Too true. I'm was in a temp office without windows due to a remodel. One day it snowed 16 inches from no snow cover while I was inside. I put in a webcam in an out of the way window the next day.

Makes you wonder how many voted for screw, but only got a wedg-e

That would be the monkeysphere at work. Did they do anything to raise their "value" in the eyes of the decision makers above cardboard cutout?

A job is about more than pure output. There are many ways to have face time, and not all of them require face-to-face time.

Exactly! Being forced to be at a specific location for a set period of time has substituted for performance and quality metrics. They can be done, but are very hard to quantify. That and a lot of managers are just as lazy as their reports are.

With the technology we have today, there is zero reason to move your biomass to another place unless you have to actually touch something. The whole concept of "going to work" is silly, and a hold over from a bygone era. People seriously need to get behind teleworking with enthusiasm. Can't get much greener/cheaper than that!

That is why I said managed, rather than non-existent. Stories have been delayed and modified quite often at the request of government. It's not so much that the information gets out, since it is hard to truly stop disclosure. NSA wiretapping - Delayed at the request of government, Yellowcake/Joseph Wilson incident - war buildup/political revenge, too many examples of news and govt getting into bed to list. The US news is very much a managed resource, since information is power. Heck, it would be completely stupid of them to ignore such a powerful tool.

Then there is the fact that you almost never see anything that would remotely indicate a change from the current Oligarchy. 2004 arrest of two presidential candidates, investigative work by GATA (although that is gaining traction), Ron Paul's approval numbers higher than a lot of "front runner" R candidates but almost zero media coverage, etc.

A lot of it could be explained away as individual incidents, but taken as a whole it points to a troubling reality.

we must continue to have newspapers in our society. Newspapers are the bulk of the 4th branch of government

What we need is accurate and timely information in our society, not newspapers. I will agree that newspapers are the 4th branch off gov.t, seeing as they are mostly owned by a few huge corporations with a political agenda. More than just general bias, since that has been prevalent since newspapers began. Their real purpose nowadays is managing opinions and information so that the status quo is the only option presented, not research. That died in the 70s with Watergate, rather than any monopoly benefits being curtailed.

Let them die - technology has moved on and so should they.

Call me when it can go to 11.

They are manipulating it - there are plenty documents available where they come right out and state it for the public record. Don't take my word though, as these folks have compiled a huge body of evidence:

http://www.gata.org/

The poor tend to be less educated/have less marketable skill than the non-poor. (Hence the poor part) The factors that land them in the poor category are the same factors that prevent them from understanding how to preserve wealth. Pretty much their only option is to stuff the mattress if they want to better their situation (save for training, build a cushion, move to an area with more opportunity, etc.) That is why inflation hurts the poor most - they are the least able to defend themselves against it.

So instead of paying $90 for cable TV, you apply that $90 to your debt - or you get a $15 cable TV package, and apply the other $75 to the debt.

I see where you are coming from now. I totally agree that is the 100% correct course of action for unproductive debt that isn't self liquidating. However I think you are missing one key facet of the US monetary system that isn't all that obvious just looking at the very micro - money used to pay back debt is destroyed. Once that money goes back to where it came from, all the leverage still in the system based on the $90 in your example above ($810 outstanding at textbook 10% frac reserve plus compounding interest) still exists within the system. The remainder cannot be payed back, or even the interest due serviced, unless additional debt equal to the $90 (plus all interest due for the $900 frac multiplier) is put back into the system. Bottom line - there can never be enough money in the system to pay back all debt in a debt based monetary system, where that debt is incurred with interest due. The only reason your example works is that so very few are doing just that - paying down debt. The corresponding decrease in debt is more than made up for by others increasing the total amount of debt in the system.

We all know that the Fed is the lender of last resort. The less obvious side is that the US Government is the borrower of last resort. This is plainly visible with the current situation. Nobody is borrowing, so the Govt is running massive deficits just to keep the thing from collapsing. Dollar based debt can't ever decrease without a corresponding increase in another sector (personal, municipal, corporate, etc.) taking it's place. I wish the micro applied to the macro, but it doesn't. There is no way back to even.

How do you service debt payments denominated in dollars without dollars? I'm not talking about other assets (gold, military tech, etc.) that are converted into dollars, as those dollars which purchase said assets were themselves borrowed into existence at some point and subject to servicing payments. The only other creation mechanism I'm aware of involves fractional reserve banking, which is different From Fed created dollars to purchased Govt debt because it is debt leveraged to the frac reserve ratio. If there is another method I'm missing in my analysis I'd like tho hear it.

The only stock of money that has no debt associated with it is the stock of money existing at the time gold was confiscated by FDR. In addition to the around 80 million dollars exchanged for the gold turned in.

With what? I seriously would like to know how that could be accomplished. (10 trillion dollar pot metal coin minted by the treasury?) In a debt based monetary system all money is, as you acknowledge yourself, based on debt. (With the minuscule caveat of money stock noted above) Add in Fractional reserve banking and it's now leveraged debt (textbook 10 to 1, but in practice a lot more). The only way for the Fed to help is to directly inject dollars, which is not a power it has (yet). Exchange created dollars for govt debt (and now trash paper) yes. Drop money from helicopters - they might get desperate enough but not yet.