George Carlin ~ The American Dream

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q

Famous Quotations on Banking If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks…will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered…. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs. – Thomas Jefferson in the debate over the Re-charter of the Bank Bill (1809) “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.” – Thomas Jefferson … The modern theory of the perpetuation of debt has drenched the earth with blood, and crushed its inhabitants under burdens ever accumulating. -Thomas Jefferson

Corruption circus likely to hit Hill next year OTTAWA - A scandal involving claims of tax evasion, mob connections, corrupt bureaucrats and political intrigue could turn into a circus on Parliament Hill come the new year. As MPs left Ottawa for the six-week Christmas break, one piece of unfinished business was whether there would be hearings into a major tax evasion bust involving two of Quebec's biggest construction companies. Louisbourg and Simard-Beaudry, both owned by Laval businessman Tony Accurso, pleaded guilty to tax evasion charges last week and agreed to pay back $4.1 million in unpaid taxes. Included in that repayment is $1.7 million that Louisbourg wrote off on a 120-foot yacht claimed as a business expense.

Why Government is More Afraid of Debt than Depression Michael Hudson: Deficit Hawks Want a One Two Punch Against the Economy - Bio Michael Hudson is a Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. A Bitter, Losing Fight Against the Power of Money The US is a land of extremes: climatic, economic and ideological. But amid the turbulent craziness of American politics, there is one constant: money rules. And never more so than in the closing weeks of this sour and eminently forgettable year of 2010 - when the recession never really went away, the Tea Party marched into Washington, and the presidency of Barack Obama shriveled before one's eyes. Right now, the country has a budget deficit equal to almost 10 per cent of GDP. The official unemployment rate, announced on Friday, rose to 9.8 per cent.

Just who the hell do you think you people are? ‘Who the Hell do You Think You Are? The Euro Game Is Up!’ ► European Parliament, Strasbourg – 24 November 2010 ► Speaker: Nigel Farage MEP, UKIP, Co-President of the EFD group; ……………………………. ► Debate: European Council and Commission statements – Conclusions of the European Council meeting on economic governance (28-29 October) Transcript: Borrowing Trouble Broadly speaking, a division exists between those supporting a society led by élites who command or control most of society’s wealth and use it in their own interests, and those supporting a society led by progressively-minded individuals who want society’s wealth used in the interests of the members of society as a whole. In my experience campaigning for the NDP, the explanation I most often heard at the door for not voting NDP was very straightforward: “The NDP (and by extension all ‘left’ parties) don’t know how to handle money and would bankrupt us.” In the 2004 election, after years of letter writing and urging by some members of the Committee on Monetary and Economic Reform (COMER), the NDP platform included a simple statement that the NDP would use the Bank of Canada (the Bank) to carry some of the public debt, as it used to do (prior to 1974). The area in which I was campaigning had many Liberal supporters and usually voted Liberal.

BEWARE THE PROPOSED GLOBAL MONETARY AUTHORITY! The Central bankers' Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in 1988 in the "Basel I" regulations imposed an 8% capital reserve standard on member central banks. This almost immediately threw Japan into a 15 year economic depression. In 2004 Basel II imposed "mark to the market" capital valuation standards that required international banks to revalue their reserves according to changing market valuations (such as falling home or stock prices). The US implemented those standards in November, 2007. In December 2007, the US stock market collapsed and credit began drying up as banks withheld loans to comply with the 8% capital requirement as collateral valuations began to drop.

Sen. Bernie Sanders: The Billionaires Want More, More, More The billionaires are on the warpath. They want more, more, more. In 2007, the top 1 percent of all income earners in the United States made 23.5 percent of all income -- more than the bottom 50 percent. Not enough! Will Harper's superiority complex contribute to the next financial crisis? The mantra of the Harper government is that the Canada's banking sector is a bright star in the banking heavens. No public opportunity is lost to take credit for the resilience of Canadian banks during the 2008 financial crisis: "Without wanting to appear arrogant or vain, which would be quite un-Canadian," claimed our finance minster, Jim Flaherty. "While our system is not perfect, it has worked during this difficult time." Sorry to break it to you, finance minister: there are some indications that this overconfidence may undermine the very qualities that helped the Canadian banking system to withstand the financial turbulence of 2008. Why did the Canadian banking system get in less trouble than others? Are Canadian regulators that much smarter than their counterparts abroad?

More than 50% of US Government Spending Goes to the Military [This article was first published by Global Research in April 2010] Recently, Live Science published a chart showing that the US spends about one-fifth of its budget on the military. But this aggregate view hides how Congress prioritizes spending, when you consider what is discretionary and voted upon each year. A more salient view of these figures segregates ‘discretionary’ spending from ‘mandatory’ spending. During the severe economic downturn of the past two years, how has Congress prioritized spending?

Who pays corporate taxes? It's not who you think Stephen Gordon is a professor of economics at Laval University in Quebec City and a fellow of the Centre interuniversitaire sur le risque, les politiques économiques et l'emploi (CIRPÉE). He also maintains the economics blog Worthwhile Canadian Initiative. Corporate income taxes (CIT) have been in the political spotlight recently, but many may find it difficult to see how it affects their lives in the way that they understand how they pay personal income taxes and the GST. This lack of transparency is fertile ground for any number of misunderstandings and makeshift theorising, so the question I’m going to address here is: who pays the CIT? Not corporations: Corporations don’t pay the tax, for the simple reason that corporations are not people. Nor does it make sense to appeal to the cause of social justice by referring to ‘rich corporations.’