This is something new? I thought we had to involuntarily turn over all our financial information to the Government every April 15 th anyway? What more could they possibly want to know? How much change is in our pockets? They already have the power to audit anyone and compel any person or entity to reveal their public or private accounts and ledgers with a warrant. If they can't do their job with the data they already have, what do they hope to accomplish with this nonsense?

When I once asked the DHS to investigate some nefarious activity at my bank that I had good cause to suspect may have had terrorists activities associated with it they told me to go soak my head. They said flat out they weren't interested in any case that wasn't part of a Federal organization or didn't involve Federal employees. They suggested I call my local police. If you ask me, these high paid bumbling nincompoops just want one more resource to rummage to look busy while they're surfing the net for porn in their cubicle. They're all idiots! I want my money back! Fire all these bums and disband all these money wasting agencys! We're safer on our own.

"We must stand up for the precious civil liberties guaranteed to us in the Constitution, or we'll soon find they no longer exist." Well, surprise, they no longer exist. Now you've got to fight to get them back. The bedrock of the Bill of Rights is the Fifth Amendment, especially the due process clause. Without due process the Bill of Rights is a house of cards. The Fourth and Sixth Amendments are a great example of this. Obama and his administration have destroyed due process with their drone murders. He's proving to be even less of a civil libertarian than his predecessor. And now we've been shackled with a two-tiered justice system that guarantees the money class will spend no time incarcerated for any of their crimes. We are an autocracy, an oligarchy, a totalitarian regime, a plutacracy...call it what you will. What we are not, are free citizens in a democracy.

? is if 9/11 had never occurred would we be having this conversation? so much for land of the free home of the brave. looks more and more to me like land of the lunitic fringe and home of cowards. by the way? what the hell! they can dig in on us but when i go file a police report for having my identity stolen, even with the pile of evidence i still have the cops wouldn't lift a finger? What a scrwed up state of society. no wonder other countries are laughing at us more and more and more and...man i need to go watch some pee wee herman!

I must be wearing orthodics Kend, cause I stand corrected!. But seriously I do agree with just about everything you say. Though I will argue that of course I "forgot the word 'hardworking'"; how would I know to call you that!? Anyyyywaaaay, I do like the concept of the Canadian banking system, at least for how you described it.
Its sad that our financle system is set up to keep people in debt; more money more debt. The U.S. Banking use to function more like what you point out; "We [didn't] loan money to people that could not affoard to pay it back" But everything was different then. As I mentioned; "wages were more in tune to the cost of living...The job market was robust...We actually had an industry...There was a strong middle class...Majority of house holds could comfortable thrive on one income. None of that can be said about todays economy...All the way back to Reagan, (I don't blame him...he was just a Wall St. puppet saying what he was told to say).

As for your opinion on government spending being wasteful...I do hear what you are saying, however, I do not agree that it is the time - morally and ethically - to cut financle aid programs, when unemployment is 14% and there is about 35% that qualify as underemployed and rely on food stamps and medicare, and government assisted living. Don't get me wrong I am not for creating dependency and allowing people to manipulate and abuse "the system"...But isn't that what Wall St did??? Infact yes it is, and our government looked the other way, while CEO's and Captains of Industry stole hundreds of billions of dollars, to the point that the Government had to bail out the banks, and left the bill to the;"underpaid, over taxed, hardworking middle and poor class". Right now there are over 68 million people that are homeless here in the U.S. That is 18% more than before 2008. Now just isn't the time to cut our social programs. now is the time for all these so called "Job Creators" to start creating good jobs...How!?!?Heres a thought bring back the jobs from overseas. Pay workers a liveable wage (that's about double the Fed. min. wage). If these so called ivy league buissness men are so smart they should be able to do this and still keep their yacht, beach house mansion, and at leat one of the Bentleys.
In other words before you start cutting social programs you better get a Jobs Creation bill passed first.
Now for "Green Energy"...I agree that the U.S. has failed misserablely in writing and enacting a functioning policy...but that isn't do to a lack of technology, resources and consumer demand...It is more about poor managment, and money from the BIG oil lobby to keep Washington inline with a love for BIG OIL. No Green Energy isn't cost effective right now, but we are also 30 years behind where we ought to be. Several other countries; China, Germany, Australia, Japan, have been active in the area of Solar, Wind, and Bio Diesals since the mid 80's with Germany already advancing their Energy policy to being Nuclear free within the next 20 years. Yet the U.S. is still talking about coal and advancing Nuclear, even though it proves wrong in everyway, and dispite how we have even better conditions for Solar and Wind then Germany. I could go one even further about Green Energy; My wife works for a solar company, I have a friend who has operating and expanding a green algae farm for bio fuel, and my brother that has lived in Germany since '78. who lives in a 25 unite appartment complex that uses PV pannels for power and solar water collectors for hot water. And guess what? IT WORKS!!! Sound to me like there is an American Industry waiting to take off, creating jobs Jobs, JOBS! All while getting us away from Coal, and Nuclear.

Organize and charter our own state banks. Create a new "green" financial sector that trades all instruments that contribute to the new green economy. Enact a financial transfer fee. Strengthen our local community banks. Begin all of our municipalities, government agencies, and pensions to divest from the big banks.

This is the wrong approach in both the Democratic and Republican proposals.

Our economy's recovery is impeded by structural factors whose components are not susceptible to a Keynesian diagnosis or to a Keynesian remedy such as strictly more stimulus financed by debt without stipulations as to who owns the resulting new productive capital output capacity. Structural changes have been exponentially occurring in the U.S. economy due to tectonic shifts in the technologies of production. We suffer a demand shortfall because the base of "customers with money" is being depleted because of these tectonic shifts, large-scale offshoring of jobs, decline in the demand for low-skilled workers, skill inadequacies, broken and/or outdated infrastructure and the impact of rising fossil fuel energy costs not yet off set by sustainable, renewal clean energy production. Structurally, the shortfall in aggregate demand is due to the exponential disassociation of production and consumption, and the reason that ordinary citizens must gain access to productive capital ownership to improve their economic well-being and become "customers with money" to support the full potential of the future economy. Yet ownership of productive capital is never discussed out in the open and addressed as an issue in the national media or by academia or our elected governmental representatives. Without a policy shift to broaden productive capital ownership simultaneously with economic growth, further development of technology and globalization will undermine the American middle class and make it impossible for more than a minority of citizens to achieve middle-class status. What is needed are various kinds of targeted public investment spending that simultaneously expands private ownership of productive capital formation and creates "customers with money," not simply aggregate demand financed with debt that benefits only the few who already own America.

The purpose of production in a market economy is the consumption of products and services by the consumers who make up the economy. But without income, the non-capital ownership class, the 99 percenters, cannot afford to purchase the products and services they desire. But when incomes rise among consumers who have the need and desire to improve their material standard of living, the market demand for products and services strengthens, which in turn increases production and results in a growth economy.

You can’t have mass production without mass human consumption. It is the exponential disassociation of production and consumption that is the problem in the United States economy, and the reason that ordinary citizens must gain access to productive capital ownership to improve their economic well-being and consumer earning power.

The ONLY viable solution to the economic decline of America is for our leaders, academia and the national media to recognize that all individuals to be adequately productive cannot do so when a tiny minority (capital owners) produce a major share and the vast majority (labor workers), a minor share of total output of the economy's products and services. The system must be reformed to create a world in which the most productive factor of the FUTURE—physical capital—now owned by a handful of people––is owned by a majority—and ultimately 100 percent—of the consumers, while respecting all the constitutional rights of present capital owners.

A balanced Just Third Way approach to building a FUTURE economy that supports affluence for EVERY American is presently not in the national discussion. It appears that the President of the United States, the elected Congressional representatives and Senators, academia, and the media are oblivious to this principled solution that has the ingredients to power economic growth at double-digit GNP rates.

This goal requires investment in FUTURE income-producing productive capital assets while simultaneously broadening private, individual ownership of the resulting expansion of existing large corporations and future corporations. Not only is employee ownership the norm to be sought wherever there are workers but beyond employee ownership the norm should be to create an OWNERSHIP CULTURE whereby EVERY American can benefit financially by owning a SUPER IRA-TYPE Capital Homestead Account (CHA) portfolio of income-producing, full-voting, full-dividend payout securities in America's expanding corporations and those newly created to produce the future products and services needed and wanted by society.

If I were in a position of influence, I would reach out to President Obama and the leadership of his Organizing for Action as well as to other political leaders, and call for them to convene a national discussion using the national media and social media, and our educational institutions, to open up a discussion on EVERY CITIZEN AN OWNER opportunity. We need fresh and inspired leaders who can educate on this issue at this time because academia, the media, and our so-called leaders are not addressing how people make money and the significance of OWNING income-producing productive capital assets. We need to get people to understand that as with today, in the FUTURE we will continue to experience tectonic shifts in the technologies of production, which will destroy and devalue jobs. This is a crucial understanding because at present for the 99 percent of the nation a JOB is the ONLY source of income to support themselves and their families. We need political leaders who will commit to a government policy focus on OWNERSHIP CREATION, not JOB CREATION, which will result and naturally follow as the economy revs up to double-digit GDP growth and fully applies technological innovation and invention to shift from unnecessary labor toil to human-intelligent machines, super-automation, robotics, and digital computerized operations. The Federal Reserve to stop monetizing unproductive debt, and begin creating an asset-backed currency that could enable every child, woman and man to establish a Capital Homestead Account or "CHA" at their local bank to acquire a growing dividend-bearing stock portfolio to supplement their incomes from work and all other sources of income. Steadily over time this will create a robust economy with millions of "customers with money" to purchase the products and services that are needed and wanted.

Our leaders need to put on the table for national discussion this SUPER-IRA idea and the necessary reform of our tax policies that would incentivize corporations to pay out fully their earnings in the form of dividend income and issue and sell new stock to grow. The CHA would process an equal allocation of productive credit to every citizen exclusively for purchasing full-dividend payout shares in companies needing funds for growing the economy and private sector jobs for local, national and global markets,

The shares would be purchased on credit wholly backed by projected "future savings" in the form of new productive capital assets as well as the future marketable goods and services produced by the newly added technology, renewable energy systems, plant, rentable space and infrastructure added to the economy.

Risk of default on each stock acquisition loan would be covered by private sector capital credit risk insurance and reinsurance (ala the Federal Housing Administration concept), but would not require citizens to reduce their funds for consumption to purchase shares.

Essentially, the pressing need is for everyone in a position of influence to encourage President Obama to raise the consciousness of the America people by making his NUMBER ONE focus the introduction of a National Right To Capital Ownership Bill that restores the American dream of property ownership as a primary source of personal wealth.

This is the solution to America's economic decline in wealth and income inequality, which will result in double-digit economic growth and simultaneously broaden private, individual ownership so that EVERY American's income significantly grows, providing the means to support themselves and their families with an affluent lifestyle. The Just Third Way Master Plan for America's future is published at http://foreconomicjustice.org/?p=5797.

Support the Capital Homestead Act at http://www.cesj.org/homestead/index.htm and http://www.cesj.org/homestead/summary-cha.htm

easier, but it offers entertaining and completely accurate satire that places the stories in a humane and kind perspective. http://www.map.ch

Almost simultaneously with the elcetion of President Obama to his second term, it was replaced with a Fox (no less) Sports talk station. http://www.map.ch

We must stop them in all of their efforts before people take to the streets. Or maybe I should say barricades. http://www.map.ch

This sounds like a sensible compromise. Unfortunately, it seems like the more sensible the proposal, the more likely theTeaparty Taliban will shoot it down. Our country has been hijacked by Ignorance.

as I know is one of the best read weeklys out there. I think it reaches about 190.000 regular readers a week. I hope it brings some more traffic to the website davetiye

and voted for by almost every 'Democrat' we just elected - probably played a part in Aaron's suicide davetiye