Keynesians, the eco-cult fanatics, the race reductionists, the protectionists and the appeasement minded would of course, never read such a book. For these happy little Marxist minds, the warm blue blanket of the nanny state and creating clients out of citizens, is the main objective. Security, risk reduction, guaranteed incomes and jobs, and total safety are the primary concerns of these chattering trolls. These ideals are the root of the issues facing America and every other industrialised state for that matter. In order to break the current vicious and immature cycle of broken behavior and bankrupted systems, some real change as Gingrich outlines, is urgently needed.

Gingrich summarizes quite well and transparently, why government fails and what can be done to correct these failures. He discusses the key subject areas facing the US and then proposes some common-sensical and relevant options to change the system. Importantly he focuses on results – applying simple models and patterns to solve questions and then monitoring the outcomes. Metrics, and implementing concepts which actually work, are anathema to government and bureaucracies.

Some topics Gingrich discusses:

1. Iraq and Afghanistan

These ten pages on what went wrong in Iraq and also in Afghanistan [pp 107-118] are perhaps the most interesting in the book. Gingrich has over 30 years affiliation as a trainer and confidante of the military. From 2003 until the 2007 surge, Iraq as a policy was failing, and it was the fault not of the military personnel on the ground, but of the civilian and military bureaucracy outside the war zones.

As Gingrich relates:

-In 2003 after a stunningly successful 3 week invasion, the Bush administration reduced Iraqi intelligence resources [which were vital to secure the country].

-Instead of using the Iraqi army to help police the country, the military bureaucracy disbanded the Iraqi armed forces.

-The Iraqi adminstration under Paul Bremer did not learn from Afghanistan where you had to liberate and not occupy the country. Instead of using Iraqi’s and an Iraqi bureaucracy to help stabilise and rebuild the country, the American administration acted as an occupier not a liberator. This directly gave rise to the insurgency and general malcontent in Iraq.

-No civilian support in infrastructure, economics, health or energy was forthcoming. The State Department and the military bureaucracy had no plans nor any ideas about how to stabilise a failed state like Iraq.

-Billions of dollars were spent in Iraq with no results and no metrics. The US bureaucracies totally failed in their objectives to help the military rebuild Iraq and to take active and productive roles in stabilising a failed state.

As Gingrich rightly points out, basically the US military was asked to perform 2 impossible tasks – win the war and act as a functioning bureaucracy. The second task is not something a military can credibly do.

Even in Afghanistan, the bureaucracy was the problem. As Gingrich states, ‘In 2002, I learned that the United States had been unable to pave a single mile of road in Afghanistan during the summer season.’ This was due to bureaucratic incompetence not a lack of money. Like Iraq, billions were spent in Afghanistan with no results, no metrics and no rush to implement something which would work. Thousands of swarming bureaucrats covered both countries like locusts, bunkered down, meeting, meeting again, meeting some more, with no view on being effective and without a coordinated and intelligent plan about meeting key metrics in energy, transportation, infrastructure build, policing or public safety. The burden was placed solely on the military.

2. Immigration

Gingrich voted for the Reagan amnesty bill of 1986 because it promised to be a one time deal. The deal was simple: illegal amnesty would be granted once; border security and control would be effected immediately; and there would be a verification of all foreign workers now and going forward. Only the amnesty occurred. The US now has most likely over 30 million illegals. It is a cultural, social and economic burden that is unsustainable. Contrary to myth uneducated illegals are a net drain on the US economy – by at least $50 billion per annum.

According to Gingrich and American Solutions over 75% of Americans want the border secured and do not want amnesty given to illegals; and they want more skilled workers on work visas. Yet they will most likely receive the opposite of that from their politicians. The border remains – even with the building of the southern fence – open with all the risks regarding terrorism and fascist Islam that entails; and most politicians eying the Hispanic and minority vote want to appear sympathetic to the idea of amnesty. The idea of extending skilled workers visas does not sit well with protectionists, unions and those who prefer illegal immigration to legal, documented visa based immigration.

3. Tax and spending cuts

Only a few politicians really believe that government is fundamentally too large, and that taxes are ridiculously high. For most politicians the tax payer is a faceless robot, who should pay more into the system to establish more programs and more welfare services. Gingrich outlines why historically, regimes with high taxes and big government have failed. Dynamic and productive societies have a true belief in entrepreneurship, capital formation, science and technological innovation. Static and regressive states do not.

Gingrich and his organisation are calling for some needed and dramatic fiscal reforms including: tort and legal liability reform; a national flat tax on consumption with a change in the constitution to prevent income from being taxed in the future; abolishing all other taxes on income and capital gains and reducing non-essential spending by over half. If even a small part of this plan was adopted the US economy would add millions of jobs literally over night and be running huge federal budget surpluses.

These are just some of the issues Gingrich discusses. He goes into market based reforms of Social Security, Health Care, Education, Crime, Energy and the need for overhauling the Judicial system. Neither major US party believes that fundamental change is needed.

The Democrats are witless and clueless and would return America back to the days of Herbert Hoover, FDR or Peanut boy Jimmy Carter. The Republicans are big spending conservative statists, who believe in tax cuts, but also in ramping up the size of government in every possible sphere even as they subsidise huge corporations in auto manufacturing, ethanol development, agricultural production or sundry other industrial segments. As Gingrich observes it is only the American people who will effectively force change by demanding results across a broad range of important issues, accountability, fairness and wealth creation, not destruction.

For those interested in thoughtful intelligent policy, this book is a great primer. For people interesetd in real change which would effectively help cure what ails parts of America, this book is indispensable.

If you want to make homemade turtle soup, you have to be careful and you must wait. You’d want to catch a sea turtle because you get thirty or more pounds of meat from it depending on weight. You need help too. A couple of men would do, to place the turtle inside a garbage barrel filled with fresh water. Close the lid and leave it there to starve. It sounds brutal, I know, but there’s no other way to do it if you want to have homemade turtle soup. Sea turtles can live up to a hundred years, so it takes a while for them to die. If someone tried to slaughter them, they’d release a poison into their system that would kill anyone who ate from it. One must therefore keep the area surrounding the garbage barrel quiet so the turtle doesn’t think it has been caught by anyone but itself. Turtles, unlike elephants, have a bad memory and will forget they were trapped.

For animal lovers, don’t feel so bad.

People trap each other like that and call it love.

Elephants, on the other hand, don’t forget. If someone tried to hurt them, they come back in a hundred years to step on them.

People avenge each other like that and call it justice.

Yet as Daniel Quinn writes in Ishmael, people consider themselves superior to animals even though there are three things that people do that never happen in the wild.

1.People exterminate their competitors. In the wild, animals will defend their territories and hunt to eat, not just make their competitor dead.

2.People systematically destroy their competitors’ food to make room for their own. In the wild, the rule is: take what you need, and leave the rest alone.

3.People deny their competitors access to food. In the wild, you may deny your competitors access to what you’re eating, but you may not deny them access to food in general. In other words, you may compete but you may not wage war.

The problem stems from people clinging to the specialness of man. They perceive a vast gulf between them and the rest of creation. This mythology of human superiority justifies their doing whatever they please with the world. Of playing God, the Creator.

Man throws paint on walls and calls it a creation. It’s not creation. It’s paint on a wall. It’s a form of something appealing to the eye. Writers don’t create. They formulate words. They aren’t creators. They’re compositors. Man is a recipient of creation. To make something one needs two or three things. Only God made something from nothing. He made people in diversity. He made water, fire, life and death.

First mixture man made was killing. Man in general hurts himself everyday by saying, “I created this and that.” But we’re not God, the Creator. We’re man and woman, human beings, creatures. Yet, we’re afraid of letting go of, or looking at the terrible price of advancement which is crime, mental illness, suicide, and drug addiction.

You see, the largest beast on earth is man without God. By making havoc, weapons and bombs, he made a dark void for humans. No other beast on earth has done more damage and yet man calls everything else a beast rattle snakes, lions, alligators, tigers. Everything.

What’s the solution? The real way to peace? Well, presently the world’s governments spend about one trillion dollars a year for military purposes. That’s a million dollars a minute worldwide. If we were to use some of this money to feed our hungry, clothe our needy, house our poor, bring security to our elderly, and provide health care and dignity to all… the causes of crime would be lost forever. New jobs would spread as dollars are pumped back into our economy.

And let’s use the past as a warning of how our current civilizations could destroy the environment of the future. Civilization was born in ancient Mesopotamia, now called Iraq, over 5000 years ago. Writing, astronomy and science were invented there. The first school, law, literature, map of the world, and the idea of dividing time and space into a multiple of 60’s started in this historic land.

Yet today, Mesopotamia, the biblical Garden of Eden, is a flat desert thanks to inflation, overuse of agricultural land, and enemy invasions. How can we prevent further catastrophe? By making peace a personal thing. What is needed is not a change in circumstances but a change of consciousness.

Is this supposed to create more business for American architects and construction workers in the future?
So, you admit that there’s more to this? I can’t handle the truth? Sure I can. I can’t speak for the rest of the world though.

So what’s this all about? What’s this truth that you think I can’t handle?

U.S. Govâ??t, Architects of Hedge Funds Cause Collapse of Americaâ??s Real Estate Economy

By: Robert W. Hand

Designated Broker/Owner

Equity Alliance Properties

www.equityallianceproperties.com

Subprime Crisis? Heavens no, this is a complete collapse of the national real estate business sector of the U.S. economy, with the mortgage companies and the federal government right at the heart of the matter. The effects of the national real estate business enterprise breakdown with the subprime debacle well underway can be felt throughout every economic sector, including Wall Street.

Of course, there are still those on Wall Street profiteering on the broken back of the real estate business economy. These investors originated, and still draw huge amounts of interest on â??interest onlyâ? loans, and are the beneficiaries of the federal governmentâ??s deliberately slow actions to remedy this fundamentally simple matter.

For most Americans, the most significant form of wealth we have is in the equity in our homes. Americans are losing their real estate endowments, and the effect of a broken real estate business sector has brought the general economy to its knees. The masses are feeling it while the rich get richer. Thatâ??s right, the guys still making money off of these high interest loan products make the headlines saying, â??Just let time fix itâ?. You didnâ??t think they were out of the game did you? Who do you think these â??interest onlyâ? loan payments continue to be paid to? The longer this thing takes to get fixed, the longer they will continue to draw huge dividends on their â??interest onlyâ? loan products that by design were never intended to be paid back as no money ever goes toward principal. Strong lobby money representing those interests is slowing down the process in Washington where debts take time to repay, with a nod and a wink.

I released an article last month (http://paradisevalleyblog.com/2007/11/crisis-or-opportunity-truth-about.html)portraying the number of incidences of loans in default as a small fraction of the number of loans overall, a number which is steadily climbing. Nevertheless, keeping those numbers in perspective, that still leaves, by some estimates, 1.1 million Americans losing their residential properties over the next 6 years.

Yes, this is a simple matter and it can be fixed with cash money, go figure. Letâ??s put the numbers of dollars to fix this problem into perspective in a fashion to which weâ??ve all grown accustomed; comparing it to the money we spend on the occupation of Iraq. To continue our

military occupation in Iraq the U.S. Taxpayers pay: $270 million every day; $8.4 billion per month; a total of $600 billion spent and approved War-spending; another $200 billion requested for 2008 which would bring the cumulative total to $800 billion. There have been $10 billion mismanaged and wasted in Iraq per Feb 2007 hearings. There have been $1.4 billion Halliburton overcharges classified by the Pentagon as â??unreasonable and unsupportedâ?. 20 billion was paid to former Halliburton division, KBR for food, fuel, housing, and other items. Pentagon auditors deem that $3.2 billion of that is â??questionable and unsupportableâ?. Some figures predict the cost of the Iraq war topping out at

over $2 trillion.

Just a small fraction of the capital Halliburton defrauded U.S. taxpayers out of alone would fix our mortgage crisis, would mend the broken real estate business sector of our economy, and would have a positive effect on the overall economy that would far exceed any amount of money we put back into fixing the system. So how much money are we talking about? Congressional Democrats led by Charles Schumer (D-NY) advocate spending just hundreds of millions (less than 1 billion) of dollars into nonprofits to help homeowners and the overall economy. A spokesman for the senator explains he

is not suggesting the government pay off borrowerâ??s loans in full, but believes a mixture of counseling and restructuring of the loans would bring down the costs of the program dramatically. Even if we paid all the loans in full it would be a pittance in contrast to the overall federal budget, let alone the Iraq war budget (if you can call Washingtonâ??s fiscal policies budgeting). Further, we can spread the cash outlay to fix the problem over a period of 6

years, according to the rate schedules of the remaining loans in question.

Such a partial bailout is estimated to cost no more than a few hundred million dollars. Compare that to the $8.4 billion we spend every month bringing â??Democracyâ? to Iraq with combat airplanes, helicopters, missiles, tanks, and troops. Even if we bail out everyone with a bad loan, what are we talking about in U.S. dollarsâ?¦a month or two of what we spend rebuilding the Iraq we so surgically blew up? The top runners of the presidential race spill that much in a single weekend at their white tablecloth fundraisers! Appropriation of a relatively small amount of funds would pull our economy out of the tailspin we currently find ourselves in! But whoâ??s sufferingâ?¦lower middle

class, not the rich. The Bush Whitehouse neoconservatives were just this week exposed in lies and manipulation of intelligence data regarding Iran as a nuclear threat. This exposure shamelessly still has not thwarted Bushâ??s rhetoric to invade Iran and threats of World War III as he continues to terrorize citizens abroad and here in America. We had better just save our hard earned tax dollars to fight another war on terror in Iran and forget allocating any funds

to fix the U.S. economy which is, after all, only hurting the peasants. The war profiteers belong to the class of the super rich. George Bush should be impeached while he and his closest advisors, including Dick Cheney, should all be formally brought up on charges of international war crimes.

We have seen any number of articles written voicing the opinion, â??Why should we pay our tax dollars to bail out some idiot that was just too stupid to know what he was signing,â? or invoking such profound truths as, â??Itâ??s just a bunch of greedy investors anyway, they knew what they were

doing.� Perhaps those are fair characterizations in some instances, but who pays? We all do. Worse yet, this type of reaction is exactly what the profiteers of this debacle want to continue to hear, so the process remains

stalled by the indecision and lack of common platform by constituents. Profiteers continue to earn big returns on the money already loaned that is not yet in default. This has all been calculated to a â??Tâ? and has been executed as planned. Everyone at the top, the architects of the hedge funds, knew this was not designed to last! These were all interest only loans,

which by design, were never intended to be paid back, as nothing is paid to principal.

Most folks who have fallen prey were not stupid at all, but were just trying to secure their familyâ??s future in real estate holdings. Mortgage brokers promised consumers that they could re-finance out of their nasty little adjustable rate 2nds or HELOCs in 6 months to 2 years depending on the loan program, pre-payment penalties, etc. No layperson could predict the market falling so far so fast. Refinancing out of these undesirable loan conditions quickly became a lost option as so many homes declined in value to far less than originally loaned on them. This has caught far too many people off guard, including seasoned investors and real estate

brokers, to write this off as some folks being careless or stupid. It is a more sophisticated problem than that. There are folks that not only predicted this, but calculated exactly what has transpired and are the beneficiaries thus: the major interests in and architects of the hedge funds that back these securities and continue to prosper from grotesque interest rates on â??interest onlyâ? loans. Understand that they donâ??t want legislation passed that keeps them

from being able to charge insane amounts of interest as these â??interest onlyâ? loans mature and reset.

You, the average homeowner pay the price, as do innocent individuals and families just trying to honestly buy their own â??piece of the rockâ??. We are ALL losing equity in our homes, (whether you have a mortgage or not), at an alarming rate as property values across the nation continue to decline due to the huge surplus of homes for sale. Some markets are declining much faster than others and weâ??re talking about significant amounts of depreciation from every homeowner in some metropolitan areas in Arizona, Nevada, California, and Florida, to name a few. As more and more loans go into default, more and more properties go on the market in the form of short sales and foreclosures at well under market value. Increasing numbers of properties hit the market, putting ever more pressure on existing inventories, and dragging prices down further. We are getting to where we have so many short sales and foreclosures on the market that â??under marketâ? is the new norm. Our conventional methods for determining current market value and sales price now take into the effective average the

rising numbers of homes with prices slashed. Buyers, seeing the declining market values donâ??t want to catch a falling knife. Folks who want to buy are waiting until they see evidence of the â??bottomâ? of the market. They wonâ??t perceive any indication of the â??bottomâ? as meaningful unless they see property values hold steady then raise again. This will not happen as long as more defaults, resulting in short sales and foreclosures, continue to flood the

market day after day, week after week, and month after month. Consumers keep asking, as do REALTORs®, â??when are we going to see the bottom of this market?â? The answer is so simple even a cave man can do it; WHEN WE STOP THE CYCLE!!!

Why then, if it is such a simple fix, are we not already on our way to enjoying the recovery as a result of taking these simple steps. The answer: Greed, and the power of lobbying money on capital hill have the process locked up and bogged down in red tape. Interest is earned over time, and with interest rates already in place for those making money from these â??interest onlyâ? loans, they want more time to keep lining their pockets. This expresses one of the most frequently used relations in Algebra: Principal x Rate x Time = Interest Earned. Time is on their side; the super rich who invested in the hedge funds that back the mortgage securities we know as subprime loans. They are getting the time they want because this Republican Whitehouse favors big business, big money, and big campaign lobbyist

contributors, well represented in this group. Government is dragging their feet in spending the money to fix the problem at the pleasure of these predators.

So, folks, protect your equity, protect your interest in your own real estate holdings, protect your childrenâ??s chances of profitable

real estate holdings in America, and contact the congresspersons and senators whom preside over your districts. Give a positive voice to the budget to fix this problem. It will pay back huge dividends to our economy as a whole as we recover and stop the downward fall of the equity in our own homes.

This type of government subsidized economic recovery would not be without precedent. Consider the Savings and Loan crisis of the 1980â??s, where the government bailed out S&Lâ??s to the tune of 150 billion 1980â??s dollars. We can fix our subprime crisis today for a fraction of that amount.

Currently on the hill, there is proposed legislation to impose new limits on the adjustable rate mortgages scheduled to reset.

Congress has been, and is trying to pass legislation to put a freeze on interest rates. These are band-aids for a bullet wound. Let your voice be heard. Put some pressure on politicians to get this subprime debacle resolved with swift and certain action! It is a simple matter, and the beneficiaries of this thing dragging out are the very entities who caused it in the first place. Together letâ??s end it, now!

Do you want to play hardball? All right, then letâ??s consider that the federal government does not want the average American to gain dramatically in personal wealth. Why would that be? Glad you asked. Since the years of Reaganomics and theories of a â??trickle downâ? economy, (always reminds me of being pissed on), and deregulation, our country has moved ever more from the worldsâ?? shining example of Democracy to a text book example of a Republic aristocracy with the Center of Power no longer held by the masses, the common man. The Power Center is now with the elite, the upper class, the super rich, the multi-billion dollar corporate entities, the Texas based oil brokerage firms that ultimately determine tax code, foreign policy, federal budget allocations, and the decision to go to war, with whom and when, and whom have the power and influence to throw elections.

It does not serve the rich constituents of this elitist government entity strangling America to allow its citizens to amass wealth. No, my friends, that would pull too much of the Power back towards the center. Think Washington doesnâ??t give any thought to that dynamic? Of course they do. Washington is so paranoid of the power of its citizens that they are breaking constitutional laws or re-writing the constitution as they see fit to ensure â??CONTROLâ?, threatening our basic civil liberties in the process. Thatâ??s right, even firefighters, (who can regularly in the course of their duties gain access into peopleâ??s homes without a search warrant), are now being trained to look for any signs that a citizen might not agree somehow with government policies and might thus be considered a threat to the government or even a terrorist. What a lot of bullocks. Iâ??m a veteran of the U.S. Navy, whose job was gathering and disseminating intelligence, and have stood for protecting and honoring our nation. Now, itâ??s obvious I donâ??t agree with government policies. They would now view me as a threat! Sounds more like a Republic regime than a

Democracy. Sounds a lot like World War II Germany doesnâ??t it? Well, thatâ??s America today, as we know it. Are you more comfortable with your head in the sand? Thatâ??s ok, go back to sleep, this article is about over. Germany went from a Nation of knowing to a nation of believing. Are we following in their footsteps as foolhardy, good-willed, ignorant patriots? Too often, we blindly

believe the lies told by the President and his government instead of challenging others and ourselves with the truth. I remember as a child learning of the atrocities in Germany under Hitler and asking, â??How could all those people let this happen?â? and â??how could all those people have been fooled by their government?â? In the words of Bob Dylan; â??Patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings; steal a little and they throw you in jail; steal a lot and they make you king.â? This country has been preying on the good will of its unsuspecting citizens and it will be our undoing if we donâ??t wake up.

Many Americans were making big money during the real estate boom, in large part due to the ease with which funds were available to acquire primary and investment real estate. So many of us bought in to it, and for most, it has only benefited the lending institutions. Once the real estate investment game became profitable for the common citizen, it would self-destruct right before our eyes. The timing was calculated, planned, and the program executed by millions of exuberant homeowners and first-time real estate investors, not suspecting the falling axe. But those in the know, the architects of the hedge funds, knew exactly what would transpire. They didnâ??t bet their billions on a hunch! Oh no, they calculated every phase of the process and watched it deliver dividends.

Let me offer this challenge to other Real Estate Brokerage firms, Mortgage Brokerage Firms, Banks, and Title Companies: Equity Alliance Properties will pledge $1,000,000 of every $4,000,000 it brings in net revenue towards any program signed into law organizing such private funding. Letâ??s take back control of the real estate business sector for

the greater good of the American homeowner!