Comments for Status Report on the Collapse of the U.S. Economy at http://atlanticfreepress.com , comment 1 to 3 out of 3 comments http://atlanticfreepress.com Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:31:25 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/4426-status-report-on-the-collapse-of-the-us-economy.html#comment-5794 Information that was gathered by public servants on government time, paid for with tax dollars, should be public information by law. The fact should not be open to challenge, legal or rhetorical/political. Advocates of secrecy of any sort should be hounded out of government. No nation that has a secret police force can legitimately claim to be either a republic or a democracy. - Visitor Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:54:30 +0100 http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/4426-status-report-on-the-collapse-of-the-us-economy.html#comment-5752 Government economic statistics are lies, disclosure laws are not being enforced, and the feds are manipulating the stock market. How bad is the real world US economy--I don't know (those who do know aren't telling), but probably much worse than you have been led to think. The main and unintended effect of all this effort to control the appearence of the economy is to make the inevitable crash much deeper and of longer duration than otherwise. It also makes it difficult to write just economic laws and to do intelligent economic planning. The best way to stop the rumors and lies is to tell the truth. The federal government would like to put all non-governmental rumor mongers (e.g. short sellers) out of business, but is not the least interested in stopping the George Bush propaganda machine. How bad is governmental lying and manipulation of economic statistics? Here are well-documented reference by people who know what they are talking about that will give you some clues as to what is going on: John Williams (www.shadowstats.com), Money_and_Markets (www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article5562.html). What this country needs more than anything else is the creation of a US government information institute that would be completely out from under political control. The first thing that this institure would do would be to restore government economice definitions and measure to what they were eight or ten years ago. These measures have been changed or eliminated to hide the truth (e.g. m3 money supply figures) or cheat people out of their just compensation as prescribed by law (e.g. social security benefits). This institution would have subpoena powers and information requirements to it from all government organizations would be prescribed by law, and lying or wilfull witholding of information would have severe criminal penalties. Claims of "executive privilege" by presidential cabinet members and others would be specifically disallowed by law. The institute would also have a super security clearence so that it could uncover the security law abuses to hide illegal activity and/or stupid mistakes by government officials, and to appeal to a special court to declassify material that was used in abuse of security laws. Government failure to enforce disclosure laws was and is a primary causative factor in the current economic mess. As far as stock manipulation goes, the biggest perpetrator by far is the US government. Why is the US government doing this? Because they screwed up the economy so badly that it's a crying shame, and they don't want you to know about it. - g. Anton Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:16:21 +0100 http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/4426-status-report-on-the-collapse-of-the-us-economy.html#comment-5749 In the first part of "The Republic", Plato rightly states that all governments must come to an end, but of course some governments last longer than others. So what is it that ended our US democracy? My view is that it was capitalism. When you have a big country that creates enormous wealth and then allows the holding of much of this wealth to be concentrated within a small group of people, they "buy" the government, and you no longer have a democracy, you have an tyranical oligarchy (although some democratic forms may persist as appearences for a while). These transitions of governmental forms one to another are well covered in the "Republic". The truth is that the American government is a puppet government. and the puppeteers (or shadow government) are a collection of cooporations, news agencies, and rich Fascist bastards. Actually, the congress is a well controlled organization that does much and does exactly what the puppeteers want it to do. The congress is bought and paid for, and the shadow government certainly gets its money’s worth! Assume that you live in a congressional election district (not all Americans do). The congressman from your district is supposed to represent YOU and YOUR NEIGHBORS. But suppose he accepts a huge campaign contribution from a cooporation headquarted in New York (illegal, but it can be and is done one way or the other). Who is this representitive going to represent–-you or his principal benefactor? And you think that Obama is going to save us? Think again! And as for as Bush, remember that the good that men do dies with them, while the evil that they do lives long after them. May God help us, and fare thee well! - g. Anton Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:18:09 +0100