Margaret Schaut
One more conservative viewpoint on the world at large.Archive for Business
Garden Path: Banksters & Micro-Lending
Having worked for a period of time in the micro-lending ‘business’, I can tell you from experience that it is all too easy to get banksters in on the action and thereby ruin a good thing.
I highly recommend micro-lending for average folks to begin small businesses, especially those who must begin ‘under the radar’ until such time as we see the direction that our economic collapse is going to take, and if there will be any viable business opportunities remaining to the people.
Yet the recent horrors perpetrated on the Grameen Bank, as reported in The Economist, have convinced me that there is no community with wealth or assets, no matter how small, that global banksters don’t want their hands in, and if they get them there, will ruin things for everyone involved. The very thinking processes of ‘investors’, politicians and banksters must change or they have NO PLACE in the field. Especially since it is usually their policies, their regulations, their profit motives that have guaranteed poverty and despair in the first place, their participation is absolutely questionable.
For micro-lending to work, it operates on VERY DIFFERENT PRINCIPLES than banking in general, and if it does not, it is doomed to failure. In the way that quantum physics is very different than physics, successful micro-lending is very different than macro-lending, and in my estimation, failures of micro-lending are far less damaging to the community than the larger type.
I could tell you some horror stories, and I might yet in the future. But suffice it to say that in any dealings I had with banks, for the benefit of the small businesses that we were developing, the BANKS NEVER GROKKED THE PRINCIPLES. No matter how many ways it was presented, no matter how varied, creative and clear the principles, it appeared to me that the bankers simply had blinders on and could never bridge the gap. They could never get their minds around ‘benefitting the citizenry.’
So alas for Muhammed Yunus, whose global acclaim got him the wrong attention, it looks as though the financial ‘interests’ will be taking him down rather than seeking understanding, are looking to seize such assets and wealth that Grameen Bank had generated, and poverty will return to small communities that were actually making some headway against it.
Poisoned World: Aspartame
Scientists fought like crazy to keep this neurotoxin off of the market. The big money interests won out.
Look at what you are paying to ‘diet’- not only with your money, but with your very health.
Alternative Economics: The Round Robin Concept
Round Robin
The economic war we are in, like it or not, has many fronts. Not only must we do what we can to encourage our government and politicians to finally begin making economic decisions that benefit the PEOPLE instead of everyone else at our expense, we also desperately need to work on taking care of ourselves with or without them.
Exactly as occurred during the Great Depression, small business lending (and lending of all types) has genuinely dried up. By refusing loans, consolidation loans or capital loans, banksters were able to foreclose on properties and businesses and thereby become owners at mere pennies on the dollar. All the investment, inventiveness, creativity, work and development were virtually given away to ‘robber barons’ at the expense of the people and frankly, millions died of starvation and genuine hardship.
For many hard working people, simple access to cold hard cash was the critical factor in whether their businesses survived or were basically stolen by Simon LeGrie and his confreres.
Now we have seen that nearly all of our banking system is corrupt, and functionally even local banks are little more than conduits for the criminal wealth seizure that has been going on all over the world. As America is brought to its knees and turned into a banana republic by the international banking system, Americans still have a peculiar advantage in that we are some of the most hard-working, diligent, and creative people on the planet. We are accustomed to opportunity, we are accustomed to making the most of what we have. We are accustomed to having avenues that support our initiative and the freedom to pursue our happiness and well-being. As yet the spirit and soul of America hasn’t been destroyed. As long as we have that, there is always great hope and great opportunity.
One of the richest men I’ve ever met, a self-made man (self-described), explained to me the method by which he ‘began again’ when access to banks and ‘good credit ratings’ was impossible to him. In other words, he had to do this ‘under the radar’ much as nearly everyone will have to do today.
The Round Robin concept is actually very simple, and its versatile.
Four individuals who have a skill, talent or product who desire to go into business for themselves.
Each put into the kitty say $250. The kitty totals $1,000.
The four select the first person to receive a ‘loan’ of $1,000 to begin their business. As the business develops and gains income, the first person makes agreed payments back into the kitty.
When sufficient money has been paid back into the kitty, the second person takes the loan and begins their small business.
And so forth through the fourth person.
Now the variables.
Each of the four people could continue to contribute a monthly payment into the kitty to grow the fund more quickly, and the first small business to get the loan would make that additional payment along with their loan payment.
One person with money could front the beginning kitty which would still be available, one at a time, to four individuals. An agreed upon payment, say 10%, would be paid by each of the four for the use of the loan funds.
Each of the four could take minority ownership interest in each business as they receive loan funds, thereby increasing the commitment and promotion of the business by each of the four individuals.
Variants of this concept have been successfully used all over the world for small business start-ups. One variant is especially famous, known as the Grameen Bank.
Small independently financed locally owned businesses throughout the country, so small that they stay off the radar of the current crop of wealth thieves, and small enough to actually meet the needs of local populations, will be one very important way of keeping the genuine economy of the United States functioning at some practical level.
One final thought- I suggest you do everything you can to learn about money and how it works, and how it fails us. An excellent beginning is this particular movie “Money Masters”. If you haven’t seen this yet, be prepared for a LEARNING EXPERIENCE.
Feast or Famine? Inflationary Recession Affecting Food!
As our economy has deteriorated into an inflationary recession gaining steam, with an inflationary DEPRESSION on the horizon; and Homeland Security in concert with the FDA and USDA have trashed our local farms, destroyed our food producing communities like the Amish, with AT BEST ‘overzealous’ enforcement of unnecessary regulations and monitoring devices, there has been an insidious creep of food insecurity that terrorists could NEVER accomplish without the help of Big Brother.
From family and friends in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, I heard that wheat is actually being rationed. Now I hear that wheat is being rationed in Massachusetts. While the UP of Michigan may be a ‘backwater,’ NOBODY thinks that Massachusetts is one.
This news is getting much worse by the day. There are reports that there are only ten weeks left of supply, which only takes us to the beginning of the growing season.
We are hearing of panic buying of U.S. wheat.
Investors, losing their shirts in the criminal financial markets, have discovered food crops as the next ‘great’ profiteering opportunity and have therefore more than doubled the price of futures. “Wheat futures for March delivery rose 30 cents, or 2.8 percent, to a record $10.93 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade. The contract rose the 30-cent exchange limit for five straight days. The 16 percent gain this week is the biggest in history.”
If you haven’t figured it out by now, if these people don’t care if you and your family are homeless, as long as they can make their money off of you, they ALSO won’t care if you starve.
We are being told to ‘Forget the oil! The NEXT big crisis is FOOD!’
So, what are the reasons that YOU have to worry about food now? Will your grandmother starve because her SS won’t cover the higher food prices AND higher utilities and rent?
The first is, of course, the profit-taking of the futures market. The rich who can afford to play with futures to get their ‘fair share’ don’t care what they do to the rest of the market. They WANT higher and higher prices to increase their profits.
Corporate agri-business. It has already driven most small family farms out of business, and with this sub-prime mortgage mess, many farmers are ‘losing their shirts.’ Whether you want it or not, the ‘powers-that-be’ want to pursue genetic modification of foods like corn, and they’re FORCING it on us. “Mr. Coxe said crop yields around the world need to increase to something close to what is achieved in the state of Illinois, which produces over 200 corn bushes an acre compared with an average 30 bushes an acre in the rest of the world.”That will be done with more fertilizer, with genetically modified seeds, and with advanced machinery and technology,” he said.
Genetically modified foods do NOT grow their own seeds, no farmer anywhere can save out seeds for next year’s crops. The seeds MUST be purchased from agribusiness, guaranteeing a minimum PROFIT to corporate agriculture, no matter what happens. If corporate agriculture owns all the best farm land, and all the crops, they can EXPORT ALL OF OUR FOOD to the highest bidder, regardless of the needs of our own country. Corporate agribusiness has created entire lakes of animal poo, contaminating underground water supplies and endangering everyone around. Genetically modified crops have killed butterfly populations, contaminated other fields and has generally run riot over the safety and security of our food supply, all the while accepting huge payouts from our government to NOT grow food on land agribusiness has set aside, to keep prices high enough.
Yes, environmentalists have demanded that we pursue ethanol as an alternative fuel source, but there is NO REASON it should contribute to the destruction of our food supply because only the stalks and extra material need be used to create ethanol. The food itself can, and should remain within the food supply. Why isn’t it?
This dangerous and terrible overregulation of food production by our government, ‘justified’ by only TWO isolated cases of mad cow disease, and the drumbeat of terrorism fears affecting food supplies, is just hyperbole designed to get the public to allow the complete take over of our food production sources. As the Amish are discovering, there is no reasoning with these departments, and civil and constitutional RIGHTS to property, to religion, to privacy are GONE.
Soon the biblical prophecy of ‘a days wages for a quart of wheat’ will not just be ‘pretty words,’ but a genuine reality, thanks to our ANTI-CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT and those who are profiteering at YOUR EXPENSE.
This is the path of an inflationary depression, with food prices skyrocketing as wages, wealth and equity dissolve into thin air. Thanks to Homeland Security and the USDA, YOU CANNOT EVEN GROW FOOD FOR YOURSELF ANYMORE.
A new crisis is emerging, a global food catastrophe that will reach further and be more crippling than anything the world has ever seen. The credit crunch and the reverberations of soaring oil prices around the world will pale in comparison to what is about to transpire, Donald Coxe, global portfolio strategist at BMO Financial Group said at the Empire Club’s 14th annual investment outlook in Toronto on Thursday.”It’s not a matter of if, but when,” he warned investors. “It’s going to hit this year hard.”
We MUST get rid of Homeland Security’s hold over our food supply. We must END the regulations that strangle our farmers and destroy our ability to feed ourselves. Only Ron Paul has even ADDRESSED THIS ISSUE in an intelligent manner. The rest of our candidates haven’t even NOTICED the crisis, much less thought about how to address it.
How are YOU going to feed YOUR family as this worsens? Grandma has already been living on dogfood and noodles for a year…
A Perfect Storm of INSANE governance and unnecessary suffering for… what?
Hold on to your hats- this is going to get UGLY.
Ron Paul Supporter’s Business Being Destroyed
Kiss Liberty while you still can…
She’s nearly gone!
Out of control municipalities, reckless about small business and the needs of taxpayers, have decided to target the small business of a Ron Paul supporter in Metro Detroit- EVEN IN THE DEPRESSION STATE OF MICHIGAN!
Using pathetic, UNCONSTITUTIONAL petty regulations, the battle for Liberty and Freedom is hitting the streets!
BTW, crashing $ IS security risk, but Ron Paul is still nuts…
FINALLY the msm has admitted what Ron Paul, and his ‘loony’ Paulites have been talking about all along.
“But this year, there was a surprising potential foe: the falling dollar. In his report to Congress last week, Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell went beyond the conventional world of spycraft. Mr. McConnell specifically acknowledged “concerns about the financial capabilities of Russia, China, and OPEC countries and the potential use of their market access to exert financial leverage to achieve political ends.”
This has, of course, been written about all over the place, here and elsewhere. Ron Paul has written about it. Ron Paul has taken this issue, OVER AND OVER AGAIN, to Congress, to the Federal Reserve, and ANYWHERE that somebody might listen.
This ANY-MINUTE-NOW catastrophe wasn’t even NECESSARY! All we needed to do, all our ‘representatives’ needed to do was FOLLOW THE CONSTITUTION and listen to the founders, but, well, all that is lunatic fringe talk, isn’t it?
This isn’t all. Not by a long shot.
The War Drums keep beating over Iran, one of those OPEC countries who has allied itself with China and Russia AND Venezuela in this plan to collapse the dollar at the moment BEST for their own plans. War with Iran IS war with China, IS war with Russia. That’s the nature and purpose of ‘entangling foreign alliances.’
” Russia makes no secret of its ambitions to elevate the ruble to world reserve currency status.”
And more: “A perfect storm for dollar desertion may already be brewing. In the months ahead, China is expected to export fewer consumer goods to the U.S. with a forcibly-appreciated yuan. Meanwhile, Chinese spending for Russian oil and gas will likely start to ramp up. Mr. Medvedev, whose duties include serving as chairman of Gazprom, observed this past summer that the U.S. dollar was not immune to crisis of a “comprehensive, global character.” He was thinking ahead about potential opportunities. “A situation may arise where we, China, and some other Asian countries will speak of the emergence of a regional reserve currency.” The yuan was a possibility, Mr. Medvedev conceded. “But it is in our interest that it be the ruble.”
With China on our very doorstep in Panama and ports around the southern perimeter of America, and Russia even demanding that our long time ally, Japan, meet with them regarding investments and territorial matters; our crashing dollar puts us not only in serious economic jeopardy, but opens us up for military invasions on our own soil!
“The dollar won’t be strengthened by further interest-rate cuts or more fiscal stimulation leading to inflationary consumer spending. If the U.S. is to reclaim its position as provider of the world’s most trusted currency, we must think more boldly.It’s time to confront currency disorder. “
But, and BEWARE- notice what ELSE they say: “A global system based on a universally-accepted monetary asset — the U.S. has the world’s highest level of official gold reserves, followed by Germany and France — would not only counter Russia’s offensive. It would convert a national security threat into a golden opportunity. “
Now, if THAT doesn’t qualify for the success of GHWB’s New World Order, what does?
Economic collapse = goodbye American Sovereignty. No Constitution, no Bill of Rights, no Social Security… no nothing.
But, we Ron Paul-ites are the ones that are nuts and lunatics. At least, that’s what the boob tube tells you.
Well, see what the boob tube told you so long ago…
REAL ID Gets Creative in the Cyborg Lab!
Electronic tattoos are in the mind of creative science types, meaning an entire device, implanted under the skin, powered by your very own blood!
Forget about the rice sized radio chips implanted under your skin! How about a cell phone, computer, gps monitor, television? Bluetooth can connect you, then, with all kinds of other devices as yet to be dreamed up, mind-reading devices, house control devices, driving devices- who knows?
There can’t be a doubt that this is within the realm of the possible, if not soon, then certainly down the road. The advancements in tech are so fast, and so useful to business and government, that I can’t imagine that these potentialities will be ignored.
Can you imagine what the advertising industry will do once you have a communications pad tattooed in your arm? A 24 hour a day barrage of advertising holograms….
Well, we had Frankenstein which didn’t stop animal/human hybrid experiments that are going strong.
We had the Borg, the greatest enemy humanity faced in Star Trek Next Generation, which isn’t stopping the cyborg industry.
Science fiction was right, about some things at least. I hope the dark side of the story was just that- a fiction.
Decimation of EVERY American Asset: When Will We Get ANGRY?
Well, the assets aren’t QUITE all gone, and so the pressure continues on our ‘representatives.’
America for sale.
Here is what our politicians, in favor of the corporations, are planning now:
“Big corporations seek to take (Great Lakes Fresh) water at rates that could harm or destroy entire
watersheds. And if that is not enough, some Michigan politicians are supporting proposals that would allow from 22 percent to 40 percent of some of our inland rivers and streams to be available for export to thirsty nations! (Read DESERT nations?)”
Given that water is the new gold, and human beings (or Americans) can’t survive without it, this is a strike by corporate America at the very life blood of our country.
Turning over our food production to corporations is destroying our health and our ability to feed ourselves, especially in difficult times. Strip mining by corporations has destroyed huge portions of formerly verdant and healthy natural areas. Shall we turn over our water to such destruction as well, all for the benefit of a few shareholders and the politicians they can buy? Will they be more mindful of the pollution situation, or worsen it?
When, honestly, are we going to get ANGRY???
Ron Paul won’t say it: Candidate, Where is Your Brain?
Well, we know for SURE that the candidates aren’t taking the economic problems we’re having seriously. Neither is the Fed, or the Government in general. The politicians will bail the rich, the banks and investment firms out before they’ll do ANYTHING to help families who are losing their homes… but they definitely want our campaign donations.
You can be sure that the politicians will handle YOUR money much worse than they’ll handle their own, with all the hypocrisy that we can stomach (or more), and how they’re handling their own is a disgrace already. “Better DONE than SAID.” All of the candidates are carrying BIG debt in their campaigns, pissing money for useless perks (like croissants and donuts) that they think will get them a vote or a little support.
Done, of course, at the expense of the ‘little guy.’ He had to go to court to FORCE her to pay. Imagine.
So, Clinton is carrying so much debt that people fear to do business with her. Obama is carrying a huge amount of campaign debt (read- unpaid bills aka ‘float’). Now, McCain is being ‘forced’ to take public money to STAY IN THE RACE WHEN HE IS FRONTRUNNER! These things are ‘government welfare’- an undeclared subsidy by the hardworking providers, the small business people, that must wait and wait for payment, with no benefit to themselves, when the government will only wait for their tax dollars provided YOU pay to them huge penalties and interest.
This is a pathetic snapshot of the continuing garbage that will be coming out of the mouths, and the financial policies, of any of these politicians if and when they take the “Oath” of Office.
Speaking from personal experience here: my father, a mechanic and small business owner, repaired delivery trucks for the postal service for years. The bills were NEVER paid in a timely manner and so, until they were, HE had to ‘float’ government expenses by paying labor, parts, overhead until the money came in. However, when the checks actually arrived, they BOUNCED! He kept at it for some time, believing in the government, believing in the system, until he was brought to the brink of total loss. Then he declined to renew the contract. It took him ages to finally be reimbursed and paid in full for necessary services provided. That was when (comparatively) the government had very little in the way of debt or deficit. This is the ‘off the books’ government subsidy that only the individual taxpayers really know about.
You’re TRUSTING these people with YOUR money, your KIDS future money, the condition of your country. Things are so precarious economically in this country that even formerly reliable regular people may no longer be able to pay their bills, their credit ratings becoming trashed. You could be forgiven for being wary about loaning to even those people in this environment…
Isn’t it INSANE to trust your money to people who have PROVEN themselves to be lavish and wasteful, irresponsible and mindless when spending America’s tax dollars?
Figures don’t lie, people. They may not tell the whole truth, but they do reveal something very important.
Ron Paul is the epitome of Clinton’s campaign ad: DONE rather than said. Not a PENNY of debt. Bills paid immediately. No one is afraid to do business with him.
He’s too much of a gentleman to say it (but I’m not): Candidates, ‘representatives’, WHERE ARE YOUR BRAINS?
