interest rates Archives

Latest Federal Government Numbers Confirm. Let’s Stop Arguing, It’s Obvious

Bureau Of Economic Analysis Department Of Commerce

A picture is worth a thousand words. Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. Recovery is when grifting politicians lose theirs. This is the most predictable recession in history. Everybody knows that when America displays weakness, things get out of hand. In Europe. In the Middle East. No surprise. Everybody knows that when you print trillions of dollars, you get inflation. When you promise to wave a magic wand and make hundreds of billions of dollars in loans just… disappear, you demoralize everyone who played by the rules. And cause more inflation. We can all see that when prominent politicians try to criminalize other Americans, based on their political views, you get strife. And we all know that if there is no consequence to crime, we will all get a lot more crime.

Is it ridiculous to protect yourself and your family first? How can the government command respect when it fails in its most basic obligations: security, peace, safety? Is this a bad time to stop kidding ourselves? Is now too soon to restore some sanity? If not now, when? If not you, who?

Government Newspaper, Washington Post, Supports Government
Don’t Worry — Recession Is Good! — Be Happy
In Other News: Dog Bites Man

Once upon a time, newspapers and the government had a healthy rivalry.

Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman was clear. ““I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast.”

First Amendment Founding Father Thomas Jefferson was equally blunt. “Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle.”

Today of course, great, metropolitan newspapers, like the Washington Post, bravely toe the party line. Providing cover for clownish political poltroons who cannot remember what they are doing in the room or how to get off the stage…

Would it make you happy to know that devastating recessions have seven (7) silver linings? Your retirement has been gutted. Your shopping cart is empty. Your grandkids would not know what to do with a job if it bit them on the behind. Inflation is up. Gross Domestic

Product shrinks. Then, just as you were feeling a little stressed, the Washington Post pops up with a timely tale worthy of Shakespeare!

Forget about 7 Deadly Sins, 7 Brides for 7 Brothers, or the Magnificent Seven… Here are:

7 Silver Linings To The Recession

1. Housing prices may finally come down to reasonable levels. Interest rates have skyrocketed for six straight weeks so you won’t be able to afford the monthly payment. And there’s No Money Left Behind after you pay for groceries, but lookit that low low price!

2. Savings rates are up. Your inflated, wall- paper dollars don’t buy anything anymore. So, you may as well save ‘em!

3. I bonds interest rate might go even higher. I Series Savings Bonds adjust the interest rate for inflation. There’s been so much inflation, the interest rate is high as an elephant’s eye. Almost as high as inflation. Ha ha, you still lose.

4. The dollar is king. Inflation is high. Interest rates are high. The U.S. Dollar exchange rate is high. Now you can go visit the King. In England. So cheap! And you have plenty of time to go. Dollars are so expensive, no one can afford “Made In America” stuff. So you are out of a job. Cheerio!

5. Unemployment is still relatively low. More kids living at home with Mom and Dad. And enjoying it. Fewer workers. Same jobs. Lower unemployment.

6. Your used car is worth more. Hope you like your old clunker! The average cost of a new car is $48,043. So you ain’t getting’ one! Thank you, Kelly Blue Book.

7. Student loan forgiveness is coming. Another Trillion Dollar giveaway from the working people of America to the pot-smoking, latte-sipping, firebomb-throwing misfits who turned college into an 8-year vacation. Why shouldn’t it be free?

Why Don’t You Deserve A Little Payback For All The Taxes You Paid In?
Why Do You Want To Spend Your Last Nickel On Long-Term Care?
Why Shouldn’t The Government Spend Your Money For You?

Traditional estate planning is concerned with avoiding probate, saving taxes, and dumping your leftover stuff on your beneficiaries. After you die. Nobody cares what happens to you while you are alive. How does that help anyone? Stupid.

Traditional estate planning fails because the overwhelming majority of us will need long-term skilled care. 70% of us. For an average of 3 years. And we will go broke paying for it.

Is it surprising that thousands of recreation properties: cottages, cabins, hunting land, are lost to pay for long-term care? Why is your estate planner hurting you and your family? It is evil intent? Or stupidity?

LifePlanning™ defeats Nursing Home Poverty. Keep your stuff. Get the care you have already paid for. Good for you. Good for your family. Good example for society,

When my mother suffered from the dementia which led to her death, over 10 years ago, their estate plan preserved their lifesavings. Mom’s months in the nursing home did not mean Dad’s impoverishment. Dad spent the last years with security and peace of mind.

Is Now A Bad Time For A Real Solution?

Perhaps you think you already have an answer to this problem. Maybe you do not see this as a problem at all. It is possible that you do not believe in the passage of time or its effects on you.

Peace of mind and financial security are waiting for everyone who practices LifePlanning™. You know that peace only begins with financial security. Are legal documents the most important? Is avoiding probate the best you can do for yourself or your loved ones? Is family about inheritance? Or are these things only significant to support the foundation of your family?

Do you think finding the best care is easy? Do you want to get lost in the overwhelming flood of claims and promises? Or would you like straight answers?

Well, here you are. Now you know. No excuses. Get the information, insight, inspiration. It is your turn. Ignore the message? Invite poverty? Or get the freely offered information. To make wise decisions. For you. For your loved ones.

The LifePlan™ Workshop has been the first step on the path to security and peace for thousands of families. Why not your family?

NO POVERTY. NO CHARITY. NO WASTE.
It is not chance. It is choice. Your choice.

Get Information Now. (800) 317-2812

October 3, 2022

Shocking Fact From Planet Earth: Magic Is Not Real

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Multi-Verse Of Madness? A Random Walk Through The Valley Of The Shadow Of Incompetence

The Original Three Stooges, At Least, Were Funny

Why is our world run by 3 old men with health issues and questionable mental capability? Three geezers with sufficient atomic and hydrogen bombs to erase humanity? Two of them with sugar plum visions of long-lost imperial splendor dancing in their heads. Willing to slaughter other folks wholesale. Two greedy, stuffed-up potentates. Dozens of minor characters in supporting roles have similar grandiose cloud cuckoo land delusions. Complete the picture with a cast of thousands eager to murder for earthly paradise.

Is it surprising that totalitarian tyrannies spew forth thieving tyrants? Isn’t that pretty much what they do? Murder, conquest, plunder, looting, and pillaging are part and parcel of the tyrannical deal. Successful crime proves that the “mandate of heaven” rests on the tyrant.

A couple hundred years ago, a few, very few, people decided to chart a different course. To depend on one another. And vigorous, unrestrained debate. Government based on the consent of the governed. A radical idea that regular folks had something to say. A nation free of tyrants. Composed of free people. Thinking, speaking, and acting freely. Naturally, “smart” people have been desperately fighting against this dangerous idea ever since.

The good and the wise know that too much talking is bad for the peasants. Commoners need a Ministry of Truth, Commission for the Public Good, Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, “Disinformation Governance Board.” Intellectual leading lights from Ivy League universities must ensure you do not think the wrong thoughts or say the wrong words. Or hear anyone who does.

Can the third decrepit old gentleman really be blamed for much of anything? As a two-bit grifting politician, he sold out for cheap long ago. Enabling family members’ dirty dealing with foreign countries and powerful corporations. Selling influence and access. Kickbacks to the “big guy”. Penniless politician to Bruce Wayne multimillionaire. His only surviving son condemned to a maelstrom of drugs and paid-for sex. Pitiful really. Charley McCarthy in the White House. Merely a marionette. Pathetic puppet, dancing to strange tunes.

Yet this superannuated reprobate has performed a valuable service. He proved the obvious: when America retreats, tyranny fills the void. Ask Finland. Ask Sweden. Two countries with centuries of neutrality. Comfortably secure under the American umbrella. Until now. Today they frantically clamor to join the NATO Neighborhood Watch.

Harry Potter Is To Blame!
Or Maybe It Is Doctor Strange’s Fault

Remember the Marvel superhero movie, Ironman? A science guy builds himself a metal suit that flies and blows bad guy stuff up. Cool. Remember Spiderman? Radioactive spider bite, science-science, teenager with spider powers.

Beats bad guys up. Even Superman had the whole red sun/yellow sun science explanation for superpowers. Not anymore. Today superheroes are all magic.

Remember the Harry Potter books and movies? How about the vampire and werewolf books and movies? Say or think the right thing and stuff just happens. All magic. All the time. Magical!

Have you noticed that magical thinking has taken over? Men become women by simply saying so. You don’t even need a fancy spell. Or surgery. Why tampons in the Mens Room? Because men now menstruate. And give birth. How does a man have ovaries and a uterus? Perhaps it helps to start as a woman. Astounding new world records in women’s sports? Perhaps starting as a man helps. Not even Supreme Court Justices can tell the difference. Abracadabra indeed!

Imagine an old, broken-down horse. Shabby. Weak. Shuffling. Re-living its days as a foal. Kept around from pity. Would you enter that horse in the Kentucky Derby? Or the county fair? You might if you believed in the power of magical thinking. You would just tell yourself, and everyone else, that your nag is really a thoroughbred racehorse at the peak of its powers. And if anyone disagreed, you and your friends could shout them down. Fairness requires hobbling all the other horses, since their actual talents and abilities are “unfair” to the nag. Who would enjoy such a race? What would the outcome be?

Is it ridiculous to think that magical thinking in the real world leads to disaster across the board? Would you like to drive across a magical bridge? Live in a magical apartment house? Why not? It’s only fair.

Magical Thinking: Consequences

BASIC PRICE INFLATION. In April 2022, the United States failed to set a new 40-year record high for inflation. At least it stayed above 8%, though, so all of you buying groceries on your credit cards… keep it up, you will have to…

Ivy League Necromancers first blamed the magic inflation on too many people buying treadmills. Then Congressional Conjurers claimed it was temporary. Next Sorcerers Senatorial blamed it on Russia’s Mad Monk Rasputin. Now our trusted Thaumaturges assert something else, but frankly, we have lost track.

Good News! The Ginger Oracle’s Replacement says Inflation will be cured! By raising taxes. We swear we are not making this stuff up. Here is what the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics says:

MORTGAGE INTEREST RATES. Mortgage rates continue to astonish, but the American Dream lives! “Homebuyers continue to show resilience even though rising mortgage rates are causing monthly payments to increase by about one-third as compared to a year ago,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist. Thank you, Sam! Great to see our public servants serving the public!

Hey Home Sellers! Interest rate increases caused monthly payments go up by ONE-THIRD… Could HOME PRICES be affected? What do YOU think? Can you pull a Homebuyer out of a hat? You may have to….

ONE MILLION DEAD FROM ELDER PLAGUE. Do you remember a politician who claimed he would stop COVID? Neither does the Washington Post. Or New York Times. Or the politician himself. He even forgot he was vaccinated. Oh well. Elections are supposed to be magic!

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than a MILLION AMERICANS have died from the virus of unknown origin. Widespread hysteria about the kids was manufactured by people who did not go to work, but still got paid. Fortunately for the children, the virus of unknown origin DOES NOT (hardly at all) KILL KIDS, but it is deadly to older folks. Almost exclusively.

From the very beginning the Reporter has described COVID as the “Elder Plague.” And that has NEVER changed. Here’s the current official CDC chart. Notice anything about deaths among kids ages 0-17? 0-29?

NEW RUSSIAN BEACH FRONT RESORT. In Ukraine, on the Black Sea, is a steel plant. You may have heard of it. Bombed for months. Blasted to smithereens. Now your best Russian friend and mine, Crazy Vlad, is repurposing this fixer-upper opportunity as beach resort. Come for Time Share Presentation, leave with new set of steak knives! Wow! Magic solves everything, no?

TOP 10 AMERICAN THEME PARKS. Because inquiring minds want to know, USA Today, a “newspaper” asked regular folks which were the BEST THEME PARKS. #1 is an aquarium which used to have whales in a tank, but not anymore. Winners include a brewery-sponsored park, another that smells like chocolate, and two with country music themes. But the “Happiest Place on Earth” was shut out. Maybe normal folks have had enough of rich people insults. Maybe, finally, “Ladies and Gentlemen! Boys and Girls! Children of All Ages!” isn’t the only thing headed for the garbage dump. Did they think they could magically wish away their customers? Guess so!

Why Can’t You Live In The Magic Kingdom?

Why are the magical thinkers so unhappy? Why does everything they touch turn to crap? Why are they angry? Why are they unable to hear anyone but themselves?

Are you opposed to living in the real world? Are you against your actions having consequences? Do you live to blame other people for your own faults and failings? Do the real abilities and accomplishments of others fill you with jealousy and rage? Are you so special that the world owes you a living? Are you a precious snowflake that all must admire? Are you happy and secure in your own talents and abilities and appreciative of others? Does Magical Thinking work for you? Do you think it would work for your kids?

Is it ridiculous to think that primitive humans, whose lives were “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short,” were still more grounded in reality than the politicians, intellectuals, and other talking heads who insist on one absurd foolishness after another?

It is a blessing to be middle class. No one worships you. You do not inspire fear, anxiety, or dread. Others will tell you the truth. And demand truth from you. We have our challenges to be sure. And the good news is that we are not surrounded by toadies lying to us about those challenges. Lucky you! Lucky me.

Traditional Planning Is Death Planning

Avoid Probate, Save Taxes, Get To Kids? And When You Die Broke, Drained By Long-Term Care, Probate Is Irrelevant

Traditional estate planning is supposed to avoid probate, save taxes, and dump your leftover stuff on your beneficiaries. After you die. Nobody cares what happens to you while you are alive. How does that help anyone? Stupid.

Traditional estate planning fails because the overwhelming majority of us will need long-term skilled care. 70% of us. For an average of 3 years. And we will go broke paying for it.

Is it surprising that thousands of recreation properties: cottages, cabins, hunting land, are lost to pay for long-term care? Why is your estate planner hurting you and your family? It is evil intent? Or stupidity?

LifePlanning™ defeats Nursing Home Poverty. Keep your stuff. Get the care you have already paid for. Good for you. Good for your family. Good example for society.

When my mother suffered from the dementia which led to her death, over 10 years ago, their estate plan preserved their lifesavings. Mom’s months in the nursing home did not mean Dad’s impoverishment. Dad spent the last years with security and peace of mind.

Is Now A Bad Time For A Real Solution?

Perhaps you think you already have an answer to this problem. Maybe you do not see this as a problem at all. It is possible that you do not believe in the passage of time or its effects on you.

Peace of mind and financial security are waiting for everyone who practices LifePlanning™. You know that peace only begins with financial security. Are legal documents the most important? Is avoiding probate the best you can do for yourself or your loved ones? Is family about inheritance? Or are these things only significant to support the foundation of your family?

Do you think finding the best care is easy? Do you want to get lost in the overwhelming flood of claims and promises? Or would you like straight answers?

Well, here you are. Now you know. No excuses. Get the information, insight, inspiration. It is your turn. Ignore the message? Invite poverty? Or get the freely offered information. To make wise decisions. For you. For your loved ones.

The LifePlan™ Workshop has been the first step on the path to security and peace for thousands of families. Why not your family?

NO POVERTY. NO CHARITY. NO WASTE.
It is not chance. It is choice. Your choice.

Get Information Now. (800) 317-2812

May 23, 2022

How Did It All Go So Wrong, So Quickly?

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I’m As Mad As Hell And I’m Not Going To Take This Anymore!

—Howard Beale, Network, 1976

We’re Not Gonna Take It, No, We Ain’t Gonna Take It, We’re Not Gonna Take It Anymore!

—Dee Snider, Twisted Sister, 1984

USA! USA! USA!

It was not that long ago. A year or so? America was recovering from the COVID. Economic growth was rebounding. Interest rates continued at historic low levels. Minimal inflation. Energy affordable and secure. Americans doing what Americans do. Getting on with it. Making the best of the situation. Recovering.

Remember before-COVID? Best economy ever for working Americans of all ages and racial groups. Record employment. At the highest real wages in history.

COVID and the response to the pandemic was a body blow. Confronted with a virus of mysterious origin. COVID deaths were 90+% among older folks with other ailments but affected us all. Lockdowns, economic paralysis, “No gardening for you!”.

Yet there was some desperate pride in adversity. Frontline healthcare workers’ extraordinary courageous efforts. Army field hospitals established overnight in Central Park. Navy hospital ships designed to treat battle-wounded soldiers converted at incredible speed to COVID treatment. Car factories suddenly manufacturing complex ventilators. Personal Protection Equipment production ramped up. Scientific research and vaccine development at “warp speed”.

Some sought political advantage. Blame Game. Extraordinary stresses resulted from lockdowns, masking, different therapeutic and preventive approaches to dealing with the pandemic. Some violence was excused. Other violence exaggerated and hysterically condemned. Rules for thee, but not for me? Raise your hand if you are surprised by politicians’ hypocrisy. Me neither.

And yet. Despite all the blame-gaming. Whatever your personal politics. Whomever you think is at fault. Let’s look over the edge of this foxhole. Aren’t there are some undeniable realities, some inconvenient truths?

Inflation is at 40-year highs. And getting worse.

Interest rates doubling, tripling. Home ownership out of reach. What do you think higher interest rates will do to the deficit?
Energy dependence is our future. America pleads with oil potentates who refuse our President’s phone calls and verbally abuse his envoys. “Strategic Petroleum Reserve” is pumped out to temporarily mask reality.

Crime and murder rates are skyrocketing back to the bad old days. Carnage in the streets.

Economic gains erased. Recession talk is back. Recession reality about to bite. Stagnation looms.

No borders for the U.S. Millions already crossed over. Given a joke legal document. And a cell phone. And a ticket to your town. To compete with you and your neighbors.

America is on edge. Agitated and anxious. Withdrawn and passive. Contradictory emotions and impulses. Remember Jimmy Carter? Malaise? Anything feel familiar nowadays?

How did we get here? Where do we go now?

Russia Russia Russia

Early 2022. Russia’s main rival (that’s us!) dazed and confused. Some American politicians and partisans credit Russia with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. Russia chooses America’s president. Some believed this. Others said it for political advantage.

Russia riding high. Europe, with fresh America approval, agreed to new pipelines from Russian oil and gas fields. Europe cast away its independence. Europe invites the Russian boot upon its neck.

Russia’s Chief Crime Boss believed the American politicians. And the American newspapers. And his generals. Russian Chief Crime Boss thought he was really something. Also thought he had a real military.

Chief Crime Boss thought, “Now’s the time!” And invaded another country. Threatens others.

How’s that working out? Tens of thousands of dead or missing Russian soldiers. Thousands of dead Ukrainians. Billions of destroyed civilian and military property. Sunk ships. Millions of wrecked dreams. Years of effort demolished overnight with artillery shells, missiles, and bombs. Medieval brutality. Standard Operating Procedure for Russia, from czarist times to the time you read this. No surprise to anyone familiar with any ancient or modern Russian military adventure.

But Europe has had enough. Petroleum extortion blackmail is okay but killing people and breaking things… too much!

Henchmen of Chief Russian Crime Boss lied to him. Military was for show, not go. Crime Boss losing. But Crime Boss can never lose. Now Chief Russian Crime Boss threatens nuclear weapons.

How did this happen? What now?

USA vs Russia

There is no easy way out. No effortless solutions. We are past that now. Yet there is hope. America still has Americans. People who do not like being lied to. People who want to say what they want to say. We are a talkative bunch. We do not like to be shut up. We like to irritate our betters. We like to shake things up. That is what the First Amendment is all about.

Russia has the Russian system. Shut up or die. Shut up and die. No way out. No Exit. No solution when your country is run by a Chief Crime Boss and his henchmen. For as long as the Crime Boss lives. History provides countless examples. Napoleon: France. Hitler: Germany. Idi Amin: Uganda. Pol Pot: Cambodia. Franco: Spain.

Sadly, some Americans like the Russian Way. Some Americans are afraid of other people talking. So afraid that the government is setting up a “Disinformation Governance Board” staffed by political appointees. To govern “Disinformation”? Who decides which information is true blue, all-American, reliable, sanctified, and Government- Approved Information? Who decides which is evil, bad, horrible, no-good Disinformation? How can anything like this be consistent with the First Amendment? Can it be reconciled? Of course not.

Fortunately, many American immigrants seem to understand the importance of free discourse better than some of us born here. One immigrant, naturalized American has even spent some of his own money to buy a communications company. He promises to make it available to all. We shall see.

And that is the difference. We have our troubles, but the American Way of free speech, without fear or favor, will eventually enable us to solve our problems. If we continue to believe and act as Americans.

This is not a new issue with us. About a hundred years ago, in Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927), the Supreme Court upheld a conviction for dangerous speech. Forty years later, the Court, in Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969), overruled that precedent and forcefully upheld free speech under the First Amendment.

Who wants to turn the clock back? Who wants to suppress, prosecute, and imprison their fellow Americans for speaking on political issues? Why do they fear talk? Are their ideas so weak? Do they have no confidence in their fellow citizens? Are they so smart that no one else need express any thought? Who are these people? Why do they reject the American Way and embrace the Russian Way?

Although it appears nowhere in his writings, Winston Churchill is often credited with saying:

You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else.

The Russian Way leads to death and destruction. The American Way leads to disagreement, discomfort, annoyance, and a better future and outcome for us all. We tried a mild variation on the Russian Way. And threw it out. Let’s stick to the American Way!

Is Now A Bad Time For A True Estate Planning Solution?

LifePlanning™ Is A Real Solution Traditional estate planning is concerned with avoiding probate, saving taxes, and dumping your leftover stuff on your beneficiaries.

After you die. Nobody cares what happens to you while you are alive. How does that help anyone? Stupid.

Traditional estate planning fails because the overwhelming majority of us will need long- term skilled care. 70% of us. For an average of 3 years. And we will go broke paying for it.