When America Ruled the World (Part 2)

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Civil Disobedience

There's nothing that I detest more than the stench of lies.

--Colonel Kilgore – Apocalypse Now

The National Debt of the United States from the creation of the country in 1783 until 1986 was $2 trillion. The National Debt of the United States has increased by $2 trillion in the last 18 months from $9 trillion to $11 trillion. It has increased by $1 trillion in the last six months. The independent Congressional Budget Office, which has been overly optimistic over time, projects that the Obama budget plan will add $9.3 trillion to the National Debt by 2019. This will drive the National Debt as a percentage of GDP to levels above the peak years reached during World War II. The difference is that in 2019 the unfunded liabilities totaling $56 trillion for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid will sweep over the country like a tsunami. If our government follows the path it has chosen, our country will be bankrupted.

Source: 911review.org

Many Americans who have lived by the rules are angry, frustrated, and appalled at what the government is doing. They feel helpless to change the course of the country. The housing, spending, and debt bubbles will burst completely, no matter what the government does. Following the current path will lead us into the Japanese model of a 25 year downturn, if we’re lucky. When I read many of the responses to my last article about ways to reclaim your life, I was struck that We The People actually hold all the cards. The government is at our mercy. Americans can change the course of the country through passive resistance. American consumer spending makes up 70% of the U.S. economy. No matter how much liquidity the Federal Reserve creates out of thin air, we do not have to spend the money. American citizens pay $1.2 trillion in Federal Income taxes per year. If they decided not to pay these taxes, the empire would come to a grinding halt. American citizens have more control then they know.

I came across an essay by Henry David Thoreau called "Civil Disobedience (Resistance to Civil Government)", published in 1849. It argues that people should not permit governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences, and that people have a duty to avoid allowing such acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice. The definition of civil disobedience is the active refusal to obey certain laws, demands and commands of a government, without resorting to physical violence.

“Resistance” also served as part of Thoreau’s metaphor which compared the government to a machine, and said that when the machine was working injustice it was the duty of conscientious citizens to be “a counter friction” – that is, a resistance – “to stop the machine.”

Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.

Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau’s most famous quote from the essay was:

That government is best which governs least.

Mr. Thoreau was a man of principle. He believed that citizens should follow their moral conscience above the laws of the state. He believed that slavery was immoral and that the invasion of Mexico to acquire land was not right. He refused to pay his taxes in protest and was jailed for this action. Thoreau’s argument was as follows:

How does it be­come a man to be­have to­ward this Amer­i­can gov­ern­ment today? I an­swer that he can­not with­out dis­grace be as­so­ci­a­ted with it. I can­not for an in­stant re­cog­nize that po­lit­i­cal or­gan­i­za­tion as my gov­ern­ment which is the slave’s government also.

Thoreau’s essay was the inspiration for both Mohandas Gandhi’s Indian independence movement and Martin Luther King’s civil rights movement. Both men admired him for his bravery and morality.

Thoreau was a great writer, philosopher, poet, and withal a most practical man, that is, he taught nothing he was not prepared to practice in himself. He was one of the greatest and most moral men America has produced. He went to jail for the sake of his principles and suffering humanity. His essay has, therefore, been sanctified by suffering. Moreover, it is written for all time. Its incisive logic is unanswerable.

--Mohandas Gandhi

I became convinced that noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. The teachings of Thoreau came alive in our civil rights movement; indeed, they are more alive than ever before. Whether expressed in a sit in at lunch counters, a freedom ride into Mississippi, a peaceful protest in Albany, Georgia, a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama these are outgrowths of Thoreau’s insistence that evil must be resisted and that no moral man can patiently adjust to injustice.

--Martin Luther King

Americans have a duty to not sit idly by and enable the government to be an agent of injustice. The reckless actions taken by politicians and the Federal Reserve in the last eighteen months and their inaction regarding our $56 trillion of unfunded future liabilities are immoral, cowardly, and evil. David Galland, from Casey Research, reflects my anger in his recent column:

But it is our generation that should take the hit. It is us who should feel the pain of the collapse. We did it to ourselves by standing idly by while the government and its many friends in the banking sector got us into this mess. And don’t forget the orgy of spending and personal debt that the population engaged in, encouraged every step of the way by the government’s easy-money policies. This all happened on our watch, but instead of taking our medicine, we the people are now encouraging the government in its many efforts to re-inflate the bubble, fully aware all we are really doing is trying to shift the mess onto the backs of our children, and their children, and probably their children’s children. What a bunch of cowards we are.

The bailout of corrupt bankers by corrupt politicians with money printed and borrowed from future generations is a criminal act and must be overturned by civil disobedience on the part of Americans with a moral conscience. The government has stepped over the line and we must act before it is too late. The brilliant John Hussman describes what Geithner, Bernanke and Congress have done in the last two weeks:

Ultimately, funding the bailout of lousy assets comes at the cost of debasing our currency and selling our good assets to foreigners. Make no mistake - we are selling off our future and the future of our children to prevent the bondholders of U.S. financial corporations from taking losses. We are using public funds to protect the bondholders of some of the most mismanaged companies in the history of capitalism, instead of allowing them to take losses that should have been their own. All our policy makers have done to date has been to squander public funds to protect the full interests of corporate bondholders.

Americans formed this country by revolution. We are not a country of laws. We are a country of citizens with consciences. If government becomes so corrupt and out of control that they threaten our very existence as a country, they must be cast aside. Americans have an obligation to do what is right. Thoreau voiced the right of people with a conscience 160 years ago:

All men re­cog­nize the right of rev­o­lu­tion; that is, the right to re­fuse al­le­giance to and to re­sist the gov­ern­ment, when its tyr­anny or its in­ef­fi­ciency are great and un­en­dur­a­ble.

People's first obligation is to do what they believe is right and not to follow the law dictated by the majority. When a government is unjust, people should refuse to follow the law and distance themselves from the government in general. A person is not obligated to devote his life to eliminating evils from the world, but he is obligated not to participate in such evils. If we do not fight the injustice that is being inflicted on future generations by the actions of government today we are also guilty. Thoreau argued that the majority that rules through strength rather than legitimacy is worthless:

But a government in which the majority rules in all cases can­not be based on jus­tice, even as far as men un­der­stand it. Can there not be a gov­ern­ment in which ma­jor­it­ies do not vir­tu­ally de­cide right and wrong, but con­science? — in which ma­jor­it­ies de­cide only those ques­tions to which the rule of ex­pe­di­ency is ap­pli­ca­ble? Must the cit­i­zen ever for a mo­ment, or in the least de­gree, re­sign his con­science to the leg­is­la­tor? Why has ev­ery man a con­science, then? I think that we should be men first, and sub­jects af­ter­ward. It is not de­sir­a­ble to cul­ti­vate a re­spect for the law, so much as for the right. The only ob­li­ga­tion which I have a right to as­sume is to do at any time what I think right. It is truly enough said that a cor­po­ra­tion has no con­science; but a cor­po­ra­tion of con­sci­en­tious men is a cor­po­ra­tion with a con­science. Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their re­spect for it, even the well-dis­posed are daily made the agents of injustice.

Fiscal Sanity Movement

It is now time for all Americans to force fiscal sanity upon our government through the use of civil disobedience. Our current fiscal path is unsustainable. The government’s solutions will extend the pain for decades in the best case or result in an abrupt collapse in the worst case. If Americans force a fiscal restructuring upon the world it will be extremely painful, but would result in a more balanced sustainable society going forward. In both cases, Americans will need to accept a reduction in their standard of living. This is the price that must be paid for thirty years of living above our means. Some passive resistance ideas regarding the fiscal sanity movement could be:

• Imagine that Americans refused to spend any money on discretionary items like electronic gadgets, furniture, and jewelry. With 70% of GDP dependent on consumer spending, this would result in the closing of thousands of unnecessary retail stores. We know that a sustainable level of spending is 62% of GDP, so let’s get there in two years rather than dragging it out over a decade.
• Imagine that Americans decided to withdraw every dime of their money from all the banks that have accepted TARP funds. There are 8,500 banks in the United States. Seventy banks have accepted TARP funds. Pull your money out of these banks and put it in your local banks or credit unions that didn’t bring down the financial system. This would ruin the Treasury’s latest $1 trillion scheme of hiding toxic assets.
• Imagine that Americans stopped using credit cards. The major purveyors of credit cards, Bank of America (BAC), Citicorp (C), American Express (AXP) and Capital One (COF) would collapse under the weight of bad debt. Credit cards are a Ponzi scheme dependent upon new credit issuance. Without charging 21% interest and collecting $25 late fees for being one day late, their businesses will implode.
• Imagine that every working American walked into work tomorrow and changed their W-4 to 20 exemptions. This would immediately remove $1.2 trillion of taxes from the grasp of politicians in Washington. You could bet that would get the attention of the political hacks in Washington.
• Imagine that no more young men and women volunteered for the military or re-enlisted. With an all volunteer military, the lack of cannon fodder would force a downscaling of the American military empire. The government doesn’t have the guts to reinstitute a draft.
• Imagine that Americans refused to buy new cars and choose to get by with the 240 million existing automobiles already in use. This would force the necessary bankruptcies of General Motors (GM) and Chrysler.
• Imagine that Americans refused to purchase any more 6,000 square foot McMansions. Maybe families of four could make do with 2,000 square foot homes. This would force down prices further and leave people with more discretionary income to save for retirement.
• Imagine that no one voted in the next national elections in 2010. A voter strike would send the ultimate message to the two corrupt parties. Ron Paul describes why the two parties are worthless. "Pretending that a true difference exists between the two major candidates is a charade of great proportion. Influential forces, the media, the government, the privileged corporations and moneyed interests see to it that both party’s candidates are acceptable, regardless of the outcome, since they will still be in charge. The two parties and their candidates have no real disagreements on foreign policy, monetary policy, privacy issues, or the welfare state. They both are willing to abuse the Rule of Law and ignore constitutional restraint on Executive Powers.”
• Imagine a one day national strike coinciding with the largest March on Washington in the history of the Republic. This would surely change the dialogue in the country. The lightweight politicians in Washington DC would cave immediately.

It is not inconceivable that these civil disobedience measures would be met with violent countermeasures by those in power. They will do anything to retain their wealth, influence and power. Americans with a conscience will be willing to sacrifice whatever is necessary.

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

--Henry David Thoreau

Comments

[Neil Keys:]

I agree with James observations, but I don’t think we are able to change anything. He contradicts to himself – bubble must deflate fully, so American Enterprise. I would not blame on politicians because they are us, they what we deserve. All James’ “suggestions” are as naïve as Henry David Thoreau’s great teaching, but again what Mr. Thoreau actually accomplished? Did we become better, smarter?

Mar 24 01:36 PM

[Pirate Jo:]

Noel Keys and climber, I detect some misanthropy in your words, but I can't disagree with them either. Maybe I'm feeling just a little jaded toward my fellow Americans after watching documentaries like 'Fast Food Nation,' 'Maxed Out,' and 'Super Size Me.' Indeed Americans are not hungry fighters for freedom anymore - in fact, I'd say Americans are a lot more interested in being taken care of than in being free. Our country is so young and started out with so much promise, but here we are acting like a bunch of mindless sheeple. It would make sense if we came from the Eastern Bloc, where bureaucracy has always run rampant and no one has ever known anything other than being told what to do. But what's OUR excuse?

If the human race is anything other than a useless species worthy only of going extinct, any hope it has for a better future will have to come from other countries where people actually want freedom and self-reliance. Since I don't have any kids I will probably be able to live out the rest of my life in this country just fine, but if I wanted kids I would be trying to emigrate. To do otherwise is just buying a berth on a sinking ship. Here you go, kid - congratulations on being born and welcome to America. And by the way you're already in the hole for half a mil.

Mar 24 02:33 PM

[Jason Rines...:]

You nailed it Nik. Also the last part of this sentence by Speed just above is very salient:

"We must regain control of the media as well. The lies have been told so much and so often that the public cannot see the Truth. The laws must be enforced which control media ownership. If ever there was a monopoly on ideas, you would see it in every part of the media. The internet seems to be the last avenue of freedom of speech, unadulterated and unexpurgated.

Keep up the good work, James, and we will listen."

Great! James and I are meeting in Philly tomorrow and the next three days to write the financial plan. His website is the first of many thousands as part of a network. I am building the tech which is being built by collaborative think tank from all over the world, who's citizens all face the same broken monetary model problem and sub political problem of failed leadership. I am sure my phone will be ringing off the hook from investors when I publish the financial plan online (sarcasm intended). Back to Nik's point, the pain is not strong enough for the public to take action, but it will be. In the meantime, 'We the innovator upper middle class People' will lay down the tracks for you the investor class to assist us. That is what 3 depressions in the U.S. tells us. Create a marketing solution to monetary problem. Indeed. The framework of the plan is like recycling. I have to admit it, I am having some fun on this one ;)


On Mar 24 09:50 AM Nik Kondratieff wrote:

> I think you've nailed it, but the real question is has this country
> felt enough pain yet to really galvanize civil disobedience?
>
> You're right on so many points: unsustainable debt, lack of real
> productivity, housing market price collapse, corrupt mega money center
> banks, even more corrupt investment banks, consumer credit is the
> next shoe to drop, foreign powers will move away from USD as world
> reserve currency, trillion dollar deficits will wreak untold havoc,
> corrupt politicians, no real difference in the two-party Republican/Democratic
> party platforms. Yes it's an ugly state of affairs in this country
> and nobody is doing anything to fix the long term problems.
>
> But we haven't yet felt the pain to a point where it is now part
> of our zeitgeist. It's getting there, and I think when we get 15
> states are over 10% on the U3 unemployment measure, that's when you'll
> see things start to tip. Right now we're at 4 states... Michigan,
> Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Cali. We'll see what March brings...

Mar 24 02:42 PM

[James Quinn:]

Slavery was abolished, India attained independence, and civil rights were granted. His methods do work.


On Mar 24 01:36 PM Noel Keys wrote:

> I agree with James observations, but I don’t think we are able to
> change anything. He contradicts to himself – bubble must deflate
> fully, so American Enterprise. I would not blame on politicians because
> they are us, they what we deserve. All James’ “suggestions” are as
> naïve as Henry David Thoreau’s great teaching, but again what Mr.
> Thoreau actually accomplished? Did we become better, smarter?

Mar 24 03:38 PM

[Jason Tillberg:]

Fantastic observations of the past once again to help us see the future with more rational. So what's an investor to do to preserve wealth? I've been thinking hard about self suffiency, and practicing it as well. Owning gold and owning income producting assets outright without leveage. I see little benefit of holding savings in a bank with meager interest rates and a potentially exploding money supply. That imbalance will backfire as soon as inflation resumes.

The deflation of our bubbles as you point out should create washout galore on the overleveraged and jobless.

I'm not short much anything at the moment, but will be reshorting REITs and potentially homebuilders after this rally that I think has the potential to get the S&P over 1000 at least. The equity holders of those businesses are doomed in my opinion.

Mar 24 05:40 PM

[You're Kidding:]

There is something underneath all the above talk about what we and others have "done" or "not done" to cause this meltdown, that hardly any of us are aware of. It goes to the heart of the problem, and in the end, frees all of us from any guilt or blame.

The forces that control our actions (or inactions,) are our DESIRES. The strongest desires we have, always win out over the weaker ones.

These desires manifest in us through our thoughts and our feelings, which themselves arise in our consciousness completely unpredictably and uncontrollably.

We never know what our next thought is going to be before it appears in our mind, nor do we know what our next feeling is going to be before it rises up and we feel it. We do not create thoughts or feelings ourselves, and have no idea how strongly they will affect us or the direction in which they will motivate us, until we suddenly feel ourselves moving with the desire to do something, in whatever particular direction we find ourselves moving in.

I know this because I have observed it directly for the past 2 1/2 yrs as it works within me. Anyone can see this within themselves, but only if they feel a strong enough desire to do so.

Once you see it, everything changes.

There is a saying from the East you may have heard of that goes something like this:

There is nowhere to go, and there is nothing to do.

This is literally true. The essence of us is simply awareness, or consciousness. We do not possess decision making power, make choices, or have "free will." These are illusions propagated by consciousness thinking that it is a "doer." We see ourselves as "doers." This is a mistake and is simply a reflection of the current state of the evolution of your consciousness as it wakes up and becomes aware of its own existence.

This journey has taken me to this point:

We are that part of existence which functions as a vehicle through which existence becomes aware of itself.

This meltdown is just a drama along the way, and is as overwhelming as the degree to which we are asleep and unaware of what we really are.

I seem to be awake right now, but I'll fall back asleep soon, I always do.

Awareness of the truth comes and goes.

Mar 25 08:21 AM

[Neil Keys:]

Yes, you are right it worked. I’d rather say it helped, helped a lot, but you cannot seriously compare slavery, poverty, discrimination with what we have now. It’s just a bubble, not a cancer.


On Mar 24 03:38 PM James Quinn wrote:

> Slavery was abolished, India attained independence, and civil rights
> were granted. His methods do work.

Mar 25 09:56 AM

[Ferdinand E...:]

I don't believe in James' pessimism. I'm sure that I've traveled more than he, and since I do not wear a baseball cap nor have a cell phone hanging around my neck, ladies and gentlemen from the movers and shakers class find that I'm easy to talk to, especially if I am armed with a Financial Times or Wall Street Journal.

They still believe in the uncle, and they have a right to believe in him. His military is running on empty, but so is theirs, and persons coming back from the great cities of the Big PX didn't witness many or any signs of decay because they stay away from those charming neighborhoods where decay is visible. More important, they could get a decent meal that included some booze without hocking the family silver.

I wonder if that gentleman in this forum wasn't correct who said that downturns can be beautiful because they acquaint you with viciousness of life. Instead of bitching and moaning it's time to say that we'll have to do better, and here Chairman Mao is better than Thoreau: "war is ten percent fighting, ten persent waiting, and eighty percent self improvement". Hoo-agh!

Mar 25 10:21 AM

[Hamp:]

Good article & I agree with Nik.

Yet I am afraid that the great majority of the American People will not collectively rise up against tyranny until they find the shelves of their local grocery stores empty and their private means of transportation grounded due to fuel shortages and massive cost increases. Unfortunately, this scenario is probable, not mere speculation.

When this time comes, Democrats & Republicans alike who currently "occupy" D.C. had better have a well planned escape route.

Mar 25 11:22 AM

[kelm:]

This is a great article. All of the points mentioned where a society rose up against evil through civil disobedience took place in situations where a society could be said to be in the ascendant. America in the 1960s, America in the 1850s and 1860s, India in the 1900s etc. America is no longer in the ascendant so the issue is whether a society that, frankly has been decaying i terms of its intellectual and societal position is capable of arresting its fall and re0invigorating itself. It It is odd that we have seen no demonstrations, no riots, marches, or anything else. France has had two multi-million person marches already yet we sit passively by. We howl about Wall Street bonuses and then plead for housing handouts, government support for our mortgages etc.

If the body politic could be focused on a single vision then real change could occur but we are unfortunately a fragmented nation in our world views and we have allowed our collective intellect to become dulled over time.

Mar 25 12:34 PM

[OldNavySailor:]

More words of encouragement for independent action by Mr. Quinn. Thank you.

The author suggests we stop using credit cards. It’s really not that difficult to do. I used to spend about $10,000 per year on credit card charges, not a lot compared to other household budgets. I always paid the balance in full each month and therefore incurred no interest debt. My previous thinking was to keep the cash in my credit union savings account to earn interest and also had free use of the credit float for 20 something days. Last year I gave up the convenience of plastic in exchange for freedom. I declared war upon Citibank and Chase bank.

Does everyone know what war is, beyond the normal definition of armed conflict? It also means a condition of active antagonism or contention. A concerted campaign to combat or put an end to something considered injurious.

Well, I made personal war against these large credit institutions that are “too big to fail”. I ‘m keeping my credit cards and not using them, effectively an account of zero balance. If I need to make a large purchase on credit I get a small personal loan at my credit union and pay it off in a reasonable time. Last year I borrowed $1,000 for thirty days. It cost me $9.00, a sum of less than 1 percent of principal. This is my chosen weapon of war against these leviathan banking thugs. For those who have the means to resist the “drug” of credit, by all means please do so. It will be a breath of fresh air.

My fellow free market capitalists; I speak to you who give your time and intellect daily on all manner of discourse regarding investment and wealth. We need more men like Mr. Quinn to extol the virtue of freedom from the tyranny of government abuse. The lack of colonial representation in the English system of rule is what planted the seeds of discontent that led to the American Revolution for liberty and justice.

It’s happening again; the debt yoke of oppression is hanging over our heads, our neighbors, and our progeny’s future. It is occurring because our representation in Washington has been stolen from us. The abdication of the solemn oath of office by those we elected to guard the nation’s sovereignty and treasure. These plutocrats have created a kakistocracy to serve their real masters.

All hail the bankers; the creators of false wealth to truss up the masses! All hail the two-faced political parties, minions of the bankers!

This web site is the modern day tavern where men gather to converse on topics that affect their livelihoods, the retention of their property and their hard earned prosperity. We definitely must take measured steps to fight back against this tide of despotism that is deliberately driving the country into poverty by the coerced accumulation of financial obligation. To reject the thought that we cannot overcome this corruption is to refute and deny our rights of existence as Americans.

My parents came to America from Sicily to seek out a better life. They worked hard, saved their money and prospered. I dare say many of you who are reading this missive at this moment, also came from ancestry who sought peace, freedom and escape from the chains of debt enslavement. Shall you dishonor their memory of pursuing happiness for themselves and you, their children? Are you willing to allow this to happen to your children? What says this of us as a people and what we’ve become?

We absolutely must think and act in some quantifiable means to throw off the shackles of monetary indenture. We must not let our markets become a cesspool of manipulation, rigged by shadow elitists. Our personal inalienable rights are the nexus of our freedoms. So must our markets be free and unfettered, to buy and sell at whatever agreed upon price.

Freedom and independence doesn’t begin like a volcano. It starts off by simmering with the fuel of passion and conviction. One by one, it gathers and shapes itself into a storm of resolution that renounces totalitarianism. It is the medium of free men. I choose to be free. You must as well.

Mar 25 02:25 PM

[Whippet:]

Thanks again, Jim. The fans here at SA need to raise some funds to get you on national TV immediately following the Messiah's next driveling diatribe- Ross Perot style, charts and all. Real data vs. Jedi mind tricks. Maybe then some of the sheople would start to understand the dire straits we are all in. The country must reboot- it is our choice whether this will be a "cold" or "warm" one. We are running out of time for a warm reboot.

Mar 25 04:47 PM

[James Quinn:]

Below is the list of every bank that has taken $100 million or more in TARP funds. There are 8,000 banks that have not taken TARP funds. Let's reward these banks with our deposits. They did not make financial system destroying bets. They were prudent in their lending. They should be rewarded for these actions. The list of banks below should be punished for their actions.

If you have money in one of these banks, consider a withdrawal to put in a non-TARP bank.

Citigroup Inc New York $25,000 Completed
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co New York $25,000 Completed
Wells Fargo & Co California $25,000 Completed
Bank of America Corp North Carolina $15,000 Completed
Bank of America Corp North Carolina $10,000 Completed
Goldman Sachs Group Inc New York $10,000 Completed
Morgan Stanley New York $10,000 Completed
The PNC Financial Services Group Inc Pennsylvania $7,579 U.S. Bancorp Minnesota $6,599 Completed
Capital One Virginia $3,555 Completed
Regions Financial Corp Alabama $3,500 Completed
SunTrust Banks Inc Georgia $3,500 Completed
Fifth Third Bancorp Ohio $3,408 Completed
American Express Company New York $3,389 Completed
BB&T North Carolina $3,134 Completed
Bank of New York Mellon Corp New York $3,000 Completed
KeyCorp Ohio $2,500 Completed
CIT Group Inc. New York $2,330 Completed
Comerica Texas $2,250 Completed
State Street Corp Massachusetts $2,000 Completed
Marshall & Ilsley Corp Wisconsin $1,715 Completed
Northern Trust Illinois $1,576 Completed
Zions Bancorporation Utah $1,400 Completed
Huntington Bancshares Inc Ohio $1,398 Completed
SunTrust Banks Inc Georgia $1,350 Completed
Synovus Financial Corp Georgia $968 Completed
Popular Inc Puerto Rico $935 Completed
First Horizon National Corp. Tennessee $867 Completed
M&T Bank Corp New York $600 Completed
Associated Banc-Corp Wisconsin $525 Completed
City National Corp California $400 Completed
Webster Financial Corp. Connecticut $400 Completed
Fulton Financial Corp. Pennsylvania $377 Completed
TCF Financial Minnesota $361 Completed
South Financial Group Inc South Carolina $347 Completed
Wilmington Trust Corp. Delaware $330 Completed
East West Bancorp Inc California $306 Completed
Sterling Financial Corp Washington $303 Completed
Whitney Holding Corp Louisiana $301 Completed
Citizens Republic Bancorp Inc Michigan $300 Completed
Susquehanna Bancshares Inc Pennsylvania $300 Completed
Valley National Bancorp New Jersey $300 Completed
UCBH Holdings Inc California $299 Completed
First Banks, Inc. Missouri $295 Completed
New York Private Bank & Trust Corporation New York $267
Cathay General Bancorp California $258 Completed
Wintrust Financial Corp Illinois $250 Completed
SVB Financial Group California $235 Completed
International Bancshares Corp Texas $216 Completed
Trustmark Corp Mississippi $215 Completed
Umpqua Holdings Corp. Oregon $214 Completed
Washington Federal Washington $200 Completed
MB Financial Inc Illinois $196 Completed
First Midwest Bancorp Inc Illinois $193 Completed
First Niagara New York $184 Completed
Pacific Capital Bancorp California $181 Completed
United Community Banks Inc Georgia $180 Completed
Boston Private Financial Holdings Massachusetts $154
Provident Bankshares Corp New York $152 Completed
National Penn Bancshares Inc Pennsylvania $150 Completed
Western Alliance Nevada $140 Completed
Central Pacific Financial Corp. Hawaii $135 Completed
CVB Financial Corp California $130 Completed
FirstMerit Corp. Ohio $125 Completed
Sterling Bancshares Inc Texas $125 Completed
Banner Corporation Washington $124 Completed
Signature Bank New York $120 Completed
Taylor Capital Group Inc Illinois $105 Completed
F.N.B. Corporation Pennsylvania $100 Completed
Old National Bancorp Indiana $100 Completed
Park National Corp Ohio $100

Mar 25 05:01 PM

[DavyJ:]

James,

I imagined all that you asked me to, and all that I could imagine afterwards was more violence then you can imagine.

Mar 25 08:44 PM

[DavyJ:]

James,

You said: "The English Parliament reacted to the crisis exactly the way our current clueless bunch of moron Congressmen are reacting to the AIG debacle. The estates of the directors of the South Sea Company were confiscated and used to relieve the suffering of the victims, and the stock of the South Sea Company was divided between the Bank of England and East India Company."

Huh! What am I missing? I can't seem to make the connection.

Mar 25 08:54 PM

[TinyTim:]

Fantastic article and great quotes.
Haven't done any protesting since '71 in DC when I got gassed for my troubles.
Since then, I've been living a thrifty lifestyle including most of the items in your article on Taking Back Your Life. My wife & I are "savers". We don't do conspicuous consumption.
I don't begrudge my neighbors who tapped every cent of home equity for European vacations and are now seeking loan mods or considering walk-aways. I was on the verge of retirement when half my savings were wiped out in the markets. In retrospect, most of that wasn't principal.

Regarding your Fiscal Sanity Movement, government and money don't mix. This is something the Founding Fathers warned about with typical prescience. Every attempt at fiscal responsibility has been shot down, vetoed or expired. It's against the innate nature of politicians in a republic to practice it. Pre-WWII & pre-Fed, simple economics kept politicians in check. Now that the USA dollar has World reserve status, there are no restraints. Add to this the Wall St mentality and lack of regulation to keep things simple and transparent, and we have huge volatility and risk of a melt-down. To bad the Founding Fathers did not implement checks and balances between the government and large financial institutions. Now they seem more in collusion.

Probably since the start of fiat money and fractional reserve banking, the economy has been in one continuous expansion. It's forced growth and necessary for a viable economy under our system according to economists. One reason a consumption or "fair" tax will never exist. In an overpopulated "flat world" brought on by globalization, any idiot can see that this is not sustainable. What is the end result and what changes to the system may be needed to avoid future violence?

Many commenters have wondered about the the lack of backlash or upsurge against the system, in the form of disobedience. At the risk of alleging hyper-competence, there are enough students of history in government halls to make them sensitive to the factors which risk their jobs. One is economic stratification. Another is inter-generational friction. The best evidence of backlash to both is the election of Obama. Unfortunately, and I hope I'm wrong, I think this is misguided. For many of the reasons posed by the commenters, I don't think we are close yet to a critical mass for civil disobedience. Columns like this bring us closer. What we will still need is a viable leader and at least one triggering event.

Mar 25 11:37 PM

[kagame:]

There was a candidate in the Presidential election who represented a different class of politician, and he was snubbed by the media and his own party.

There were plenty of Americans that agreed with him, they just were unable to overpower the mindless nature of the followers of common sources of information. Most of them probably learned about this candidate, as I did, on the web.

The internet is my only hope for a real political future for this country. The republic has failed.

Mar 26 12:31 AM

[James Quinn:]

I was referring more to the rhetoric of putting them into sacks with snakes and throwing them in the river. All talk, no action.


On Mar 25 08:54 PM DavyJ wrote:

> James,
>
> You said: "The English Parliament reacted to the crisis exactly the
> way our current clueless bunch of moron Congressmen are reacting
> to the AIG debacle. The estates of the directors of the South Sea
> Company were confiscated and used to relieve the suffering of the
> victims, and the stock of the South Sea Company was divided between
> the Bank of England and East India Company."
>
> Huh! What am I missing? I can't seem to make the connection.
>

Mar 26 08:14 AM

[TinyTim:]

Kagame-
I wrote in that guy.
Now what?

Mar 26 04:34 PM

[refatx:]

The true pupose of an election is to vote the bastards OUT! P.S. If they are IN they are most likely bastards.


On Mar 24 08:45 AM jamesa40 wrote:

> Agree with all your comments about the bubbles, but it doesn't make
> sense that if you want to change government to not vote. Would you
> prefer us to install a dictatorship? If we as a country would actually
> elect new blood into congress instead of the same old crap, we'd
> have a lot more leverage. Instead, most people vote the same old
> guy/gal in because they bring home the pork. Why do you think Bob
> Byrd is still in there? Ultimately, you batten down the hatches and
> your wallet and let the market work itself out. It may be one spectacular
> fireball, but that's what has to happen. My one other disagreement
> is with Japan. The reason it was a lost decade? Government intervention.
> Let the markets work and you'll have a painful several years, but
> not the 25 year apocalypse that you propose.

Mar 28 06:58 PM