The American Way

“If you want to find the source of an idiot’s problem, just look at the solution he keeps applying to try and solve it.”

Joel Bowman

The Rude Awakening

These holes are not only amazing, but some are really terrifying - especially #5.

The sheer scale of these holses reminds you of just how tiny you are.

1.  Kimberley Big Hole - South Africa

Apparently the largest ever hand-dug excavation in the world, this 1097 meter deep mine yielded over 3 tones of diamonds before being closed.

2.  Glory Hole - Monticello Dam, California

A glory hole is used when a dam is at full capacity and water needs to be drained from the reservoir.

This is the “Glory Hole” at Monticello Dam.  Its the largest in the world of this type of spillway.  Its size enables it to consume 14,400 cubic feet of water every second.

3.  Great Blue Hole, Belize.

This incredible geographical phenomenon known as a blue hole is situated 60 miles off the mainland of Belize.

There are numerous blue holes around the world, but none as stunning as this one.

4.  Sinkhole in Guatemala.

This photo is of a sinkhole that occurred early this year in Guatemala.  The hole swallowed 2 dozen homes and killed at least 3 people.

And the really terrifying one!

5.  The Rat Hole.

This is the famous “Rat Hole” that you have heard about in D.C.

It is capable of swallowing trillions and trillions of Federal Reserve Notes annually, never to be heard from again.

Reputed to contain at least 535 ass-holes.

Dear Reader,

This is something everyone should think about and consider…

Separating People From Government
Linguistic Tools For
Seeing Your World More Clearly

Dear A-Letter Reader,

On the advice of the good doctor Ron Paul, I’ve made a few changes to the way I speak and write over the last few years. And one of those changes has helped make a crucial difference in the way I see and think about our country…

Dr. Paul insists that when we’re talking about our government, we say “The U.S. government” and not simply, “the US,” as you’ll often hear in the foreign media. So – for example – instead of talking about how “the U.S. plans to spend a trillion in stimulus,” you say “the U.S. government plans to spend a trillion in stimulus…”

It sounds like a miniscule change…something you’ll barely notice at first. But over the coming weeks and months, it will help you to make a critical distinction in your mind. The distinction between the people of the United States and their elected representatives.

It will remind you that those entities are separate. That one’s decision doesn’t necessarily imply the complicit cooperation of the other. That the elected officials of the U.S. don’t carry some kind of universal, unanimous mandate of the people.

This might sound a little fractious…a little rebellious or even *gasp* against the grain of blind nationalism. But then again nationalism and the truth never made for great bedfellows.

The Sovereign Society

 Good Morning and Great Day…

How many times have you said to yourself…. “How am I going to do this?” This is a perennial
question to all of us. Where have you gotten stuck in your thinking and by buying into your
stuckness have let opportunity pass you by because of some fear about not knowing enough,
being enough, didn’t know where to begin, weren’t quite ready, and on and on. The only way to reach the goal you set for yourself is to begin it NOW by taking a first step towards it no matter whether you know the final answers or not. Action will create momentum and momentum will create an ability to forge through any adversity you perceive is in your way. Just remember one thing There’s Always a Way for you to have all you desire. The answers are right within you so stop telling yourself you can’t and start telling I CAN!

Everywhere you are there is a power and presence that is aligned with the magnificence of who you are.

This power is infinite in its wisdom, imagination, creativity, and desire to bring out in you the best that you can be. No matter what may appear on the surface you have all the tools to have and build the LIFE you dream about. Remember one thing. You wouldn’t be able to dream something if you didn’t already have that dream inside of you. Is is so easy to give up and throw in the towel when you come up against a challenge you think is insurmountable. That’s the very time you must ramp up your desire for success and find the ways you need to turn those challenges into opportunities. You can do it. No matter what you my think about hard situations you always have the choice to think of the solutions to get you through them.

There’s Always a Way to make your day the very best it can be when you start to say yes to all the excellence you are and step into the spirit that brought you here express all the greatness you are.

“The flow of life doesn’t make decisions to create hardships for anyone…. those hardships are
created by the limited thinking that we decide is our truth…however our real truth is that we are
abundant, prosperous and gifted with all the tools to accomplish anything we decide to do…listen to yourself so
the story you hear is one of complete desire to fulfill all the success you can dream about.”

I AM infinite abundance
I AM infinite prosperity
I AM magnificence and excellence
I AM the flow of creativity
I AM a discoverer of my greatness
I AM committed to my success
I AM Free Right NOW To Be ME

It’s your day…MAKE IT A GREAT ONE!

Paul Hoffman

All this talk about “stimulus packages” and “bailouts”…

A billion dollars…

A hundred billion dollars…

Eight hundred billion dollars…

One TRILLION dollars…

What does that look like? I mean, these various numbers are tossed around like so many dogie treats, so I let’s try to get a sense of what exactly a trillion dollars looks like.

Start with a $100 dollar bill. Currently the largest U.S. denomination in general circulation. Most everyone has seen them, slightly fewer have owned them. Guaranteed to make friends wherever they go.

A packet of one hundred $100 bills is less than 1/2″ thick and contains $10,000. Fits in your pocket easily and is more than enough for week or two of shamefully decadent fun.

While a measly $1 million looked a little unimpressive, $100 million is a little more respectable. It fits neatly on a standard pallet…

And $1 BILLION dollars… now we’re really getting somewhere…

Next we’ll look at ONE TRILLION dollars. This is that number we’ve been hearing so much about. What is a trillion dollars? Well, it’s a million million. It’s a thousand billion. It’s a one followed by 12 zeros.

You ready for this?

It’s pretty surprising.

Go ahead…

Scroll down…

Ladies and gentlemen… I give you $1 trillion dollars…

Note the guy at far left…and those pallets are double stacked.

So the next time you hear someone toss around the phrase “trillion dollars”… that’s what they’re talking about.

Good Morning and Great Day…

You can have everything you want. No matter where you are on the learning line of life all the resources you need are always available to you so that you can reach the destination you are seeking powerfully. You just need to call them to you. Did you know that once you set your intention and speak it with conviction and hold a strong and unwavering belief the universe will set in motion the flow of LIFE so that you receive all that is already destined to make your desires manifest in all the ways you can think them  into reality?  By being the very thing you are intending to become there can be no other way than total success in the efforts you put forth for your goals to become real.

When you Become Your Destination your destination becomes all of the presence
and power you commit it to be.

In life we all have ups and downs, feelings of being unsure about a course of action,
ways in which we can talk ourselves out of doing something, being susceptible to others
points of view of how we should be and many other roadblocks that inhibit and deny our true calling to be brought forth. Sometimes we call this weakness. I call it a lack of commitment to the inner calling that is seeking to express itself as our authentic self. Whether it comes from some fear or a doubt about one’s ability the result is the same. We get thrown off course by the limited thinking of such beliefs and therefore we give in to mediocrity and sameness.
I know we all have a burning desire within to achieve greatness in the passion for excellence that calls for us to have it all. Become Your Destination in all you do. Align yourself with all the things you need to accomplish your goal. Think powerful and positive thoughts and above all believe in yourself because when you do all of LIFE will as well. You are destined for greatness which is why you are here so you might as well step into that and become the very thing you hold in your dreams.

“There is no thing that can stand in between what you see for yourself… except if you can’t see it….
and if you can’t see it it’s only because your not looking in the right place.”

The magnificence of LIFE is etched on my soul
My heart is home to the passion in me
I see abundance everywhere I look
I know that I AM ready to have it all
Within me is a burning desire for excellence
I claim my destiny by setting my intention to
Become the Destination I choose to be

It’s your day… MAKE IT A GREAT ONE

Paul Hoffman

OKLAHOMA BLONDES

Two blondes living in Oklahoma were sitting on a bench talking, and one blonde says to the other,

‘Which do you think is farther away…  Florida or the moon?

The  other  blonde turns  and  says ‘Helloooooooooo, can you see Florida ?????

……….

CAR TROUBLE

A blonde pushes her BMW into a gas station. She tells the mechanic it died.  After he works on it for a few minutes, it is idling smoothly.

She says, ‘What’s the story?’

He replies, ‘Just crap in the carburetor’

She asks, ‘How often do I have to do that?’

……….

SPEEDING TICKET

A police officer stops a blonde for speeding and asks her very nicely if he could see her license.

She replied in a huff, ‘I wish you guys would get your act together.
Just yesterday you take away my license and then today you expect me to show it to you!’

……….

RIVER WALK

There’s this blonde out for a walk. She comes to a river and sees another blonde on the opposite bank ‘Yoo-hoo!’ she shouts, ‘How can I get to the other side?’

The second blonde looks up the river then down the river and shouts back, ‘You ARE on the other side.’

……….

AT THE DOCTOR’S OFFICE

A gorgeous young redhead goes into the doctor’s office and said that her body hurt wherever she touched it.

‘Impossible!’ says the doctor. ‘Show me.’

The redhead took her finger, pushed on her left shoulder and screamed, then she pushed her elbow and screamed even more. She pushed her knee and screamed; likewise she pushed her ankle and screamed. Everywhere she touched made her scream.

The doctor said, ‘You’re not really a redhead, are you?

‘Well, no’ she said, ‘I’m actually a blonde.’

‘I thought so,’ the doctor said, ‘Your finger is broken.’

……….

KNITTING

A highway patrolman pulled alongside a speeding car on the freeway. Glancing at the car, he was astounded to see that the blonde behind the wheel was knitting!

Realizing that she was oblivious to his flashing lights and siren, the trooper cranked down his window, turned on his bullhorn and yelled, ‘PULL OVER!’

‘NO!’ the blonde yelled back, ‘IT’S A SCARF!’

……….

BLONDE ON THE SUN

A Russian, an American, and a Blonde were talking one day.

The Russian said, ‘We were the first in space!’

The American said, ‘We were the first on the moon!’

The Blonde said, ‘So what? We’re going to be the first on the sun!’  The Russian and the American looked at each other and shook their heads.

‘You can’t land on the sun, you idiot! You’ll burn up!’ said the Russian.

To which the Blonde replied, ‘We’re not stupid, you know. We’re going at night!’

……….

IN A VACUUM

A blonde was playing Trivial Pursuit one night.. It was her turn. She rolled the dice and she landed on Science & Nature. Her question was, ‘If you are in a vacuum and someone calls your name, can you hear it?’ She thought for a time and then asked, ‘Is it on or off?’

……….

BLONDE JOKE TO END ALL BLONDE JOKES

A girl was visiting her blonde friend, who had acquired two new dogs, and asked her what their names were. The blonde responded by saying that one was named Rolex and one was named Timex. Her friend said, ‘Whoever heard of someone naming dogs like that?’  ‘HELLLOOOOOOO……,’ answered the blonde. ‘They’re watch dogs’

……….

Dear Reader,

Last week, the New York Times proposed “10 Questions Bank CEO’s Should Face.” Among them:

“The Treasury has proposed a $500,000 cap on executive compensation… Many of you have complained that you will lose your top talent. Are those the same people that helped lose your banks billions?”

Oh, you jokers at the NYT . Touché!

Yes, it’s “open season” on bankers. And check the new dictionary. The word ‘banker’ has become synonymous with “reptile” or “scalawag.” Drivers will soon be using it on the street. “F**** banker!” they will yell to the car that cuts them off. “Scumbag Millionaires,” the Sun called them.

English bankers got slapped around on Monday. Then, on Wednesday, it was the Americans’ turn. They were summoned to Washington by Congressman Barney Frank; be prepared for a “public flogging,” the New York Times warned them.

In Paris, meanwhile, the bankers tried to stay ahead of the lynch mob by proposing to cut their own bonuses.

Everybody wants to kick the bankers when they are on the ground. Heck, we’d do it too…but the crowd around them is so thick; we can’t get a boot in edgewise. Besides, there are bigger charlatans still standing. After all, bankers were just doing their jobs – separating fools from their money. What about those who were supposed to be protecting the fools?

But we are in a depression. And everyone has to play his part. The politicians feign moral outrage. The bankers feign contrition. The spectators feign to know what was going on and have a good time. It’s a show with a subplot, we think. In the interest of seditious mischief, here we undertake to deconstruct it.

First we begin with a critic’s remark: this is a well-rehearsed storyline. When the losers are unhorsed, they are almost always spat upon. Louis 16th’s severed head was held up and subjected to “atrocious and indecent gestures”…Mussolini was hung on a lamp post. The bankers seem to be getting off easy.

Now, a comparison: the farce of ’09 is nothing compared to the great show put on following the ’29 crash. The weakness of the present spectacle is the cast. The chief American protagonist – Barney Frank – is no match for his role model, Ferdinand Pecora. Pecora was “the most brilliant lawyer of Italian extraction in the US,” said the TIME magazine report of March 6, 1933. He “finished public schools at 12. At 18, after loping through his brother’s law books, he was managing clerk of a law firm. Even on the most complex cases (which he, tireless, likes best) he never needs notes, never forgets a word of testimony once it is on the record… At 47, his black eyes flash, his black hair bristles.”

But then, the victims are no match for Charles Edwin Mitchell either. “Billion Dollar Charlie” earned more than a million dollars in ’29, when a million dollars was still real money. Senator Carter Glass said that he “more than 50 other men is responsible for this stock crash.” But, as TIME reported, “neither the directors nor any other Manhattan banker knew anyone who, they believed, could do an equally good job of carrying the bank safely through storm and strife. That he has done the job, Ferdinand Pecora would be the last to deny. The statement of National City Bank [Mitchell’s] was, on Dec. 31, 1932, the envy of nearly every bank in the US.”

Still, the depression was on and Mitchell was damned for it. By 1933, he was out of a job. And now Jamie Dimon, Lord Stevenson, Andy Hornby, John Mack, Vikram Pandit, and Sir Fred Goodwin are in the dock.

‘Yes, we have erred and strayed like lost sheep,’ the bankers chant. “We are profoundly, and I think I would say unreservedly, sorry…” said Lord Stevenson, formerly of HBOS, on Tuesday. But “UK bankers find sorry is not enough,” judged a headline on Wednesday morning. “I want groveling,” wrote an opinionist to the LA Times . “I want show-trial sweating and stammering. I want their nine-figure bonus checks endorsed over to the rest of us…I want blood…”

Be careful not to over-act, is our advice. Viewers might catch on. In London, the Guardian announced its own 12 questions to put to the bankers, including “why should profits be private, but losses be socialized?” Uh…that is a good question, but it is put to the wrong person. Why the bankers would want to offload their mistakes is a question even a Guardian reader could answer. Why else would they humiliate themselves publicly? Why would not a one of them dare show any fight? The pols control the money now; the bankers know it.

The question is better put to the inquisitor than to his victim. Why would the government wish to take on the losses? There, the answer is fairly easy too – power. Besides, it’s not their money; it belongs to the same mouth-breathing yahoos who are enjoying the show. In fact, we have other questions we’d like to put to Barney Frank, John McFall and the rest of these sanctimonious meddlers: How many of you jackasses went short the financial sector? And if you’re so smart, why didn’t you warn the public about the housing bubble and the toxic asset meltdown? If your committees…and your armies of regulators at the SEC, FHA, FDIC, FSA or other agencies…could do nothing to prevent the crisis, what good are they? And how cometh it to be that the biggest financial fraud of all time took place right under your own employees’ noses?

So you see, dear reader, how deliciously the plot turns? In the bubble years, the bankers ripped off the public…pretending to make them rich, of course…while the regulators looked the other way. Now, the politicians create a distraction, pretending to punish the bankers, while together they pick the public’s pocket for $3 or $4 trillion more. The bankers are judged guilty; but the audience hangs.

Enjoy your weekend,

Bill Bonner
The Daily Reckoning

Dear Reader,

“You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom.

What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation.

You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”

~~~ The late Dr. Adrian Rogers , 1931 to 2005 ~~~

“Shopping has become a patriotic duty in America,” writes Tom Leonard in the Telegraph .

Remind us how that works again…

Let’s see, the Wall Street insiders made billions in bonuses and fees during the Bubble Epoque – and they were smart enough to take the money off the table. Then, when the bubble popped, they were a little short of money down at the shop. And since they didn’t have any money, they couldn’t lend any. And since they couldn’t lend, well, Americans couldn’t borrow…and since they couldn’t borrow…they couldn’t shop…and since they couldn’t shop…the whole kit and caboodle of the U.S. economy came to a halt.

Worse, it started going into reverse. According to the official numbers, it went backwards 0.5% in the 3rd quarter.

And because businesses are selling anything, profits are falling…and investors are pulling out their money.

Last week, it looked like the much-anticipated Obama Bounce had finally gotten off the ground. But Monday, it was back into the mud. The Dow lost 679 points yesterday. Oil fell $5. Gold dropped 8 bucks to $770.

And get this: the yield on a 10-year T-note has fallen to 2.719%. We believe that is the lowest level ever recorded.

Bloomberg says the recession actually began in 2007. That means it is already the longest recession in nearly 20 years.

And it’s not just in the United States. Shipping has sunk. Manufacturing in Britain has had it biggest drop since the early ’90s. And house prices in the United Kingdom are back to where they were three years ago. India reports the first decline it in its exports in seven years. And in Iceland, people are holding rallies to “protest the economic meltdown.”

If you lived in Iceland, you’d think you’d be pleased to have a meltdown of any sort. The Icelanders are clearly wasting their time. Meltdowns are inevitable. They’re just part of the process of capitalism – wiping out mistakes so it can get on with things. They might just as well protest death…

But all over the world, people are getting edgy…depressed…worried…

O! Bama! Where is thy bounce?

Of course, everybody thinks we have a big problem on our hands. And they’re pretty sure what caused it – too much borrowing and too much spending in the bubble years.

The funny thing is that most people also are pretty sure that if we don’t start shopping more, things will get even worse.

And that’s where we come up short. But you’ll have to excuse us because we’re just a country lawyer… Or, we would be a country lawyer…if we lived in the country…and if we were a lawyer.

Well, what we’re really trying to say is that we’re a little slow, here at The Daily Reckoning . Sometimes we just can’t keep up with these smart fellas from the big city…

Let’s try again.

The U.S. government borrows money from taxpayers…gives it to Wall Street so they can lend it back to the taxpayers at a profit. Wall Street borrows ‘our money’ from the Fed at, say, 1%…then they lend it back to us at, say, 6% or 7%. That way, Wall Street makes money and we can still borrow what we need.

Nice system huh?

And take that Hank Paulson…please! Now, there’s a big city guy we admire. He made a fortune running Goldman, right up until he was tapped to run the U.S. Treasury. He knows all about those CDOs, SIVs, MBDs, – heck, he probably knows every letter in the entire alphabet. And he’s used them too – putting together those fancy sub-prime investments and such.

Well, that’s why he was the perfect guy to be the honcho at the Treasury Department. He knows all about that toxic investments that are causing so much trouble – after all, his firm created them.

Of course, if you ask him, he’ll deny it. He’ll say it was just some rogue investment engineers down in the basement who did all the bad stuff. He was attending important meetings and saving nature; how was he supposed to know what they were up to? Yes…he was the CEO. But c’mon…no chief exec can keep up with all that alphabet stuff, can they?

But that’s the kind of guy you want running the economy, right? Keeps his eye on the big picture…not distracted by the details…

And then there’s his replacement, Tim Geithner. We know he’s the man for the job. Why? Because he’s got experience. He’s been on the case for years. As head of the Fed in New York, he was right there while all those investment scientists were conducting their experiments…he was practically right in the room – keeping a watchful eye open – when they ran those fancy linear regression models…mixed in some subprime mortgage debt…and then tossed in a whole ton of fizzy derivatives. Nobody really knew what happened next. The windows blew out and a cloud of smoke rose so high in the air you could see it from New Jersey. But heck, it wasn’t his fault the stuff blew up!

And since these guys know so much about how we got ourselves into this crisis, they are clearly the ones to help us get out… Makes sense, right?

Sure, they’re going to give money to their old friends back on Wall Street…and do everything in their power to prevent the cost of living from going down…

…and of course they’ll be encouraging people to borrow and spend… then people can spend more money they don’t have on more things they don’t need. And then they’ll be deeper in debt than ever before.

…But that must be just the way this money thing works. We shouldn’t be so thick about it…

Bill Bonner
The Daily Reckoning