Category: economy
Kilroy Says: Amway? No Damn-way!
Written by Kilroy
Wednesday, 15 April 2009 12:44
18 Comments

What in the wide, wide world of sports is a “Ponzi scheme”? I’m glad you asked. No, Ponzi is not that cool guy from Happy Days. But, he is a greasy-haired goombah. He made millions off of ignorant folks with his infamous pyramid scheme in 1920, where he promised ridiculous returns by “supposedly” buying foreign postage vouchers (International reply coupons) at low rates and exchanging them for U.S. postage stamps for profit. Although legal, Ponzi’s problem was that he was just using new investors’ money to pay prior investors’ returns for their contributions. The scheme eventually crumbled (as all pyramid schemes do) and Charles Ponzi, like Bernie “Made-off,” ended up in prison. Good ridance!

So what does Amway have to do with this? One thing I’ve heard my whole life is that Amway is nothing but a pyramid scheme (check out the YouTube video). I thought that Amway had worn out its welcome, but lately, I’ve started seeing TV commercials recruiting people to “own their own business.” Really? How can they still swindle people into buying into this old economic hoax? I have no idea. After years of operating under the alias, “Quixtar North America,” they’ve decided to bring back the old name but with a new hook, “Amway Global.” Woooo! Don’t you want to be a partner in a “global” business? You can sign me up (Kilroy says: NOT).

I was so intrigued by this “new” marketing of an “old” scam, that I searched for and found Amway’s website, where I discovered this pithy little Amway verbiage: “Now, Quixtar North America is making a transition to the Amway Global™ brand to leverage the power of the $6.8-billion business Rich and Jay built” (Rich and Jay are the co-founders of Amway). Leverage? I’ve never heard any good stories about Amway. Most of the stories I’ve heard rival the ones of the Jehovah’s Witness door-to-door recruiting tactic. Why would ANYONE fall for this scam again? Is it the economy? Is economic crisis part of Amway’s latest ploy to lure stupid people into Amway's web of ignorance?

Again, I don’t know. But, if you want to own your own business, Amway is "there for you." All you have to do is sign a registration contract with an existing IBO, which either stands for “Independent Business Owner” or “Ignorant B.S. Operative” (I’m not sure), and you are ready to go. Yeah, [twirling finger in the air] sounds great… I could be my own boss, make my own rules…well, that is after I pay the Amway Global Business Services and Support fee of $50, the IBOAI Support fee of $9, and purchase their Product Intro Pack for a minuscule $78.75. That’s it folks. Just that…and, of course, the lack of guilt for pushing needless crap on your friends and family. They even encourage you to buy a lot of their products so that you “will gain knowledge” of what you’re selling. You know, so you’ll be a better salesperson (man, what philanthropists). If you are a real go-getter, you can even sign new victims…ahem…er, uh…PROSPECTS to sell Amway for you, and you will earn a small commission off what they buy– I mean, sell.

Americans are stupid, but are we this stupid? Must be. Amway is still in business, and they somehow can afford global TV marketing (probably not on Rich and Jay's good looks). As far as I’m concerned, the Amway founders and surrogates should be guests at the same bed-and-breakfast as Mr. Made-off and Mr. Ponzi. But, I guess it’s still not illegal to be a moron in this country. In fact, any good, stupid, mulish American (I don’t mean stubborn) can still run for office…and win, too. Jiminey Christmas! Amway is just the "answer" we need for our current economic crisis — a bunch of people going door-to-door peddling “wonder-pills,” and “make-up” to people that can’t pay their mortgages.

So, when your doorbell rings, and the Ponzi on the other side says, “I’m with Amway,” you say, “No Damn-way!” And tell them to, “Amscray!”

 
AIG: Government transparency apparently equals ambiguous duplicity
Written by Ron McClure Jr.
Tuesday, 24 March 2009 22:07
4 Comments

This past week, we have all been watching as Congress has relentlessly been chastising AIG for paying bonuses with the taxpayers’ bailout money. In fact, the harsh and poignant language has initiated a nationwide outcry against AIG, leading to numerous ad hominem attacks and death threats directed at AIG employees. And, the House of Representatives has once again hastily pushed through a 90% punitive tax bill that will target the recipients of the bonuses allocated by companies receiving bailout funds.

House members have been objectionably vociferous in condemning the bailout distributions by the economic giant, AIG:

Rep. Steve Israel, D-New York: "The American people have had it with all the posturing and the politics, they want their money back."

Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Florida: "No one is calling my district office and saying 'Congressman, please file an inquiry into these bonuses.' They're saying get it back and get it back now."

Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colorado:. We will subpoena your boards and haul you before Congress. We will use personal rhetoric to decry your greed — we will make life miserable."

Even President Obama has publicly jumped on board the tongue-lashing locomotive, railroading companies like AIG, as he made history being the first sitting president to appear on the “Tonight Show With Jay Leno”:

"Everybody's angry," he said. "But I think that the best way to handle this is to make sure that you close the door before the horse gets out of the barn. And what happened here was the money's already gone out, and people are scrambling to try to find ways to get back at them."

What the president is not telling you is that he secretly supported the AIG bonuses. I couldn’t believe it either, but in my investigation, I discovered several things I found hard to believe. I think it is necessary for all Americans to know the true story behind the AIG bonus scandal.

First, in an earlier post on BloggersBase, A-I-Gee Whiz!, I posed the question, “How hard is it to say, ‘if – you – take – this – money, – you – can't – use – it – for – bonuses’?” I also questioned the competence of our Congress for failing to make such stipulations, and then acting outraged when the bonuses were payed. However, it appears that a bipartisan amendment to the latest stimulus bill in February was proposed by Senators Olympia Snowe, R–Maine, and Ron Wyden, D–Oregon, that would have placed a 35% excise tax on bonuses in excess of $100,000 paid from the bailout coffers. It passed in the Senate, but in last minute closed-door negotiations between the White House and the House of Representatives, the amendment was dropped.

In an interview, Senator Snowe (amendment co-sponsor) told CNN: "We tried. It simply didn't happen, and that's a tragedy, given what's happened today [March 17]." Majority Leader Harry Reid dodged a question from CNN, when asked if dropping the amendment was a mistake.

When questioned about the new punitive tax bill, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Montana, reportedly stated, "Frankly it was such a rush — we're talking about the stimulus bill now — to get it passed, I didn't have time and other conferees didn't have time to address many of the provisions that were modified significantly…We shouldn't be here. That should have passed, but it didn't."

If that were not enough, an exemption clause was added to the February stimulus bill that said new rules "shall not be construed to prohibit any bonus payment required to be paid pursuant to a written employment contract executed on or before February 11, 2009." The added exemption clause directly permitted paying the AIG bonuses that are now being so heatedly admonished.

So what about President Obama’s secret support of the AIG bonuses? A Wall Street Journal website (online.wsj.com) reports that “Members of the administration question whether the appearance of unpredictability by Congress gives potential investors the idea the government program is too risky.” And that, “Administration officials are worried banks won't participate in the program or won't be able to attract talented managers to run the firms because of the bonus restrictions.” Remember, the last minute changes in the February stimulus bill – the ones that permitted the bonus allocations – were a product of “closed door negotiations” between the White House and the House of Representatives.

So, as you listen to all of the overly dramatic outrageмебели софия being expressed by Congress and the White House, don’t forget that they knowingly paved the road to the AIG bonus scandal. And what happened to the promise of a new government of transparency? Well, in my search for the truth (which was very time-consuming) I had to dig my way through a tangled web of ambiguous duplicity.

 
Musings From The Old Man – Part 3
Written by Chuck Phillips
Monday, 09 March 2009 09:42
2 Comments

Several weeks ago, I cautioned us to be wary of politicians bearing gifts. Well, today we know some of the details – we are about to get almost $800 billion in government spending that is supposed to reach into every neighborhood across the land, stimulate the economy, and create or save roughly 3½ million jobs. Do you believe it? Do you feel better off so far? Let’s start with a few basics:

1.     How much is $800 billion? Well, if you had spent $1 million per day, every day, since the birth of Christ, you’d be in the neighborhood. Or if you simply gave every man, woman, and child in this country $2,600, you’d be about there.

2.     If we pay down this debt by increasing the amount of the budget allocated to interest from 8% to 10% (a 25% increase), we’ll have to reduce other spending by perhaps $75 billion a year, and continue to do so for the next 20 years to pay this down. As John McCain said on “Face the Nation” last week, “It’s intergenerational theft!”

3.     What does a single state’s share of the goodies look like? Let’s take mine – Georgia: $1.7 billion for Medicaid, $1.2 billion for education, $1 billion for roads and bridges, $333 million for special education, $90 million for public housing, $82 million for child care, $33 million for homelessness prevention, $20 million for Head Start, etc. – a total of $5.9 billion for what? Does any of this look like it creates lots of jobs? Does any of this address mortgages or the credit crisis?

Our senior senator, Johnny Isakson, proposed an amendment to the “stimulus” that would have reduced mortgage rates to 4% and provided an incentive payment to anyone buying a home in order to jump-start the real estate, mortgage, and home building industries. Of course, his amendment was defeated along party lines. The Harry R. and Nancy P. railroad would not be side-tracked.

But I’ll leave you with these 3 questions to consider: if mortgages led us into this mess, should not mortgages lead us out of it? And if the single largest asset for most of the middle class is the family home, must we not stabilize the value of homes as our first order of business? And if bad mortgages are plugging up the credit markets, should we not lower mortgage rates and restructure salvageable mortgages as a first step to re-liquidate these markets?

Face it, the stimulus is one big Democratic orgy of special-interest spending with little in the way of economic recovery except wishful thinking. I know talking about economics is not very sexy, but I have never in my lifetime seen anything like this for big-government log rolling, and it is downright scary!