The silicon valley job boom from the Clinton years started to abate in 2000, and by January 2001 as you can see job losses started to occur dramatically. By 2003 it has reached a high, then started to decreased. This was due to what happened in the housing/mortage industry which I will explain later. Jobs were being created due to the housing boom that was being artifically created by putting people in houses using unscrupulous methods of low teaser rates of 2% or less for 3 or 5 years that would change after that. More about that later.

• Over 8.4 million jobs have been permanately loss from 2000 to 2008 years in the manufacturing sectors and related busineses they supported. Some of these jobs which paid an average of $14-$18 an hour have been replaced with $7.50 to $8.00 an hour jobs at Wal-Mart, fast foods outlets and service related jobs. And many of these jobs work employees only 30 hours a week, especially Wal-Mart to keep from having to provide health-care insurance benefits to these employees. In 2004, I wrote the following about Wal-Mart:
  
  

• Beginning in late 2000, to win Wal-Mart's business, suppliers were forced to close U.S. factories and source overseas, with millions of American jobs lost in the process. Wal-Mart alone accounts for 10 percent of all imports from China, and its shelves bear little trace of the "Buy America" philosophy of its founder. No other area has felt the "Wal-Mart effect" more than retailing. The retail giant now accounts for 35% of food sales, 30% of consumer staples, 25% of drug store products and 15% of magazines, books and apparel. Entire Chambers of Commerce have been wiped out with the arrival of a new "superstore," while "greeting customers at Wal-Mart" has replaced "hamburger flipping" in the national debate over wages and trade. Because of the large food market Walmart has captured, stores such as Safeway, Albertson's and Kroger are barely surviving. The pricing cutting that Wal-Mart has done in food to "run" the competition out of business makes it impossible for the others to survive without cutting the pay and benefits of unionized employees.
  
  

• 67% percent of Wal-Mart workers who can't afford company health insurance
• 38 is the number of states in which Wal-Mart faces lawsuits for making employees work "off the clock"
• 25 is the number of states in which Wal-Mart has been charged with worker's rights
• 25 is the number of states in which Wal-Mart is the largest employer - is this an monopoly which should be borken up by the Justice Department based on unfair business practices of forcing businesses to manufacture goods overseas for lower costs otherwise Wal-Mart would not sell their products in Wal-Mart stores any longer?
  
  
• In 2004, the Department of Labor estimated that 969,000 jobs would be lost between 2004 and 2012. That number was surpassed in 2007 by over a million, their predications were grossly understimated. In 2008, over 650,000 Americans has permanately lost their jobs.
  
  2004 Report: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecopro.t02.htm
  2008 Report - http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
  
  
• This site lists jobs layoffs by state if you are interested in what has been going on in this country. The data has been pulled from all fifty state employment departments.http://www.samnow.org/state-job-loss-stats.htm

If you want to do your own research to find out more disturbing data, go to the these areas at the Department of Labor:

• Select Industry - http://www.bls.gov/webapps/legacy/cesbtab1.htm
• Types of Data - http://www.bls.gov/ces/cesbtabs.htm
• Current Reports - http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/curlabst.htm#cls
• 3 Month Averages - ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/suppl/empsit.tab2.txt - This is a downloaded text file.
• One Year Change - ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/suppl/empsit.tab4.txt - This is a downloaded txt file.
• Historical 1958 to present - ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/suppl/empsit.ceseeb1.txt - This is a downloaded text file.
• Charts of Various Occupatons, largest, smallest 2006 - http://www.bls.gov/oes/2006/may/chartbook.htm#charts
• Data Years - http://www.bls.gov/schedule/archives/empsit_nr.htm
• Monthly Commissioners Releases Archived Reports - http://www.bls.gov/schedule/archives/jec_nr.htm#2008
• If you want to see in graph presentation the unemployed by job occupation the last 4 years, go to this page: at the Department of Labor. http://www.bls.gov/webapps/legacy/cpsatab11.htm
  
  Keep in mind, your elected officials get this same information monthly.

As I stated, over 8.4 million jobs have been lost permanately from 2000 to 2008. This is due to outsourcing of various employment occupations:

• Manufacturing jobs - electronics, steel making, parts, appliances, televisions, radios, cell phones, clothing and textile jobs, call center jobs, even drug prescription drugs. Doesn't anyone remeber the toxic Heparin made in China that has killed babies? And the list of occupations that grows daily have been lost due to corporations setting up factorites in China, Mexico, Viet Nam, Phillipines, India, Paksistan and other countries. And again, let's now forget all the poorly made and contaminated products we have received from China. And we are now importing food from China. After the recent melamine toxic baby formula in China doesn't anyone care how our Goverment has gone amok? Add to the fact that the FDA hid the names of corporations in this country that also had this tainted baby formula, when does it stop?
  

Did you feed your baby any of this tainted baby formular which has now possibly caused kidney damage that may not show up for years?

In addition, these corporations have received tax credits for moving these operations overseas from the Bush Adminstration at the expense of American jobs. Add in the market coercion by Wal-Mart to force these companies to do so and you have the massive job loss in the country over those 8 years.

In Juarez Mexico, the population has doubled in that city due to the factories setting up right across the border from El Paso. Once $12.00 to $18.00 jobs in America, these corporations are now paying employees in these countries on an average of $1.50 an hour and with no other benefits. What is wrong with this picture I ask? Has GREED reached it's zenith and the American public has just sat back and let this happen. Yes, America you have and you have been a participant by shopping at Wal-Mart or any store that does not sell products made in the U.S.A. Make sure you read my February 2004 column where I presents the facts of how Walmart has caused the greatest outsourcing of jobs in America. America, start buying products only made in the U.S.A. ! ! ! The Truth About The Job Loss In America More Job Losses To Follow

Want to see how much Walmart imports from China with (4) huge ships? Read my article July 27, 2011

How Much Does Walmart Import
From China to U.S. Costing U.S. Jobs?

American is no longer the manufacturing giant it once was. We don't even make the steel to make our armored vehicles and tanks for the military... we purchase the steel from China.

What Broke The Camel's Back and then The Elephant That Walked Into The Room
The Housing/Mortgage Lending Boom of 2003.

What began in late 2002 and early 2003 in the housing and mortgage lending boom resulted in the financial collapse we are seeing today. This created jobs falsely and put people in houses they could never afford once their low teaser interest rates would change in 3 to 5 years.

What I am about to explain to you as the reasons for this financial collapse is not being talked about by the main media press because they don't want you to know the truth. What began in 2008 in the financial meltdown was almost like the 1929 Depression. We simply more or less repeated what caused the 1929 Depression. Corrupt and greedy bankers in the banking environment not only here but in Europe.

In late 2002 and early 2003, third party mortage brokers, working with investment houses and banks created the housing boom. They did this by allowing these mortgage brokers to offer low interest rates to basically unqualified buyers under normal circumstances. They would put people in homes with a low interest rate, most as low as 1.6% to 2.0% , but that interest rate would change in 3 to 5 years to prime + whatever was stipulated in the fine print in their contract. Usually, this meant an increase of at least 7% to 8% or more on their mortage. This is the same thing that occurred during the 1924 through 1927 housing boom in America....leading to the 1929 Depression.

What does this mean you ask and how can that affect what has been happenning in the financial collapse the last 3 months? The mortgage payment of these people before the interest rate change was on an average of $600.00 to $700.00 a month. When their interest rate changed to a higher rate, this increased interest rate on their once low mortgage payment which they could afford which was about $1,100.00, suddenly jumped to over $2,700.00 a month depending on the interest rate. For most of these people who were already living on tight financial purses, even an increase of $200.00 a month was forbidden. Add the problem of corporations cutting jobs and moving operations overseas and you have a double whammy.

Since most of these mortgage loans were done in late 2002 and early 2003, and the interest rate adjustment would occur in 3 to 5 years, with most of them adjusting in 5 years, that places these people in financial crisis of not being able to make their mortage payments beginning in late 2007 and early 2008. Foreclosures started to increase in 2007 and steadily increase throughout 2008 until October 2008 when over 4 million homes had been foreclosed on.

How Could This Happen - What Caused It?

As I have been writing for many years the damage that de-regulation of the banking industry in 1984 and 1986 by the Reagan adminstration and the Republican Congress at the time would eventually lead to this mess we are in. Why? As I wrote in my September, 2008 column, Causes of the Financial Crisis Today - Make sure you read that column as well !

So who started all this financial mess we are currently in and how far back does it go?

Let's go back when Reagan was Governor of California and then elected President. This is where all of this mess really started and later with a Republican controlled Senate and House. Everyone thought Reagan was the one of the greatest President we had. He was nothing but a puppet of the corporations. By the way, The Democrats have screwed up just as well. Why? The politicians are bought by the corporations, they are what keep the old farts in office year after year.

As Governor of California for two terms (1967-75), President Reagan cut state welfare and medical services and aid to public schools and higher education. He also signed a series of tax increases aimed at ending the state's deficit. Despite tax increases, during his tenure California's budget more than doubled and the number of state employees increased significantly. He left California in a financial mess.

Reagan is elected President. After a recession in 1982, the economy picked up between 1983 to 1986. Spurred largely by the tax cuts and deficit financing... Economic growth, however, remained relatively modest, the rate of inflation did drop below 4% during his tenure...however... the tax cuts and the sharp increase in military expenditures resulted in a series of huge budget deficits and consequently more than doubled the size of the national debt by the time he left office. Again, he left office with America in a huge financial debt like he did California. But who benefited, BIG BUSINESS AND HUGE COPORATIONS with tax laws changed to benefit them and screw the average working American. He also set the stage for millions of jobs to be lost in America with the trade agreements he started.

In late 1986, the last years of Reagan's presidency were disrupted by the Iran-contra affair. It involved the White House's complicity in the illegal diversion of profits from arms-for-hostage deals with Iran to the U.S.-supported contra guerrillas fighting the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

What was the major change in regulations and laws changed and passed that affected Americans then and that we are now seeing the results in this mortgage meltdown crisis?

The Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act, a United States federal financial statute law passed in 1980, gave the Federal Reserve greater control over non-member banks. Its main purpose was to force all banks to abide by the Fed's rules. It also allowed banks to merge. REMEMBER that, it allowed banks to merge and owns banks in other states and open branches in other countries. This was promoted that increased competition would provide more banking services and less costs to consumers. We all know that is a lie today. Its' secondary purpose was to allow credit unions and savings and loans to offer checkable deposits.

The Banking Deregulation Acts of the 1980's gave banking corporations basically a free hand to whatever they wanted with very little regulation and oversight. It allowed banks to buy and sell insurance companies and allow insurance companies to enter into loan markets such as sub-prime loan markets as mortgage loans without hardly any oversight or regulation of those loans. It also gave banks the right to sell all forms of insurance as a new profit making center for the banking conglomerates. And and what cost? You are now seeing the cost in this major mortgage meltdown crisis in this country.

Prior to the these Banking Deregulations Acts, mortgage lending was restricted to banks, you did not have sub-prime lenders. There are consumers whose mortgage loan has been resold and resold to different mortgage lenders, i.e. sub-prime lenders. And each time a greater bubble of worthless loans was created because the loans are "discounted" when sold, creating a "false" asset and income to the new mortgage lender. Another words, creating wealth on "paper" without any backing of a real asset. Combine that with the collapse of real estate market values and what do you have? This mess that you now see with the collapse of banks and other lenders who are not having take huge losses on these loans that basically should never have been and re-financed and resold time and time again.

But wait....What occurred ?

In 1982, the US Garn-St Germain Act was passed. The powers of the Savings and Loan Associations (thrifts) were widened and as a result Savings and Loan thrifts begin to diversify their assets.

In 1985 the Savings and Loan Association crisis started. A run on thrifts in Ohio and Maryland led to the insolvency of their state-chartered deposit insurance agencies. This was a result of the huge BANKING conglomerates offering higher interest rates than savings and loans. Before the act, interest rates were regulated by the states and there were no HUGE banking holding corporations that could branch out and they could NOT own banks in other states. States regulated their own banks in state. That all changed when the 1980 act was passed.

In 1986 the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation was declared insolvent.

The Republican controlled House and Senate, ( and many Democrats went along with the passing of the 1980 Bank Dderegulation Act ), which did away with the 1956 Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 that restricted banks from owning banks outside their federally chartered state.

What was the final result of the Bank Act of 1980. Its' provisions increased bank cost, reduced competition, more inefficiency which caused bank failures of smaller banks and left others open to the banking conglomerates, resulting now in approximately seven major banking holding corporations owning approximately 75% of all banking centers in the country because they can now own branches in other states, previously prohibited. The negative impact of deregulation on income inequality holds, it does affect the poor more and the rich much less.

So what happened? Many depositors shifted their accounts to these HUGE banking conglomerates paying higher interest rates and in the 1980's the largest number of bank failures in the history of this country occurred. More than in the 1930 Depression.

What was the final blow to the average American ?

IN 1999 GRAMM-LEACH-BILEY FINANCIAL SERVICES MODERNIZATION ACT WAS PASSED. FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, IT ALLOWED BANKS TO UNDERWRITE SECURITIES AS WELL AS INSURANCE. WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY, SECURITIES AND INSURANCE COMPANIES ARE NOW ALLOWED TO ENTER THE BANKING BUSINESS, IN ORDER TO COMPETE WITH BANKS. THERE IS NO MORE SEPARATION BETWEEN THE ENTITIES. DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE IMPORTANCE NOW OF NOT ALLOWING BANKS TO FUND AND SELL INSURANCE AND OTHER FINANCIAL PRODUCTS PREVIOUSLY PROHIBITED?

The most disturbing thing of the bank deregulation acts of the 80's was how banks could post the deposits and checks of customers to accounts. This is one of the top profit money makers for banks - overdraft fees. I am talking about excessive overdraft fees. If you have (3) checks that come in say for $15.00, $25.00 and $100.00. Let's say you made a mistake and forget to deduct a $100.00 check. All three of the checks hit your bank account and only overdraw you $75.00. You think you would only get one overdraft fee because it is the $100.00 check that is overdrawing you right? WRONG ! Consumers would get hit with (3) overdraft fees. Banks are now allowed to post the largest checks first that come into your account. In a scenario like this, the $100.00 check would overdraw you first and then the other two checks would also be in overdraft.

This greedy practice of banks is insidious, unethical and down right wrong in my opinion by any accounting standards. And what makes this worse; some banks even post your deposits last. All allowed now since banks were mostly deregulated in the 80's. You can thank a Republican controlled Senate and House in the 1980's for this. There were also Democrats that voted along with Republicans that did away with regulations that prevented banks from these types of practices.

So where has all the wealth of America been shifting to? By 1990, Japanese banks were the largest in the world. The US had none in the top 20. Twenty years earlier, in 1970 the 10 largest banks in the world were all American. The 4 biggest banks were all Japanese. Remember in the 80's and 90's, America, nearly all electronics, TV's, etc, were made where, JAPAN!

However, by 1993 Japanese banks began to fail. Kyowa Credit and Anzen Credit Banks were rescued by Japanese Ministry of Finance. This is the first such rescue operation carried out by the Japanese central bank since 1927. In 1994, Trust Bank saved by Mitsubishi Bank. Remember the Nippon and Mitsubishi cars from Japan. Also in 1994, Sumitomo Bank, the world's biggest, makes a loss. This is the first time in 50 years that any of the largest Japanese banks have declared a loss. In 1995, Daiwa Bank's New York branch loses $1.1 billion. These losses are caused by illegal deals by Toshihide Iguchi Corproration - ( result of the 1980 Bank Deregulation Act - which allowed other countries to open branches in the U.S. )

But what was the real cause of the Japanese bank failure system? It was due to the shifting of manufacturing to China beginning in the early 1990's. By 2001, America started to lose millions of jobs to out sourcing to other countries. Jobs that had been in this country for 50 years or more.

Another example is the Airline Deregulation Act in the 1980's.

There were concerns problems would arise from deregulating the airlines. There were. The airline industry has become more concentrated since deregulation. In 1978, eleven carriers handled 87 percent of the traffic, while in 1995 seven carriers handled 93 percent of the traffic. Result was higher prices, not lower prices and poorer service. And the higher prices are not because of the recent oil price hike.

Deregulation was a major trend in the United States in the last quarter of the twentieth century. A number of major deregulation initiatives were passed. Some of these were withdrawn quickly (but not quickly enough to avoid major problems, including the deregulation of savings and loans. I already explained that greedy fiasco. American savings banks, which were permitted to lend unfettered, had their depositors funds insured by the federal government, creating a moral hazard. The California electricity crisis was precipitated by price manipulations by companies such as Enron after energy industry deregulation in 1996, it is noteworthy that Californian electric deregulation did not result in a free market but a rule free system with a fixed objective of generating power at a price determined by the Californian government rather than supply and demand. Other legislation has been considered more widely successful, including deregulation of transport, telecommunications, and the gas market. One of the most controversial decisions occurred in 1996, when the media market was significantly deregulated. Despite such negative outcomes, the World Bank continues to peddle deregulation as a magic elixir for growth and prosperity.

Under Ronald Reagan, financial deregulation intensified. The virtual demise of antitrust enforcement encouraged hostile takeovers and permitted the emergence of financial powerhouses like Citibank. Following their historic 1994 Congressional victory, the Republicans placed on their agenda proposals to scrap restrictions on margin buys, they also repealed a previous Bank Act that protected consumers. The Republican Congress repealed the Glass-Steagall Act. With Glass-Steagall out of the way; commercial banks like Citigroup were relatively free of regulatory oversight when it came to new business opportunities such as securitization and hedging. If you don't know what hedge funds up, do your research, I don't have to space here to educate you about them.

But it is this type of funding and the opening up of mortgage funding that created the present mortgage crisis. It let third party investors literally financially screw homeowners by the new variable interest rate method that deregulation gave banks on mortgages by being able to jack up interest rates after a certain amount of time had passed. Combine that with sub-prime lenders that bought and resold mortgage packages, discounting and discounting them, then add falling real estate values which was going to happen because of this.... and boom...you have a major financial crisis that can cause a Depression far greater than the one in1929.

The Banking Act that was repealed protected consumers because before that act was repealed, states set their own usury laws, (interest rates) that banks in their states could charge mortgage holders. When it was repealed, it opened up Pandora's box so to speak in allowing banks to basically do what they wanted with an interest rate on a mortgage and not only on mortgages, added the new varilable rate interest rate and allowed banks to do anything they wanted with credit cards. It also allowed for banking corporations to have branch banks in other states or buy other banks in other states. This is why we see now only about half a dozen major banking corporations who have Americans by the financial throats. And now we are bailing out these failed greedy banking corporations, insurance companies, and private investment companies to the tune of nearly a TRILLION DOLLARS. Again I ask, who is going to pay for this? YOU... the average American who is struggling to even half fill your car to get to work, or barely pay your mortgage or feed your family. The rich have become richer, oil corporations and other corporations have become wealthier while you have become poorer. Executives of these failing banking concerns, investment houses and insurance companies have walked away with millions of dollars of bonuses and compensation for doing what? Making you pay the bill. Something is very wrong with this picture would you not say? That is why it is time to vote out the old elected politicians in Washington that have been there for so long. Why... because they literally have been bought by these very same corporations to do what is being done to you.... the average American simply struggling just to survive day to day. And...despite the fact of the corruption that has been uncovered through 2011, not a one of these banking or investment house executives are being brought to justice on charges of what they did - not only manipulate the market, but through immoral and illegal funding of assets that were not true marketable assets. It was all about the 1% making billions while literally screwing working class middle America. And let us not forget the $775 million in bonuses these Executives paid themselves while screwing middle class working America. Hello America - are you woke up yet?

Do you know that banks highest profit division regardless of the charge-offs of bad credit card holders is their credit card operation. They have literally put millions of Americans needlessly in debt; issuing credit card after credit card to people that could never repay the debt even after cashing in their equity in their homes. Here again, a deliberate ploy by banks to keep Americans in debt. Americans now owe nearly $3.5 TRILLION dollars to banks on credit cards. Again, the rich have become richer and you have become poorer ! And some credit card banks do unscrupulous things like holding payments to create a late fee and jacking up the interest rate...and what has Congress done since the 1980's - sat on their collective do nothing asses and have let banks get away with literally screwing the consumer.

And they say deregulation is better, sorry, but the facts prove that belief WRONG! Why? Because of man's GREED. When GREED is involved in any enterprise, there will always be corruption and mismanagement to the hilt and that is why regulations must be in place to protect citizens from these greedy types of people. Enron is an example of what I am talking about.

What are the other problems that have contributed to this financial mess we are in today? Did the Bush Administration simply sit by for eight years because Bush had gotten us into two ungodly wars based on lies. Could the Bush Administration have prevented the financial meltdown if they had been paying attention to what they should have? YES - they could have prevented much of it.

In July 2004, I explained many of these issues in my three part special series article,America In Crisis - The Real Issues, I wrote the following in 2004.

Over 2.4 million jobs have been permanently lost between 2001 and 2003 due to corporations closing plants and building new ones overseas. These jobs will never be replaced because Congress failed to close the loop holes for corporations setting up facilities overseas. It is estimated, by the U.S. Labor Dept., that by 2014, another 8 million jobs will be permanently lost to overseas outsourcing. In 2002, tax reforms in the form of tax credits were pushed through for corporations if they built facilities overseas. This was a Republican President and Congress that allowed this to happen.

Clinton's NAFTRA has cost millions of Americans jobs. Corporations shut down manufacturing plants in this country and went across the border where they pay them an average of $2-$4 an hour. The Whirlpool Corporation which makes your refrigerators, washer and dryers went to Mexico. Whirlpool use to have six U.S. plants employing thousands of America. As of 2011, there is only Whirlpool plant left in the U.S. And it is just not Whirlpool, I am not just picking on them. All of the major corporations in the manufacturing sector have gone to either Mexico and believe this or not CHINA. They can build refrigerators or whatever in CHINA and even with the expense of shipping them here, they can do that because they pay workers in CHINA and average of $1.70 an hour to build such refrigerators. Hello America, did you get screwed with NAFTRA and those are the facts. NAFTRA transferred more of your wealth to the rich and that is why you, who once had a $15.00 hour job is now working at Wal-Mart at $7.50 and lucky if you work 30 hours a week. Wake-up America! What is it going to take to wake you up out of this stupid spell you are in?

I also wrote in 2004: "Presently in 2004, 45 million of Americans and 50% of children ( 11 million ) are without any type of healthcare coverage. A rise in child deaths has resulted, partly due to child preventative health programs for the poor that have been cut. Mortality rates in both men and woman have soared for poor patients not being able to receive proper medical care and treatment. Countless people have died because they could not afford to pay for the latest medical treatments."

Update: June 2008: Over 52 million adult Americans and 15 million children do not have health insurance. 11 million children in America go hungry every night in America. Yes, that is correct, over 11 million children go hungry in America every night. That is deplorable. We are the richest country on earth supposedly, we have more millionaires that any other country, and we are letting 11 million children go hungry in this country every night ! Hello America, you need to fire and replace every politician in Washington for allowing this to occur ! Our children are this country's future !

Update, June 2008: America has lost over 5.8 million jobs,( U.S. Dept. of Labor - May 2008 ) to outsourcing to other countries. Many of these jobs have been jobs in America for over 75 years. Bethlehem Steel, a 100 year old steel foundry in New York filed for bankruptcy in 2005. Why? Because trade barriers and especially trade tarriffs were lifted that steel could be bought from other countries, even to make our military tanks with. Textile manufacturing jobs that had been in this country for 50 years, lost to China, Indonesia, Philipines, Viet Nam and other such countries. This has resulted in good-paying blue-collar manufacturing jobs disappearing permanently to overseas as well as white-collar jobs earning as much as $18.00 an hour such as in the automobile parts industry. There are now over 34 million workers earning less than $8.70 per hour. They have seriously fallen behind in their standard of living because of short-sighted business cost-cutting, government deregulation and technology changes, but mainly moving jobs overseas where they pay workers anywhere from 45 cents an hour to 1.00 an hour. I mention trade tarrifs above because that has been the major cause of the loss of jobs in this country. When trade tarrifs were lifted on nearly all products made in other countries, the onslaught of job losses in this country began. We must and I stress this that trade tarriffs must be applied again to all products entering this country so that our jobs will come back home. So you know what this means in laymans terms. Tarriffs on products made in other countries prevents a less inferior and often dangerous product from being sold in the country, this saving jobs and lives. Even the lives of our beloved pets.

Has everyone forgot all of the defective and lethal products that have come out of China the last 5 years and this week it was finally revealed that over 6,000 children have been lethally poisoned from baby formula. Good Lord, when are Americans going to wake up to see that they have literally been screwed by their elected politicians? And don't get me started on the great "WAL-MART". What is so great about a corporation that has caused the destruction of hundreds of thousands of small businesses across the country employing millions? How and why? Wal-mart demands companies they do business with that they must make the product cheaper so that "WAL-MART" can sell the products cheaper than anyone else - result loss of factories in U.S. Corporations move operations overseas and pay workers $1.00 an hour. Executives of these corporations make huge profits for their corporations and are paid ridiculous annual salaries and bonuses in the millions of dollars. And America you are not going to like what I am going to say next. America, you have participated in this loss of America's jobs by shopping at Wal-Mart. And please don't give me the excuse it's cheaper at "Wal-Mart." Things may be cheaper, but now that you are earning less or having to work two jobs because you lost your job to an overseas worker being paid $1.00 an hour - are you any better now buy buying cheaper at "Wal-Mart".

Do you have any idea of how much is purchased from China and the dramatic increase over the years? In 2007 America purchased $256 billion more from China that what China purchases from the U.S. Here are the facts back to 1985 when America was only purchasing $600 million more from China than what China was purchasing from the U.S. What does this equate in job losses in America over the years? And who is the largest corporate purchaser in the U.S. from China. The company's imports, 9.3% in 2006 of total imports from China into the U.S., increased from $9.5 billion in 2001 to $26.7 billion in 2006. Wal-Mart will not release figures anymore on China imports. You can count on it that Wal-Mart China imports has increased in 2007 and 2008 because of Wal-mart demanding more and more that companies go overseas to produce their products cheaper, otherwise Wal-mart would not carry their products.

In 2007, The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) issued this report. "The world's biggest retailer, U.S.-based Wal-Mart was responsible for the loss of a minimum 200,000 jobs in the United States between 2001 and 2006 due to the company's massive Chinese imports. The manufacturing sector was hardest hit, with 68% of the total of displaced jobs from Wal-Mart's imports from China. "

In addition, food imports are not safe from China. These were 127 food imports from China that the Food and Drug Administration detained at U.S. ports just last month. "The Wal-Mart imports during 2001-2006 increased by 181%. Due to Wal-Mart's huge reliance on Chinese imports many workers have been pushed out of good jobs into lower-paying jobs, and often out of the labor market altogether." For example, lower-paying jobs, Wal-Mart is the biggest culprit. 70% of their work force is forced to work 5 1/2 hr days with only one 15 minutes break and no lunch. The reason why Wal-Mart does this is that these employees are considered part-time and do not qualify for benefits, especially healthcare. Do you know how many Wal-Mart employees qualify for Medicaid and welfare services because they simply are not making enough to support themselves! Hello America, what is wrong with this picture? Stop buying at Wal-Mart if you can if what you can do!

In addition, Target, K-Mart and other department chains, even Macy's are as bad as Wal-Mart in the imports from China. We have to bring the jobs home to help Americans live properly is what we have to do and why is it these ignorant politicians in Washington cannot see this! I will tell you why. They are in the back pockets of these corporations. Did you know that Hillary Clinton was on the Board of Directors of Wal-Mart when her husband was President? Hello?

However, that is back firing on Wal-mart now. Due to the price of oil, shipping these products are now costing more than if these companies had left factories open in the U.S. instead. So folks...expect prices to skyrocket at Wal-Mart? Why? We DO NOT have the manufacturing capacity in the U.S. anymore. The plants have been shut down, many destroyed! What have you done to yourself America? America. You really need to answer yourself on this one. America...you have sat on your behind and let this happen - simply because you wanted to save a buck, never realizing the long term effects down the road pertaining to jobs losses which result in paying more for products in the long term.

Source of the following information:http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5700.html

In February 2004, I wrote an article,
The Truth About The Job Loss In America - More Job LossesTo Follow

I provided the facts as issued by the Labor Department, graphs done in 1998 that even project losses into 2008. And yes, this was during Clinton's Presidency. That is why I stated earlier, some of the Democrats are as bad as some of the Republicans who have sold America off to the highest bidder.

In 2007, The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) issued this report. "The world's biggest retailer, U.S.-based Wal-Mart was responsible for a loss of 200,000 jobs in the United States between 2001 and 2006 due to the company's massive Chinese imports. The manufacturing sector was hardest hit, with 68% of the total of displaced jobs from Wal-Mart's imports from China. "

Take responsibility America ! You are not going to like what I am about to state. America, you have been an active partner in the destruction our viable worker economy by your own actions. If you want to bring the jobs back home, start buying products only made in the U.S.A. - I do. I buy nothing that is not made in the U.S. unless I cannot find that it is made in the U.S. - and yes, certain things are no longer made in the U.S. like car parts, but I try my best to purchase made in the U.S.A. and you should too! It is time to bring the job back home!

The following numbers tell the real story of the Bush administration economic failures:

America lost over 8.4 million jobs during the 8 years of the Bush Adminstration - outsourced to different countries.
Health care costs increased 50 percent since 2001 when Bush took office through his 8 years ending in 2008.

Unemployment increased 40 percent during the Bush 8 years. Don't pay any attention to the low so called unemployment figures released, it not accounting for the segment of jobs loss that people have given up looking for work.

Bush and Republicans worried about death taxes for people making tens of millions of dollars -- but he saddled every child born into this country with a $37,000 birth tax.

American families will pay $10,368 each yearly in interest on the debt by 2014. Debt they have borrowed from other countries, mainly CHINA.

Now that is what I call stupid. We have borrowed nearly $1.5 trillion from CHINA to fund the two wars and along the way Americans continue to purchase all the crappy products made in CHINA, this causing more Americans to lose their jobs. Now that is what I call stupid!

Do you know what our National Debt Is today 2011? It is over 15 TRILLION dollars.

Here is a link that breaks it all down. USDEBTCLOCK.ORG

Here is a graph going back to when Truman was President. You can easily see who got America in this financial mess she is in. This is directly from the White House website.

How much has the Iraq and Afghanistan war cost America and is costing daily?

COST OF IRAQ WAR - Update July 15, 2011 - $797 billion dollars through September 30, 2010

DAILY COST OF AFGHANISTAN WAR - Update July 25, 2011 - $460 billion through September 30, 2010

Each month it is another $8 billion dollars, or $100 billion a year.

Since September 30, 2010, another $80 billion dollars has been spent on both wars.

As of June 30, 2011 , both wars have cost the U.S. $2.0 TRILLION DOLLARS

It is estimated by the time we pull out all troops from both countries, it will have cost the U.S. over $4 trillions dollars.

Thank you George W.Bush.

Source: http://costofwar.com/en/

* The above site is only through September 30, 2010 and compiled from Defense Budgets.

And yet we have 45 million adult Americans and 15 million children in this country without health care.

And yet we have 11 million children in this country going to bed hungry every night.

And yet we have over 7 million elderly that have to choose between food or medicine.

By the way, do you know who really funds our Federal Reserve Banking System, who was behind setting it up after the Great Depression? Remember, the Federal Banking System controls the money supply in this country through the issuance of debt and transfer of wealth basically.

Here are the banking institutions who setup up the Federal Reserve Banking System and who today still provides the funds for it to its "member" banks in the U.S.

Rothschild Banks of London and Berlin
Lazard Brothers Bank of Paris
Israel Moses Sieff Banks of Italy
Warburg Bank of Hamburg, Germany and Amsterdam
Kuhn Loeb Bank of New York
Lehman Brothers Bank of New York
Goldman Sachs Bank of New York
Chase Manhattan Bank of New York (Controlled By the Rockefeller Family Tree)

WHO OWNS AMERICA ?

Do you know? Here are the facts.

Foreign purchases of U.S. securities rose in April as investors ramped up their purchases of U.S. Treasuries and bonds.

Foreign countries acquired $102.8 billion in long-term maturity U.S.securities in April, nearly double the $53.3 billion purchased in March, according to the Treasury International Capital report, which the Department of the Treasury releases each month.

However, the biggest holder of Treasury debt was the U.S. government itself, with about 52 percent of the total $8.5 trillion in paper that's out there. Most of the government’s holdings are massive savings accounts for programs like Social Security and Medicare. Just as you may prefer to keep your Individual Retirement Account in the safe Treasury bonds, the folks who manage the Social Security Trust Fund are looking for a secure investment, too, but how safe are they?

So, that leaves a little over $4 trillion in public hands. The biggest chunk (about 25 percent of the $8.5 trillion total) is held by foreign governments. Japan tops the list (with $644 billion), followed by China ($350 billion), United Kingdom ($239 billion) and oil exporting countries ($100 billion).

Other big holders of Treasury debt include state and local governments ($467 billion); individual investors, including brokers ($423 billion); public and private pension funds (319 billion); mutual funds ($243 billion); holders of US savings bonds ($206 billion); insurance companies ($166 billion) and banks and credit unions ($117 billion.)

U.S.Treasury Listing from Treasury Dept. website

What if China decides to not renew, but cash in their U.S. Treasury Notes and Bonds?

The U.S. Dollar would change dramatically should China ever choose to divest itself of a large portion of those reserves. China has created its own BANK OF CHINA in U.S. with reserves of over 1.5 trillion dollars that is buying up U.S. companies.

Secondly, foreign countries have been increasing their holdings of Treasury Bonds which have also been keeping interest rates low. Total as of Jan. 2008 was 2,024 billion dollars. That is over $2 TRILLION dollars folks!

These holdings went from 13% in 1988 to over 50% in 2006 and 59% in 2008.

In 2006 Japan owned 24% and China owned 20%. The U.K., Brazil and the oil exporting countries owned about 6% each.

In 2008 Japan owns 26% and China owns 23%. The U.K., Brazil and the oil exporting countries own about 10% each.

The Bureau of International Settlements suspects that much of the holdings by Belgium, Caribbean Banking Centers and Luxembourg are fronts for various oil-exporting countries or hedge funds that do not wish to be identified. It is these very much unknown entities that are manipulating oil prices, keeping them high by limiting oil production.

The U.S. debt is $15.1 trillion, and is the sum of all outstanding debt owed by the Federal Government.

Furthermore, the debt is increasing at an alarming rate. It has grown by $3 trillion, or 50%, since 2000, when it was $6 trillion. In 2007, it grew by $500 billion, from $8.7 to $9.2 trillion. The budget forecast from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) shows total debt rising to over $16.3 trillion in 2013. Did you get that; our national debt will rise to $16.3 TRILLION DOLLARS by 2013 !

There is a LOOMING U.S. Treasury Bond Cash deficiency that is most likely going to happen. Make sure you read this important and well researched article written by a financial expert. He has provided extensive graphs from actual U.S. Treasury Department data. www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article3709.html

Has China started to sell off their securities?

Yes...Beijing's retreat from the US bond market and the threat to global inflation, from oil and food prices, began in May of 2007 and accelerated in Nov. 2007. These are signs of a pending change in the low inflation, low interest rate environment.

China was not the only investor to have second thoughts. Total investment in US treasury bonds fell from $2.1937 trillion in March to $2.1655 trillion in April.

By the way, Chairman Mao of the Communist Party of China in speech in 1964 right after the Cultural Revolution in China said, "China will not have to fire a short to conquer the world; we will own them because we will be making everything for them." Mao in 1964 gave instructions for a complete strategy plan of how to make the western world depend on them for their manufacturing. That is what they have been following the last 25 years. Has it worked? What country doesn't owe China? Do I need to say any more?

In May of 2007, China announced it was investing $3 billion of it's U.S. dollar reserves in Blackstone Group LP, manager of the second-largest buyout fund, to boost its returns. What if China were to shoot itself in the foot and dump its entire Treasury portfolio in one fell swoop?

Update June, 2008

The Bush Administration and China agree to launch a ten year investment agreement on energy and environment. It is to deal with commerce in electricity, air, transportation, conservation of forests and wetlands. This is a joke as anyone can see. We are only doing this because China owns so much of the U.S. now.

In August of 2007 they did just that converting them into EUROS for investing - buying U.S. Corporations.

On Nov 7, 2007 the U.S. Dollar slumped to record lows because of China's plans to diversify reserves which they have continued to do. Because of this, it caused the U.S. Treasury Department to increase the interest rates on U.S. 10-year Treasury Notes because of mounting credit-market losses like; China, they had to make up the difference by getting new buyers of U.S. Treasury Notes.

It just so happens we have a real-world example of what it would mean, who bought them. The Bank of Japan bought $244 billion of Treasuries in the last 12 months which ended in August 2004. During that time, U.S.long-term interest rates rose and the dollar fell versus the yen. By April of 2006, the Bank of Japan was a net seller of U.S. Treasuries (on a 12-month basis) to the tune of $26 billion, a swing of $270 billion. U.S.interest rates fell during that period while the dollar rose. ‘The Bank of Japan bought a quarter-trillion dollars of Treasuries and then abruptly stopped and no one noticed.

In the coming months, China will start the global domino affect by dumping close to a trillion dollars in U.S. Treasury notes and Debt bond to provide the capital for the CHINA INVESTMENT BANK they recently opened in New York. Chinese officials have made it clear they want to cash in the trillions of dollars they have been making off of the U.S. in exports to the U.S. over the last ten years. They are starting to purchase U.S. corporations. Do I need to explain anymore of what will occur in this country when this happens?

And has U.S. Senate Majority Leader, Nancy Pelosi lost her mind? She has introduced a bill called the Windfall Tax on Retirement which would tax stock market profits, including Retirement fund, 401K and Mutual Funds. And to help what...15 Million illegal immigrants and other unemployed minorities! Here again, let's make the poorer, poorer by taxing them to death, especially on retirement accounts.

Last, but certainly not least, it is just I am running out of space for more important issues such as; affordable healthcare for every man, woman and child in this country and to be covered under the same health insurance that U.S. Congressmen have. Do away with the health insurance business entirely in this country. It should all be federally ran which will bring down costs. It has been proven through the Medicare program that it can be run cheaper by the government than what insurance companies are spending to manage health insurance policies in this country.

OTHER ISSUES THAT MUST BE DEALT WITH NOW !

The Illegal Immigrant Problem Must Be Dealt With NOW, Not a Year From Now!

Do read my April, 2006 article The Costs of Illegal Immigrants on this important and urgent matter that most Americans still have not gotten that is an issue they truly do not know about. I also wrote about this serious issue in my March 05 column, Is It Time To Really Close The Southern Border?

All one has to do is look at what the illegal immigrant issue has cost the State of Minnesota. Minnesota is typical of what many states have experienced the last 15 years of illegal immigrants.

In 2004, Minnesota spent $78.7 million to educate 14,000 children of illegal immigrants in the state. In addition, the state spent $35.5 million on the health care of adult illegal immigrants and an additional $15.5 million on the children of these illegal immigrants. What is truly sickening about this is that there are 45 million adult Americans, legal citizens that have NO health care insurance or access to medical care and over 15 million children are not getting health care. It doesn't stop there. Minnesota spent $1.6 billion to house illegal immigrants in prison in 2004 that had committed crimes. It has brought Minnesota to the point of bankruptcy. Seven states moved to limit health care to illegal immigrants in 2004. State Legislatures in these states refused to vote through the laws. Only one state, Arizona actually passed a law to prohibit health care to illegal immigrants, but the Governor of Arizona vetoed the law passed by both of the Arizona State Houses. Had enough? But wait, there are more facts.

Here is why and the facts concerning this illegal immigrant nightmare that has been ignored now for over 24 years by three Presidents. One Democrat and Two Republican Presidents.

Overall, the U.S. foreign-born population was 35.7 million based on 2000 Census data and calculations for 2005 project it to increase by 10-12%. Those of Mexican descent again comprised the largest group of foreign born descent - more than 11 million, or 32 percent. 15 years ago, the Hispanic population in America was less than 17%. This does not count the Mexican illegal aliens which are estimated in 2008 at another 10.5 Million, with some saying it could be as high as 14-15 Million. This was the 11 million illegal immigrants that President Clinton gave amnesty to in 1995.

15 years ago, the Hispanic population which included illegal aliens/immigrants in the U.S. was approximately 11% of the U.S. population. In 2006, it is estimated at 33%, a 22% increase in 15 years. By 2010, it is estimated to be at 37% of the population is things are not changed. Why in the world have the politicians in Washington been stalling on doing anything concerning illegal aliens and illegal immigrants? And the talk about giving amnesty to another 14-15 million illegal immigrants again, has Washington lost their minds. But see, we have a problem. These poor uneducated people are doing the nasty dirty jobs that Americans won't do. They won't pick crops in the fields. But they are also take jobs like construction jobs away from Americans. What is wrong? Our government has been going after the wrong people and prosecuting them and putting them in our prisons causing us to build more prisons. Our government has not been going after the corporations and the executives and owners that hire illegal aliens and put them behind bars. Why? Lobbyists in Washington for these corporations have made sure that doesn't happen.

81% of illegal aliens, or approximately 8.2 Million, are from Mexico and Latin American countries.

And why is the Mexican Flag being waved and flown in America? This is NOT MEXICO ! Our flag is the American flag. If you want to wave the flag of the country that you are illegally here from, pack your bags and take your Mexican flag with you and wave it over there. And one more thing. Why are we printing everything in Spanish and English. Was this country not formed on the English language. Why are we not printing everything in French, Italian, German and other languages as well? Because this is America, you speak ENGLISH and you learn how to read ENGLISH. I don't know about you, but I am sick and tired of our tax dollars going to print documents in Spanish because these people are too lazy to learn how to speak and read ENGLISH. Go home if you can't learn to read and speak ENGLISH. We speak ENGLISH here. Our elected politicians need to repeal all legislation stating that documents must also be printed in SPANISH. Why in the world did you start this crap in the first place!

These are just some of the many real issues facing this country that America has been sleeping on the way too long. Americans must get off their behinds and start making politicians to start making the right changes and if they don't - vote them out of office PRONTO! It is time that you took back your country from the huge corporate conglomerates and get the elected politicians that you pay to serve you - not them! Start asking these politicians the hard specific questions and demand nothing short but a yes or no answer with an explanation as to why. Stop allowing these politicians to side step your answers, walking around the issue by double speak. If they don't answer you, pull them back to it and make them answer it. And if they don't or will not answer the questions needing answers - then vote them out of office and get someone in office that will. We are running out of time in playing these political double speak games.

And what is this religious fervor over the controversy of gay marriage? I have never seen such a fickled society get themselves so worked up over something that has no real impact on anything. Why anyone should care or be concerned about who wants to marry whom is beyond me! This country has more serious issues facing it than this. Regardless of who wants to marry whom, they deserve the same legal protections that a society has created and sanctioned for their definition of "marriage is only between a woman and a man". I have yet been given a "real" justifiable answer as to why people should not be allowed to marry whom they want. All I get is a bunch of religious right wing fanaticism quoting this scripture or that scripture from the Bible and here are the facts about that.

There are many versions and translations of the books of the Bible. I need to make sure that everyone understands one important thing about the BIBLE. All of the translations were made from "copies" of the original Greek/Hebrew manuscripts. THERE ARE NO KNOWN ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE KNOWN TO EXIST. The present day variations of the Bible come from translations of "copies", some of "copies" of "copies" of the original manuscripts but mostly "letters" of the authors of the different books of the Bible, all hundreds of years old. There were no printing presses back then, so copies were done by scribes and they were not paid very much to "copy" them. There are thousands of manuscripts done by these scribes that have footnotes on them writing words that were guessed what they meant. Phrases were changed because the scribes believed the earlier translators either made a mistake, used the wrong word, or simply didn't like the way the previous translator interpreted the scripture. Some of these errors in translations were intentional, some were not. Some theologians believe these errors were done out of confusion due to the lack of knowing what the actual words meant.

There are many contradictions in the bible. In Mark 14:12; 15:25, Mark says that Jesus was crucified the day after the Passover meal was eaten. Yet in John 19:14, John writes that Jesus died the day before it was eaten.

Mankind through the ages with their manipulation of these words has made the Bible GOD for their own selfish purposes. Mankind has come to worship a book, more or less like a Pagan God. Mankind does not truly live the teachings of Jesus, if they truly did, there would be no WAR, and people would not kill on another. And this is not just found in Christianity, it is found in the other faiths of Islam, Hindu and other different religious teachings.

Abraham is the father of ALL religions, including Islam and Hindu. He is mentioned in all of these religions.

Not once in the New Testament does Jesus mention homosexuality, there was no such word. Man took the word sodomy and made it into homosexuality, when in fact sodomy in Greek/Hebrew means prostitute, or sodomite, one who prostitutes, which Jesus did mention. And you can't tell me that God only loves certain people. He loves everyone, no matter what color of their skin, what they look like, what sex, or what sexual preference they were both with. People are born being homosexual just as people are born with blue eyes. To deny these people or anyone that is different any rights that everyone else enjoys is a hypocrisy onto God. Wake up people! You religious right people are being hypocritical and judgemental.

Recently, James C. Dodson of the religious right, founder of Focus on Family in Colorado -- accused President Elect Obama of distorting the Bible when it has already been done and you are also doing it. You need to get your facts right about the Bible!

Every war that mankind has fought over since the time of Christ, there has always been either a direct interference of religious orders, or the war fought over the religious teachings of different societies and cultures, using the word of God for their own selfish reasons and justifications. An example was the war between the Anglican Church of England that King James set up when he basically threw the Catholic Church and the Pope out of England.

There is only one true law so to speak that Christ gave to us and that is, "Love your fellow man as you would love yourself, treat your brother as you would want to be treated." Now just think about that, if mankind truly lived by only that one spiritual teaching of Christ, would be need any other law? I don't believe so, do you?

Don't believe me, then read my article that gives the historical facts of the translations of errors of the Bible by Man through the ages. It also includes a brilliant article written by a retired Baptist Minister in Australia. What Does The Bible Actually Say About Homosexuality? You will learn that the actual translation regarding this in the Bible has been incorrectly translated from the original Hebrew/Greek "copies" of the original manuscripts,( that do not exist) and the reasons why they were translated like there were.

Wake up America, get off your behinds, time is running out to act on the real issues facing this country and the world and to start becoming real loving and caring human beings. And the next time you see an 80 year old man who gets run down in the street by a car, don't just stand there with your you know what up your butt or simply just walk past someone in need! Have we become that selfish and uncaring of a nation?

What are the facts today and what is affecting America as of December 2011?

A 2010 Pew study shows the following facts:

• The typical middle-class family had lost 23 percent of its wealth since the recession began, versus just 12 percent in the upper class.
  
  

• For the 22 million families right in the middle of the income distribution (those making between $39,000 and $62,000 before taxes), about 90% of their assets was in the house. Now half of their wealth is gone and it will never come back as long as they live. on average.
  
  

• American homeowners on average have lost 55% of the wealth in their home.
  
  
• The S&P 500 lost 56% of its value when it crashed, but it's doubled since 2008. Stocks are still down about 13% from peak prior to 2008.
  
  

• The richest 1 percent of households earned as much each year as the bottom 60 percent put together; they possessed as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent. With each passing year since 2007, a greater share of the nation's treasure was flowing through their hands and into the pockets of the rich 1%.
  

According to data released by the Federal Reserve in September, 2011, Americans have lost $7.3 trillion in home health. Starting in 2000 when the housing corruption bubble raised home values artificially under the the Bush Adminstration though 2005 by the corruption going on in the banking environment, home value worth began to decline in the later part of 2005 when the financial corruption started to be exposed and by throughout 2006 through 2008 as the meltdown continue, Americans lost $7.3 trillion in home wealth. The last part of 2008 it artificially increased by the first stimulus package that Bush pushed through before he left office, but in 2010 it declined again as more and more of the corruption in the sub-prime mortgage corruption meltdown was being exposed affecting mortgage home values.

• Working class middle Americans' wealth last summer suffered its biggest quarterly loss in more than two years as stocks, pension funds and home values lost value.
  
  
• At the same time, corporations increased their cash stockpiles to record levels, over $2.1 trillion as of September, 2011.
  
  

• Household net worth fell 4 percent to $57.4 trillion in the July-September quarter, according to a Federal Reserve report released Thursday. It was the sharpest drop since the October-December quarter of 2008 and was the second straight quarterly decline. Household wealth, or net worth, is the value of assets like homes, bank accounts and stocks, minus debts like mortgages and credit cards.
  
  

• The value of Americans' stock portfolios fell 5.2 percent last quarter. Home values dropped 0.6 percent.
  
  
• Between 1999 and 2009, the net jobs gain in the American workforce was zero. In the six previous decades, the number of jobs added rose by at least 20 per cent per decade.
  
  

• In 2010, the average middle-class family took home $49,445, a drop of $3,719 or seven per cent, in yearly earnings from ten years earlier. In other words, that family now earns the same amount as in 1996. After peaking in 1999, middle-class income dwindled through the right years of the George W. Bush presidency, climbing briefly during the housing boom, then nose diving in its aftermath in 2008.
  
  

• Poor families watched their income shrivel by 12 per cent, falling from $13,538 to $11,904. Even families in the 90th percentile of earners suffered a one per cent per cent hit, dropping on average from $141,032 to $138,923. Only among the staggeringly wealthy was this not a lost ten years The top one per cent of earners enjoyed a 65 per cent growth of all income in America for much of the ten years, 2000 through 2010.
  
  

• In September 2011, the Census Bureau rolled out its latest snapshot of poverty in the United States, counting more than 46 million men, women, and children among this country's poor. In other words, 15.1 per cent of all Americans are now living in officially defined poverty, the most since 1993.
  
  

• From 2001 to 2007, poverty figures were the worst for any recovery on record, according to Arloc Sherman, a senior researcher at the Centre on Budget and Policy Priorities. This was during the Bush Presidency and Republican controlled House and Senate most of the time. The Brookings Institution, meanwhile, predicts that the ranks of the poor will continue to grow steadily during the years of the Great Recession, which officially began in December 2007, and are expected to reach 50 million by 2015, almost 10 million more than in 2007. This is staggering by any means. What is America going to do about this?
  
  

• The "deep" poor, Americans are living way below the poverty line. In 2010, 20.5 million people, or 6.7 per cent of all Americans, scraped by with less than $11,157 for a family of four - that is, less than half of the poverty line. The ranks of the poor are no longer concentrated in inner cities or ghettos in the country's major urban areas as in decades past. Poverty has now exploded in the suburbs. Last year, more than 15 million suburbanites - or one-third of all poor Americans - fell below the poverty line, an increase of 11.5 per cent from the previous year.
  
  

• Suburbs, once the symbol of by-the-bootstraps mobility and economic prosperity in America have seen a spike of pverty by 53 per cent since 2000. Four of the ten poorest suburbs in America; Fresno, Bakersfield, Stockton, and Modesto, notice that all of these sit side by side on a map of California's Central Valley. The poor are also concentrated in border towns like El Paso and McAllen, Texas, and urban areas plummented by the housing crash like Fort Myers and Lakeland, Florida.
  
  

• According to Census data, between 2009 and 2010 alone the black poverty rate jumped from 25 per cent to 27 per cent. For Hispanics, it climbed from 25 per cent to 26 per cent, and for whites, from 9.4 per cent to 9.9 per cent. At 16.4 million, more children now live in poverty than at any time since 1962. Put another way, 22 per cent of kids currently live below the poverty line, a 17-year record.
  
  

• The wealth of non-white families, the Pew Research Centre reported in July is even worse. Between 2005 and 2009, the household wealth of a typical black family dropped off a cliff, plunging by a whopping 53 per cent; for a typical Hispanic family, it was even worse, at 66 per cent. For white middle-class households, losses on average totalled "only" 16 per cent.
  
  

• It gets worse. In 2009, the median wealth for a white family was $113,149, for a black family $5,677, and for a Hispanic family $6,325. From 2005 to 2010, whatever wealth was possessed by blacks and Hispanics - largely home ownership was destroyed by the corruption of the 2008 financial meltdown corruption.
  
  

• The total number of jobs eliminated since the recession began and also the labour market's failure to create enough jobs to keep up with normal population growth, is a record 11.2 million jobs deficit, never before seen in this country. This is causing the a chasm between where the economy should be and where it is now. Filling that gap is the key to any recovery, but to do so by mid-2016 would mean the following. America would have to add 280,000 jobs a month. This I believe is a dream in an economy limping along creating an average of just 35,000 jobs a month for the past three months. Unless the country's jobs engine creation machine somehow jump-started in 2012...11.2 million jobs in the coming decade through 2019 will be a real stretch. But few in Congress, and none of the controlling Republican politicians, will even think about using the jumper cables. President Obama's relatively modest American Jobs Act, for instance, was declared a corpse on arrival at the House of Representatives. A reporter asked House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), "The $447 billion jobs package as a package: dead?" Yes, Cantor assured him, indeed it was. This American is the mentally of the elected officials you have put in office in Washington. Godo grief, it was the infrastructure jobs that Truman and Roosevelt put into place rebuilding America's infrastructure is what saved and put American back on a road of economic recovery after the 1929 Depression. What in the world do these politicians in Washington think we had in 2008, a burp in our economic policies and regulations? Hello....does someone need a brain scan for intelligence?

So How Do We Get Out Of This Mess?

President Obama and Congress must do the following:

I should say...AMERICA who must get your elected officials in Washing to do the following. If they won't then replace them!

• First and foremost, bring the jobs back home we have lost. America must become the manufacuturing giant it once was. Americans have got to realize they cannot keep purchasing poorly made inferior products at Wal-Mart and other stores that sell these products that are made in these countries where we have lost the jobs to. How this is accomplished is by instituting TARRIFS on these products. This will force the corporations to bring the jobs home.
  
  
• Health care for every man, woman and child in America is a must ! Call it socialized medicine and fight it, but if you haven't noticed we already have socialized medicine in the form of Medicare and Medicaid. We are providing healthcare for illegal immigrants under Medicaid but have over 14 million children in this country who do not have any health care.
  
  
• The banking de-regulations that were lifted by President Reagan and the Republican controlled Houses during the 1980's must be re-instated. Third party mortgage loan brokers and discounters must be removed from this process and not be allowed to process mortgage loans. Teaser low interest rates for 3-5 years to sell homes must be done away with and borrowers must be properly qualified to purchase a home, meaning they can actually make the payment. Usuary laws must be put in place again to protect consumers from what banks are doing in jacking up consumers credit card interest rates and to set maximum amount of interest rates banks can charge credit card consumers. Congress must also act on how banks charge customer for overdrafts. These greedy and unscrupluous practices by banks must be dealt with!
  
  
• Limit Congress to serving not more than 3 terms in office. This is one term longer that Presidents are allowed.
  
  These politicians that stay in office wind up being corrupted by corporations because of the amount of donations these corporations give these elected officials to keep them in office.
  
  
• Campaign reform is a must. It should not be that anyone that wants to run for any office in this country should have to find, raise or come up with even $100,000 to run for Senator or Congressman. Nor over $100 million to run for President. Laws need to be passed that anyone that wants to run can run and have equal access to funds from any political party and that donations be limited strictly to individuals of not more than $500.00 each.
  
  
• Disallow paid lobbyists from having any contact with Washington politicians. This will do away with the corruption in this area that has been in Washington for decades, it will stop the corporate influence on Americans daily lives.
  
  
• Stop Congress for voting for their own pay raises.
  
  
• Stop paying for Congressmen's high priced top of the line health insurance premiums. Let them feel the pinch like so many American do and those that cannot afford even basic care health insurance.
  
  
• Do away with profit making health-insurance policies sold by insurance companies. Make health-care a government program. We need a system similar to Denmark. It is a National Health Care program where every American has health, vision and dental care. It is financed by a 2% payroll tax on the employee and employer, a total of 4%.That way every AMERICAN and every CHILD in AMERICA has access to health, dental and vision care.
  
  
• Stop paying Congressmen a full 100% of their salary in Congress as retirement even if they only serve one term. This needs to be on a graduated scale like other pensions. If they serve (2) terms, eight years, they get only 50% of their Congress salary as retirement.
  
  
• Also make Congress pay into the Social Security System. Presently, the salaries they make while on Congress they pay no Social Security on.
  
  
• Stop handing out aid to illegal immigrants. If we did, Medicard and the food stamp program would have enough to take care of our own poor and age properly. Illegal immigrants use our Emergency Room facilites like a Doctor's office. It has caused the closing of many Emergency Room facilites in hospitals across the country.
  
  
• Secure our borders. Stop illegal immigration and to prevent terrorists attacks. Presently, with the volume of shipping containers coming into this country from various parts of the world, something is going to get through because we have not invested enough to secure or borders.
  
  
• Stop allowing babies born in the U.S. to illegal immigrants to have automatic U.S. Citizenship. This makes a mockery of immigrants that came through Ellis Island and continue to do it properly and legally to attain their U.S. Citizenship.
  
  
• Stop publishing government publications, voting instructions in both English and Spanish. This country was based on the English language and we now are sacraficing that heritigage by accomodating people who are too lazy to read and write English. If these people do not want to learn to read and write English, then they need to go back to their country of origin. This is suppse to be part of the requirement of being a U.S. Citizen, why is this being ignored? Why are we spending tax dollars to print these documents in Spanish?
  
  
• Pass laws to not allow corporations to pay Executives outrageous bonuses and golden parachute clauses at the expense of the stockholders and now the the U.S. taxpayer. Any bonus should be a set percentage set by the majority of the stockholders of a corporation and not made up by the very executives themselves. The bonus should only be based on performance of increase earnings as well. Some of the recent Executives of the corporations, including the banks have taken HUGE bonuses. Hello, have we lost all values in this country? And anyone that says we don't need regulations and government oversight over these institutions is a complete idiot! Those that preach less government regulations are the very peple that have been stealing the American taxpayer and consumer blind for the last 40 years or so.
  
  
• Stop permitting anyone from having a driver's license where their face is covered. There is no religious exceptions to this.
  
  
• Stop buying products made in other countries. There is a false email circulating that you can read the bar code on products to determine origin of country. This is FALSE! Most Chinese businessmen are starting to figure out that many consumers do not prefer products Made in China but there is no way they can get around the mandatory labeling requirements. Origin of country must show on any product not made in the U.S.A. If it says made in "CHINA" or any other country, stop buying it, especially food! If it is made in the U.S.A, it will say made in the U.S.A., or it may say, product made in the U.S.A. - assembled in "whatever country". If it assembled in another country, don't buy it!

  This false email about the bar code says to refer to the barcode, the first 3 digits 690-695 that it is "Made in China", this is FALSE .

• If you want quality clothing and shoes still made in the U.S.A. and which are keeping Americans employed, shop L.L. BEAN. LLBEAN.COM * Most of the clothes and shoes are made in the U.S.A., some are imported, the ones made in the U.S.A. cost a little more than the Wal-Mart inferior goods, but they will last you twice as long, you'll not only save money in the long run but will be helping to keep Americans employed. Buy only from companies that state, Made In The U.S.A.
  
  
• Do away with filing both State and Federal Taxes. Do away with the IRS. This will save millions of dollars. Instead have a flat tax on both personal and corporate income. This would apply to both state and federal taxes. A flat tax is a more fair tax because all citizens use the services that tax dollars are spent on, the highways, parks, etc. The more you make, the more you pay because you use more of these services, this is proven.
  
  
• We must contain global warming. We must stop trading with countries that are not doing things to reduce their pollution which adds to global warming. We must stop buying wood products from countries in South America that are cutting down the rain forests. The rain forests are the lungs of Mother Earth, once they are gone we will have severe weather changes and global warming will rapidly occur.
  
  
• Any automobile manufactuer in this country must be mandated to have vehicles, cars, trucks, SUV's on the road that get at least 45 miles per gallon by 2012. Travel trailers and RV's will have to run on either electric and hydrogen methods by 2012. The technology is there, it is just a matter of making these corporations do it.
  
  
• America must become energy independent. The technology is there!
  
  

So, there you have the facts and what I think needs to be done to save this country. If you agree with me, then start actions committes in your neighborhoods like you did in the last election and start emailing, writing letters to your Congressmen and even soon to be President Obama. America this is your last chance to get it right.

We should be putting tax dollars into renewable energy sources and new ones like hydrogen electrical generating plants and solar. Do you know that for an additional approximate cost of about $14,000 that a home can be built with solar and renewable energy technology that make it self energy reliant and can even produce excess electricity to put out on the electrical grid? And...with tax credits and state rebates from most states, that costs drives it down to approxmiately $5,000.00 Why haven't we given actual cash grants to people to build such houses or better yet, why doesn't the government actually fund this energy expense to make a home totally energy sustained within itself? Just think, if the government would finance installing solar units in just 40% of the homes in America, we could reduce out dependence on foreign oil by as much as 80%. This won't happen because the oil corporations won't let that happen. Duh...does it take a genius to figure that one out? What am I talking about, we have politcians in Washington that don't even know how to use a computer and that includes Senator McCain and President Bush.

To find out more about installing your own solar panel electrical system for your home, visit, DIRESUSA.ORG This is a website that lists all of the states credits etc. on solar electrical systems you install on your home. New Jersey is one state that gives you 80% of the cost of a solar installed system, and the utility company gives the homeowner the remaining 20% cost in the form of a loan. In many cases, the extra electricity that the system generates makes the payment for the homeowner as well. So, the final cost to the homeowner, practically nothing, while helping America reduce its dependence on foreign oil. New Jersey pays homeowners 75 cents per killowatt of power that the homeowner's system puts back into the electrical grid. There are several solar panel electrical system companies all over the country now that install these systems. The technology has advanced so much in just the last five years. These systems will last for 20-25 years with very little maintenence cost. The new systems are not like the solar heating panels for hot water that people installed in the 1990's. Systems that have been installed and in use already in the country, cost an average of $92.00 a month if a loan is taken out, but give back in most instances $100.00 to $140.00 in credit from the electrical company. Many people actually receive a check from the electrical company monthly. Bottom line, install a solar panel electrical system to power your home, you will not have an electric bill anymore.

What has completely amazed me is why Americans have not gotten mad as hell. Instead, everyone has simply sat around the last twenty five or so years, nodded their heads when the politicians said, " we need to stay the course". Good Lord, yes, we've stayed the course by literally running this country into financial bankruptcy and making more Americans poorer while the rich get richer. And how Bush got elected the second time, I still do not understand the mentally of America anymore. Have Americans developed brain death, oblivious to the facts? Do they care anymore?

How may Americans know what our national debt is and how much the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have cost thus far and is costing daily? Do you know how much Japan, China, Saudi Arabi own in U.S. Treasury Notes and Bonds? Do you care? If not, I have provided the information and facts to you. Wake up America!

So, there you have the facts and what I think needs to be done to save this country. If you agree with me, then start actions committes in your neighborhoods like you did in the last election and start emailing, writing letters to your Congressmen and even soon to be President Obama. America this is your last chance to get it right.

Before I close, below is a list of my other columns where I have consistently warned and alerted my readers of what is going on in America that they must do something about.

It's up to you America!

Now ACT - Let's stop this madness of NOT solving our country's problems when it is simple, but that would be to simple.... truth, honesty and common sense. It's jobs creation America that is the most important thing to do NOW !

But that will not happen until you do something about it.

Send an email of the link to this article, http://www.dldewey.com/dec2011.htm to family and friends

Help them learn the what the real facts are and especially the truth.

And one last comment and strong suggestion to Occupy Wall Street. You do not realize the power that you could truly had if you organized voters across the country. You refuse to admit that you are a form of a political party because you are fighting the very political parties that has created this mess. If you do not recognize that you are a political movement, a political party in a fashion and realize that you have the power through the VOTE, and not by camping out in tent cities and getting arrested all the time, what a waste of resources.

Get Smart Occupy Wall Street - organize VOTERS across the country and you will be amazed what will happen!

Happy New Year everyone - see you next year !

~ David Lawrence Dewey

• Hello Washington Politicians --- Putting People Back To Work Will Solve
  The Deficit Crisis and Save Social Security ! The Facts and Truth You Need To Know America ! - July 15, 2011
  
  
• What Has Truly Caused the Job Losses and the Financial Meltdown
  The Facts! February 20, 2010
  
  
• The Truth About The Job Loss In America - More Job Losses To Follow
  - Has the Walmart Corporation Played a Huge Role in the Loss of American jobs? - Feb. 2004
  
  
• American Die Each Day For Lack of Health Insurance and Health Care - Nov. 2009
  
  
• Has Common Sense and Honesty In Health Reform Been Replaced With GREED? - August 2009
  
  
• Job Loss and Unemployment Hit Records Highs - November 30, 2008
  
  
• Causes Of The Financial Crisis Today - September 18, 2008
  
  
• America...It's Time For Some Wake Up Calls ! - June 28, 2008
  
  
• Global Warming: Is It Too Late? - March 30, 2007
  
  
• Ice Shelf Falls Off Into Artic - Is Global Warming Real Enough Now? - Jan. 1, 2007
  
  
• The Costs of illegal immigrants ! - April 14, 2006
  
  
• Global Warming - Is It Too Late? - March 30 2006
  
  
• Eyes on China - The Price Of Oil - August 30, 2004
  
  
• Global Warming - Fact or Fiction - August 1997

Also, I would like to take this time to introduce you a friend of mine, Author and Painter, Paul Hampton Crockett. Paul is a brilliant painter who has painted beautiful spiritual paintings that touch your soul.

In addition, he has published online his book,
"Death is an Impostor: Life: Where Love Is, Death Never Is the End of the Story".

It is getting raves reviews and the website it getting hundreds of hits a day.

You can read his soul touching inspirational book about Paul's life at http://www.deathisanimpostor.com/

Paul also writes a blog which you can read here: http://growingintothemystery.net/

Also, visit his painting website at: http://www.crockettartworks.com/

Here are just a couple of Paul's breath taking spiritual paintings

Until Next Time...
~David Lawrence Dewey

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IMPORTANT UPDATE: Make sure you read about the new documentary Read About the Film - Click Here Do you want to die young with a diseased heart? Develop needless high blood presure? Develop diabetes type II ? If not - then you need to watch this new documentary ! THE FILM HAS WON FIVE FILM AWARDS !

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Do you care about your health, the health of your children, your family?
Then make sure you read my column:
Hydrogenated Oils - Silent Killers
Learn the truth about these deadly oils in our food supplies

Read about Greta Ferebee's and my efforts in a nationwide petition campaign to get these and other toxins out of the food supply. VISIT our website:

DoWeCare.org

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*The claims made about these products on or through this site have not been evaluated by the United States Food and Drug Administration and are not approved to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease. The information provided on this site is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for advice from your physician or other healthcare professional or any information contained on or in any product label or packaging. You should not use the information on this site for diagnosis or treatment of any health problem or for prescription of any medication or other treatment. You should consult with a healthcare professional before starting any diet, exercise or supplementation program, before taking any medication, or if you have or suspect you might have a health problem.

In the United States, medical diagnosis and treatment is constrained by law to be the exclusive purview of state licensed practitioners. The diseases discussed on this site are serious, sometimes life threatening matters. Neither the content nor the intent of this column may or should be construed as the giving of medical advice or as recommending any treatment of any kind. The purpose of this column is to support informed discussions, to provide medical research links and and to help the patient identify the doctors who keep up with advances in their field.