Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- May 22, 2011

America's Student Loan Racket: Soaring Default Rates - SteveLendmanBlog - May 19, 2011 - An earlier article discussed Permanent Debt Bondage from America's Student Loan Racket," accessed through the following link: http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2011/01/permanent-debt-bondage-from-americas.html

It explained government/corporate complicity to rip off students for profit, a racket continuing under Obama. His July 2010 Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act perpetuated the scam. It enriches providers, entrapping millions of students permanently in debt, because rising tuition and fee amounts plus interest, service charges, and late payment or collection agency penalties are too onerous to repay...  It's part of the grand scheme, of course, to transfer maximum public wealth to America's super-rich already with too much. Ongoing for over three decades, it accelerated under Obama, a corrupted Wall Street/war profiteer tool, destroying America for power and profit...  Millions of Students Permanently Entrapped in Debt


In Rust Belt, manufacturers add jobs, but factory pay isn’t what it used to be - Washington Post - Michael A. Fletcher - May 17, 2011 - The nation’s factories have added 250,000 jobs since the beginning of last year — about 13 percent of what was lost during the recent recession — marking the first sustained increase in manufacturing employment since 1997... But the new hiring also reflects another emerging reality of U.S. manufacturing: Many of the jobs don’t pay anything close to what they used to. Assembly-line workers who will be making the EdenPure products under the auspices of Suarez Corp. Industries will start at $7.50 an hour... That’s a far cry from the $20 an hour that most workers made with Hoover, which shifted its century-old production lines to Mexico and El Paso in 2007 after concluding that it was too expensive to make its products in the industrial Midwest.


Middle-Class Americans More Productive, But Earning Less: Report - The Huffington Post - Janell Ross - 05/20/11 - American workers' productivity has soared over the last 30 years, but that extra output hasn't translating into higher earnings for the American middle class, according to a report released this week.... A 40-year-old male high school graduate earned less in real terms in 2009 than he would have in 1980, according to the report by the Employment Policy Research Network, a collective of labor, management, economics, employment and sociology researchers from 50 universities brought together by the nonpartisan nonprofit Labor and Employment Relations Association.... As middle-class Americans have lost out economically over that 30 year period, productivity, corporate profits and the incomes of America's rich have all soared, the report said. By 2009, 1 percent of the population lived on 21 percent of the nation’s total annual earnings.  


Senate Bill Would Limit Use of 401(k)s as Rainy Day Funds - Bloomberg - By Margaret Collins - May 18, 2011 - Workers will be limited in tapping their 401(k) retirement plans for loans under legislation two senators introduced today that’s designed to counter the erosion of retirement assets...  “Because of the difficult economic times, more and more Americans are treating their retirement accounts as rainy day funds,” Senator Herb Kohl, a Wisconsin Democrat, said in a statement today. “A 401(k) savings account should not be used as a piggy bank.”...  Kohl, 76, who’s chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, introduced the “SEAL 401(k) Savings Act” with Senator Mike Enzi, 67, a Wyoming Republican. The bill would reduce the number of loans workers may take from a 401(k) and give participants more time to repay after losing a job. It will allow savers to contribute to their plan after taking a hardship withdrawal and ban debit cards linked to the accounts, according to the legislation.

(The Hound: This is being done under the auspices that Big Daddy gubment is going to keep you from ruining your retirement because of the economy. They are saying that they don't want you to spend down these investments and not have anything left over when retirement comes, but the reality is that they want to keep people from taking money out of their 401-k or IRA, and thus out of the financial institutions, so that the feds can come in and raid those accounts as the Federal Reserve and United States Treasury Ponzi Scheme falls to pieces. You can see in the article below that the Treasury is already using Federal Worker's pension funds to as backing to issue Treasury notes, because the Federal Debt limit was reached last Monday, May 16, 2011. The Federal Reserve has been monetizing the debt. The Federal Reserve is the central bank of the United States and holds the direct interest of the Financial Institutions in our nation. When the dollar slides into the state of collapse that most see coming, then their will be a bank holiday and believe me, none of the people tied to the banking interests are going to give a wit about your retirement at that point. You need to carry a weary eye and start diversifying your retirement funds outside of the banking interests and Dollar-monetary investments.)


Treasury to tap pensions to help fund government - Washington Post - Zachary A. Goldfarb - May 15, 2011 - The Obama administration will begin to tap federal retiree programs to help fund operations after the government lost its ability Monday to borrow more money from the public, adding urgency to efforts in Washington to fashion a compromise over the debt.



10 Signs The U.S. is Becoming a Third World Country - Activist Post - August 16, 2010 - 1. Rising unemployment and poverty 2. Economic dependence 3. Declining civil rights 4. Increasing political corruption 5. Military patrolling the streets 6. Failing infrastructure 7. Disappearing middle class 8. Devalued currency 9. Controlling the media 10. Capital Controls

Key economic indicators point to a situation potentially worse than the Great Depression. The land of opportunity for so many is devolving into a system of government corruption, corporate looting, and military rule that threatens to sink the American Dream. The capital flight from America has left a dwindling middle class holding an empty bag. This style of underinvestment in the foundation of society is similar to what already has led to the exodus from the rural Midwest. Now, there are ominous signs of a silent exodus of young, intelligent professionals seeking opportunities to realize their dreams outside of America; they are becoming known as Generation Xpat. Lastly, many skilled immigrants have returned to their home countries to seek a better quality of life, which might be the scariest indicator of all.




The Hound: The Following Investigative videos are from television station WTVF out of Nashville, Tennessee. The questions ask are the police officials more interested in stopping Drug Traffic or making money. The Drug war in America has become big business and interdiction, in many cases, has not been the priority. This type of philosophy is what is harming our country. If law enforcement truly wants to stop the flow of drugs into the United States, then common sense tells you that they would be fighting tooth and nail to seal the borders and they would be stopping the flow of drugs as they head east and north on the interstates. Instead they are pulling over trucks and cars from out of state that are heading back south and west. Hmmm... follow the logic and follow the money.

Tennessee Law Enforcement Stealing Money from out of state innocent motorist




Video Shows Officer Offering Truckers Freedom For Cash




Questionable Traffic Stops Caught On Camera

College Conspiracy - Another point of view

I am introducing this documentary, not as a way of besmirching education, but to balance the opinion that Higher Education is a panacea that is going to solve the economic issues that we face in this nation. Look at the inflation in the Higher Education system. People are going into tens of thousands of dollars of debt with no guaranteed payoff. What kind of investment costs a mortgage worth of money with no guaranteed tangible benefit?

It isn't about College. It's about knowledge!!!



The average cost of a year of college is now $27,293 per year and government and the banking system is getting college students to go into this debt which is creating another credit bubble just as the Housing bubble did. These credit mechanisms are making the cost of college rise rapidly.

People take out these debts with a mindset that things will work out. How can people live that way? How can they live with such an unknown? My total loan debt when I graduated from UNC-Wilmington in 1989 was a little over $10,000 and I paid in back in less than 8 years. How are students going to pay back these $40,000 and $50,000 debts, when unemployment is so high (especially in the younger demographic) and income growth has been so anemic over the past two decades?

The focus needs to be on our Government helping to foster the nation's industrial capacity and helping people get back to work. We have to get back to focusing on technological advancement and we need to focus on primary education. We also need to get the government out of the business of college loans and into the business of cutting the cost of higher education.

May Rant - Where are the jobs?

Jobs. This is the issue. It has been the issue for nearly a decade and it will continue to be the issue until we get a class of leadership that is will to fight to bring jobs back to our country!

The problem is the marriage of corruption and comfort. The elite are comfortable with corruption. I face this issue every time I bring this issue up about specific incidences of corruption happening at every level of the government and our society. The response that I receive is, "tell me something new."

OK, I'm going to tell it to you straight. If you make no effort to solve the issues of corruption that we face, then it is game over and our country is a full fledged Banana Republic. Not addressing issues of corruption is like a dog chasing its tail. You ain't gonna get nowhere. We cannot restore the economy without addressing issues of corruption.

I am not naive. I understand that there has always been corruption and there is always going to be corruption. That is not the issue and people use that angle to obfuscate their personal acceptance of corruption. What I am obviously espousing is that when we see corruption, then we should route it out. If you accept corruption, then you are complicit in its exercise. I have shown you who has stolen money through our government. Where are the indictments against the banksters who utilized the financial system to steal trillions of dollars from the public treasury? Where are the indictment against the politicians and bureaucrats that willingly worked with these people to steal the public's money and feather their own nest?

The reason why we don't have jobs is because we have allowed our industry to be exported to the Third World. This has been perpetrated by the criminal Elite Investment class of Hedge Funds that rule World markets including Wall Street and it has only benefited the elite class who are able to invest in these funds. It has not benefited the American public. This is completely unacceptable. Where has the wealth of this nation gone? Our National wealth has been built upon a Ponzi Scheme!!! If we are wealthy, then why is our currency imploding and why have we racked up $14.3 trillion in debt on the Federal level. Folks, you are dumber than I think you are, if you think that is a sign of wealth!!!

I have shown you this. This is what the documentary The One Percent delves into. This is what I have been showing you with the Economic Stories of Relevance news links that I have been putting out each Sunday. The reason we don't have jobs is because of the greed and the corruption that have infested what is supposed to be a Free Market system. Eventually, we will put the perps in prison. We are coming to get you. It is just a matter of time. We want our money back!!!

Why has our nation used our tax dollars to invest in General Motors so that they can invest in China and celebrate Communism? (Washington Times). What has happened to our nation and our people? Why is this not a headline in every newspaper and being questioned by network television reporters? This is the reason the major media has no credibility!!!

Why is our government supporting and underwriting Brazilian Oil exploration? (Wall Street Journal - Obama underwrites offshore drilling). We have lost thousands of oil related jobs due to shutdowns in the Gulf of Mexico. We have a $700 billion annual trade deficit related to oil.  Could someone tell the environmentalists that if there is an oilspill created by Petrobras that it will still affect us. We should be making sure that we have companies drilling in the United States and for the United States that represent United States interests (period)!!!

Here in the Hickory area, since the collapse of manufacturing that took place over a decade ago, we have pushed the notion that if people get more educated and/or retrained that everything will be alright. The politicians have been the biggest supporters of this notion. Well, there have been many of us that followed that advice. People have gone out, gone into thousands of dollars of personal debt and learned new skills, boned up on how to use new technology, and earned various certifications and diplomas. We have done our part. Have the politicians done theirs? -- we all know the answer to that!!!

The bottom line is that these various "Free for All" - "Battle Royale" international trade mechanisms have not worked. They have left this nation vulnerable. People are not lazy, which is the notion that many of the Republicans want to push. They just want to earn a decent living and have a purpose to their life. They don't want a ragtag, live day-to-day existence. They want a career. They want to progress in a job that has meaning to where they can enjoy their families without working multiple jobs to make ends meet and never getting to spend time with their loved ones. I don't think people care about retiring. I personally don't ever want to retire, but I want to build and accumulate some modest wealth so that I can go on a vacation, improve the homestead, have a decent form of transportation, have money saved for a rainy day such as an illness, and be able to slow down when I get older like I know is the natural due process of living life.

Our government is not giving us this option. All they do is feather their own nest at our expense. It is time to take back elected officials pensions, since they are intent on destroying ours. It is time to cut their pay, since they are intent on cutting ours. It is time for them to sacrifice, since the blowhards tell us that we need to sacrifice. It is time to take away their comfort, since they are intent on taking away ours. It is time for them to feel the anxieties of the public that they work for. We are not their subjects. They are supposed to be working towards our interests. Where are our jobs?!?!

The mindset of the public should be: if we can't have our jobs back, then neither can you. It is time for some freaking accountability. It is time to end the excuses. It is time for some execution (as in performance for the dimwits who would accuse me of preaching violence). I want to see some action taken to reverse the trends. The trends are deplorable and getting worse.

If you are lost, do you double back or keep going down the path that you are lost on. It is obvious that we are lost and no one knows how to get our freaking jobs back, so maybe one of the pea brains needs to get us back on the road that we were on when we had decent jobs and our economy was progressing. And it is time that our local officials find some courage to support the public's interest or it is time for the public to show courage and kick the parasites out the door, because you are either with us or against us. We want our dignity and We want our jobs back!!!

Newsletter about the City Council meeting of May 17, 2011

This newsletter is about the Hickory City Council meeting that I attended this past week. City council meetings are held on the first and third Tuesdays of each Month in the Council Chambers of the Julian Whitener building.

At right of this page under Main Information links is an Hickory's City Website link. If you click on that link, it takes you to our city’s website, at the left of the page you will see the Agenda's and Minutes link you need to click. This will give you a choice of PDF files to upcoming and previous meetings.

You will find historic Agenda and Minutes links. Agendas show what is on the docket for the meeting of that date. The Minutes is an actual summary of the proceedings of the meeting of that date.

Here is a summary of the agenda of the 5/17/2011 meeting. There were a couple of important items that were discussed at this meeting and the details are listed further below:

Please remember that pressing Ctrl and + will magnify the text and page and pressing Ctrl and - will make the text and page smaller. This will help the readability for those with smaller screens and/or eye difficulties.

Invocation by Dr. Charles Kyker, Pastor of Christ Church

Special Presentations:

A. The First and Second Grade Students from Hickory Day School to Perform Songs They Wrote About the City of Hickory and the State of North Carolina




B. Proclamation Presentation to Ned and Dale Jarrett Declaring May 23, 2011 as “Ned and Dale Jarrett Day” in the City of Hickory




C. Presentation to Chief of Police, Tom Adkins a Proclamation Declaring the Week of May 15 -21, 2011 as National Police Week in the City of Hickory - The Mayor pointed out that there are approximately 900,000 Law Enforcement Officers serving in the U.S. In Hickory we have 118. Approximately 60,000 assaults on officers are reported each year, resulting in 16,000 injuries. Since 1791, more than 19,000 officers have been killed in the line of duty. 317 names will be added to the national Police Officer memorial this year, including 153 officers killed in 2010 and 164 from previous years.



Chief Adkins accepted the award and mentioned Gerald Wayne Maynard who passed away in 1977. He spoke about the Ride Along program in which citizens ride with on duty officers while they are on duty. He addressed statistics relating to Officer fatalities while on duty, which are up this year. Fire arm fatalities are up 24% this year.

Consent Agenda:
A. Call for Public Hearing on the City Manager’s FY2011-2012 Recommended Budget. The 2011-2012 Recommended Budget has been presented to City Council as required by law and is available for review in the Office of the City Clerk, Patrick Beaver Memorial Library and Ridgeview Library.

B. Establishment of New Council Priorities and Action Plan for FY 2011-12. Every year the Hickory City Council adopts additional priorities and associated action plans that are derived from the annual Council-Staff Planning Retreat, the City’s master plans, formal action taken by City Council throughout the year, and the City Manager’s assessment of initiatives that need to be considered by City Council. These priorities and action plans are used during the fiscal year as a guide to ensure that City departments
advocate the philosophy and goals defined by City Council for the City of Hickory.

C. Approve Future Annexation Agreement From Stephen and Pamela Joy for Property Located at 1507 6th Street, SE - Stephen and Pamela Joy have requested to be connected to the City of Hickory’s water and sewer system without being annexed into the City limits and agree to be annexed in the future when the City finds it economically feasible. The Joy property is located at 1507 6th Street, SE. The property is approximately 250 linear feet from the current City boundary where service delivery is not currently provided and individually unpractical from an economic standpoint. The current owners and successors agree to be annexed into theCity limits at a time of the City’s choosing.

D. Citizens’ Advisory Committee Recommendations for Assistance Through the City of Hickory’s Housing Programs - The following applicants are being recommended for approval for assistance under the
City’s Housing Rehabilitation Program:
Geneva Collins - Amount not to exceed $10,000 - 39 44th Avenue Place, NE
Pressly Development - Amount not to exceed $20,000 - 84-unit Senior Apartment Community
Carrie James - Current loan balance of $18,485.28 - 221 3rd Avenue Court, SW - Refinance the loan for 12 years @ 3% interest - Refinancing will reduce monthly payment from $233.33 to $153.05

The following applicants are being recommend for approval for assistance under the City’s 2010 Urgent Repair Program for amounts not to exceed $5,000
@ Barbara Byrd 117 8th Avenue Drive, SE
@ Camilla Isenhour 913 21st Avenue, NE
@ Gladys Smith 328 19th Avenue, NE

E. Proclamation Declaring May 17, 2011 as “Hickory Kiwanis Club Day” in the City of Hickory

F. Proclamation Recognizing May 17, 2011 as “Hickory Rotary Club Day” in the City of Hickory

G. Proclamation Declaring May 12, 2011 as “Salvation Army Day” in the City of Hickory

H. Approve Modification to Farmer’s Market Special Event Permit for Use of Union Square
on Saturday, June 4, 2011 - The Farmer’s Market Board is requesting a modification to the schedule previously approved by City Council to allow the market to set up at 8:30 a.m. and open at 9:30 a.m.
on Saturday, June 4, 2011. This is to accommodate the previously approved Union Square Application by the Charity Chase event of the same morning. There are several annual events that occur on Union Square on Saturdays and these will take precedence over the market on those dates. The Farmer’s Market will need to make other arrangements for operation pursuant to the conditions of their application.


I. Approval to Accept Donated Fitness Equipment From Palliative Care Center of Catawba Valley for Use by the Hickory Fire Department - On May 3, 2011 City Council tabled this item until it was determined if the Palliative Care Center of Catawba Valley had ownership of the fitness equipment. Doug Kenworthy, the original owner of the equipment has donated the equipment to Hospice. Therefore, the Palliative Care Center of Catawba Valley desires to donate the several pieces of fitness equipment to the Hickory Fire Department with no in-kind or monetary reciprocity. The equipment is currently located at 1915 Fairgrove Church Road, SE and will need to be removed by City of Hickory personnel.

Budget Ordinances
1. Budget $116 of Local Government Revenue in the Police Department Overtime and Holiday line item. This revenue is payment from Catawba County Mental Health for a portion of an officer’s time spent when accompanying involuntary commitment patients.
2. To decrease the Parks and Recreations Miscellaneous Donations and Departmental Supplies line items by $1,782. Duplicate receipts for three 2011 Senior Games donations totaling $1,782 were inadvertently submitted and budgeted. Therefore a budget amendment is necessary to decrease the
increase to donations and departmental supplies.
3. Budget a total of $1,150 of donations in the International Council line item. Donations will be used to conduct the 2011 International Springfest event.
4. Re-appropriate $625 of General Fund Balance and budget in the International Council line item. There is a $625 balance of unspent Springfest funds that rolled into General Fund Balance at year end. Therefore, this amendment will reappropriate the $625 from General Fund Balance and budget in the FY10-11 International Council line item for the 2011 Springfest.
5. Increase the Hotel/Motel Occupancy Tax revenues and expenditures by $300,000 for the amounts expected to be received for the remainder of FY2011. The occupancy taxes are remitted to the Tourism Development Authority under General Statutes.
6. Appropriate $37,500 of Rural Fire District Designated funds and budget in the Rural Fire District Maintenance and Repair of Buildings line item. This amendment is needed to provide funds to pay for replacement of the original 60ft. by 78ft. metal roof that was installed in 1987.
7. Transfer $40,058 of Water and Sewer Contingency Fund to the Debt Service Loan line item to pay for the debt service payment for the Cripple Creek project.
8. Transfer $618 from the Police Department Training Uniforms line item to the Bureau of Justice Assistance Grant (BJA) project Uniforms line item. Vests purchased for the Police Department exceeded the approved grant allowance; therefore a transfer of $618 is needed to cover the grant shortfall.
9. Transfer $1,850 from the Police Department Seminar Registration line item to the Inter-Agency Gang Grant project Contracted Services line item. The Grant did not cover the costs of printed materials and food for the call in practice session; therefore a transfer of $1,850 representing the City of Hickory’s
contribution is needed.

Informational Items:
A. Attendance by City Manager Berry to the NCLM Regional Legislative Meeting Held in Newton, NC on April 13, 2011; registration - $20

New Business - Public Hearings:
1. Resolution Directing Street Improvement Project be Undertaken Along a Portion of 5th Street, SE- No. 01-11 - The City Clerk has received a petition from the owners of property along a portion of 5th Street, SE to install curb and gutter per Section 29-2 of the Hickory City Code. The signatures on the petition represent 100% of the property owners affected. The City Clerk has certified that the Preliminary Resolution adopted by the City Council on April 19, 2011 was mailed by first class mail on April 28, 2011
Chuck Hanson made the brief presentation and the council unanimously approved.
2. Presentation by Attorney Deborah Stagner of the Raleigh Law Firm Tharrington Smith on the Proposed Ward Boundary Map Based on the 2010 Federal Census Results and Approval of Resolution - At its April 5, 2011 meeting, City Council received an initial (Alternative 1) map showing ward boundary changes which would balance each ward’s population based on the 2010 census. City Council designated a subcommittee (Wright,Fox, Meisner) to analyze ward boundaries and recommend changes to City Council. Feed back from the Council meeting was used to develop alternative 2 and the subcommittee met in open session on April 26th. Alternative 2 wasfurther refined to keep Planning Commission members in their wards and take into consideration City Council member comments. Alternative 3 was developed and the subcommittee met in open session on May 6th. The subcommittee recommends alternative 3 for City Council to receive public input at the public hearing and consider adoption of the requisite resolution.

Mrs. Stagner's comments were only a reiteration of what has been mentioned in the pat on this blog and which I delved into yeaterday in the article - Ward Specific Elections and Representation in Hickory, North Carolina - The more interesting comments came from Attorney Allison Riggs, a staff attorney with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice in Durham, who speaks against the proposed ward redistricting proposed by a subcommittee of Hickory's City Council and submits a new proposal, while asking the council to consider a pure ward election in the future. She believes that this would be fairer towards minority interests. She is also interested in seeing a true Minority-Majority district. She speaks of the current system as a phantom Minority-Majority district. She cites statistics and submits a map of the proposed redrawn lines that would achieve these goals. In light of Mr. Riggs presentation the Council postponed making a desion and tabled this item until the next City Council meeting to be held on June 6, 2011.

Proposed New Ward Map - May 6, 2011 

The Hounds Comments are still valid and I would like to add that I was impressed with the preparation that the Citizens for Equity in Government brought forth with this attorney. This went right to the heart of the matter. It is ashamed that lawyers seem to be the only thing that brings attention to this council. Listen to the presentation below. It is a little over seven minutes long, but it explains the position of the minority community and reiterates why we really need Pure Ward voting in Hickory, if we want to see all areas of the city prosper in the future.

Ward Specific Elections and Representation in Hickory, North Carolina

Tomorrow night at the Hickory City Council meeting the issue of Ward Realignment will be addressed. The issue was first discussed at the City Council Meeting of April 5, 2011 by Deborah Stagner of the Law Firm Tharrington Smith.

Summarizing:  There is a constitutional requirement for one person one vote. Each electoral district (ward) must be substantially equal in population, so that each person's vote counts the same and therefore every 10 years after the official Federal census, governments are required to look at their districts and determine whether or not the lines need to be adjusted. 

The City Council must look at whether the process can be completed before the third business day before the filing deadline for the upcoming election. She is looking to adopt a resolution sometime in June. The filing opens on July 25 this year in the City of Hickory, and the wards must be drawn up three business days before that filing date begins. That means that this plan has to be in place by July 19, 2011. 

Each district does not have to be identical in size. Courts allow a reasonable variation amongst jurisdictions. The overall deviation between the smallest and largest districts should not be more than 10%. When looking at the current districts, the ideal number can be found by dividing the population of the city into the total number of districts. The population of the city of Hickory after the last census is 40,010 divided by six districts, which means that the ideal population for each district would be 6,668. In looking at the largest and the smallest districts in the city of Hickory, you see that there is more than 10% difference between the largest and smallest district. There's been a significant amount of growth in Ward 2 and a significant decrease in Ward 5. Ward 2 is 21% over the average and Ward 5 is 14% below the average. And adding this together, you see that there is a 35% deviation, which is far above 10% desired deviation.

Equity in Government: During the last City Council Meeting of May 3, 2011,  the Catawba County Democratic Party's spoke about their vison and in those statements they stated that they want to work together to build a community which respects diversity and they look to "hold government 1eaders accountable for their political actions and policies by insisting upon openness" in government.They believe that the poor and minority community in Hickory has no effective voice in city government due to a lack of representation on the City Council. They have respectfully requested the Hickory City Council to seek and implement ways to show greater sensitivity for the legitimate concerns of under-represented minorities in this community.

In their goal to Support the creation of a Minority-Majority Ward, the Democrat Party mentions that until 1970, city elections were ward based. In that year, Hickory instituted the modified at-large system for electing City Council members. They believe that this change has created an electoral system which eventually led to the under-representation of poor and minority citizens in elected positions and the modified at-large electoral system now in place essentially denies that possibility and thus insures that representative democracy is diminished in our community;

THE HOUND: I cannot disagree with the summarization of the Democrat party on this issue. Under the guidelines expected to be passed tomorrow night, the public is supposed to have a voice in this decision making process, but if one looks back to what happened last year with the City's swimming pools in Ridgeview and West Hickory, they will remember that citizens were supposed to have a voice in that decision also; but in the end they had no voice, because city officials highjacked the process and swerved it towards their own personally desired conclusion.

In my opinion, under this current situation, the right question is not being addressed. Remember from Mrs. Stagner's own address of Council, she stated that the goal of the legislation is to have one person - one vote. To me, that opens up another question. By the term vote are we suggesting that we are trying to create equal populations in wards as a way to meet a State governmental statute or are we trying to truly empower representation of individuals in each of the six wards of Hickory?

I Honestly believe that the minimum will be done to meet the threshold of criteria set forth by North Carolina General Statutes. And the goal of creating a Minority-Majority ward would not address the issues either. I sat in a room two years ago at the Candidates Forum at the Catawba County Chamber of Commerce in which a gentleman insisted that Hickory needs to go back to Ward specific voting. At that time, I disagreed with him and for the most part it was for selfish reasons. I had a personal interest in seeing Harry Hipps win Ward 6 and I knew that he could not defeat the incumbent if it came to a pure ward vote. I counted on the other wards' votes and for the most part those other wards did not show up. In the end my personal selfish interests showed the true dilemma that Hickory faces. In the end I was wrong.

What Hickory needs to see is Ward specific elections. Ward 6 should not be determining the person or interests that represent Ward 1 through 5 and Ward 1 should not be determining who represents Ward 2 through 6. The only general election should be for the Mayorship. Why? Because we have seen races in the past 40 years where the Ward has a primary in which one candidate wins the primary and then when they go to the general election they get blown out because of the heavy weighted turnout from another ward. That means that the specific ward isn't being represented by the person of their choice. They are being represented by the choice of another Ward. This has happened multiple times to Larry Pope in Ward 4 and it happened to Gary Ewing in Ward 2. 

We don't need to see multiple elections. We have a hard enough time getting turnout for one election. In the Ward 4 race two years ago, you had over 300 people show up for the primary and 77 people show up for the general election. If you have 1, 2, 3, or 4 candidates it should not matter. You can say that the person has to win by 50%-plus or a plurality plus 10% and that would make for a fair election (or then there is a runoff of the top 2). What we see dilutes the effectiveness of Ward Representatives. The Ward Representative would do best by winning over the people within their own ward. As it stands now, you can theoretically not talk to a single person in your ward or represent a single issue of your ward; but you can still win by going and talking up the issues that face other wards even when those issues don't represent (work against) the interests of your own ward. Does that make sense?

What my opinion is is that what entails our current local municipal election process (and subsequently governance) is not working. I do believe that much of our populace is not being fairly represented. It isn't about being a sore loser. It is about fairness. This isn't a Race issue to me, because if one looks at Ridgeview much of the African-American population has been dispersed throughout the city. Ridgeview and its immediate area is becoming more racially diverse. What I see is more of a socio-economic issue where the poor people in the community are not being represented. Look at the make-up of Council. I believe the people on Council do not have a clue how the poor to middle class citizens lives in this community. 

The people in Viewmont wouldn't want the people of the South Side of the tracks imposing their will or desires upon them and we know that the same can be said if the roles are reversed. This issue will not be settled by redrawing lines and adding a few residences here or there. In the last election only 2,300 people showed up to vote out of 27,000 registered. Would you consider that a success?

A healthy community wants people to vote. In the 2009 election, I believe that more than half of the voters came from 3 voting precincts in the City of Hickory. Those precincts represent the people who have most of their issues addressed by the Council. It is good that these people vote and they should not be ashamed or penalized for voicing their privilege and desires. But, what The City of Hickory needs to see is more people buy into the process of governance. Everyone in the city should be working together and looking out for each others interests. That cannot happen if we try and impose our will upon one another. That can only happen if the community meets at the table on an equal footing. Ward specific voting will not be perfect, but it will insure that the voices that represent the local neighborhoods (and their opinions) are listened to and understood and that is all that anyone should rightfully ask for.

Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- May 15, 2011

4closurefraud Website - A website dedicated to the fraudclosure MERS issue


FDIC’s Bair: Millions of Foreclosures Could Be ‘Infected’ - Wall Street Journal - Alan Zibel - May 12, 2011 - The head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is warning that flaws may have “infected millions of foreclosures” and questioned whether other regulators’ inquiries into problems at the nation’s mortgage-servicing companies have been thorough enough... “We do not yet really know the full extent of the problem,” FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said Thursday in written remarks submitted to a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee. “Flawed mortgage-banking processes have potentially infected millions of foreclosures, and the damages to be assessed against these operations could be significant and take years to materialize.”


U.S. ‘Underwater’ Homeowners Increase to 28 Percent - Bloomberg - John Gittelsohn - May 10, 2011 - More than 28 percent of U.S. homeowners with mortgages owed more than their properties were worth in the first quarter as values fell the most since 2008, Zillow Inc. said today... Homeowners with negative equity increased from 22 percent a year earlier as home prices slumped 8.2 percent over the past 12 months, the Seattle-based company said. About 27 percent of homes with mortgages were “underwater” in the fourth quarter, according to Zillow, which runs a website with property-value estimates and real-estate listings...Home prices fell 3 percent in the first quarter and will drop as much as 9 percent this year as foreclosures spread and unemployment remains high, Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries said. Prices won’t find a floor until 2012, he said...“We get tired of telling such a grim story, but unfortunately this is the story that needs to be told,” Humphries said in a telephone interview. “Demand is still quite anemic due to unemployment and the fact that home values are still falling. And that tends to make people more cautious about buying.”


Foreclosure Filings Fall 34% as Banks Struggle With ‘Saturation’ - Bloomberg - Dan Levy - May 11, 2011 - Foreclosure filings in the U.S. fell 34 percent last month from a year earlier as lenders already swamped with seized homes delayed action on thousands of additional delinquent mortgages, RealtyTrac Inc. said... A total of 219,258 properties received default, auction or repossession notices in April, the fewest in 40 months, the Irvine, California-based data seller said today in a statement. It was the seventh straight month that filings dropped from a year earlier. They were down 9 percent from March. One in 593 U.S. households got a notice.


The covert bailing out of the commercial real estate industry by the Federal Reserve. How the Fed bails out ritzy hotels and empty shopping malls on the back of taxpayer dollars.- MyBudget360.com -  Part of the success that the Federal Reserve has achieved with boosting up large banks stems from its secretive ability to forge shadow bailouts of residential and commercial real estate loans.  The more secretive of the previous two comes from the commercial real estate (CRE) industry.  During the height of the housing mania in the United States CRE values were estimated to be worth $6.5 trillion.  A hefty sum no doubt and with $3.5 trillion in loans securing these properties, a significant cushion of equity was in place.  Yet with the crash in all real estate values, banks were left holding a smoldering portfolio of empty shopping malls, luxury hotels, and in some cases fast food outlets.  Today CRE values are estimated to be at $3 to $3.5 trillion putting many loans in a negative equity position reminiscent of many individual homeowners.  This issue of bailing out CRE was never discussed openly with the American people because it would have never carried any political muster.  So what the Federal Reserve accomplished was to create a system where banks were able to exchange toxic loans in place of U.S. Treasuries without taking up an open dialogue with the public.  In other words a clandestine bailout.



The People vs. Goldman Sachs - By Matt Taibbi - Rolling Stone Magazine - May 11, 2011 - A Senate committee has laid out the evidence. Now the Justice Department should bring criminal charges - They weren't murderers or anything; they had merely stolen more money than most people can rationally conceive of, from their own customers, in a few blinks of an eye. But then they went one step further. They came to Washington, took an oath before Congress, and lied about it... Thanks to an extraordinary investigative effort by a Senate subcommittee that unilaterally decided to take up the burden the criminal justice system has repeatedly refused to shoulder, we now know exactly what Goldman Sachs executives like Lloyd Blankfein and Daniel Sparks lied about. We know exactly how they and other top Goldman executives, including David Viniar and Thomas Montag, defrauded their clients. America has been waiting for a case to bring against Wall Street. Here it is, and the evidence has been gift-wrapped and left at the doorstep of federal prosecutors, evidence that doesn't leave much doubt: Goldman Sachs should stand trial. Video - Is Goldman Sachs above the law? - from Elliott Spitzer's TV Program - May 11, 2011


Countdown to Default - Is This the End of the Road? - Before It Was News - By Mike Whitney ~ Counterpunch.com - May 10, 2011 - Sometime in mid-May, the United States will hit the debt ceiling ($14.3 trillion) which is the legal limit that the country can borrow without congressional approval. If the ceiling isn't raised, the US will default on its debt and the government will begin to shut down. But that appears to be less likely now than it was a week ago because Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has implemented a plan that will pay off bondholders and keep the government operating until early August. Geithner's accounting maneuvers are designed to give the Obama administration and congress a little more time to hammer out the details on a final budget deal. But that's not going to be easy, because Democrats and Republicans are still far apart on the issue of spending cuts, and neither party is willing to give ground. And that's why Wall Street is so worried, because if a settlement isn't reached soon, the uncertainty is liable to roil markets and send stocks plunging.


Dollar in graver danger than the Euro- Axel Merk - The Financial Times - May 11, 2011 - In the US, the day investors come to accept the reality that inflation, rather than fiscal discipline, is the path of least political resistance may be the day the bond market won’t be as forgiving. Unlike the eurozone, where consumers stopped spending and started saving a decade ago, the highly indebted US consumer may not be able to stomach higher interest rates. The large US current account deficit also makes the dollar more vulnerable to a misbehaving bond market than the eurozone.


AMERICA IS BROKE AND BORROWING LIKE CRAZY - Frosty Wooldridge - NewsWithViews.com - May 5, 2011 - Back in 1965, the United States of America enjoyed the status of being the largest lender nation in the world. Today, America suffers the enigma of being the largest debtor nation on the planet... The U.S. government borrows in excess of $2 billion a day to float its false economy where manufacturing has been shipped off to China and every other country in the world...  Today, our $800 billion a year military budget wastes untold amounts of money that does nothing to keep Americans safe or secure.



Medicare, Social Security Funds Expiring Sooner, U.S. Says - National Journal - By Tim Fernholz - May 13, 2011 - The trust funds of Treasury bonds that provide back-stop funding for the programs will be exhausted sooner than anticipated: the Medicare hospital insurance fund will exhaust in 2024, five years sooner than expected, and the Social Security trust fund will expire in 2036, a year earlier than last projected. Social Security expenditures exceeded its tax receipts for the first time in nearly three decades last year with a deficit of $49 billion. The trustees project a similar deficit of $46 billion in 2011, largely the consequence of a weaker economy...    Economic conditions drove an even deeper near-term deterioration in the fiscal condition of Medicare's Hospital Insurance Trust Fund, which is now facing insolvency five years earlier than expected due to lower inflation-adjusted Medicare receipts as a consequence of sluggish economic growth.


The Fed and the Debt By Ron Paul - Lew Rockwell.com - May 12, 2011 -  I believe Congress should refuse to raise the debt ceiling. It would be one of the best things that could happen to this country. Congress finally would be forced to address the spending issue once and for all. Outlays would have to be covered by receipts, and Congress would have to get serious about eliminating unconstitutional government departments and programs. It is my hope that this hearing will help to examine the symbiotic relationship between the Federal Reserve's monetary policy and the Treasury's debt issuance, and I look forward to the testimony of our witnesses.


Treasury Auctions To Take US Over Debt Ceiling On Monday - Dow Jones Newswire - By Jeffrey Sparshott and Jeff Bater - May 13, 2011 - The Obama administration has asked Congress to raise the limit, warning that failure to act could lead the government to default by Aug. 2 and could spook investors even before then...  House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) said Monday that any increase in the government's debt limit should be accompanied by trillions of dollars in spending cuts.


America Is Rapidly Bleeding Wealth And Jobs: 28 Statistics About The Gutting Of The U.S. Economy That Will Blow Your Mind  - endoftheamericandream.com - Red alert! Over 40 billion dollars of America's national wealth is being shipped out of the country every single month.  Our economy is being gutted and we are bleeding wealth and we are bleeding jobs.  This is a distress call.  Is anyone listening?  Thousands of our factories and millions of our jobs are being shipped overseas.  Over the past decade over 6 trillion dollars have been transferred into the hands of foreigners.  Our national government is so broke that they constantly have to go and beg those foreigners to lend us back some of that money in order to finance our exploding debt. The number of good jobs continues to decline and there are millions upon millions of my countrymen that are unemployed.  Can anybody help us? Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!


Barack Obama Is Wrong: 18 Facts Which Prove That Illegal Immigration Is An Absolute Nightmare For The U.S. Economy  - The Economic Collapse.Com - Barack Obama has declared that "immigration reform is an economic imperative", and is promising to do his best to get an immigration bill pushed through Congress this year.  But will "legalizing" all of the illegal immigration that has taken place over the last several decades improve the struggling U.S. economy or will it actually make our economic problems worse?  One of the favorite tricks of top politicians is to promise that the economy is going to improve if we just support what it is that they are currently pushing.  Hopefully the Americans people will not buy the nonsense that Obama is spewing.  The truth is that Barack Obama is wrong about the economic impact of illegal immigration.  Illegal immigrants don't do jobs that Americans "don't want" to do.  A million Americans recently showed up to apply for a job at McDonald's.  That is how desperate Americans are for work these days.  Please don't try to tell me that there aren't millions of Americans out there that would not pick fruit for minimum wage.  The millions upon millions of illegal immigrants in this country are stealing jobs, they are depressing wages in a whole host of industries and they are a huge factor in the erosion of the middle class.  Millions of middle class American families can't afford to provide for their families anymore and are losing their homes, drowning in debt or going bankrupt.  Rather than what Barack Obama is proposing (which is to essentially "legalize" illegal immigration), we need an immigration policy that makes sense and that protects American jobs.


SEC staff’s ‘revolving door’ prompts concerns about agency’s independence -  Washington Post - David S. Hilzenrath - May 13, 2011 - Until two weeks ago, Kayla Gillan was deputy chief of staff at the Securities and Exchange Commission, an agency whose duties include policing and regulating the accounting firms that audit public companies. Last week, PricewaterhouseCoopers announced that Gillan was taking a leadership role at the big accounting firm to work on regulatory issues... From Capitol Hill to academia and the SEC inspector general’s office, observers of the agency have voiced concern that the revolving door can make the SEC a more docile protector of the public interest.


Fraudonomics, What Will They Do To Defend It? - VisionVictory

Will 2011 be the last Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn?

The Greater Hickory Classic has been played at Rock Barn Golf and Spa since 2003. I think this tournament has been great for our area since its inception, but I don’t know that it has been given the support that it has truly needed and deserved to insure that it will continue on for the foreseeable future. There is a feeling amongst many people I have spoken with that this tournament has run its course. I certainly hope not, but what I am hearing, and what we are seeing, makes one pause to think that 2011 will be the last year for the tournament to be held here.

Now I know that it might not be popular to bring this subject up and I will probably catch some flack for running out ahead of the curve on this subject with this story, but I believe this article and this story needs to be told. The area’s Ostrich complex, in my opinion has done more damage than necessary, because it has allowed the public to be blindsided on many counts where it wasn’t necessary. Our local paper is only going to print what the Marketers of the Classic and the Powers That Be hand over to them. They certainly can’t ever be accused of doing any critical thinking. I am typing this because I want the public to know that it is important that we lose egos and work together to support important events that attract people to our area or we will lose those events.

I worked at Rock Barn, both full time and part time, as a Chef’s Assistant from June 2001 until August 2006. During this time period was when the Robert Trent Jones Jr. Golf Course was built, opened, and became the venue for the Senior PGA tour event. Rock Barn was a special place during that time. Youssef Amrani was the General Manager under the direction of Don Beaver (Rock Barn’s primary investor). Special things were being done to entice the public to visit and join the club and there was an excitement surrounding the operations.

Youssef wanted us to take pride in the club and he took care of those who worked under him in turn. At that time, public officials and business people felt like we had hit a bump in the road with the economy, but no one felt like we were headed towards the period of malaise that we slid into that has lasted for nearly a decade. Rock Barn hummed along during the early part of the last decade. We usually fed a hundred people in Alexander’s Grill at night and double that on the weekends. There were always multiple events taking place in the clubhouse every day and Sunday brunch was always a packed house. I don’t know if the club was making money during this period, but we certainly had a lot of people hanging around the place. During this time the spa was also built and received a lot of public attention.

Mr. Beaver took on the mission of supporting and growing the Rock Barn community and I am sure that he understood that challenges would lie ahead; but I know that he, nor anyone else, understood the burden that would beset the area and make it hard for entertainment and social operations to be viable due to the effects of the struggling economy and its correlation with the income of people in the local area. Clubs and many of the area’s finer restaurants have struggled over the past decade, because people have had to cut back. During the early part of the last decade, wealthy people could afford to be a member of all three local “County Clubs” (Lake Hickory Country Club, Catawba Country Club, and Rock Barn). With the slowdown in the economy, people have had to (or decided to) cut back. And they are going to remain at the club where their family has established roots. Most of these families have been members at Catawba or Lake Hickory for generations. The loss of memberships has hurt Rock Barn’s progress and caused the club to suffer due to inactivity.

I remember meeting Robert Trent Jones Jr. and speaking with him briefly about his course at a party that was held in his honor in 2002. This course is truly one of the best golf courses in America and has been nationally recognized as such. The other course, the Jackson Course, is also one of the nicest courses in the area and when I was a teenager I would play that course on a regular basis, but it is not considered to be a PGA level course. The Jones course is a signature golf course designed by one of the preeminent golf course designers in the world and as such I am sure that Mr. Beaver looked at its development as one of the defining achievements of his business career.

I remember the first tournament and how packed the tournament was and the energy that it created in the area. It received big time coverage by the major news outlets in Charlotte and the surrounding area. The event is a Champions Tour (Senior PGA) event and that is a second tier event in comparison to the PGA (regular) tour, but the Classic was lauded as one of the most prestigious venues on the tour at that time and it received positive reviews from many of the experts.

I have attended several professional golf events (multiple times) in the area including the Greater Greensboro Open, the senior event that was held during the 1990’s at the TPC Course at Piper Glen, and I have attended the Wachovia/Wells Fargo Event held at Quail Hollow. The Rock Barn event was every bit as nice as attending those tournaments. I know that when I worked there that we worked our tails off to put our best foot forward.

There have been rumors floating around over the last several years that the tournament has been winding down and would soon no longer take place. Mr. Beaver has sunk a lot of money into the tournament and I believe he wants to see it stand on its own two feet. He has been responsible for the appearance money to bring big time names and prize money to be paid out to the participants. That is just the reality of how one of these big events work, but every businessman wants to turn a profit, if not at least break even.

This event has been giving some much needed charity money to the area. It is a shell game to say that there were profits that could go to these charities. Let’s be honest, Mr. Beaver might as well have been cutting the checks and paying these monies to these charities himself. People need to realize that this golf tournament is an expensive proposition, but it has served a prominent position in the region over the last eight years and it would be ashamed to allow it to flame out. It should never have been taken for granted by our local community.

I don’t think it has been good for the event that it has bounced around the calendar over the last 8 years. It began by being played during the last week in September 2003 under perfect weather conditions. Then in 2004, it was played during the third week in August which made it a much hotter, more humid, venue. In 2005 and 2006, it was moved to the first week of October, then it was moved back to September in 2007, 2008, and 2009 and last year it was moved back to the first week in October. This year it will be played during the second week of June (June 6-12); because I believe that the event wasn’t secured until late, because of the loss of the one year Ensure (Nutritional Drink) sponsorship, and the later calendar date slots were already filled and this date was made available by the Champions Tour (Senior PGA) as a courtesy.

I have been told by several people that no communities other than the City of Hickory would give money for marketing the tournament, because the name Hickory is attached to the tournament. This event is directly beneficial to the local communities of Conover and Claremont, because that is where it is played. And people need to realize that this event has a direct economic impact on the entire region. I just cannot understand why communities in the region would want to cut their nose off in spite of their face, because of a word. I understand animosities associated with Hickory, related to past issues, but I can’t understand why these communities are unwilling to participate in an event that brings traffic, attention, and notoriety to our region. That is some self-defeating sabotage that relates to unchecked egos if I have ever seen it.

Our local economy is not good. I know that I am labeled a doom and gloomer for stating the obvious in the face of some of the Kumbaya, sunshine salesmen; but we need to honestly assess reality. We are always talking about this area being great because it is located so close to Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Asheville, and the High Country. This is an event that can (and does) bring people from those other areas to our community and that should be our goal. That creates value and makes this event a valuable commodity. It brings outside dollars into our community and that is something that we need to do more of, not less of, in this community.

I hope that we don’t lose this tournament. This is a unique event that brings notable people to our area and by God we need the attention. I certainly think that our community should make sure that we put our best foot forward and do whatever we can to support and maintain the event. I just hope that it’s not too late. If you ever planned to attend, but never found the time, I suggest that you find the time this year, because that time may never come again. We have lost a lot over the last decade in this community and I hope that this tournament is not lost, because of the status of our local economy. I certainly hope that I am wrong … that I either am wrong in my assessment of where this tournament stands or that the local communities will wake up to what this tournament means to our area and save it. All of the communities in the area should wake up and understand what we have in this commodity. If we do lose this tournament, then it is unlikely that we will see this level of a sporting event ever return again.

P.S. I hope that you will let me know what you think.