Tag Archives: Politics

2010 Election, Economy, Florida, Politics

What A Bank Of The State Of Florida Can Do

There are only two States in the United States that are not operating in a deficit, if not technically bankrupt. Montana because of their rich oil resources, and North Dakota, because of their implementation of a State Bank, the Bank of North Dakota.

Because most people are not economists and may well just fall asleep trying to read up on it, you can learn in this post and in one podcast all you need to know to understand why and how part of Dr. Farid A. Khavari’s platform as Governor of the State of Florida, the Bank of the State of Florida (BSF), will work.

How Floridians can have 2% fixed rate 15 year mortgages and how the State of Florida can make billions by providing them

A cornerstone of the economic plan is to create a Bank of the State of Florida. We will put the power of modern banking to work for the people of Florida, not for Wall Street.

Over the years, interest has been the biggest cost most families had. When you pay interest to the bank, that means less money for your family. Reducing interest costs can save a family hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Let’s take a $100,000 mortgage, for example. With a 30-year fixed rate 5.5% mortgage, your monthly payment is $567.79 and you will pay $104,404.40 in interest on that loan.

With a 2% fixed rate 15-year mortgage, your payment would be $643.51, the total interest would be only $15,831.80 – and the mortgage would be paid 15 years sooner! You save 88,572.60 in interest. If you then make 15 years of payments to yourself with 5% interest from the Bank of the State of Florida, you will have more than $160,000 after taxes in your account—just by having your mortgage from the Bank of the State of Florida.

How can we do this? It’s called “fractional reserve banking” and this is how all the banks do it. If you have $100 in reserves, you can loan out $900 or more. That means you collect interest on $900 but you pay interest on only $100 at most. If the bank pays you 2% for your CD and lends it at 5% on 9 times as much money, you can see this is a really good deal – for the bank.

Now our Bank of the State of Florida does not need to be greedy. It is not going to get involved in shenanigans like bundling and selling mortgages, taking out weird insurance policies and general practices that have caused the mess we are in today. When we make a mortgage, that asset remains right on our books and the paperwork is right there on file. We are going to pay good dividends and the highest rates in the market for long term deposits. We are going to loan out 9 times our reserves. And we are going to make billions of dollars for the State Treasury while we save Floridians a trillion dollars—and that trillion dollars becomes many trillions in Florida’s economy.

Let’s say we pay 5% for our $100 and loan out our $900 at 2%. We pay out $5 in interest, and we take in $18 in interest. Can we make money at that? You bet we can.

We could make the $3.6 billion we are short this year on just a couple of million 2% mortgages. We can do even better on 3 – 4% commercial financing and vehicle loans.

And all the money the bank earns goes directly into the State Treasury, to work for Floridians, not to Wall Street.

Where do we get the reserves? The State of Florida has billions invested with Wall Street. 5 or 6% guaranteed looks pretty good these days compared to a 50% decline in the stock market. Look at what long-term bonds are paying, look at CD’s—we will have no problem attracting all the long-term deposits we need to get started, simply by paying good rates.

Now look what happens. With a 2% fixed rate 15-year loan, the buyer has paid off over 11% of the principal within 2 years. That means we have more than enough reserves to make a new mortgage for someone else, without having to pay interest for the reserves! (In comparison, a 5.5% 30-year loan takes 7 years to pay 11% of the principal).

Now some people might think that low interest rates will just raise the price of homes. That would be true if the 2% loan was for 30 years. But the payment on the 2% loan for 15 years is a little bit higher than the payment for 5.5% 30 years, so this tends to hold prices down. It also tends to eliminate speculation that messes up the market every time. As long as prices are stable, we can offer mortgages with low down payments, so home ownership can be as easy as paying rent.

What the Bank of the State of Florida does is transfer hundreds of billions of dollars away from Wall Street directly into the pockets of Floridians by reducing interest costs… and it puts hundreds of billions into the State Treasury, too. We will have stable, fair prices for homes and take 15 years of slavery out of the process of owning a home.

Consumer financing is another area where Wall Street and the big banks are costing us way too much. Banks charge huge interest on credit cards, for example, where the cost of money to the bank is really zero. If a family has $10,000 in credit card debt at 25% interest, that’s over $200 per month in interest alone. At 6%, the monthly interest is only $50. This family could reduce monthly payments by $50 and pay off the debt years sooner. The State earns billions of dollars per year while saving Floridians billions and billions more.

The Bank of the State of Florida will earn billions of dollars per year for the taxpayers of Florida, not Wall Street fat cats. At the same time it will reduce interest costs and save Florida families hundreds of thousands of dollars per family. Who needs that money more? You or Citibank?

The Bank of the State of Florida can handle checking accounts and ATM’s too. The other banks will have to become competitive, and there is no reason why they cannot.

Couldn’t the federal government do the same thing? Actually, the federal government could do even better and they could do it immediately at huge benefit to the U.S. Treasury. Do you think we should wait around for them to do it? We can have this program in effect in Florida within a year, at no cost to the State.

Then there is this podcast hosted by Kim Greenhouse of It’s Rainmaking Time. It is an hour and fifteen minutes of a discussion entitled State Chartered Banks: A Solution for the US Economy featuring Ellen Brown and a panel of experts in the field. Dr. Khavari is one of those guests.

For the audio of Kim Greenhouse’s interview with Ellen Brown about State Chartered Banks, click HERE.

For Florida, and the rest of the country for that matter, this represents the light at the end of the deficit tunnel. Not an oncoming train.

related links:


Media, Politics, Race Relations

Political Correctness Could Cost You

It could cost you in so many ways. The Ft. Hood terrorist is one example. But there’s another example that, for PC, is a well kept secret. Do you think that black gangs targeting whites and Hispanics for a beat-down and robbery is newsworthy? If you live in Denver it certainly should be.

Denver Post . . .

A task force comprised of the Denver Police, FBI and the Denver District Attorney’s Office investigated 26 incidents in which groups of black males verbally harassed and then assaulted white or Hispanic males, according to Denver Police Chief Gerry Whitman.

The situation was so grave even the FBI got involved. Who knew? Certainly not the young white and Latino men who were at risk of being attacked. Though Denver Police issued a warning on Sept. 3 that they were aware of “a pattern of assaults and robberies,” they simply said “single males” should be on the lookout.

Michelle Malkin . . .

. . .  if the races were reversed that p.c. panderer AG Eric Holder would be flying to Denver right now (with race demagogue Al Sharpton in tow) to hold a press conference and vow to ensure the safety of the Mile High City’s residents.

This PC crap has got to stop. It is in and of itself a method, call it a tactic, to avoid the inherent responsibility of calling it like you see it, and to effectively deal with issues or problems before they get out of hand, as what happened in Denver.

I call it a tactic, not simply ignorance, because there always is a benefactor. Someone always wins in the PC world. It’s the bad guys. Creating chaos and disruption in our society is a means to an end. And it’s working.

related links:

Politics

Obama's Justice Department, Fund ACORN

But of course. And what took you so long?

The Justice Department has concluded that the Obama administration can lawfully pay the community group Acorn for services provided under contracts signed before Congress banned the government from providing money to the group.

So essentially, the $pigot is still running for ACORN. And the executive branch just thumbed its nose at the legislative branch.  Apparently, they didn’t get the memo.  This is the Chicago way. (Not to be confused with the good people of Chicago.)

2010 Election, Economy, Florida, Politics

Khavari: The Man With A Plan

6 Comments

In a continuing effort to inform Florida voters about the only person running for Governor of the State of Florida who has an economic recovery plan, one that does not include more borrowing and taxing, meet Dr. Farid Khavari.  The beauty of his plan is that it represents a blueprint for long term economic prosperity instead of a pothole patch.

And, it is a plan that other states can also benefit from. Economic security is not exclusive to Florida. Expect other states to catch on to this Bank of the State of Florida concept too! More information about his platform is on his website and in his latest book, Toward a Zero-Cost Economy, available in stores or for free download at his website, www.khavariforgovernor.com.

Please share this press release from the Khavari campaign.

Khavari: The era of commercial banks is over; state banks are the future.

Miami, FL  Nov. 23 — Noted economist Farid Khavari, a  Democratic candidate for Florida governor, has gained national and international attention for his plan to create a state-owned bank in Florida.

“Not since the Great Depression has it been so clear,” said Khavari. “We need banks that work for the benefit of the people, not people working for the benefit of the banks. There is no mystery why we are facing another depression: the banks got greedy and stupid, and now they are making us pay for it.

“The economy is collapsing due to lack of demand. The economy needs money, but the banks are cutting credit, and then sucking all the cash out of the economy by raising interest rates to make sure no one has any cash left at the end of the month. The cost of interest is built into the cost of everything. People already work ten years of their lives just to pay interest in one form or another. The Bank of the State of Florida will end that for Floridians. And this model will work for every state.

“We can start the BSF at no cost to taxpayers. We can pay 6% interest on savings. Using the same fractional reserve rules as all banks, we can create $900 of new money through loans for every $100 in deposits. We can loan that $900 in the form of 2% fixed rate 15-year mortgages, for example, and the state can earn $12 every year for every $100 in deposits. That means Floridians can save tens of billions of dollars per year while the state earns billions making it possible for them.

“2% fixed-rate mortgages will create a thousand times more jobs than any so-called stimulus can.  By reducing the total interest cost on a home by over 85%, the average family will save hundreds of thousands of dollars, and that money stays in Florida,” Khavari said.

“State and local government budgets will balance without higher taxes when the BSF cuts interest costs,” Khavari said. “6% BSF credit cards will save people billions per month, money that stays in Florida instead of going to the big banks—and the state will make huge profits on that, too.  Saving billions in interest costs will create millions of jobs without subsidies just by keeping those billions circulating in Florida. Eventually the state will earn enough to reduce and eliminate state and local taxes while every Floridian has economic security in a recession-proof Florida.”

Asked whether a state-owned bank is socialism, Khavari smiled. “Are public schools socialism? Public roads, police and fire protection, municipal water? Socialism is where everyone works for the state. In these cases, and with our Bank of the State of Florida, the state is working for everyone. I call that general capitalism.”

Farid A. Khavari, Ph.D. is an economist and author of nine books, including Environomics. His latest book, Toward a Zero-Cost Economy, is available in stores or for free download at his website, www.khavariforgovernor.com.

Politics

$300 Million Says As Much About Landrieu

For Sen. Mary Landrieu ( D-LA) to allow Sen. Reid to buy her vote, with $300 million, for a bill that will amount to the government takeover of one sixth of the American private sector economy, says as much about her as the Senator that propositioned her.

Only now we know her price.

The ‘everybody does it’ defense doesn’t wash with this case. No. Everybody does not put ‘the size and role of government and the management of our freedom and liberty to live in America as we know it’ on the line when they take some payola for their district.  They are risking a lot less in what might later prove to be a bad decision than what Sen. Landrieu put on the line last Saturday night. Sen. Byrd (D-WV) would not have done what Landrieu did.

Economy, Immigration, Politics

Days Of Incrementalism Are Over

On Saturday, November 21, 2009, the Senate of the United States voted to move  health insurance reform (the Democrat version) to the floor for debate. This represents to the ‘T’ what Rahm Emanual meant when describing the political strategy he called ‘rule one.’ Which is “Never allow a crisis to go to waste, they are opportunities to do big things.”

So for now and the coming weeks, the American people will be able to see one side trying to get support to pass this takeover of one sixth of the private sector, clearly and obviously without any Constitutional authority to do so, and one side trying to stop it. That is our only choice since the GOP’s plan to reform health care within the private sector and without a government takeover is off the table.

What we can expect to see if this bill passes the Senate with zero chance that Obama will veto it, is this:

  1. New taxes on everyone that consumes medical care from a health care provider that is not ‘government’ approved.
  2. New taxes on those that buy health care insurance if your policy in not ‘government’ approved.
  3. New taxes on those that choose not to buy health care insurance. And the IRS will see to it that you will pay. Or, go to jail. How’s that for Choice and Competition?
  4. New taxes on everyone that provides medical care to Medicare patients. To the tune of $500 billion in cuts in payments to Medicare providers. And that is over and above the discount rates the government currently demands from them. An exodus of doctors in the profession and more people to cover means long waiting periods, lower quality health care, and rationed health care. All that good stuff.
  5. New taxes on those that find cures, both therapeutically and otherwise, like pharmaceutical and medical technology companies.
  6. New taxes on all who use certain medical devices. Like your father’s pacemaker and grandmother’s stint and your wife’s or girlfriend’s new breasts.
  7. New taxes on businesses with over 50 employees that don’t offer health insurance. Now there’s a job creator. Not.
  8. Expansion of Medicaid, the federal-state health program for the poor, to include tens of millions more dependents and including illegal aliens. Without increasing the debt and without decreasing the quality of health care?
  9. Expansion of government subsidies for the poor and even middle-income people to help them ‘pay’ for it all. Subsidies for a plan that was supposed to decrease premium prices? Instead, we will have more people dependent on government. All without increasing the debt one dime?
  10. The plan would give states the option not to participate. This does not include an option not to pay for it.  Just not to participate in it. Make any sense to you?
  11. Insurance companies would be barred from excepting pre-existing conditions. (Probably the one and only problem sick people have that the government needs to be involved with, and accounted for in the GOP alternative.)  Barred from interstate competition. Barred from offering customer-based insurance policies. Raising insurance premiums for everyone. But this plan was suppose to decrease premiums.
  12. You will be forced into the government health insurance plan (you can’t keep yours if you want to) whenever you make any change in your current plan, like adding a dependent or changing your deductible, or changing your coverage in any way.
  13. A government-run insurance company, with artificially lower rates than private-sector carriers (see pre-requisites above) that will eventually cause that private sector industry to rot on the proverbial vine.

ultimately leading to the SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE SYSTEM that Obama wanted. Before he didn’t want it.

So, despite 60 years of history of the American people rejecting the notion of turning over their power and responsibility of health care to the federal government, most recently in 1993 with Hillary-care, we have come to this point. This is a hit right between your eyes. A hit on freedom and liberty, a hit on the Constitution, and a hit on your family’s health and finances for generations to come. The days of incrementalism are over. If this bill becomes law, there’s nothing except the next election that can restrain this power grab in Washington. And no industry will be safe from government control.

related links:  Senate Votes to Move Health Debate Forward | NYT, More Than Just Economic Stimulus

Immigration, Media, Politics

Unemployment Up, Arrests Of Illegals Down

In the most unreported news story of the month, and prepping the field for amnesty of all who are in this country illegally . . .

Arrests of illegal immigrant workers have dropped precipitously under President Obama, according to figures released Wednesday.

Criminal arrests, administrative arrests, indictments and convictions of illegal immigrants at work sites all fell by more than 50 percent from fiscal 2008 to fiscal 2009.

The figures show that Mr. Obama has made good on his pledge to shift enforcement away from going after illegal immigrant workers themselves – but at the expense of Americans’ jobs, said Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the Republican who compiled the numbers from the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE).

napolitano
Comprende?

In a speech last week  to the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank headed by John Podesta and funded by George Soros, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano proclaims that border security is so good now that it’s now time to consider amnesty for the ’12 million’ illegal aliens already in the United States.

Right! It is so good now that there is still 400 miles of border fencing to be built.

”How can they claim that enforcement is ‘done’ when there are more than 400 open miles of border with Mexico, hundreds of thousands of criminal and fugitive aliens and millions of illegal immigrants taking American jobs?” said Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, which oversees immigration and border issues.

And it doesn’t stop there. The administration’s spin is that economic recovery would be enhanced by amnesty. And, that doing so would also enhance national security. What? With a 400 mile long welcome mat and a laundry list of free stuff? Dang, almost forgot about al-Qaeda. They like the welcome mat too!

Hearken back to the Sept 9 Joint Session of Congress where President Obama said, and was called a liar for it, that illegals were not covered in the bill, which at that time was H.R. 3200. That bill did not exclude illegals from participating in the health care plans. So yes, he lied.

Now there is a ‘better’ way. Make them all legal, problem solved. Now he’s no longer a liar. Feel better now?

related links:

Media, Politics

Caution:Bribery / Stimulus Money At Work

Harry Reid prepares for a big cloture vote in the Senate, late tomorrow night. Do you know what Reid is doing to prepare for it? He’s offering/bribing Sen. Mary Landrieu ( D-LA) who opposed this health care takeover, $100 300 million FOR HER VOTE. Even though it is substantially the same as the House Bill.

It’s a bit of parliamentarian gobbledygook, but Rush Limbaugh explains it better as to why a vote for cloture, although the vote Saturday night, does not enact the bill, it is a strong indication that the bill will pass.

All right, health care test vote on Saturday night. Let me explain why they’re calling it a test vote. There are two stages to a piece of legislation in the Senate, and both stages require 60 votes. The first vote, which is what’s going to happen tomorrow night, is being called a test vote because if it gets 60 votes, it then is moved to the floor and debate begins. The next vote after that requires 60 votes again to stop the debate. That’s called cloture. And that vote, the cloture vote, tells us whether or not the bill will pass.

You can bet your last dollar that if Bush was in The White House and Republicans were the majority party, that there wouldn’t be anything on TV OTHER THAN how corrupt the administration is, bribing Senators with your tax money. That’s your tax money that was supposed to be used to stimulate the economy, not to buy a vote to take over one sixth of it.

Proving that there is nothing beneath doing if it will advance the Democrat’s agenda. That, and that the media is purposely looking the other way to watch it happen. Is this the hope and change that Americans voted for?

There is a reason that for the last 60 years Americans refused to accept government control over our health care. Americans don’t want it. So what else is there to do but to act like Russia or Venezuela or North Korea and just do whatever you have to in order to get what you want. This isn’t America as we know it, or as we knew it.

related links:

updated: 11/21/09 15:53 and 11/23/09 23:49

Politics

What He Said

Check this opening statement on the opening for discussion of the first version of the Democrat’s health care bill, H.R.3200, by Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI). Fact is, it still pertains to the new and future versions of the Democrats’ health insurance / health care bills.

Politics, War On Terror

This Is Military Commission Reform?

Relating to this post on giving the al-Qaeda terrorists civilian trials in New York City, Secretary Gates issues his statement. Reading between the lines, the fact that it is a joint statement that includes The White House, shows he is falling in line with his boss who likes diverse opinions as long as they are his own.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates  said . . .

Bringing terrorists to justice is an integral part of our national security. The reform of Military Commissions and today’s announcement are important steps in that direction.

Got that? Reforming Military Commissions is not to use them.