2006 Articles Archives

Article-01 Neuro-Feedback and Family Breakdown - Jim Robbins has written a book that every American should read. It is titled "A Symphony in the Brain" which is a history of the powerful and emerging Neuro-feedback movement. It is a non-drug solution to many problems.

Article-02 Pensions - A growing number of companies freeze pensions and cut retiree health benefits, shifting risks and costs to workers. In recent weeks, IBM Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc. have joined the list of those announcing they will freeze their pension plans.

Article-03 Credit - Consumer debt has consistently exceeded disposable personal income over the past half-decade at a 4.5 percent annualized rate, according to a Bloomberg analysis of Fed data. we have a negative or near zero savings rate in this country. When will the house of cards collapse?

Article-04 Auto Industry - The two remaining US auto companies are in dire financial straits and many financial analysts feel that they both should file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy sooner rather than later. Who will buy Ford and GM while they are in bankruptcy? The experts say Toyota, and a Chinese company. They have the US dollars to buy them now.

Article-05 Intellectual Property - America is For Sale, including Intellectual Property. When we run a $60 billion/month trade deficit, foreigners have no choice but to spend their US trade dollars buying up our assets, namely stocks and bonds. At the current rate, it will not take them long to buy up control of companies including the intellectual property.

Article-06 Rubin Article - A recent article in the WSJ by Robert Rubin, a past U.S. Treasury, was titled 'We Must Change Policy Direction'. One economic strategy is a public program to retrain people dislocated by technology and trade. Retrain them for what? Another strategy is an economic policy that continues global integration. This policy has already exported well paying American jobs.

Article-07 Income Inequality - An analysis of income tax data by the Congressional Budget Office found that the top 1% of households own nearly twice as much of the nation's corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago. Top level incomes rose by an average of $45,800 (62%), while the incomes of the poorest grew by $3,000 (21%).

Article-08 Hi-tech and the Legal System - Very few judges have a technical background that enables them to understand cases involving advanced technology. We have 10 times as many lawyers per capita as the Japanese and 7 times as many as the Europeans. Lawyers add unnecessary costs to all businesses and make American companies uncompetitive.

Article-09 Federal Budget - 84% of the budget is nearly fixed before Congress even gets to discuss it. The untouchables are the Entitlements, Interest on the Debt and the Defense and Homeland Security expenditures. As a result, our elected representatives have only 16% of the budget left for "Discretionary Spending".

Article-10 Declining Businesses - There are several reasons for the decline of established American companies. Among them are: They no longer design products the customers want; Customers are treated like strangers; Poor internal controls facilitate management corruption; Management and employees have a sense of entitlement.

Article-11 Vanishing Jobs - Shrinking job markets first affected hourly manufacturing employees but now has started to affect white collar professionals. The economic effects of the trade deficit and the exporting of jobs manifest itself in ways not seen in this country since the 1930's.

Article-12 Worker Obesity - Physical therapists have said that they are seeing people with health problems in their 30's and 40's that they used to see people for these same problems in their 60's and 70's. These health issues are affecting American productivity.

Article-13 Mittal Steel - Mittal Steel has risen from small origins in India, to become the world's largest steel producer. The company reached the top after taking over U.S. based International Steel Group which is the parent company of the Bethlehem, LTV, and Acme steel businesses in late 2005. This is another example of Asian dominance of world markets.

Article-14 Housing - Wealth is income producing assets which are primarily stocks and bonds which generate income. Housing is not wealth. Greenspan lowered interest rates to 1% to save us from a severe recession, but he created false wealth by creating a housing boom that created excessive debt for the already debt-laden consumers.

Article-15 Retiree Health Care - The perilous nature of pensions and retiree healthcare is a serious economic problem. Pensions are vanishing as are the employer provided retiree healthcare. In other countries, the government pays the tab for retiree health care.

Article-16 Boys - By almost every benchmark, boys across the nation and in every demographic group are falling behind. In elementary school they have twice the incidence of learning disabilities. Thirty years ago men represented 58 percent of the undergraduate student body. Now they are a minority at 46 percent.

Article-17 2006 Economic Forecast -

Article-18 World Wide Tax Rates - Countries with rates over 50% are clustered in Western Europe. They have enormous Social Costs. Government guaranteed payments are overpowering their economies which has brought about unemployment rates above 11%. Income tax rates are very low in the United States versus most other countries.

Article-19 Globalization - The consequences of globalization means that economic power will shift away from the United States and Western Europe to the Asian Big 4 and their Arab partners. No one likes admitting they are in a state of decline. Just ask the Airlines, Steel Industry, Automotive and many others to follow.

Article-20 Exchange Rates - The interest rates in different countries precipitate the flow of funds between the countries which then affects the exchange rates between the currencies. Because the Asian Big 4 controls exchange rates by propping up the U.S. dollar, the US has an enormous trade deficit with them.

Article-21 Public Employees Retire - The perilous nature of retiree healthcare is a serious economic problem. Pensions are vanishing as are the employer provided retiree healthcare. Taxpayers may soon be saddled with over $1 Trillion dollars for the cost of paying future medical benefits for state and local workers who retire.

Article-22 Mankiw-Social Security - Professor Gregory Mankiw is President's Bush's ex-Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors and is a Harvard Economics faculty member. He said "The Government Budget is on an unsustainable path ... The promises made to my generation for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are just not affordable

Article-23 Multiculturalism - Arnold Toynbee noted that all great civilizations rise and fall and that "An autopsy of history would show that all great nations commit suicide". In the US, the fastest growing segments of our society are the least educated people.

Article-24 Execution - Too much effort is placed in organizational strategy, philosophizing and intellectualizing, and not enough emphasis on implementation. Executing a plan in an effective and efficient manner is the hallmark of success.

Article-25 Trading Exhanges - The demand for a commodity is no longer a function of the end-users demand in the marketplace. Wall Street has added the concept of commodity futures funds which buy and sell commodities and store them for future sale. That used to be called speculation but now is called hedging, investment, etc.

Article-26 Brinker Report - Bob Brinker provided 5 root causes of the bear market on Wall Street. Everyone wants to know when the stock market is going to go up or down because of their "Microeconomic Perspective" but the Stock Market has not always been an accurate predictor of the future of the economy.

Article-27 Foreign Currency - Americans are relatively unaware of the world economy and are totally unaware of the power that the Asian Big 4, China-Japan-Korea-India, already have over our institutions. Over 50% of the debt of your federal government is owned by foreigners. You can keep your right to vote but the Asian Big 4 have the money.

Article-28 Economic Rights - Since the 60's a false economic assumption states that the economic rights of the individual must also supersede the economic rights of society. There are widespread economic consequences of this philosophy which affects the American economy.

Article-29 Pensions Revisted - Pensions are funded by the employers who pay a certain amount monthly based on the employee's pay and years of service. They are rapidly being replaced by 401-K types of plans in which the employee must contribute, but the employer's contribution is optional. Soon employers will cease making any contributions.

Article-30 Water Economics - Water does not follow population growth but instead follows the patterns of the earth. Many areas with exploding populations do not have sufficient water and have to import it. Water is very different from electricity in that it is difficult to transport which makes it difficult to achieve the economies of scale.

Article-31 Auto Industry Decline - If the US auto industry heads for bankruptcy autos will still be made here by Toyota and Honda plants, and the foreign companies who buy out the US auto industry. However, Washington lobbyists for these companies will represent the view of the Asians who have no concern for the welfare of the American people.

Article-32 Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela fancies himself as Castro II in the western world. He seized control of the oil industry years ago and nationalized it. Production has been reduced by nearly 50% under President Chavez which is having dire consequences for the Venezuelan economy.

Article-33 New Pension Law - Many companies under bankruptcy dumped their pensions on the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, PBGC, which is a government agency that is funded by taxing the current pension plans. Unfortunately, too many companies have gone bankrupt so the agency does not have enough funds.

Article-34 Foreign Exchange - As the US dollar depreciates against foreign currency, foreign imports will be more expensive here. To counter that, we can't locally produce the higher priced imported goods since the US is surrendering whole industries to foreigners with no intention of competing with them, the trade deficit will only get worse

Article-35 Professor Kotlikoff - Professor Laurence Kotlikoff's, a distinguished economist, is concerned about the U.S. economy and failure to fund entitlement programs. There are $80 Trillion in unfunded future entitlement liabilities. He thinks that Social Security tax rates will have to go up from 55% to over 80% to fund these promises made to the public.

Article-36 Hedge Funds - The Hedge Funds manage Trillions of Investment Dollars for the wealthy and for institutional investors. Some hedge funds require a minimum investment of $1,000,000 and some critics see them as the next investment bubble that will burst because they are unregulated and somewhat secretive. Of course hedge fund managers are fighting SEC regulation attempts.

Article-37 China and Europe - In the period from 1992 to 2005 monthly exports from the US to Europe dropped from $20 Billion to $12 Billion while exports from China to Europe increased from $4 Billion to $13 Billion. Europe is suffering similar balance of trade problems as the US is.

Article-38 Poverty - This issue addresses a segment of Jeffrey D. Sachs' book titled "The End of Poverty" that is now available in paperback. Focus on the economic history of the world segment in his book and the insight into the last two thousand years that are well-known to economic historians but are unknown to the general public.

Article-39 Foreign Income & Payments - Americans will have to work harder to maintain the same standards of living or you will have to cut back on your standard of living to start paying down your debts to foreigners. Pay no mind to the fact that your leaders have not mentioned this to you because they think you are all ignorant and will not figure it out.

Article-40 Ultimate Failure - Most economies, including ours, will fail over the course of time as do most organizations. No one likes to address this Ultimate Failure principle. The historical period for one economy to remain in first place is a relatively short period of time. Where are we in history?

Article-41 Military Change in North Korea - Why are we deploying so many troops in South Korea and the Pacific Rim? They are draining us in international trade since they constitute the majority of the monthly $70 Billion trade deficit. Are we are "The Free Military Services for Hire" in the Pacific Rim region of the world?

Article-42 Foundation Start - There is an overwhelming discontent from our readers regarding the lack of economic direction for the economy. Hopefully the formation of the Foundation For Fiscal Reform will be akin to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's which taught us a valuable lesson, that organization of people can bring about change.

Article-43 China R&D - The U.S. still has a strong lead in R&D investment, but Asian countries are rapidly catching up. In 1991 China's industrial research workforce was 16% the size of the U.S. workforce. It has grown to 42% in 2002. As the trade deficit increases, the R&D money moves faster to Asian countries.

Article-44 Board of Directors - They generally have failed to perform their corporate governance responsibilities. The board is akin to the fox guarding the hen house. They assist management in covering up illegal activities and reward management for their unacceptable and mediocre performance.

Article-45 Merc Merger - The Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings, Inc. and the Chicago Board of Trade will merge to a new firm that will dwarf other exchanges around the world including the New York Stock Exchange. It is another example of the global consolidations, giving some corporate executives more power than the Presidents of some countries.

Article-46 Demography - Forecasts tell us there will be 4 working age people for every person older than 65 in the US. Many live longer due to medical technology. Retirees expect public and private pensions plus tax-supported medical services. Economists now estimate that the average worker will have to work until age 72.

Article-47 China Manufacturing - China uses non-free trade practices to gain an advantage in the world markets. Countries like the United States are quickly becoming dependent on China for their own survival. Once the dependency is complete, the Asian Big 4 nations will call the shots.

Article-48 Alternative Minimum Tax - The AMT was created in 1969 to make it impossible for wealthy people to escape paying taxes altogether by their employing various tax dodges but it has not done this because of loopholes. The middle class was hit with AMT because it was not adjusted for inflation.

Article-49 Bolifia Evo Morales - the new President of Bolivia Evo Morales embraced the economic power of drugs. He was duly elected in a democratic process but that is not where it has ended. He is being influenced by the Socialist head of Venezuela, Chavez.

Article-50 Health Care Costs - These costs radically outpaces inflation and workers' wages. It has more than doubled the rise in wages and inflation for the past decade. The current cost of family coverage under an employer health plan is now $11,480 which is well above what a minimum-wage worker earns in a year

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