Taking a look back, I wonder if it has all been worth it.  Has it been worth being out there away from home, family and our personal obligations?  What have we gained by the action we have taken?  Is our government really listening to the voice of the “people,” we the people that make up the voting populous of America and in other places around the world who are also protesting the economic and social conditions found in today’s society?  It is a question we will not have a real answer to until some future date.  Despite our outcries, we still have to sit and wait and watch.

The Occupy protest began  as a protest movement by the general populous called the 99% as a protest against the high unemployment and the greed, corruption and the undue influences of large corporations on our government and the social and economic inequality in the United States between the wealthiest 1% of the U.S. population and the other 99% being pushed down and smothered by these powers and their influences on our governing bodies establishing an unfair global economy that is literally foreclosing on our future as businesses downsize and have major layoffs because they can’t afford to keep everyone employed or they are forced into bankruptcy and close their doors.  The general public loses their income and in the process their homes and livelihood while taxes, medical expenses, insurance, the cost of food and basic necessities have doubled and are crushing the life right out of the 99% represented in these protest movements that began on September 17, 2011 at Liberty Square in New York City’s Wall Street financial district and fanned protest all across the United States and around the world as the populous of nations banned together in protest against corrosive leadership in both government and big business. 

The economic and social conditions need to be re-evaluated to reflect equality for all 100% not just the elite few and not allow our rights to become tarnished or infringed upon by others through unfair laws, regulations and business practices.  No one is or was asking for a handout; just a hand up out of the mess the 1% has made and we allowed to happen by not speaking up sooner.  These protesters were asking the 1% to play fair and do their share.  The majority of Americans are willing to work for a living, pay their fair share of taxes to keep our Nation strong and running but things have got so far out of balance the “people” (that 99%) finally have had to say enough. 

We need to re-evaluate and repair the condition our condition is in and do it in a way that is fair to everyone.  You cannot get out of debt by borrowing more money or foreclosing on the 99% who are trying to do their fair share.  We can’t keep our own Nation strong and competitive when we give it away to other Nations or we become an aristocracy or socialist republic.  History has already proven that over and over again.  The only thing that works is when people pull together as a united front and do not succumb to the dictations of one or the few.    

We all want change and we all have our personal and community reasons for desiring change but change only comes if we make it happen and to make it happen we have to begin on a personal level.  The change has to begin at home and with each of us personally.  We need to ask our self what we can do to make things better for our self.  What can I personally do, change about my own circumstances that will in some way improve the situation I am in. 

Life isn’t always fair or easy.  There will always be someone who has more.  There will always be those who others consider to be poor.  There will always be those who will cheat and lie and scam and con to get what they want to fill their own pocket of greed.  There will always be users and abusers and some will actually get away with it for a time.

From Occupy Wall Street to all the other such places including Washington DC the voice of the people has spoken.  They original intent was good and meaningful but as I have looked back I think the whole Occupy thing got out of hand and not everybody was there for the right reasons.  Too many got caught up in the excitement, came for all the wrong reasons and crimes were committed on both sides and the whole thing seemed to go a little crazy. 

Instead of forming a truly united front, too many personal agendas, gripes and disagreements came to the surface and it has all ended with too much shouting and too many loud and angry voices screaming for their “rights” so that even if some who could make a real difference, were trying to listen, they couldn’t hear the words above the roar.  

On the surface it seems that all it has really amounted to is a lot more “sensationalism” in the news headlines with little to no real accomplishments achieved.  We are left right where we were when it all began, to sit and watch and wait to see what our government will really do.  Maybe some heard.  Maybe they can convince others to see the error of our way.  Time will tell.  For now we wait, we hope and we can all begin to make the changes this Country needs by beginning with our self and better governing our own personal behavior, and our attitude toward others.  

First we allow big business to tell us twenty years ago how moving some things over seas was good for our nation. We now know that was a lie. All the jobs went overseas. Next, we allowed congress to vote in their own health care we paid for it. While millions of us can’t afford the HMO’s, PPO’s and what ever else some college graduate can scam out of the rest of us.

Hey but here is the kicker, we have natural gas but to get it we need to pump cow killing water destroying chemicals into the soil all around the United States and some of you will be millionaires so you can move. And the rest of you poor bastards get to suffer and die. No one got off the couch to protest?

And for the best one, this was the housing crisis. Here is a reality check when did mortar, clay or stone become gold? It never did, some one came up with the idea to raise housing prices. The idea was to make the bankers richer through dirty loans to people who would never pay the money back but banks keep reselling the properties over and over making huge dollars. Then they said they were broke so our government bailed their lying stealing asses out.  Guess what- for the few that got richer congratulations. For the rest of you home loser’s to bad so sad we Americans really are stupid and greedy. But we not only took down Americans we have endangered ever other nation who bought bad debts here. And we never marched on Washington, we sent emails. Welcome to the new century.

Now our government tells us if they can’t come to a resolution over the debt they created, we will go bankrupt. OK, I get it they just needed some over time to cover that lengthy vacation time they will take after screwing us again. Does your ass hurt yet, mine does.

Here’s another reality check, drama sells television and that is what we watch as we devour our ho hos. In the next twenty years we will no longer have the greatest military due to obesity.

Our government is not going to let this nation default they will raise their classes pat each-other on their asses and seal more deals we will never know about. The debt limit raised, it will be a free for all for the next President to squash social security. But first lets break for a McDonald’s commercial.

written by: Derrick A Jasper Freelance writer

    2012 is right around the corner, and with it the implications of a possible end of our world, as foretold by Mayan prophecies, rehashed, re-booted, and regurgitated by the interpretations of ignorant people with superstitious minds. Tens of thousands advertise our coming demise so that billions will pay into their Apocalyptic Ponzi scheme. Whether it is the Hollywood vampires, the belt-way bandits, or the money-grubbing televangelists, there are plenty of shrewd con men eager to win the battle of hearts and minds and pocketbooks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba7jGqRTKQU

  One target demographic is the elderly, somewhere North of sixty, who are fed up with their jobs, their country, their lives and life in general. They see their own dis-corporation just down the pike, and their sense of reason and critical thinking have been overshadowed by the paralyzing fear of death looming in the (not so distant) distance. Even worse, as they start to lose their bodies and their minds to something inevitable that they will never really know or fully understand, they sense the impending loneliness, and want to take down as many people as they can, just to have the company.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LaNldfereQ&feature=related

  If old age is indeed an island surrounded by death, as quoted by Stephen King, then it stands to reason that the stranded occupants of that damned and desolate shore would wish to have the company of other lost souls, clinging desperately to what was left of said island; eager to entertain each other with recitations of past memories, and to reassure each other that they recognize that they will all share the same fate. Speculating on the Apocalypse, secretly hoping that it will come soon, to wipe out everyone and everything in one fell swoop, offers the ridiculous hope that the ending will bring everyone together, that no one should ever die alone.

   How can that not be appealing?

   Living a life where justice is random and life is fleeting, where anyone anywhere at any time can be violated and broken and damaged beyond repair, where the rich get richer and the poor die penniless and hopeless on the streets of despair, how can the improbable possibility of total and utter annihilation not be appealing?

   These old fools throwing good money for bad, paying to pave a path to heaven, eager to give everything to fantasy when reality stares them in the face, they would rather take everyone down with them then spend their filthy lucre on something substantial.

  They do not give a damn about society, (and why should they?) society has chewed them up and spit them out. Society allows pimps and prostitutes to run their streets. Society steals their pensions, and subsidizes multi-millionaire CEO’s who cannot do their work worth a damn. Society gives them television where multi-national corporations push drugs and sex and war and religion and hate, while they pimp young girls on shows like “Skin”, and pay terrorists like Glenn Beck to rant like a lunatic. Society cuts the price of their homes in half, homes that they have worked hard for most of their lives, then raises the price on their prescription drugs, and takes their homes and their drugs, and throws them out and gives their houses back to the banks who flips their homes for a profit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLdVmO6Xulw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx23DafAh08&playnext=1&list=PLD16D671744FC036D

  Then they have to listen to how bad they are. Do not smoke. Do not drink. Do not chew tobacco. Do not eat greasy foods. Do not eat sugary foods. Do not eat fatty foods. They are told that their eating habits and “sedentary” lifestyles have led to the downfall of western civilization, and that they must be taxed to pay for their vices, even though the food companies, tobacco companies, pharmaceutical companies, and oil companies have seen fit to litter their airwaves with commercials selling vice, and neither the FCC nor the Federal Government enforce the rules set against such practices.

  And the Separation of Church and State does not protect them from paying  “Sin” taxes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFp4rs9CBxk

  So, they sit at home and rot. They watch their religious entertainment shows, and take solace in the dream that it will all end soon. They watch, they obsess, and they believe that the Apocalypse is coming, because it is so much easier than accepting their own personal Gotterdammerung. They pay what is left of their hard earned money, to racists and race-baiters, people who hate homosexuals, people who hate union workers, people who hate any form of liberal thought, people who want them to believe that they are just as desperate and pathetic as they are.

  They do not want to think about complicated issues. They do not want to hear the facts. They have turned their backs on justice. They have given up on life. They just want to know that when they go, we will all go down together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFcyjVWPDlw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx0jQAh0aaw

Part of the rationale for the bank bailout was to ease fears that could drive the market further down than was necessary.  If you stopped the bleeding, everything would eventually straighten itself out.  However, this was nothing more than a short term fix, as I mentioned in my blog, Bailout: Short Term Economic Solution, posted October 21, 2008.  As the issue of a double dip recession continues to make headlines, I will reiterate the importance of understanding that a recovery in not inevitable.  It is economic suicide to continue to ignore the underlying weakness of the American economy that has resulted from decades of disastrous policy decisions by our government. 

A double dip implies we already had some type of recovery, but that is a manipulation of the numbers.  Throughout 2008 and the first two quarters of 2009, we lost well over 10% of our GDP and almost doubled our unemployment rate.  When you consider the $800 billion passed in the stimulus package in early 2009, cash for clunkers, and other government programs that encouraged spending, you’re changing the factors that should be used to measure GDP in subsequent quarters.  You have to compare the gross to the net.  Not doing so would be like if you owned a store and spent $100,000 to bring in customers and made $50,000 in sales as a result.  Is that what economists should consider a recovery if measured on a macro-economic scale?  The fact that barely a dent was made in unemployment numbers, despite these expenditures, shows these GDP gains were superficial and not indicative of a real recovery. 

The close to trillion dollars spent since 2009, which doesn’t include the bank and auto bailouts of late 2008, amount to over seven percent of America’s GDP.  This cancels out the GDP gains of late 2009 and early 2010, used to justify the double dip term.  These things are important because if we continue to mislead people about what’s happening with our economy, we’ll never get to a point where it’s necessary to wake up and make some real changes.

There are two more waves that will soon come crashing against the American economy.  The first will come when the millions of people receiving unemployment benefits reach the 99 week limit.  Over 8 million Americans have lost their jobs since the depression began.  With their current benefits, they can pay rent or mortgage, auto debt, various forms of insurance, food, etc…  After this election it becomes politically safe to stop making extensions.  To pretend there’s been a recovery while millions remain unemployed is sick.

The second wave will occur as the public sector gets cut by a decrease in pay and benefits, or layoffs. Neither will help consumer spending, but will be necessary to address state and federal budget deficits. Few will be fortunate to even find lesser paying jobs considering the state of the economy.  As the unemployment numbers jump again, we won’t see the full measure of the public sector wave begin to ebb until 2013, when they run out of their 99 weeks of unemployment.  Only after 2013, when we’ll hit rock bottom, is it realistic to expect a real recovery.  That means one that can be sustained without government intervention.  That is only possible if the right decisions are made between now and then.  Had the right decisions been made in 2009, 2011 could have been rock bottom, but nobody wants to swallow their medicine.                                       

If you think I’m being overly pessimistic consider the following: in 2007, three banks failed, 2008 had twenty-five, 2009 had 140, and 2010 had 108 banks fail through July.  Over a million homes will be foreclosed on in 2010, despite the $8,000 tax credit that ended after June.  This is on top of the 3.4 million homes foreclosed on in 2009, and record low mortgage rates.  If you look outside the housing market for growth, consumer spending is extremely unlikely to pick up soon with the new credit card rules taking effect this year.  “It’s forecast that credit card lines will be cut by $2.7 trillion (about 50 percent of current credit) by 2010.”

After all was said and done… we are now broke, creditors are calling off the hook, my house has been in and out of the beginnings of foreclosure, we lost our health insurance, my step son’s car was repossessed and we’re living a nightmare…

This wasn’t supposed to happen.  We lived frugally for the most part.  We are just regular people.

My husband is self employed; paid by commissions.  If he doesn’t close a deal, he doesn’t get paid.  If his clients don’t have business, or have cut backs in business, my husband doesn’t get paid.  He has been in his business for over 30 years and he’s good at it.  When he first got into it, he was making pretty good money.  This was, of course, before he had any real responsibilities.  His ex got the benefits of that.  She got the “stuff;” the vacations, the maids and nannies, the jewelry etc… the babies.   As soon as we married thirteen years ago, the kids were then my responsibility, rarely hers.  So, I became a stay at home step-mom. 

It’s been six months since my husband has closed a deal.  I have been sending out resumes, trying to go back to work, but it seems either my age, or the fact that I’ve been out of the job market for a while, no one is interested in me.  I design product on an Internet website and make a bit of money from that; enough to feed my family every month, but that’s pretty much all it covers.  I shop at the Dollar Store and the 99 cent store for groceries.  I buy generic everything; even tampons and live mostly on pasta and hot dogs, these days.  Every dollar counts.  I remember going to these stores when I could still afford Target and Wal-Mart, buying a bunch of cheap stuff I don’t need thinking, ”Oh, it’s only a dollar, etc.”  Now, every dollar counts.  I could buy a bunch of bananas, or a carton of eggs; food to feed my family with that dollar.  Not another spatula or plastic bowl I don’t need.

The car repossession the other night was quite the scene in my quiet little middle class neighborhood.  At 4:00 a.m. in the morning we heard pounding on the door and a desperate ringing of the bell.  My husband went to the door to find four thugs demanding the keys to my step-son’s car.  My husband asked to see ID and the repossession paper work.  They declined to show it. They threatened my husband, shouting, “You’re going to jail, Mother F—-er! I hope you like taking it up the ass!”  The cops were called and six officers showed up in three cars.  I can’t even begin to image what the neighbors were thinking.  Even though there are several houses on our street in foreclosure, who wants to be part of the “have nots” and have anyone know about it, especially the neighbors?  The main repo-thug was loud and dramatic, trying to intimidate us; acting as if he was on the television show, “Cops.”  I was yelling at him, “This isn’t the ghetto.  Get over yourself!”  Finally the officer made him show me the paperwork and we gave him the keys and away went the car.  The car that we gave to our kid when he graduated high school and needed for college and work is gone.  It was towed away by these arrogant thugs.

In this recession these companies have no heart.  We spoke to the finance company two weeks prior and offered to deliver the car; they stated that wouldn’t be necessary.  Then they sent these ex-con-gang members to my house.  It’s not like we’re criminals.  We’re just trying to survive this horrible year.  We made our payment in full, on time, for three years.  Why do we deserve this treatment?  It was as if we stole the car from the car dealership and ran a high speed chase to now and they just caught up with us.  We weren’t hiding.  We were here all the time.  We were communicating with the loan company.  Why is this necessary?  Again, we offered to deliver the car to their doorstep.

The credit card companies are also bullies.  They charge 30% finance charges, $39 late fees and wonder why you are then overdrawn and charge another $39 for that.  They lower your credit limit and then charge you an overdraft fee.  They purposely don’t give enough lead time to pay your bills on time, so they can charge that late fee.  They make it impossible to get out of debt and punish you for it.  Yes, Obama is putting some new limits on them, but there won’t be limits on the amount of money they can charge in fees.  They are loan sharks.  It shouldn’t be allowed. 

The banks also have another game they play and my kids have been the victims of this.  They tempt kids with credit cards; sending invitations in the mail the second they turn eighteen.  Most kids don’t know how to manage money.  The banks know this.  So, when a kid uses his debit card, or charges from it, even if there’s not enough money to cover the charge, the bank will honor it and then charge a $39 fee, instead of declining the charge for insufficient funds.  No matter what the amount was that was charged.  It could be a dollar, or a hundred dollars, it’s the same $39 fee for the charge.  My kid is now on his own and makes approximately $200 per week.  He pays his own rent and expenses and tries to pay his credit card payments on time, but usually doesn’t.  So, he’s charged fees for that.  Then, if he uses his debit card to buy a bag of chips and a soda for $2 and there isn’t money in the account, he’s charged $39 for a $2 charge.  This happens day after day.  Because even though, most times, debit withdrawals show up immediately when you check your balance on line, debit charges don’t.  Sometimes it takes days to show up.  So, even if he checks his account, and thinks he’s okay, by the end of the month he’s overdrawn from fees.  Once his paycheck is deposited, it’s already spent on fees.  Yes, he needs to balance his checkbook and keep track, but how is this right?  Why not just deny the charges? 

The banks got bail out money, so why aren’t they “paying it forward” and helping their customers.  The banks need to do the right thing and stop these mobster like practices.  Instead, they’re driving us to bankruptcy. How will that benefit them? 

We, the people; my family are not criminals.  We’re just part of the society effected by the country’s financial crisis.  We filed a complaint about the repossessors with the Federal Trade Commission.   What good will that do?  I don’t know.  We should also file a complaint against the finance company that sent the thugs to our house.  This drama wasn’t necessary.  We offered to deliver the cars to them.  Again, we are not criminals, or ex-cons!  They acted as if they were.  They are bullies; from the higher-ups in the loan companies and banks, to the thug repossessors at my door.  I would love to be a fly on their wall when it happens to them, or their loved ones.

The debate is in response to that part of President Obama’s Stimulus package, the $75 billion aid to homeowners segment. Wow, $75 billion in aid to themillions of financially troubled homeowners; $700 billion to a few hundred troubled financial institutions.

You do the math. Is there something wrong with this picture? Yep.

1. The financial mess worsened in 2007 and 2008. Mortgages are debts to us, but they are assets to the financial institutions holding them. And they are required to revalue their assets frequently. Since homeowners were defaulting, not paying, on their sub prime option pay mortgages in growing numbers, banks were forced to reduce the value of their assets, and the reductions were becoming significant.

2. Now the investors in collateral backed debt obligations (CDOs) were finding that their investments were in trouble, and they could not sell these hugh packages of mortgages. Nobody wanted to buy them, so our debt markets were in trouble.

3. Bank write down of assets began to turn into a tidal wave of losses, as banks wrote off billions of dollars of bad debts (sub prime mortgages) – the bank’s assets.

4. As the crisis worsened, some of the first big financial institutions to go bankrupt were very large investment banks, who were big investors in CDOs, companies, like Bear Stears, and Lehman Brothers. Bank of America, in trouble itself and receiving massive bailout funds, bought up the failing investment bank of Merrill Lynch. Wells Fargo bank, another big bank receiving massive bailout funds, used some of the money to buy up failing Wachovia bank. These buyouts, with federal bailout funds, really helped us guys & gals. Hmm, not really.

5. Banks were also failing, such as IndyMac in California, one of the first to go, who had been a large sub prime mortgage lender. And there were, and are many more to come.

6. Then AIG the largest global insurance company emerged as Washington’s largest private sector bailout. The U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve provided over $150 billion in loans and cash, getting an 80% stake in the company. Again, it was the sub prime mortgages that did them in, as they rapidly approached bankruptcy.

7. With about $5.5 trillion in mortgages guaranteed by them, Fannie May and Freddie Mac became liabilities of the crisis, and had to be taken over by the Federal government, who now guarantees these mortgages. I think that means us guys & gals are the guarantors.

8. While all this was going on in the credit markets, commodity prices were skyrocketing, as we all know from the price of gasoline at the pump in the spring and summer of 2008. It was all basic raw materials, including coal, copper, iron ore, and steel, whose prices were doubling and more, driven up by hugh demands from emerging Asian nations. This has changed dramatically, however, as the price of crude oil has sunk from $150 per gallon to under $40 now. But this reflects the world-wide nature of the crisis in the financial markets, and now the world’s economies.

9. With all the turmoil in the financial markets, banks have cut way back on lending, even with the billions of dollars of Federal bailout welfare. They want to protect their assets and balance sheets with this massive cash injection. Too bad for business, especially small business, us guys & gals too, who need to borrow short term for payrolls, inventories and survival. So, thanks again to our banking system, we will lose many small businesses unable to survive in a declining economy without credit funds.

10. There has been a run on money market funds, depleting their assets so that they can no longer invest in business credit securities, simply making it even more difficult for business to acquire credit funds for their operations.

To see where we stand now, in late February, 2009, and a proposed solution, check out my Layman’s Primer Part 3.

President Bush claims that The Rescue Package will be a “booster shoot for the economy”. Capitol Hill’s tight-ties hope the money will burn holes in the recipient’s pocket and stimulate the sluggish economy.

Even though this is a $117 billion stunt, the frivolous spending to follow won’t stimulate the economy anymore than anyone’s regular tax refund. Those that earn at the top of the salary spectrum will be rebated enough cash to blow on a weekend out. The majority and the other end aren’t likely to start a service business.

Think about it, with the bulk of our manufacturing living across seas, just whose economy is really going to boost.

Economy is to humans as ecosystem is to amphibians and insects. There are niches and someone delegated to them. The niche missing in our ecosystem is jobs! Service jobs and manufactory jobs give the economy “residual income”. People making money all the time make good viable consumers. Viable consumers buy goods and use- over priced- services.

Let’s be fair, the new bill does have provisions to help businesses investment in new plants and equipment. It is suggested that this, also, would help bolster U.S. economic activity.

Edward Lazear, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, predicted, “The stimulus will have the effect of increasing jobs by about half a million above the number that would have been the case in the absence of that”.

Right. If a national lay off just swept the country in January, and factories are closed, where are these new expansions going. Overseas, you think? That doesn’t help the American economy.

Reckless lending and bad personal financing are so out of control it will take more than one booster to immunize against all the foreclosures- it’s too late, we need a workable intervention. In Detroit alone 1 in 20 homes are under foreclosure. Does legislation or Bush think anyone will use their rebate on major debts? Good wages give minor immunity to foreclosures, not to mention responsible lending- not a damn tax rebate.