Hong Kong banks have been some of the safest in the world. They have had years of strong growth with never a hint of issue until now. Some of the bank watchers have noticed the Hong Kong banks have been making many more loans to the companies on the mainland. There are so many that their former balance of nearly no bad loans seems to be changing. Many of the loans they have made over the last three years are to companies who are now being cited for cooking their books. A number of these companies have gone out of business and there are many more which are in grave trouble.

With everyone looking at the European banks, and the problems in the European Union itself, much of the negative information about the current Hong Kong banks has been overlooked. I am not saying that the banks are ready to go under but the loan default issue and the continued slowing of China's economy does not bode well for the future of some of the banks. The slowing economy has caused the margins of the banks to shrink considerably putting bottom line pressure on their future viability. If this situation becomes serious it will have to be China who comes to the rescue. The question is what will China do in such a situation? They can come to the rescue but they may also allow the banks to fail forcing the rest of the globe to provide a last moment save. That action would put the economy of the world at even greater risk. With greater risk on the table the Chinese could come in after the fact and provide the a rescue by taking the burden off the other countries but only after cutting a great deal for better positioning on the World Trade Organization as well as cut many side deals with the countries that are willing to cut deals to get out of trouble.

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The last twenty two years have been difficult political years for the U.S. We had The Gulf War and a few costly skirmishes which took the lives of American soldiers and wasted our treasure. We were attacked on several occasions in other lands and then attacked at home with a massive loss of life. America then retaliated with a war for the massive strike and a year later pursued the replacement of a dictator who was supposed to be creating weapons of mass destruction. The weapons of mass destruction were never found but we did find our country in a second war which is only just about to end. For ten years we hunted the person responsible for the massive strike on our homeland and then found him.

All these wars and skirmishes have taken the lives of many U.S. soldiers. In the past twenty two years we have lost too many of our soldiers and people needlessly. The problem is we practice international politics by scolding rouge governments and telling dictators they better watch out or we will tell your mother. We really get the best results when we are quiet and do not threaten but discuss problems and then strike out of the blue with surgical strikes which tend to eliminate the heart of the issue. As a people we need to stay out of the business of the rest of the world unless it threatens us or our strategic friends. The time for strategic wars and huge troop build ups are over. Walk softly and carry a big stick is still the best philosophy for this country.

This new approach is in the wings and is starting to show itself but part of the restraint from going to war must come from the people themselves. The American people must go about their business and stay out of the business of others. We must stop preaching that we have the best way and trying to be the big man on the block. We cannot be the policeman for the world and we do not need to evangelize what we think is right and wrong other than in the gathering of nations when serious issues are at hand. We must leave the rest of the world alone, doing business with others globally and providing humanitarian assistance when and where it is needed, we will serve the world and ourselves better over time. When the time for a strike at evil comes everyone will know that our strike will come fast and will be target specific. Any collateral damage from such a strike will not be taken into account if the deed needs to be done. This will put the world on notice what if provoked we will strike first in a quick and decieve blow befitting the problem at hand. Welcome to a new world.

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America has a President who is trying to push a jobs program by making whistle stops all over the map to go directly to the people. This action is supposed to be because the House and Senate are in turmoil and are not doing what they were elected to do. So the President has said he will not work with the Congress and will go directly to the people. To that end he has kept his promise and is now doing everything but using the hands on method of grabbing people by the buttonhole. Unfortunately the real activity of the President is to be on the campaign trail and raise money for his 2012 run.

I do not have a problem with the President starting his campaign and raising money for the upcoming race at this time. I do have a problem with his using the jobs program ploy as a cover for the campaigning. He is quite correct that the Congress has not done its job, because they have not, but at the same time the President has not been too on the ball either. The creation of jobs, at this point in time, is a critical issue but the plan the President is pushing is no better than anything anyone else is suggesting. This is the way to get the attention of Congress and the Senate. However, the attention may not be of the kind which will correct the situation. If all sides are at odds with the President then not much will happen and the program will either fall by the wayside or be put into play with little or no results because the backing for the plan is forced.

This political stalemate and intransigence must come to an end. There is no right side or wrong side. Our government is, and always has been, based on fair and honest negotiation. The politicians of today do not know the meaning of negotiation or the meaning of fair and honest play. They are all guilty of these infractions and it is up to the people to demand reform and force a change in the way the government does business. It is the right of every citizen to voice an opinion and to request a change. Citizens are not limited to just a vote they have the right to stand up in the streets and demonstrate for change. It is time we do just that.

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Every day we hear the stories of new scams and the victims of these terrible schemes. When those who have been breaking the law are exposed they are arrested and then, depending on how big the scam is, are subject to the rules of our judicial system. At this point the individual arrested either pleads guilty or proceeds to a trial. There are negotiated plea deals all the time when the individual agrees to plea guilty to a lesser charge if they provide information necessary to the conviction of a felon who is head of an organization or such.

In all cases of plea bargaining the goal is to cut the amount of jail time one serves in jail. Those targeted at the top of organizations are not offered that opportunity. These individuals tend to spend big money for the best legal talent to defend them. In the end, for most of these cases the targeted persons receive a sentence of six to ten years. The reasoning for the short sentence is that these are white collar crimes. The individual did not use a weapon to take the money, property, or other valuables. When this position is questioned the judicial response is generally that no one was accosted with a weapon and no won was physically injured. This is where I differ with the jail sentences handed out and the logic supporting those same sentences.

I agree that a weapon was not used but that does not mean no one was physically injured. The real question is how many heart attacks and other related illnesses were suffered by those who were scammed? Why would that condition not be considered, at least in the collateral damage sense, as an act of violence even if a specific person were not targeted for violence in any form? If a scam takes the life savings of one thousand elderly people surely someone will have a heart attack and die because of these actions. It is time we see larger and harsher sentences handed out to these people all across the board. If caught as part of a scam the minimum time should be fifteen years for the small fry and life for the big boys.

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At this point in time most people know the infrastructure of this country is in need of much repair. In 2008 the government gave money to the states to put what they called shovel ready projects into play. These were projects that were all approved and merely needed the contracts to be awarded and the people hired. It is almost three years later and less than half of the projects have been started. Much of the money was used by the states to keep people with jobs working otherwise they would have had to dismiss teachers, firemen, police and many other state workers. So the money helped many a state remain solvent, so to speak, but the infrastructure is now the worse for ware. In my opinion the states broke the law but at the same time they helped many needed people and services to remain in place.

In many instances such measures would not have taken place if the negotiations between the states, including their municipalities, and the unions had not broken down. The unions refused to provide give backs and even worse when they were asked to provide givebacks, so there would be no workforce reduction, they refused. The unions would rather see people go on unemployment than give an inch. When the times are tough, as many studies in social behavior have shown, the right minded and moral individual will share and care for the others in their group. It seems many unions feel they are exempt from this part of human culture.

Any jobs program, set up at this point in time, using infrastructure repairs as the medium for creating jobs will not provide the results such a program would suggest. Any federal funding of such programs would have to come with specific rules and guidelines on how the money is to be spent and on what dedicated programs. If the federal government is not willing to oversee the projects directly then there is no way to trust the states and their municipalities to be any more trustworthy on this occasion. It seems in some respects we have a broken moral compass and that requires a hall monitor at all times.

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There is no doubt that the big talk of the day is jobs. Every issue seems to have some basis in the jobs controversy. America needs jobs but not just any old jobs. We need jobs that have a future for those who were let go from jobs that are now and forever gone. The politicians clamor for training and the states continue to provide much of the training for the unemployed with federal money. It may sound like we are moving forward but the training provided is mostly for jobs that will be part of the next round of jobs to disappear. Most of the unemployed are taking the training and then go out to find a job. More than half of them are successful in finding a job quickly. The rest seem to bounce along until they find a job with their newly acquired skills. The question then becomes how long will these new skills have a market place requiring these skills.

In many cases the skills that need to be learned are not being provided by the states. They are providing skills that will no longer have a market in the next five years. At the same time there are companies that can not find enough people with the skills they need to support their companies and products. These are the skills that need to be part of the current state training programs. If these programs are not made part of the program then the unemployed of today will surely become, once again, the unemployed of tomorrow. At that point the cycle will start all over again except the unemployed, by a percentage of the population, will go up.

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America is on a cost cutting binge because that is what the people are demanding. There are things that seem to be sacred cows such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security for an example. As soon as these items are mentioned the aged and aging seem to stand up and say they will not allow this to happen. They stand on the principle that these were not handouts but a contract that they paid for over the years. They do not see why the contract should change now. And in reality any changes will not affect those who are receiving benefits now. However, there is an area where the federal and state governments spend enormous amounts of money and no one ever brings that up for review.

The area I am speaking of is the social service system. That seems to be more of a third rail to the politicians than any other entitlement. No one ever brings the issue up nor do they even acknowledge it as an entitlement. There are a huge number of people receiving assistance in one form or another that the discussion of what those programs are would provide an instant headache to any politician who would dare to bring it to the table. There are families who get rental assistance of up to fourteen hundred dollars a month. The families are working and they receive assistance because they know how to play the law. There should be social services available to people but there is a line of reasonableness that should accompany the rules as to who receives assistance defining when and how long if they qualify.

The politicians want to stick it to the people who pay the freight and have been paying the freight for years and years. Those who pay their income tax, the taxes on their homes, and the weekly taxes out of their pay checks for all these many years that they have worked at a job. There is so much fraud across the board in al programs but the government agencies make little effort to break this cycle. Social services are part of this cycle and it is time those who receive a stipend do so with the agreement that they will work. That work will be with and for the government at what ever job they wish the participant to partake in. They must perform for the aid and assistance they receive in some manner to offset the monetary burden placed on the others members in the community in which the assistance takes place.


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I find it amazing that the adults of this land cannot fully understand what is happening in Washington and continue to leave their future to some magic fix from within the political system. It is the Constitution of the United States that tells us how to resolve the issues at hand. Our Constitution is a fabric of law and logic that was arrived at with nothing more than ideas and approaches to issues and true negotiation to reach a satisfactory conclusion of those issues. The biggest problem we have as a nation is that everyone, including the political parties and their politicians as well as the citizens of this country, have failed to understand we solve problems for the greater good by negotiation.

The political parties need to agree to negotiate openly and fairly with each other. The politicians must agree that they will negotiate openly and fairly over the issues at hand and always keep the interest of the greater good as the goal. Lastly, the people must tell the politicians what they want and they also must address and work to resolve the issues of great importance with negotiation. It is the responsibility of every citizen to voice an opinion and to stand in the streets and shout their opinion until it is acknowledged by some form of negotiation. That acknowledgement only comes when the political parties and their politicians sit down and start to truly negotiate the issues.

What we need to accomplish is too important to allow political goals and special interests to come into play nor come anywhere near the negotiations and those doing so. Congressmen and Senators are elected by the people to represent their interests but there are times when these interests must take a back seat to the common good. This can only happen when the players act in good faith with honor and integrity and no self interest.

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Our present economy is not quite the disaster people tend to believe it is. It is sluggish and has some deep holes which scare most of the working class. They do have a right to be scared because the holes are getting bigger in some ways. Jobs are, of course, the biggest problem followed by the housing situation. If those two issues can be resolved soon then the rest of the economy will fall into place with a truly positive result for all sectors. The question is how do we make those changes and what will it take to get the changes made?

Companies will not put new people on the payroll unless there is a demand for the product or services they sell. Even if the government makes some overtures that will cut the cost of adding employees the companies still will not move until they see an increase in demand for what they sell. Demand can only come when people buy. People will not buy if they do not have money so we need to put a bunch of people to work so they have money to spend and that will increase demand across the board. The jobs I am talking about are for the infrastructure of this country. That is a job sector that will last at least seven to ten years. It can put a lot of people to work quite quickly and in turn they will have money to spend. If they spend money then companies will need more help to cope with growing demand and then they will hire.

On the housing side the government needs to force the banks to take the homes in foreclosure as well as in arrears to the table to directly renegotiate the current mortgage. The negotiations will work within the parameters of what ever time frame the mortgage holder needs to pay off the home. Re-negotiation of new thirty to fifty year loans would be on the table with a cap of $1,000 for all closing costs and at a rate equivalent to today's home mortgage thirty year rate. The bank would have to work within what ever the money confines the individuals have. That would take the glut of houses off the market and the real estate market would once again grow.

Of course there would have to be additional rules to this program to assure people were not gaming the system and to also assure the banks do not do so either. A Recovering market place for housing would put a lot of additional people back to work and then demand all across the board would pick up. With the two sectors cranking money into the system it would not take long for a full recovery to take place. We can overcome most anything but we must take the necessary steps with the necessary rules for participation to make it happen.



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Our country has people marching in the streets for a chance to be heard. Their main concern is jobs for those who have lost theirs. Everyone is aware that the creation of a significant number of jobs is the best thing for the economy at this moment. Those marching in the street know it but they also seem to know that failure to change the politics in Washington will mean, no matter what is done, the result will be more of the same.

A change in the politics would enable programs to start because the politicians funded them. Logic tells us that there is no better way to start the ball moving than to have the political structure agreeing on the process for creating many a job opportnuty. The politics of the day are getting in the way and there is little reason to think they will go away anytime soon.

The demonstrators on Wall Street are on the right track when they ask for political reform. They know the game is stacked against them. They are aware that the free and almost free money the banks are still receiving from the federal government is what the banks are lending out, when they actually make a loan, and those loans are costing the public from both ends. Banks loan the money they receive for almost free and the let it out at a high interest rate. If for some reason there is a financial breakdown and the bank is caught up in it they are bailed out be the government. They need to remember that we are the people and that money is ours and so is all the risk. We give the banks and financial institutions our money an if they lose it we pay to bail the institutions out. The politicians know that there is no risk for the institutions yet they do not correct the situation. We need to change the politics and the politicians.



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Up to three years ago Americans were divided into three classes. The upper class was the wealthy, while those striving for wealth were the middle class. Alas, the rest of the populations were regulated to the poor class. There were definite distinctions within the upper class defined by the amount of wealth, the newness of the wealth, old money tends to look down on new money, and of course the way in which the wealth was obtained. Known criminals, even with considerable wealth, tend to be shunned in wealthy circles. These same rules do not necessarily apply to the middle class structure.

The middle class has a tier system which breaks down into the almost wealthy and on the move, the just comfortable and basiclly stationary and the just made the middle class but are not too far from falling back into the lower class. These three tiers have been shrinking and exchanging position levels within the tiers with some falling back into the next class down. The middle class is the shrinking class while the greatest growth is found in the lower or poor class.

There are several levels to the poor class however, in reality the poor are poor and unless you are one of the homeless life is a struggle. Many of the social and educational doors are closed to the poor with everyone blaming the poor for being poor. We all know that some people are poor because they do not want to work or can not work. We also know that there are plenty of poor that go to work every day yet they cannot make enough to money to buy anything that is not keeping them alive. One thing is for sure most of the people in the upper classes look down on the poor as if to pass judgment on their inability to live a better life. Over the past three years some of that has changed.

The change has come from the people who were in the upper classes and have lost their jobs and their money. Good solid middle class people who had households where two worked maybe as teachers or some other respectable occupations. The change in the economy has cost them their jobs, savings, and their home. In many cases the loss of one job was difficult but the loss of two jobs, with out any opportunities to latch onto another job, has caused them to use their savings to live on. Their savings dwindled as did the value of their retirement nest egg. Soon they were way behind on their mortgage and now they are about to loose their home. It will not be long before they are in the poor house so to speak. At that point the friends they had will look down on them and what they did to deserve to be poor.

The point of this whole story is that no one is immune to poverty. It comes in many shades and it comes in the middle of the night with out warning. When poverty comes those who were middle class and now are not can see more clearly that equity starts with people. Hunger can not be held at bay by pride. When the shoes are warn and the clothing gets tawdry it is difficult to make a good impression at a job interview. That if one comes along. All people are equal as people and each has a special gift of their own. The equity of people should be measured by what they can do and the fact that they are people not by the class they were, or were not, fortunate enough to attain.

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Everyone is always looking for the enemy to identify in an effort to remain safe. As a nation Americans are now trained to look for the objects that will hurt them. We are always looking for the enemy's marks, the tools to be used, or denouncements someone makes as indicators of a person or persons that may be the enemy. The problem is we are not trained to look within our political spectrum to see if there is a different kind of enemy lurking about. Once one looks through the proper glass, seeing things for what they are, we quickly realize the entire political system is out of whack. The rules and the regulations are all working fine but it is how they are used and the purposes they are used to achieve that shows them as our hidden enemy.

Our politicians have blinded themselves with their own power and dedication to their party line, developed as the strategy to beat the opposition; they fail to do what is correct and appropriate for the people who elected them. They use the logic that they are doing what their people have sent them to do but that only aids in the self blinding of doing not what is right and necessary for the moment and the nation but staying with the party line and strategy. Both parties have a philosophy of just say no except they just say it in different ways. It is a game and the citizens of this country are the losers in the war.

The only way these politicians can end this political war is to learn to work together. What they do not understand is that everything is a negotiation. There are times to stand on principle and there are times when such a stance can do irreparable damage. We are in the midst of such a time and the politicians are refusing to resolve the very important issues at hand. Until they find a way to work together they will remain a group who may be as deadly with their ineffectiveness as any external enemy we may ever face.

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The world is mostly in a global setting as had been predicted not too many years ago. People around the world are trading and the internet appears to be the economic mother of all international friendships. As time passes and each country seems to lean on and depend on the trade with each other there is a diminished chance of war. What appears to be the fly in the ointment are the social structures and beliefs of specific areas or regions. Each region has its own social rules and they do not want them ignored by the outside world. We can trade on the internet but socially there are still great chasms between what we and others deem as normal in ritual and behavior. Both the internet and trading partners are at risk of loosing the friendship and those good trading positions if these issues become lines that are crossed. The real problem is people do not where the other person has drawn a line in the sand.

New Yorkers may blow off a line about the hat they wear or even a half hearted joke about their family but that same joke or comment could be a grievous offence on the other side of the internet. That is a simple example of the way socialization in one place is not the same in other places. In many instances tribal dogma and blood feuds still rule the day and the minds of those of other social and cultural upbringing. There is no question this issue seems to be played out on occasion but mostly in the heart and mind of the recipient. That is where the danger comes from but it does not burst out until it has festered for some time. Once a country feels that it has been snubbed by another, and this does not have to be at the government level, the reaction can at times be extreme. With the internet involved situations are transmitted to the entire region is minutes. By that time it is too late to stave off a profound issue.

People say things about other people demeaning their race, ethnic origins, skin color and even just the country they come from. There is no filter on this communication so the hurt is felt and stored for the moment until it builds up to the boiling point. Once the boil starts it spreads in the form of hatred for the other who ever that may be. This will become the issue when ever the world seeks real peace with itself. Therefore, the question is, can we work with each other and come to terms with our issues. If we think we can, we had better start now. However, if we can not then we had better start sharpening our swards because the more time passes the more people we offend and then there is a point when the dam breaks.

In this case the old saying holds true, "I you cannot say anything nice do not say anything at all".



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The major countries of the world are presently in a clandestine military build up. Each country is building the size of its manpower and the volume of equipment needed for deployment in the event of a war. Most of this build up is protectionist in nature with a few nations that say they are trimming down and in reality are doing just the opposite. It almost looks like a series of unrelated cold wars are about to break out. Perhaps consideration should be given to other conditions which may be at play with less serious outcomes as the final goal.

In the U.S., England, and Russia have one of the more serious national issues is unemployment. The expansion of the ranks of the military is one way to take the unemployed off the streets. China is doing the same be adding to its military ranks using the overflow of workers in the big cities that have been ordered back to the country side and have not done so. The military option is a way of putting them in a job and keeping unrest down in the cities. When these Chinese citizens leave the military there will be a place for them in other expanding cities.

Adding to the military buildup in the form of new equipment keeps the factories at home working in rough times. Some heavy equipment is on the production line but a major part of the buildup is in new development and weapon systems. The Chinese have a new jet fighter and are preparing to launch their new carriers in the near future. This helps their homeland issues but it also provides them with a tool to protect their sea lanes and provide a much further protective reach than they presently project. The other countries have been projecting in this same manner for years. Even the Japanese are considering changing the structure of their constitution to allow a more aggressive military to develop to provide a greater presence and higher level of protection for themselves.

There are other countries who are presently building their military but they are the ones to watch. The Arab Spring may turn in to a winter nightmare as these buildups, though hidden and shallow, meet with the Iranian development of nuclear weapons. These are the areas we need to be aware of. What look like legitimate positions for now, in the Mid East may just be the calm before the storm. The military build up in the major countries of the world are just preparations to be a step ahead of the possibilities of war while solving their homeland economic problems at the same time.

The actions may be harmless and somewhat routine but they put us all on edge. There may be no evil intent nor evil end goal in these actions but the mere presence of a military build up by anyone makes all the others fearful of falling behind. It is almost like having a conversation with Dr. Strangelove who is fearful of falling behind even in mine shafts. More likely than not these covert moves by the big boys is to keep ahead of the monsters of the Mid East yet they are already making themselves distrustful of everyone in the game. We played this game from 1945 to 1990 so we should all understand that this could be the beginning of a new and very icy cold war of sorts.


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