We NEed more SNOW!!

A splash in the face

(Link to this photo)

You know how in movies ( I can't think of any specific scene or movie) some person is passed out, panic stricken, or other wise out of touch with reality and with a sudden splash of water in the face- or a slap in the face- they snap out of it and come to?

Well that is what this trip has felt like for me- spiritually.

Holy Cow! It has seriously been more than 15 years since I have been this excited about the gospel.

Last night I watched a bishopric - poor and relatively uneducated- go into the house of a relatively well-to-do educated inactive member and read a scripture, bear testimony, and in a simple unabashed manner invite this man to return to church. And he accepted.

Today I saw a young woman and her YW leader go to the house of two inactive young women of her ward and this 16 yr. old girl bore testimony of the YW values and the truthfulness of the gospel and asked the girls to come to their activity tomorrow and church on Sunday. It was spiritual- there were tears...like the kind when you just know something more loving and grand than a mere person is asking you to do something.

And it's so exciting to see! It just make me want to scream with excitement for God's work like I haven't felt before!

While I'm processing the myriad of details in my mind involving sound, lighting, picture composition, and the like while I capture these events, part of me sits back in wonder at the strange reality and sincerity of what is unrolling before me- As if God were unveiling a long prepared project for my camera to capture and share with others and then, taking notice of the shock on my face, He turns to me and says: "What-? What do you think I do all day here? This is...my work and my glory."

I feel blessed on so many levels to have been able to come on this trip- It's a neat group of guys that I'm working with here.

I'll tell you what I'm going to do when I get home- I'm going to go totally psychopathic and weird and set up the PPI's that I've been intending to do for our Elder's quorum for way to long! And I'll tell you what we're going to ask people to do!

-read scriptures as a family.

-have family home evening.

-say family and personal prayers.

And then I'm going to ask my EQ pres who would be someone we might visit and invite to church.

I'm going to invite someone to come to church with me and not act weird if they say no.

Because DANGIT! you know what? Like it or not, believe it or not, This gospel- this church is real and true and somehow sincerely makes people happy! Way happier than the liberal-don't tell me what to do-way of living! And I think- after seeing it so many times- that people just need someone to get off their pansy rear and simply say "Will you..."

In every instance- all it took was a prayer, a person, and an invitation. And a life changed for the better.

And I know there may not be a 100% success, And I know there exists rejection and free agency. But I'll tell you what else exists- A God who is working non-stop preparing people, working for people, and only needs someone here to listen and work with Him on the final step- a simple invitation. Perhaps a timely sincere testimony. Some love, some help, some support, a friendly face excited to see a friend at church.

I'm seeing it down here- It isn't taking much- And people really are happy .

Ok, I got it all out of my system. Now I can go to sleep. :)

Central America

So I'm riding in the car making conversation with the couple missionaries who picked us up (they are an older couple) and they tell me that they are "security missionaries". I say: "hmm, I've never heard of that before" They say: "that's probably because there are only two other couples with that assignment in the world."

The wheels in my head start turning and I reply..."That's either a good thing or a bad thing for us- I can see it going both ways" :)

We all laugh and then joke about how many murders there are in Guatemala City every year. (don't worry Claudia- we're in the safe areas!)

But seriously though- I'm really excited about this this project. And I'm really excited about getting to know the members through their stories and testimonies- it's going to be really neat.

I am here (with 3 other guys) as a contract employee for the church to film for a new training video for member and leaders. It's not often that i would actually pray before going on a video shoot for the spirit to be with me- but that will be case on this.

I'm not sure how they ended up with me- they must have gotten desperate in a squeeze.

By the way- there is a Christmas tree in the center of town that is topped not by a star or angel of some sort... but the logo of Gallo beer- the most consumed beer in guatemala. Funny huh :)

(Link to where I got this photo)

A wonderful new discovery

(link to this photo)

This time of year it gets tough to do a climb in the evenings because it gets dark earlier. Well, a few of my friends and I decided to just meet around 10 o'clock at night and go rock climbing with head lamps- just to see how it would work.

Then... to take it one step further, we roasted some bratwursts as well to complete a lovely evening.

It turns out that it was a wonderful discovery! You basically have the whole mountain to yourself (no one waiting anxiously for you to finish), and, since it is already dark- you don't have to worry about it getting dark!
As far as the climbing goes, you can easily see everything you need to see around you for climbing,. And- you don't get a feel for how high you are, so the vertigo scary high up feeling never sets in and allows you to climb a bit more comfortably. I guess that could be argued as a disadvantage, but for me, it was a benefit.

The bottom line is- bratwursts, chalk dust, and night climbing are a wonderful combination!

Alfred Hitchcock in the Rock

I snaped this picture with my cell phone up by the Dogwood picnic area in Big Cottonwood Canyon.

It was by a popular rock climbing area where I took my kids to try it out.

And as they were climbing I said to myself- "Hey, that looks like a Hitchcock profile"

What do you think?

Shooting a machine gun!

So I filmed a demo video for a new automatic rifle that is designed to be cheaper and perform better under harsh conditions. And of course, they let me shoot the gun :)

This was my first time firing a gun like this. I think I shot a .22 when I was a scout and a shot gun some time later.

I'm not a gun expert, but they told me this new system has a lot of people excited about it.
You can get more info about it at www.titandefense.com .

Report on the Cambodia trip

Here is what I think is an awsome and stunning video concerning the trip my brother did to Cambodia. It concerns the charity aspect of the trip. Of course they did some sight seeing too, but that is for another video.

Jimmy Joe and Joanna's Trip to Cambodia from Davey Orgill on Vimeo.

A little help for the kids in Cambodia

My brother was a missionary in Cambodia and has now planned a trip to go back to visit.
But- in addition to the visit, he wanted to make the trip be something he couldn't do as a missionary- one where he could give needed food and other items to the poor.

Here is a link to his website that gives a better description of his intentions and has a button where you can do a Paypal or credit card donation.

http://helpwithcambodia.blogspot.com/

I spoke with him on the phone the other day and he told me about how the poorest of the poor there scour the garbage dump for stuff just to keep them alive. He wanted to do something for them, but was not sure how to go about it. But is looks like he found an organization to give a bit of direction:

We have contacted an organization there that will help us distribute the most needed rice and clothing to around 400 children who live in the city garbage dump in Phnom Penh. We will be personally taking it to those children. This is a great opportunity to help those who need it most. Any amount will help. We leave on Wednesday so if you are planning on donating please do it as soon as you can so that we can plan accordingly. Thank you for everything.

So, please pass this around, post it on your blog, or send a few emails and hopefully a bit of good will come of it.

Oh- and in case you missed it. He's leaving this week, So if you plan to spread the word, now would be the best time :)


....


...By the way- as a matter of random unrelated observation:
I was watching an older Chuck Norris movie that I got for $5. He was rescuing some one in some jungle. I guess Cambodia reminded me of jungles and that reminded me of this movie.
But after watching this movie I became convinced that machine guns are not an effective weapon.
Bad guys never hit anything but dirt with them And the Good guys kill more people with a pistol than a machine gun.

The Abolition of Fractional Reserve Banking

I doubt not your friends here inform you of the distresses of our merchants and banks, who are tumbling one another down like ninepins every day. Nor can its end be foreseen, so great has been the creation of fictitious capital by the abuse of banking institutions. (Jefferson)

Can you believe that this quote is nearly two centuries old? Apparently economic recessions, although wholly unpleasant, have been a common occurrence since the day this country was founded. Consequently I find it very odd that political and economic scholars, news anchors and agencies, bankers, workers, students, parents, talk show and late show hosts- everyone, who is sounding in on the massive issue of our fledgling economy, does little more than rhetorically ramble about their opinions of how to recover from the current recession, and exert very little discussion on what might be done to prevent or soften the severity of the next recession. While the ongoing heated debates arguing the pros and cons of the current bailout plan fill every communication air wave, a discussion is long overdue, of the underlying neglected culprit of this and every economic catastrophe of the past- Fractional Reserve Banking.

The term "fractional banking" is somewhat of a foreign term to most people, therefore a definition and explanation of the term is in order. According to "The Dictionary of Banking", Fractional Reserve Banking is quite simply defined as: "Banking in which only a fraction of the bank's deposits are held in the form of liquid reserves, with the balance lent or invested." (Woelfel) In practice, when a person deposits $1000 into a bank account, the bank is only required to keep a "fraction" of that amount in the form of cash "reserves". The rest can then be lent or invested. Therefore, for every $1000 a bank has of customer deposits in the form of actual cash, it is able to lend out around $9,000, and voilà! - money is created out of thin air and introduced into the economy. Consequently, we have two forms of money floating around in the market- Cash money, and electronic money. That is why if everyone cashed out their checking or savings account, credit cards, bank loans and the like, there would not be enough printed cash to cover it.

So, did fractional banking cause the current financial crisis? Not really, it more or less facilitates it. In order to understand relationship between recessions and fractional reserve banking, it is first necessary to understand how our current financial crisis came about. The best explanation I found on the topic was given by Ira Glass- host of "This American Life" on National Public Radio. He enlisted the help of two of his associates, Adam Davidson and Alex Blumberg, to explain the situation in a way that is both relatively brief and easy to understand. In the show titled "The Giant Pool of Money" they begin by explaining something that most people have never heard of. Adam Davidson explains:

"…there's this huge pool of money out there, which is basically all the money the world is saving now. Insurance companies saving for a catastrophe, pension funds saving money for retirement, the central bank of England saving for whatever central banks save for. All the world's savings."

He goes on to explain that this pool of money is about 70 trillion dollars- that's more than "all the money spent and earned in every country on earth in a year". This pool of money is managed by an army of men and women whose job it is to make that money grow. This army of smart investors has, for most of its' existence, been satisfied with investing in safe and boring investments- like treasuries and municipal bonds- that securely yield a modest 1%.

Then, around the year 2000 this pool of money began to grow dramatically- It doubled in six years. This growth occurred somewhat as a result of the fact that many of the poorer countries on earth started to get rich by making electronics or selling oil around this time. So, suddenly there was twice as much money in this "giant pool" that needed to be invested and, lamentably, there were not enough safe investments available to accommodate this need. As a result, the army of investors began to get quite anxious under the pressure to find more good investments for the giant pool. Then, to add to the lack of available treasuries and bonds, Alan Greenspan made a little announcement that essentially made US treasury bonds, which have typically been the favorite investment of the giant pool of money, worthless for them to invest in.

The situation was stressful and bleak for the investors caring for the giant pool of money, Then one day a creative banker came up with this idea called a "Mortgage Backed Security"- which is essentially taking a whole bunch of residential home mortgage loans, grouping them all together so that you have this thing that is bringing in a lot of money every month over a 30 year term, and then selling shares of this thing to investors in the form of stocks. These stocks are the Mortgage Backed Securities that were being purchased by the investors of the global pool of money. The investors for the global pool of money fell in love with this product. It shoveled out a return of 5% or more- which is a big deal when compared to 1% they usually got.

The global pool of money quickly bought every available stock and eventually, the guys who were selling mortgages to the brokers selling the securities, began running out of loans to sell. So, the only thing they could do was to start approving people that normally would not be approved for a home loan. Since the chance to make money almost always trumps principle, the guidelines got looser and looser. Soon, everyone and their dog began receiving approval for home and bank loans, housing demand and prices skyrocketed, and every traditional conservative banking principle was thrown out the window to accommodate the insatiable demand for these mortgage backed securities that were being sold to the investors for this global pool of money. (Davidson, Blumberg and Glass)

This isn't the entire story, but is enough to understand basically what happened. Eventually the house of cards fell when large numbers of home owners started to default on their loans, home values started declining, banks realized they had made a huge mistake, and before long, the army of investors for the global pool of money realized that they had lost more than a trillion dollars that would never come back. From there, the housing crisis turned into a credit crisis as the army of investors turned their back on anything to do with credit. Well, most of us are aware of what has since happened- It has a lot of people scared.

I want to point out one very important part of this same report that doesn't get the attention it needs. Alex Blumberg is talking this time.

" The way it worked was that a small bank, like Silver State mortgage, where Mike Garner worked, would borrow money from a big bank, say Citibank, or Washington Mutual. Silver State would use this borrowed money to buy up a bunch of loans, and then pay back the big bank once it sold the pools to Wall Street. Now these smaller banks were highly leveraged, in most cases 20 to 1. Meaning, in Silver state's case, even though it only had 5 million of its own dollars, it could borrow 20 times that, 100 million, to buy loans with. (Davidson, Blumberg and Glass)

This is fractional reserve banking in practice, and it was the engine that kept the housing bubble expanding. Do you think that if Citibank or Washington Mutual was digging into its' cash reserves for this speculative venture that it would have been a bit more conservative? Do you think that if the small banks like Silver State mortgage were restricted on the amount they could borrow that any of this would have gotten as far as it did? Or even got off the ground at all? No! There was a hot product to be packaged and sold and it was fractional reserve banking that powered it. Fractional Reserve Banking is massively elastic and expandable to greatest bubble greedy markets have the imagination to create!

Beyond the mortgage backed securities, there were also "house flippers" who were making money by buying and selling houses, and it was fractional reserve banking that allowed that as well. And even the poorest of homeowners were able to qualify for loans far above their means, and that too was funded under the principles of fractional reserve banking. Thus we see that under a fractional reserve banking system, when times are good, the acquisition of money does not stand in the way of making more money.

But unfortunately, times are not always good, especially when the "fictitious capital" that Jefferson referred to in the opening paragraph- the money that is created by fractional banking- begets those good times. Recovering from recessions is a major burden on the government. A recent documentary movie by I.O.U.S.A., a bipartisan group concerned for the financial welfare of the United States, pointed out how dangerous the mounting government debt is- especially when that debt skyrockets during an economic relief act like we have just seen. The movie opens with the following phrase:

In late 2008, and extended period of financial irresponsibility and weak oversight lead to the largest government bailout in U.S. history. In a single piece of legislation, the federal government committed $700 billion to address the resulting credit crisis, plus more than $100 billion in tax cuts and spending increases to ensure passage.

The movie goes on to claim that in spite of the fact that we have paid down debts in the past, we appear to be addicted to debt, no longer making efforts to pay it down, and engaging in habits that are simply unsustainable. (I.O.U.S.A.)

The movie lays out a pretty grim picture for the financial future of our country, but the basic premise of the movie is the simple fact that the government has obligations that it most likely will not be able to meet. Adding repeated and increasingly severe recessions drastically compounds the problem. According to Recession.org, there have been 21 identified recessions since the founding of this country (Recession.org), and while not all of them have added significantly to the national debt, the relief effort of the current recession was a drastic and almost devastating blow to the national debt.

Foreboding outlooks aside though, what is it that our founders wanted for this nation? According to Cleon Skousen in his book "The 5000 Year Leap", which is a comprehensive study of the principles and theories behind the constitution, fractional banking was not to be allowed and the issuing of money was to be in the charge of congress. (Skousen) Thomas Jefferson was vehemently opposed to the idea of fractional banking. He said that it would only create booms as the "fictitious money" (Jefferson) flooded the market with no actual assets to back it up. An economy that is funded in this method tends to grow abnormally quick with economic imbalance widening until a bust blows in toppling the un-rooted economy like a tree in shallow soil. Said Thomas Jefferson concerning these busts: "This fictitious capital…is now to be lost, and to fall on somebody…We have been truly sowing the wind, and are now reaping the whirlwind." Right now, our country is truly reaping the whirlwind of fictitious capital.

But, Thomas Jefferson stood essentially alone in his opposition to the fractional reserve banking system. Of all the brilliant men assembled to form this nation, no one else raised much of an issue on the topic, and so it must be derived that a sensible person cannot simply eradicate what might also be considered a life blood of economies, businesses and nations. Debt is admittedly a part of every large company and nation. It is part of every sound and accepted form of accounting. Going back to the founders- this country we live in may have never risen up through the financed war for independence without the lending that took place under the practice of fractional reserve banking. And, although Jefferson could never have envisioned a situation worse than the one we are currently facing, that might come as a result of allowing fractional reserve banking, the remaining founding fathers considered the benefits of fractional reserve banking to be greater than consequences of its initial abolition. They had no choice but to hand the money over to banks and allow fractional banking for the good of a growing nation.

That being said, and in spite of the idea that some see our nation as a fledgling debt ridden wasteland, we are and appear economically poised to remain the most powerful economy in the world. (I do say that with some reservation, however.) So, even though this nation may not have survived without fractional reserve banking in the beginning, what I would like to suggest is that as a developed mature nation (with a slight addiction to debt), we could possibly be strong enough to do something that no other nation in the world has ever done before- survive the voluntary recession it would take to abolish fractional reserve banking. And then go on to build on the back of wealth instead of the burden of debt.

But do the speculative ends justify the means of taking such a chance?
In a time when nations were built upon the backs of slaves instead of the back of debt, there existed similar complacency even toward the atrocities of slavery. The movie "Amazing Grace" exposes the attitudes of the British parliament when they were confronted with a bill proposed by William Wilberforce that intended to abolish slavery. A very shallow, but entirely logical, argument continued in this way:

A. If you stop the slave trade you will ruin businesses and put thousands of people out of work. Think of all the people who make goods to trade such as cloth, guns and iron bars and all those who make equipment used in the trade such as ropers, chains and manacles.

B. Ending the trade would be disastrous for Britain as a trading nation. You would simply be giving the trade to our rivals, the French, who would benefit from it…

(Church Mission Society and Citizenship Foundation)

Parallel arguments can easily be constructed in favor of continuing with fractional banking. In fact, the removal of fractional reserve banking from a functioning economy now could easily be far more detrimental in its abolition than any proponent of slavery could have surmised in the wake of the former abolition of slavery.

Slavery was a sickening abhorrent sin that almost every nation of the burgeoning modern world saw justifiable to build upon. Simple economics blinded the world to the atrocities of those times, and so it would be great to say that humanity one day "saw the light" and cheerfully gave up their sinful ways to embrace the abolition of slavery. But it was not quite so simple, and slave trade, at least in Britain, did not end based on William Wilberforce's efforts alone. According to Paulos Gregorios, author of "A Light Too Bright" economic conditions contributed to Wilberforce's efforts to end slave trade.

By the beginning of the nineteenth century, economic conditions in the imperial system were ripe for abolition. Sugar and cotton were among the major products of the slaves, but machines took over in cotton production and the sugar markets were glutted. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, slave demand was low and the slave trade soon became unprofitable. (Gregorios)

Slave trade became unprofitable...It infuriates me to no end to consider what mankind embraces so long as it is profitable! The lesson, therefore, to be learned from this is that detrimental practices must first become unprofitable before the critics of that particular practice can be heard.

The point in sharing all of this about the slavery and what made its abolition possible, is that, although far less abhorrent, fractional reserve banking is in more ways economically detrimental to nations and economies- but it is embraced in chains and relied upon much like slavery was in generations past. And if fractional reserve banking is going to go away, two things are needed: People who push for abolition, and economic conditions that make it unprofitable.

Recent events such as the current freezing of the credit market, the collapsing of major banks, and government bailouts of banks and automakers are a few indicators, among others, that we may be heading toward economic conditions that might facilitate the brave move we need toward the abolition of fractional banking.

A move to the side of wealth rather than debt would command a respect and fear from the hearts of every nation on earth in a way far more positive and effective than the strength of armies, military, and weapons ever could. Cleon Skousen, in his same book "The 500 Year Leap" quoted an editorial from the London Times that expressed the fear of what might become of the United States in their relation to the world economies, if it were to successfully implement a debt-free, asset-based financial system, free of fractional reserve banking. The article stated:

"If that mischievous financial policy… should become indurated down to a fixture, then that Government will furnish its own money without cost. It will pay off its debts and be without debt. It will have all the money necessary to carry on its commerce. It will become prosperous beyond precedent in the history of the civilized governments of the world. The brains and the wealth of all countries will go to North America. That government must be destroyed or it will destroy every monarchy on the globe." (Skousen. pp 190, italics added)

It was called "mischievous" likely because no one does nor did practice an economy free of fractional banking. The induration of the policy implies that it would not come about except by great effort and cost, but that in the end it would yield a reward worth the wealth of the world. And although short term, manageable debt can still be seen as necessary and ok, the absence of long term, fiscally irresponsible, and unmanageable debt is the magic touch that grants the unprecedented prosperity still unachieved by any nation of this world.

If economic climate invites the abolition of fractional reserve banking it will still likely come only under the leadership and tireless efforts of one equal to the likes of Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and even William Wilberforce. Cleon Skousen commented on the immensity of the task:

" All of this should demonstrate that somewhere up the trail, the leadership of the United States has an opportunity to add one more burst of momentum to the upward thrust of the 5,000-year leap. It will be a monumental monetary reform based on the principles which the Founders understood but were never able to implement." (Skousen)

It surely will be a monumental and unprecedented reform. It is as if this move were the final link to fulfill the destiny and potential of a nation and economy that was designed by the culmination and compilation of the greatest thinkers through all of recorded history.

The thought of this paper sitting on the desk of a banking CEO makes it feel quite wicked and immature- that it should be shut up, ridiculed and ignored as its own atrocious thought, or, at the very least, apathetically patronized as silly delusions that don't apply to current events.

Only two things are needed to change the tide of detrimental practices: People who oppose the practice, and conditions that make the practice unprofitable. And I think both are coming.

Works Cited

Church Mission Society and Citizenship Foundation. "Amazing Grace." 2006. Amazing Grace the Movie. 21 April 2009

<http://www.amazinggracemovie.com/_pdf/ending_slavery.pdf>.

Davidson, Adam, Alex Blumberg and Ira Glass. This American Life. 9 May 2008. 10 April 2009 <http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=355>.

Gregorios, Paulos. A Light Too Bright: The Enlightenment Today: an Assessment of the Values of the European Enlightenment and Search for New Foundations. Albany: University of New York Press, 1992.

I.O.U.S.A. the movie- 30 minute version. Dir. I.O.U.S.A. I.O.U.S.A. PBS, 2009.

Jefferson, Thomas. Letters to and from Jefferson, 1819. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Library, 1996.

Recession.org. History of Economic Recessions. 1999. 1 April 2009 <http://recession.org/history>.

Skousen, Cleon. The 5000 Year Leap. Malta: National Center for Constitutional Studies, 2007.

U.S. Government. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan: The Impact for Utah. 3 March 2009 <www.whitehouse.gov>.

Woelfel, Charles J. The Dictionary of Banking : Over 5,000 Terms Defined and Explained. Burr Ridge, Ill.: Probus Publishing, 1994.

The Bailout Concern

Although our current economic recession is similar to recessions and depressions of past generations, almost every person in the world right now is feeling the pain of an economic downturn in a way that is quite unique from generations before us.  In addition, the powerful economies of the world have become so intertwined with the U.S. economy that our action and behavior now affects the world.   Therefore a sound understanding of the differing facets of the Presidential stimulus plan is essential as we strive to understand why some oppose the recent presidential bailout plan, why some want and support a bailout plan, and what can be done to avoid an economic downturn in the future.

To begin, an analogy comparing recessions to fevers will be used.   People who are familiar with basic natural healing have always known that a fever is part of the natural healing process and is helpful in purging the body of sickness.  Therefore, taking medicine that suppresses a fever can only prolong the sickness.   On the other hand, there are others who feel that this holistic approach only causes unnecessary suffering.   At a very basic level, one facet of the Presidential stimulus package is debated under much of the same premise:  There are those who believe that recessions are part of the natural process of a free market economy and that this type of economy flourishes best when left alone, and then on the other side, there are others who see stimulus plan, like the one being implemented today, as a standard and necessary treatment for the situation.

For example, NPR radio hosted somewhat of a debate between two notable economists that hold these same opposing views.  David Kestenbaum, the reporter for NPR, introduced the first economist, Dr. Russell Roberts, economist at George Mason University, as an “Austrian-school, Chicago supply-sider. Basically he's a free-market guy, believes the economy works best when the government doesn't go messing around with it.”  The second economist, Dr. Steven Fazzari, is professor of economics at Washington University, who describes himself “as a Keynesian macro-economist”.  Fazzari began the economic debate on the Presidential stimulus plan with the following reasoning:

 “…we need a big stimulus package now. Millions of very talented people are out of work, just sitting idle, not helping the economy; it's a total waste. In order to get people working again and get the economy going again, someone somewhere has to step in and spend.” 

That is to say, spend money on big projects, big companies that make jobs, and right now, the only “someone-somewhere” able to do that is the U.S. Government.  In other words: Get people working again and the economy will turn around.  This idea also insinuates that working people help the economy and idle people hurt the economy.  Although concrete evidence of this cannot be quantified, it is an idea shared by many economists.

Dr. Roberts, on the other hand, sees that attitude as the worst possible solution.  “I find it horrifying, personally. The idea that the government is going to decide where a trillion dollars of our economy is spent rather than the rest of us deciding it is not, to me, a good sign.”  And the way that the “rest of us” decide on where the money is spent is not by voting, but by actually spending the money that we earn personally.  This macro-economic decision making process is the holistic mentality behind this type of economic mentality. 

It is important to see at this point, that both of these opposing points of view came from credible, educated, experienced, and practicing economists.  And in spite of their differing beliefs, by the end of their discussion, they both concurred that it is difficult to positively state which road is best. Let me say that again- both of the credible, practicing, trained economists agreed that it is difficult to state which road is best.  (FAZZARI and ROBERTS)

That being said, a consideration of popular conservative talk show opinion should be evaluated.  Talk show host, Rush Limbaugh, sides vaguely with Dr. Robert’s position- that the economy should be left alone.  Although he is not a credible economist, Limbaugh attracted a lot of attention when he publicly declared that he wanted the stimulus package to fail.  It gained national recognition because of its apparent insensitivity to those affected by the recession, and the seemingly anti-Obama sentiment it portrays.

“I want the stimulus package to fail.  'Cause if this thing for the first time ever does what it never has done before, we're in even worse trouble.  If it becomes established that the federal government and the federal government alone can manage the economy and take over the private sector, then forget it, folks…I do not want this to succeed, and nobody who has any respect for the founding of this country and for the capitalist system, who is honest and who has looked at it, would want it to succeed either.”   (Limbaugh)

Even though this is somewhat of a wild and not at all credible economic position to state, it touches on a deeper principle based idea concerning part of this country’s foundation.  The United States of America was founded on principles based in economics as much as it was based in principles of liberty.  Therefore, if this country is a result of adherence to these principles, then Limbaugh may have hit an important and valid point: that this stimulus package is in direct violation of those principles and is going against the flow of what made us a world economic superpower.  So, wanting the stimulus package to fail does not translate to “I hate America”, or “I hate Obama”, or “I don’t care if you are suffering” as some people may interpret this statement to say- it is simply acknowledging that Adam Smith’s idea of a free market being guided as if by an “invisible hand” really did work, and that it still does work far better than any other existing market system.  It is saying that the natural process of supply and demand is about to be ousted and replaced with government programming.  In this frame of mind, it is kind of like ousting the natural process of childbirth and forever replacing it with government controlled lab cloning to manage population and families. 

Whatever the economic inclination of the public happens to be at the time of a recession, whether it be for or against government intervention, there must be, however,  a limit to the severity of a recession that an economy can withstand before it dies out completely.  Going back to the fever analogy- Brain damage, blindness, or death can occur if an untreated fever is severe enough.  Likewise, the leaders of this country must be ever vigilant to the severity of a recession in order to prevent the effectual death of our economy.  When reports begin to surface of  “…2.6 million jobs disappearing in the last 4 months…” (HEALY) the government must begin monitoring the ailing economy just as a parent would monitor the fever of a child.  And when articles like the following from the New York Times begin to surface repeatedly about unemployed autoworkers from Detroit, the idealism of holistic economics like what Dr. Roberts and Rush Limbaugh support begin to take a back seat (especially when political careers are at stake).    The article in the New York Times highlights Kim Allgeyer, and autoworker from Detroit, who is currently unemployed.

“The people who do what I do in the Detroit area are a dime a dozen,” said Kim Allgeyer, 46, a machine toolmaker in Westland, Mich., who was laid off in January from a company that makes assembly lines for the automakers. Unable to find another full-time job, he is subsisting on day labor and one-week stints for contractors. “Who’s going to put me to work?” he asked. “Where’s the work at? It’s just a great big black hole.” (HEALY)

Millions of people, just like Kim, are hurting, wondering where the work is.  It seems that they literally can’t wait for the chance that idealistic principles will make life better for them in the long run.  Right now, their families are hungry and right now, food banks are drying up, and right now there is a nation in fear of something they have not seen before.  They seem to be standing like a feverish suffering child before their parent waiting for something to make it all better.  “Just give me the medicine!  Make it go away…” they seem to say. 

President Obama believes he has the medicine that will not only soothe the pains of the recession, but heal it as well.  The Obama administration issued a basic outline of their “Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Plan” (i.e. Stimulus Plan) on the Whitehouse.gov website for each state.  Here is President Obama’s prescription for the state of Utah.  Although much of it is directed toward future improvements, it does have basically what most people need: jobs. 

·         Creating or saving 33,300 jobs over the next two years.

·         Providing a making work pay tax cut of up to $1,000 for 890,000 workers and their families.

·         Making 24,000 families eligible for a new American Opportunity Tax Credit to make college affordable.

·         Offering an additional $100 per month in unemployment insurance benefits to 74,000 workers in Utah who have lost their jobs in this recession, and providing extended unemployment benefits to an additional 14,000 laid-off workers.

·         Providing funding sufficient to modernize at least 43 schools in Utah so our children have the labs, classrooms and libraries they need to compete in the 21st century economy.

·         Doubling renewable energy generating capacity over three years, creating enough renewable energy to power 6 million American homes.

·         Computerizing every American’s health record in five years, reducing medical errors and saving billions of dollars in health care costs.

·         Launching the most ambitious school modernization program on record, sufficient to upgrade 10,000 schools.

(U.S Govererment)

To sum up- it is supposed to give people jobs, make better schools better for our children, and improve America’s future.  If it does what it was sold as and designed to do, America may pull out of this better off than it was before.

This stimulus package is not designed, however, to prevent a recession from happening again in the future.   Much has been spoken on the subject of pulling out of this recession, but few have been the voices that have spoken on the topic of avoiding a recession.  According to economists on the website Recession.org, we have been through crisis’ similar to our current one at least 18-20 times since this country was founded! (Recession.org)  After having this many recessions and recoveries, it seems strange that we don’t have an established, working economic recovery plan yet!   Consequently it seems quite curious indeed to praise the founder’s hand for creating a government and economy that continually verges on collapse -regardless of how well it does in the up cycle!

But, oddly enough, there was one tiny part of founder’s original plan that never saw implementation- and it had to do with how money was issued to the public.  In the original plan, the framers of this country intended money to be distributed and controlled by congress- not by banks.  But due to an economic depression that was occurring at the very founding of this country, and due to pressure from European interests, the issuing of money was turned over to private banking institutions. (Skousen)

Banks are allowed to practice what is called “Fractional Reserve Banking” –which means they can issue 3-4 times more paper notes (money) than they have in assets to back it up.  Thomas Jefferson, the foremost critic of this practice, foresaw that this would only create “booms” with the “fictitious money” flooding and inflating the economy with no actual assets to back it up. The economy can grow abnormally quick with economic imbalance following, until a “bust” blows in toppling the un-rooted economy like a tree in shallow soil. 

Said Thomas Jefferson concerning the bust: “This fictitious capital…is now to be lost, and to fall on somebody…We have been truly sowing the wind, and are now reaping the whirlwind.”  (Skousen)  The whirlwind he speaks of is the chaos that follows when an economy suddenly reaches the peak of what fractional banking allows consumers to spend (which is apparently far above what they are able to repay) and the consumer is no longer able to buy.  Therefore it seems that when consumers no long buy, manufacturers can no longer produce.  When manufacturers no longer produce, they can no longer supply jobs. When jobs are lost on a massive scale, consumer purchasing screeches to a halt right along side of the economy, and the Bust, or recession, or depression, has a firm grip on the neck of the economy. 

Thus we see that the final consideration of the stimulus package is why recessions happen over and over.  If the problem lies in fractional banking, as Thomas Jefferson claimed it does, then we don’t need a president to only demand a stimulus package from congress, nor do we don’t need a president to convince the American people to ‘ride out’ the recession like a mild fever, but  it seems that we need a president who can tear the soul out of the banking industry by restoring the issuing of money to congress and forcing banks to lend based on existing assets, while convincing the American people that this is a good thing. 

None of the three presidents, however, who tried to restore the issuing of money to congress succeeded in doing this.  Wanting to rid the country of the boom and bust cycle, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln all tried to switch it back.  And although they were unsuccessful, they did get close.  And apparently they were close to something big.  In the book, “The 5000 Year Leap”, Cleon Skousen quoted an editorial from the London Times that expressed the fear of what might become of the United States in their relation to the world economies, if it were to successfully implement a debt-free, asset-based financial system.  The article stated:

“If that mischievous financial policy… should become indurated down to a fixture, then that Government will furnish its own money without cost.  It will pay off its debts and be without debt.  It will have all the money necessary to carry on its commerce.  It will become prosperous beyond precedent in the history of the civilized governments of the world.  The brains and the wealth of all countries will go to North America.  That government must be destroyed or it will destroy every monarchy on the globe.” (Skousen. pp 190)

“To be without debt” seems to be the catalyst that sparks a fear and threat greater than that of nuclear weapons.  “To be without debt” seems to be precedence for dominion in any civilization in the history of the world.  “To be without debt” seems to be the magnet that attracts the best the world has to offer to the nation that can wield it!

-----------------

Works Cited

FAZZARI, Dr. STEVEN and Dr. RUSSELL ROBERTS. Economists Duke It Out Over Stimulus Plan David Kastenbaum. NPR, 2 January 2009.

HEALY, PETER S. GOODMAN and JACK. Job Losses Hint at Vast Remaking of Economy . 6 March 2009. 15 March 2009 .

Limbaugh, Rush. I Hope the Stimuslus Package Fails. 13 February 2009. 3 March 2009 .

Recession.org. History of US Economic Recessions . 2009. 1 April 2009 .

Skousen, Cleon. The 5000 Year Leap. Malta, ID: National Center for Constitutional Studies, 2007.

U.S Govererment. "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan: The Impact for Utah." 2009. whitehouse.gov. 3 March 2009 .

New layout on the blog and upcoming posts

There are now 47 photos that will randomly rotate at the top of this page each time the page is refreshed. These are simply photos that make me smile or remind me of happy times.

There are two blog posts coming up that are modified versions of papers I wrote last semester.
So, I am just issuing a warning that there will be an unusually long blog post soon.

It's kind of silly, isn't it. I'm still working on something that was just a little assignment.

The first post will be about the bailout plan. And will contain a balanced argument for all sides. I chose the topic simply because I wanted to understand it better.

The second post will be what I personally think needs to be done to fix our economy.

School's out!!

How does the song go?
♫♫ No more teachers dirty looks, no more ... somethin' ...books. ??♫♫

Either way, please enjoy Alice Cooper's "Schools out for summer" song by clicking play on the player to the right. I thought it was appropriate because I got a bit sick or school this semester in spite of the fact that I am still quite excited about learning the things that I am persuing. This semester just had a bit more the the menial and maniacal hoop jumping that I hate about some methods of teaching.

Last night good ol' SLCC had a end of school year bash. They had a barbeque (that was reduced to hot dogs in about 1.5 hours), face painting, jumpaleens, cotton candy, concert, firespinners and fireworks.

The firespinners were kind of neat. Mostly, for me, they came off as a bunch of overly aged goths playing with fire. There was one part, however, that was very impressive- A very talented hula hooper spinning with fire on it:

(Hula-hoop fire spinner)

I have always though really good hula hooping is neat to watch, but with fire on it it is awesome.

Anyhow, I just have one more test on Monday.
And then I can switch modes to working mode.