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Politics : Dutch Central Bank Sale Announcement Imminent? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (20778)	4/26/2004 11:21:26 AM
From: sea_urchin	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 80906

Raymond > If this were a decent world, Alan Greenspan would be in prison today for fraudulently persuading the American public to pay twenty years of really harsh taxes, only to see that the very thing that we were paying them for has been stolen from us And what did you expect? That government should keep to its word? Anyway, did you see this chart? trendmacro.com S&P PE ratios over time showing a PE of 25-30 at 2000-01. That was then and the return on the index, in terms of earnings, was little enough, in fact, at a historic low. But, that's not the end of it. I defy you to find any record of actual earnings on the S&P for the past 2-3 years. I can't, and I have looked hard. Apparently, like any other embarrassing or potentially embarrassing statistic it has simply vanished. Today, the valuation of the S&P, or any other share, is based not on real earnings but on earnings estimates, which are made by analysts, whoever they are, and shares go up or down on the basis of whether reported earnings (which may not even be actual earnings) are greater or less than estimated earnings. How's that for a con?

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (20778)	4/28/2004 8:00:36 AM
From: Joe S Pack	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 80906

A simple answer. Hang him in public square (Washington Mall) or an electric chair or a bullet after reading all his crimes. Will teach a lesson or two to the rest of the crooks in the Capital building and 1600 Penn. St. One of the weakest part of this shame called "democracy" is that no accountability for all such crimes. Don't blame it on recovery. Blame it on policy. In 1983, prior to assuming the mantle as the head of the U.S. Central Bank, Alan Greenspan headed a Social Security Commission at the behest of Pres. Ronald Reagan and the conservatives who were becoming alarmed at runaway pension and medicare costs. The cure was a regressive "payroll" tax that was imposed from the first penny that any worker earned in America and was phased out after income reached a certain level. It was one of the most devilishly anti-progressive tax schemes ever conceived and imposed by the hand of man. And for the past twenty years, this tax has relentlessly taken money out of the pockets of the working poor as the rich proclaim how noble they are because they pay the preponderance of income tax. Utterly failing to mention the combined assault on the average American's wallet with the Social Security and Medicare taxes on top of income tax. So, for two decades this "nest egg" of Social Security and Medicare trust fund money was being built up, on paper. Of course, as with all businesses, money is fungible and the Federal government liberally borrowed from the trust funds and produced increasingly obtuse 'smoke & mirrors' budgets. A couple of years ago, George Bush began demanding tax cuts for those in America who don't need them, i.e. the rich. This was another assault on the trust funds. Now that we have the Republicans in Congress and the White House spending money like drunken sailors in a whore house on shore leave, and we have the rich enjoying their vast tax cuts, something had to give. So that wonderful system of paying ahead that Alan Greenspan cooked up in 1983 in order to create permanent solvency in the Social Security and Medicare system is now considered by Greenspan to be too fragile to save, without drastic cuts to the beneficiaries, and an increase in the eligibility age. If this were a decent world, Alan Greenspan would be in prison today for fraudulently persuading the American public to pay twenty years of really harsh taxes, only to see that the very thing that we were paying them for has been stolen from us by the profligate wastrel in the White House and his completely unfair and unscrupulous looting of the Treasury for his rich cronies. Arrrgh, there ought to be a law against such grand larceny.