Wherever The United States Is Going Financially, Italy Will Get There First

Many times we have reviewed the dire financial and economic conditions of the United States:

1. Recently, the national debt of the Federal government exceeded $15 TRILLION. In order to pay off this debt, every American household would have to kick in about $130,000 worth of their own household wealth.
2. The $15 TRILLION debt is likely the first time in our country's history that the Federal national debt was greater than our annual Gross Domestic Product.
3. Our national debt has almost doubled since the Democratic Party took control of the U.S.Congress in 2006 and the annual spending deficits under the Obama administration are still alarmingly high today and are expected to be the same into the near future.
4. The Obama administration has incurred more debt than ALL other Presidents from George Washington through the second Clinton term COMBINED.
5. The U.S. annual growth rate has been less than 3% for years now and shows no sign that economic growth will get more robust any time soon.
6. The Obama administration has burdened the economy with thousands and thousands of new regulations in the past three years.
7. The Obama administration has heavy-handedly interfered in the private sector, hassling companies (e.g. Gibson Guitar, Boeing, etc.) for no legitimate reasons other than to support their union and other political allies.
8. The Obama administration has unsuccessfully interfered in the energy segment of the economy, loaning and wasting hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money in such failed business ventures as Solyndra.
9. The Obama administration has tried to juice the economy by investing in infrastructure projects under the economic stimulus program. However, the funds were not spent efficiently, e.g. an Associated Press investigative report that found half of the nation's bridges "repaired" using stimulus dollars were in absolutely no need of repair.
10. While the country suffers severe economic pains, the political class in Washington continues to enjoy outstanding compensation and benefits and have the additional benefit of participating in insider stock trading ventures that are closed out to most other Americans, surely a corruptible practice.

That is where we stand today, a very, very dangerous financial predicament. But no one in the White House or Congress seems to care, most are focused on their own careers, personal enrichment, and reelection campaigns. Maybe they should take a look where Italy stands today from an economic perspective since wherever the United States is going economically, Italy is likely to already be there.

But first, some background. Italy is the third largest economy among those European countries that use the Euro as their currency. Greece and Spain, other, much smaller economic Euro countries have been in the headlines for months and months, given their dire financial situations. Both countries had rung up huge national debt levels and are now in such bad financial shape that the rest of the Euro countries have been busy putting together bailout and austerity measures for both countries to protect the Euro's viability.

However, more recently we learned that Italy is in no better shape than Greece and Spain and given their ranking as the third largest country, a default of Italian bonds and government debt would certainly sow economic havoc in Europe, on the Euro concept, and elsewhere in the world including the United States.

According to an article in the November 14, 2011 issue of Business Week, in the past twelve months interest on Italy's two year bonds as grown from about 2% to over 7%. This is a reflection on how dire the market views Italy's bad economic situation, resulting in a distressingly high level of debt interest that is not sustainable over more than a short period of time.

But the 7% is not the really scary part of this sad economic condition. Other information from the article shows an eerily similarity to the U.S. economic conditions under the Obama administration listed above (the comparable points made above are listed after each of the quotes from the Business Week article):

• "Over the past 15 years, Italy's economy has expanded an average of .9% annually, half the European average." - Similar to point 5 in the list above, the United States has had meager economic growth for the past three years, no sustained, robust  economic growth is expected in the near future, and our growth has trailed many other countries (China, Brazil, India, etc.) by a substantial amount.
• "Without growth, Italy can't pay down its debt, which stands at 119 percent of gross domestic product." Similar to points 1, 2, 3, and 4 above. At $15 TRILLION, the U.S. debt to GDP ratio is already over 100%, currently at about 103%. However, if the Obama administration and Congress keep adding to the national debt as expected by current budget forecasts, we should hit the Italy crisis ratio of 119% in about two short years.
• "Still, (Italian) productivity has been stifled by overregulation, rigid labor rules, and a government role in industries such as energy." Similar conditions exist in the U.S. as pointed out in points 6, 7, and 8 above.
• "The government has tried to juice the economy by investing n infrastructure and education - only to have benefits siphoned off by corruption." Eerily similar to point 9 above.
• "Italy's state auditor says cases of corruption and bribery increased 30% last year." Seems like political class corruption is a world wide event, including both Italy and in this country (see point 10 above.)

Seems like a true statement, wherever the U.S. is going from a financial disaster perspective, Italy will already be there and waiting for us.

That is unless Italy actually gets its act together. The Business Week article discusses the fact that Italy recently installed new political leadership in its government, dumping long time leader, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who has presided over much of this financial mess in Italy. This is an attempt to reverse course by installing new leadership.

As the country struggles to install new government leadership though, the chairman of the Italian Senate Finance Committee does not sound very optimistic: "Which government, with what wide majority, will be able to implement in a few days the structural reforms that we haven't been able to implement in the last ten years?"

This is where we still have a chance, maybe a two year window before we get as hopeless as this Italian Senator. We can begin by dumping out all incumbents next November, from President Obama to all members of Congress, incumbents that got us into this financial mess. Einstein once said: "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them." We also cannot solve them using the same people that created them.

Unless we purge in November, we may all end speaking Italian when we catch up to the Italians two or three years down the road when we also arrive in financial Armageddon.



Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.


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http://www.repealamendment/

Political Class Craziness, Greed, and Incompetence From Around The World

Although the American political class provides daily examples of craziness, greed, and incompetence, they have not cornered the market on such behavior. Recent news accounts prove that the afflictions of our political class exist elsewhere in the world:

- A November 1, 2010 Associated Press report reviewed the status of a government housing development in New Delhi, India. The original intent of the Adarsh Housing Society shelter effort was to provide affordable shelter to the wounded Indian war veterans, disabled veterans, and the widows of Indian soldiers killed in battle. Sounds like a wonderful concept.

However, according to the article, the effort turned into a huge scam with housing units being sold far below market price to top politicians, their relatives, and retired Indian military generals. Additionally, rather than a regular, six story apartment building, the original plans were never implemented and in their place, a 31 story luxury high rise was built despite violating zoning and environmental laws. The original apartments were budgeted to be sold for about $130,000 but once the political class got involved, the cost of the units in the luxury apartment building now go for about $1.8 million. The highest ranking local politician offered to resign when it was uncovered that his mother-in-law and other relatives had apartments in the luxury high rise.

Sound familiar? The politicians vote themselves the perks while the less fortunate of a society suffer.

- In England, an article in the Daily Mail that was summarized in the November 29, 2010 issue of The Week magazine, reviewed how the new Prime Minister of England, David Cameron, was getting along. Mr. Cameron has been on a government downsizing and expense reduction mission since taking office, reducing Britain's military, government payroll, and other government agencies.

The problem is that he has not taken the same tact with regards to the government agencies and expenses that touch his life. According to the article, he has created a new staff of public relations experts solely dedicated to creating a brand campaign that expands and improves his image. He has created a new job title called "head of e-media" which pays a salary of $120,000 a year and whose duties are only to write about Cameron on blogs and Twitter. He has a personal photographer whose $56,000 a year job is to take positive pictures of Cameron at work and at play. He has a "special advisor" whose sole duty is to tend to the wardrobe needs of him and his family.

Sound familiar? Everyone needs to sacrifice for the good of the country... except for those that are running the country whose wages and the benefits of their jobs far exceed those of the citizens they should be humbly representing.

- According to an article in the London Observer, as summarized in the November 19, 2010 issue of The Week magazine, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi allegedly personally intervened in a police matter in order to get theft charges dropped against a 17 year old belly dancer. The belly dancer claims that the Prime Minister invited her to his personal villa for an "erotic ritual" which involved a cast of naked women. The Prime Minister's response to the accusations: "It's better to have a passion for beautiful girls than to be gay." An offensive remark and certainly not a denial.

The article goes on to summarize past tawdry incidents in Berlusconi's past. These include the promise of jobs for young women in exchange for "their attentions" and the gift of a pricey necklace he gave to an 18 year old woman (Berlusconi is 74 years old.) The article goes on to say that as a result of all of these distractions, the government work and cooperation that needs to take place between Berlusconi and Parliament has brought the Italian government to a virtual standstill.

Sound familiar? Bill Clinton, Eliot Spitzer, Jim MacGreevey, John Ensign, Mark Sanford, Gary Hart, Gary Condit, Larry Craig... Government functions negatively affected by political class sexual exploits.

- According to a Washington Post article by David Ignatius that was summarized in the December 3, 2010 issue of The Week magazine, the Afghan government and NATO military leaders have been negotiating with a Taliban representative in an effort to find a middle ground for peace talks. Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour has been flown via British military helicopter from the countryside to the capital of Kabul a number of times to hold face-to-face negotiations with the Afghan president and has been given large sums of money for his trouble. The top U.S. general in Afghanistan hailed the talks and negotiations as a path to reconciliation and peace.

One problem with this effort. The Taliban negotiator is not Mansour but a total imposter who apparently has no connection to the Taliban whatsoever. Officials now believe that it was just a con game played on the upper echelons of the Afghan government and British and American military, perpetuated by an individual whose sole aim was to get some money for himself. Maybe that is why the Taliban constantly claimed that they were not in negotiations with the Afghan government, because they really weren't.

Sound familiar? Didn't a Virginia  husband and wife gain deep entry to a formal White House dinner even though they were not invited and had absolutely no ties to the hosts, the Obamas, or any of the guests? Reminds me of an old Far Side cartoon where a bunch of bears are standing around a coffin when the bear in the coffin sits up and shouts: "I was hibernating, don't you guys ever take a pulse?" Doesn't the U.S. government ever take a pulse or check an id?

- Another article in the December 3, 2010 issue of The Week magazine reviewed how the Mexican government is urging any Mexicans, who are living in the United States and who are returning to Mexico for the Christmas holidays, to travel in convoys when they return. This is a safety suggestion since many returning Mexicans are known to be carrying money and gifts and could be targets of the drug cartels, robbers, and kidnappers. The government has actually set up a convoy coordination agency and suggests that all holiday traveling be done in daylight.

Sound familiar? Fortunately, this situation has not yet happened in the United States. But unless we come up with a strategy that effectively addresses the drug problem in this country, who knows when and how deeply the Mexican drug cartel-induced  lawlessness will cross the border and prompt similar warnings in this country?

See, we are not the only country who has to deal with corrupt, pompous, sexually active, and incompetent politicians. Makes you wonder what type of people are drawn to the world of politics, regardless of where they live. The sad part is we are subjected to their craziness, greed, and incompetence without ever getting a major problem solved that would affect a large segment of the population.

That is why term limits, as explained in Step 39 of "Love My Country, Loathe My Government," is a good idea for this country as well as the rest of the world. Better to get a hard working, dedicated politician for a short amount of time in office than be saddled with a long term politician that gets nothing done accept find more and more ways to enrich himself and slow down the functions of government.

And while we are at it, we should also implement Steps 26 and 29 from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government." Step 26 would implement a process to address the drug problem in the United States and Step 29 would implement a process to address the illegal immigration problem in the country, two steps that are needed to prevent the Mexican convoy problem from becoming a United States convoy problem. That is one act of craziness we do not need in this country.


Our recent book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.



Please visit the following sites for freedom:


http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/