Family Crest

Family Crest
Motto: I will never forget. [ Source HouseofNames ]

HUMANITY DOOMSDAY CLOCK - Moves forward to 2125 due to election of US President trump.

Estimate of the time that Humanity will go extinct or civilization will collapse. The HUMANITY DOOMSDAY CLOCK moves forward to 2125 due to US President trump's abandonment of climate change goals. Clock moved to 90 seconds to doom at December 2023. Apologies to Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists for using the name.

PLEASE QUOTE, COPY and LINK

While this material is copyrighted, you are hereby granted permission and encouraged to copy and paste any excerpt and/or complete statement from any entry on this blog into any form you choose. In return, please provide explicit credit to this source and a link or URL to the publication. Email links to mckeever.mp@gmail.com

You may also wish to read and quote from these groundbreaking essays on economic topics with the same permission outlined above

The Jobs Theory of Growth [https://miepa.net/apply.html]

Moral Economics [https://miepa.net/moral.html]

Balanced Trade [https://miepa.net/essay.html]

There Are Alternatives to Free Market Capitalism [https://miepa.net/taa.html]

Specific Country Economic Policy Analyses - More Than 50 Countries from Argentina to Yemen [https://miepa.net/]




Translate

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Speak Truth to a Bank

Hey Barry:

Well - we can make comments on the Volcker rule proposal.

My comment is this: It's too weak. Make it stronger.

It was passed as part of Dodd-Frank. I thought it was already adopted; but it seems that it is just now available for comment.

Please go to the site and tell them what you think - a chance to tell the bankers directly and exactly what you think.

Find the site here: http://cdn.americanbanker.com/media/pdfs/093011VolckerRulePreamble_FINAL_DRAFT.pdf

Then follow links to post your comment.

Go for it - don't be shy or pull punches.

The banks got us into this mess and a strong Volcker rule can help prevent another mess.

We can postpone some future crisis if we restore the Glass-Steagall law so that commercial banks can NOT buy assets. Killing this law was the single biggest mistake we have ever made as a country; now commercial banks can now speculate in the stock and commodity markets with free money from the FED. Not only does it create the mega-fortunes we see, but it also kills any effective monetary policy. Monetary policy cannot work when banks have no incentive to make low profit loans and every incentive to gamble. Further, the BMB's keep bribing Congress and regulators so the situation won't change.

The Volcker rule proposal is a weak attempt to address this. Banks will try to water it down.

Don't let them.

Your pal,

Friday, October 7, 2011

Revisiting Bank Regulation

Hey Barry:

One of the biggest problems we face today and one which contributes to unemployment, destroys jobs and generally is bad for the country is the current state of bank regulation.

Bankers caused this mess around the world. So far we have not developed a way to prevent further problems caused by banks. The Dodd-Frank bill is just a start toward effective regulation, but even it has been gutted to impotence by our corrupt legislature.

I will outline the McKeever Method of regulating banks below.

If put in place, our world would be better for all.

You can read a paper I wrote on bank regulation in 2009 here: www.mkeever.com/bank_regulation_usa.doc

Here's a simplistic view of how bank structure would work in a McKeever world:

COMMERCIAL BANKS

Commercial banks can lend money for businesses, houses, commercial property and cars. They may not be the beneficial owner of those assets, I think that is the correct term. They cannot sell stocks, insurance or any other products.

They may own real estate that they occupy only - no investment property.

Commercial banks can receive money from the public for demand deposits, CD's, time deposits and any other instrument backed by the FDIC. They may not receive money from the sale of any asset unless they sell it as result of foreclosure.

Commercial banks will be monitored closely by the FED for good financial structure, management, loan portfolio soundness, etc.

Failing commercial banks, since they possess part of the country's money supply, should be wound down slowly and absorbed where possible, after making depositors whole.

INVESTMENT BANKS

Investment banks can buy shares of stock in any company or any asset they choose. They may not borrow funds from the FED.

Any security or product sold by an investment bank must be approved by the SEC - there are NO black boxes. All is disclosed.

Investment banks can go bankrupt regardless of size.

Of course, making these changes is difficult and politically charged. And, even if all these were implemented tomorrow, they would not solve our current mess, but the changes would help prevent future problems, IMHO.

Your pal,

Thursday, October 6, 2011

99 to 1

Hey Barry:

Wow!

99 to 1.

We're winning!

USA!

USA!

USA Number One!

...............Wait a minute, I'm hearing something.....

Whattya mean the 99 is losing to the one?

That aint even possible.

How can 99 lose to just one?

Measly loner one?

They musta bribed the ref, fixed the rules, poisoned the opposition, changed the field.

They did all that, you say?

They had to.

No way does one beat 99 in any fair fight.

That fight caint be fair, its a dive, a fixed fight.

It aint right, that's all.

So Barry, whattya gonna do in a fixed fight?

Ya gonna fight fair or ya gonna fight dirty?

So, Barry, I guess it really is the one percent that's winning the fight and the rest of us 99ers is losing big time.

It's like Wilt Chamberlin is the one and the rest of us is just little pipsqueak, two pound chihuahuas barking at his heels.

We gotta take down Wilt.

No big thang. He's just a man.

But we gotta think real big.

Caint take down a giant with no piddly baby steps.

Wait a minute, you sayin that right now, today, there's a bunch of 99ers walking around and talking about how they been screwed outa their life by Big Wilt.

Well alrighty then.

Seems we gotta genuine movement here.

Ima thinkin what the 99ers want is a brand new system because the old one is just rotten.

Wow, a whole new system.

Where y'all gonna get that, Barry? Where's that gonna come from?

So, here's how to find that new system, Barry.

Ya gotta tie big Wilt's shoelaces together so he falls down and breaks his nose.

Then, ya gotta come up with a new system that makes the 99ers happy.

And, you know what?

That new system probably gonna look just like the one I already gave you.

You know, the 11 points I gave you last week, for free no less.

So far as of today, the 99ers are real peaceful and just finding their stride.

Now's the time to get big ideas out there, Barry.

Big ideas.

Because the first time some police shoots somebody, then we is in a whole new ballgame.

No rules then, Barry.

No rules.

So, Barry, get big for us.

Get Big.

We rootin for you.

Here's the 11 points Barry:

1. Laws which make it easier for unions to organize workers.

2. More Justice Department regulators to prosecute companies which break laws which encourage workers to form unions.

3. Enforce all anti-monopoly laws and pass more.

4. Make oil, gas, electricity, water, sewer and telephone services into Public Utilities and regulate them with a Public Utility Commission.

5. Cancel all Free Trade agreements and replace them with tariffs that protect American jobs and companies.

6. Create a national industrial policy which identifies those industries we want and protects them.

7. Tax away the great fortunes and incomes for they drain resources away from job creation.

8. Restore Glass-Stegall so that commercial, lending banks can NOT buy assets - fix the biggest mistake we have made since 1789.

9. Keep Social Security and Medicare as high as possible. You need a better examination of both programs and a sound proposal that focuses on how to keep each program viable. Simply demanding that the programs be reduced for deficit reduction purposes is unworthy of a leader.

10. Manage our debt so that we borrow when we need stimulus. We can keep the average annual fiscal deficit around 3% of GDP over time with a little work, but with high unemployment, it is the time to stimulate, not contract.

11. Require that broadcasters provide free access to qualified political parties as a condition of their FCC license.

Your pal,

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Price of Existence: $74,000 Per Year

Hey Barry:

Talking about the middle class.

Now it costs $74,000 per year, or $6,170 per month for BASIC LIVING EXPENSES [Self-Sufficiency Standard], for a family of four in the San Francisco Bay Area of California.

There are lots of poor people in the Bay Area, but I never thought of $74,000 per year as POOR.

No restaurant meals, no vacations, no joy - only existing instead of living.

It costs $74,000 per year just to exist.

This is NOT the American Dream - it is the American nightmare.

Read it here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/10/05/MNB11LD969.DTL

Your pal,