Ponzi     Party     .     U S

 

From Rich Payne:

 Primer on Government Bureaucracy 


   ** Pythagorean theorem: .............................................24 words.
 
   ** Lord's prayer:............................................................66 words.
 
   ** Archimedes' Principle: .............................................67 words.
 
   ** 10 Commandments: ...............................................179 words.
 
   ** Gettysburg address: ...............................................286 words.
 
   ** Declaration of Independence : .............................1,300 words.
 
   ** US Constitution with 27 Amendments : ................ 7,818 words.
 
   ** US Government regulations on sale of cabbage:  26,911 words.

 

 

 Congress At Work 

This is actually in the Connecticut State Legislature, according to truthorfiction.com, but upsetting nevertheless. They apparently were gathered to vote on a budget for their state.

Congress At Work
House Minority Leader  Lawrence F. Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk, pictured standing, far right, speaks while colleagues

Rep. Barbara Lambert, D-Milford and

Rep. Jack F. Hennessy, D-Bridgeport, play solitaire

Monday night as the House convened to vote on a  new budget. (AP)

The guy sitting in the row in front of these two....he's on Facebook, and the guy behind Hennessy is checking out the baseball scores.

These are the folks that couldn't get the budget out by Oct. 1, and are about to control your health care,

cap and trade, and the list goes on and on….

 

 

We love humor. The best kind always contains the truth.

 

"Fathom the odd hypocrisy that the government wants every citizen to prove they are insured… but not to prove they are citizens."

---  Ben Stein

 

From Rich Payne:

 Now I Understand 


Now I Understand

 

From Rich Payne:

 A Word From Our Sponsor 

 

Made to go down smoothly

 

From Rich Payne:

 How to be a better beggar: 

 

José and Carlos are beggars.  

They beg in different areas of town. 

 

Carlos begs for the same amount of time as José, but collects only about $8.00 or $9.00 a day.  

 

José brings home a suitcase full of ten-dollar bills every day.  He drives a Mercedes, lives in a mortgage-free house, and has a lot of money to spend. 

 

"Hey, amigo," Carlos says to José, I work just as long and hard as you do, so how come you bring home a suitcase full of ten dollar bills every day? 

 

José says, "Look at your sign, what does it say?" 

   

Carlos reads his sign: "I have no work, a wife and six kids to support." 

 

"What's wrong with that?" Carlos asks him. 

 

"No wonder you only get $8.00 or $9.00 a day!" says José. 

 

Carlos says, "All right, what is on your sign?" 

 

José shows him:


Show hime your sign.

 

 

January 2009

TODAY

% chg

Source

 

From Rich Payne:

 So, how’s that CHANGE working out for you? 

 

 

January 2009

TODAY

% chg

Source

Avg. retail price/gallon gas in U.S.

$1.83

$3.104

69.6%

1

Crude oil, European Brent (barrel)

$43.48

$99.02

127.7%

2

Crude oil, West TX Inter. (barrel)

$38.74

$91.38

135.9%

2

Gold: London (per troy oz.)

$853.25

$1,369.50

60.5%

2

Corn, No.2 yellow, Central IL

$3.56

$6.33

78.1%

2

Soybeans, No. 1 yellow, IL

$9.66

$13.75

42.3%

2

Sugar, cane, raw, world, lb. fob

$13.37

$35.39

164.7%

2

Unemployment rate, non-farm, overall

7.6%

9.4%

23.7%

3

Unemployment rate, blacks

12.6%

15.8%

25.4%

3

Number of unemployed

11,616,000

14,485,000

24.7%

3

Number of fed. employees, ex. military (curr = 12/10 prelim)

2,779,000

2,840,000

2.2%

3

Real median household income (2008 v 2009)

$50,112

$49,777

-0.7%

4

Number of food stamp recipients (curr = 10/10)

31,983,716

43,200,878

35.1%

5

Number of unemployment benefit recipients (curr = 12/10)

7,526,598

9,193,838

22.2%

6

Number of long-term unemployed

2,600,000

6,400,000

146.2%

3

Poverty rate, individuals (2008 v 2009)

13.2%

14.3%

8.3%

4

People in poverty in U.S. (2008 v 2009)

39,800,000

43,600,000

9.5%

4

U.S. rank in Economic Freedom World Rankings

5

9

n/a

10

Present Situation Index (curr = 12/10)

29.9

23.5

-21.4%

11

Failed banks (curr = 2010 + 2011 to date)

140

164

17.1%

12

U.S. dollar versus Japanese yen exchange rate

89.76

82.03

-8.6%

2

U.S. money supply, M1, in billions (curr = 12/10 prelim)

1,575.1

1,865.7

18.4%

13

U.S. money supply, M2, in billions (curr = 12/10 prelim)

8,310.9

8,852.3

6.5%

13

National debt, in trillions

$10.627

$14.052

32.2%

14
         

 

In the last two years we have accumulated national debt at a rate more than 27 times as fast as during the rest of our entire nation's history. 

 

Metaphorically, speaking, if you are driving in the right lane doing 65 MPH and a car passes you in the left lane 27 times faster . . . it would be doing 1,755 MPH.

 

Sources:

(1) U.S. Energy Information Administration; (2) Wall Street Journal; (3) Bureau of Labor Statistics; (4) Census Bureau; (5) USDA; (6) U.S. Dept. of Labor; (7) FHFA; (8) Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller; (9) RealtyTrac; (10) Heritage Foundation and WSJ; (11) The Conference Board; (12) FDIC; (13) Federal Reserve; (14) U.S. Treasury