The Stock Market is not the economy, it is the leech that skims off the cream.

- The Stock Market is not synonymous with the economy, it is gambling pure
and simple, and in its current form it is one of the economy's greatest
ills. A simple truth is wherever there is gambling there are people who
will find sophisticated ways to cheat and fleece the unsuspecting. In its
noblest form, the concept of selling stock started as a way to fund the
research, innovation, and company growth that was vital to the economic
development of our nation. With time it morphed into a haven for
speculation and manipulation. Rather than funding growth, for the most
part shareholders have become solely interested in maximizing short term
profits at the expense of the company's long term health and growth. It is
speculation rather than investment. In my opinion, shares should be
classed into two broad categories based upon that statement, those held
short term (for argument sake, less than two years) and those which
following Warren Buffet's advise are long term. Voting power should not be
bestowed upon the short term, speculative investor. Executive stock
options should encourage long term corporate health and growth by not
becoming vested for at least five years after they are exercised. 

- Food costs have more than doubled, yet the family farmer is struggling while large
corporate farmers are getting huge subsidies. One solution would be
enacting Anti-trust legislation that forbids the huge conglomerates which
are so dominant in critical industries from operating at more than one
level in the manufacturing and distribution chain; pick one, manufacturing
(including farming), distribution or retail. It should also limit the
market share one company can have in any sector to 10% of the market.
Except in small towns, retailers should not be allowed to control more
than a specified market share based upon the population of the area they
serve. Just watch what this would do to your weekly food bill. 
- The price of oil at the well head is dramatically different from the price we see
quoted on the TV each night. The difference is created by speculators in
the commodities markets (the same holds true for food and other vital
commodities). Products which are vital to the national good such as food,
oil and the like should be heavily regulated so as to forbid the
unconscionable profits which are siphoned off by manipulation of these
markets. A short term 90% windfall profits tax should be levied on all
profits above a reasonable spread, for argument sake 15%. At the same time
a long term per share traded tax of 1.0% should be applied to all stock
and commodities transactions (by other than users) which are held short
term. The term should be 1 year, with the fee applied at the time of sale.

Keystone XL, let the builder bear the risks!

Aside from the rarely asked question; "why are we burning such a vitally important raw material like oil as if it was a waste product", there are important questions about how we harvest, transport and refine it that must be fully answered.

There are several core concepts that are critical to the discussions about Keystone XL and other high risk / high profit projects. Before moving forward, they must be fully addressed and resolved.

- Who is in the best position to know how risky a given project is?
- Who is in the position to make cost benefit decisions regarding it?
- Who is in the best position to know its hidden risks.

Those are the people, corporations and governmental officials who should bear the full burden if something goes wrong, and without the safety and security of corporate shields or official immunity.

Rather than transport this extremely hazardous material across America's heartland at great risk, why not build a new refinery at or near an appropriately chosen point of entry to the US? Wouldn't this create far more permanent jobs, most of which would be highly skilled and long term? Wouldn't this  offer greater cost effectiveness, and lessen environmental risks dramatically? Wouldn't this satisfy the needs of our energy producing neighbor to the north? And wouldn't this make the likelihood of these refined petroleum products benefiting the North American economies far greater, rather than endangering them?

Although it is far too big an issue to do justice here, lets keep in mind the tremendous value of clean water, and the importance of insulating it from risk.

The proponents of this pipeline are advertising widely that the pipeline itself will be totally safe and environmentally friendly. Their ads clearly state that the end product will be environmentally cleaner than "many" existing fuels, and that could be fantastic depending on the precise meaning and truthfulness of the statement. In an effort to reach a fair and equitable solution among honorable people, why not place rigid contractual obligations into any permit requiring that all of their promises bear fruit; with serious and meaningful penalties if they don't. If their claims are true, there can be no reason for objection.

They say the project is safe and will cause no damage to the environment. Frankly, we have all heard this before and we do not want to repeat the past failures. In spite of claims by Exxon and BP that they have been good citizens and that they were/are totally committed to 100% fully restoring the environment and fairly compensating every person and business damaged buy their oil spills, this has been far from the reality. Both companies continue to thrive, while countless Americans and our ecology continue to suffer the consequences of their actions.

Before allowing this project to move forward, please require them to have an indemnification plan, with real teeth, in place that assure the resources required to fully and promptly return to whole every single person, wildlife species, company, or piece of public land damaged by their project, up to the full value of the company and its founders, affiliated corporations and shareholders. Huge projects offer huge profits, but they also present huge risks that must be 100% born by those who are in a position to reap the gains.

Frankly, they will not accept these conditions because they know it creates a serious burden of risk, one they are willing to place upon the American people, but not themselves; and that is why this plan should be rejected out of hand. Keystone XL, and other similar projects are a terrible deal for America.

What happened to the jobs, and how do we get them back?

The facts are clear and incontrovertible. Big corporates are not creating new jobs; meanwhile,  they are being paid a fortune in our tax dollars to ship many of the best paying offshore. The same banks we gave many hundreds of billions of dollars to in order for them to totally recover from the effects of their fraudulent activities are unwilling to offer loans to the real corporate job creators, small businesses, no matter how worthy they are. The people who created the sub-prime mortgage crisis  have used our money to fully recover and reap massive profits while those they fleeced are further decimated.


The financial cream they skimmed from our nation took job supporting industries and the ability for Main Street to recover with it.

In spite of the fact that the re-creation of good paying jobs here at home is the best way to restore the health of our economy and rebuild our middle class, Congress has done absolutely nothing to start this ball rolling, in fact they continue to obstruct it. The core question is why?


The obvious answer is they don't want to. Less obvious is the fact that restoring the jobs engine the super wealthy and corporate greed destroyed has to occur before a really recovery can happen, and it will be neither easy or fast.


In spite of corporate coffers filled with trillions in cash, we are told time and again that they won 't use it to create jobs because they are uncertain about the economy. Is that the real reason, or is it that it is invested where they get a better return than expanding their businesses will bring? The simple fact that their profits are astronomical while Main Street is floundering illustrates the answer.


The simple truth is if investing in jobs was the best way to create short term profits, that is what Corporate America would be doing. If there was a demand for goods and services, investment dollars would be made available to supply it.  


isn reality, it is  the people who reside in the middle and lower levels of the economic pyramid that fuel the demand, but they do not have the discretionary income to do it. The greed at the top has syphoned off the cream that created their ability to buy, and until it is returned, there can be no economic recovery. Good paying jobs and discretionary income are the real jobs creators. Sadly this pursuit of short term gains has all but killed the golden goose (the middle class), and with it America's long term prospects.


Only Congress has the ability to restore the balance which existed in years past that created the vibrant American economy and the world's highest standard of living. Absent any better answer, and their is none, the obvious solution is to return to the pre 1980 model which created it.

I truly care about life from conception to the grave, do you?

Dear President Obama,

While I agree with this conservative mantra, there are a lot of "but if's" that are part of the defining equation.

My first area of concern is the tradition of our government to make laws which allow the writers to "eat their cake and have it too". If laws are passed which are based upon personal beliefs put onerous burdens on those effected by them, the government must fully bear the financial burden of recompense. It is only fair and it is only right.

If a woman has made the choice to have a child, there is a good argument that she and her partner are responsible for that life until it reaches maturity. On the other hand, what if the pregnancy occurred because of faulty birth control? Or was totally outside the woman's sphere of control like rape, or any other outside of the box reason? Who bears the emotional and financial costs of rearing that child? The financial backers of the legislation will protect the manufacturer of the defective birth control and ignore the problems of the mother and child.

I agree that every life be it unborn, in its most vital years or near death,  deserves the support of our society. What I have a problem with is the hypocracy of those who use abortion as a smoke screen to obscure their stance against Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

It would be refreshing to hear a politician call this spade a spade by addressing this core question. Mr. President, are you up to it?

Just roll it back, say no to deregulation.

Restoring good paying jobs and upward mobility to all Americans is the key to restoring the health of our country. The spiral of downward mobility must be reversed immediately, and rolling back the tax code to pre 1980 levels immediately is one of the critical keys.

Just say no to the Republican proposals to make things worse for all but the rich. No to continuing Bush Era tax breaks to the richest Americans. No to incentives and loopholes for giant corporations. No to speculation as the foundation of modern day Wall Street. No to the perverted definition of “investment” which embraces race track like betting and crooked bookies as their purveyors. And no to the excessive and /or hidden costs and fees that are syphoning the cream out of the finances of everyday Americans.

Not to mention, no to cuts to investments in our country's future like education, infrastructure, honoring our promises to seniors including Social Security (which they paid for as deferred compensation), or Medicare
and Medicaid for the neediest Americans.

Put in the most basic terms, just say no to the unabashed legislator supported greed which has taken over our country and is milking it dry.

It is time to restore fairness and equity by rolling back banking and corporate regulations to pre-1980 levels.

Why the proposed American Chinese currency manipulation bill is against our interests.

The Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act of 2011, the proposal to impose currency-related trade measures against China or other countries with undervalued currencies makes no sense for two major reasons:

- First, if China revalues its currency upward, it will dramatically increase  the value of our debt to them, doing us far more harm than good; in short, it is counter productive.

- The second is centered on the concept that it's far better to define the core problems and create meaningful solutions than to resort to band aid fixes. The core problem is that China's environmental protection, human
rights and nationally subsidized industrial policies create a massive and immoral cost advantage. Equalization is the solution; the creation of an environmental and humanitarian equalization tariff is the vehicle.

Although ill-defined,  there is a dollar value connected to protecting our environment and quality of life, and at least short term it is expensive. As a country we have decided it is money well spent, and we must aggressively protect that decision; at least within our borders.

There is no question that countries which do not respect these values, while massively subsidizing exports, have a huge cost advantage in international commerce. We need to make adjustments in order to compete with them economically, and contrary to the beliefs of the short sighted, this does not mean lowering our standards to meet theirs. It does mean punishing the "dumping" which has all but killed many of our core manufacturing industries, including solar energy.

Obviously, we cannot continue to subsidize these nations at the expense of our own; the goal has to be the creation of a level playing field. It is my opinion that as a nation, we need to immediately do the calculations needed to define the real and total costs of sound environmental policy, fair working conditions and good wages, and use these numbers as a factual basis for creating a meaningful solution to inequitably priced imports.

Based on those calculations, the solution is the creation of an environmental and human exploitation levy to be placed on all countries who want access to our markets and whose humanitarian polices are below those we have adopted. For those who share our values, there would be little or no levy, for those who do not, the costs would be substantial. The proceeds would then be used to fund national technology initiatives.

A related issue is countries who engage in espionage in order to gain our country's military and industrial secrets. This is extremely expensive and must be aggressively rooted out and punished.  In the case of China, this
has been particularly pervasive. Our only possibilities for compensation is through the seizure of their assets which is impractical, or assessing large, long term, punitive levys on their goods and services while aggressively enforcing our anti-dumping laws.

In my opinion, these actions would force countries like China, India and others to clean up their acts in order to compete fairly in international markets; while helping us attain the critically important goals of restoring our onshore manufacturing base and good paying jobs, the middle class, and upward mobility.

How lots of little guys can fight gigantic predators & win!

Given the slightest opportunity, people everywhere talk about their most pressing concerns. It may be baseball, sex or the best beer. Sometimes even critical social and economic issues health care, pharmaceutical costs, the banking and financial crisis, the demise of free and independent media, arrogant telecommunications oligopolies, agribusiness abuses, the “Free Market”, excessive government and unfair taxation, wars, energy and global warming, and of course jobs, jobs and jobs sneak in.

Regardless of their politics, virtually all are passionate “single issue” advocates with well-founded fears and clearly defined goals. Unfortunately, single issue votes only work when large numbers agree on which ONE to support, and until they do, it is the perfect recipe for a dismal failure. The observation "Liberals fall in love, conservatives fall in line" brilliantly showcases the point. Ironically, the sheer number of vitally important issues has fragmented us to the point of paralysis. Clear and fair analytical thinking on our part, enlightened listening and leadership by our government, and laser sharp FOCUS is the only effective formula for turning this passionate but powerless anarchy into a formidable force for change.

The secret unifier, embracing the common good, is so simple it's nearly invisible. Everyone has to be willing share ownership in an imperfect solution, even if it only partially meets their individual needs and beliefs in the short term. The answer is reducing complex formulas to their simplest form; in this case, one which fits clear thinking patriotic Americans, be they liberals, independents or conservatives. It is time to step back and objectively and honestly reevaluate the dogma of "its right for me" greed, that has become misidentified as Ideology.

We have to honestly reflect on what all of today's issues have in common that nearly everyone can agree on. Unquestionably, our most pressing issues grow from the unbridled greed and power enjoyed by many super wealthy individuals, huge corporates, organizations, legislators and our judiciary. All are rooted in wholesale exploitations by these runaway power bases. Huge size created the overwhelming power which is destroying our competitive free market system while corrupting our government. That is the common core which we all have to focus on overcoming in order to reclaim control of our country and the lives of our families. Who can disagree with the concepts that "good competition creates great businesses", and "corporations are not people".

These behemoths are massive beyond comprehension; just for starters, 4 or 5 agribusiness giants control the entire WORLD’S food supply from the farm to your table, and we as individuals are so insignificantly small that we sincerely believe there is nothing we can do about it. The same is true everywhere a super powerful giant exists. In truth, all we need to do is unite upon a single, easily defined, target in order to effectively fight back and win. Still, we have proven time and again that we each have our own personal single issue which fragments and cripples our ability to function as a group, while the predators stand united on their finely tuned target and consistently win the war of the few against the many, regardless of the apparent odds.

Through mergers and acquisitions made possible by collusion with many of our nation’s legislators, and aided by our failure to pay attention, these monopolistic monsters have grown like noxious weeds while squashing the “free market” they so hypocritically extol. Simultaneously, they totally redefined its meaning.

They are on the verge of totally overpowering our democracy through government sanctioned monopolistic practices and widespread oligopolies. “Too Big to Fail means too big to exist” is a mantra which drifts out of the shadows endlessly, but falls on the deaf ears of our legislators and law enforcement agencies.

While isolated attacks such as removing the health insurance anti-trust exemption and supporting the small dairy farmer against the giants are great and courageous places to start, we need to go much further and pursue these marauders quickly and aggressively with every tool in our tool box. Clearly, the majority of our Congressmen and Judges have proven they will not help; what we need is a powerful set of weapons which can circumvent the Congressional/Judicial/ Monopolistic Complex and that already exist. Although seriously out of date, Teddy Roosevelt’s anti-trust laws were designed for exactly that purpose; they worked then, they broke up ATT, and they will work now. They are in place today and represent what may well be our last, best, hope for saving our society; but only if we unite to force our elected leaders to use them.

The Justice Department only needs to enforce them, and President Obama can order them to do so tomorrow. Unfortunately, although the President has spoken of using this ultimate defender of the people and “Free Market”, so far it has only been talk and a murmur at that.

Although little people can defeat giants, even David could not defeat this modern day group of greed driven Goliaths on his own, but if we take a real life lesson from even more overmatched defenders like the killer bees, we can! These bees are not the aggressive killers they are normally portrayed to be; rather, they are fiercely committed, patriotic and protective defenders of their environment. They only attack when there is a threat and when they do so, they attack relentlessly in large numbers as a totally united colony to overcome it. Scientists call this aggressive protectiveness “hyper-defensive behavior”. The effectiveness of this focused team defense has earned them the well-earned, real life reputation of being the ultimate giant killers.

Most intelligent people realize that our society is in jeopardy, and they are ready and willing to fight to save it. Unfortunately, they are fighting against an army of enemies far bigger, less principled, more sophisticated and powerful than the biblical giant, and we have allowed this enemy to become legally fortified and to dictate the terms of engagement.

For any army of principled people to open battles on a dozen fronts and on the enemies’ terms is pure folly. It is far wiser to learn from the bees and focus our resources on crippling the enemy’s key weapon, its sheer size. The bees use lethal force because that is their only weapon, we can use unrelenting passive resistance and the power of our voices, pocketbooks and our votes.

To see a clear example of the blatant corruption of our fore fathers vision we need look no further than the Supreme Court. Although there are many recent examples to illustrate the point, none is more telling that giving rich and powerful corporations and organizations the right to spend as much money as they wish to promote or condemn whatever candidate or cause supports their goals. And they can do it anonymously. We fought for "one man, one vote" and stood by while they changed it to "one dollar, one vote". Although the Founding Fathers were scared to death of the damage corporations could do to "natural" people, we are misled into believing they meant for them enjoy the right of free speech guaranteed by the constitution.

Perhaps that would be fine if "freedom of speech" was defined as words, not dollars, and they were limited to the levels of financial donations you and I are, but the Supremes allowed them infinite and anonymous spending limits. They created a super class based upon wealth and power by simply legislating from the bench. Look into Chief Justice Roberts eyes and tell me you would buy a used car from the man. Take away corporate size and it unlimited power, and we can rein in this world class perversion of our system of government.

The only realistic way to achieve our common goals is to fight a focused and unified “Single Issue” battle against the servants of the core problem – the Congressional/Judicial/ Monopolistic Complex. The Congress, with a few clear exceptions, supports them at nearly every turn, while our Courts legislate on their behalf by judicial decree. By passing legislation benefiting “the Complex” the system has been legally, but immorally and quite possibly fatally corrupted.

The same Supreme Court said it was legal for Nike to lie and deceive their customers. They are now in a position to deceive, obstruct, confuse and stall their way into advancing their agenda. And they do it every day while the huge majority of Americans sit idly by unable to analyze and debunk the claims and actions of these ultra-sophisticated and effective liars. They thrive on the muddled, confused and disorganized citizenry they have created through brilliantly deceptive marketing campaigns and we have allowed them to fight their fight in the arena where the biggest lie wins. They hide behind the banner of “free speech”. Meanwhile, we forget Oliver Wendel Holmes’ famous quote "free speech does not give anyone the right to falsely shout fire in a crowded theater".

It cannot be repeated often enough, we must circumvent their actions and inactions by revitalizing and aggressively using the truth in advertising and trust busting tools we already have at hand. Helping our friends and neighbors understand the basic truths is key; informed citizens are their worst enemy. With rare exceptions, huge power bases have never served those whose sweat and toil built them. Monopolistic businesses have never achieved anything but higher prices, poorer quality and service, and lost jobs; while syphoning off the profits to benefit the very few.

Until someone can explain the errors in my logic and analysis, and no one has even tried, it’s obvious that a loud and strong common voice demanding what is right is our only defense. “It is right for me” is the most dangerous phrase in the English language, it justifies “hooray for me, to hell with you”.

Aggressive enforcement of antitrust regulations is the single best weapon we have against these predators, through them we have the power to erase “it’s right for me”. There is only one “right” and it is neither conservative nor liberal.

Any fool can see that we cannot hope for a “top down” solution, so we need to do it from the bottom up, starting at the dining room table. First, we have to learn from the debilitating shout down “political debates” we see on the TV and realize they achieve nothing but to turn important opportunities for exchanging ideas into smoke screens of non-productive, emotion based verbal fist fights. This is one of the neurotoxins paralyzing our ability to fight back, and conspiracy theorists might argue that is a masterful way to cripple effective decent.

If the polls are right in saying we nearly universally detest what is happening in our government, then we have to act decisively to correct it and the opportunity is ripe. When we as a group recognize that this is the ONLY realistic way we have to revitalize a truly competitive free market system and a government that truly works for all of us, we can win back our country and what it represents. All we have to do is do it – from the bottom up, one carefully chosen step at a time!

October 2011 - The Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street clearly show what passionate and committed people standing up for what is right can do. The diversity of people "Occupying Wall Street" is mind blowing, but they all share the core values of our Founding Fathers.