In my latest article, I take a thorough and detailed look at the real story behind the MF Global bankruptcy, and how the actions of its executives and board members resulted in the depositors losing billions of their own hard-earned money.

On Monday October 31, 2011, MF Global filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy listing $39.7 billion in debt and $41 billion in assets in its bankruptcy filing, and only $26 million in cash.  With at least $1.2 billion “missing” from customers’ accounts, the blame game for who was responsible for such a massive failure has begun.

MF Global failed to make a profit in over four years, but its plunge into bankruptcy was precipitated by former CEO John Corzine’s decision shortly after his arrival in March of 2010 “to change MF Global from a midsize derivatives broker to full-fledged investment bank that took risks with its own capital.”  These risks included diving head first into the Italian and Spanish bond markets shortly before they plunged into chaos following concerns by investors over the growing European debt crisis.

But the lack of oversight and action by the regulatory entities charged with protecting MF Global’s customers, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Commodity Futures Trading Commission, brings to light many questions about whether John Corzine’s close connections and relationships with people at both entities, and his connections to the Federal Reserve which helped bailout MF Global’s balance sheets, put MF Global’s customers in a position of unnecessary risk.  What’s clear is regulators turned a blind eye at the very corporate malfeasance that could have saved MF Global’s customers.  Insightful calculations demonstrate how outrageous the risks were.

In my latest article, I take a thorough and detailed look at the deal Missouri Republican’s have apparently struck with Democratic Governor Jay Nixon to hand Missouri taxpayers hard-earned money over to special interests in the name of job creation.  I expose how this “Made in Missouri Jobs” deal will actually transfer money to special interests with few benefits and open the door for those interested in using taxpayer dollars for cloning and embryo destructive research.  While Republicans in other states are riding the wave of fiscal responsibility, Missouri Republicans have jumped in bed with special interests at the taxpayers’ expense.

In my latest article, I take a thorough and detailed look at the cozy relationship between Warren Buffett and Goldman Sachs.  For years, liberal elites have protected the interests of Goldman Sachs.  But the true extent of this protection was only revealed during the 2008 financial meltdown when the Federal Reserve loaned Goldman Sachs over $600 billion to keep it afloat.  Without this loan, Goldman Sachs would have joined Lehman Brothers in the dustbin of failed financial firms on Wall Street.  But, one person in particular, Warren Buffett, made out like a bandit as a result of the Federal Reserve’s rescue of Goldman Sachs.  Find out how the Federal Reserve saved America’s “most brillant investor” from losing over $5 billion on his Goldman Sachs investment.

This article details with facts and figures the damaging impact just 2 3/4 years of the Obama Administration have done to the U.S. economy.  The real record of the Obama Administration is one of massive deficit spending, growing federal debt, massive job losses, declining home prices and liberal regulatory expansion.  The American people have paid the price for socialist policies that have no end in sight.

This article addresses the true extent of Europe’s fiscal crisis, and how the American taxpayer, unknowingly through the IMF, is helping bailout failing socialist nations in Europe.  Europe is a “house of cards” that will ultimately depend on the American taxpayers.  I use real data from the IMF to show that American taxpayers will bear the brunt of paying for these European bailouts as they leap frog from country to country.

This article addresses the rise and fall of two great American Institutions:  free assembly unions and the American Automobile Industry.  In 1937 after the Flint Sit-Down Strike, GM reached a deal with the UAW to recognize it as the exclusive bargaining representative for GM’s factory employees.  The impact for both GM and the UAW employees proved to be dramatic as the UAW progressively demanded more in wages and benefits and more of a managerial role in GM and the other legacy automobile companies.  I use facts, first-hand stories and thorough analysis to show that the UAW’s demand, and GM’s acquiescence,  for a role in managing GM and the other US automobile companies ultimately paved the way for massive layoffs of union members and the rise of the foreign automakers in the US market.

This article addresses the blatant mismanagement of the economy by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors through their policy of quantitative easing and zero interest rates in light of clear and convincing evidence from the US and around the world that inflation is rapidly rising in every sector of the world’s economy. Despite the incompetent words of some Federal Reserve Governors, I use facts from the US and around the globe to show that inflation is rearing its head in some of the major commodity markets as a precursor to 1970′s style inflation. While many influential investors and bankers have raised the alarm, the Fed continues its reckless policies of printing money.

10 Conditions For Transition To Communism

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all right of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralisation of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal liability of all to labour.  Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equitable distribution of the population over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools.  Abolition of children’s factory labour in its present form.  Combination of education with industrial production.

. . . .In short, the Communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order of things.[ii]

Socialism is therefore the sum of all the schemes and techniques that are undertaken to achieve these end goals against the existing social and political order of things.

The “Elites” are those who think they know better about how you should lead your life than you do.  They hold power over you while you try to earn a living selling your labor and skills for a profit.

Socialists are “Elites” who attack the existing social order by all manner of means and techniques to establish the conditions for transition to communism.

The most instructive definition of Socialism is that it is the human condition resulting from the Elites’ imposition of their desire to make people do what they want them to do.  Its final form is usually a single-party, non-democratic government, or outright tyranny, where a collapsed economy and loss of human rights impoverishes and destroys the people.  The world is full of proofs of this definition.

In fact, A Simple Guide: How Liberalism, A Euphemism For Socialism, Destroys Peoples and Nations escorts you on a global tour where you can make your own judgments about this definition of Socialism.  Russia will be an especially pointed discussion.

Having then convinced you of this general definition of Socialism, the Simple Guide will then take you on an unprecedented tour of our own governmental processes to observe what techniques and schemes our “Elites” have been using for almost 100 years to achieve final and perpetual single-party control of America and her citizens!!

[i] Sauer, Fred N.  A Simple Guide:  How Liberalism, A Euphemism For Socialism Destroys Peoples and Nations.  St. Louis:  Self-Published, 2010.  p. 214.

[ii] Id.

The Coast Guard has gathered evidence it failed to follow its own firefighting policy during the Deepwater Horizon disaster and is investigating whether the chaotic spraying of tons of salt water by private boats contributed to sinking the ill fated oil rig, according to interviews and documents.

Coast Guard officials told the Center for Public Integrity that the service does not have the expertise to fight an oil rig fire and that its response to the April 20 explosion may have broken the service’s own rules by failing to ensure a firefighting expert supervised the half-dozen private boats that answered the Deepwater Horizon’s distress call to fight the blaze.[i]

This is just amazing.  As stated in the above facts, this is just gross incompetence.  But look how these mistakes in firefighting procedures may have resulted in the first trigger of the initiating cause of the “leak:”

An official maritime investigation led by Coast Guard Capt. Hung M. Nguyen in New Orleans is examining whether the salt water that was sprayed across the burning platform overran the ballast system that kept the rig upright, changing its weight distribution, and causing it to list.

Ocean rigs are massive, tall structures – usually several stories high – that float on the water.  The rig can be lowered or raised by adjusting air and sea water contained in its ballast tanks.  These tanks have seals that were likely damaged by the fire blazing on the rig, which would have allowed the massive amounts of sea water sprayed on the rig to fight the fire to enter the tanks and seriously disturb the rig’s center of gravity.

The main source of the spill was not the blowout preventer, but the riser pipe to the rig.  When the rig collapsed and sank a few days after the blowout, the pipe tore open and began pouring tens of thousands of barrels of oil each day into the Gulf of Mexico.  Had the rig been salvaged, it’s likely that most of the spill would never have occurred . . . .

Kevin Robb, a civilian Coast Guard search and rescue specialist who acted as the first watch commander the night of the accident, testified that there was no attempt by the Coast Guard Command Center in New Orleans to designate a fire marshal to take charge.[ii]

To men of the sea, fires on any floating vessels are extremely dangerous and demand following governing procedures to the letter.  So, at this point, since there was a procedural failure, maybe dereliction of duty is evident.  The terrible consequences would make you especially distrustful of the abilities of the federal government as operator of the Coast Guard.  Yet this same federal government has taken over the most complicated business in the world –delivering us our health care??

Now if you are a natural cynic, you should read my blogs “Skimmers, Skimmers, Skimmers–Where are the Skimmers???” and “Radical Democratic Party Continues Its Ongoing ‘Jihad’ Against Domestic Oil Production and Eventual Energy Independence.” These will prepare you for this next fact:

An earlier report from Mehta and Solomon also raised important questions that the White House has yet to answer about what Obama knew when.  That investigation revealed the White House timeline of events failed to acknowledge an oil leak until four days after the explosion, even though the Coast Guard’s timeline reported a leak one day after the explosion.[iii]

So, many needs of radical liberal Democrats have been satisfied all too conveniently by the Deepwater Horizon Disaster.

Maybe letting these same people take over delivery of our health care is not just a very wise decision???

For a more thorough discussion on this topic, please see page 335 of Chapter 15, “Health Care” Is NOT about Health Care, of  my book “A Simple Guide:  How Liberalism, A Euphemism For Socialism, Destroys Peoples and Nations.”  After reading this, you just conclude that surrendering personal control over our Health Care to Obama Care is tantamount to giving the federal government regulators a license to ration – especially if you are over 65!

[i] Morrissey, Ed.  “Did the Government cause the Gulf Spill?”  Hot Air.  July 30,2010.  Web.  Accessed August 4, 2010.   <http://hotair.com/archives/2010/07/30/did-the-government-cause-the-gulf-spill/>.

[ii] Id.

[iii] Id.

Skimmers are nothing new. Over 21 years ago, they were a frontline remediation device in the then largest oil spill in our territorial waters, Prince William Sound in Alaska. But, until recently, we could hardly find them in the oily waters of the Gulf of Mexico where the Deepwater Horizon wreckage is belching forth anywhere from 35,000 to 60,000 barrels of crude oil a day over 5,000 feet below the water’s surface.

Offsetting this discharge of oil are the following recovery systems:

On July 5, about 74 days after the Deepwater Horizon explosion, British Petroleum reported that “the total volume of oil collected or flared by the containment systems is approximately 585,400 barrels” of crude oil in about 74 days.

On July 3, it was reported that a Taiwanese oil super skimmer (a 1,000 foot long ore and oil tanker dubbed “A Whale”), arrived in the Gulf of Mexico. It can collect 500,000 barrels a day of contaminated water.

For the complete prior period going back to the April 20th explosion, all other “skimmers in use” averaged approximately 9,523 barrels (28,000,000 gallons/42 gallons per barrel=666,666/70 days) on average of oily mix a day. If 20% of the mix is oil, the daily oil recovery would be 1,905 barrels.

On June 16, we find out that “three days after the Gulf oil rig explosion, the Netherlands offered to send in oil skimmers to pump oil off the surface of the oceans. The Obama administration TURNED THEM DOWN because they were not 100% efficient and small amounts of oil would be pumped back into the Gulf with the excess water. EPA regulations do not allow for residue water to contain any oil. So rather than use equipment that was not 100% efficient, the Obama Administration chose to let ALL of the crude oil run into the Gulf.” (emphasis added).

On July 6, the Obama Administration had a change of heart about the Dutch offer.

[t]he U.S. Government has apparently reconsidered a Dutch offer to supply 4 oil skimmers. These are larges arms that are attached to oil tankers that pump oil and water from the surface of the ocean into the tanker. Water pumped into the tanker will settle to the bottom of the tanker and is then pumped back into the ocean to make room for more oil. Each system will collect 5,000 tons of oil a day.

One ton of oil is about 7.3 barrels. 5,000 tons per day is 36,500 barrels a day. 4 skimmers have a capacity of 146,000 barrels per day. That is much greater than the high end estimate of the leak. The skimmers work best in calm water, which is the usual condition this time of year in the gulf . . . .

Using the Dutch skimmers should have prevented most of the oil from ever getting even close to shore. The Dutch skimmers work best close to the source of the spill where the oil is more concentrated. Outside of that circle, dispersants could be used. Additional smaller skimmers could be used closer to shore to pick up patches that might get through the first 2 rings. The less oil that reaches shore, the less there is to clean up. The less oil that reaches shore, the faster the environment will (be) restored by natural cleaning processes. (sic)

So let’s calculate what oil recovery has occurred, and what could have occurred if the Obama Administration had made different decisions about oil skimmers. Using this information we can now calculate what approximate amounts of oil were or were not picked up by the various “skimmers” during the recovery operations to date and pro forma to the end of August

Click to Enlarge (PDF)

By the end of the June, the cumulative discharge of oil was 3,884,500 barrels of oil after the effects of the oil capture at the Blow-Out Preventer. But the reality of the fleet of smaller vessels performing skimming operations is a completely inadequate performance. For the entire period, from April 30 to today, they could only manage to capture 9,523 barrels of oily mix per day. If you assume that 20% of it is oil, the result is a net collection of just over 1,905 barrels of oil recovery per day. As we used to say in the Navy, this is just like spitting upward in a hurricane. And, so, at the end of June, the net cumulative discharge is 3,739,720 barrels of oil because all the skimmers had only skimmed 144,780 barrels of oil.

At this point, we discover the “A Whale” skimmer. It can process 500,000 barrels of oily mix a day. Assuming a 20% recovery of oil for every 500,000 barrels of oily mix, “A Whale” would capture 100,000 barrels of oil a day. Even if the oil recovery fell below 20% per 500,000 barrels of oily mix, this total would still be much more than the 1,905 barrels of oil a day the entire smaller skimming fleet collectively.

As to the Netherlands’ skimmers, on June 16th, almost two months after the accident, we discovered that the federal government rejected the offer to use the Netherland’s skimmers on or about April 23 or 24. Assuming the Netherlands’ skimmers will show up and be on the job in 1 ½ months, August 1, these skimmers will collect about 146,000 barrels of oil per day.

My analysis presumes that all discharged oil rises to the surface, which would be the worst case scenario. And to the extent that all of the oil does not rise to the surface, the actual recovery should be better than our worst case.

From June 30 to the end of July (pro forma), the cumulative discharge of oil has increased to 5,039,150 barrels of oil. But the presence of “A Whale” for all of July produces an enormous increase in oil recovered, 2,800,000 barrels. Yes, you are reading it correctly! 2,800,000 barrels of additional oil recovery from “A Whale”. So, the net cumulative discharge of oil at July 31 has declined to 2,035,315 barrels of oil.

Then in August (pro forma), the catastrophe receives a huge blessing. The Netherlands’ skimmers show up with their collective abilities to skim and separate out 146,000 barrels of oil a day, or an incredible 4,526,000 barrels of oil a month. This is the Rescue Squad! Even though the net cumulative discharge of oil has increased to 6,193,900 barrels of oil, it is wiped out by a monthly recovery of 59,055 barrels of small boat skimmers, plus 3,100,000 barrels of “A Whale” skimming plus the unbelievable collection of 4,526,000 barrels by the Netherlands’ skimmers. This is a total monthly recovery capacity of 7,685,055 barrels of oil, exceeding the cumulative monthly discharge of oil by 1,491,155 barrels of oil. This gives great hope that all the surface recovery could be immediately successful and thereafter in the future.

Buried in this data is a startling fact. It is the catastrophic cost of not having all the Netherlands’ skimming capacity at an earlier date.

If the Netherlands’ skimmers monthly oil recovery capacity of 4,380,000 barrels of oil had been available just two months earlier, at the beginning of June, would have resulted in a real and productive government response to the oil disaster. The cumulative skimming capacity of 59,055 barrels for the small skimmers plus the Netherlands’ skimmers capacity of 4,380,000 barrels of oil equals 4,439,055 barrels of oil recovered in a month when net discharged oil was only 1,364,400 barrels of oil.

Therefore, for the cumulative discharge at June 30th of 3,884,500 barrels, there would have been present a cumulative recovery capacity of 4,439,055 barrels. All the oil in theory would have been recovered by June 30. We would not have even needed the “A Whale”!

The federal government’s refusal in late April to accept the Netherlands’ skimmers was the worst decision made during the entire Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. The prior successful experience of using skimmers in the Exxon Valdez spill and The Netherlands’ experience of using these skimmers to service their own offshore and tanker operations, provided an excellent background for accepting them the moment they were offered. Perhaps, the Netherlands’ skimmers could have been here even earlier than June resulting in the prevention of all surface oil originated pollution.

Was it incompetence? Indecision? Dithering? Or, was it a deliberate delay so the single party Democratically-controlled federal government could enhance its power? As we know from the Stimulus Bill and the Health Care Bill, there is nothing that this Democratic party will not do to enforce their will on the people.

When given a choice between protecting the environment or enhancing their political power to shake down BP and declare a deep water drilling moratorium, they had no problem in doing the latter.

The “Terrible” decision to refuse the Netherlands’ skimmers in April has resulted in an unprecedented environmental destruction of the Gulf Coast and caused untold economic harm to the surrounding region.

If Attorney General Eric Holder is looking for a case for federal prosecution, maybe he should start with this horribly failed decision-making process that first rejected The Netherlands’ skimmers with their huge daily skimming capacity of 146,000 barrels of oil. Every aspect of this decision should be unearthed and revealed and those responsible should be held accountable.

Unfortunately, such an investigation is highly unlikely for America today is held in vise of single party government by a radical Democratic party. As single party government consolidates its power, it tends to make more and more decisions that are adverse to its citizens. Who in this government would expose this executive branch to a real investigation? If not the Justice Department, how about Congress?? Good Luck! Residents of the affected areas of the Gulf region have no recourse.

If you want to explore in more detail a complete inventory of the techniques that radical liberals have been using to acquire single party government and unleash horror on people, you will enjoy reading my “Simple Guide: How Liberalism Destroys Peoples and Nations.”

1. Skimmers (machine), Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skimmer_(machine), sourced July 13, 2010.
2. Tasker, Fred, “New Well Cap Could Halt All Oil Flow, Says Admiral,” The St. Louis Post Dispatch, July 3, 2010, page A6.
3. British Petroleum Press Release, “Update on Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill-05 July”, 07/05/10, sourced July 07/06/10.
4. Bigg, Matt, “Taiwanese Oil ‘Super Skimmer’ Arrives in Gulf of Mexico,” The China Post, http://www.chinapost.com.tw/international/americas/2010/07/03/263194/Taiwanese-oil.htm, sourced 07/02/2010.
5. Id.
6. Hoft, Jim, “CHANGE! 53 Days Later Obama Administration Decides to Accept Dutch Offer To Help With Spill,” Web, http://gatewaypumndit.firstthings.com/2010/06/change-55-days-later-obama-administration-decides-to-accept-dutch-offer-for-help/, sourced 06/16/10.
7. Ryden, John, “U.S. Reconsiders Dutch Offer To Supply Oil Skimmers,” Web, http://www.examiner.com/x-325-Global-Warming-Examiner~y2010m6d12-US-reconsiders-Dutch-offer-to-supply-oil-skimmers, sourced 07/06/10.