I received a pre-declined credit card in the mail.

CEO’s and Doctors are now playing miniature golf.

Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen.

I bought a toaster oven and my free gift was a bank.

Angelina Jolie adopted a child from America.

Motel 6 won’t leave the light on anymore.

A picture is now only worth 200 words.

They renamed Wall Street to Wal-Mart Street

The Treasure Island casino in Las Vegas is now managed by Somali pirates.

Have some great ideas for our list? Please use the comment box to share!

How Bad is the Economy? Bought a Toaster & Received a Bank. originally appeared on Rights Radio™ with Dr. Joyce Starr - An Independent Voice on April 9, 2011.

Contradictions Abound

Why are so many mainstream commentators positively giddy about economic recovery? Personally, I don’t know a single giddy American.

Then again, I don’t know even one of the 29 hedge fund managers who raked in 50 billion dollars over the last two years. Nor have I received thank you notes from any of the bankers who received million dollar bonuses for masterfully using tax payer funds to transform their failures into success.

Question: If economic recovery is such an overwhelming fact, then why not give ALL the remaining Tarp funds back to the American people?

US Economy at a Glance:

- Unfunded liabilities – over 108 trillion dollars.

- Debt per family – $690,000

- US total debt – 55.7 trillion on April 15, 2010

- US Federal budget Deficit – 1.4 trillion and rising

- Number of years that most Americans work to pay their taxes:  20!

SEC  & April 16, 2010 – The SEC admits on April 16, 2010 that they’ve known about another multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme since the late 1990s, but failed stop the fraud. The SEC announces an investigation into Goldman Sachs for insider trading on the very same day – April 16, 2010. Coincidence?

The Securities and Exchange Commission knew that Texas-based financier R. Allen Stanford was probably running a Ponzi scheme 12 years before it halted the fraud, potentially costing investors more than a billion dollars, according to the agency’s internal watchdog. – Washington Post, April 16, 2010.

And from former NY Attorney General/Governor Eliot Spitzer (when he was still paying attention to his job):

When my office, along with the Department of Justice, warned that some of American International Group‘s reinsurance transactions were little more than efforts to create the false impression of extra capital on the company’s balance sheet, we were jeered at for attacking one of the nation’s great insurance companies, which surely knew how to balance risk and reward. And when the attorneys general of all 50 states sought to investigate subprime lending, believing that some lending practices might be toxic, we were blocked by a coalition of the major banks and the Bush administration, which invoked a rarely used statute to preempt the states’ ability to probe. The administration claimed that it had the situation under control and that our inquiry was unnecessary. Time and again, whether at the state level, in Congress or at the Securities and Exchange Commission under Bill Donaldson, those who tried to enforce the basic principles that would allow the market to survive were told that the “invisible hand” of the market and self-regulation could handle the task alone. – How to Ground the Street, Washington Post, November, 2008.

Listen to the 15 minute show below:

To your economic rights!

Dr. Joyce Starr

US Economic Numbers Don’t Add Up: Why So Giddy Over Economic Recovery? originally appeared on Rights Radio™ with Dr. Joyce Starr - An Independent Voice on April 18, 2010.

Banks are sending out pre-declined credit cards.

I ordered a burger at McDonalds and the kid behind the counter asked, “Can you afford fries with that?”

CEO’s are now playing miniature golf.

If the bank returns your check marked “Insufficient Funds,” you call them and ask if they meant you or them.

Hot Wheels and Matchbox stocks are trading higher than GM.

McDonalds is selling the 1/4 ouncer.

Parents in Beverly Hills fired their nannies and learned their children’s names.

A truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico.

Dick Cheney took his stockbroker hunting.

Motel Six won’t leave the light on anymore.

The Mafia is laying off judges.

Social Security will be renamed to Social Uncertainty.

Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen.

Your concern isn’t that your kids will move back in with you, but that your parents will have to.

And finally . . .

Congress looked into the Bernard Madoff scandal.  Oh Great!!  The guy who made $50 Billion disappear was being investigated by the people who made $1.5 Trillion disappear!

The Economy is SO Bad that Banks are Sending Out Pre-Declined Credit Cards originally appeared on Rights Radio™ with Dr. Joyce Starr - An Independent Voice on December 18, 2009.

We have at least 16 million unemployed workers. And fewer Americans approve of the job done by Congress than believe in UFOs.

Imagine money coming into your life. If Congress keeps spending us into debt, it might be the only way you can still get a fleeting glimpse.

A respected stock market newsletter reported on November 4, 2009 that the market is poised to explode upward and continue for years to come. They stated that the worst pullback would be approximately 10 percent.

In order to cover all bases, they also advised that leading Elliott Wave chartists expect a market collapse well below the March 2009 and November 2008 lows. However, the stock market newsletter said there was little chance of such an outcome.

Yet, on the same day, famed economist Robert Samuelson wrote a fascinating column in the Washington Post. He said: “The Congressional Budget Office reckons the Obama administration’s planned budgets would increase the debt-to-GDP ratio from 41 percent in 2008 to 82 percent in 2019. Higher interest rates would aggravate the debt burden. Anticipating higher rates, the CBO estimates annual interest payments on the federal debt at $799 billion in 2019, up from $170 billion in 2009. Even the size of exposed debt is unclear; adding Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s debts (effectively guaranteed by the government) to Treasury debt would raise the total sharply.”

Let’s look at a few more compelling numbers. The US Government spent $250 billion to save one million jobs. However, we already know that 20,000 of those jobs didn’t exist, while a sizable number of the so-called jobs saved were actually based on pay raise statistics. Government officials have since stated with straight faces that giving someone a raise constitutes a job saving measure. American tax payers generous people. We gave $400,000 to Qaddafi’s son, $65 million in prescriptions to the deceased, $300,000 to track rabbit droppings and $26,000 per car in cash for clunkers.

Cash for clunker appliances is on the way – meaning $50 to $200 for people who can afford to purchase a brand new energy-efficient appliance. Utility companies might also offer a $25 to $50 rebate for an old refrigerator or freezer which is working quite well. Of course, they’ll recycle your old refrigerator, reselling the spare parts or even the entire item at a fat profit.

Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of the nation’s GDP. If you think the consumer is down and out, you’re both wrong and right.

Americans lost 40 percent of their wealth in the past two years. Over $4 trillion in credit lines will vanish by the end of 2009. The real unemployment rate (unemployed, discouraged and part-time workers wanting full-time work) is roughly 20 percent.

Yet, Nordstrom and high-end retailers report that sales are up compared to the last quarter. In other words, those who had, may now have even more – thanks to your generosity. We know that the stimulus plan was largely intended to bolster the US stock market – and we also know that the small investor was largely wiped out in the last market crash. Over thirty percent of American consumers have stopped spending except on pure necessities.

The average consumer has little to spend, but sales are going up. Amazing. Now that’s a true miracle that could only happen in America. So who exactly is benefiting from the stock market run-up of 2009? And what further bad news are the cheerleaders hiding?

Over 80 percent of voters in the New Jersey and Virginia elections expect the economy to get worse. Stock market analyst Michael Shulman wrote on September 16, 2009: “The banks still have trillions of dollars in toxic assets, increasing credit losses, and are facing new accounting and regulatory rules that are pressuring them to raise capital and dilute shareholders. And the market is not likely to react well to this news.”

The retain investor is usually the last in at the top…and the last out and the bottom falls out. If the market crashes again, the good news is small middle class investors will not be as deeply affected, since they were already wiped out in the last go-round. Large institutional investors and brokerage houses will make out like bandits, because they’ve already hedged their bets with puts. The government will probably use the crisis to call for yet another stimulus plan and to hire more high-paid czars with your money. The question is: will they have any crumbs left for the middle class?

This is Dr. Joyce Starr with Rights Radio.com. Please join us next week, same time, same place.

How to Listen: Click the Play Button below.

Caution – Second Stimulus Ahead: Spreading Crumbs of Wealth on the Middle Class originally appeared on Rights Radio™ with Dr. Joyce Starr - An Independent Voice on November 6, 2009.

YOU KNOW THE ECONOMY IS BAD WHEN…(in reverse order)

12. CEO’s are now playing miniature golf.

11. I received a pre-declined credit card in the mail.

10. I went to buy a toaster oven and they gave me a bank.

9. Hotwheels and Matchbox car companies are now trading higher than GM in the stock market.

8. Obama met with small businesses — GE, Pfizer, Chrysler, Citigroup and GM — to discuss the Stimulus Package.

7. McDonald’s is selling the 1/4 ouncer.

6. People in Beverly Hills fired their nannies and are learning their children’s names.

5. The most highly-paid job is now jury duty.

4. People in Africa are donating money to Americans. Mothers in Ethiopia are telling their kids, “finish your plate; do you know how many kids are starving in America?”

3. Motel Six won’t leave the lights on.

2. The Mafia is laying off judges.

And my most favorite indicator of all.

1. If the bank returns your check marked as “insufficient funds,” you have to call them and ask if they meant you or them.

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More from Rights Radio on Economic Recovery:

Economic Revival Strategies: How & When

StarrPublications.com/RightsRadio.com features leading economist Dr. David I. Goldenberg on “The Coming Economic Revival: How & When.” Listen to my interview with Dr. Goldenberg LIVE on November 19, 2008 at 5:00 PM EST. Dr. Goldenberg authored Creating Condo & Home Owner Documents, one of the three books in our Homeowners Association Rights …

Economic Revival: Economic Revival Wisdom Proven Wrong – Forcasting our Future

Quotes that remind us what economic revival “crash and prosperity” experts didn’t know then and cannot know now re economic recovery. Courtesy of Rights Radio forensic economist and author, Dr. David Goldenberg. “We will not have any more crashes in our time.” – John Maynard Keynes in 1927  …

Economic Stimulus Support for Other Nations – China & India

Economic Stimulus Plan Q & A – Courtesy of Dr. Dave! “This year, taxpayers will receive an Economic Stimulus Payment.” This is a very exciting new program that we will explain using the Q and A format: Q. What is an Economic Stimulus Payment? A. It is money that the federal government will send …

To your economic recovery rights!

Dr. Joyce Starr

Federal Reserve Declares Recession is Dead: Twelve Indicators that Economy is in Trouble originally appeared on Rights Radio™ with Dr. Joyce Starr - An Independent Voice on August 13, 2009.

Thirty-three (+) czars later…

Economic Insecurity is Expensive

QUESTION: Administration critics typically preface criticism about the President with the words: “He’s brilliant, but…”

Smart, savvy, politically adept, charming… But vastly misreading the economic data? (“The economy is worse than we thought,” admits VP Joe Biden.) Pushing unemployment 20 percent higher than it would have been if the Administration did absolutely nothing? Spending over 700 billion to leave 14 million people – by some estimates 17 million – out of work? Spending only 10 percent of the first economic stimulus plan and then suggesting that we should spend even more? Targeting the majority of money for the years 2011 through 2019, when we clearly need it now? Heaping riches on big banks and trading firms while bankrupting the middle class?

Leaving our nation defenseless against missile attacks from North Korea? Spending a trillion to provide universal health care benefits to 27-47 million? (Does anyone know the true number of uninsured?) Making unachievable promises that the Administration may not be able to keep?

Listen Up & Listen In: Speaking Out with Dr. Joyce Starr & Joe Stallard. Bookmark this page. Tell your friends.

To your economic rights!

Immortal Economic Stimulus Plan: Illusory Fountain of Youth for Declining US Economy originally appeared on Rights Radio™ with Dr. Joyce Starr - An Independent Voice on July 9, 2009.

Gerald Celente: The Mother of All Bubbles is about to explode. Econo-jargon presidency supported and protected by pandering media.

“The biggest financial bubble in history is being inflated in plain sight. This is the Mother of All Bubbles, and when it explodes, it will signal the end to the boom/bust cycle that has characterized economic activity throughout the developed world. Either unwilling or unable to call the bubble by its proper name, the media, Washington, and Wall Street describe the stupendous government expenditures on rescue packages, stimulus plans, buyouts, and takeovers as emergency measures needed to salvage the severely damaged economy.

“All of this terminology is econo-jargon … Washington is inflating the biggest bubble ever: the Bailout Bubble. This is much bigger than the Dot-com and Real Estate bubbles which hit speculators, investors, and financiers the hardest. However destructive the effects of these busts on employment, savings and productivity, the Free Market Capitalist framework was left intact. But when the Bailout Bubble explodes, the system goes with it … But unlike Dot-com and Real Estate, when the Bailout Bubble pops, neither the President nor the Federal Reserve will have the fiscal fixes or monetary policies available to inflate another.” – Gerald Celente

Celente also also predicts that people will look within to prevail, finding their true character, inner strength and talents. The tide will change “when people gain their dignity and self-respect and put that to work … Learn how to fight for your survival in intelligent ways.” Martial Arts for the Mind Coaching.

To the resiliency of the United States of America!

Call me at 786-693-4223 for Martial Arts for the Mind Coaching.

“He who is bound to a star does not turn back.” — Leonard da Vinci

Tax Tea Parties: Trends Expert Gerald Celente Predicts Obamageddon & Greatest Depression originally appeared on Rights Radio™ with Dr. Joyce Starr - An Independent Voice on July 5, 2009.

Thirsting for hope? Visit RightsUniversity.com – where personal rights are noble and mobile! A quiet enclave for the spirit. Please stop by.

Stimulus Plan or Bust

Learn how to protect your homeowner rights here.

Stimulus Political Cartoons: Pictures Worth a Few Trillion Words – Stimulus Plan or Bust originally appeared on Rights Radio™ with Dr. Joyce Starr - An Independent Voice on June 21, 2009.

Need a spiritual boost fast? Download our spiritually uplifting app for the iPhone & iPod Touch.

Learn how to protect your homeowner rights here.

West Side Story | Worst Slide Story: How Our World Fell Apart With A Bailout originally appeared on Rights Radio™ with Dr. Joyce Starr - An Independent Voice on June 20, 2009.

“We will not have any more crashes in our time.” – John Maynard Keynes in 1927

Money and the Law of Attraction Esther & Jerry Hicks; Hardcover with CD

“I cannot help but raise a dissenting voice to statements that we are living in a fool’s paradise, and that prosperity in this country must necessarily diminish and recede in the near future.” – E. H. H. Simmons, President, New York Stock Exchange, January 12, 1928

“There will be no interruption of our permanent prosperity.” – Myron E. Forbes, President, Pierce Arrow Motor Car Co., January 12, 1928

“No Congress of the United States ever assembled, on surveying the state of the Union, has met with a more pleasing prospect than that which appears at the present time. In the domestic field there is tranquility and contentment…and the highest record of years of prosperity. In the foreign field there is peace, the goodwill which comes from mutual understanding.” – Calvin Coolidge December 4, 1928

“There may be a recession in stock prices, but not anything in the nature of a crash.” – Irving Fisher, leading U.S. economist , New York Times, Sept. 5, 1929

“Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau. I do not feel there will be soon if ever a 50 or 60 point break from present levels, such as (bears) have predicted. I expect to see the stock market a good deal higher within a few months.” – Irving Fisher, Ph.D. in economics, Oct. 17, 1929

“This crash is not going to have much effect on business.” – Arthur Reynolds, Chairman of Continental Illinois Bank of Chicago, October 24, 1929

“There will be no repetition of the break of yesterday… I have no fear of another comparable decline.”
- Arthur W. Loasby (President of the Equitable Trust Company), quoted in NYT, Friday, October 25, 1929

“We feel that fundamentally Wall Street is sound, and that for people who can afford to pay for them outright, good stocks are cheap at these prices.” – Goodbody and Company market-letter quoted in The New York Times, Friday, October 25, 1929

“This is the time to buy stocks. This is the time to recall the words of the late J. P. Morgan… that any man who is bearish on America will go broke. Within a few days there is likely to be a bear panic rather than a bull panic. Many of the low prices as a result of this hysterical selling are not likely to be reached again in many years.”
- R. W. McNeel, market analyst, as quoted in the New York Herald Tribune, October 30, 1929

“Buying of sound, seasoned issues now will not be regretted” – E. A. Pearce market letter quoted in the New York Herald Tribune, October 30, 1929

“Some pretty intelligent people are now buying stocks…. Unless we are to have a panic — which no one seriously believes, stocks have hit bottom.” – R. W. McNeal, financial analyst in October 1929

“The decline is in paper values, not in tangible goods and services…America is now in the eighth year of prosperity as commercially defined. The former great periods of prosperity in America averaged eleven years. On this basis we now have three more years to go before the tailspin.” – Stuart Chase (American economist and author), NY Herald Tribune, November 1, 1929

“Hysteria has now disappeared from Wall Street.” – The Times of London, November 2, 1929

“The Wall Street crash doesn’t mean that there will be any general or serious business depression… For six years American business has been diverting a substantial part of its attention, its energies and its resources on the speculative game…. Now that irrelevant, alien and hazardous adventure is over. Business has come home again, back to its job, providentially unscathed, sound in wind and limb, financially stronger than ever before.”
- Business Week, November 2, 1929

“…despite its severity, we believe that the slump in stock prices will prove an intermediate movement and not the precursor of a business depression such as would entail prolonged further liquidation. …” – Harvard Economic Society (HES), November 2, 1929

“… a serious depression seems improbable; [we expect] recovery of business next spring, with further improvement in the fall.” – HES, November 10, 1929

“The end of the decline of the Stock Market will probably not be long, only a few more days at most.”
- Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics at Yale University, November 14, 1929

“In most of the cities and towns of this country, this Wall Street panic will have no effect.” – Paul Block (President of the Block newspaper chain), editorial, November 15, 1929

“Financial storm definitely passed.” – Bernard Baruch, cablegram to Winston Churchill, November 15, 1929

“I see nothing in the present situation that is either menacing or warrants pessimism… I have every confidence that there will be a revival of activity in the spring, and that during this coming year the country will make steady progress.” – Andrew W. Mellon, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury December 31, 1929

“I am convinced that through these measures we have reestablished confidence.” – Herbert Hoover, December 1929

“[1930 will be] a splendid employment year.” – U.S. Dept. of Labor, New Year’s Forecast, December 1929

“For the immediate future, at least, the outlook (stocks) is bright.” – Irving Fisher, Ph.D. in Economics, in early 1930

“…there are indications that the severest phase of the recession is over…” – Harvard Economic Society (HES) Jan 18, 1930

“There is nothing in the situation to be disturbed about.” – Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon, Feb 1930

“The spring of 1930 marks the end of a period of grave concern…American business is steadily coming back to a normal level of prosperity.” – Julius Barnes, head of Hoover’s National Business Survey Conference, Mar 16, 1930

“… the outlook continues favorable…” – HES Mar 29, 1930

“… the outlook is favorable…” – HES Apr 19, 1930

“While the crash only took place six months ago, I am convinced we have now passed through the worst — and with continued unity of effort we shall rapidly recover. There has been no significant bank or industrial failure. That danger, too, is safely behind us.” – Herbert Hoover, President of the United States, May 1, 1930

“…by May or June the spring recovery forecast in our letters of last December and November should clearly be apparent…” – HES May 17, 1930

“Gentleman, you have come sixty days too late. The depression is over.” – Herbert Hoover, responding to a delegation requesting a public works program to help speed the recovery, June 1930

“… irregular and conflicting movements of business should soon give way to a sustained recovery…”
- HES June 28, 1930

“… the present depression has about spent its force…” – HES, Aug 30, 1930

“We are now near the end of the declining phase of the depression.” – HES Nov 15, 1930

“Stabilization at [present] levels is clearly possible.” – HES Oct 31, 1931

“All safe deposit boxes in banks or financial institutions have been sealed… and may only be opened in the presence of an agent of the I.R.S.” – President F.D. Roosevelt, 1933

Economic Revival: Economic Revival Wisdom Proven Wrong – Forcasting our Future originally appeared on Rights Radio™ with Dr. Joyce Starr - An Independent Voice on June 13, 2009.