A sit-in called, “Occupy Wall Street,” that purportedly is calling attention to corporate greed, excessive government spending and selfishness, is demanding a change in the way the U.S. is doing things and how the resulting poverty must be eliminated. It is an effort to essentially stir things up and even things out. The protest, that is in its second week, seems to have taken a cue from Greece and, yes, Egypt.

While a good majority of Americans might agree that changes need to be made, the public seems to have missed a basic point of this ‘occupation’ that the media managed to yank out of view and conceal once a glimpse of it was observed.

Amongst the picket signs were seen, “Capitalism Must End,” ‘Abolish Capitalism.” and others regarding the economy. Those picket signs suddenly vanished.

Going back in history, one man in particular despised capitalism, Karl Marx, who was determined to nullify this monetary system, which he detailed in his books, Das Capital, and The Communist Manifesto.

Marx’s ideology could be persuasive to hearers but has proved to be totally unworkable in real life. It looked good on paper and in compelling theory, but impractical in reality.

At least two of the Wall Street demonstrators were seen carrying red flags, the Communist color, but those scenes were quickly scrubbed as well. Buzz words of the Communist Party such as, ‘Social Justice,” and “Equality” were heard. read more »

Although you probably already knew this intuitively, and it certainly comes as no shock given the enormous spending increases, it turns out that government is a bigger part of our economy than ever...and the private economy is a smaller part than ever: (via USA Today)

Paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S. history during the first quarter of this year, a USA TODAY analysis of government data finds.

At the same time, government-provided benefits — from Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other programs — rose to a record high during the first three months of 2010.

Those records reflect a long-term trend accelerated by the recession and the federal stimulus program to counteract the downturn. The result is a major shift in the source of personal income from private wages to government programs. ... read more »

"May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob set you securely on high! May he send you help from the sanctuary, and support you from Zion." - Psalms 20:1-2 (NAS)

"The Lord will be a stronghold for the oppressed, A stronghold in times of trouble, and those who know Thy name will put their trust in Thee; For
Thou, O Lord, hast not forsaken those who seek Thee." - Psalms 9:9-10 (NAS)

To Our Prayer Partners,  read more »

"And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him." - 1 John 5:14-15 (NAS)

"... Casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you." - 1 Peter 5:7 (NAS)

"... For he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him." - Hebrews 11:6a (NAS)

To Our Prayer Partners,

We are now in the season when our nation comes together for a day to storm heaven for America. We are asking each of you to pray and contact your elected officials on Thursday, May 6th.

A United States Federal Judge has ruled our National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional. There is a Bipartisan group working to overturn this ruling and we thank the Lord for each of these men and women that are taking a strong stand for prayer.

Our elected officials in DC are considering a new Supreme Court Justice.  Please lift this critical appointment up in prayer. Pray for a born again believer and one that takes a strong stand against the abortion issues.

Continue to pray about the health care reform and what is best for our nation and each citizen living in America. Agree with me that the devil cannot rob or steal another thing from the American people. Bind the devil and cast him out and release Godly Holy Spirit favor and blessing on America and each elected official and each citizen in Jesus name. read more »

Did Barack Obama accidentally admit what he thinks about capitalism?  Perhaps.  This week he was out on his latest political swing, making speeches to push the benefits of things like the "stimulus", ObamaCare and the Democrats version of financial regulation reform.  In the course of his travels he happened to make a speech were he seems to have gone a little "off script".

He stated:

"We're not, we're not trying to push financial reform because we begrudge success that's fairly earned. I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money. But, you know, part of the American way is, you know, you can just keep on making it if you're providing a good product or providing good service. We don't want people to stop, ah, fulfilling the core responsibilities of the financial system to help grow our economy."

Since when is at any business of anyone in government whether or not an individual has earned enough?  And on what basis should they make that determination? read more »

Remember "Jobs, jobs, jobs"?  That's what Obama and the Democrats told us they were going to focus on a few months ago after that big upset win by Scott Brown in Massachusetts, (after he campaigned almost exclusively against ObamaCare).

Well not only have they not changed their focus to jobs, we've spent another two months mired in debating their health care takeover scheme.  And now comes a study from Americans for Tax Reform and the Beacon Hill Institute that projects ObamaCare would cost the economy around 700,000 jobs by 2019.

Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, has urged
passage of the massive health reform plan moving through Congress as a
way to create up to 400,000 jobs.  Speaker Pelosi bases her claim on a
report by the Center for American Progress (CAP) in which the Center
estimates that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)
would create 250,000 to 400,000 jobs per year over 10 years.

This estimate by CAP amounts to a hurried effort to add academic
heft to the claim that national health care reform offers a collateral
benefit in the form of an economic “stimulus.” It turns out, however,
that its methodology, stripped of unsupportable claims about savings in
health care costs, shows just the opposite of what CAP intended. PPACA
is a job killer, not a job creator. read more »

On this day  --  exactly three years from the day on which Sarah Palin or Mike Huckabee or Tim Pawlenty or some other Reaganite Republican will probably be elected president  --  many Americans were shocked (but not Reaganites,) that Barack Obama's unemployment rate has now reached a massive 10.2% of the American people unemployed.   

Yet, Obama and his acolytes were promising (and threatening) Blue Dog Democrats that if they did not vote for Obama's  TRILLION dollar (with interest) so-called stimulus bill, the unemployment rate would go above 8%.  So many of the Blue Dog Democrats and other Democrats occupying the 80-plus congressional seats won by President George W. Bush or by Senator John McCain were intimidated and actually voted for the Obama stimulus bill last February.   

And what do they have to show for their vote?  Massive unemployment and some additional 3 million Americans who have lost their jobs since the passage of the Obama stimulus bill.  This week, to make fiscal matters worse, the Democrats in the United States Senate even voted to extend the unemployment benefits of $300 each week for a total of 99 weeks (almost 2 years) to further increase the gargantuan national debt, now approaching $12 TRILLION dollars.    read more »

After almost a year of big, new spending proposals - to say nothing of the tab that will come along with government run health care - the White House is signaling that this year's one and a half trillion dollar deficit might be a political problem that needs to be dealt with after all. 

It's a good bet that what this really represents is their recognition of what's happening in elections in Virginia, New Jersey and New York - and their trying to inoculate themselves against similar political damage in the future.

From the Washington Times... 

Anxiety about the deficit has fueled the anger of the conservative "tea party" activists, riled by government spending and debt, and it has seeded reservations about the long-term price tags of signature items on the president's agenda...

A speech last week by Christina D. Romer, chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, looked at the reasons for the deficit and at how it relates to health care reform. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday to make clear that the administration recognizes the deficit is growing too large.

"Well, it's going to have to come down. Now it's too high, and I think everybody understands this," Mr. Geithner said. "The president's very committed to bring down these deficits."  read more »

In a previous post entitled "Banking 101", I explained that the U.S. banking industry engages in fractional banking. This means that only a small amount of the money "deposited" in a bank is required to be kept in the bank's vault. Most of the money is loaned to other customers.

When a customer obtains a loan - let's say for $1,000 - the bank records the amount of that loan as an asset because the bank will collect interest on the loan. The amount of the loan - $1,000 -is also recorded as a liability by the bank because the money is now in circulation. The banks books are in balance (pay-out of $1,000 equals the loan asset of $1,000).

If the borrower is unable to make payments on the loan it ceases to be a bank "asset" and the $1,000 loan asset disappears from the bank's books. The $1,000 liability remains, however, because the money is circulating through the economy. read more »