The Greatest Scam of All Time

[Jcrowley]

The Greatest Scam of All Time
by Martin Weiss


Money and Markets

Washington's Enron-style accounting is now so widespread and so deeply ingrained, the nation could be bankrupt and not even know it. You go to work. You save and invest. You vote in the November election. And you assume that everything is business as usual. Then, one day, you wake up to the shocking discovery that it's not.

Inflation is at least three percentage points worse than what they're telling you. Unemployment and the budget deficit is over double. The national debt is at least five times bigger than official tallies.
Almost every number coming out of Washington has been thoroughly massaged and greatly distorted, almost always with a bias toward sweeping the dirt under the carpet and sugarcoating the truth.

<snip>

Distortion #1
The True Unemployment Rate Is Over 12%

One of the first new wrinkles in the unemployment stats was added during the Kennedy Administration. And it persists to this very day. Instead of measuring how many people are actually out of work, they figured it would be easier to simply keep track of how many people are applying for jobless benefits.

<snip>

Distortion #2
The True Inflation Rate Is Over 7%

Probably more so than any other number, the government has a direct, vested interest in keeping its official inflation numbers low. Reason: The higher the rate of inflation, the more it has to pay in Cost of Living Adjustments to Social Security beneficiaries.

<snip>

Distortion #4
Deficits and Debts

The official 2005 budget listed the U.S. federal deficit at $319 billion. But according to the GAO, if the government followed the same generally accepted accounting principles it demands of corporations, the real 2005 deficit would have been $760 billion -- or more than DOUBLE the official number.

http://www.safehaven.com/article-5917.htm

[liberaldemocrat7]

1. The Republican congress cuts unemployed people off benefits after 6 months

Since Republicans cut them off unemployment benefits after 6 months they also get the benefit of not counting them as unemployed.

[Warpy]

2. He also missed the biggest fudge of all

not including the balance of trade deficit in the national debt.

That's the one that's going to sink us. 30 years ago, it was caused mostly by oil and imported small cars that Detroit has never particularly cared to make. Now it's fueled by all the industries we shipped off to other countries. We no longer make what we need, so unless we find a way to overcharge for raw materials we don't use, we're going deeper in debt with every container that arrives from offshore, every truck that drives in from Mexico or Canada.

It's obvious what needs to be done, making offshoring unprofitable, but neither party is willing to let go of the cult of free trade for coroporations, not even if it destroys us.

The advice given in the article for maintaining a defensive position in one's assets is good advice. My pop did that for years, and I'm not going to change.

[oc2002]

3. I have had the same doubts, its Enron on a big big scale all over again.

This time a world depression and financial ruins will be the wake up call.

Have a nice day.

[Blackhatjack]

4. Don't Forget Allowing Companies to Underfund Pensions Was Intentional

...in fact, some companies planned never to fully fund their pensions as required by law, but rather to institute changes over time that would cheat their employees out of their pensions by the time they were entitled to draw them.

Government distortion of facts is sadly business as usual.

[Kazak]

5. The 2000 election...

All of this is simply residual effect.

[OwnedByFerrets]

6. That was, is, the greatest scam of them all.......

the 2000 election.

[Selatius]

7. Well, if it's true Clinton kajiggered with the numbers, that speaks poorly

of the former president.

[genie_weenie]

8. The Greatest Scam, which all of US History has flowed from

is that "WE the People" means the People actually run/control this Country. The Constitution and the US Government do not empower the American Citizenry.

Everything else, from the 2000 election, to 1917 Sedition Laws, the Civil War, Teddy's Great White Fleet have grown from that bad seed.