Expanding Horizons, Embrace Diversity of Opinions, Life’s Realities, Politics and Stories
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Why has Bilingualism, Biculturalism and Multiculturalisms Not Been Voted On or Approved by Canadians, but Enforced by Political Parties and Unelected Bureaucrats?
Monday, October 31, 2011
Why is it that Pedal Protest Groups Always Push Freedom of Cycling While Ignoring Highway Traffic Act and Helmet Safety Issues?
Thursday, October 27, 2011
The Question’s Remain, Libya’s Civil War was for Who?
The question remains, Libya’s civil war, not a revolution from the very beginning, was for whom and for what purposes?
After this bloodless 1969 internal military coup in Libya led by Gaddafi, the western oil companies shortly thereafter were nationalized by the Libyan regime.
Thus, the NTC was and remains a group of self appointed individuals acting as a government, propped up by western powers, without having been legally or officially established by the Libyan people.
In reality then the NTC serves as a function for western powers and the people of Libya without having been legally established officially by a majority of the Libyan people but rather installed by western powers using the military might of NATO, 70% controlled by the USA, for the protection of what and for whose purpose?
This same NTC member endorsed by France further stated that "On the basis of this recognition, we are going to open a diplomatic mission, that is our own embassy in Paris, and an ambassador from France will be sent to Benghazi," a key city held by revolutionaries, he added.
France was the first to recognize the rebel council in Benghazi fighting to oust Muammar Gaddafi from power in Libya’s civil war. The question then persists, is France one of the puppet masters of the NTC and or the mastermind in getting NATO’s involvement?
The Gaddafi regime upon hearing this news, while the civil war was getting under way, stated that "A country like France cannot be stupid enough to recognize such people who only represent themselves," the official said.
"During the meeting, Mr. Donilon stated that the United States views the NTC, as a legitimate and credible interlocutor of the Libyan people," the White House said in a statement, released after the meeting.
Today the world wakes up the knowledge that the NTC is the axis of and based on a Muslim modern day equivalent to Marcus Julius Brutus.
Their leaders and a majority of the NTC members as we all now know describe themselves as secular people and this greatly concerns me and hopefully raises further red flags to the entire civilized world or what is left of it?
History and the facts are that this so-called “secularism” has been responsible for and accomplished more evil in the 20th century as evidenced by the underlying secular regimes of Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, and Mao than religion itself.
Perhaps it is time that every member state within the UN along with the self appointed NTC members, NATO and all western powers who directly got involved in the civil war within the sovereign state of Libya should be held liable and accountable.
Such accountability to be conducted by a free and truly independent international criminal and civil court of law proceedings for any and all atrocities, killings, tortures, bombings and collateral damages as a result of these bodies and governments direct interference and involvement from having taken one side of the Libyans people in its sovereign state of civil war.
Might is never right and does not represent freedom, liberty or democracy when formed by a de facto entity like the National Transition Council for the Libyan people or by a foreign government’s inference with another sovereign state?
CHARTER OF THE UNITED NATIONS
Article 1CHARTER OF THE UNITED NATIONS
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Who are the Puppet Masters Now in Control of Libya"s Resources?
Friday, October 14, 2011
Understanding the Complexity and Fraud in Modern Financial Systems
Taxpayer dollars are misused in a political game of picking
corporate winners and losers, leading to risky financial behaviours like
collateralized debt obligations and credit default swaps. These won't be fully
exposed until voters understand their implications.
Mortgage-backed securities are questionable assets created through bureaucratic oversight and political interference, benefiting financial institutions, lawyers, and politicians. The principle of "buyer beware" has eroded as asset values are influenced more by political clout than market forces, contributing to financial crises and government bailouts.
Housing policies from the early 1990s aimed to expand homeownership, even for those financially unfit, resulting in the creation of GSE Debt Securities. Politicians campaigned on homeownership for all, mirrored in Canada by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), which lacks transparency about its mortgage portfolio's stability.
Global economics now overshadow political ideologies and laws. Those who understand these complexities control politics and power, as seen in mergers and financial bailouts.
A once-niche stock trade known as dispersion has become a major Wall Street strategy. Dispersion involves profiting from volatility differences between an index like the S&P 500 and its individual stocks. Its popularity has grown post-pandemic due to rising interest rates. However, its success might be its downfall as increasing participation reduces profitability.
Dispersion trading is seen as cheaper portfolio insurance, benefiting from individual stock volatility while keeping the index steady. Despite its complexity, it remains attractive but challenging due to rising entry costs.
To prevent future crises, the public must educate themselves about these financial practices and demand transparency and accountability from institutions and policymakers.
The fraudulent scams investments like GSE or mortgage-backed securities and others shall not come to an end until we the public educate ourselves.
The transparent insanity and outright gambling with our taxpayer dollars, in a political roulette-like game attempt to pick corporate winners and losers within the free market system of capitalism, by unelected bureaucrats and politicians alike, by using tax dollars in Ponzi schemes for global bubble economics shall not fully be exposed until voters realize what are the implications of collateralized debt obligations, securitization and credit defaults swaps etc.
For example, a mortgage-backed security is a questionable asset-backed security supposedly secured by a collection of other questionable assets. And are the results of bureaucratic oversight and dizzy left-wing meddling in nutty radical politics which in my opinion allowed a legal confidence game to enrich opportunistic financial institutions, lawyers, and politicians alike.
These mortgages first must originate, of course, from a regulated financial institution and they then must be grouped into ratings as established by credit rating agencies, that are accredited of course, who then charge a fee to these same financial institutions for giving a worthy rating, so the investments were then in the position to be legally sold to suckers born daily.
Whatever became of the buyer beware clause in the free market system?
Because these bundled or grouped assets were not at all determined by the free marketplace. They were however first procured by unelected bureaucrats and politicians.
The values and price of these assets of course were decided by the amount of political influence of special interest groups, be they corporations, unions, or investment banks, and not by what investors were willing to pay.
This was a large part of the downfall of the US and the world economy which resulted in the bail-out process by governments who supposedly regulated all these organizations in the first place.
However, another catch and the problem were that from the early 1990’s a political government policy was politically pushed through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Because elected politicians were being pushed by special interest groups within their constituencies and political parties to support socialized housing policies based on low mortgage rates.
Thus, the unelected bureaucrats at HUD desperately needed a way to expand homeownership, for citizens especially the Constituents of elected politicians, and even to such citizens who were not in the financial position to carry the cost of such ownership in the first place and which can be referred to as political expediency for votes.
To achieve these political vote-getting schemes, unelected bureaucrats were pressured by politicians and special interest groups to disregard lending and accounting principles that had previously governed the U.S. mortgage market of financial institutions.
So bureaucrats came up with a political plan to provide funding to specific types of citizens having poor credit or insufficient income groups who of course would not qualify for conventional mortgage loans.
The U.S. Congress of course approved this idea of a marketable bond for financial institutions called Government Sponsored Enterprises or GSE Debt Securities.
You see as a government-sponsored entity these GSEs were able to attract lenders that offer lower rates because of the implied government guarantee rather than a real guarantee.
As such lenders were willing to lower the finance charges and interest rates to these risky and poor credit citizens, but investors are also able to yield higher returns as a result of this implied guarantee.
Now the politicians could campaign on their political social ideology that every American has the right to own a house even though they could not afford one in the first place.
A political policy similar in a way to that of CMHC, our Canadian Crown Corporation and largest mortgage insurer, is used by our politicians, as the driving force in the housing market throughout Canada with political policies that have inflated our own housing economic bubble.
To my knowledge as of this date Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation has not been transparent to either the government or taxpayers about the stability of its portfolio and just what percent of its portfolio represents a risk because of low or poor credit and arrears in payments?
Some have suggested it could be as high as 65% or as low as 45% but our government, like Fanny and Freddie in the U.S., and until it was too late, our government as yet has not forced CHMC to come clean and reveal this information to Canadians, even though thanks our government taxpayers are on the hook for any and all defaults in the mortgage portfolios held by CMHC and guaranteed by Canadians.
It is my personal and strong belief that now and in the immediate future global politics and policies are no longer about political ideologies or a country’s constitution and laws but rather about the complexity of global economics based on complex laws and complex business financial practices.
Therefore, those individuals, corporations, special interest groups and unions that currently have or with the willpower to recognize, understand and master these complexities shall be the ones who ultimately control and direct politics and the power that goes with it as we have already witnessed with mergers, the non-bankruptcies of GM, Chrysler, bank bailouts and TARP to mention only a few.
2. Capital Group Companies Inc
3. FMR Corporation
4. AXA
5. State Street Corporation
6. JP Morgan Chase & Co
7. Legal & General Group plc
8. Vanguard Group Inc
9. UBS AG
10. Merrill Lynch & amp; Co Inc
11. Wellington Management Co LLP
12. Deutsche Bank AG
13. Franklin Resources Inc
14. Credit Suisse Group
15. Walton Enterprises LLC (holding company for Wal-Mart heirs)
16. Bank of New York Mellon Corp
17. Natixis
18. Goldman Sachs Group Inc
19. T Rowe Price Group Inc
20. Legg Mason Inc
An agreement between two parties (known as counterparties) where one stream of future interest payments is exchanged for another based on a specified principal amount. Interest rate swaps often exchange a fixed payment for a floating payment that is linked to an interest rate (most often the LIBOR). A company will typically use interest rate swaps to limit or manage exposure to fluctuations in interest rates, or to obtain a marginally lower interest rate than it would have been able to get without the swap.
Interest rate swaps are simply the exchange of one set of cash flows (based on interest rate specifications) for another. Because they trade OTC, they are really just contracts set up between two or more parties and thus can be customized in any number of ways.
Generally speaking, swaps are sought by firms that desire a type of interest rate structure that another firm can provide less expensively. For example, let's say Cory's Tequila Company (CTC) is seeking to loan funds at a fixed interest rate, but Tom's Sports Inc. (TSI) has access to marginally cheaper fixed-rate funds. Tom's Sports can issue debt to investors at its low fixed rate and then trade the fixed-rate cash flow obligations to CTC for floating-rate obligations issued by TSI. Even though TSI may have a higher floating rate than CTC, by swapping the interest structures they are best able to obtain, their combined costs are decreased - a benefit that can be shared by both parties.
Collateralized Debt Obligation - CDO
An investment-grade security backed by a pool of bonds, loans and other assets. CDOs do not specialize in one type of debt but are often non-mortgage loans or bonds.
Similar in structure to a collateralized mortgage obligation (CMO) or collateralized bond obligation (CBO), CDOs are unique in that they represent different types of debt and credit risk. In the case of CDOs, these different types of debt are often referred to as 'tranches' or 'slices'. Each slice has a different maturity and risk associated with it. The higher the risk, the more the CDO pays
Credit Default Swap (CDS)
A swap is designed to transfer the credit exposure of fixed-income products between parties.
The buyer of a credit swap receives credit protection, whereas the seller of the swap guarantees the creditworthiness of the product. By doing this, the risk of default is transferred from the holder of the fixed-income security to the seller of the swap.
For example, the buyer of a credit swap will be entitled to the par value of the bond by the seller of the swap, should the bond default in its coupon payments.
Monday, October 10, 2011
The Illusion of Utopia: A Critical Look at Progressive Ideals and Economic Realities
Summary of Key Points:
Individual vs. Collective Happiness:
- Happiness is an individual pursuit, not a collective right. Everyone’s dreams and goals are different, so a one-size-fits-all approach does not work.
- Some progressives believe the government should control and fund child care and daycare, while others argue it’s the parent's responsibility, not the state's.
Parental Responsibility:
- The responsibility of raising, feeding, and clothing children lies with those who decide to conceive or adopt, not the government.
- Government welfare programs often create ghettos and foster dependency rather than solving the underlying issues.
Economic Realities:
- In both the US and Canada, a small percentage of the population pays the majority of taxes, while many pay little or none.
- A fair tax system should ensure that all citizens contribute, avoiding an undue burden on a few.
Greed and Corruption:
- Greed is not limited to Wall Street; it is also found among union leaders, politicians, and various interest groups.
- Excessive regulations and demands drive businesses to seek cheaper labour and less restrictive environments abroad.
Historical Lessons:
- Revolutions, like those in France, Russia, and China, often lead to more oppression and loss of freedoms than the regimes they replaced.
- Modern political and union leaders often prioritize their personal success over the welfare of those they represent.
On a pragmatic and philosophical ground, the important point is that the pursuit of happiness is on an individual basis, not a collective right, as my dreams are different from yours and someone else’s is completely different from both of ours.
The responsibility for sheltering, raising, feeding and clothing is the direct responsibility of those who decide to conceive or adopt a child.
For myself, I believe that any fair-minded individual would not dispute the political reality that today the core agenda of domestic social liberalism relates to the support for a welfare state, abortion and the racial identity politics of multiculturalism-based redistribution of wealth through class warfare.
An unmanageable national debt aggravated by spending and borrowing for unsustainable entitlements and handouts has both caused and exacerbated the burden of an inequitable system of taxation whereby 10% of the US population pays 80% of all taxes and 43% of Americans account for 20% of paid federal taxes while 47% of the US population pay NO federal taxes?
A fair share, in Canada and the US, should mean that all citizens pay an equal amount of taxes as opposed to paying NO federal taxes at all.
It all began with the greed of Union leaders as well as their members be it teachers, hospital workers, police, bureaucrats etc. along with politicians and corporations and the shareholders of publicity traded companies.
Such firms and organizations also represent companies in the resource development sector for green energy solutions and other special interest groups publicly traded around the globe.
Because of our now excessive and numerous government regulations and attempts to micromanage the free enterprise system through government controls and outright nationalizations of industries or corporations combined with excess wage, benefit and pension demands by all guilty parties businesses go to China, India, South America and other countries around the world to find a less expensive workforce and less government.
Unfortunately, the leaders today, be they politicians or union leaders, seem far more concerned with raising political donations or union dues through new members for their own re-elections and play fast and furious with our money for their own personal success and prosperity at the expense of the those who actual pay taxes or union dues.
It is not only individuals like Hughes who feel they are entitled to receive handouts from others or the wealthy.
And it produced the first modern dictators, Robespierre and Napoleon. The paranoid Jacobin mentality made the revolutionaries more savage and cruel than the king they replaced. Over fifty thousand people died in the terror of that revolution."
The Russian Revolution and its later day revolutionary leaders were responsible for the deaths of more than 40 MILLION people in the name of that revolution.