100 days, 1,360 days to go oh my!

I have never known someone who loves the limelight as much as Obama does. This guy seems to be on television about every week. In fact, he has caused American Idol to change its airing night during his last two press conferences. He was on again last night on American Idol night, but American Idol was not postponed. I realize Barack Hussein Obama (who is mad I said Hussein?) is America's and Europe's Idol, but I would prefer to watch the original American Idol on Fox not the George Soros created American Idol Barack Obama.

With baited breath, Americans sit in anticipation to see their American idol bloviate about how he is saving the world and parting the red seas. Obama enters the room as the press sits with gaping mouths wide-open. The reporters know they are sitting in front of greatness. A deafening silence permeates the room as the press awaits the master's voice. Barack Obama makes a short speech and then begins to take questions. The rejoinder of each question posed to the "one" took an average of ten minutes. I wonder how he did on timed tests in high school – probably not very well. My guess is by the time he finished one question, the rest of the class was done. He once again enlightens us to the fact that he closed Guantanamo Bay but he neglects to tell us that he has no idea what to with the detainees. He tried to off-load them on his trip to Europe because he believed the Europeans would not only shower him with praise but they would acquiesce to his demands. They did shower him with praise, but they offered little. France offers to take one detainee, Spain offers to take six. Beyond that, Europe gave nothing. So what to do - we will probably give the rest of the detainee's citizenship, ask them not to be bad, and send them on their ways. Obama was then asked if the influenza outbreak would cause him to close the borders. He hummed and hawed, and then said he can't do that. I mean – "come on" Had he done that it would be more difficult to grant the illegal Mexicans citizenship, and he needs them to completely obliterate the Republican Party.

I loved his response on torture. Let me make this perfectly clear, waterboarding is torture. Somehow I don't think he convinced many people, because it was the only question where there were follow-up questions. Did you not hear me; waterboarding violates our ideals and our values. I could care less if it might save tens of thousands of lives, I will not use waterboarding, we are better than that. I would rather you die than to violate my ideals. The Field Manual allows me to yell at the prisoners, so that is what I will do.He stamps his feet a few times in hopes we believe him. He might have to waterboard us to get us to really believe him. Okay, so I used artistic license with what he said. I was reading between the lines. Obama says we could have gotten the information by other means, but how does he know that? The CIA memos state exactly the opposite. George Tenet and other intelligence officials all say that we could not have obtained the information any other way. Who cares anyway? The fact is we gathered the necessary information to stop attacks and save lives, and that is the issue. Obama also admitted to the fact that there were additional documents to which Dick Cheney had referred that showed the efficacy of enhanced interrogation methods, but he would not talk about them because they were still classified – so much for Obama's transparency. Transparency is good only if it shows how evil the United States is. He then moves on to Britain.

It was interesting that he invoked the name of Winston Churchill as his example of a reason not to torture. Barack Obama unceremoniously returned a bust of Winston Churchill to the British that was given to President Bush from Tony Blair after the attacks of 9/11. Britain also used extremely tough interrogation methods against the IRA. Britain's Special Air Service, (SAS) is a feared organization by terrorists. I am not sure where he is getting his information, but Britain was not a very good example.

Barack Obama says he will not have a rubber-stamp senate. Huh? I beg to differ. Both houses of congress had just passed a 3.5 trillion dollar budget which amounted to broad support for his healthcare plan and climate change bills – sounds like a rubber stamp to me.

And then with a straight face, the president said this:

And -- and that's why I'm always amused when I hear these, you know, criticisms of, "Oh, you know, Obama wants to grow government." No. I would love a nice, lean portfolio to deal with, but that's not the hand that's been dealt us".

Does he actually think people are going to believe that?

Barack Obama still continues the myth that he won't continue with Bush's eight years of failed policies. Bush's tax cuts spurred the economy after the dot-com crash and 9/11. What didn't work was the corruption and greed of those involved with the housing crisis and his excessive spending. The excessive spending is what Obama wants to continue. So, Obama takes what didn't work from Bush and puts it on steroids.

Of course, then we have to ask ourselves, if Barack Obama says that he is not going back to the failed policies of the Bush Administration, is he not reverting back to the failed anti-terrorist polices that were pre 9/11.

Obama says he will reduce the deficit in half in the middle of his first term. My question is how? In the dot-com bubble, investors said valuations no longer mattered – the bubble popped. In the housing crisis, seemingly intelligent people said housing prices will always go up (including my brother). They were wrong – the bubble popped. In today's scenario, it appears we can just print money without any consequences, but history is a guide. Argentina has tried it, Germany has tried it, and the list goes on. It will cause hyperinflation.

I thought I would jot down of few notes on Barack Obama's first 100 days. And, Just to show that I am not totally against everything Barack Obama has done, I have bolded the items which I think are good or semi-good.

1. Obama spends one trillion dollars on a stimulus bill that he says will create 2 to 3 million jobs. Joe Biden says there is 25% chance we will get it wrong. The first quarter of this year, the economy retracted 6.1%. How is the stimulus package working again? No bother - it's still Bush's fault.
   
   1. The Stimulus Bill contains a "Buy American Provision" clause, and the EU threatens to retaliate.
      
   2. Obama says there is no pork in the bill, but the entire bill is pork. It is a Democratic wish list put together months before Barack Obama was president by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.
      
   3. Barack Obama promised congress and the voters five days to read the bill. They reneged on their promise, and rammed down our throats the 778 page, pork-laden monstrosity that no one read in less than 40 hours. This was his call for transparency.
      
2. The Spending bill contains 9,000 earmarks. Barack Obama tries to justify it and says it was unfinished business from the Bush administration. Fails to remember the definition of veto.
   
3. Obama talked of change but begins to appoint all Clinton retreads.
   
4. Janet Napolitano is appointed secretary of homeland security and issues a propagaganda hit piece on the rise of Right Wing Extremism. The belief now is that right wing extremism is more dangerous than Radical Islam.
   
5. Hillary Clinton is appointed Secretary of State.
   
6. Barack Obama appoints Tim Geithner as treasury secretary even though he neglected to pay $34,000 in self-employment taxes plus $8,000 in interest giving him the name turbo tax Geithner, but then other appointments who failed to pay taxes begin to come out of the woodwork, Nancy Kellefer, nominated to a top budget post who has a tax lien on her DC home, and Tom Daschle nominated for secretary of state who failed to pay $140,000 in back taxes and interest (he withdrew his name). There were others I can't recall. Moral: If you want Democrats to pay their taxes, appoint them to a position in the administration.
   
7. Obama campaigned against lobbyists, but it came to light that Tom Daschle was a lobbyist. Obama tries to excuse his lobbying saying he wasn't a registered lobbyist. Of course, he was paid two million dollars by a lobbying firm. Obama exempted another high profile lobbyist named William Lynn as the number two man at the Pentagon.
   
8. Governor Bill Richardson was to be appointed commerce secretary but he withdrew his name after it was discovered the Grand Jury was looking into him because a major California company was making major political contributions for his political activities. We are to wonder once again about Barack Obama's vetting process.
   
9. Eric Holder is appointed attorney general. He is notorious for being soft on crime. He does not believe individuals have the right to bear arms.
   
10. Mercedes Marquez is appointed as Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development. Marquez was willing to pay Norma Wong a former legislator from Hawaii thousands of dollars to a Zen Buddhist Priest for training sessions in Zen Buddhism. Mercedes became a high priestess. Marquez was alleged to have purchased a condominium for herself and her partner that her department financed. She spent 5 million dollars on a computer for her department she later threw away.
    
11. Barack Obama reveals his middle class tax cut (for 95% of the people.) It amounts to 13 dollars a paycheck to be reduced to eight dollars in January. Of course, those who live in California find out that the tax rebate will be reduced to -0-or less when the terminator increases fees and taxes on just about everything in his attempt to counter profligate spending by the California legislature.
    
12. Barack Obama says he opposes the Fairness Doctrine, but there is speculation he might just call it something else.
    
13. Barack Obama snubs the Prime Minister of England Gordon Brown when he gives the Prime Minister a set of DVDs of 25 classic American movies. The Prime Minister gives Obama a pen holder fashioned from the oak timber of HMS Gannet, a navy vessel that served on anti-slavery missions off Africa. Obama was also given a framed commissioning paper for the HMS Resolute, a Royal Navy ship that came to symbolize British-American goodwill when it was rescued by the U.S. from icebergs and given to Queen Victoria. It is the sister ship of the HMS Gannet.
    
14. On their trip to England, Barack Obama apparently didn't learn his lesson. The narcissist Obama gives Queen Elizabeth an Ipod filled with his speeches. Now she can hear how Obama intends to part the seas.
    
15. Barack Obama authorizes the use of lethal force in the death of three pirates by Navy Seals who kidnapped the crew of an American Vessel.
    
16. Barack Obama supports Bush's use of wiretapping.
    
17. Barack Obama follows through on one of his campaign pledges by decimating our military.
    
18. Ben Bernanke appears on 60 minutes to tell voters how fast the government is printing money.
    
19. Obama travels to Europe as an apologist for the United States, and effectively convinces the continent that we do indeed torture. He comes back with virtually nothing. In the same trip, he says Turkey should be part of the European Union. This angers French Prime Minister Sarkozy. Adding Turkey would add 70 million Muslims to the EU which the EU can ill-afford. Sarkozy begins to doubt Obama's leadership, and effectively tells him to butt out of EU's affairs.
    
20. Barack Obama continues his trip to Latin America where he cozies up to Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega. Chavez gives him an anti-American book and Ortega spews out a 50 minute anti-American diatribe, and Barack's answer is that he was glad he was only three years old when it happened.
    
21. Barack Obama begins withdrawal of Iraqi forces, and to the consternation of the far-left, sends troops to Afghanistan.
    
22. The idiocy of Barack Obama's appointment of Timothy Geithner was proven when Geithner announced his non-economic plan for financial institutions. Investors were waiting on pins and needles to hear his economic plan, but when he had no specifics of what he was intending to do, the market immediately dropped 200 points.
    
23. Radical Leftist activist Rosa Brooks is appointed as a top advisor in the Pentagon with access to top military secrets.
    
24. Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO that has driven GE into the ground, and who has continuously done business with Iran, was appointed as a top economic advisor to Barack Obama's team. General Electric is poised to garner millions of dollars from Obama's stimulus package for green energy at a time when General Electric is flailing. NBC and MSNBC owned by General Electric has been a mouthpiece for Barack Obama. Barack Obama and Jeffrey Immelt are definitely in bed together.
    
25. CIA memos are released detailing enhanced interrogation methods and the efficacy of the program. He does not release additional documents that proved how effective these interrogation methods were. The release of these documents demoralizes the CIA. He states that he is going to succumb to ACLU's demand by releasing photos of detainee abuse at Guantanamo Bay to further show how evil the United States is. It is discovered that Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats knew about the enhanced interrogation methods including waterboarding.
    
26. In less than two days, Barack Obama wavered from he wouldn't prosecute agents of the CIA to he would leave it open for prosecutions back to he wouldn't prosecute.
    
27. To top off his 100 days, Barack Obama decided to scare the daylights out of New Yorkers by flying a 747 with two jets near the twin towers at a low altitude at a cost to taxpayers of more than $300,000. I think there is more to the story than we are being told.
    

What is next ---

1. Cap and trade that will dramatically increase energy prices
   
2. Nationalized health care which will dramatically reduce the quality of care. We will also see rationed care.
   
3. More spending
   
4. Inflation
   

I only have this to say - It sure feels a lot longer than 100 days, but no - we have 1,360 more days of this lunacy assuming its only four years.

Now where are the counter voices and leadership of the Republican Party? Where is Ronnie?

Biography of the Dollar

There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. John Maynard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace.

If you have ever wondered how the dollar came to be where it is today, and what the significance it is on the world stage, the Biography of a Dollar is a good primer understanding the history of the dollar and its current status. John R. Taylor of FX concepts is a major player in the hedge fund industry and foreign exchange trading, an industry that most people do not understand, but it is an industry that plays a major role in determining the value of what the dollar is worth. Taylor bets on currency movements within markets. The value of the currency is measured against the value of other currencies. Currencies are bought and sold within thin trading margins. Foreign exchange trading gave rise to the hedge fund.

Hedge funds are not required to register with the SEC since they are only available to large institutions or wealthy individuals. Hedge Funds gained notoriety largely because of high-profile men like George Soros. Soros gained the reputation for the man who broke, "the bank of England." George Soros sold short more than 10 billion dollars worth of British pounds. Soros bet that the Bank of England would be reluctant to protect its currency by raising interest rates. Raising interest rates would only further aggravate England's recession. Soros figured, and rightly so, that England would be forced to withdraw its pound from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. Soros bet that England would devalue its currency. England, not able to keep up with Soros, who bet against the pound, was unable to keep the pound at its agreed upon price and therefore capitulated. One man Soros was able to affect the entire economy of England, and it was estimated that Soros pocketed 1 billion dollars. This cost England an estimated 3.4 billion pounds, and is known as Black Wednesday.

What made this new industry possible? In 1944, the United States signed the Bretton Woods Agreement. This pegged the US dollar to gold bullion at 35$ an ounce. This guaranteed that every dollar could be exchanged for gold. The problem was after years of being pegged to the gold, there were more dollars than gold available, so concern mounted that there would be a run on the dollar. In 1971 Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard. This allowed the government to print more dollars and it also allowed for the nascent foreign exchange market to develop.

In 1973, Nixon abandoned the final restrictions of the Bretton Agreement. This allowed the market to determine the price of the dollar, and in a short period the American economy was in terrible shape. The Arab nations cut back oil production, leading to a global energy crisis - Gas lines grew long, patience grew short. The world saw a fourfold rise in the price of crude oil by The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, (OPEC). This made worse an economic crisis that was already bad. The oil producing countries were trying to recoup the losses they perceived they would reap as a result of taking the dollar off the gold standard. The OPEC nations used the excuse that they were ceasing shipments to countries that supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War when in reality the oil embargo was in direct response to U.S. inflation to protect them against future U.S. inflation. Inflation was running at 13%. This also sparked a vicious cycle leading to higher prices on everything from food to clothing affected by higher transportation costs. Rising inflation also caused Nixon to impose his ill-fated policy on wage-price controls. Many thought this was a disaster in the making.

Arthur Burns, the then Federal Reserve Chairman was one of the principal players of negating the Bretton woods Agreement, and he went down in ignominy because of the economic disaster that ensued after taking the dollar off the gold standard. Two other Fed Chairmen followed, William Miller who was considered even more ineffectual than Burns and Paul Volcker who aggressively raised interest rates until inflation was under control. It was Alan Greenspan, however, who garnered most of the credit for the robust economy that occurred after the Nixon administration. When the dollar was taken off of the gold standard, the economy was beset with high inflation and high interest rates, but Greenspan's tenure occurred during the greatest economic boom in US history partly as a result of taking the dollar off of the gold standard. Negating the Bretton agreement set the stage for the dollar to dominate as a universal world-wide currency.

The Biography of the Dollar discusses the problem of counterfeiting. Counterfeiting has always been a problem as long as there has been currency. Not only have individuals tried to counterfeit a country's currency, but countries have tried to cripple a country's economy as a means of economic warfare. NAZI Germany tried to cripple England after the failed blitzkrieg. Washington suspects North Korea of creating what they coin as the "Supernote", a counterfeit US currency that look extremely realistic. Previously, Columbia was the threat in counterfeiting, but now it's North Korea. The Supernotes are so good that they are hard to distinguish from the real thing by the experts. North Korean leader Kim Jong ll uses the same identical paper of three quarters cotton and one quarter linen, and the same intaglio press. New methods, processes watermarks are being devised to foil counterfeiters especially in this age of high technology where counterfeiting is becoming much easier.

The Biography of the Dollar describes how some countries have dropped their currency entirely such as Ecuador. Ecuador stopped printing its Sucre, and began using dollars on a permanent basis. This is called dollarization.. It explores the good and the bad of dollarization. Dollarization is only possible however because of the dominance of the American dollar.

Can the dollar retain its global dominance? With the country's growing current account deficit, other currencies rivaling the dollar such as the Euro have put the US dollar in doubt. The United States is the largest debtor nation. Some foreign bank officials have raised concern that there could someday be a run on the dollar causing a massive devaluation of the dollar. Countries have talked about diversifying their currency reserves which in the vernacular means "dumping dollars in exchange for other currencies." Two thirds of the US government is run by the US taxpayers, the other one third is run by lending money in the form of US treasuries to foreign countries. Worldwide reserves of the dollar have already begun to decline. Russia used to hold 50% of its reserves in US dollars. That number is currently 30%. Oil, commodities, foreign exchange trading are all pegged to the US dollar, but how long can that last? If we lose currency reserve status, it will lead to a series of economic and political crisis.

However, there has to be a viable alternative before the US dollar loses its status as the global currency. The Euro has its own set of problems. There are other currencies that also have other problems, but that does not mean it cannot happen. Famed investor Warren Buffet told his shareholders in 2004 he was stepping up investments abroad over fears of the decline in the dollar. If countries lose confidence in the dollar as a result of growing deficits, the devaluation of the dollar, low interest rates or a whole host of other reasons, may decide to look elsewhere for their currency reserves.

A weak dollar is not good for America.

The Biography of the Dollar gives a good history of the dollar, its current status, and where the dollar might head.