Today's Stories

October 16, 2008

Jonathan Cook
The Acre Riots

Ayesha Ijaz Khan
Is Obama Playing to the Gallery? Or Has He Lost the Plot in South Asia?

October 15, 2008

Steve Conn
The Real Story of Troopergate

William P. O'Connor
The Legend of John McCain

Robert Weissman
The Partial Nationalization of US Banks: Public Ownership, But No Public Control

Jonathan M. Feldman
Before the Second Wave of Crisis: an Alternative to the Triple Failure

Ron Jacobs
The Politics of Race in America: Is a Vote For Obama a Vote Against Racism?

Conn Hallinan
Targeting Unions in Colombia

Justin Podur
The Financial Economy and Real Economy

Karl Grossman
The New Nuclear Navy

Dave Lindorff
Is the Government Really Turning Socialist?

Eric Walberg
The Quiet Russian

Martha Rosenberg
Of Blood and Eggs

Uri Avnery
A Fairy Tale

Monica Benderman
No More

Website of the Day
Contractor Misconduct Database

October 14, 2008

Robert Richter
McCain: War Hero or War Criminal?

Paul Craig Roberts
The Bailout and the Smell Test

Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
The Wall Street Coup and the Bailout Scam

Steve Conn
Made in Alaska: Fear of the Fringe

P. Sainath
The Race Could be Over, But Race Isn't

Gregory Elich
How the Nobel Peace Prize Was Won

Stephen Martin
A Tectonic Shift in Hegemony at the G7

Rev. William Alberts
Don't Blink Twice

Laura Carlsen
The Fall of the Bush Dynasty Plan

Joanne Mariner
The Uighurs Come to Washington

Howard Lisnoff
Left Behind: a Biden Fundraiser and the Children of Holyoke

David Macaray
A Tale of Two Unions

Website of the Day
Six Degrees of Hank Paulson

October 13, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Farewell to Daniel Cassidy

Michael Hudson
Rescue for the Few, Debt Slavery for the Many

Patrick Cockburn
Pogrom Against Mosul's Christians

Chris Floyd
The God That Failed: the 30-Year Lie of the Market Cult

Fidel Castro
The Law of the Jungle: Racism, Obama and the Fall of the American Economy

Robert Weitzel
Olmert's Depths of Reality

Derek Wright
How Chrysler Killed My Uncle

Stephen Soldz
Guantánamo's SERE Standard Operating Procedures

David Michael Green
Greed is Not Good

Norman Solomon
Requiem for the Bailout: a Storyline

Charles R. Larson
Toni Morrison on Her Own Terms

Lisa Massaciuccoli
The Shoplifting Association of the Americas

Website of the Day
Arlo Guthrie: "I'm Changing My Name to Fannie Mae"

October 10 / 12, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Is McCain a Lot Sicker Than We Know?

Jeffrey St. Clair /
Joshua Frank
Obama's Nuclear Ambition

Douglas Valentine
Mission CREEP: From John Mitchell to John McCain

Noam Chomsky
Exposing the Un-Democratic Face of Capitalism

Ralph Nader
The Derivatives Game

Syed Saleem Shahzad
Why the Neo-Taliban is Winning

Patrick Cockburn
War in the Time of Cholera

Paul Craig Roberts
A Possible Solution to the Economic Crisis

Mike Whitney
Run on the System

Peter Morici
The Deficit and the Damage Done

Christopher Ketcham
The End of the Economy

Stephen Martin
Shock and Awe in Economic Warfare

Chellis Glendinning
Wireless Mind, Gullible Mind

Saul Landau
All Guns, No Butter

Ahmad Faruqui
21 Days to Baghdad

Adam Turl
Sheriff Tom Dart vs. the Banksters

Serge Halimi
The Battle for the West

Anthony DiMaggio
Making a Killing: the Business of Elections

John Ross
The Sky is Falling on Mexico, Too

José M. Tirado
Meltdown in Iceland

Paul Krassner
Beat the Crowd in Denver: Cops and T-Shirts

David Macaray
Adventures in Unionism

Robert Fantina
Bankrupt and Belligerent

David Yearsley
The Playlist for Election 2008

Julian Clec'h
The Soap Washing Through Saudi Arabia

Adam Engel
Sexual Healing ... for the Planet

Phyllis Pollack
The Rolling Stones Go Home, Again

Missy Beattie
Going North: the Coming Nation of Alaska

Poets' Basement
Landau, Moser and Henson

Website of the Day
Sarah as Esther? New Video From Inside Palin's Church

October 9, 2008

Robert Bryce
From Enron to the Current Meltdown

David Vest
The Great Rescue of 2008: Could Whatever Follows Bush Be Even Worse?

Winslow T. Wheeler
Meltdown at the Pentagon

Andy Worthington
The Ordeal of the Wrongly Imprisoned Uighurs

Anthony DiMaggio
Obama the Subhuman

Helga Serrano /
Hector Tamayo
Ecuador Charts the Way

Dave Lindorff
When Money Flies

Mats Svensson
At the Checkpoint on the Day of Atonement

Rannie Amiri
The Time for Mordechai Vanunu is Now

Website of the Day
The Palestine Chronicle Needs (and Deserves) Your Support

October 8, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Imbecilic Tedium

Linn Washington, Jr.
Palin's Racist Remark

Mike Whitney
To the Bunkers!

Deepak Tripathi
The West is Broke

George C. Wilson
Butter Over Guns? McCain and Obama on Defense Issues

Andy Worthington
Seized in Pakistan

Charles R. Larson
"I'm John McCain and I Approved This Lie"

Patrick Irelan
Ecuador's Choice

Matthew Koehler
Log, Baby, Log: Bailing Out the Timber Industry

Stanley Heller
Time to Design a New Economy

Daniel Gross
Working Class Hero: Alexandra Svoboda

Kimberly Hartke
Raw Milk and Civil Liberties

Website of the Day
Olivia Wilde Does It Early

October 7, 2008

Patrick Cockburn
Obama and McCain's Goofy Afghan Bluster

Gary Leupp
Seven Years in Afghanistan:
From "War on Terror" to
"War of Terror"

Uri Avnery
Olmert's Final Divorce
From "All of Eretz Israel"

P. Sainath
The Cop-Out Election
Major Candidates, Congress, Press, All Fail in the Big Crisis

Peter Morici
The Dow Tanks as Bank Bailout Fails to Restore Confidence

Conn Hallinan
The Great Game in the Caucasus:
Bad Moves by Uncle Sam

Martha Rosenberg
Training America's Youth
Today a Pheasant, Tomorrow Osama

Binoy Kampmark
Let's Talk About Extinction:
CERN and Halo

October 6, 2008

Paul Craig Roberts
A Futile Bailout as Darkness Falls on America

Mike Whitney
Still on the Edge of the Abyss

Tariq Ali
Goodbye to Grosvenor Square

Emily Horowitz
How People Tell Cops They're Guilty Even When They Aren't

Michael Hudson
What Did Jesus Say?
A Christian Perspective on the Paulson Bank Bailout

Ron Jacobs
Winter Soldiers and Washington's Wars

October 3 - 5, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Creatures of Capital

Paul Craig Roberts
Why Paulson's Plan is a Fraud

Saul Landau
The Chutzpah of Hank Paulson

Jonathan Cook
The Souring of a West Bank Romance: Israel's Army and Settlers Fall Out

Andy Worthington
The Dark Heart of the Guantánamo Trials

Dave Marsh
Bono (Himself) Challenges Me to a Debate

Sasan Fayazmanesh
Using the IAEA to Spy on Iran

John Ross
Massacre in Morelia

Brian Cloughley
The Unacceptable Face of Capitalism

Wajahat Ali
Dueling Partners: an Interview with Tariq Ali on Pakistan

Robert Schwartz
A Serious Blow to the Rights of U.S. Workers: NLRB Limits Political Strikes

Alan Nasser
FDR's Response to the Plot to Overthrow Him: a Paradigm for Today's Democrats?

David Ker Thomson
The Case for Drunk Driving

Peter Morici
Gone in 30 Days: U.S. Loses 159,000 Jobs in September

William Blum
When is a Holocaust Not a Holocaust?

William S. Lind
War on Two Fronts: Without Railroads

Michael Donnelly
The Ghost of Gen. McClellan

Thom Rutledge
On Presidential "Rule"

Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Science and the 2008 Presidential Elections: a Survey of the Candidates

Dave Lindorff
Calling the Problem Early

Cindy Ellen Hill
Waging a Sustainable Peace?

Paul Krassner
Dying to Get High: the Side Effects of Medical Marijuana

Daniel White
Vietnam's Masterspy

Poets' Basement
Corseri, Absher, Gibbons and Jenkins

Website of the Weekend
How We Lost Glen Canyon: a Legal Chronology

October 2, 2008

Paul Craig Roberts
Can a Bailout Succeed?

Joe Bageant
Speaking in the Tongues of Brokers: the Bailout in Plain English

Ralph Nader
Soulmates in Deregulation

Mike Whitney
Why the Bailout Stinks

Madis Senner
When Push Comes to Pull: How a Foreign Banker Invasion Sent the Markets Reeling

Winslow T. Wheeler
Congress as Usual:the Crisis Will Pass, But This Bunch Will Remain the Same

William Blum
A Boy's Game: the Origins of the Financial Crisis

P. Sainath
Wall Street Transforms Presidential Race

Website of the Day
McCain's Meltdown in Des Moines

October 1 , 2008

Glen Ford
The Last Hold Up

Steven Conn
Trashing Sarah Palin: the Boomerang Effect

Alan Maass / Lee Sustar
Why Not a Bailout for the Rest of Us?

Kenneth Couesbouc
The Blame Game: When Wall Street Pigs Sprout Wings

Stan Goff
How the Republicans Can Win (And Deserve It)

Adolfo Gilly
Racism, Domination and Bolivia

Rannie Amiri
Bombs in the Levant

Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
The Recurring Myth of Peak Oil

Adam W. Parsons
Food and Markets

Dave Lindorff
Bums' Rush to the Bailout: Where are the Hearings?

Douglas Valentine
The Bush Continuity Plan?

Adrien Rain Burke
The Party's Over: an Open Letter to Nancy Pelosi

Website of the Day
Sarah Palin's Beauty Pageant

September 30, 2008

Pam Martens
What Wall Street Hoped to Win

Chris Floyd
The Shadow of the Pitchfork: Elite Panic on Wall Street

Stephen Martin
A Biological Walk Down Wall Street

Deepak Tripathi
A Bitter Harvest in Afghanistan

Mark Engler
Bad Money

Jonathan Cook
The Attack on Zeev Sternhell: Has Israel Become a Breeding Ground for Jewish Settler Terrorism?

Dave Lindorff
The Power of No

Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Time for a General Strike?

Ahmad Faruqui
In Cold Blood: Buried Alive in Pakistan

John Chuckman
Will the Bride Wear White? As Rome Burns, Bristol Palin Prepares to Tie the Knot with Mr. "Sex on Skates"

David Macaray
Blaming the Labor Unions

Fatemeh Keshavarz
What Obama Could Have Said

Website of the Day
538: a Cognitive Map of American Politics

September 29, 2008

Mike Whitney
Black Monday

Jeff Gibbs
"Just Say No!" to Reverse Robin Hood

Paul Craig Roberts
Why America Should Listen to Ahmadinejad

Peter Morici
The Bailout and the Economy

Tim Wise
Racism as Reflex

John Walsh
Sarah Palin is a Rotten Mom

Uri Avnery
Israeli Fascism: Yes, It Can Happen Here

Alan Farago
Hell to Pay: the Financial Collapse and the Housing Market

Andy Worthington
Is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Running the 9/11 Trials?

David Michael Green
Where's the Repudiation?

Carl Finamore
Capitalism on Steroids; Labor on Tranquilizers

Iris Keltz
Postcards from the DNC

Bill Hatch
Take This Shrimp Slayer!

Website of the Day
Tina Fey as Palin, Round Two

September 27 / 28, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
How McCain Blew It

Linn Washington, Jr.
Alaska's Blacks and Palin: a Strained Relationship

Christopher Ketcham
An Israeli Trojan Horse

Mike Whitney
The People vs. the Banksters

Kevin Alexander Gray Race in the Race: Is Obama Shining Us On?

Anthony DiMaggio
The Unspoken War: Pakistan, the Media and Nuclear Weapons

Mary Lynn Cramer
Their Assets; Our Debts: How Economic Crises Are Overcome

Marc Levy /
Susan Erony
War Jokes Wanted: No Laughing Matter

Stan Cox
Livestock of Mass Destruction: Germ Labs in the Heartland

Saul Landau
Election Drizzle

Ali Khan
Meltdown in American Markets: an Islamic Perspective

David Rosen
The Great Fear: the Sexual Politics of Sarah Palin

Todd Alan Price
Bailing Out the Foes of Public Eduction

Matts Svensson
The Red and White Bird in Gaza

Ron Jacobs
Pakistan Through the Eyes of a Native Son

Robert Fantina
McCain and the Economy

Richard Rhames
Hank-ering for a Bailout

David Krieger
The U.S.-India Nuclear Proliferation Deal

Seth Sandronsky
Rethinking Charter Schools

Charles R. Larson
Dear Mrs. Abacha: a Nigerian Email Romance

Kim Nicolini
Sadism in the Desert

Poets' Basement
La Morticella, Holt, Moser and Buknatski

Website of the Day
The Great Schlep

September 26, 2008

Moshe Adler
Bailing Out Wall Street Won't Save Main Street

Bill Quigley
The U.S. War on Unarmed Working Mothers

Jonathan Cook
When Archaeology Becomes a Curse

Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Visions of Pinpoint Control: the Romance of Laser Weapons

Madis Senner
Why the Bailout will Fail

Brian Cloughley
US Raids in Pakistan: Violations of Sovereignty

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Oh, Henry!

Joanne Mariner
Passport Fraud and Torture

Dan La Botz
The Financial Crisis: a View from the Left

David Macaray
Ralph's Management Indicted by Federal Grand Jury

Website of the Day
Nader and Obama Girl at the Office

September 25, 2008

Michael Hudson
The Insanity of the $700 Billion Giveaway

Sharon Smith
Democrats and Corporate Bailouts

Ralph Nader
Who Will Show Some Backbone Against the Bailout?

Christopher Ketcham
The Economy of Dead Sperm (or What I Learned From My Race-Car Grandpa Who Had No Bankers)

Eric Toussaint
Is Another Third World Debt Crisis in the Offing?

Robert Weissman
Getting Wall Street Pay Reform Right

David Estabrook
A Better Bailout Plan

Nikolas Kozloff
The Voyage of the SS Peter the Great

Steve Early
The High Price of Purple Dissent

Judith Scherr
Blue Helmets in Haiti

Laray Polk
South Ossetia and Abkhazia: Notes from the Inside

Website of the Day
Letterman Spanks McCain

September 24, 2008

Paul Craig Roberts
The Bitter Fruits of Deregulation

Nikolas Kozloff
Palin at the UN: a Tutorial from Uribe

Robert Weissman
The Financial Crisis: How and Why Congress Should Play for Time

Andy Worthington
The Guantánamo Trials: Govt. Says Six Years Not Long Enough to Prepare Evidence

Steve Conn
Will Nader's Warning be Acknowledged in the Presidential Debates?

Karyn Strickler
The $700,000,000,000 Power Punch

Diane Farsetta
Stealth Marketers Gone Wild

Dennis Loo
Poisoned Legacy

John Halle
Wealth Tax Now!

Khalil Nakhleh
Palestinians Under the Occupation

Website of the Day
Nader: Debate Crasher

September 23, 2008

Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr.
Bail Out on This Bailout

Michael Hudson
Henry Paulson and the New Yazoo Land Scandal

Tariq Ali
Why was the Marriott Targeted?

Patrick Dyer
A Death Row Visit with Troy A. Davis

Franklin Lamb
Hezbollah and the Palestinians

Joshua Frank
Oppose Barack Obama? How Dare Thee!

Alan Farago
Pushing the Referees: How the Financial Crisis Occurred

Dave Lindorff
The Bailout Will Kill the Dollar

Tanya M. Kerssen /
Roger Burbach
Bolivia's Popular Upheaval

Harvey Wasserman
Nuclear Power Liabilities Dwarf Bush's Wall Street Bailout

Website of the Day
Hammered by the Irish: the Video

September 22, 2008

Michael Hudson
The Paulson-Bernanke Bank Bailout Plan: Will the Cure be Worse Than the Crisis?

Mike Whitney
Mushroom Clouds Over Wall Street

Christopher Ketcham
Let It Collapse!

Ron Jacobs
The Predators' Bailout

Anne-Marie McManus
Lost in the Rhetoric of Crisis

Robert Weitzel
The Twin Terrors of the Holy Land: a Sexy Fundamentalist and a White-Haired Zionist

Wajahat Ali
An Interview with Howard Dean

John Ross
A New Cold War Comes to Latin America

Steve Breyman
Does the U.S. Really Need Cluster Bombs?

Patrick Bond
On the Bellies of the Filth

Uri Avnery
Fly, Tzipora, Fly

Carl J. Mayer
An Open Letter to Michael Moore (AKA God's Pen Pal): Whatever Happened to Voting Your Conscience?

Website of the Day
Stop the Execution of Troy Anthony Davis

September 20 / 21, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Is This the Stake Through Neoliberalism's Heart?

Michael Hudson
America's Own Kleptocracy

Pam Martens
The Wall Street Model: Unintelligent Design

Lila Rajiva
Putting Lipstick on an AIG

Mike Whitney
Full-Spectrum Breakdown

Richard Rhames
A Bailout to Nowhere

Bill Moyers /
Michael Winship
The NY Yankees and the U.S. Economy

Bill and Kathleen Christison
The Making of Recent U.S. Middle East Policies: a New Study of Neocon Influence

Susan Block
Palin as Venus in Furs: the Dominatrix Politics of Drilling and Killing

Robert Fantina
Republicans and Subpoenas: Never the Twain Shall Meet

Heidi Walters
Hung Up on Route 36: an 18-Wheeler and a Nuclear Cask

David Yearsley
Germany's Lost Organs: When Bigger Was Better

Raymond J. Lawrence
The Politics of Tribulation: Sarah Palin and the Rapture

David Rosen
One Billion Pills Later: Viagra at 10

David Michael Green
Living in Sarah Palin's America

Anthony Papa
Imprisoned Voters and the Elections

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Freddie, Fannie, Daddy, Nanny

Howard Lisnoff
When We Notice the Homeless

John Goekler
Leaving Every Child Behind

Missy Beattie
Impalement

Dave Zirin
Leave Josh Howard Alone

Charles R. Larson
Holden Caulfield, Rest in Peace

Tim Matson
Too Big for His Birches: Woodlot Economics

Susie Day
Attack of the Angry Fetus

Poets' Basement
Corseri, Gibbons, Jenkins and Ford

Website of the Weekend
Dylan & Baez: Deportees

September 19, 2008

Steven T. Banko
McCain's Passion Play

Mike Whitney
The Point of No Return

Michael Hudson
The Dow Jones' Wonderfully Cheesy Addition

William Kaufman
Shattering the Glass-Steagall Act: the Bi-Partisan Origins of the Financial Crisis

Brenda Norrell
The Fall of Lehman Bros.: Blowback for Black Mesa?

Keeanga-Yamatta Taylor
The New Rhetoric of Racism: Why Won't Obama Call It Out?

Clifton Ross
Bolivia: Cleaning Up the Bull Ring

Dave Lindorff
Hang On to Your Wallets: the Government's About to Rescue Us!

Cynthia McKinney
Seize the Time!

Susan Hurlich
Storm Survivors: a Dispatch from Cuba

Michael Donnelly
Let's Hand It All Over to the Democrats (They Helped Create This Mess)

Website of the Day
The Crisis Explained

September 18, 2008

Benjamin Dangl
The Machine Gun and the Meeting Table

Harvey Wasserman
The Senate's Drill, Drill, Drill Scam

Susan Abulhawa
The Lobby Has Spoken: Biden and Israel

Robert Weissman
After the Fall: the Financial Re-Regulatory Agenda

Anne-Marie McManus
McCain's Cinderella: the Fetishization of Sarah Palin

Corey D. B. Walker
The Poverty of 21st Century Progressivism

William S. Lind
Senator O'Bush: Why Obama is Wrong on Iran and Afghanistan

Ron Jacobs
Washington's False Logic of Torture

Dave Lindorff
American and China: Joined at the Hip

Binoy Kampmark
How Damien Hirst Got Away With It

Website of the Day
An Invisible Army

September 17, 2008

Stephen Conn
Palin and the Politics of Big Oil

Forrest Hylton
Reactionary Rampage in Bolivia

Patrick Cockburn
Petraeus Leaves Iraq

Gregory Elich
Inside North Korea

Ralph Nader
How the U.S. Auto Industry Wrecked Itself

Franklin Lamb
The Palestinians of Shabra-Shatila

Pam Martens
The Gang's All Here: Bush, McCain and the Old Iran/Contra Team

Dave Lindorff
The End of the Blue Chip Economy

Peter Morici
The Damage Deepens

Stanley Heller
The Killing of Count Folke Bernadotte

Douglas Valentine
Rambling David Foster Wallace

Website of the Day
Free Cindy McCain!

September 16, 2008

Paul Craig Roberts
US Economy: Rudderless and Reeling from Direct Hits

Tiphaine Dickson
Citizen Palin: Why Sarah Palin Quoted Westbrook Pegler

Stan Goff
America is Now Rome: an Open Letter to Christian Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan

Uri Avnery
Tzipi's Choice

Michael Winship
Lipstick on Polar Bears

Jeff Halper
Warehousing Palestinians

Patrick Irelan
Bolivia Versus the Empire

Oscar Gonzalez
Who's Dumber? Ike's Refugees or Wall Street's?

Binoy Kampmark
Cheney and His Records

Fatemeh Keshavarz
Muslims are at Peace with You

Sen. Russ Feingold
Restoring the Rule of Law

Website of the Day
The Next Great Rock Band?

September 15, 2008

Mike Whitney
The Tumbrils Roll at Dawn

Peter Morici
Toxic Lehman

Patrick Cockburn
Take Another Look at the Surge

Charles R. Larson
The Maverick Has No Clothes

Jonathan Cook
The Expulsion of Palestinians from Jaffa

Nikolas Kozloff
Racist Rhetoric in Bolivia

Roger Burbach
Morales Confronts the Insurrection: Bolivia and the Echoes of Allende

Helen Redmond
Where's the Health Care Bailout?

David Michael Green
The Democrats Do Poland

David Macaray
The Boeing Strike

Ralph Nader
Remembering Peter Camejo

Website of the Day
The Ballad of Sarah Palin

October 16, 2008

Where Has All the Money Gone?

The Nourishment of Idleness

By STEPHEN MARTIN

That we are overdone with banking institutions which have banished the precious metals and substituted a more fluctuating and unsafe medium, that these have withdrawn capital from useful improvements and employments to nourish idleness, that the wars of the world have swollen our commerce beyond the wholesome limits of exchanging our own productions for our own wants, and that, for the emolument of a small proportion of our society who prefer these demoralizing pursuits to labors useful to the whole, the peace of the whole is endangered and all our present difficulties produced, are evils more easily to be deplored than remedied.
                                                                                                           Thomas Jefferson

It is a remarkable testimony to the prescience of genius as light shining that these words were written almost two hundred years ago.

"Plus ça change, plus c'est la meme chose" as the French proverb goes.

Yet there have been some recent developments apropos of "demoralizing pursuits" and the nourishment of idleness, as evident through sufferance amongst those laboring useful to the whole, and as beyond anything approximating wholesome limits.

 The problem with greed is that there is never enough; no mountain of gold or pile of lucre sufficiently high, because to the green eye of avarice existing in the small proportion of society there is always more to be coveted, more schemes to be hatched;  greater and more exacting emolument to be achieved on back of, and at expense of   Citizens as "labor useful " and as taken from the "whole" through demoralizing pursuit as preference.

 As one who wishes his small labor be useful to the whole, attempt will be made here to answer a question which Citizens throughout the Western World, but most notably in America, are quite understandably asking in the midst of this economic disaster that is greatest present difficulty as produced - and as endangering the peace:

Where has all the money gone?

Now I am not especially qualified to answer this question, other than sharing in the malady Global leading towards such question and as fostering empathy.  In progress of reading this article, you may well get a few "bum steers" as it were. Please be assured that these are without element of deliberation; as such tendered unwittingly. As stated, there is intent of labor useful to the whole. As to bum steers, there"s loads of those about already - especially when it comes to answering this particularly important question concerning money and it"s mysterious "disappearance".

( A little knowledge a dangerous thing mind you - but can it be double edged - a la "out of the mouth of babes"?)

Some help on the way of trying to answer where the money has gone:

Thomas Pynchon; hitting a nail smack on the head:

"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don"t have to worry about the answers"

The "they" in the above being those determined to carry out demoralizing pursuit by way of preference.

The bum steer comes in many breeds, some long horn, some short horn, some without horn at all.

All, however,  on ranch owned by those preferring demoralizing pursuit.

Then; that question so beloved of the Romans, cuttingly pragmatic: as scythe to camouflage,  draft to smoke,  or laser to mirror obscured, beam seen in clarity, angle of incidence evidencing positioning - and revealing evils to be deplored  and remedied,  in form of wholesome limits exceeded being curbed:

Cui Bono?

Also we have the enduring wisdom of Thomas Jefferson, as light shining and helping labor useful on its way; evident throughout this article - hopefully.

Money is still, to this day, as Jefferson put it, a more fluctuating and unsafe medium. That is why it is always best, from perspective of demoralizing pursuit as preference, to utilise such money as belongs to other people, wherever possible.

Money as belongs to people such as the Citizens laboring useful to the whole,  for example.

Now as to withdrawn capital and the burning question of the times :

"Where has all the money gone?"

Herein proposed a demoralizing pursuit unparalleled in scale;  proposed as answering not only the "where", but also the "why" of the money and it"s going -- as in Capital withdrawn, endangerment and difficulty -- and excess way, way beyond wholesome limits.

This;  the picture of the whole. 

In terms "moderated" by the vision  and turn of phrase of Thomas Jefferson - updated occasionally by the expedient of such as jargon reflecting passage of time.

But the vision as principle captured by his genius still rings true.

Resonant,  regardless of time passing.

As  testimony immemorial as to what Presidential Office in America can mean.

Right now, the American Economy is as one big, shrunken lemon. A lemon which has been shrunken by squeeze until the pips squeak, with wilful deliberation as to liberate practically all juice within : capital withdrawn.  Squeezed by Paulson Bailout, squeezed by leverage of fiat currency, squeezed  by hollowing out, squeezed by trade deficit, squeezed by appropriation bill, squeezed by the pork in same, squeezed under need of the wars being waged.

Squeezed in ways unmentionable -  such the depravity.

This squeezing: into the coffers of small proportion with covetous eye on even greater nourishment of idleness,   and being but as capital withdrawn.

This small proportion preferring demoralizing of pursuit has one hell of a lot of liquidity as capital withdrawn right now.

To the grave endangerment of the peace of the whole - and towards the production of all present difficulties.

As any determined practitioner of demoralizing pursuit will tell you, too much liquidity is not good. The secret of demoralizing pursuit is to get capital withdrawn working; to get it out there; grabbing a piece of the action through involvement in labors useful to the whole, and exacting return from same - while nourishing idleness.

Planning for such "grabbing" is of the essence of demoralizing pursuit.

Now those determined and accomplished in the ways of demoralizing pursuit will tell you much of the way the world works concerning such matters as the reasons for the generation of liquidity and withdrawal of capital. It is always for reasons of investment into a greater whole, from which emolument commensurate in proportion shall be forthcoming, as it were.  However, conditions must be ripe for such a bold move, the greater whole must first be weakened into a state as is susceptible to the advance, if the deployment of the capital withdrawn is to gain control thereof.

 Think of it in military terms. Financial weapons of mass destruction indeed.  Achieve required weakness through deployment of such weapons in the greater whole as is coveted, and then the capital withdrawn may be deployed - in getting a piece of the action of same greater whole.  A controlling piece, held by small proportion preferring demoralizing pursuit - and monstrous the idleness thereby nourished.

This why the money has gone.

This answering right question, thanks to Thomas.
(Pynchon in this case.)

Speculate to accumulate herein as one huge scheme of demoralizing pursuit concerning the coveting of greater whole.  Huge; in the capital withdrawn, in the endangerment of the peace, in the production of present difficulties; in  the excess of wholesome limits.
Thus as Jefferson could put it -- and just as the Citizen laboring useful to the whole probably experiences it at this moment: concerning difficulties, endangerment and absence of wholesome limit.

You know how it feels.

I sure as hell do.

This nourishment of idleness a deplorable evil.

To a Military historian, the state of play just now regarding progress of this nefarious scheme as nourishment of idleness by capital withdrawn in preference of demoralizing pursuit by small proportion must be reminiscent of Operation Sealion; the Second World War plan by Hitler to invade Britain.

1940. The German troops mustered at Channel port, on borders; the invasion being planned as Operation.  Fortunately for Britain, the Germans realised that they had insufficient resources to carry out the invasion, the "Oberkommando des Heeres", or German Army High Command, making more demands than could operationally be met in their planning - even given considerable, and desperate, attempts at revision. Resistance by the  enemy far stiffer than expected, particularly in the Air.

There had been "over reach" in the planning.

A fatal flaw.

Operation Sealion was eventually cancelled, by order of Hitler.  In 1940.

In our tale of demoralizing pursuit writ large, there has also been much stiffer resistance encountered from the intended territory of occupation and control - as at the recent G7 meeting.  The stockpiles of money as capital withdrawn are in consequence still in the "war"  coffers.  In America. Waiting in vain for such as IMF to draw upon as per plan, for idleness to be nourished; for deployment by way of demoralizing pursuit as preference.  Capital withdrawn as weapons stockpiled, gathered on the front, ready for deployment in invasion. An invasion deferred due to resistance, and the extent of resources as operational requirement.

"Such squeeze - yet not enough!" - as wail born of greed denied,  amidst the gnashing of the teeth of such small proportion of American society representing demoralizing pursuit to such extent.

Could there yet still be such invasion focused on control of Manufacturing Base rather than Financial Institutions in the targeted greater whole? As  in "bait and switch"?

Probably  not. 

The focus always on Financial Institution by small proportion seeking greater nourishment of idleness; the plan dependant upon quick takeover; the avoidance of  war of attrition; shock and awe supposed to prevail as per the planning.  Besides, manufacturing is too much as labor useful to be really nourishing of idleness; Finance as demoralizing pursuit being much preferred by the small proportion of society  who currently have all that money at their disposal, courtesy of same.

As capital withdrawn.

But...

There has been that overreach in planning - just as in Operation Sealion.
As fatal flaw.

As the Scottish Bard, Rabbie  Burns puts it, genius living eternal as light:

"The best laid schemes o' mice an' men... Gang aft agley"

Thanks be to God!

But hold off on the celebrations.

Now the situation so grave in America  that the endangerment of peace in the base economy as whole, so great the production of difficulties,  the wholesome limits so far exceeded -that things have to be got back urgently in order more closely resembling "whole" as was. The money must be put back from whence it came -- and which it never really left, just changing hands in the concentration, as in from the many of labors useful to the few of small proportion preferring demoralizing pursuit, and nourishment of idleness commensurate. Capital withdrawn.  As to the intended victims of the weapons of financial mass destruction -- they too have their problems. Heaven knows: "Terminator" like -- they may be "back" -- in sense of counter attack.
I think not. I hope not.

For America, in consequence of such nefarious scheme by the small proportion, the difficulty being to get the juice as has been squeezed back into the lemon, to get the Economy back up and working - before people with Jefferson like insight and interests start to realise just what exactly the hell has been going on, and the whole disastrous episode can be openly deplored for the evil that  it represents.

The difficulty also being the "giving up" from perspective of the small proportion.

Once in grasp, indeed, when such demoralizing pursuit the way as preference.

For the citizen laboring useful to the whole, deploring, once seen, such a scheme for the unmitigated Evil of demoralizing pursuit on grand scale it represents, is easy; especially given the extent of endangerment of peace and the difficulties so callously and monstrously produced  - as so many decent, hardworking, loyal and honest Citizens of America as vast majority can unfortunately testify towards.  In  detailing of their sufferance. 

The real challenge, as Thomas Jefferson so clearly and profoundly stating in quote given: finding remedy.

POTUS 32 did it.

It can be done.

By way of concluding this small article, a statement of fond hope alongside admiration for Thomas Jefferson, and the useful and peaceful whole as within his Presidential vision of America enshrined.  Were but it that the current incumbent of such exalted public office could find any light- far let alone hold  candle, towards the  beacon held by such as POTUS 3 as befitting what it means to be President. That George W Bush could have been in Presidential labor useful towards the whole, instead of mere stooge in representing preference of demoralizing pursuit of small proportion. For it was under his "watch" such as detailed herein occurred. Such difficulties produced, peace endangered, wholesome limits gone beyond, such idleness nourished.

Such as you experience now. 

He,  through abeyance of great public office as responsibility more to be pitied than scorned.  America is truly a great nation, worthy of better.

Concerning POTUS 44 -- my hopes with all Citizens, of labor useful to the whole, in America.

You are the majority.
Yours is Democracy by right established; enshrined in Constitution.

Strength be with all those who labor useful to the whole, and, God willing,  remedy for the evils of the small proportion who prefer demoralizing pursuit to labor useful be found; that wholesome limits once more be achieved,  difficulties be overcome -- and above all that there be Peace.

May the nourishment of idleness ever be defeated, even in inception.

For the sake of America - and the Peace of the World as a Whole.

Stephen Martin can be reached at: stephenmarti@yahoo.com

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