DEATH OF THE DOLLAR

The handwriting is on the wall and yet no one, from capitol hill to Wall Street, apparently wants to talk about it. The dollar’s demise, however, is visible to the informed and knowledgeable for its death is eventually inevitable: Allen L Roland First some history ~ The dollar became the world's reserve currency when President Nixon abandoned the gold standard in the 1970's. The dollar is used for 43% of all cross-border transactions, and 63% of the world's central bank foreign currency reserves are in dollars. The next most popular currency? The euro, which comprises only 30% of reserves. Although it is increasing rapidly, it is still less than half the amount held in dollars. With that said, there are troubling signs for the dollar ~ On Thanksgiving eve the English language China Daily and People’s Daily Online reported that Russia and China have concluded an agreement to abandon the use of the US dollar in their bilateral trade and to use their own currencies in its place. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26936.htm Chalmers Johnson has stated that if Saudi Arabia decided to be paid for its oil in Euros instead of dollars ~ the stock market would collapse. The crisis of the dollar is obviously a reflection of a deeply, perhaps terminally, ill American economy that is virtually supported by a voracious Military / Industrial complex and an unsustainable debt structure. Leading economic trends forecaster Gerald Celente feels the crisis of the dollar is irreversible ~ “ If the dollar collapses, it would spell economic disaster not just for the United States, but for the world ... It is more than just the demise of the dollar ~ this is going to be felt worldwide. There’s a major financial crisis ahead. The United States, the world’s superpower, is failing on its most basic level” And the reason for the future demise of the American currency, Celente says is the disproportionate financial system: “We can’t print money out of thin air, backed by nothing and producing practically nothing.” So what would it look like if the dollar collapsed? A dollar collapse is when the value of the dollar falls so fast that all those who hold dollars panic, and sell them at any cost. In this scenario, sellers would include: numerous foreign governments who hold U.S. Treasuries, traders in exchange rate futures who trade the dollar versus other currencies, and most certainly individual investors who demand assets denominated in anything other than dollars ~ such as gold and silver. Here’s a hypothetical look at how the collapse of the US dollar may affect the world. 7 minute video ~ The Day The Dollar Died http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26931.htm Allen L Roland http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/death-of-dollar.html Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is also available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

Weblog: http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com Website: www.allenroland.com ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY

Obama Recession / No End In Sight

OBAMA RECESSION / NO END IN SIGHT

This is definitely now Obama's great Recession and his top down decision to bail out Wall Street , at the expense of Main Street, has left millions of Americans in an economic free fall with no real end in sight: Allen L Roland

AP reveals that the top-earning 20 percent of Americans ~ those making more than $100,000 each year ~ received 49.4 percent of all income generated in the U.S., compared with the 3.4 percent earned by those below the poverty line, according to newly released census figures. That ratio of 14.5-to-1 was an increase from 13.6 in 2008 and nearly double a low of 7.69 in 1968.

Off The Charts' Chuck Marr puts the income gap in even starker terms: "This great income shift means the average middle-income American family had about $9,000 less after-tax income in 2007, and an average household in the top 1 percent had $741,000 more, than they would have had if the 1979 income distribution had remained ... Each year the average millionaire gets about $125,000 from the Bush tax cuts, according to the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. Now seems to be a good time to say enough is enough. "

The international Gini index, found U.S. income inequality at its highest level since the Census Bureau began tracking household income in 1967. The U.S. also has the greatest disparity among Western industrialized nations ~ but the Mainstream Press continues to ignore this great Obama Recession in this mid-term election year.

Here's a typical letter I received after my post of 9/26 ~ LIVING ON THE EDGE OF POVERTY. http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/living-on-edge-of-poverty.html

Dear Allen,
Arizona is the second poorest state in the nation, but also the second most expensive for health care. I am hoping I can apply for the government "pre-existing" insurance pool in November. My company ended group coverage last April ~ couldn't afford the 1500.00 per month per employee premiums anymore...luckily I have no health problems, just can't get coverage because I've had 2 small basal cell carcinomas on my face and have arthritis. Don't even take any prescriptions! Unbelievable !
My sister in NJ and her teenage son are now homeless. She lost her job due to health problems ~ has to call in sick quite a bit but is not bad enough to get disability. All the shelters and programs Salvation Army, churches, etc. there are full. My brother told me there are tent cities springing up in several locations.
If Republicans get back majorities, well, I look for unemployment to double, foreclosures to escalate, and millions to be hitting the streets, especially seniors. Welcome to America, a third world country. There's nothing to be hopeful about anymore.
Sylvia

So what's really going on as America sinks deeper and deeper into a major Depression ?

A new paradigm has arrived in politics and it doesn't matter who wins the next elections ~ it's no longer Democrats versus Republicans ~ it's you and I against the Corporations and , unfortunately, President Obama answers to Wall Street and the Corpocracy ~ and obviously not to Main Street.

Shamus Cooke has written an excellent must read article on ICH ~ HOW CORPORATIONS OWN CONGRESS ~ where he explains how corporate money flows from party to party, so that the same goals are achieved: higher profits for corporations.

But here's an excerpt from another excellent artricle on the very same subject ~ " For a long time, American politics has been defined by a Left/Right dynamic. It was Liberals versus Conservatives on a variety of issues. Pro-Life versus Pro-Choice, Tax Cuts vs. More Spending, Pro-War vs Peaceniks, Environmental Protections vs. Economic Growth, Pro-Union vs. Union-Free, Gay Marriage vs. Family Values, School Choice vs. Public Schools, Regulation vs. Free Markets....The new dynamic, however, has moved past the old Left Right paradigm. We now live in an era defined by increasing Corporate influence and authority over the individual. These two “interest groups” ~ I can barely suppress snorting derisively over that phrase ~ have been on a headlong collision course for decades, which came to a head with the financial collapse and bailouts. Where there is massive concentrations of wealth and influence, there will be abuse of power. The Individual has been supplanted in the political process nearly entirely by corporate money, legislative influence, campaign contributions, even free speech rights. .... This may not be a brilliant insight, but it is surely an overlooked one. It is now an Individual vs. Corporate debate ~ and the Humans are losing. " http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/09/you-vs-corporations/

On top of all this ~ we have the absurdity of a panel of economists declaring this month that the Recession came to an end in July of 2009 and then we have the equally out-of-touch and wishful thinking VP Joe Biden prophetically saying about the mid-term elections ~ " If we allow this to be a referendum on whether people are happy where they are now, we'll lose."

Is the Obama Administration aware that less than 35% of the American public feel that the Federal Stimulus helped the economy ? ( Rasmussen Polls )

So the recession technically ended for corporations last year because they got bailed out by Washington, outsourced their labor needs and taxes, cut back their expenses and employees and improved their profit margins ~ but that was just a sign in a black tunnel for millions of Americans who are falling headlong into poverty and have lost the debate with Corporations for an effective voice in the political process.

Welcome to America ~ a third world country, as Sylvia says, "There's nothing to be hopeful for anymore... "

That is unless Americans find their voice, take to the streets and demand their place at the political table.

Allen L Roland

http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/obama-recession-no-end-in-sight.html

This weblog is sustained through donations from people like yourself. Please send check or Money Order to Allen L. Roland, PO Box 1221, Sonoma,CA 95476 Also accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover .

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on http://www.conscioustalk.net/

ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY

Living On The Edge Of Poverty

LIVING ON THE EDGE OF POVERTY

















Poverty in the U.S. today has many faces. For a homeless man on the streets of Los Angeles, it means not knowing where he will spend the night or where his next meal will come from. For a child in rural Alabama, it means going without breakfast and wearing tattered hand-me-down clothes. For millions of seniors, living from one social security check to the next, it means living on the edge of poverty.

In 2009, 4 million people fell into poverty which brings the total to over 43 million. Nearly 44 million Americans ~ one in seven ~ lived last year in homes in which the income was below the poverty level ~ and it's getting worse: Allen L Roland

Living on the edge of poverty is a far to common experience, particularly for seniors . In 2010, many seniors, including myself, are fed up with an Obama administration who evidently still feels that a top-down stimulus for Wall Street will eventually reach a down and out Main Street.

Geographically, southern and rural states tended to have the most poverty, with Mississippi faring the worst with 23.1 percent of people in poverty, with New Hampshire having only 7.8 percent.

Make no mistake about it , the current creeping so called economic recovery has been articifially induced by bailout funds while, in reality, we have been experiencing a full blown depression which will become obvious to all after the mid-term elections.

25.5 percent of consumers ~ nearly 43.4 million people ~ now have a credit score of 599 or below, marking them as poor risks for lenders. It’s unlikely they will be able to get credit cards, auto loans or mortgages under the tighter lending standards banks now use, according to AP.

As Christine Vestal writes in ICH ~ " More than 15 million Americans are unemployed, homelessness has increased by 50 percent in some cities, and 38 million people are receiving food stamps, more than at any time in the program’s almost 50-year history.. According to Richard Bavier, a former analyst for the federal Office of Management and Budget, already available data about employment rates, wages and food stamp enrollment suggest that an additional 5.7 million people were officially poor in 2009. That would bring the total number of people with incomes below the federal poverty threshold to more than 45 million. The poverty rate, Bavier expects, will hit 15 percent ~ up from 13.2 percent in 2008, when the Great Recession first started to take its toll."

Living on the edge of poverty numbs the spirit and replaces hope with fear ~ for millions of Americans are either living pay check to pay check or Social Security payment to Social security payment and an accident or major illness would take them over the edge into destitution.

This is Main Street reality and what politician is concerned about this and taking action ? Very few for Big money runs this country and Obama answers to them ~ not Main Street.

Allen L Roland

This weblog is sustained through donations from people like yourself. Please send check or Money Order to Allen L. Roland, PO Box 1221, Sonoma,CA 95476 Also accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover .

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on http://www.conscioustalk.net/

ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY

OBAMA TURNS THE PAGE BUT CAN'T ESCAPE REALITY

President Obama has attempted to turn the page on Iraq but can't escape the reality of the failure of Obamanomics and the seething anger of millions of engaged Americans who voted for dramatic change and instead got token change ~ where genuine hope has been squashed by disingenuous hype : Allen L Roland

The problem with living in the luxurious bubble of the oval office is that the President often becomes tone deaf to what is happening to the millions of Americans who are existing on the edge of poverty and facing bankruptcy and foreclosure.

Let me give you an excellent example ~ When Obama released his first budget in February, 2009 he said " There are times where you can afford to redocorate your house and there are times when you need to focus on rebuilding the foundation " ~ obviously referring to our economy.

Well, a year and a half later as Obama faces the obvious failure of Obamanomics, a deepening recession, massive unemployment and a growing seething anger from millions of seemingly betrayed Americans ~ Obama chooses to redecorate the Oval Office in yet another direct reflection of his indifference to Mainstreet America. .

Maureen Dowd, New York Times Columnist provides the details ~ " The Oval Office was done over by the chichi decorator Michael Smith, who was previously paid $800,000 for his part in refurnishing the lair of the former Merrill Lynch C.E.O. John Thain (a $1.2 million project featuring the notorious $35,000 antique cabinet, or commode). The Oval Office, the classiest, most powerful place on earth, is now suffused with browns and beiges and leather and resembles an upscale hotel conference room or a ’70s conversation pit with a boxy coffee table that even some Obama aides find ugly.. The recession redo, paid for by the nonprofit White House Historical Association, was the latest tone-deaf move by a White House that was supposed to excel at connection and communication. Message: I care, but not enough to stop the fancy vacations and posh renovations ."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/01/opinion/01dowd.html

So as Obama attempts to turn the page ~ he better look in the mirror. For myself and millions of Americans voted for change in 2008 and saw Obama as an agent of that change and not a master of hypocrisy and disingenuous hype. If he doesn't deliver on that change, he will be a one term president ~ for millions of Americans, including myself, already feel a deep sense of anger and betrayal. Obama is politically self destructing by dramatically turning Hope into Hype and his plummeting approval ratings are stark evidence of this disapproval.

The mid-term elections will show that the people are a force that cannot be ignored by the corpocracy and financial elite ~ as well as those who answer to them.

Allen L Roland
http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/obama-turns-page-but-cant-escape.html

This weblog is sustained through donations from people like yourself. Please send check or Money Order to Allen L. Roland, PO Box 1221, Sonoma,CA 95476 Also accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover .

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY