THE REASON FOR OUR NATIONAL DEBT

Many people have asked how is it we have racked up 20 Trillion on our national debt? This is a deep and incredibly misunderstood subject. Not all of what I am about to say is the entire cause, but it has been a huge contributor.

The simple answer is WALL STREET and WAR. In order to save this nation after the last financial crisis that occurred in 2008, where 10.6 Trillion was lost by the year 2010. Chairman Ben Bernanke’s choices, although criticized by many in this country was really left with no other choice but to give a bail out.

When Banks sought out ‘Mortgage backed securities’, hereinafter referred to as MBS in order to expand their loan portfolios at decreased risk in harmony with the FDIC, which started around 1994, it was seen as an appropriate vehicle to encourage growth and expand trade. Hence the successful years under the Clinton administration and Alan Greenspan. Little would we know that by the year 2008 this would all end in disaster, owing to one major factor?

As with all things this starts gradually, banks make money MBS’s make money and a necessary stimulus has been implemented. With time this started to become a very successful model to develop and expand the housing industry.

Others on Wall Street saw this as an absolute winner for growth.  Many new investors, saw lucrative returns with companies, like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Chase, Bear Sterns, Lehman Bros. and so on. At the turn of the millennium new MBS companies started, also commonly known as hedge funds.  Herein lay the key factor that started what has been called, the sub prime mortgage. These unregulated financial entities saw an opportunity to loan money at greater risk. With higher interest rates and increasing house prices, where was the down side?   The man in the street saw this as an option to own a home, and for those that had homes, it was now an option to own a second home, for investment purposes. Housing, what could be more solid than a growing market place, where housing with this new found financing was available to be a great investment?

The market place started to kick off in a big way. Construction was growing, people were buying and selling as prices rose, money was being made, by construction companies, home owners, real estate brokers, banks, MBS’s and so on. But with all great schemes there comes a day of reckoning. With the growth of private investment, hedge funds, MBS’s and the like, there seemed to be no end to the potential. Its journey was exponential.

In 2004, the housing expansion started to slow as house prices had reached an all time high! Some houses had doubled and tripled in value. Loans had been easy to get based on having a reasonable credit score, this shadow banking financial community was not regulated like the banks, and Alan Greenspan fought hard against this happening. The result was as the houses had been purchased with no fixed term, or fixed annual percentage rate, known as an APR.  Interest rates started to rise. Now with the new higher interest rates on houses that were much higher than their original price, selling was becoming increasingly difficult. Even what I will call the unregulated financial funders were starting to feel the pinch, they too were being backed by other hedge funds in order to share the risk. It was like a bunch of bookmakers placing and defaulting their risks.

All was well until 2007, when mortgage holders started to default. The complex funding community had so many facets it’s beyond explanation in this blog. The worldwide investments from individuals and corporations had become so complex that no one could see the truly exposed entity, should there be a crisis. Yet the funding community was fraudulently, still selling investments on Wall Street, all believing there would be no end to this ‘Golden Goose’ that laid the egg!

In 2006 Wall Street paid out 23.9 Billion in bonuses to executives!!! Life was good and no one could see and end in sight. Except for the people in high places and a group of smart young men, starting out, from the ‘Ivy league’ Colleges. They in turn bet against their own company in a process know as shorting. So make money on the way up and make it on the way down? I won’t explain shorting here, but in simple terms its buying shares that you believe will go down. Many off shore companies were created for that purpose.

As interest rates grew, mortgage holders fell into default and foreclosure. The collapse seen by the top and the bottom, but not all those in between, became reality. Lehman Brothers were the first to be widely known, amongst other lesser-known entities.

Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac were backed by the government. Wall Street knew there would be a bailout! And you know who ended up paying for all this?

YES YOU, not Obama or his administration. The solution? Print more money, keep interest rates low, keep jobs, otherwise the nation was headed for a worse recession than the “GREAT DEPRESSION’, of 1929.

This behavior on Wall Street resulted in only ONE ARREST, a man from Credit Suisse!!!

In addition the war in Iraq and Afghanistan has added another 4 Trillion… is it no wonder we have this debt? So stop blaming the last 8 years, for our country’s debt, and wake up to reality. The politicians could well be asked about Wall Street, and what has been done, that’s for sure. With bonuses still being paid out to executives in vast corporations and financial entities to the tune of millions, one must ask the question who really runs the country behind super pacts and lobbyists?

So Mr. Trump I hope you are up for the task, and you can deliver on all your promises?

  

   

 

THE WORLD STAGE IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Certainly a time for even greater change than the human race has ever known. The advancement from the digital age into genetics is all encompassing! The challenges of ISIL, certainly brings to all of us a new understanding that’s not easily overcome?  We can carpet bomb like we did in Viet Nam and Iraq, and as Russia has tried to do in Northern Syria, does it work, NO. So what is the answer? You may well ask. Since mankind has existed we have developed equipment to attack, survive and in response we build to defend, and so the constant spiral has led us to today.

So what is the answer to what can only be described as a virus that spreads because of hatred? Its when there’s apathy we are truly lost. “Love and hate are but horns upon the same bull!” So hate is the opposite side of love. In science we work to eradicate a virus by engineering a vaccine /antidote, to neutralize the invader. So right here, lies a message that we can learn from nature. War, what a useless, but in some cases a necessary evil Have we not come this far, to not realize that all these measures are temporary and not lasting.

We continue to travel the Ferris wheel of Karma, repeating the same mistakes again and again, only to achieve power and territorial control as a result of our fears. The world is truly a complex place, of our own making. “The first is only as good as the last”, in order to reverse this animosity, change must take place in our hearts and minds.

People attracted to a cause like ISIL, choose this dark way of life not through logic, but through what they perceive as injustice, being left out, not cared for. Money and power that travels with the so-called good and just, have to change their paradigm of life. Otherwise it will always be them and us. Look into our own families, how many of us have perfect relations with our family or friends, why because we continue to punish our brothers and sisters for their mistakes. THE BLAME GAME, which we choose not to forget, because they are who they are?

Has the world advanced, yes! Spiritually NO! The world will continue to have these dynamics until mankind recognizes that without love and compassion, it will just advance as it always has from the bow and arrow! The world of protecting territory, through fear.

I was fascinated by the documentary on CNN about Iceland. Here’s a nation of peaceful coexistence, non religious, but spiritually aware, most nations would balk at the fact of no marriage and having children, from other relations living under the same roof, with a man and a woman. It appears to work. I’m not prescribing socialism, far from it. I come from a long line of entrepreneurs since the Boer wars of the 1890’s. I am hardened capitalist, where I believe people should pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Yet I look at Scandinavia, and other more peaceful parts of the world, Canada to some extent. Where racial integration does work, and a fairer distribution of wealth exists. Jesus Christ never started a church; he considered the planet as a whole. St. Paul was the main builder of Christianity after Jesus’s life, more so than the legend of St. Peter who became the founding rock of the Roman Catholic Church.

Have we lost our way? Should we not zoom out and start to see things differently, and bring this world into a higher understanding of humanity, and awareness of people’s deficiencies and excesses? Have we not had enough practice, or is it always going to be an “eye for an eye”?

We can follow our Lord and all be great citizens of the planet, but “Oh no please don’t take away all the things I’ve worked so hard for. God did not mean us to be without, but where do our hearts truly lie?”

So Mr. Trump, “all for me and none for you”, in the name of America! Or Mr. Sanders lets feed them all, teach them all and give free health? Where’s the cash coming from? There lies a balance, but it remains abundantly clear that we must bring up the rear.

Cartoon by: Gary Varvel-IndyStar

For America to advance in today’s world, we must stay true to innovation, investing in R&D, to remain at the top of technological advancement, that’s going at a screaming pace in the world. Gone are the days of making shoes and the like, unless massive investment is made in equipment, or robotics, jobs lie in the afore mentioned.

The third world can run circles around us. So Mr. Trump import tariffs on imported goods, is not the answer. We are in a Global economy! Invest in what we do well. For our exports ‘are the key’ to any country’s future success. Cross train people into knew jobs, and don’t underestimate the purchasing power of the United States. This not only allows the public at large to buy goods and services at lower prices than other parts of the world, but also recognize how many people come here from other parts of the world, who bring tourism and buy products here at lower prices, which is another form of export called invisible exports. If we start to work with a different mind set, we can find a way to enter a more peaceful age on this planet. Who knows, this maybe the beginning?

In my books I attempt to write about families that started modestly only to gain honors, but few last the generations to keep their founding values. Greed, power, the physical temptations of life can lead us astray. It creates a dynamic tapestry for my books, but behind my writings lays a distinct message interwoven for all my characters’ journey. Having written two books and almost finished the third, I will have completed this trilogy that’s taken me almost five years.

It has been my love and passion, to finally write, after an extremely fast and furious pace in my life. I will miss my characters, but will write more other stories that span across the ages, with my love of history and those that can and do stay the course. Recognizing we are only the keepers and stewards of the vineyard, and through it all, pass onto the next generation values that have surpassed the test of time.