Welcome to Politics @ Maitreg.com.  On this site you will find articles, documents, statistics, and other information on a variety of issues that support the host's conservative-libertarian views.  All feedback is welcome.

4/12/2009 - “The Sound of Music” in Central Station, Antwerp, Belgium

This is one of the greatest live performances ever!  Julie Andrews would be proud!

by maitreg | View/Comment

According to USA Today, About a dozen communities around the country are now printing and issuing their own currency, like the Detroit Cheers, Ithaca Hours, and Massachusetts Berkshares.

Although this practice did become widespread during the Great Depression, it was NOT because of bank closings, as the article mentions. Under the governship of Benjamin Strong before his untimely death before the Depression in 1928, the Federal Reserve of New York justifiably wielded its power to head off runs on banks by printing MORE currency and loaning more money to commercial banks and bank associations. This put a lot more currency in the hands of banks that customers thought were on the verge of collapsing.

Because of the nature of the industry, banks had access to only 5-10% of the cash needed to fulfill the withdrawal demands of every customer desposit. When customers got wind of a bank’s potential failure, they would rush to the bank to withdraw their own money. If the bank complied with every request, they were forced to seek emergency funds and loans from the Federal Reserve, other banks, or bank associations. So a bank run that wasn’t headed off could cause a domino effect. Strong's policy to supply the banks with a little more cash during bank runs saved dozens of bank closings during the 1920’s and actually delayed the Depression by at least 2 years.

After his death in 1928, the Federal Reserve, under EUROPEAN PRESSURE, was more scared about tiny fluctuations in inflation (that these emergency distributions of cash to banks caused) than they were about the closings of banks and the public's loss of confidence in the banking system. So when bank closings began in mid-1929, and in particular the collapse of the Bank of United States in New York in 1930, the Federal Reserve began REDUCING the printing of currency and loans to banks. This caused even more bank closings, eventually reaching into the thousands by 1933, costing Herbert Hoover the 1932 Presidential election.

So the Federal Reserve, under new direction and new policy at the beginning of the Depression was the REAL CULPRIT of the Depression, NOT PRIVATE BANKS. They simply didn't do their job and caused the largest economic failure in world history.

In response to a lack of federal notes, communities all over the United States started issuing their own currency. They saved a lot of local banks, local businesses, and jobs. But the Federal Government had created such a catastrophe; local banks and communities could only ride it out. And they would have helped end the Depression by 1936 if Roosevelt hadn't bankrupted the country with the "New Deal", precisely the formula that Obama is ruining the country with today.

Read the original article here: Communities print own currencies to keep cash flowing - USATODAY.com

by maitreg | View/Comment

As if the irrational, irresponsible, illogical, and gullible public needed more fuel on the fire of their unjust outrage over AIG’s 400-employee bonus program, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal tells anyone that will listen—so far, this includes CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and Associated Press—that AIG understated the total of its March bonuses by $53 million.

As it turns out, Blumenthal, and everyone working in the Connecticut Attorney General’s office, missed one small detail:  they included in their 2009 total the bonuses AIG distributed to employees and openly reported to the Treasury Department in 2008!

More:

• CNN:  Connecticut attorney general says AIG understated bonuses
• Bloomberg:  AIG Paid Out $218 Million in Bonuses, Blumenthal Tells WSJ
• L.A. Times:  Connecticut attorney general does the math on AIG bonuses
• MarketWatch:  AIG financial unit received $218 million in bonuses: report
• AP NewsBreak:  Conn. AG says AIG paid $218M in bonuses

by maitreg | View/Comment

When President-Elect Barack Obama arrived at the White House for the first time after the election, nobody really knew what to expect from him or his wife, Michelle.  But after seeing Obama walk with President Bush to their first presidential meeting, it's painfully obvious that Bush will take the last remnants of class with him.  As you can see from the video below, Bush demonstrates sophistication and a little grace, while Obama simply looks like a street thug in a suit.

How utterly embarrassing to the United States, democracy, and the electorate.

by maitreg | View/Comment

After taking over the Oval Office in 1977 during bad and worsening times, former President Jimmy Carter succeeded in making everything far worse and lost his 1980 re-election bid in a landslide to Ronald Reagan.  Lately he's been reviving his political career by befriending every leftist, murderous, tyrannical dictator in the world and validating their sham elections while never missing an opportunity while traveling to all of the countries of our sworn enemies to denounce every domestic and foreign U.S. policy in existence.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, one of the worst national leaders in world history, has led an ethnic cleansing of Zimbabwe's economic infrastructure over the past 15 years that has resulted in annual inflation rates exceeding 10,000%, mass starvation, cholera outbreaks, record joblessness, and record crime rates.  One would think that the recent history of these two men would create an instant child-like bond.  But no, Mugabe doesn't trust Carter and has refused him and communist Kofi Annan access to Zimbabwe while on a mission to "address the humanitarian crisis", which is a cleverly written expression by the group's public relations team that hides its more likely intentions:  to shore up Mugabe's political base and re-organize the effort to both literally and physically stamp out all political opponents, women's rights groups, and free market proponents.

Read more from the AP:  Carter, Annan, others refused entry to Zimbabwe - Yahoo! News

by maitreg | View/Comment

In the two days of trading on the NYSE since the presidential election, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) has lost a record-breaking 929.49 points.  After the Dow closed at 9625.28 on Election Day, Barack Obama was declared the winner of the 2008 Presidential Election just a few hours later.  The Dow responded by closing at 9139.27 (486.01 point loss) on Wednesday, then 8695.79 (443.48 point loss) on Thursday.  As of today, November 7, 2008, The Dow has not had a bigger two-day point loss in its 80-year history.

How does the percentage loss compare with historical losses?  It's almost as bad.  The 9.657% decline is the 13th worst in history and the worst since the market crash of Oct. '87.  In fact, as you can see below, excluding the week of Black Monday, the Dow's 2-day losses were the worst since the Great Depression.

	Date	2-day point change	2-day % change
1)	10/19/1987	-616.35	-26.171%
2)	10/29/1929	-71.15	-23.621%
3)	10/20/1987	-405.72	-18.058%
4)	11/6/1929	-41.38	-15.129%
5)	7/21/1933	-14.87	-14.356%
6)	10/28/1929	-38.83	-12.966%
7)	10/10/1932	-7.81	-11.783%
8)	7/20/1933	-12.41	-11.420%
9)	5/14/1940	-16.50	-11.397%
10)	11/12/1929	-26.79	-11.326%
11)	5/31/1932	-5.25	-10.502%
12)	11/13/1929	-21.70	-9.846%
13)	11/6/2008	-929.49	-9.657%

Source:  Yahoo! Finance

It's curious that the Obama supporters have been claiming that only Obama can "fix" the economy when the stock market, the backbone of the U.S. economy, is clearly preparing for the complete opposite.  I wish that only the Obama voters would get what they deserve, but unfortunately, as demonstrated on Wall Street this week, they're going to drag the rest of us down with them.

For all of you greedy baby-boomers out there that were so worried about your retirement savings under Bush and have been clamoring for "change"?  Don't come running to the rest of us to bail you out when your president of "change" wipes out the rest of your retirement by destroying confidence, taxing you up the wazoo, and saving Social Security by raiding your 401k's and IRA's!

Obama's election victory hasn't even been validated by Congress yet, and history is already looking poorly upon his administration.  In the 2012 election, when the GOP gets an easy victory over Obama, the only question will be which president did more damage to the U.S. economy:  Barack Obama or Jimmy Carter?

by maitreg | View/Comment

From USAToday.com...

Consider the game of chicken that plays out every day across Pennsylvania State Highway 441. In Marietta, where the road hugs the Susquehanna River, a Rutter's Farm Store gas station stands on one side, a Sheetz gas station on the other.

Kelly Bosley, who manages Rutter's, doesn't even have to look across the highway to know when Sheetz changes its price for a gallon of gas. When Sheetz raises prices, her own pumps are busy. When Sheetz lowers prices, she has not a car in sight.

She calls Rutter's headquarters to report the competition's new price and wait for instructions.

"I call a lot of times and say, 'They went down, hurry up! Hurry up! Call me! Call me!' Or it could be where theirs goes up, and I'll say, 'Take your time! You know, I like being busy.' But I have no control over that."

You think you feel helpless at the pump?

More:
What makes up the price of a gallon of gas? - USATODAY.com

by maitreg | View/Comment

Without getting into all of the Constitutional Amendments that have been violated by Texas authorities in the FLDS situation, I've noticed something peculiar about how efficiently CPS and local law enforcement were able to take 400+ children into custody.  Haven't government officials in nearly every state been telling us for years that they don't have the resources to handle a potential deportation of illegal aliens and they fear the moral dilemma of ripping families apart?  How strange now that Texas was able to whip up the resources to arrest innocent children, predicated on a phone call that may actually have been a hoax, and that they suddenly have no problem with ripping families apart?

One wonders that if these FLDS members had been either illegal aliens or anything other than Mormon, would this have ever happened?

by maitreg | View/Comment