One of the key ingredients in attaining some semblance of freedom is to become financially independent. A new book, “5 Steps To Freedom“, by Jeff Nabers and Phoebe Chongchua supplies us with some extremely effective tools to escape financial slavery. Take elements of Tom Wood’s “Meltdown“, Ron Paul’s “Manifesto“, and Peter Schiff’s “Crash Proof” all rolled into one and you come very close to describing “5 Steps To Freedom”.

The five high level steps are:

1. Measure
2. Move
3. Maintain
4. Multiply
5. Mention

The first portion of the book is an education on topics such as:

• How to evaluate your wealth by creating your own currency without using the fluctuating values of federal reserve notes as your only measure.
• Knowing what inflation is and how it affects your wealth.
• Why investing in precious metals like gold is a great way to help protect your existing wealth.
• How the government manipulates economic statistics to make us believe we are more prosperous than we really are.
• And much more.

The final part of the book gives us several case studies that demonstrate how we should think about investments. This portion is extremely useful because it shows how seemingly good investment ideas can end up being much more risky than you think. It’s an effective method to teach an investment mindset geared toward income rather than speculation-a running theme in the book.

The principles of freedom are apparent throughout the book. It becomes obvious, even before he is mentioned several times, that the authors are huge fans of Ron Paul. The book can be thought of as a no-nonsense guide to investing for libertarians and freedom-seeking individuals of all flavors.

The only negative regarding the book is that I found the transition between the first part and the case studies to be a bit like an infomercial, but once the case studies started that quickly disappeared. Jeff Nabers promotes the Solo 401K in the book, but he does so mostly by example and never tries to force it upon the reader. It is offered as a tool for those looking for an alternative, freedom-oriented investment direction.

The philosophy of liberty is an ongoing theme and applying that to investment decisions makes this book indispensable in today’s freedom-eroding world. I recommend it highly.

Purchase “5 Steps To Freedom” and be sure to visit the accompanying web site: 5StepsToFreedomBook.com for more information.  Your financial net worth will thank you later.

In recent weeks, the financial world has been dazzled by strikingly high earnings reported by our leading investment banks… or at least what we used to call investment banks. The numbers are reminiscent of another era – the one that came to a crashing end last September. Today’s euphoria was keyed to the record $3.44 billion 2nd quarter profit announced by that branch office of the Treasury Department also known as Goldman Sachs. Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, and State Street also chipped in with strong numbers.

The seeming health of these institutions, which are often referred to as the “backbone” of the U.S. economy, is currently being cited as strong proof that economic recovery is at hand. This conclusion is based on selective memory and dubious logic.

The more immediate question hinges on whether this rise in bank and corporate earnings can be sustained in the face of increased commercial real estate mortgage defaults, rising unemployment, and increased savings? Would it then be likely that the broad stock market can continue to rally while the financial sector sputters? If not, a serious correction in U.S. equity prices is a foregone conclusion.

In the early years of this century, major money-center banks and shadow banks incurred irrational risks and paid themselves unimaginably large bonuses. They were termed “gambling casinos” and deservedly drew fire when their bets went south. But instead of forcing these irresponsible firms to pay for their bad behavior, the federal government forced the general public to rescue them.

The Treasury and Fed instituted four key measures intended to boost the banks’ earnings, which in turn, would boost their share prices, improve their capital ratios and force their share prices upward.

First, Congress was pressured into giving instant approval to the $750,000,000,000 Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). This massive sum of public money was designed to buy toxic assets from the banks. However, the government soon realized that buying some toxic assets would create a real price and thereby threaten the inflated value of other toxic assets held by financial institutions worldwide. The initial TARP plan was dropped in favor of injecting billions of dollars into certain banks, leaving the toxic assets on their books. Meanwhile, the true values of these toxic assets were officially camouflaged by the initiation of “exceptional” accounting changes.

The injection of free TARP funds enabled the recipient banks to enter a charred landscape that was, nevertheless, bristling with easy profits. For example, $10 billion of TARP funds enabled Goldman Sachs to make leveraged trades during the bear market rally of the last four months. Though this is the same activity that caused its downfall, Goldman now assumes a government guarantee on its risk-taking. With no limits on their appetite for risk, record profits are theirs for the taking.

Second, some of the shadow banks, such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, were allowed to become bank holding companies. This change allowed them access to the Fed Window to borrow at zero percent interest. This greatly increased the profit margins of the banks day-to-day lending operations.

Third, the reduction of Fed rates to below one percent has steepened the yield curve, enabling banks to take six to eight percent plus spreads in lending to boost earnings.

Fourth, for the first time, the Fed is paying interest on bank reserves. This meant that all banks can borrow at zero and lend back to the Fed at an interest rate spread of some three percent, thus boosting earnings further. The downside is that banks are discouraged to lend to risky companies and individuals while they can lend at no risk to the Fed. Therefore, despite political pressure for banks to lend, credit remains tight.

With the great privileges listed above, and with the competitive landscape improved by the disappearance of Lehman Brothers and the absorption of Bear Stearns and Merrill, it is little wonder that the surviving banks earned more. A firm like Goldman Sachs, with its stellar earnings, is now effectively a hedge fund subsidized by taxpayers.

However, toxic assets remain on the books of the banks. In addition, problems in the commercial property and consumer lending field loom menacingly.

The Fed has also acknowledged that, eventually, it will need to sharply increase interest rates to “mop up” all the liquidity its pouring into the world economy. This action alone, if the Fed ever has the nerve to execute it, could bankrupt every financial firm that survived the initial crisis.

Should earnings falter and banks stumble for a second time in the face of a looming $3.4 trillion commercial mortgage problem, the entire U.S. stock market could follow suit.

That would be the crisis we’ve been predicting. Better be prepared.

For a more in-depth analysis of our financial problems and the inherent dangers they pose for the U.S. economy and U.S. dollar, read Peter Schiff’s 2007 bestseller “Crash Proof: How to Profit from the Coming Economic Collapse” and his newest release “The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets.” Click here to learn more.

More importantly, don’t let the great deals pass you by. Get an inside view of Peter’s playbook with his new Special Report, “Peter Schiff’s Five Favorite Investment Choices for the Next Five Years.” Click here to dowload the report for free. You can find more free services for global investors, and learn about the Euro Pacific advantage, at www.europac.net.

As 2009 moves past its midpoint, many market participants are briskly trying to forget the carnage of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009. But, before we get lost in the euphoria of the 36% Dow rally in the Spring/Summer of this year, a little hindsight is in order. In March, the Dow had plunged to 6,547, or some 53 percent down from its nominal 14,164 high in 2007. Despite the recent gains, we are still nearly 40% below the 2007 peak. This is a brutal truth that everyone seems to be ignoring.

Last week, Merrill Lynch, that storehouse of economic sagacity, announced that the recession was over. Even the bearish NYU economist Nouriel Roubini was reported as saying “the worst is behind us.” However, wishing earnestly for something does not make it so.

Admittedly, the financial meltdown that threatened in late 2008 appears to have been contained. In addition, the Fed’s actions in the credit markets have held interest rates down and turned the yield curve positive. The credit markets also have started to ease. In addition, the federal government’s injection of trillions of dollars into the economy has “boosted confidence” for those too short-sighted to know the consequences. This welcome news has provided impetus to equities.

In combination with reassuring remarks by senior administration officials and retail investors’ wish not to be left behind, money has started to move back into American equities. The resultant rally in stocks seems to have validated the preceding optimism.

Among these desperate green-shootniks, the smoking gun of recovery can be found in the exceptional earnings reported last week by Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, both of which surpassed estimates by healthy margins. These reports may have led to a general market rally, which even bad news about CIT failed to defuse.

In looking realistically beneath the Wall Street and political hype, seven fundamental points emerge which investors should note carefully:

First, much of last week’s rise was based on small ‘up’ volume. This indicates that the surprisingly good earnings reports led the ‘shorts’ to cover in near panic. Traders, knowing that the ‘shorts’ had to cover at any cost, lost no time marking prices up, which pulled in investors anxious to catch the wave.

Second, we cannot forget that the banks in receipt of TARP funds, including Goldman and JPMorgan, have been able to invest these surplus tens of billions of dollars in the markets, allowing them to capitalize on the great run-up of the last few months. But this is a temporary phenomenon. Given JPMorgan’s warning about commercial property lending, it is questionable that the great bank earnings of the second quarter can be repeated. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs is effectively a giant hedge fund, relieved of potentially massive losses at AIG. Masquerading as a bank, it has privileged access to Fed Funds at or near zero percent — talk about public financing! Therefore, no one should take these earnings as anything other than a one-time windfall from a rigged system.

Third, some of the major banks, such as Citi and Bank of America, appear to be falling behind government demands for recovery plans. This, combined with the massive exposure of U.S. banks to the declining value of commercial real estate, raises the possibility of another round of bank bailouts.

Fourth, statewide budget crises, such as the one that is coming to light in California, are likely to hit every state with a big city, save perhaps Texas.

Fifth, many investors have become shell-shocked by the 40 percent erosion in their portfolios. They can be forgiven for not jumping back into the equity market action for awhile.

Sixth, the recent spate of federal deficit spending has placed an enormous strain on Treasury debt markets. The United States now faces a sharp interest rate hike, or a loss of its prized Triple-A credit rating. Consequently, investors see increasing opportunities for profit in overseas stock and government bond markets. This potential diversion of funds from American stock markets will tend to lessen the chances of a strong recovery at home.

Finally, while the U.S. stock markets may be rising, the economic picture is far from promising. It is becoming increasingly apparent that short-term recovery is unlikely to occur without significant increases in consumer spending. With unemployment still rising at about 500,000 workers a month, this is unlikely.

Most importantly, long term recovery is impossible without significant structural changes in the economy. Such movements are nowhere to be seen.

For a more in-depth analysis of our financial problems and the inherent dangers they pose for the U.S. economy and U.S. dollar, read Peter Schiff’s 2007 bestseller “Crash Proof: How to Profit from the Coming Economic Collapse” and his newest release “The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets.” Click here to learn more.

More importantly, don’t let the great deals pass you by. Get an inside view of Peter’s playbook with his new Special Report, “Peter Schiff’s Five Favorite Investment Choices for the Next Five Years.” Click here to dowload the report for free. You can find more free services for global investors, and learn about the Euro Pacific advantage, at www.europac.net.

In economics, as in many other “soft sciences,” facts are often overshadowed by theories. The dominant economic theory currently in vogue is that the massive government stimuli orchestrated by the Bush and Obama administrations would produce an economic recovery by the end of this year.

Thus, it is no surprise that media cheerleaders have seized on the recent steep, but thinly traded, rally to find the facts that appear to fit the theory. From where do these talking heads draw this conclusion?

In recent months, we have allowed for the probability that a bear market rally, driven by seemingly low price-earnings multiples, would take hold for the first half of 2009. Months ago, I had stated that the rally would reasonably last into the summer and that the Dow could reach 10,000 before the next major downturn begins.

In the depths of the stock market crash of 2008/9, buying opportunities certainly arose. By March 2009, stock markets appeared to have been oversold. Certainly price-earnings multiples on many stocks had been compressed to generational lows. Ignoring the fact that these low multiples were underpinned by pre-recession earnings data, investors declared a bottom.

However, as is the tendency with sudden declines, bargain hunters entered the market too aggressively. On relatively thin trading levels, this led to a steep rise in stock prices which, in turn, drew in investors who feared being left behind. A steep bear market rally was in place. This mirrored the pattern of the Great Depression, when the initial crash was followed by a 68 percent rally in 1930. But after that rally had fizzled, stocks then declined by an astounding 86 percent over the two subsequent years.

While we urged caution in this rally by highlighting, among other indicators, a 38 percent decline in corporate earnings, speculative traders made enormous profits as stock markets rose by over 40 percent. But as dismal economic statistics continue to rain on everyone’s parade, the cheers are beginning to subside. Last week, the unemployment figures were released and the Dow slid by some 223 points.

Now, even speculative traders are preparing for a drop. The new-found concern is due to three basic indicators:

First, the U.S. dollar, linchpin of all American (and most global) transactions, is appearing increasingly weak. 10-year Treasury yields, as low as 2.1 percent post-crash, and continuing to stay below 4 percent, indicate a persistent bubble in “safe” U.S. bonds and cash.     

Certainly, the fiscal situation of the United States government doesn’t warrant the confidence placed in its debt. The U.S. will soon have to choose between outright default and hyperinflation. The BRIC countries are already preparing themselves for the latter eventuality by seeking alternatives to the dollar.

Second, there has been a realization that the low multiples of March 2009 were largely illusory. With corporate earnings falling faster than share prices, price-earnings ratios are still high and historically expensive for an economy in an official recession.

Third, employment figures have been so bleak that the financial spin-doctors have been suggesting a “jobless recovery”! Reading between the lines, that means even the most deluded forecasters cannot find an argument for hiring to resume.

Despite the enormous stimulus packages, there are now roughly 15 million Americans unemployed, the highest total for some 26 years. Worse still, the official figures do not include the long-term unemployed or those who have been forced to accept part-time employment. If these “unofficial” unemployed figures were included, the total would be nearer to 20 percent than the official 9.6 percent. Furthermore, annualized figures show Americans earning less for each hour worked.

There can be little wonder that consumers are hoarding cash, increasing their savings and not buying on Main Street. American consumers are in a state of financial shock. The U.S. economy is heading deeper into severe recession, even depression.

The facts are universally bearish for the American stock markets. As for the pundits’ sentiments, you can measure their value by how much you personally pay for CNBC (very little) versus your cost if they’re wrong (very much). Now, there’s a statistic!

For a more in-depth analysis of our financial problems and the inherent dangers they pose for the U.S. economy and U.S. dollar, read Peter Schiff’s newest book “The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets.” Click here to order your copy now.

For a look back at how Peter predicted our current problems read his 2007 bestseller “Crash Proof: How to Profit from the Coming Economic Collapse.” Click here to order a copy today.

More importantly, don’t wait for reality to set in. Protect your wealth and preserve your purchasing power before it’s too late. Discover the best way to buy gold at www.goldyoucanfold.com. Download Euro Pacific’s free Special Report, “Peter Schiff’s Five Favorite Investment Choices for the Next Five Years”, at http://www.europac.net/report/index_fivefavorites.asp. Subscribe to our free, on-line investment newsletter, “The Global Investor” at http://www.europac.net/newsletter/newsletter.asp. And now watch the latest episode of Peter’s new video blog, “The Schiff Report”, at http://www.europac.net/videoblog.asp.

The former president of Merrill Lynch, John Thain, is not happy that he was fired from B of A, even though he left a very wealthy man. He does not refute Ken Lewis’ statements. He only argues that Lewis and the B of A folks knew what Merrill Lynch was worth when they bought it. He may have inadvertently opened a new can of worms for himself: Did he knowingly sell an asset to a public company, which had received a huge federal investment, for $17 billion less than he knew it was worth?

The failure of the president of B of A  to have revealed the risks of the acquisition to shareholders, as the law requires, and his failure to exercise the MAC clause were acts of fraud and directly violate laws enforced by the SEC. As for Paulson and Bernanke, they were participants in a criminal conspiracy to defraud B of A shareholders. We also now know that the Fed in DC and its regional bank in Richmond threatened to fire Ken Lewis and his management team if B of A did not follow through with the Merrill Lynch acquisition for the full $50 billion.  This is EXTORTION. It is the threat to perform a lawful act in order to compel a person to exercise his free will adverse to his own interests or his fiduciary obligations.  Unfortunately for Ken Lewis, “the government made me do it” is not a defense to a criminal indictment. Ken Lewis, Henry Paulson, John Thain, Ben Bernanke, and Jeffrey Lacker, the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, should all be prosecuted for extortion, conspiracy to extort, criminal fraud, and theft of honest services; and they should be imprisoned if convicted.

He makes a feeble attempt at blaming all our ills on “predatory” lenders and “greedy” people at the GSEs Fannie/Freddie as well as AIG and others. He makes no mention of the actions taken that set the stage for conditions that make such things possible: government intervention. No mention of who caused the bubbles: government.  And of course, like any good puppet, he follows the script nicely by making sure there’s no mention of the Federal Reserve, the main culprit in all this mess.

See additional commentary on this topic by Sheldon Richman at The Future of Freedom Foundation.

Here is the full text of Obama’s prepared speech, if you would like to dissect it further:

It has now been twelve weeks since my administration began. And I think even our critics would agree that at the very least, we’ve been busy. In just under three months, we have responded to an extraordinary set of economic challenges with extraordinary action – action that has been unprecedented in both its scale and its speed.

I know that some have accused us of taking on too much at once. Others believe we haven’t done enough. And many Americans are simply wondering how all of our different programs and policies fit together in a single, overarching strategy that will move this economy from recession to recovery and ultimately to prosperity.

So today, I want to step back for a moment and explain our strategy as clearly as I can. I want to talk about what we’ve done, why we’ve done it, and what we have left to do. I want to update you on the progress we’ve made, and be honest about the pitfalls that may lie ahead.

And most of all, I want every American to know that each action we take and each policy we pursue is driven by a larger vision of America’s future – a future where sustained economic growth creates good jobs and rising incomes; a future where prosperity is fueled not by excessive debt, reckless speculation, and fleeing profit, but is instead built by skilled, productive workers; by sound investments that will spread opportunity at home and allow this nation to lead the world in the technologies, innovations, and discoveries that will shape the 21st century. That is the America I see. That is the future I know we can have.

To understand how we get there, we first need to understand how we got here.

Recessions are not uncommon. Markets and economies naturally ebb and flow, as we have seen many times in our history. But this recession is different. This recession was not caused by a normal downturn in the business cycle. It was caused by a perfect storm of irresponsibility and poor decision-making that stretched from Wall Street to Washington to Main Street.

As has been widely reported, it started in the housing market. During the course of the decade, the formula for buying a house changed: instead of saving their pennies to buy their dream house, many Americans found they could take out loans that by traditional standards their incomes just could not support. Others were tricked into signing these subprime loans by lenders who were trying to make a quick profit. And the reason these loans were so readily available was that Wall Street saw big profits to be made. Investment banks would buy and package together these questionable mortgages into securities, arguing that by pooling the mortgages, the risks had been reduced. And credit agencies that are supposed to help investors determine the soundness of various investments stamped the securities with their safest rating when they should have been labeled “Buyer Beware.”

No one really knew what the actual value of these securities were, but since the housing market was booming and prices were rising, banks and investors kept buying and selling them, always passing off the risk to someone else for a greater profit without having to take any of the responsibility. Banks took on more debt than they could handle. The government-chartered companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, whose traditional mandate was to help support traditional mortgages, decided to get in on the action by buying and holding billions of dollars of these securities. AIG, the biggest insurer in the world, decided to make profits by selling billions of dollars of complicated financial instruments that supposedly insured these securities. Everybody was making record profits – except the wealth created was real only on paper. And as the bubble grew, there was almost no accountability or oversight from anyone in Washington.

Then the housing bubble burst. Home prices fell. People began defaulting on their subprime mortgages. The value of all those loans and securities plummeted. Banks and investors couldn’t find anyone to buy them. Greed gave way to fear. Investors pulled their money out of the market. Large financial institutions that didn’t have enough money on hand to pay off all their obligations collapsed. Other banks held on tight to the money they did have and simply stopped lending.

This is when the crisis spread from Wall Street to Main Street. After all, the ability to get a loan is how you finance the purchase of everything from a home to a car to a college education. It’s how stores stock their shelves, farms buy equipment, and businesses make payroll. So when banks stopped lending money, businesses started laying off workers. When laid off workers had less money to spend, businesses were forced to lay off even more workers. When people couldn’t get car loans, a bad situation at the auto companies became even worse. When people couldn’t get home loans, the crisis in the housing market only deepened. Because the infected securities were being traded worldwide and other nations also had weak regulations, this recession soon became global. And when other nations can’t afford to buy our goods, it slows our economy even further.

This is the situation we confronted on the day we took office. And so our most urgent task has been to clear away the wreckage, repair the immediate damage to the economy, and do everything we can to prevent a larger collapse. And since the problems we face are all working off each other to feed a vicious economic downturn, we’ve had no choice but to attack all fronts of our economic crisis at once.

The first step was to fight a severe shortage of demand in the economy. The Federal Reserve did this by dramatically lowering interest rates last year in order to boost investment. And my administration and Congress boosted demand by passing the largest recovery plan in our nation’s history. It’s a plan that is already in the process of saving or creating 3.5 million jobs over the next two years. It is putting money directly in people’s pockets with a tax cut for 95% of working families that is now showing up in paychecks across America. And to cushion the blow of this recession, we also provided extended unemployment benefits and continued health care coverage to Americans who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own.

Now, some have argued that this recovery plan is a case of irresponsible government spending; that it is somehow to blame for our long-term deficit projections, and that the federal government should be cutting instead of increasing spending right now. So let me tackle this argument head on.

To begin with, economists on both the left and right agree that the last thing a government should do in the middle of a recession is to cut back on spending. You see, when this recession began, many families sat around their kitchen table and tried to figure out where they could cut back. So do many businesses. That is a completely responsible and understandable reaction. But if every family in America cuts back, then no one is spending any money, which means there are more layoffs, and the economy gets even worse. That’s why the government has to step in and temporarily boost spending in order to stimulate demand. And that’s exactly what we’re doing right now.

Second of all, I absolutely agree that our long-term deficit is a major problem that we have to fix. But the fact is that this recovery plan represents only a tiny fraction of that long-term deficit. As I will discuss in a moment, the key to dealing with our deficit and debt is to get a handle on out-of-control health care costs – not to stand idly by as the economy goes into free fall.

So the recovery plan has been the first step in confronting this economic crisis. The second step has been to heal our financial system so that credit is once again flowing to the businesses and families who rely on it.

The heart of this financial crisis is that too many banks and other financial institutions simply stopped lending money. In a climate of fear, banks were unable to replace their losses by raising new capital on their own, and they were unwilling to lend the money they did have because they were afraid that no one would pay it back. It is for this reason that the last administration used the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, to provide these banks with temporary financial assistance in order to get them lending again.

Now, I don’t agree with some of the ways the TARP program was managed, but I do agree with the broader rationale that we must provide banks with the capital and the confidence necessary to start lending again. That is the purpose of the stress tests that will soon tell us how much additional capital will be needed to support lending at our largest banks. Ideally, these needs will be met by private investors. But where this is not possible, and banks require substantial additional resources from the government, we will hold accountable those responsible, force the necessary adjustments, provide the support to clean up their balance sheets, and assure the continuity of a strong, viable institution that can serve our people and our economy.

Of course, there are some who argue that the government should stand back and simply let these banks fail – especially since in many cases it was their bad decisions that helped create the crisis in the first place. But whether we like it or not, history has repeatedly shown that when nations do not take early and aggressive action to get credit flowing again, they have crises that last years and years instead of months and months – years of low growth, low job creation, and low investment that cost those nations far more than a course of bold, upfront action. And although there are a lot of Americans who understandably think that government money would be better spent going directly to families and businesses instead of banks – “where’s our bailout?,” they ask – the truth is that a dollar of capital in a bank can actually result in eight or ten dollars of loans to families and businesses, a multiplier effect that can ultimately lead to a faster pace of economic growth.

On the other hand, there have been some who don’t dispute that we need to shore up the banking system, but suggest that we have been too timid in how we go about it. They say that the federal government should have already preemptively stepped in and taken over major financial institutions the way that the FDIC currently intervenes in smaller banks, and that our failure to do so is yet another example of Washington coddling Wall Street. So let me be clear – the reason we have not taken this step has nothing to do with any ideological or political judgment we’ve made about government involvement in banks, and it’s certainly not because of any concern we have for the management and shareholders whose actions have helped cause this mess.

Rather, it is because we believe that preemptive government takeovers are likely to end up costing taxpayers even more in the end, and because it is more likely to undermine than to create confidence. Governments should practice the same principle as doctors: first do no harm. So rest assured – we will do whatever is necessary to get credit flowing again, but we will do so in ways that minimize risks to taxpayers and to the broader economy. To that end, in addition to the program to provide capital to the banks, we have launched a plan that will pair government resources with private investment in order to clear away the old loans and securities – the so-called toxic assets – that are also preventing our banks from lending money.

Now, what we’ve also learned during this crisis is that our banks aren’t the only institutions affected by these toxic assets that are clogging the financial system. A.I.G., for example, is not a bank. And yet because it chose to insure trillions of dollars worth of risky assets, its failure could threaten the entire financial system and freeze lending even further. This is why, as frustrating as it is – and I promise you, nobody is more frustrated than me – we’ve had to provide support for A.I.G. It’s also why we need new legal authority so that we have the power to intervene in such financial institutions, just like a bankruptcy court does with businesses that hit hard times, so that we can restructure these businesses in an orderly way that does not induce panic – and can restructure inappropriate bonus contracts without creating a perception that government can just change compensation rules on a whim.

This is also why we’re moving aggressively to unfreeze markets and jumpstart lending outside the banking system, where more than half of all lending in America actually takes place. To do this, we’ve started a program that will increase guarantees for small business loans and unlock the market for auto loans and student loans. And to stabilize the housing market, we’ve launched a plan that will save up to four million responsible homeowners from foreclosure and help many millions more re-finance.

In a few weeks, we will also reassess the state of Chrysler and General Motors, two companies with an important place in our history and a large footprint in our economy – but two companies that have also fallen on hard times.

Late last year, the companies were given transitional loans by the previous administration to tide them over as they worked to develop viable business plans. But the plans they developed fell short, and so we have given them some additional time to work these complex issues through. We owed that, not to the executives whose bad bets contributed to the weakening of their companies, but to the hundreds of thousands of workers whose livelihoods hang in the balance.

It is our fervent hope that in the coming weeks, Chrysler will find a viable business partner and that GM will develop a business plan that will put it on a path to profitability without endless support from the American taxpayer. In the meantime, we are taking steps to spur demand for American cars and provide relief to autoworkers and their communities. And we will continue to reaffirm this nation’s commitment to a 21st century American auto industry that creates new jobs and builds the fuel-efficient cars and trucks that will carry us toward a clean energy future.

Finally, to coordinate a global response to this global recession, I went to the meeting of the G20 nations in London the other week. Each nation has undertaken significant stimulus to spur demand. All agreed to pursue tougher regulatory reforms. We also agreed to triple the lending capacity of the International Monetary Fund, an international financial institution supported by all the major economies, and provide direct assistance to developing nations and vulnerable populations – because America’s success depends on whether other nations have the ability to buy what we sell. We pledged to avoid the trade barriers and protectionism that hurts us all in the end. And we decided to meet again in the fall to gauge our progress and take additional steps if necessary.

So all of these actions – the Recovery Act, the bank capitalization program, the housing plan, the strengthening of the non-bank credit market, the auto plan, and our work at the G20 – have been necessary pieces of the recovery puzzle. They have been designed to increase aggregate demand, get credit flowing again to families and businesses, and help them ride out the storm. And taken together, these actions are starting to generate signs of economic progress. Because of our recovery plan, schools and police departments have cancelled planned layoffs. Clean energy companies and construction companies are re-hiring workers to build everything from energy efficient windows to new roads and highways. Our housing plan has helped lead to a spike in the number of homeowners who are taking advantage of historically-low mortgage rates by refinancing, which is like putting a $2,000 tax cut in your in pocket. Our program to support the market for auto loans and student loans has started to unfreeze this market and securitize more of this lending in the last few weeks. And small businesses are seeing a jump in loan activity for the first time in months.

This is all welcome and encouraging news, but it does not mean that hard times are over. 2009 will continue to be a difficult year for America’s economy. The severity of this recession will cause more job loss, more foreclosures, and more pain before it ends. The market will continue to rise and fall. Credit is still not flowing nearly as easily as it should. The process for restructuring AIG and the auto companies will involve difficult and sometimes unpopular choices. All of this means that there is much more work to be done. And all of this means that you can continue to expect an unrelenting, unyielding, day-by-day effort from this administration to fight for economic recovery on all fronts.

But even as we continue to clear away the wreckage and address the immediate crisis, it is my firm belief that our next task is to make sure such a crisis never happens again. Even as we clean up balance sheets and get credit flowing; even as people start spending and business start hiring – we have to realize that we cannot go back to the bubble and bust economy that led us to this point.

It is simply not sustainable to have a 21st century financial system that is governed by 20th century rules and regulations that allowed the recklessness of a few to threaten the entire economy. It is not sustainable to have an economy where in one year, 40% of our corporate profits came from a financial sector that was based too much on inflated home prices, maxed out credit cards, overleveraged banks and overvalued assets; or an economy where the incomes of the top 1% have skyrocketed while the typical working household has seen their income decline by nearly $2,000.

For even as too many were chasing ever-bigger bonuses and short-term profits over the last decade, we continued to neglect the long-term threats to our prosperity: the crushing burden that the rising cost of health care is placing on families and businesses; the failure of our education system to prepare our workers for a new age; the progress that other nations are making on clean energy industries and technologies while we remain addicted to foreign oil; the growing debt that we’re passing on to our children. And even after we emerge from the current recession, these challenges will still represent major obstacles that stand in the way of our success in the 21st century.

There is a parable at the end of the Sermon on the Mount that tells the story of two men. The first built his house on a pile of sand, and it was destroyed as soon as the storm hit. But the second is known as the wise man, for when “…the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house…it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.”

We cannot rebuild this economy on the same pile of sand. We must build our house upon a rock. We must lay a new foundation for growth and prosperity – a foundation that will move us from an era of borrow and spend to one where we save and invest; where we consume less at home and send more exports abroad.

It’s a foundation built upon five pillars that will grow our economy and make this new century another American century: new rules for Wall Street that will reward drive and innovation; new investments in education that will make our workforce more skilled and competitive; new investments in renewable energy and technology that will create new jobs and industries; new investments in health care that will cut costs for families and businesses; and new savings in our federal budget that will bring down the debt for future generations. That is the new foundation we must build. That must be our future – and my Administration’s policies are designed to achieve that future.

The first step we will take to build this foundation is to reform the outdated rules and regulations that allowed this crisis to happen in the first place. It is time to lay down tough new rules of the road for Wall Street to ensure that we never find ourselves here again. Rules that punish short-cuts and abuse. Rules that tie someone’s pay to their actual job performance. Rules that protect typical American families when they buy a home, get a credit card or invest in a 401k. We have already begun to work with Congress to shape this new regulatory framework – and I expect a bill to arrive on my desk for signature before the year is out.

The second pillar of this new foundation is an education system that finally prepares our workers for a 21st century economy. In the 20th century, the GI Bill sent a generation to college, and for decades, we led the world in education and economic growth. But in this new economy, we trail the world’s leaders in graduation rates and achievement. That is why we have set a goal that will greatly enhance our ability to compete for the high-wage, high-tech jobs of the 21st century: by 2020, America will once more have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.

To meet that goal, we have already dramatically expanded early childhood education. We are investing in innovative programs that have proven to help schools meet high standards and close achievement gaps. We are creating new rewards tied to teacher performance and new pathways for advancement. I have asked every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training, and we have provided tax credits to make a college education more affordable for every American.

The third pillar of this new foundation is to harness the renewable energy that can create millions of new jobs and new industries. We all know that the country that harnesses this energy will lead the 21st century. Yet we have allowed other countries to outpace us on this race to the future.

Well, I do not accept a future where the jobs and industries of tomorrow take root beyond our borders. It is time for America to lead again.

The investments we made in the Recovery Act will double this nation’s supply of renewable energy in the next three years. And we are putting Americans to work making our homes and buildings more efficient so that we can save billions on our energy bills and grow our economy at the same time.

But the only way to truly spark this transformation is through a gradual, market-based cap on carbon pollution, so that clean energy is the profitable kind of energy. Some have argued that we shouldn’t attempt such a transition until the economy recovers, and they are right that we have to take the costs of transition into account. But we can no longer delay putting a framework for a clean energy economy in place. If businesses and entrepreneurs know today that we are closing this carbon pollution loophole, they will start investing in clean energy now. And pretty soon, we’ll see more companies constructing solar panels, and workers building wind turbines, and car companies manufacturing fuel-efficient cars. Investors will put some money into a new energy technology, and a small business will open to start selling it. That’s how we can grow this economy, enhance our security, and protect our planet at the same time.

The fourth pillar of the new foundation is a 21st century health care system where families, businesses, and government budgets aren’t dragged down by skyrocketing insurance premiums.

One and a half million Americans could lose their homes this year just because of a medical crisis. Major American corporations are struggling to compete with their foreign counterparts, and small businesses are closing their doors. We cannot allow the cost of health care to strangle our economy any longer.

That’s why our Recovery Act will invest in electronic health records with strict privacy standards that will save money and lives. We’ve also made the largest investment ever in preventive care, because that is one of the best ways to keep costs under control. And included in the budgets that just passed Congress is an historic commitment to reform that will finally make quality health care affordable for every American. So I look forward to working with both parties in Congress to make this reform a reality in the coming months.

Fixing our health care system will certainly require resources, but in my budget, we’ve made a commitment to fully pay for reform without increasing the deficit, and we’ve identified specific savings that will make the health care system more efficient and reduce costs for us all.

In fact, we have undertaken an unprecedented effort to find this kind of savings in every corner of the budget, because the final pillar in building our new foundation is restoring fiscal discipline once this economy recovers. Already, we have identified two trillion dollars in deficit-reductions over the next decade. We have announced procurement reform that will greatly reduce no-bid contracts and save the government $40 billion. Secretary Gates recently announced a courageous set of reforms that go right at the hundreds of billions of dollars in waste and cost overruns that have bloated our defense budget without making America safer. We will end education programs that don’t work, and root out waste, fraud, and abuse in our Medicare program.

Altogether, this budget will reduce discretionary spending for domestic programs as share of the economy by more than 10% over the next decade to the lowest level since we began keeping records nearly half a century ago. And as we continue to go through the federal budget line by line, we will be announcing additional savings, secured by eliminating and consolidating programs we don’t need so that we can make room for the things we do need.

Now, I realize that for some, this isn’t enough. I know there is a criticism out there that my administration has somehow been spending with reckless abandon, pushing a liberal social agenda while mortgaging our children’s future.

Well let me make three points.

First, as I said earlier, the worst thing that we could do in a recession this severe is to try to cut government spending at the same time as families and businesses around the world are cutting back on their spending. So as serious as our deficit and debt problems are – and they are very serious – major efforts to deal with them have to focus on the medium and long-term budget picture.

Second, in tackling the deficit issue, we simply cannot sacrifice the long-term investments that we so desperately need to generate long-term prosperity. Just as a cash-strapped family may cut back on luxuries but will insist on spending money to get their children through college, so we as a country have to make current choices with an eye on the future. If we don’t invest now in renewable energy or a skilled workforce or a more affordable health care system, this economy simply won’t grow at the pace it needs to in two or five or ten years down the road. If we don’t lay this new foundation, it won’t be long before we are right back where we are today. And I can assure you that chronically slow growth will not help our long-term budget situation.

Third, the problem with our deficit and debt is not new. It has been building dramatically over the past eight years, largely because big tax cuts combined with increased spending on two wars and the increased costs of government health care programs. This structural gap in our budget, between the amount of money coming in and the amount going out, will only get worse as Baby Boomers age, and will in fact lead us down an unsustainable path. But let’s not kid ourselves and suggest that we can do it by trimming a few earmarks or cutting the budget for the National Endowment for the Arts. Along with defense and interest on the national debt, the biggest costs in our budget are entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security that get more and more expensive every year. So if we want to get serious about fiscal discipline – and I do – then we are going to not only have to trim waste out of our discretionary budget, a process we have already begun – but we will also have to get serious about entitlement reform.

Nothing will be more important to this goal than passing health care reform that brings down costs across the system, including in Medicare and Medicaid. Make no mistake: health care reform is entitlement reform. That’s not just my opinion – that was the conclusion of a wide range of participants at the Fiscal Responsibility Summit we held at the White House in February, and that’s one of the reasons why I firmly believe we need to get health care reform done this year.

Once we tackle rising health care costs, we must also work to put Social Security on firmer footing. It is time for both parties to come together and find a way to keep the promise of a sound retirement for future generations. And we should restore a sense of fairness and balance to our tax code by shutting down corporate loopholes and ensuring that everyone pays what they owe.

All of these efforts will require tough choices and compromises. But the difficulties can’t serve as an excuse for inaction. Not anymore.

This brings up one final point I’d like to make today. I’ve talked a lot about the fundamental weakness in our economy that led us to this day of reckoning. But we also arrived here because of a fundamental weakness in our political system.

For too long, too many in Washington put off hard decisions for some other time on some other day. There’s been a tendency to score political points instead of rolling up sleeves to solve real problems. There is also an impatience that characterizes this town – an attention span that has only grown shorter with the twenty-four hour news cycle, and insists on instant gratification in the form of immediate results or higher poll numbers. When a crisis hits, there’s all too often a lurch from shock to trance, with everyone responding to the tempest of the moment until the furor has died away and the media coverage has moved on, instead of confronting the major challenges that will shape our future in a sustained and focused way.

This can’t be one of those times. The challenges are too great. The stakes are too high. I know how difficult it is for Members of Congress in both parties to grapple with some of the big decisions we face right now. It’s more than most congresses and most presidents have to deal with in a lifetime.

But we have been called to govern in extraordinary times. And that requires an extraordinary sense of responsibility – to ourselves, to the men and women who sent us here, and to the many generations whose lives will be affected for good or for ill because of what we do here.

There is no doubt that times are still tough. By no means are we out of the woods just yet. But from where we stand, for the very first time, we are beginning to see glimmers of hope. And beyond that, way off in the distance, we can see a vision of an America’s future that is far different than our troubled economic past. It’s an America teeming with new industry and commerce; humming with new energy and discoveries that light the world once more. A place where anyone from anywhere with a good idea or the will to work can live the dream they’ve heard so much about.

It is that house upon the rock. Proud, sturdy, and unwavering in the face of the greatest storm. We will not finish it in one year or even many, but if we use this moment to lay that new foundation; if we come together and begin the hard work of rebuilding; if we persist and persevere against the disappointments and setbacks that will surely lie ahead, then I have no doubt that this house will stand and the dream of our founders will live on in our time. Thank you, God Bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.

The dollar truly is an illusion and gold is real money. Mayer’s book hammers this home in a profound way. One of the great things about the book is that it covers the fundamentals and history of money as we know it. If you ever wondered how the idea of fractional reserve banking came about then you should read this book. If you want an answer to the question, “What is money?”, then this book is for you.

Mayer utilizes several quotes from economists past and present to reinforce his points. He invokes the likes of Ron Paul, Lew Rockwell, Ludwig Von Mises, Alan Greenspan, and many others.

“The Great Credit Contraction” is a quick, educational, and enjoyable read and I highly recommend it.

2:00-2:10 Glenn Beck and Shepard Smith start the show.

2:10 – 2:30 Peter Schiff (in studio) with Lew Rockwell (phone) including a special 10 minute segment from Schiff entitled “Protecting Your Assets, what you need to know about your money and investments.”

2:30 – 3:00 Ron Paul (from DC), Peter Schiff, and David Boaz (live from CATO)

Possibly other last minute guests as well.

The topics for the week will be: U.S. power to seize firms, possible 15 year depression, discussion of Austrian School of Economics, preview of Campaign for Liberty, St. Louis conference and much, much more.

• HR1652 – To require institutions receiving certain assistance from the Troubled Asset Relief Program or the Federal Reserve to have employee bonus payment plans approved in advance of the payments being made.  [Each member of Congress must operate in a bubble, and/or they're all hoping for the "credit" if their bill is passed.  This is at least the fifth bill on this subject in the past three days!]
• HR1656 – To require TARP payments to be conditioned on the top 10 highest wage earners at a company having repaid any bonuses received during the previous 5 fiscal years.  [Six!  Ok, let's review.  We have HR1542 by Rep. Carolyn Maloney [D-NY], HR1572 by Rep. Michael Thompson [D-CA],  HR1582 by Rep. Steven LaTourette [R-OH], HR1603 by Rep. Charles Wilson [D-OH], HR1652 by Rep. Christopher Murphy [D-CT], and now this one from Rep. Dana Rohrabacher [R-CA].  Are these people working in a vacuum?  Could the process be any more inefficient?]
• HR1650 – To enhance the oversight authority of the Comptroller General of the United States with respect to expenditures under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.  [Yet another TARP regulation bill.  The full text of the bill is not currently available, so I couldn't tell if it specifically mentions employee bonuses so I could add it to the list above.  Why don't these people just come out and admit that this TARP garbage is immoral an unconstitutional in the first place?]
• S-651 – A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to impose an excise tax on excessive bonuses paid by, and received from, companies receiving Federal emergency economic assistance, to limit the amount of nonqualified deferred compensation that employees of such companies may defer from taxation, and for other purposes.  [Number 7, by Sen. Max Baucus [D-MT]…]
• HR1649 – To authorize the Secretary of Education to make grants to reduce the size of core curriculum classes in public elementary and secondary schools, and for other purposes.
• HR1645 (also S-638) – To provide grants to promote financial and economic literacy.  [While I think it's critical that people become more financially and economically literate, government should certainly not be the teacher, or else we'll end up with more Keynesian nitwits that have destroyed our economy to date.  Rather, people can take Chris Martenson's Crash Course for free, and read books like Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson and Tom Woods' Meltdown.]
• HR1643 (also S-648) – To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to establish a prospective payment system instead of the reasonable cost-based reimbursement method for Medicare-covered services provided by Federally qualified health centers and to expand the scope of such covered services to account for expansions in the scope of services provided by Federally qualified health centers since the inclusion of such services for coverage under the Medicare Program.
• HR1642 – To provide loans and grants for fire sprinkler retrofitting in nursing facilities.
• HR1641 – To amend the National Trails System Act to provide for a study of the Cascadia Marine Trail.
• HR1640 – To amend the Truth in Lending Act to protect consumers from usury, and for other purposes.  [Caveat emptor.  The process of buying a home would be much quicker and hassle-free if not for the myriad of regulations and bureaucratic red-tape imposed by the federal, state, and local governments.]

• HR1608 – To amend the Truth in Lending Act to establish a national usury rate for consumer credit transactions, and for other purposes.
• HR1639 – To amend the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 to extend Federal reimbursement of emergency health services furnished to undocumented aliens.  [So Rep. Gabrielle Giffords [D-AZ] wants us all to pay for health care services for those who are in this country illegally.  What do you think of that?]
• HR1637 – To amend the Truth in Lending Act to prohibit universal defaults on credit card accounts, and for other purposes.
• HR1636 – To amend titles XVIII and XIX of the Social Security Act with respect to the qualification of the director of food services of a Medicare skilled nursing facility or a Medicaid nursing facility.
• HR1635 – To authorize alternatives analysis and preliminary engineering for new Metrorail capital projects in Northern Virginia and surrounding areas.  [So farmers in Kansas will be forced to help pay for commuter transit in Virginia?]
• HR1634 – To amend title 23, United States Code, to extend the period during which States may allow low emission and energy-efficient vehicles to use high occupancy vehicle facilities.
• HR1629 – To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide penalty free distributions and loans from certain retirement plans for the purchase and refinancing of principal residences.
• HR1628 – To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to permit hardship loans from certain individual retirement plans.  [Sounds like a good idea, but why should the government tell you what you can and cannot do with your own money in the first place?]
• HR1625 (also S-654) – To amend title XIX of the Social Security Act to cover physician services delivered by podiatric physicians to ensure access by Medicaid beneficiaries to appropriate quality foot and ankle care.
• HR1623 – To protect children from sexual exploitation by mandating reporting requirements for convicted sex traffickers and other sex offenders against minors intending to engage in international travel, providing advance notice of intended travel by high risk sex offenders outside the United States to the government of the country of destination, preventing entry into the United States by any foreign sex offender against a minor, and for other purposes.
• HR1622 – To provide for a program of research, development, and demonstration on natural gas vehicles.
• HR1621 – To withhold Federal funds from schools that permit or require the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance or the national anthem in a language other than English.  [So let's get this straight: The feds confiscate money from the citizens of a state, and then agree to give some back for specific purposes (schooling, in this case).  But the local school officials cannot run the school way it deems best for those living in the community; instead, the Feds try to dictate how things will be run by threatening to not give the state their own money back.  What a racket!]
• HR1619 – To amend title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, title XXVII of the Public Health Service Act, and the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to prohibit preexisting condition exclusions for children in group health plans and health insurance coverage in the group and individual markets.
• HR1616 – To amend title XIX of the Social Security Act to permit States the option to provide Medicaid coverage for low-income individuals infected with HIV.
• HR1615 – To amend section 435(o) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 regarding the definition of economic hardship.
• HR1614 (also S-652) – To authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make grants to community health coalitions to assist in the development of integrated health care delivery, and for other purposes.
• HR1612 – To amend the Public Lands Corps Act of 1993 to expand the authorization of the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, and the Interior to provide service-learning opportunities on public lands, help restore the nation’s natural, cultural, historic, archaeological, recreational, and scenic resources, train a new generation of public land managers and enthusiasts, and promote the value of public service.
• HR1611 – To amend the Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009 to repeal a provision prohibiting the use of funds for a cross-border motor carrier demonstration program to allow Mexican-domiciled motor carriers to operate beyond the commercial zones along the international border between the United States and Mexico.
• HR1610 – To amend the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 to limit the annual percentage rate of interest that may be charged by recipients of financial assistance under such Act with respect to consumer credit card accounts, and for other purposes.
• HR1609 – To amend the Food Security Act of 1985 to require the Administrator of the Internal Revenue Service to verify income for purposes of determining the eligibility of persons for certain Department of Agriculture payments and benefits, and for other purposes.
• HR1607 – To provide for and promote the economic development of Indian tribes by furnishing the necessary capital, financial services, and technical assistance to Indian-owned business enterprises, to stimulate the development of the private sector of Indian tribal economies, and for other purposes.
• HR1606 – To establish a new automobile voucher program.
• HR1605 – To seek the establishment of and contributions to an International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace, and for other purposes.
• HR1604 – To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to allow all eligible voters to vote by mail in Federal elections.  [Each state has absolute jurisdiction over how its elections are handled.  And then there's the argument that voting by mail is a very bad idea.]
• HR273 – Recognizing the 188th anniversary of the independence of Greece and celebrating Greek and American democracy.
• HR271 – Recognizing the need to support the development and enforcement of a well-informed national long-term care strategy to solve the problems of cost, quality, and access to long-term care in the home and community, and the imperativeness of including long-term care in the comprehensive health care reform agenda.
• HR270 – Recognizing the establishment of Hunters for the Hungry programs across the United States and the contributions of those programs efforts to decrease hunger and help feed those in need.
• HR269 – Supporting the goals of Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month.
• HR268 – Recognizing and supporting the goals and ideals of Earth Hour 2009.
• HR267 – Recognizing the cultural and historical significance of Nowruz, expressing appreciation to Iranian-Americans for their contributions to society, and wishing Iranian-Americans and the people of Iran a prosperous new year.
• HR266 – Celebrating 90 years of United States-Polish diplomatic relations, during which Poland has proven to be an exceptionally strong partner to the United States in advancing freedom around the world.
• S-655 – A bill to amend the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act to ensure adequate funding for conservation and restoration of wildlife, and for other purposes.
• S-662 – A bill to amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide for reimbursement of certified midwife services and to provide for more equitable reimbursement rates for certified nurse-midwife services.
• S-661 – A bill to strengthen American manufacturing through improved industrial energy efficiency, and for other purposes.
• S-660 – A bill to amend the Public Health Service Act with respect to pain care
• S-659 – A bill to improve the teaching and learning of American history and civics.  [Unless this bill specifically dismantles the entire Department of Education, it is worthless.]
• S-656 – A bill to provide for the adjustment of status of certain nationals of Liberia to that of lawful permanent residents.
• S-649 – A bill to require an inventory of radio spectrum bands managed by the national telecommunications and Information Administration and the Federal Communications Commission.
• SR79 – A resolution honoring the life of Paul M. Weyrich and expressing the condolences of the Senate on his passing.
• S-647 – A bill to amend titles XVIII and XIX of the Social Security Act to improve the transparency of information on skilled nursing facilities and nursing facilities and to clarify and improve the targeting of the enforcement of requirements with respect to such facilities.
• S-646 – A bill to amend section 435(o) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 regarding the definition of economic hardship.
• S-643 – A bill to amend title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, title XXVII of the Public Health Service Act, and the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to prohibit preexisting condition exclusions for children in group health plans and health insurance coverage in the group and individual markets.
• S-641 – A bill to amend the Controlled Substances Act to prevent the abuse of dehydroepiandrosterone, and for other purposes.
• S-639 – A bill to amend the definition of commercial motor vehicle in section 31101 of title 49, United States Code, to exclude certain farm vehicles, and for other purposes.
• SCR11 – A concurrent resolution condemning all forms of anti-Semitism and reaffirming the support of Congress for the mandate of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Ant-Semitism, and for other purposes.

Please take a couple of minutes out of your day to contact your representatives via telephone simply to tell them that you support or oppose a particular bill.  It’ll most likely take you less than two minutes, and it’s so very important that we stand up to our increasingly tyrannical government.

If you don’t know who your Senators are, or how to contact them, click here to found out.

If you don’t know who your Representatives are, or how to contact them, click here to find out.

• HR230 – Recognizing the historical significance of the Mexican holiday of Cinco de Mayo.  [You've got to be kidding me.  If this weren't displayed on official government sites, I would swear this was a joke.]
• HR1388 – Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act: To reauthorize and reform the national service laws.
• HR1415 – To provide for a demonstration project regarding Medicaid reimbursements for stabilization of emergency medical conditions by non-publicly owned or operated institutions for mental diseases.
• HR1413 – To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow certain public employees a deduction for distributions from governmental plans for health and long-term care insurance, and for other purposes.
• HR1412 – To increase public confidence in the justice system and address any unwarranted racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal process.  [Looking at the full text of this bill, it's clear that the authors have the idea that justice is being served out "unfairly" with respect to race and ethnicity, and are under the mistaken impression that "unconscious bias" can be legislated away.]

• HR1411 – To amend the Public Health Service Act to establish a Primary and Public Health Scholarship Program.
• HR1410 – To provide assistance to improve the health of newborns, children, and mothers in developing countries, and for other purposes.  [So, forced charity for the poor conditions in Africa and elsewhere.]
• HR1409 – (Also S-560) To amend the National Labor Relations Act to establish an efficient system to enable employees to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to provide for mandatory injunctions for unfair labor practices during organizing efforts, and for other purposes.  [As though labor unions haven't caused enough trouble already, the government needs to step in to make sure it stays that way.]
• HR1408 – To require all newly constructed, federally assisted, single-family houses and town houses to meet minimum standards of visitability for persons with disabilities.
• HR1407 – To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to reduce cost-sharing under part D of such title for certain non-institutionalized full-benefit dual eligible individuals.
• HR1406 – To direct the Securities and Exchange Commission to reinstate the “uptick rule” on short sales of securities and to suspend the application of mark-to-market accounting principles.  [And speculation that this would happen was a major contributor to yesterday's sucker rally -- people rushed to cover their shorts.]
• HR1405 – To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow Head Start teachers the same above-the-line deduction for supplies as is allowed to elementary and secondary school teachers.
• HR1404 – To authorize a supplemental funding source for catastrophic emergency wildland fire suppression activities on Department of the Interior and National Forest System lands, to require the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture to develop a cohesive wildland fire management strategy, and for other purposes.
• HCR70 – Expressing support for the District of Columbia school scholarship program.
• SR72 – A resolution expressing the sense of the Senate regarding drug trafficking in Mexico.  [The full text of this bill was not available while writing this, but this sounds like just another waste of taxpayer money to butt into the business of another country.]
• HR1425 – (Also S-564) To establish commissions to review the facts and circumstances surrounding injustices suffered by European Americans, European Latin Americans, and Jewish refugees during World War II.  [Ugh]
• HR1424 – To name the front circle drive in front of the Oscar G. Johnson Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Facility in Iron Mountain, Michigan, as “Sergeant First Class James D. Priestap Drive”.  [...a clearly pressing issue.]
• HR1422 – To reauthorize through 2014 certain programs under the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006.
• HR1421 – To amend title XIX of the Social Security Act to provide Medicaid coverage of drugs prescribed for certain research study child participants.  [I suppose if the government is insolvent, what can it hurt to add more things to the long list of items that will never be paid for.]
• HR234 – Expressing support for designation of a “Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day”  [What???]
• HR233 – Recognizing the thousands of Freemasons in every State in the Nation and honoring them for their many contributions to the Nation throughout its history.
• HR232 – Recognizing and commending the Toys for Tots Literacy Program for its contributions in raising awareness of illiteracy, promoting children’s literacy, and fighting poverty through the support of literacy.
• HR231 – Supporting the goals and ideals of “Deep Vein Thrombosis Awareness Month” and “National DVT Screening Day” and supporting efforts to educate the public about deep vein thrombosis, in memory of former Representative Jennifer Dunn.  [Educational programs are almost always a good idea, but again, they're not a legitimate function of the federal government.]
• HR566 – A bill to create a Financial Product Safety Commission, to provide consumers with stronger protections and better information in connection with consumer financial products, and to give providers of consumer financial products more regulatory certainty.  [Whatever happened to the concept of caveat emptor?]
• HR565 – A bill to amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide continued entitlement to coverage for immunosuppressive drugs furnished to beneficiaries under the Medicare Program that have received a kidney transplant and whose entitlement to coverage would otherwise expire, and for other purposes.
• S-563 – A bill to direct the exchange of certain land in Grand, San Juan, and Uintah Counties, Utah, and for other purposes.
• S-562 – A bill to require accurate and reasonable disclosure of the terms and conditions of prepaid telephone calling cards and services, and for other purposes.  [Wow, is there anything left that Congress hasn't poked its nose into?]
• S-558 – A bill to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with respect to nutrition labeling of food offered for sale in food service establishments.
• S-557 – A bill to encourage, enhance, and integrate Silver Alert plans throughout the United States, to authorize grants for the assistance of organizations to find missing adults, and for other purposes.
• S-556 – A bill to amend chapter 44 of title 18, United States Code, to modernize the process by which interstate firearms transactions are conducted by Federal firearms licensees.
• S-555 – A bill to provide for the exchange of certain land located in the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forests in the State of Colorado, and for other purposes.

As I continue to beg, please contact your representatives to let them know how you feel about the bills being introduced.

If you don’t know who your Senators are, or how to contact them, click here.

If you dont’ know who your Representatives are, or how to contact them, click here.

The story begins with Rick Santelli’s rant:

Amen Rick. Amen. He may be a loud talker, but he speaks the truth, which these days needs to be shouted for anyone to hear it. After the stir he caused with his rant online CNBC posted a poll asking if you would show up for a Chicago Tea Party in July as he mentions in the rant. Apparently, before the poll was removed 94% said they’d be there with about 250,000 votes.

This morning I heard Rick’s rant played and discussed on Glenn Beck’s radio show, Opie and Anthony’s radio show of all places, and several other main stream media outlets.

Listen to Glenn Beck take a call and talk about Rick’s first rant here. Beck claims that this is evidence of the coming peaceful disobedience that is the first step toward a kind of “revolution”.

The next story in the saga comes from the White House. Obama’s Press Secretary commented on Rick’s rant by saying that “he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” This prompted a few responses by Rick. The first one below from MSNBC:

However, perhaps better is Santelli’s appearance on The Kudlow Report where Kudlow is appalled at the White House “attacking the press”. I loved the part when after playing the clip from the Press Secretary, Santelli is standing there smiling holding up the mortgage proposal. This video is available at CNBC. Watch it here.

I’m curious if Rick Santelli will actually have a protest event called the Chicago Tea Party in July. Thanks to the White House helping to make the story bigger than it otherwise would have I bet such an event would draw quite a few people.

I also wonder if Santelli will actually get a chance to sit down at the White House to discuss the mortgage modification proposal?

Keep watching as this saga continues.

(Note: Find out what a Rick Roll is here, if you aren’t a web/youtube geek and already know what it is.)

I was unable to capture the video of the show, but I did record the entire show’s audio. I enjoyed the pre-show banter where Cody Willard asks Peter Schiff about running for office in 2010 so I kept that part in the audio available below. Also they discuss how the “blogs have been going crazy” about the show.

One of the best quotes comes from Willard when he calls Treasury Secretary Geithner “a 35 year old punk”. Cody Willard is the host of the FOX Business show called “Happy Hour” and is a friend to free markets and individual liberty. Read his blog “The Cody Word”.

The show is going to run weekly each Wednesday at 2pm EST. The show is available at http://www.foxnews.com/strategyroom.

It sounds like The Judge will have Ron Paul back and some of his other guests in the coming weeks. It’s a great listen and if/when FOX posts the video I’ll post it below.

For now listen to the 60 minutes of audio below. Note that the show doesn’t start until about 2 1/2 minutes in. If you want to miss the banter and opening music then just jump to that point.

Download audio file (napolitano-freedomwatch-02112009.mp3)

If you’d rather download the mp3, you can do so here (right click/save as).