3,104 billion to $9,725

billion,

a CAGR of almost 5.9% a year. I ask: So what?
Although I'm sure you will draw your own conclusions, here are

mine:

1. The US economy has shown incredible growth, resilience, and the

ability

to add an enormous number of well-paying jobs in the last 20 years

even

under a "fiat" money system.
2. The gold standard is not the answer. IMO, what we really need

is a

rules-based Federal Reserve system whereby the quantity of money is
increased by a known and mandated (let's say for example 2.5 to 3%

per year)

amount, irrespective of economic conditions. Such a rule would have

the

important advantage of preventing major monetary policy errors, as

when the

Federal Reserve permitted the U.S. money supply to collapse in the

1930s--a

blunder that contributed substantially to the severity of the Great
Depression. Also, a rule of this type would help insulate monetary

policy

from outside political pressure.
I just don't see how one can look at the data from the last 20

years, or

even prices in teh bond markets today and predict impending doom.

I've

noticed a tendency among some Austrian economists to blame every

social or

economic ill on our monetary policy. To me, this is a myopic view

that

ignores the economic data of the last 20 years (post-Volcker)
By the way, Phil and Marcy, if I sound mean-spirited or sarcastic

at all, I

don't intend to be. I love the discussions.
-Derek
>
> You ask about the demand for money. The demand for money is

reprented

> by the amount of all goods and services that would be exchanged

for

> money. Has the quantity of all goods and services incresed ten

fold or

> so in the last twenty years. Maybe. Probably not. Typically

throughout

> human history, productivity increases by about 3 percent a year.
> Interestingly population and gold supply both increase by about

1.7

> percent a year. Under the gold standard of the 10th century,

according

> to Alan Greenspan in recent Humphry Hawkins testimony, prices

remained

> unchanged from 1789 to 1924. Since the establishment of the Feed

the

> dollar has lost approximately 97 percent of it's purchasing power.
> Much of th inflation in recent years years has been exported
> overseas, but if the chinese significantly revalue the yuan and

the

> Japanese and Indians follow suit, Inflation will be exported back

to

> the US.along with higher interst rates as the asian central banks

stop

[ricochetboy]

I guess I am going to have to give you the full montie on the busted
economic system and why I see it that way. I'm not quite above the
weather health wise so I will just start. Taking all your statisticaat
face value things look great. They damn well should .We have gone
through one of the longest credit expansions in history, and most
massive worldwide. The hugh influx of liquidity after thestock market
crash and 911 has drien interest rates to historic lows, Yes things
better be good.As Warren Buffet famously said, of the trillions in
liwuidity used to prop up the economy over the last few years, Give me
a trillion dollars, and I'll show you a party too." the problems
fester under the radar now.The millions of elderly savers strugling on
very low interest rates and social security checks with shrinking real
purchasing power. The disappearance of saving in this country, as
people know that saving is a ticket to confiscation by inflation.
Fifty percent of new jobs in California over the last two years are
real estate related. Real estate is not a producing asset. Ultimately
residential real estate is a big consumer item. Acouple was evicted
on my block from thier 2500 a month apartment. The unit will go up for
sale 1.5 million. The taxes alone will approcimate the rent that can
be gotten from the property. Speculation gone wild. Oh but this time
it is different this is San Francisco, California, USA. They aren't
making more. Go ahead , buyer, sign right here. To me the lesson
here isnobody knows any history. What about the South Sea Bubnle or
the Missippi. Both the result of the faith based money schemes of
Louis thw fifteenth and his Scottish banker John Law. Government sicce
the beginning of history have tried to create money out of thin air to
pay for debts and wars.Throughout histoey, the latest scheme would be
new, modern , and foolproof. The scheme always ended in tradgedy. That
is the lessson of history. Those who do not learn the lessons are
doomed to repeat it. Even gold and silver are not foolproof. The
Spainish exploited so much gold and silver out of South America that
they affectively became the worlds money supply. No worl was done by
the Spinish ruling class for centuries. In fact, some manufactruring
was jbannned in Spain. The result was the moral decay of Spain and
it's untimate economic decline. Germany had a large foreign debt as a
result of WWI, The authorities began the cycle of inflationto ease
this debt, but continued it to prevent deflationary collapse. The
result was hyper inflation, the complete destruction of civil economy,
and the rise of Hitler. Had the fed chose to devalue the currency and
inflate in 1929, a similar inflationary fate may have ultimately
resulted. But the fed stood fimrm. In previous booms and busts
throughout the 19th century, the busts were alway short livedEvery
boom and bust was xaused by some type of government credit expansion
scheme.The depression dragged on because Hoover and Roosevelt took
measures to prevent wages and prices from falling. As a real estate
anecdote,to the great depression, the Empire State Building, completed
soon after the crash, was not fully leased until 1955.
the Bank of England issued it's first paper note in 1694. the crown
was in dire finacial straits. The bankers got together and agreed to
loan the crown gold in exchange for restricted right to issue paper
notes in luie of Gold. Thus the modern central bank was born. the
rates charge3d the crown were near usurous, but the king was
desperate. At times later in history the notes were forbidden to be
redeemed. Britain left the gold standard in the earl thirties.
Fractional reserve banking, even when done within the limits of law is
in fact fraud. Murray Rothbard lays it out eith crystal clarity in his
tinybook 'what has the government done to our money" He hypthisizes a
llarge and reputable grain storage company. The company stores a
common graded commodity in large quantities throughout the midwest.
Lets say Winter Wheat number one. As a farmer you can deposit a
hundred tons of winter wheat 1 in his earehouse and get a certificate
in rreturn.Because the warehouse is reputable and has been for a long
time, you can trade that receipt as if it was the whet itself. The
buyer of the certificate is confident that he can go to the warehouse
and demand the wheat at any time and that it will be there.The
certificates are liquid, thay are trustred, they are portable, and
with some approprite record keeping safeguards, they are durable. In
other words, reliability and honesty of the issuer have given these
certificates attributes of money.Now the problem comes in when the
warehouse chain is taken over by the harvard MBA grandson of the
founder. He looks at the company records and sees that in the last
hundred years the warehouses collectively have never been completely
empty. In fact they have never beeen less than 20 percent full. Hw
figures, since his warehouse recipts sell like cash, why sot sell an
extra twenty percent of fraudulent receipts. Who will ever know. He
still has an extra ten percent buffer frem a one hundred year history.
No waay are people ever gonna come for that last twenty percent. And
soe prints receipts for twenty percent of all the wheat on deposit in
his warehouse. He sells the receipts and pockets the cash. He makes
interest on the extra cash for many years. The phantom extra supply of
wheat suppresses the price for many years, screwing the other holdets
of wheat certificates, encouraging consumption, and discouraging
production. Ultimately thisdownard price pressure combined with some
external weather events causes a significant drain at the warehouses.
A rumor gets started that the warehouse has printed more receipts than
there is wheat.There is a run on the warehouse. The last peope there
are left holding worthless receipts. Thousnads of farmers and bakers
are ruined by the fraud. The Harvard MBA meanwhile has flown to
Barbadosand is eventually given a last minute presidential pardon.
Banks do the same thing. They are allowed to lend out more money than
they actually have on hand. If everybody does not come at once for
thier money, it seems like an ok practice. But just like the poor
wheat farmer, the person holding old cash has the value of his cash
diluted by the new cash that is fraudulently created. the depreciation
of old csh by the creation of new cash is called inflation.The benefit
goes to all the harvard MBAs who can crete the new cash and thier
friends who receive ans manipulate the New Cash, the MandA bankers,
the mortgage brokers and all the first receivers of bew bank credit.
Interestingly, all new money creation is done by the New York Fed and
the New York Fed and the new York Fed Alone. The Federal Open Market
Committee does all it's operation through the New York member
banks.Isn't it great that all that money stil can't guaranteethe
Yankees first place. But according to the New York State
Treasurer,Manhattan residing employess of New York banks and
brokerages collected over 22 billion in year end bonuses in 2004. It's
all legal, but it is still really frud. And the money is stolen
through the dilution effect of inflation. It might not be showing up
as price inflation now, but it will. For now the Chinese and other far
east nations are importing the inflation with the walmart example I
gave yesterday. But for how long can we sustain a 6 percent of gdp
trade deficit.

When you have a debt based currency, credit expansion is the way you
increse money supply normally. After the massive expansion of the last
two decades, total US debt on the consumer,local state and federal
level exceeds I believe 360 percent of GDP. This is an historic high
and exceeds the levels in 1929.

Hyman Minski was a nice jewish sort of socialist economist at my
college, Washington University, in St Louis. I wasn't aware at the
time, but in economic circles he is a pretty famous guy, I think he
might even have gotten a nobel prize. Basically his whole theory could
have been made by the corner pot dealer. When things get real tight,
ain't much you can do. And if you keep fixin people when they's tight,
they just get tighter. Or has he said it, as debt levels increse,
consumers and businesses have less choice and are are more
constrined.The economy as a whole becomes more rigid.Choices
disappear. His other thepry is famously summarized in his immortal
words...stability leads to instability. This is perfectly demonstrated
in the real estate boom and stick market echo boom. By stabiliaing the
markets with credit expansion after the tech bubble burst, the fed has
fed the illustion that real estate never goes down, and revitilized
the assumption that in the long run stocks always go up. Unrestrined
speculation has been the result. I'll wait for you to challenge that
assertion before I nail that one home.

Why do I hate fractional reserve banking with such a deep passion. In
part because I greww up in Baltimore, and I have seen it go from a
solid blue colar town to miles of desperate living with a few pockets
of Yuppiedom. The blue collar jobs are gone. How long the credit
bubble can keep the finacial paper pushers employed, and how long the
government can keep writing medicare and NIH grants for the largest
employer, Johms Hoplins, is an unknown. The other event was more
personal. My father was and is reckless withmoney. My mother was a
careful saver.She ran the household and kept the family afloat with
her job as the Baltimore and Eastern Shore rep for Scholastic
magizines. Oh how she would love thier coup with Harry Potter. She
saved, early and often and relentlessly. She always looked for the
highest interest. In the mid eighties, she had most of her money in
Old Court Savings and Loan. the bank was chartered by the state of
Maryland and all deposits were insured by same. At thesame time I used
to like to visit real estate open houses during the boom of the mid
eighties. I went with my buddy harvey to visit a condo overlooking a
gas station parking lot accross from my high school. The condos were
one or two bedrooms poorly constructed and selling in the 120k to 175
k range. At the ttime, a really primo house in a good neightborhood
wass selling in the same range. Something was very very wrong. You
would have to be out of your mind to buy this junk at those prices.
IAt the time I figured something was fishy, and I was nust beginning
to study Austrian economics, so I figured ther was something fishy
with the bank who financed the project, but I could not figure out
what. Meanwhile, like our wheat warehouse after a bad storm, rumors
began to circulate that Ols Court Savings and Loan was bankrupt. My
mother was reluctant to join the lines at the bank as she had the
quint Rooseveltian notionthat all we had to fear was fear itself. As
late as thursday afternoon she could have simply written a check at
Marland national. But she waited. By Monday the bank was closed and no
checks were being honored. The State of Maryland took the assets of
the bank, held them for seven years, and once the accumulated interst
made up the principal shortfall, the principle was returned. Seven
years without interst. Basically a fifty percent haircut. Wnough for
her to have died in comfort and for dad to not have to struggle in his
old age. Unlike every single crook caught up in the federally insured
savings in loans, the Marland bankers served hard time. One of the
priciples, Gerry Cardin is sort of related, and I saw him at a family
funeral. He drove up in a white rolls royce convertable, and made a
point of making sure everybody knew he was signing the guest book with
a fifty thousand dollar pen. None of the federal crooks, including all
the Keating Senators, John Glenn and Jeb Bush, none served jail time
because the jury could not be shown a victim. The hundreds of billions
in losses were just tacked onto the national debt. In the case
ofNational Banks the Fed buries the losses on it;s balance sheet and
we all pay for it in inflation. Jerry Cardin's cousin, Ben Cardin is a
deeply mainstream Democrat and the inside favorite to succceed Paul
Sarbanes, the wqually clueless mainstream Democrat, Oxford educated,
who sat on the denate banking and finance committee and gave us our
recent finance reforms that are feeding the zombie treasury buying and
smothering risk taking in corporate America. Oh, BTW, at the heart of
the Enron Scandal and the worldcom scandal and the bankruptcy of
Global crossing and almost every other corporate scandal lie the New
York Banks. In Enron's case a memo surfaced between two bankers, I
think Chase, who wrotw words to the effect... Wnron loves these loans
because they can hide them from thier analysts and auditors. Can you
say smoking fraud gun. Yet no indictments. It seems the staff of New
York Fed Banks are immune from prosecution. It took the Cal State
Retirement system lawywer to finally get some decent money out of
Morgan-Chase and City, I think 4 billion each. Didn't budge the
stocks.Still no indictments.
I want to live in a society where honesty, integrity, hard work,
competence, knowledge and sincerity, along with foresight and wisdom
are valued and rewarded. The present monetary system punishes decent
pwople and rewards fraud artists and gamblers. Aynn Rand said it a lot
better than I through the words of John Galt. Wven Alsn Greenspan had
a few chice words.

The Constitution rewuires taht the States accept no thing in payment
except gold and silver coin, and reserves for congress the right to
coin moey. The supremes have abdicated responsibility by never ruling
on the Constitutionality of the Fed, especially after Nixon abrograted
the gold clauses printed clear as day on the money. Am I angry, damn
right I am angry. I saw a glimpse of the real United States of America
in my late fifties youth, before all the monstrosities of Mr.
Toosevelts and Mr. Johnsons invention couldwreck thier full havoc. I
will try to channel my anger, but I will never accept the staus quo.
Freedom can yield a much more happy, prosperous, and peaceful
world.All this misery and strife is not unavoidable. We can have a
better world, and certainly a better country. The blueprint is sitting
there under glass, enshrined on Pennsylvania Avenue, but ignored up
and doen the same boulevard. Wouldn't it have been great if on 911
the president or the real leader, the vice president, had thought to
at least symbollicy send a detachment to protect the national
archives. What does the oath of office say again.

[ricochetboy]

Here is somestuff I forgot to mention... here is a brief history of
the Bank of England from a source that has less of an axe to grind than I.

Oh and the condos overlooking the gas station parking lot going for
125 and up. It turns out they were finaced by old court savings and
loan. The old court priciples personally sold the land the condos were
built on for way above market prices. The developers did this cuz they
got a very big mortgage on the property, a lot more than it was worth.

The great thing about gold is that it is real. It can not be created
out of thin air. You have to wrest it out of the ground at great
expense and difficulty. It cuts out a whole lot of Bs. The faith
based system amy continue to operate for a very long time, simply
vecause the sheer ingenuity and decency of free men may be ablle to
over power the negative influences of the banking system. But that
scenario is unlikely and does not jive with the over all thrust of
history. In time gold wil reassert itself as the only honest form of
money. I hope it is soon, or the USa will look more and more like
Argentina, or god forbid Zimbabway.

[lpsfactivists]

Well, folks. If eloquence has a name, its name is Phil. As you all
may have gathered by now, I am on Phil's side of the argument. There
are weaknesses in the U.S. economy, which are festering just below
the *average* great standard of living:

From a macroeconomic perspective:

1. A huge national debt.
2. Export deficit
3. Low savings rate
4. A perilus real estate market (next sector to bust?)
5. A paper, not goods, based economy

From a very personal perspective:

1. The Tenderloin Tutorial Clinic, where my daughter volunteers (God
bless her heart), and from where I pick her up in the evenings.
Such a huge segment of our population struggling so very hard, while
the *average* standard of living looks so good.

2. My parents and I being able to get out of Argentina in 1956,
because my Dad saw the coming storm, exchanged all the Pesos he had
for U.S. Dollars, and bought a plane ticket to Miami, FL. The fall
comes very fast, and catches you by surprise.

3. My clients' and friends' huge personal debt. As long as they are
working at their current level of income, all is well.

This is not Cassandra speaking. I just see a maket niche for the
Libertaian party here. Tell it like it is, and show free-market
solutions.

Marcy

--- In lpsf-discuss@yahoogroups.com, "ricochetboy" <philzberg@e...>
wrote:

I guess I am going to have to give you the full montie on the busted
economic system and why I see it that way. I'm not quite above the
weather health wise so I will just start. Taking all your

statisticaat

face value things look great. They damn well should .We have gone
through one of the longest credit expansions in history, and most
massive worldwide. The hugh influx of liquidity after thestock

market

crash and 911 has drien interest rates to historic lows, Yes things
better be good.As Warren Buffet famously said, of the trillions in
liwuidity used to prop up the economy over the last few years, Give

me

a trillion dollars, and I'll show you a party too." the problems
fester under the radar now.The millions of elderly savers strugling

on

very low interest rates and social security checks with shrinking

real

purchasing power. The disappearance of saving in this country, as
people know that saving is a ticket to confiscation by inflation.
Fifty percent of new jobs in California over the last two years are
real estate related. Real estate is not a producing asset.

Ultimately

residential real estate is a big consumer item. Acouple was evicted
on my block from thier 2500 a month apartment. The unit will go up

for

sale 1.5 million. The taxes alone will approcimate the rent that can
be gotten from the property. Speculation gone wild. Oh but this time
it is different this is San Francisco, California, USA. They aren't
making more. Go ahead , buyer, sign right here. To me the lesson
here isnobody knows any history. What about the South Sea Bubnle or
the Missippi. Both the result of the faith based money schemes of
Louis thw fifteenth and his Scottish banker John Law. Government

sicce

the beginning of history have tried to create money out of thin air

to

pay for debts and wars.Throughout histoey, the latest scheme would

be

new, modern , and foolproof. The scheme always ended in tradgedy.

That

is the lessson of history. Those who do not learn the lessons are
doomed to repeat it. Even gold and silver are not foolproof. The
Spainish exploited so much gold and silver out of South America that
they affectively became the worlds money supply. No worl was done by
the Spinish ruling class for centuries. In fact, some manufactruring
was jbannned in Spain. The result was the moral decay of Spain and
it's untimate economic decline. Germany had a large foreign debt as

a

result of WWI, The authorities began the cycle of inflationto ease
this debt, but continued it to prevent deflationary collapse. The
result was hyper inflation, the complete destruction of civil

economy,

and the rise of Hitler. Had the fed chose to devalue the currency

and

inflate in 1929, a similar inflationary fate may have ultimately
resulted. But the fed stood fimrm. In previous booms and busts
throughout the 19th century, the busts were alway short livedEvery
boom and bust was xaused by some type of government credit expansion
scheme.The depression dragged on because Hoover and Roosevelt took
measures to prevent wages and prices from falling. As a real estate
anecdote,to the great depression, the Empire State Building,

completed

soon after the crash, was not fully leased until 1955.
the Bank of England issued it's first paper note in 1694. the crown
was in dire finacial straits. The bankers got together and agreed to
loan the crown gold in exchange for restricted right to issue paper
notes in luie of Gold. Thus the modern central bank was born. the
rates charge3d the crown were near usurous, but the king was
desperate. At times later in history the notes were forbidden to be
redeemed. Britain left the gold standard in the earl thirties.
Fractional reserve banking, even when done within the limits of law

is

in fact fraud. Murray Rothbard lays it out eith crystal clarity in

his

tinybook 'what has the government done to our money" He hypthisizes

a

llarge and reputable grain storage company. The company stores a
common graded commodity in large quantities throughout the midwest.
Lets say Winter Wheat number one. As a farmer you can deposit a
hundred tons of winter wheat 1 in his earehouse and get a

certificate

in rreturn.Because the warehouse is reputable and has been for a

long

time, you can trade that receipt as if it was the whet itself. The
buyer of the certificate is confident that he can go to the

warehouse

and demand the wheat at any time and that it will be there.The
certificates are liquid, thay are trustred, they are portable, and
with some approprite record keeping safeguards, they are durable.

In

other words, reliability and honesty of the issuer have given these
certificates attributes of money.Now the problem comes in when the
warehouse chain is taken over by the harvard MBA grandson of the
founder. He looks at the company records and sees that in the last
hundred years the warehouses collectively have never been completely
empty. In fact they have never beeen less than 20 percent full. Hw
figures, since his warehouse recipts sell like cash, why sot sell an
extra twenty percent of fraudulent receipts. Who will ever know. He
still has an extra ten percent buffer frem a one hundred year

history.

No waay are people ever gonna come for that last twenty percent. And
soe prints receipts for twenty percent of all the wheat on deposit

in

his warehouse. He sells the receipts and pockets the cash. He makes
interest on the extra cash for many years. The phantom extra supply

of

wheat suppresses the price for many years, screwing the other

holdets

of wheat certificates, encouraging consumption, and discouraging
production. Ultimately thisdownard price pressure combined with some
external weather events causes a significant drain at the

warehouses.

A rumor gets started that the warehouse has printed more receipts

than

there is wheat.There is a run on the warehouse. The last peope there
are left holding worthless receipts. Thousnads of farmers and bakers
are ruined by the fraud. The Harvard MBA meanwhile has flown to
Barbadosand is eventually given a last minute presidential pardon.
Banks do the same thing. They are allowed to lend out more money

than

they actually have on hand. If everybody does not come at once for
thier money, it seems like an ok practice. But just like the poor
wheat farmer, the person holding old cash has the value of his cash
diluted by the new cash that is fraudulently created. the

depreciation

of old csh by the creation of new cash is called inflation.The

benefit

goes to all the harvard MBAs who can crete the new cash and thier
friends who receive ans manipulate the New Cash, the MandA bankers,
the mortgage brokers and all the first receivers of bew bank credit.
Interestingly, all new money creation is done by the New York Fed

and

the New York Fed and the new York Fed Alone. The Federal Open Market
Committee does all it's operation through the New York member
banks.Isn't it great that all that money stil can't guaranteethe
Yankees first place. But according to the New York State
Treasurer,Manhattan residing employess of New York banks and
brokerages collected over 22 billion in year end bonuses in 2004.

It's

all legal, but it is still really frud. And the money is stolen
through the dilution effect of inflation. It might not be showing up
as price inflation now, but it will. For now the Chinese and other

far

east nations are importing the inflation with the walmart example I
gave yesterday. But for how long can we sustain a 6 percent of gdp
trade deficit.

When you have a debt based currency, credit expansion is the way you
increse money supply normally. After the massive expansion of the

last

two decades, total US debt on the consumer,local state and federal
level exceeds I believe 360 percent of GDP. This is an historic high
and exceeds the levels in 1929.

Hyman Minski was a nice jewish sort of socialist economist at my
college, Washington University, in St Louis. I wasn't aware at the
time, but in economic circles he is a pretty famous guy, I think he
might even have gotten a nobel prize. Basically his whole theory

could

have been made by the corner pot dealer. When things get real

tight,

ain't much you can do. And if you keep fixin people when they's

tight,

they just get tighter. Or has he said it, as debt levels increse,
consumers and businesses have less choice and are are more
constrined.The economy as a whole becomes more rigid.Choices
disappear. His other thepry is famously summarized in his immortal
words...stability leads to instability. This is perfectly

demonstrated

in the real estate boom and stick market echo boom. By stabiliaing

the

markets with credit expansion after the tech bubble burst, the fed

has

fed the illustion that real estate never goes down, and revitilized
the assumption that in the long run stocks always go up. Unrestrined
speculation has been the result. I'll wait for you to challenge

that

assertion before I nail that one home.

Why do I hate fractional reserve banking with such a deep passion.

In

part because I greww up in Baltimore, and I have seen it go from a
solid blue colar town to miles of desperate living with a few

pockets

of Yuppiedom. The blue collar jobs are gone. How long the credit
bubble can keep the finacial paper pushers employed, and how long

the

government can keep writing medicare and NIH grants for the largest
employer, Johms Hoplins, is an unknown. The other event was more
personal. My father was and is reckless withmoney. My mother was a
careful saver.She ran the household and kept the family afloat with
her job as the Baltimore and Eastern Shore rep for Scholastic
magizines. Oh how she would love thier coup with Harry Potter. She
saved, early and often and relentlessly. She always looked for the
highest interest. In the mid eighties, she had most of her money in
Old Court Savings and Loan. the bank was chartered by the state of
Maryland and all deposits were insured by same. At thesame time I

used

to like to visit real estate open houses during the boom of the mid
eighties. I went with my buddy harvey to visit a condo overlooking a
gas station parking lot accross from my high school. The condos were
one or two bedrooms poorly constructed and selling in the 120k to

175

k range. At the ttime, a really primo house in a good neightborhood
wass selling in the same range. Something was very very wrong. You
would have to be out of your mind to buy this junk at those prices.
IAt the time I figured something was fishy, and I was nust

beginning

to study Austrian economics, so I figured ther was something fishy
with the bank who financed the project, but I could not figure out
what. Meanwhile, like our wheat warehouse after a bad storm, rumors
began to circulate that Ols Court Savings and Loan was bankrupt. My
mother was reluctant to join the lines at the bank as she had the
quint Rooseveltian notionthat all we had to fear was fear itself. As
late as thursday afternoon she could have simply written a check at
Marland national. But she waited. By Monday the bank was closed and

no

checks were being honored. The State of Maryland took the assets of
the bank, held them for seven years, and once the accumulated

interst

made up the principal shortfall, the principle was returned. Seven
years without interst. Basically a fifty percent haircut. Wnough for
her to have died in comfort and for dad to not have to struggle in

his

old age. Unlike every single crook caught up in the federally

insured

savings in loans, the Marland bankers served hard time. One of the
priciples, Gerry Cardin is sort of related, and I saw him at a

family

funeral. He drove up in a white rolls royce convertable, and made a
point of making sure everybody knew he was signing the guest book

with

a fifty thousand dollar pen. None of the federal crooks, including

all

the Keating Senators, John Glenn and Jeb Bush, none served jail time
because the jury could not be shown a victim. The hundreds of

billions

in losses were just tacked onto the national debt. In the case
ofNational Banks the Fed buries the losses on it;s balance sheet and
we all pay for it in inflation. Jerry Cardin's cousin, Ben Cardin

is a

deeply mainstream Democrat and the inside favorite to succceed Paul
Sarbanes, the wqually clueless mainstream Democrat, Oxford educated,
who sat on the denate banking and finance committee and gave us our
recent finance reforms that are feeding the zombie treasury buying

and

smothering risk taking in corporate America. Oh, BTW, at the heart

of

the Enron Scandal and the worldcom scandal and the bankruptcy of
Global crossing and almost every other corporate scandal lie the New
York Banks. In Enron's case a memo surfaced between two bankers, I
think Chase, who wrotw words to the effect... Wnron loves these

loans

because they can hide them from thier analysts and auditors. Can

you

say smoking fraud gun. Yet no indictments. It seems the staff of New
York Fed Banks are immune from prosecution. It took the Cal State
Retirement system lawywer to finally get some decent money out of
Morgan-Chase and City, I think 4 billion each. Didn't budge the
stocks.Still no indictments.
I want to live in a society where honesty, integrity, hard work,
competence, knowledge and sincerity, along with foresight and wisdom
are valued and rewarded. The present monetary system punishes decent
pwople and rewards fraud artists and gamblers. Aynn Rand said it a

lot

better than I through the words of John Galt. Wven Alsn Greenspan

had

a few chice words.

The Constitution rewuires taht the States accept no thing in payment
except gold and silver coin, and reserves for congress the right to
coin moey. The supremes have abdicated responsibility by never

ruling

on the Constitutionality of the Fed, especially after Nixon

abrograted

the gold clauses printed clear as day on the money. Am I angry, damn
right I am angry. I saw a glimpse of the real United States of

America

in my late fifties youth, before all the monstrosities of Mr.
Toosevelts and Mr. Johnsons invention couldwreck thier full havoc. I
will try to channel my anger, but I will never accept the staus quo.
Freedom can yield a much more happy, prosperous, and peaceful
world.All this misery and strife is not unavoidable. We can have a
better world, and certainly a better country. The blueprint is

sitting

[ricochetboy]

forgot the link again...
http://tinyurl.com/7s4ah

and... I like to talk about the banking scoundrels, but the fraud of
fractional reserve banking exists even when the actors are perfectly
honest, law abiding, decent men, women and trannies, as most in the
banking and finace industry surely are. The fraud is that the money
constantly gets diluted, and depending on how close you are to the
newly printed money is how much you prosper. The confuaionand
instability of unpredicatable and unstable finacial structures has
been well discussed elswhere. Inflation sucks. Thats why Nixon
instituted price contrils when inflation was running around 24 percent.
Envisioning a fiat banking system that sticks to the rules and only
steadily inflates is a very nice statist dream. Central planning of
interest rates and money supply with millions of actors and billions
of transactions is an ambition worthy of Stalin. It cannot be done.
Even greenspan in Humphry Hawkiins said he does not and never will
have an accurate measure of the money supply.Credit is a very elusive
thing to measure. The governments proper role and Constitutional role
is t coin money and enforce contracts. Credit creation will flow
freely as long as both parties to credit creating contracts are
dealing honestly. The governments proper role is to enforce contracts
by punishing fraud. Thats all that needs to be done.The system has
worked fabulously for long periods of time whenever it was allowed.
The great architecture of Eastern adn Central Europe is a testiment to
hard money and weak government from Waterloo till Sarejevo. My mother
in law gave me a beaytiful Ardh Duke Ferdinand one eigth ounch gold
coin to remind my every small town in Slovakia is still beautiful. One
thing the commies did right was to keep the money sound, st least in
Slovakia.Thats why, from what I can tell, life was pretty damn good
there, with lots of underground commerce going on under the4 radar
with sound money. Marx in a rare lucid moment, actually said that
when the capitalist systems sllow the money to be backed by government
debt, the system will not have long to live. The Chinese have
legalized private ownership of gold, and are moving to decouple the
yuan from the dollar. Perhaps they are smarter than some think.

Oh and just one more scam I can't help not mentioning. Clark Clifford
eas the Democratic insiders insider. He lapped at the tuchus of
Roosevelt, Kennedy, Johnson, and Carter. He dide in disgrace as part
of a hugh banking scandal.

[dej72]

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[ricochetboy]

There used to be different types of banks. there were deposit banks
shich actually charged for storage, and investment banks. If the
investment bank had a long and solid history of being conseervative
and honest people would deposit there and earn some interst. Or they
could participate in various bond offerings or other investment
vehicles. The banks had a real stake in individually being prudent and
honest, as the slightest bit of fear and the depositors would run.
This tended to restrain credit expansion, but not prevent economic
development. The US economy grew like gang busters throughout the 19th
century. There was certainly some fractional reserve lending, but the
banks were restrained by the risks. I do not propose to ban it, but I
do propose that if a bank indulges in fractional reserve practices ,
lies about it to it's depositors, and gets caught in a run, that jail
time be in the picture. If depositors chose to deposit, and ask no
questions, and are told no lies, no foul. In a free market banking
systebanks may join together to pool reserves to increse depositor
confidence.But each bank would have incentive to minimize losses by
keeping an eye on other banks in the pooled reserve system. Ina free
market system granny and Calpers would watch the banks closely and
better not be lied to. The banks could issue paper or electronic
blips redeemable in gold and even a little more, so long as people
accepted the the paper or blips as goood. there is no reson that all
of the conveniences of modern banking would not exist. What would be
gone would be the incessant inflation, the constant risk of systemic
deflation, and the chronic malinvestment of stupi9d bank loans using
other peoples money. Witth less stupid waste, such as global
crossing,or endless tracts of empty commercial office space for
decades, there would be more money available to spend on what people
need. If you aren't making money with a Harvard MBA you must be waat
too ethical, or too far away from the primary feeding trough in New York.

Another cousin sort of on the senator and con bankers side is a
morthage slicer dicer. He shops up morthage packages into all kinds of
tasty morsels of risk , more risk and less risk and distriibutes them.
this function might even occur in a free market. But the participants
in the market suffer under the delustion that the Fed or Fannie Mae or
Congress will never allow major real estate unstability. As old Hyman
Minsky says. stability creates instability. Or as the Slovaks say
about ceramic vases, you take it to the well untill it breaks.
Because the bankers have little feedback from depoitors about risk,
they can take risks until it breaks. Then they can say, like the
famous Jewish Philosopher... Who was to know. In formal economic
terms, the bankers attitude towards systemic risk, with no real
accountability to depositors, is called Moral Hazard. And boy have we
got a lot of that. The present systemprovided for little discipline on
the part of the depositors. If the bank fails, the depositors are made
whole either in the form of deposit insurance, or shared reserves,
thus the name federal reserve system. From what I have read the
fraction of reserves has become absurdly low, on the order of only 40
some billion dollars . Correct me if I am wrong. There is little to
prevent large risks from being taken. LTCM is a famous example. The
Fed had to abil them out or face wordwide finacial meltdown. The
reulting liquidity influx blew up the internet bubble. The systemic
risk of the housing bubble is unimaginable. The Fed cannot slow down
the money creation or prevent the dollar from falling by raising rates
because to raise ratres would endanger many trillions of mortgages.
The people writing these mortgages believe the fed will be chicken,
and so do the borrowers and the lenders. The Fed is in a boc. It can't
raise rates to fight inflation. And sso inflation grinds on, old folks
starve from low interst rates. and everything is fine. All the
participants are acting rationally, but because they are sheltered
from risk by the fed and the fdic, they take on or ignore systemic
risks, or pretend like the safeguards that are in place are Ok. The
risks are distributed and insured. The macro risk of a housing bubble
collapse is considered a moral hazard, not the problem of any given
actor. The system is designed to allow for fordeeable risk. But
history is replete with unforseeable risks. Thats why the connon sense
reaction to a 2500 a month apartment going for a millionbucks is fear.
This can't work out. By insulating bankers from the risks, by
providing them with oceans of newly created money to lend, the fed and
the fdic remove many natural constraints to sound banking. The results
are monumental frauds, wastes, and pain. Global crossing, enron, mci,
are just the tip. When and if the money creation ever slows, much more
malinvestment will be revealed. Oh and btw the inflation rate was
around 4 percent in 1971 when the public was up in arms and Nixon
respomded with wage and price controls leading to the birth of the
Libertarian party.
And the beauty of eastern europe, slovakia and hungary, and even
Yugoslavia, small town and big city is a testiment in my mind to
strong gold back money, weak government, at least before 45, and the
existence of deposit banks and investment banksj. Even a recently as
1994 renata and I visited banks in Slovakia and Vienna that charged
for deposits. In a free market world where prices declined by 3
percent a ye3ar due to the unstppable progress of man, a small fee
would still leave the saver better off than most Americans today. Oh
and here is a real oldie but goodie from Adam Hamilton. Looks like he
had a pretty good crystal ball in 2000 when gold was changing hands
for around 250 bucks due in part to the manipulations of Secretary
Rubin's strong dollar policy. --.

http://tinyurl.com/8l2fk

[ricochetboy]

Derek, Maybe we could take this discussion to our tv show. You the
nice clean cut ivy league MBA, and me the angry but semi lucid warrior
against inflation, government lies, and war. I think we could create
some dramatic tension, and get people thinking.

[dej72]

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[dej72]

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[ricochetboy]

Serek, your on. First we'll get a camera and a camera manman, maybe a
moserator... Marcy. Oh I have lots of trouble reading your blog cuz
ahen I expand it in Mozilla to ahout 1 inch tall letters, the stuff
overlaps. Oh and your right I havn't the foggiest how a real bank
works. How is the clearing done between banks, and how much fraud is
gotten away with before it is caught and the bank is closed. Wverbanks
collapse particularly interests me. As does the bank of Chicagos
collapse. How do international settlements work.

[ricochetboy]

I meant to say nectbank's collapse, the internet bank here in San
Francisco.

[dej72]

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[ricochetboy]

So ehaere does the investment bank you work for get the funds to lend.
And what kinds of safeguards and guarantees does your bank have to
make to to the funding sources. What are your incentives for
minimizing credit risk and moral hazatrd.. Tell me about it.if you
can.If not tell me abhout a hypothetical investment banker.Inquiring
minds really want to know. No kidding. How does your compensation
affect your risk tolerance. Are there any repercussions if a loan you
make goes bad years down the road. How do you offload risk. How do you
ensure that those insuring your risks are solid.Knowing the day to day
micro view of an insider could really help me solidify the
understanding I think I have of the macro view.
I took your advice and started to research moral hazard in investment
banking. Here is a very scary tidbit on Golmans role in the ltcm
collapse. Since LtCM the keverage if the fincial system has grown
ecponentially. Morgan has a hedge book that drarfs the real economy by
orders of magnitude. Recently there was trouble in england when a
large hedge, long GM bonds, short the stock, went bad. It turned out
so many players were in the hedge that when GM's bonds were downgraded
to junk,so many people who were long the bonds wanted to cover thier
shorts in the stock, that the stock went up with the bond downgrade.
Some institutions had made suxh large bets on this play that possibly
some secret bail outs were made ala ltcm. Btw, GMs debt was 300
billion, approximating Canadas national debt. FM is a likely candidate
for bankruptcy and is now much more a finaceial company than a car
company. A whole lot of jobs and pensions are on the line . Ford is in
a similar pickle. Here is thw scary link
http://tinyurl.com/9gvxa-

[dej72]

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[lpsfactivists]

Phil,

If you meant the comment below as an invitation, I will be honored.

BTW, how are you doing with the tape exchange? Do you need any help?
Please let me know.

Thanks,

Marcy

--- In lpsf-discuss@yahoogroups.com, "ricochetboy" <philzberg@e...>
wrote:

Serek, your on. First we'll get a camera and a camera manman, maybe a
moserator... Marcy. Oh I have lots of trouble reading your blog cuz
ahen I expand it in Mozilla to ahout 1 inch tall letters, the stuff
overlaps. Oh and your right I havn't the foggiest how a real bank
works. How is the clearing done between banks, and how much fraud is
gotten away with before it is caught and the bank is closed.

Wverbanks

[ricochetboy]

Marcy, I gat very sick the evening Mike Senny and I renewed the TV
show and dropped off the tapes. I think we are still good for a while
nut I am not sure. Maybe Mike remebers. Yeah I could use help keeping
track. haas anyone else signed up and taken the training at the public
access station. My vision has deopped another line on the eye chart
and ny bad eye is barely hanging on. I use this to bolster my excuse
for deep incompetance with day to day matters. I bought an electronic
daytimer at the lighthouse but havn't figured it out yet.

Thanks for the compliments on my writing. Editing would be greatly
appreciated.

Phil