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<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" media="screen" href="/~d/styles/rss2full.xsl"?><?xml-stylesheet type="text/css" media="screen" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~d/styles/itemcontent.css"?><rss xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:openSearch="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/" xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss" xmlns:geo="http://www.w3.org/2003/01/geo/wgs84_pos#" xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0" version="2.0"><channel><atom:id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5733497748549358192</atom:id><lastBuildDate>Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:05:49 +0000</lastBuildDate><title>Florida Real Estate Blog - FloridaBits.com</title><description>A candid look at Real Estate, Zoning and Land Use laws  in Florida. The state of Florida's economy as related to Real Estate and how can investors and homeowners benefit from the current economic conditions. How the economy affects Real Estate in Florida. How Politics affect Real Estate in Florida.</description><link>http://www.floridabits.com/</link><managingEditor>noreply@blogger.com (Charlie)</managingEditor><generator>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>82</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><geo:lat>29.080167</geo:lat><geo:long>-81.046667</geo:long><atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="self" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/ufWB" type="application/rss+xml" /><feedburner:emailServiceId>blogspot/ufWB</feedburner:emailServiceId><feedburner:feedburnerHostname>http://feedburner.google.com</feedburner:feedburnerHostname><atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="hub" href="http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com" /><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5733497748549358192.post-824706807340551237</guid><pubDate>Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:38:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-11-04T20:56:06.455-05:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Greenspan</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Bailout</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Foreclosures</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Florida Real Estate Crisis</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">The Great Greesnpan Depression</category><title>Busted Banks - The Wrath of The Great Greenspan Depression of the Millenium</title><description>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/info-Failed_Banks-sort.html"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0 auto 10px auto;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 512px; " src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SvItFmvvs1I/AAAAAAAABE4/wXGvsyTNORw/s512/banks-failed-map.jpg" border="0" alt="Failed Banks Across the USA" title="Failed Banks Across the USA" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5400428477494047570" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Track Banks, Savings Banks and Thrifts that have failed one by one across the country since 2008 thanks to &lt;a href="http://www.floridabits.com/2009/05/one-mans-folly-great-greenspan.html"&gt;The Great Greenspan Depression of the Millenium&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Click of the graphic for an interactive map.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5733497748549358192-824706807340551237?l=www.floridabits.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
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&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~4/L6Rqw90HJ68" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~3/L6Rqw90HJ68/busted-banks-wrath-of-great-greenspan.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Charlie)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SvItFmvvs1I/AAAAAAAABE4/wXGvsyTNORw/s72-c/banks-failed-map.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.floridabits.com/2009/11/busted-banks-wrath-of-great-greenspan.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5733497748549358192.post-3370187308998076016</guid><pubDate>Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:15:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-10-25T13:20:19.668-04:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Bailout</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">The Great Greesnpan Depression</category><title>The Tragedy of Excess of the Few to the Detriment of the Many</title><description>&lt;center&gt;&lt;object width="560" height="340"&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/w5EFEQ9aY6o&amp;#038;hl=en&amp;#038;fs=1&amp;#038;"&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/w5EFEQ9aY6o&amp;#038;hl=en&amp;#038;fs=1&amp;#038;" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5733497748549358192-3370187308998076016?l=www.floridabits.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
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&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~4/IDCO2fbVfLc" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~3/IDCO2fbVfLc/tragedy-of-excess-of-few-to-detriment.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Charlie)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.floridabits.com/2009/10/tragedy-of-excess-of-few-to-detriment.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5733497748549358192.post-3675286333603854212</guid><pubDate>Mon, 20 Jul 2009 12:14:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-07-20T08:15:38.207-04:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Bailout</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">US Economy</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Politics</category><title>A Gangster Government... No... not  in Russia, but here in the USA!</title><description>Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) speaking on the House floor:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;"Now we've moved into the realm of gangster government. We have gangster government when the Federal Government has set up a new cartel and private businesses now have to go begging with their hand out to their local, hopefully well politically connected Congressman, or their Senator so they can buy a peace offering for that local business.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; Is that the kind of country we are going to have in the future?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;center&gt;&lt;object width="425" height="344"&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/thR-lVuztIY&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;"&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/thR-lVuztIY&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5733497748549358192-3675286333603854212?l=www.floridabits.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
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&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~4/jMBbTPDZQK8" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~3/jMBbTPDZQK8/gangster-government-no-not-in-russia.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Charlie)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">1</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.floridabits.com/2009/07/gangster-government-no-not-in-russia.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5733497748549358192.post-8118164883388278998</guid><pubDate>Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:41:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-06-22T10:42:28.908-04:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Finance</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Obama</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Foreclosures</category><title>Fear Not... He's Come to Save the Day !</title><description>&lt;center&gt;&lt;div style='background-color:#e9e9e9; width: 425px;'&gt;&lt;object id='A64060' quality='high' data='http://aka.zero.jibjab.com/client/zero/ClientZero_EmbedViewer.swf?templateID=203286&amp;service=sendables.jibjab.com&amp;partnerID=JibJab' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' wmode='transparent' height='319' width='425'&gt;&lt;param name='wmode' value='transparent'&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;param name='movie' value='http://aka.zero.jibjab.com/client/zero/ClientZero_EmbedViewer.swf?templateID=203286&amp;service=sendables.jibjab.com&amp;partnerID=JibJab'&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;param name='scaleMode' value='showAll'&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;param name='quality' value='high'&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;param name='allowNetworking' value='all'&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;param name='allowFullScreen' value='true' /&gt;&lt;param name='FlashVars' value='templateID=203286&amp;service=sendables.jibjab.com&amp;partnerID=JibJab'&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;param name='allowScriptAccess' value='always'&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;div style='text-align:center; width:435px; margin-top:6px;'&gt;Try JibJab Sendables® &lt;a href='http://sendables.jibjab.com/ecards'&gt;eCards&lt;/a&gt; today!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5733497748549358192-8118164883388278998?l=www.floridabits.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
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&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~4/tCdrJvGveJk" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~3/tCdrJvGveJk/fear-not-hes-come-to-save-day.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Charlie)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">3</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.floridabits.com/2009/06/fear-not-hes-come-to-save-day.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5733497748549358192.post-2048555606802420217</guid><pubDate>Fri, 15 May 2009 13:47:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-06-03T07:40:27.528-04:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Greenspan</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Wall Street</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">US Economy</category><title>One Man's folly - The Great Greenspan Depression of the Millennium, the worst financial devastation in the history of the USA</title><description>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/Sg1zPyBLA_I/AAAAAAAABB4/FSA2kWthWk4/s1600-h/20090515.gif"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/Sg1zPyBLA_I/AAAAAAAABB4/FSA2kWthWk4/s400/20090515.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336047848465826802" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;While the stock market is up sharply since early March - drop a stone from the Empire State Building's top floor and it will bounce as well - the economy as well as corporate earnings continue to suffer. This chart provides some perspective as to the magnitude of the current economic decline.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The chart (Courtesy of &lt;a href="http://www.chartoftheday.com" target="_blank"&gt;http://www.chartoftheday.com&lt;/a&gt;) illustrates how S&amp;amp;P 500 12-month, earnings have declined over 90% over the past 20 months making this by far the largest decline on record (the data goes back to 1936). In fact, real earnings have dropped to a record low and if current estimates hold, Q3 2009 will see the first 12-month period in history during which S&amp;amp;P 500 earnings are negative.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Greenspan has accomplished what no enemy of our country ever did.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Related Articles:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.floridabits.com/2008/04/great-greenspan-depression-of.html"&gt;The Great Greenspan Depression of the Millennium&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.floridabits.com/2009/02/inside-meltdown.html"&gt;Inside the Meltdown&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.floridabits.com/2009/01/massive-transfer-of-wealth-from.html"&gt;A massive transfer of wealth from the illiquid unlucky to the liquid lucky is about to happen...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.floridabits.com/2008/11/decline-of-mighty-power-at-hands-of.html"&gt;The Decline of a Mighty Power at the hands of a self-serving financial elite&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.floridabits.com/2008/10/greenspan-depression-one-country-two.html"&gt;The Greenspan Depression: One Country, Two Worlds&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5733497748549358192-2048555606802420217?l=www.floridabits.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
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&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~4/3nr2dQ7j68E" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~3/3nr2dQ7j68E/one-mans-folly-great-greenspan.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Charlie)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/Sg1zPyBLA_I/AAAAAAAABB4/FSA2kWthWk4/s72-c/20090515.gif" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">1</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.floridabits.com/2009/05/one-mans-folly-great-greenspan.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5733497748549358192.post-4184315612346792625</guid><pubDate>Thu, 30 Apr 2009 01:19:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-05-01T21:21:29.026-04:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Wall Street</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Finance</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Bailout</category><title>The Extortion Economy</title><description>April 29th, 2009&lt;br /&gt;CFIF&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Last fall, as the U.S. economy seemed to be issuing its death rattle, a representative from Credit Suisse received a call from the Federal Reserve. The Fed, the voice on the other end chirped, was calling to congratulate the international financial giant on its prudence, Credit Suisse having admirably avoided becoming enmeshed in the subprime mortgage debacle. Bureaucracies not typically being in the business of issuing gold stars, the call was out of character.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Fed’s representative continued, “Now we’ll need you to buy up some of the toxic assets.” But why would Credit Suisse do that, their employee asked, when it was one of the few major financial firms wise enough to avoid the investments in the first place? The Fed’s response was chilling: “Because someday you’ll need us.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Welcome to the extortion economy. With the financial crisis as cover, the federal government has spent the past eight months dictating terms to American business – terms that defy common sense, economic logic and moral justification. And the government has been doing it with brass knuckles.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In testimony made public last week, Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis alleged that the government’s ultimatum to his company was even more menacing than the Credit Suisse shakedown. Lewis claims that then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke pressured Bank of America into buying the distressed financial firm Merrill Lynch, even after it became apparent that Merrill was set to post massive losses (the eventual total was over $15 billion) in the fourth quarter. When Lewis raised the prospect of BofA cancelling the deal, Paulson reportedly told him that the acquisition would continue apace and Bank of America shareholders would be kept in the dark about Merrill’s cratering value … or the federal government would fire Lewis and his entire board of directors. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;span id="fullpost"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Of course, a “crisis” generally gives Washington carte blanche to indulge in “emergency measures” that stop just short of ritualized human sacrifice. And indeed, those who were on the front lines last autumn claim that any overreach on behalf of the federal government stemmed from a good-faith effort to prevent the nation from economic disaster. But long after the prospect of a complete meltdown has passed, the government’s pistol-to-the-ribs style remains.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Just last week, for instance, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner put up roadblocks to responsible banks that want to pay back their TARP debts and free themselves from government control. Geithner told a congressional committee that while he welcomed repayment from TARP-weary institutions like Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Chase (two firms that would have never been brought into the program if it weren’t for government strong-arming in the first place), releasing them would be contingent on the health of “the system as a whole.” In other words, successful firms will remain indentured to Washington as long as necessary to obscure the failures of their wayward counterparts.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Not content to limit the thumbscrews to the banking sector, the Obama administration – following what is apparently its default urge – is socializing the pain across American industry.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Last week, news leaked that the President’s Auto Task Force was pressuring General Motors to jettison its popular GMC truck line – an unintelligible decision given that GMC is one aspect of GM’s business that is actually profitable. What GMC’s heavy-duty trucks are not, however, is “green.” In the new Democratic zeitgeist, that tends to be a capital offense.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Accordingly, Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency announced in the same period that it is assuming new powers to regulate greenhouse gases. The Administration hopes it can use the specter of crushing EPA regulations to get businesses to knuckle under to Obama’s ambitious program to cap and trade carbon emissions. Given the choice between erratic regulatory pain and predictable statutory pain, their bet is that industry will pick the more digestible poison.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Having already hamstringed the banking, automobile and energy industries, Obama concluded last week with a Roosevelt Room meeting with executives from the nation’s credit card companies. As the President outlined his support for legislation that would limit the card issuers’ ability to change interest rates or set credit limits, one of the guests boldly ventured to challenge the push for greater regulation. Obama’s glib response was “[you are] talking to a president who still has a very fresh memory of relying on credit cards.” Given the math involved in his current budget, this may be the least revelatory bit of autobiography in presidential history.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Obama’s attempt to run the credit card industry from the West Wing is illustrative of the practical drawbacks of such massive government intervention. Though it may be difficult to convince a public that believes he can multiply loaves and fishes, President Obama cannot change the laws of the marketplace. If he robs credit card companies of the ability to price risk through interest rates, he will see the supply of available credit dry. If he attempts to build a “green economy” by taxing current energy suppliers into penury, he will eliminate more wealth than he creates. And if he forces Detroit to make vehicles that are designed for the preferences of Al Gore rather than the tastes of the market, he will make an already fading industry comatose.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There is a greater risk, however, in this age of burgeoning industrial policy, and it is a moral one. By severing the free market’s link between performance and reward, the federal government has totally undercut the ethical rationale of capitalism. For all the recent talk of “greed,” the greatest stain on our economy comes not from the imprudent executive. His fate awaits him in the marketplace. Rather, the real shame comes when the state saves the reckless and the venal at the expense of the upright and the decent.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Economists tell us you get more of what you subsidize. Perhaps that is why wholesale failure is quickly becoming America’s biggest growth industry. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5733497748549358192-4184315612346792625?l=www.floridabits.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
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&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~4/-Q1nSt57plY" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~3/-Q1nSt57plY/extortion-economy.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Charlie)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">3</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.floridabits.com/2009/04/extortion-economy.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5733497748549358192.post-6866183399003234459</guid><pubDate>Sat, 25 Apr 2009 13:32:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-04-25T10:52:56.026-04:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Dumb Moves</category><title>Things done to our country that defy logic... On whose side are they on?</title><description>I have long been an admirer of Michael Ramirez, both for his poignant graphic commentaries and his unmatched artistic abilities. Here is a sampling of recent cartoons depicting the sad state of affairs that our children will be inheriting, courtesy of a few numbnuts in Washington.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;center&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SfMQ-hRYDKI/AAAAAAAAA_Q/xea9_MPjIyg/s1600-h/TopSeceretMemos-big.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 512px; " src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SfMQ-hRYDKI/AAAAAAAAA_Q/xea9_MPjIyg/s512/TopSeceretMemos-big.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328621450378611874" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SfMiLilsosI/AAAAAAAAA_o/jpFoRyaHP5M/s1600-h/ReservedForCongress-big.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 512px; " src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SfMiLilsosI/AAAAAAAAA_o/jpFoRyaHP5M/s512/ReservedForCongress-big.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328640365768254146" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SfMiGKcCQfI/AAAAAAAAA_g/1PAQllYWFHE/s1600-h/You%27reFiredI%27llDrive-big.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 512px; height: 272px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SfMiGKcCQfI/AAAAAAAAA_g/1PAQllYWFHE/s512/You%27reFiredI%27llDrive-big.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328640273385931250" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SfMiAukalvI/AAAAAAAAA_Y/-GpIAz25jkc/s1600-h/NationalDebt-big.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 512px; height: 272px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SfMiAukalvI/AAAAAAAAA_Y/-GpIAz25jkc/s512/NationalDebt-big.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328640180005541618" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;See more at &lt;a href="http://www.cfif.org/htdocs/freedomline/cartoon-corner/index.php" target="_blank"&gt;http://www.cfif.org/htdocs/freedomline/cartoon-corner/index.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5733497748549358192-6866183399003234459?l=www.floridabits.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?a=o-tu9A4KQxI:CIuNtuh5exs:fAKstrIGdw4"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?i=o-tu9A4KQxI:CIuNtuh5exs:fAKstrIGdw4" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?a=o-tu9A4KQxI:CIuNtuh5exs:7Q72WNTAKBA"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?a=o-tu9A4KQxI:CIuNtuh5exs:V_sGLiPBpWU"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?i=o-tu9A4KQxI:CIuNtuh5exs:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?a=o-tu9A4KQxI:CIuNtuh5exs:gIN9vFwOqvQ"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?i=o-tu9A4KQxI:CIuNtuh5exs:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?a=o-tu9A4KQxI:CIuNtuh5exs:l6gmwiTKsz0"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?a=o-tu9A4KQxI:CIuNtuh5exs:qj6IDK7rITs"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?a=o-tu9A4KQxI:CIuNtuh5exs:yIl2AUoC8zA"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~4/o-tu9A4KQxI" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~3/o-tu9A4KQxI/things-done-to-our-country-that-defy.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Charlie)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SfMQ-hRYDKI/AAAAAAAAA_Q/xea9_MPjIyg/s72-c/TopSeceretMemos-big.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.floridabits.com/2009/04/things-done-to-our-country-that-defy.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5733497748549358192.post-7378531542221011460</guid><pubDate>Wed, 11 Mar 2009 23:28:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-03-11T20:06:04.372-04:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Wall Street</category><title>CNN: Stewart Slams CNBC</title><description>Well, here it is... dedicated to every fool that put his hard-earned money in nothing but whatever Cramer said the night before.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;center&gt;&lt;script src="http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/js/2.0/video/evp/module.js?loc=dom&amp;vid=/video/business/2009/03/10/moos.stewart.rips.cnbc.cnn" type="text/javascript"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;noscript&gt;Embedded video from &lt;a href="http://www.cnn.com/video"&gt;CNN Video&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/noscript&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here's John Stewart's whole epic smack-down&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;center&gt;&lt;style type='text/css'&gt;.cc_box a:hover .cc_home{background:url('http://www.comedycentral.com/comedycentral/video/assets/syndicated-logo-over.png') !important;}.cc_links a{color:#b9b9b9;text-decoration:none;}.cc_show a{color:#707070;text-decoration:none;}.cc_title a{color:#868686;text-decoration:none;}.cc_links a:hover{color:#67bee2;text-decoration:underline;}&lt;/style&gt;&lt;div class='cc_box' style='position:relative'&gt;&lt;a href='http://www.comedycentral.com' target='_blank' style='display:inline; float:left; width:60px; height:31px;'&gt;&lt;div class='cc_home' style='float:left; border:solid 1px #cfcfcf; border-width:1px 0px 0px 1px; width:60px; height:31px; background:url("http://www.comedycentral.com/comedycentral/video/assets/syndicated-logo-out.png");'&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div style='font:bold 10px Arial,Helvetica,Verdana,sans-serif; float:left; width:299px; height:31px; border:solid 1px #cfcfcf; border-width:1px 1px 0px 0px; overflow:hidden; color:#707070; position:relative;'&gt;&lt;div class='cc_show' style='position:relative; background-color:#e5e5e5;padding-left:3px; height:14px; padding-top:2px; overflow:hidden;'&gt;&lt;a href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/' target='_blank'&gt;The Daily Show With Jon Stewart&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style='position:absolute; top:2px; right:3px;'&gt;M - Th 11p / 10c&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class='cc_title' style='font-size:11px; color:#868686; background-color:#f5f5f5; padding:3px; padding-top:1px; line-height:14px; height:21px; overflow:hidden;'&gt;&lt;a href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=220510&amp;title=basic-cable-personality-clash' target='_blank'&gt;Basic Cable Personality Clash Skirmish '09&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;embed style='float:left; clear:left;' src='http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:220510' width='360' height='301' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' wmode='window' allowFullscreen='true' flashvars='autoPlay=false' allowscriptaccess='always' allownetworking='all' bgcolor='#000000'&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style='clear:both'&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A fool's game indeed. Thank you John, it had to be said.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here's Cramer a few years ago, extolling the virtues of rigging the market as a hedge fund manager. He explains how easily these funds manipulated the market and walked the illegal tightrope thanks to the ineptitude of the SEC:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;center&gt;&lt;object width="425" height="344"&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZWVmlxhk-tU&amp;color1=0xb1b1b1&amp;color2=0xcfcfcf&amp;hl=en&amp;feature=player_embedded&amp;fs=1"&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZWVmlxhk-tU&amp;color1=0xb1b1b1&amp;color2=0xcfcfcf&amp;hl=en&amp;feature=player_embedded&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5733497748549358192-7378531542221011460?l=www.floridabits.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?a=dbN5p2BHFQ0:TbytgNxfI8w:fAKstrIGdw4"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?i=dbN5p2BHFQ0:TbytgNxfI8w:fAKstrIGdw4" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?a=dbN5p2BHFQ0:TbytgNxfI8w:7Q72WNTAKBA"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?a=dbN5p2BHFQ0:TbytgNxfI8w:V_sGLiPBpWU"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?i=dbN5p2BHFQ0:TbytgNxfI8w:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?a=dbN5p2BHFQ0:TbytgNxfI8w:gIN9vFwOqvQ"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?i=dbN5p2BHFQ0:TbytgNxfI8w:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?a=dbN5p2BHFQ0:TbytgNxfI8w:l6gmwiTKsz0"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?a=dbN5p2BHFQ0:TbytgNxfI8w:qj6IDK7rITs"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?a=dbN5p2BHFQ0:TbytgNxfI8w:yIl2AUoC8zA"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~4/dbN5p2BHFQ0" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~3/dbN5p2BHFQ0/cnn-stewart-slams-cnbc.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Charlie)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.floridabits.com/2009/03/cnn-stewart-slams-cnbc.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5733497748549358192.post-7891489370503504198</guid><pubDate>Wed, 11 Mar 2009 20:33:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-03-11T16:35:09.834-04:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Bailout</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">US Economy</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Florida Real Estate Crisis</category><title>When Will We Learn?...</title><description>&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SbggZNRbcVI/AAAAAAAAA-A/8LbjrrjQI38/s1600-h/abraham-lincoln-625.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SbggZNRbcVI/AAAAAAAAA-A/8LbjrrjQI38/s320/abraham-lincoln-625.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312031377915081042" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn. You cannot build character and courage by taking a man's initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align="right"&gt;Abraham Lincoln&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5733497748549358192-7891489370503504198?l=www.floridabits.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
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&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~4/e34dqUkSobE" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~3/e34dqUkSobE/when-will-we-learn.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Charlie)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SbggZNRbcVI/AAAAAAAAA-A/8LbjrrjQI38/s72-c/abraham-lincoln-625.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">2</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.floridabits.com/2009/03/when-will-we-learn.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5733497748549358192.post-7359774759062868516</guid><pubDate>Thu, 26 Feb 2009 22:09:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-02-26T17:18:42.575-05:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Bailout</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">US Economy</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Florida Real Estate Crisis</category><title>Economic Apocalypse, The Inconvenient Debt...</title><description>Between the Crooks in Banking, the Royal Corporate Chiefs in Manufacturing, the Mafiosos in Big Labor and the Corrupt and otherwise Intellectually Inadequate in Washington, Joe the Plumber Taxpayer is caught in the struggle and has now unwittingly assumed the duty to pay a bill he just cannot afford.&lt;br /&gt;Here's Dilbert's take, dead accurate yet morbidly funny:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SacTw_mSf-I/AAAAAAAAA9o/2RRFVMQWU2Q/s1600-h/Dilbert-Bailout.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 500px; height: 123px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SacTw_mSf-I/AAAAAAAAA9o/2RRFVMQWU2Q/s512/Dilbert-Bailout.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307232418306097122" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To take from Al Gore's scriptwriter's words: &lt;span style="font-style:italic;"&gt;Global Warming is not a political issue its a moral one... &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Well, that makes this is &lt;span style="font-weight:bold;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-style:italic;"&gt;An Epic Immoral Financial Abuse to our Future Generations.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The USA-led Great Greenspan Depression of the Millennium has already inflicted great financial instability in the whole planet.  People in far away countries, who have never heard of the US Federal Reserve System, not to mention its rulers, have literally been thrown into unemployment, poverty and hunger. In our own soil, families that have done everything right, have trained, worked, paid taxes and dutifully saved what's left, now see their nest eggs disappear into the Wall Street black hole. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Then they watch helplessly as their jobs evaporate along with their health care into an uncertain future and with no place to hide. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A must watch video for every person that will have to pay this bill.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;center&gt;&lt;object width="480" height="295"&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/62Vsgl6SUZ0&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1"&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/62Vsgl6SUZ0&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ron Paul has been dead on accurate with his predictions for over twenty years. The power of corporate lobbyists and Washington cronyism have prevented his message to be listened to.&lt;br /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;Here is Ron Paul in a candid interview by CNN:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;center&gt;&lt;object width="425" height="344"&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/GPdsyZ-59xU&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1"&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/GPdsyZ-59xU&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To date, no one has pointed fingers at the true culprits of this debacle: Greenspan's Federal Reserve. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Why is this gang of private bankers so untouchable?&lt;/ br&gt;&lt;/br&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5733497748549358192-7359774759062868516?l=www.floridabits.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
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&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~4/MNO-4ZJPh54" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~3/MNO-4ZJPh54/economic-apocalypse-inconvenient-debt.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Charlie)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SacTw_mSf-I/AAAAAAAAA9o/2RRFVMQWU2Q/s72-c/Dilbert-Bailout.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">1</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.floridabits.com/2009/02/economic-apocalypse-inconvenient-debt.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5733497748549358192.post-985526081429489582</guid><pubDate>Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:46:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-02-25T09:50:57.243-05:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Politics</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Funny</category><title>When The Dumb and the Senseless Take Over</title><description>What is happening to our country? Almost everywhere we look there are obvious signs of illogical regulations created by unintelligent people in power, paranoid about a dazed "political correctness" that makes no sense. This is literally destroying our society and makes us the laughing stock in the face of the world.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here is an interesting and funny analogy that everyone can relate to, unfortunately...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span id="fullpost"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;h3&gt;HIGH SCHOOL -- 1957 vs. 2007&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:bold;"&gt;Scenario 1:&lt;br /&gt;Jack goes quail hunting before school and then pulls into the school parking lot with his shotgun in his truck's gun rack.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:bold;"&gt;1957&lt;/span&gt; - Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack's shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:bold;"&gt;2007&lt;/span&gt; - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:bold;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Scenario 2:&lt;br /&gt;Johnny and Mark get into a fist fight after school.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:bold;"&gt;1957&lt;/span&gt; - Crowd gathers. Mark wins... Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:bold;"&gt;2007&lt;/span&gt; - Police called and SWAT team arrives -- they arrest both Johnny and Mark. They are both charged  with assault and both expelled even though Johnny started it... &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:bold;"&gt;Scenario 3:&lt;br /&gt;Jeffrey will not be still in class, he disrupts other students.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:bold;"&gt;1957&lt;/span&gt; - Jeffrey sent to the Principal's office and given a good paddling by the Principal. He then returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:bold;"&gt;2007&lt;/span&gt; - Jeffrey is given huge doses of Ritalin. He becomes a zombie. He is then tested for ADD. The school gets extra money from the state because Jeffrey has a disability. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:bold;"&gt;Scenario 4:&lt;br /&gt;Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:bold;"&gt;1957&lt;/span&gt; - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college and becomes a successful businessman. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:bold;"&gt;2007&lt;/span&gt; - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy is removed to foster care and joins a gang. The state psychologist interprets Billy's sister's dreams and states that she must be remembering being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has an affair with the psychologist. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:bold;"&gt;Scenario 5:&lt;br /&gt;Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:bold;"&gt;1957&lt;/span&gt; - Mark shares his aspirin with the Principal out on the smoking dock&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:bold;"&gt;2007&lt;/span&gt; - The police are called and Mark is expelled from school for drug violations. His car is then searched for drugs and weapons. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:bold;"&gt;Scenario 6:&lt;br /&gt;Pedro fails high school English.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:bold;"&gt;1957&lt;/span&gt; - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English and goes to college.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:bold;"&gt;2007&lt;/span&gt; - Pedro's cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against the state school system and Pedro's English teacher. English is then banned from core curriculum. Pedro is given his diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:bold;"&gt;Scenario 7:&lt;br /&gt;Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from the Fourth of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle and blows up a red ant bed.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:bold;"&gt;1957&lt;/span&gt; - Ants die.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:bold;"&gt;2007&lt;/span&gt; - ATF, Homeland Security and the FBI are all called. Johnny is charged with domestic terrorism. The FBI investigates his parents -- and all siblings are removed from their home and all computers are confiscated. Johnny's dad is placed on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:bold;"&gt;Scenario 8:&lt;br /&gt;Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:bold;"&gt;1957&lt;/span&gt; - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:bold;"&gt;2007&lt;/span&gt; - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy&lt;/blockquote&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5733497748549358192-985526081429489582?l=www.floridabits.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
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&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~4/bsHpl7lbhk8" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~3/bsHpl7lbhk8/when-dumb-and-senseless-take-over.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Charlie)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.floridabits.com/2009/02/when-dumb-and-senseless-take-over.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5733497748549358192.post-684435929524351597</guid><pubDate>Fri, 20 Feb 2009 22:35:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-02-20T17:49:55.494-05:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Finance</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Thomas Jefferson</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">US Economy</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Florida Real Estate Crisis</category><title>Thomas Jefferson - A Prophet or a man with just plain good common sense?</title><description>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SZ8yZfIZOmI/AAAAAAAAA8Q/vXW1fkI1Zl0/s1600-h/Thomas_jefferson.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 385px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SZ8yZfIZOmI/AAAAAAAAA8Q/vXW1fkI1Zl0/s400/Thomas_jefferson.jpg" border="0" alt="Thomas Jefferson" title="Thomas Jefferson" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305014299500558946" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), our third president and principal author of the Declaration of Independence. He was a horticulturist, archaeologist, paleontologist, author, inventor and founder of the University of Virginia.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When President John F. Kennedy welcomed forty-nine Nobel Prize winners to the White House in 1962 he said, "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent and of human knowledge that has ever been gathered together at the White House with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone." &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Jefferson has been consistently ranked by scholars as one of the greatest presidents. He possessed not just raw intelligence but a keen common sense:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span id="fullpost"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe Thomas Jefferson The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align="right"&gt;Thomas Jefferson&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align="right"&gt;Thomas Jefferson&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align="right"&gt;Thomas Jefferson&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align="right"&gt;Thomas Jefferson&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align="right"&gt;Thomas Jefferson&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align="right"&gt;Thomas Jefferson&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align="right"&gt;Thomas Jefferson&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align="right"&gt;Thomas Jefferson&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In light of the present financial crisis, it's interesting to read what Thomas Jefferson said in 1802:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now that's something to ponder on...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SZ8xhqZG7TI/AAAAAAAAA8I/BqJbFpuEBbQ/s1600-h/Thomas_Jefferson_Presidential_%241_Coin_obverse.png"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 400px;border:0;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SZ8xhqZG7TI/AAAAAAAAA8I/BqJbFpuEBbQ/s400/Thomas_Jefferson_Presidential_%241_Coin_obverse.png" border="0" alt="Thomas Jefferson Presidential Coin" title="Thomas Jefferson Presidential Coin" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305013340450778418" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5733497748549358192-684435929524351597?l=www.floridabits.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
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&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~4/Dpja7hV3F3k" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~3/Dpja7hV3F3k/thomas-jefferson-prophet-or-man-with.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Charlie)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SZ8yZfIZOmI/AAAAAAAAA8Q/vXW1fkI1Zl0/s72-c/Thomas_jefferson.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">1</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.floridabits.com/2009/02/thomas-jefferson-prophet-or-man-with.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5733497748549358192.post-7920966820045924115</guid><pubDate>Fri, 20 Feb 2009 14:35:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-06-03T07:42:58.333-04:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Greenspan</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Wall Street</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Finance</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">US Economy</category><title>The Greenspan Depression: New indicators of the financial carnage</title><description>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SZ7APGptjEI/AAAAAAAAA8A/cdr-K3ZfUB0/s1600-h/Greenspan-Depression-Stock-Chart.gif"&gt;&lt;img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 454px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SZ7APGptjEI/AAAAAAAAA8A/cdr-K3ZfUB0/s512/Greenspan-Depression-Stock-Chart.gif" border="0" alt="The Great Greenspan Depression of the Millenium Stock Market Crash Chart" title="The Great Greenspan Depression of the Millenium Stock Market Crash Chart" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304888776805157954" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Continued concerns regarding the credit crisis and the current depression sent the Dow down 1.2% yesterday, resulting in a new bear market low. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Dow put in its record high of 14,164 back on October 9, 2007. Yesterday, the Dow closed at 7,465.95 – down 47.3% from its peak made 499 calendar days ago. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For a perspective on the on the magnitude of the current bear market, this chart (Courtesy of &lt;a href="http://www.chartoftheday.com" target="_blank"&gt;http://www.chartoftheday.com&lt;/a&gt;) compares the current, 499 calendar day old Dow correction to that of all other Dow corrections, 499 calendar days after their respective peak (and that were still ongoing). &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This chart illustrates that, at this stage, the current correction has been by far the most severe correction in the post-World War II era and the second most severe correction since 1900. The only correction that was down more at this stage was the correction that began in 1929.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Indeed, &lt;a href="http://www.floridabits.com/2008/04/great-greenspan-depression-of.html"&gt;The Great Greenspan Depression of the Millennium&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span id="fullpost"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Source: chartoftheday&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5733497748549358192-7920966820045924115?l=www.floridabits.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?a=dTgegi04b3o:TGErycCUkGU:fAKstrIGdw4"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?i=dTgegi04b3o:TGErycCUkGU:fAKstrIGdw4" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?a=dTgegi04b3o:TGErycCUkGU:7Q72WNTAKBA"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?a=dTgegi04b3o:TGErycCUkGU:V_sGLiPBpWU"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?i=dTgegi04b3o:TGErycCUkGU:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?a=dTgegi04b3o:TGErycCUkGU:gIN9vFwOqvQ"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?i=dTgegi04b3o:TGErycCUkGU:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?a=dTgegi04b3o:TGErycCUkGU:l6gmwiTKsz0"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?a=dTgegi04b3o:TGErycCUkGU:qj6IDK7rITs"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?a=dTgegi04b3o:TGErycCUkGU:yIl2AUoC8zA"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~4/dTgegi04b3o" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~3/dTgegi04b3o/greenspan-depression-new-indicators-of.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Charlie)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SZ7APGptjEI/AAAAAAAAA8A/cdr-K3ZfUB0/s72-c/Greenspan-Depression-Stock-Chart.gif" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.floridabits.com/2009/02/greenspan-depression-new-indicators-of.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5733497748549358192.post-6846856903364589168</guid><pubDate>Thu, 19 Feb 2009 23:59:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-02-19T19:01:07.779-05:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Greenspan</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Wall Street</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">US Economy</category><title>Inside the Meltdown</title><description>&lt;center&gt;&lt;script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/js/pap/embed.js?frol02c1f60q74f"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here is the entire Frontline documentary: &lt;a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/meltdown/view/"&gt;Inside the Meltdown&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5733497748549358192-6846856903364589168?l=www.floridabits.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?a=8w24WAl_25s:4QAF5TURNjU:fAKstrIGdw4"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?i=8w24WAl_25s:4QAF5TURNjU:fAKstrIGdw4" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?a=8w24WAl_25s:4QAF5TURNjU:7Q72WNTAKBA"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?a=8w24WAl_25s:4QAF5TURNjU:V_sGLiPBpWU"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?i=8w24WAl_25s:4QAF5TURNjU:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?a=8w24WAl_25s:4QAF5TURNjU:gIN9vFwOqvQ"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?i=8w24WAl_25s:4QAF5TURNjU:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?a=8w24WAl_25s:4QAF5TURNjU:l6gmwiTKsz0"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?a=8w24WAl_25s:4QAF5TURNjU:qj6IDK7rITs"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?a=8w24WAl_25s:4QAF5TURNjU:yIl2AUoC8zA"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/ufWB?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~4/8w24WAl_25s" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~3/8w24WAl_25s/inside-meltdown.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Charlie)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.floridabits.com/2009/02/inside-meltdown.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5733497748549358192.post-1768503523790185484</guid><pubDate>Thu, 19 Feb 2009 01:14:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-02-18T20:29:33.560-05:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Bailout</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">US Economy</category><title>Those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it ...</title><description>&lt;blockquote&gt;Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align="right"&gt;Ronald Reagan&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SZy0sW5a2yI/AAAAAAAAA7w/Did0DPs5hYM/s1600-h/toon010809.gif"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 512px" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SZy0sW5a2yI/AAAAAAAAA7w/Did0DPs5hYM/s512/toon010809.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304313135289260834" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SZy10mPO0PI/AAAAAAAAA74/gNXtQfblebo/s1600-h/toon120408.gif"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 512px; " src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SZy10mPO0PI/AAAAAAAAA74/gNXtQfblebo/s512/toon120408.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304314376357859570" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5733497748549358192-1768503523790185484?l=www.floridabits.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
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&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~4/D7d1b8ZL1ik" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~3/D7d1b8ZL1ik/those-who-dont-learn-from-history-are.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Charlie)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SZy0sW5a2yI/AAAAAAAAA7w/Did0DPs5hYM/s72-c/toon010809.gif" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.floridabits.com/2009/02/those-who-dont-learn-from-history-are.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5733497748549358192.post-8005631783068309697</guid><pubDate>Sat, 14 Feb 2009 16:57:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-02-14T12:00:25.173-05:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Finance</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">US Economy</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Florida Real Estate Crisis</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Politics</category><title>Why Massive Government Spending Is Ineffective “Stimulus”</title><description>&lt;blockquote&gt;Alexandria, Virginia. CFIF. Does massive government spending constitute effective economic     “stimulus?”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Liberals say “yes,” conservatives say “no.”  Exhausted Americans, who are worried about the economy and saturated in conflicting arguments from both sides, understandably become confused and throw up their hands.  This makes it even more important that we understand the relevant economic truths, as well as the instructive real-world historical examples confirming them. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Barack Obama, economically uninformed and obviously confusing his temporary personal approval rating with some sort of permanent mandate to do whatever he pleases, crudely justified his unprecedented spending proposal by grunting, “I won.”  Shortly thereafter, Obama rationalized his agenda to House Democrats attending their retreat last week with the following irrational and simplistic attempt at humor: &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;    “So then you get the argument, ‘well, this is not a stimulus bill, this is a spending bill.’  What do you think a stimulus is?!  (Laughter and applause.)  That’s the whole point!  (More laughter and applause.)  No, seriously!  That’s the point!  (More laughter and applause.)” &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Clearly unable to defend the indefensible, Obama instead retreats to sarcasm and juvenile humor as if his premise is self-evident.  So much for his campaign promise to bring “post-partisanship” and “change.” &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But are he and liberal advocates of Keynesian government spending correct? &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;No, and here’s why.   &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;First and foremost, government spending on “stimulus” necessarily removes money from other uses to which it would be applied in the private economy.  After all, every dollar spent by government must germinate from somewhere, whether via taxation, borrowing, printing money out of thin air or some combination thereof. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If it comes from taxation, that merely eliminates a dollar that would have been spent or invested toward other private uses chosen by someone better-informed on how it should be spent. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If it comes from borrowing, it becomes a dollar that cannot be lent to businesses or individuals who could put it toward better use, not to mention that it adds principal and interest to federal debt. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If it is printed from thin air, it thereby creates inflation, thereby robbing us of wealth by devaluing the dollar.  In other words, the truism that “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” applies, because these dollars don’t derive from some pot of gold sitting unused at the end of a rainbow. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Second, governmental spending schemes naturally spring wasteful “leaks” into the vast governmental abyss.  Stated differently, money evaporates when government transfers it from one source to another, because this requires legions of inefficient bureaucrats and red tape.  Economist Arthur Okun labeled this phenomenon the “leaky bucket” principle, and it applies whenever government redistributes money from private sources to uses chosen by Congress. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Third, many beneficiaries of government “stimulus” efforts are simply wasteful by their very nature, and do more harm than good for the economy.  For instance, dumping billions of dollars into condom-distribution programs, unworkable wind farms, unnecessary infrastructure projects, school buildings that will sit unused, or on overpriced union labor under Davis-Bacon wage regulations does nothing to help the economy. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Of course, this all sounds correct in theory, but how does it square with real-world experience? &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Well, let’s look at the facts. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Governments have attempted massive Keynesian spending efforts like the one proposed by the Obama-Reid-Pelosi triumvirate time after time.  Each time, they have failed to cure economic downturns or spark prosperity.  In the Great Depression, for instance, Presidents Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt increased federal debt from 16% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 1929 to 44% in 1939.  But that unprecedented increase in government spending failed to end the Depression, and only impeded the economy’s ability to correct itself naturally as it had during earlier depressions. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As another example, Japan redistributed enormous amounts of money during its “Lost Decade” toward the same type of infrastructure projects that our current “stimulus” package proposes.  Yet, almost 20 years later, Japan remains mired in economic stagnation, and only crippling debt to show for it.  And from 1965 to 1980, Americans will recall that the federal government engaged in massive spending and redistribution efforts beginning with President Johnson’s “Great Society.”   &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Those toxic efforts continued under Presidents Nixon, Ford and Carter, and Nixon himself foolishly said that “we’re all Keynesians now.”  Unfortunately, these programs did nothing but increase poverty, waste billions, stall the stock market and create “stagflation” (the combination of inflation and economic stagnation that Keynesian theory considered impossible).  From 1965 to 1980, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stalled between 800 and 900 over that long period.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In contrast, Ronald Reagan’s supply-side, market-based principles ended America’s worst recession since the Depression itself.  In eight short years, the stock market jumped from 900 to almost 2500, inflation plummeted from 13.5% to 4.1%, unemployment fell from 7.1% to 5.5%, interest rates tumbled from over 20% to under 10%, per capita income jumped from $20,000 to $24,000 and consumer confidence skyrocketed from 74.4 to 116. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This also explains why the stock market crash under Reagan in 1987 did not destroy the healthy economy, whereas Hoover’s and Roosevelt’s government spending and protectionist programs turned the 1929 market crash into a decade-long depression. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Simply put, the laws of economics and real-world experience are clear:  market-based, supply-side economic principles bring prosperity, whereas Keynesian government spending programs perpetuate stagnation and waste resources. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Already, Obama has presided over the worst Inauguration Day plummet in stock market history, the worst January in stock market history and saw the market descend almost 5% more when his stimulus plan passed.  These economic lessons are apparently about to be learned again.  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5733497748549358192-8005631783068309697?l=www.floridabits.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
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&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~4/qJVnSkPrxE0" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~3/qJVnSkPrxE0/why-massive-government-spending-is.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Charlie)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.floridabits.com/2009/02/why-massive-government-spending-is.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5733497748549358192.post-1733519916855929097</guid><pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:19:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-02-12T09:21:16.495-05:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">US Economy</category><title>Is it Time to Close the National Money Hole?</title><description>OK, so it's coming from The Onion... The unfortunate truth, unfortunately...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;center&gt;&lt;embed src="http://www.theonion.com/content/themes/common/assets/videoplayer2/flvplayer.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess="always" wmode="transparent" width="400" height="355" flashvars="file=http://www.theonion.com/content/xml/90029/video&amp;autostart=false&amp;image=http://www.theonion.com/content/files/images/MONEY_HOLE_article.jpg &amp;bufferlength=3&amp;embedded=true&amp;title=In%20The%20Know%3A%20Should%20The%20Government%20Stop%20Dumping%20Money%20Into%20A%20Giant%20Hole%3F"&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5733497748549358192-1733519916855929097?l=www.floridabits.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
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&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~4/Qcw3bKsT0qU" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~3/Qcw3bKsT0qU/bank-aid-please-join-and-help-bankers.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Charlie)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.floridabits.com/2009/02/bank-aid-please-join-and-help-bankers.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5733497748549358192.post-2584925955250486358</guid><pubDate>Fri, 06 Feb 2009 13:29:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-02-06T08:36:01.511-05:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Greenspan</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">US Economy</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Florida Real Estate Crisis</category><title>Born Again Americans... Victims of Greenspan's Depression  are Speaking Up in a Song!</title><description>A very well done video reflecting on the Great Greenspan Depression of the Millenium and the immense and widespread economic damage and gross inequalities that it caused on the working population of our dear country and rest of the world.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;center&gt;&lt;object name="kaltura_player_1233926921" id="kaltura_player_1233926921" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess="always" allowNetworking="all" allowFullScreen="true" height="358" width="400" data="http://www.kaltura.com/index.php/kwidget/wid/nrqw04rfne"&gt;&lt;param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /&gt;&lt;param name="allowNetworking" value="all" /&gt;&lt;param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /&gt;&lt;param name="bgcolor" value="#000000" /&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://www.kaltura.com/index.php/kwidget/wid/nrqw04rfne"/&gt;&lt;param name="flashVars" value=""/&gt;&lt;param name="wmode" value="opaque"/&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5733497748549358192-2584925955250486358?l=www.floridabits.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
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&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~4/xicvhxbXiTU" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~3/xicvhxbXiTU/born-again-americans-victims-of.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Charlie)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.floridabits.com/2009/02/born-again-americans-victims-of.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5733497748549358192.post-512989140270677101</guid><pubDate>Thu, 22 Jan 2009 21:45:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-01-31T16:47:04.287-05:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Greenspan</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Foreclosures</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Florida Real Estate Crisis</category><title>Real Estate Downfall... The Movie.</title><description>Greenspan would be proud...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;center&gt;&lt;object width="425" height="344"&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/bNmcf4Y3lGM&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1"&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/bNmcf4Y3lGM&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5733497748549358192-512989140270677101?l=www.floridabits.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
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&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~4/wFVj0vywSKg" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><enclosure type="video/mp4" url="http://www.blogger.com/video-play.mp4?contentId=3354bdd8d187335c&amp;type=video%2Fmp4" length="0" /><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~3/wFVj0vywSKg/sponsor-disadvantaged-executive-today.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Charlie)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.floridabits.com/2009/01/sponsor-disadvantaged-executive-today.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5733497748549358192.post-5481932572684561492</guid><pubDate>Wed, 14 Jan 2009 02:19:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-01-19T21:23:03.522-05:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Funny</category><title>An Eerie Prediction...</title><description>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SXU06_ZpMSI/AAAAAAAAA5g/lispXcLXBj4/s1600-h/CalvinandHobbes-EconomicPrediction.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand; width:500;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SXU06_ZpMSI/AAAAAAAAA5g/lispXcLXBj4/s512/CalvinandHobbes-EconomicPrediction.jpg" border="0" alt="The US Economy as predicted by Calvin and Hobbes" title="The US Economy as predicted by Calvin and Hobbes" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293195125099933986" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5733497748549358192-5481932572684561492?l=www.floridabits.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
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&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~4/F7_luO2CvoU" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~3/F7_luO2CvoU/eerie-prediction.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Charlie)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SXU06_ZpMSI/AAAAAAAAA5g/lispXcLXBj4/s72-c/CalvinandHobbes-EconomicPrediction.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.floridabits.com/2009/01/eerie-prediction.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5733497748549358192.post-2042890836539410939</guid><pubDate>Sun, 04 Jan 2009 16:39:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-01-04T11:54:14.918-05:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Real Estate Investment</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">US Economy</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Florida Real Estate Crisis</category><title>A massive transfer of wealth from the illiquid unlucky to the liquid lucky is about to happen...</title><description>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SWDma-Gtn_I/AAAAAAAAA4c/WHPVmLecls0/s1600-h/Chart20081224.gif"&gt;&lt;img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SWDma-Gtn_I/AAAAAAAAA4c/WHPVmLecls0/s400/Chart20081224.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5287479313555103730" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Here's a perspective into the US real estate market that will open your eyes... The chart illustrates the US median price of a single-family home over the past 38 years. Thanks, in part, to low long-term interest rates, the trend from 1991 to 2005 was impressive. Not only did housing prices increase at a rapid rate, the rate at which housing prices increased also increased. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The chart shows how housing prices have dropped well below their accelerated upward trend and 29% from the 2005 peak. It is worth noting that housing prices are currently decreasing at a rapid rate. In fact, the rate at which housing prices have been decreasing has been increasing. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One interesting point is that if we discard the dramatic increases after the late 90's, the market is already below the levels it would have reached had the more tame growth since the 70's been maintained. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The value of real estate assets does not fall to zero, however, which is where this chart would indicate should the crazy decrease maintain this course to 2010. This presents a unique opportunity for savvy buyers that can sort through hopeless assets and the valuable assets depressed due to panic and short term liquidity problems and nothing else. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Thus, a massive transfer of wealth from the illiquid unlucky to the liquid lucky is about to happen...&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5733497748549358192-2042890836539410939?l=www.floridabits.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
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&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~4/5B6JNoyj7Ww" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ufWB/~3/5B6JNoyj7Ww/massive-transfer-of-wealth-from.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Charlie)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SWDma-Gtn_I/AAAAAAAAA4c/WHPVmLecls0/s72-c/Chart20081224.gif" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://www.floridabits.com/2009/01/massive-transfer-of-wealth-from.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5733497748549358192.post-7939152408589723863</guid><pubDate>Sun, 28 Dec 2008 14:21:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2009-01-06T09:23:48.311-05:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Wall Street</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">US Economy</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Funny</category><title>Madoff Scheme Uncovered !</title><description>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SWNpEj2gmmI/AAAAAAAAA4s/eLB1HKgt-vM/s1600-h/Madoff-Cartoon.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 500px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RsleGXHEts4/SWNpEj2gmmI/AAAAAAAAA4s/eLB1HKgt-vM/s512/Madoff-Cartoon.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288185914527357538" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5733497748549358192-7939152408589723863?l=www.floridabits.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
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