citoyen_c

Employers and Employees: Slaves to the Employee Free Choice Act

By Daniel Casper © 2009

In the year 1935, the United States Government passed the National Labor Relations Act, establishing that employees in America have the right – regardless of their employer’s wishes – to form a Union for the purpose of a process called “collective bargaining.” Though collective bargaining is not defined in the law, it is the process when a business’s employee join together and make a demand of their employer in order to obtain, for example, higher wages, safer working conditions, or benefits. The law establishes that this collective, known commonly as a Union, can elect representatives to go before a government board, called the National Labor Relations Board, and present their grievances. The Board can then force, by means of an administrative judge, an employer to meet the terms of the Union through a process called mediation and arbitration.

In the 2009, the United States Government is about to amend the National Labor Relations Act with the new Employee Free Choice Act. This act, surprisingly only a page long, makes two changes: one, it allows Unions to form by way of a process called “card check,” instead of secret ballot required by the NLRA; two, it adds a $20,000 civil penalty for anyone found violating the original terms of the NLRA. The only “free choice” the government gives employees in the bill is the “right” to organize by submitting an open petition instead of an anonymous vote.

Yet do these two bills actually advance “freedom” and “rights”? Before that question can be answered, the terms must be defined. If freedom is to mean “free from compulsion from an outside force,” then how does Section 8, subsection A, article 5 of the NLRA, stating that employers cannot “refuse to bargain collectively with the representatives of his employees,” and Section 8, subsection B, article 3, stating that employees cannot “refuse to bargain collectively with an employer,” constitute freedom? Both parties, by order of the government, are forced to deal with one another. If a right is a “moral law which prevents men from forcefully seizing what belongs to an individual,” then how can there be, according to the NLRA, a “right of employees to organize” and make demands of a business owner? Since the business owned by an individual or a group of individuals constitutes property of that entity, no man or group of men may tell them what to do with it, not if freedom and rights are to be preserved.

The government would like to believe it has the right to destroy rights. The arbitration process established in the NLRA is a court order – it cannot be disobeyed by the Unions or business owner. For those who believe that the government can be an agent of justice in this circumstance, I call your attention to actual events which have occurred as a result of the NLRA. By manipulating the NLRA the United Automotive Workers have managed to be a leading cause behind the bankruptcy of American automotive maker, GM. Through the process of “collective bargaining,” unionized autoworkers shut down GM’s plants for 54 days in 1998, knocking off a “full percentage point off the U.S. economic growth rate that quarter.” According to the NLRA, GM could not fire the employees for exercising their right to “engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining,” despite the fact that the workers were actually harming their company. The average cost of a single Union employee to GM, of which there are 120,000, is $140,000 per year, according to George Reisman of the Mises Institute. That’s $16.8 billion a year in labor costs alone; causing a $1200 loss for each car GM produces. Compare that to Toyota, who has a profit of $2000 on each car due to the lack of Union manipulation, and it becomes obvious what justice the NLRA has rendered. Also according to the Mises Institute, if GM were to be free of Union contracts, it would be earning a profit of $400 per car, be free of $16 billion in pension contracts, and not have employees who make a mandatory $72 per hour wage with benefits factored in. That would have well accounted for the $19.4 billion GM “needed” from the Federal Government to continue operation. In perhaps the best example of injustice at the hands of the Unions and NLRA, unionized autoworkers in Oklahoma City are literally paid to do nothing, because GM is incapable of firing them due to Union contracts the government has helped create. Free from the NLRA and its government backed unions, GM would have had a fighting chance to survive as a company, instead of the nationalized failure it represents now.

The NLRA and Employee Free Choice Act are not representative of freedom at all. Rather, they make business owners slaves to their employees, and employees into slaves of the Federal Government. Business owners are not allowed to live free of the Union coercion – by law – while Union employees are forced to accept whatever terms the government negotiates for them. This process, by its own history, is as dangerous as it is immoral. Congressmen of the United States who seek to preserve freedom and the rights of the individual must oppose the Employee Free Choice Act, and begin voicing opposition to the NLRA, calling for its nullification. Then, perhaps, the American Economy can see the rebirth of its manufacturing and labor sector free from force, the enemy of employer and employee, alike.

Citizens,

I would like to officially announce my love for video game music. The various 8 and 16 bit pieces from Nintendo and Sega are amongst the greatest works ever composed. If you are looking for complex and emotionally rewarding music, I can think of no better source. While the instruments in the music might be computer rendered imitations of their originals, they express the music and power of a piece just as well as their “real” counterparts. It is not surprising these works sprang from the minds of individual composers such as Koji Kondo, Yasunori Mitsuda, and Nobuo Uematsu. Their works, vast in quantity, are available for free on youtube, waiting for you to discover them. Music from video games has spawned musical industry in the form of sites like www.ocremix.org where composers rearrange the scores to these works into original compositions, to booked out shows at symphony halls, to purchasable CDs from bands such as The Black Mages (of which Nobuo Uematsu is the leader).

 To get you started, games with excellent soundtracks include:

Final Fantasy I-VII (Nobuo Uematsu)
Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross (Yasunori Mitsuda)
Sonic 1 (Yuzo Koshiro)
All of the Mario Series (Koji Kondo)
All of the Zelda Series (Koji Kondo)
All of the Megaman Series (Ogeretsu Kun, Manami Ietel, and Yuukichan's Papa)

Oh, and while you’re at it, check out a lady by the name of Yoko Kanno and her ochestra, The Seatbelts. She might make music for anime instead of video games, but she’s just as good.

-C

But what does this law actually ban, C? Let me quote, citizen:

"inhaling, exhaling, possessing, or carrying any lighted or burning cigar or cigarette, or any pipe or other device that contains lighted or burning tobacco or tobacco products"

There you have it. Since the electric cigarette is not a tobacco product, and has no open flame or light, it is not banned under the letter of the law. I have printed a copy of the entire ordinance and am now keeping one on my person at all times in order to prevent unjust ticketing (which I have heard numerous rumors of) and to offer evidence to property owners afraid of the city's horrible mockery of justice. And if anyone decides to ticket me or anyone associated with me, I will fight them in whatever court available and not surrender until they lose.

They'll just have to make a whole new law to stop me from enjoying myself!

-C

Art has the power to show men what the world can be; the best art shows men the world as it should be. This category of art is known as romanticism, which is marked by its recognition of the fact that man is a volitional creature, and therefore the selection of his values and their achievement is within his grasp. By showing what man is capable of, romantic art has the capability to inspire men to higher ambitions, to provide energy for the pursuit of their current ones, and to give a man a needed moment where he can bask in a world that honors his spirit and his struggle to live. Pixar’s “Up” is such a movie and for that reason it is worth every penny to see it.

The entire movie is dedicated to the idea that no matter what pain or misfortune occurs in life, happiness is so powerful that it erases the significance of anything negative. “Up” achieves this theme by demonstrating that even the sadness of death can be overcome by the joy found in existence. For the hero, Carl, that joy is found in the spirit of adventure, embodied by his own life and that of his late wife, Ellie. His love of her was a source of unending pleasure, which once removed brings Carl to a state of miserable depression. Yet after experiencing the pain of losing what is most valuable to him in the world, Carl rediscovers happiness on what he believes to be his last adventure before death, one that would honor his life and the memory of his late wife. 

That adventure is to erect a house in Paradise Falls, a valley “lost to time” that embodies all the danger and excitement of the world the two fell in love over. While the circumstance of their life together did not allow them to achieve their dream, Carl takes it upon himself as his sole mission in life to complete this goal after her death. No matter what adversity or challenge he is faced with; villains and their heinous acts of force, tremendous tasks requiring immense strength and creativity, or navigating relationships he is forced into due to circumstance, he refuses to surrender his goal. While he might be a frail old man, the characters, and even the audience, may mistake him for weak. Weak is the one thing he is not.

Carl is a man literally possessed by the importance of his own values, and it is for this reason that Carl is a shining example of a hero. Carl is an ideal man by the fact that his life is a constant, never betrayed, pursuit of his own values. He possesses the unbreakable spirit which is required of a man in order to obtain happiness. It is this kind of spirit which gives him the strength to complete his adventure – and at its end discover a renewed love for life. This discovery, the plot event which triggers the climax of the film, is so well structured and such a vibrant salute to the life of man that it is a value in its own right.

Make sure you take the time to see “Up” in theatres while you still can – or you’ll also happen to miss out on the wonderfully integrated 3d effects of the movie. “Up” never settles for the cheap or trite; instead it is a tremendous work of art, aesthetically and morally. In a world that seems to pride itself on every new study of the depraved and grotesque, from serial killers to demonic possession, the reality that “Up” portrays is a wonderful oasis that anyone with a love for life can enjoy.

-C

The purpose of Memorial Day is to honor the deaths of American soldiers who have died fighting for the freedom and rights of American citizens. That number is over 1,314,000 to date – men who lost their lives in the American Revolution, the Civil War, World War II, fighting against oppressive rule, against slavery, against whole-sale murder and destruction. These men fought to keep the very rights necessary for human existence – and paid for it with their lives.

The American soldier did not just fight these evils – he conquered them. America gained independence from England who sought to rule them by force. The Confederacy was destroyed and slavery ended in America. Germany and Japan surrendered unconditionally, liberating half the world from death camps and totalitarianism. The value of a soldier’s life is self-evident by these examples. He fights so that you can be free. Any man enjoying his freedom today owes these men a debt of gratitude for their actions, and it is right that a holiday should be devoted to their efforts.

These men, however, are owed more than just gratitude. There is a better payment to offer for their service, one far more important and meaningful. That payment is to make sure none of their brothers-in-arms die needlessly on a battlefield. Soldiers are first and foremost individuals whose lives are valuable, and it is the responsibility of the citizens they defend to respect that precious value. While the job of the soldier is to fight with his very life to defend the rights of a society, that does not mean he should die needlessly in the process. It is a crime against these men, and life in general, to place a soldier needlessly in harm’s way, to make them fight battles they cannot win, and to order them to war on immoral grounds. A soldier is too valuable, too important, to throw away, because their existence ensures your safety.

This means that every American citizen must understand the proper reason for war – self-defense. Any other cause is fundamentally unjust, for it is a preemptory use of force which is the exact thing we need these soldiers to protect us from. The cause of freedom is not advanced by forcing others to accept it, but by granting men the right to make their own choices in their lives. It is advanced, however, when a society goes to war to defend its right to exist. This means that wars to “democratize” a nation such as Iraq, to act as “peace-keeper” in Somalia or Bosnia, or to provide “humanitarian aid” to a country like Darfur, are all fundamentally wrong. Do not forget that soldiers have a right to live, too, and you do not have the right to sacrifice them for any “noble” cause whatsoever.

This also means that Americans must understand how to fight a war, so as to protect their troops. War is won in only one way: the defeat of your opponent. As Patten once said, “No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.” There is not better statement for the correct method of warfare. The right of a soldier to live supersedes that of those who attacked his country. Any hindering of the American soldier from defeating his opponent – whether by poor planning from leaders such as General McClellan in the Civil War, whose incompetent actions cost ten of thousands of lives and prolonged the Civil War by failing to defeat a weaker Confederate Army, to rules of engagement which put American soldiers needlessly at risk by forcing them to wait to be attacked before they can defend themselves in such examples as Somalia or Iraq, to improperly equipping soldiers for battle, making them incapable of properly fighting – is wrong. Anytime a soldier dies needlessly on the battlefield it is akin to murder.

In fact, sacrificing American troops does not achieve the objective of peace – peace is only possible once the aggressor surrenders. By failing to defeat the enemy, he is left intact to continue fighting. Peace is not possible when a Hitler sends tank divisions into a city in order to force them to accept his rule. Appeasement and diplomacy will not work either as British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain learned. He believed if the West let Hitler conquer Poland, peace would be achieved and Hitler would stop military action. The consequence was the Battle of Britain; full scale bombing raids conducted over civilian targets by Nazi Germany. In order to stop a Hitler and his army, Germany must be stopped, since that society is what grants him his power. Furthermore, to waste the lives of troops makes a country less capable of protecting itself. Ruthlessly destroying the enemy is the only way to ensure a permanent peace. The same applies to the modern battlefield. Stopping terrorist cells will not end attacks on America; defeating the societies which give them money, weapons, and support, will.

So if it is your goal to honor American soldiers on Memorial Day, do so by not making “memories” out of the soldier we do have. Honor and respect their virtue and value, and argue to send them in harm’s way only in self-defense. End peace-keeping missions where their ability to defend themselves is impeded, end their obligation to police and help a society which actively engages in their destruction, dedicate the proper resources and planning to minimize their losses, and, most importantly, use them aggressively and without reserve to defeat any nation which threatens the rights of American citizens to exist. There is no greater service you can do for them than that.

A brief note about the "Junior League of Dallas" - it is composed solely of rich women, aged 22-55, who promote volunteerism and charity by raising money through the league. They hold a themed ball every year,  proceeds of course will go to some such charity for some such reason. Gabrielle is not a member; rather her employer helps organize the league.

So imagine my surprise when I step out onto a veranda directly overlooking downtown Dallas in the middle of a bright, sunlight late Spring afternoon and witness a sea of roughly 200 (I am not exaggerating) beautiful young women in the latest designer fashion drinking cocktails and smiling. It took me a few seconds to realize I was the only man at the entire event, besides the staff. Well! I took my customary position by the bar and immediately ordered a "blue martini," some concoction consisting of vodka, orange, and blueberry (I can only assume) liquor. Gabrielle drifted away for some social obligation somewhere and I was left free to admire the aesthetics of the whole scene.

After Gabrielle returned, we decided to leave the Junior League (which somehow over that short period of time she grew to detest), and instead decided to tour the 4th and 10th floor, which are for sale.

Citizens, I have never in my life seen a more beautiful space for a home! All of the exterior walls were windows cut evenly into rectangles by white painted metal, allowing you a breath-taking panorama of downtown Dallas on one-side and beautiful air-conditioning unit on the other, the fans spinning and chugging white fumes into the air. Each room was completely unique, suited to the life-style of the individual who would inhabit it. The "bachelor" pad, a single bedroom with a large area, had a marble topped bar, with a wide living room space that could easily accomodate a five piece band. A two bedroom was done in a wide, symmetrical T shape, with the bedrooms occupying the tips of the unit and a living space conjoining them. Another "economy" model, afforded a small space for someone who likes to enjoy their luxury in frugality and simplicity. And perhaps one of the most amazing features is each face of the building has four, wide, large, V shaped balconies which point out into space for perhaps a good twenty to thirty feet. At first, I believed these to be pointless "modern" ornmentations, but truly each and every balcony was functional! The two bed-room I mentioned earlier had a private balcony for both individuals.

Condos starting at $100k! Prime real-estate.

Gabrielle and I then ventured to the Doublewide, a detestable hole-in-the-wall that seems to pride itself on its junk collection, so that she could show her prowess at word games on the Megatouch(C) entertainment unit. Indeed, she won a free game every time she played. Her game was interrupted by a DHCP server error at one point in time (the computer had lost its wireless connection to the router) and we headed for that glorious strip of downtown Dallas known as Main, in which resides all those glass and steel luxury clubs that sport millionaires and beautiful women on parade. The car was valeted yet again, and we listened to her friend, one Camille, play the guitar and sing songs about acrobats and feral cats with her four piece band. The music was decent, some form of upbeat country (as to be distinguished from "folk" that half-music, half boring poetry that passes off as beautiful music) and held enough interesting variations to keep the listener's ear on the music. Fish and Chips were on the menu for myself, coupled with a nice Budweiser and a Royal Fuck to conclude the night with.

As if that was not enough, I learned today that I am not in jeopardy of losing my job! Since Monday, I have been absolutely paranoid at work. While waiting to ask my boss a question, I overheard him on the telephone talking to a man he was promising "50k" to, and a request to "please look at our website to learn more information about the company." As they hired me not a month ago, I was concerned, and visited the HR department to confirm whether or not some "surprise" was waiting for me. Nina, the beautiful Asian woman who single-handedly runs the whole department, gave me a concerned look when I asked about my performance and told me that "Scott and I will speak to you later this week about your performance." I spent the next four days going over every single thing I've done since I've arrived at E4D, the company I work for, searching for some sort of deficiency that merited termination. I found none. Well, Friday rolled around, and I waited patiently for the axe I assumed was going to descend upon my newly acquired income. Nina even came by the Customer Support department in the morning, but then left without meeting with me. For sure, this was going to be the end!

Fifteen minutes later, my boss informed that I was signed up for the new training class next week. Three hours later, when told him I had spoken to Nina and wanted to know if I was performing acceptably, he laughed and told me I was doing fine and not to worry.

I should have known correlation does not mean casuality!

And perhaps even funnier are recent headlines. which include such titles as: "Obama Says Debt Load 'Unsustainable' ; Warns of skyrocketing interest rates," "Gov't pressuring Bank of America board change,"CIA chief's secret mission to stop Israel bombing Iranian nuclear plant...," and, supposedly my mother has found a document proving that the Treasury and Fed are going to force banks to accept TARP money (details pending). One cannot help but laugh at this mess of rediculousness! Obama warns of debt - and then spends more than any other President in history. The government thinks the Bank of America board should be replaced with those with "more experience" - after forcing them to accept assets which were determinetal to their bank. And the United States, a target of Iran, is trying to persuade a nation not to defend itself - and expecting them to listen!

Top that off with my recent discovery of a AUTOGRAPHED PAGE FROM THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT OF ATLAS SHRUGGED ($50k), a response from The Undercurrent promising me feedback on my proposed articles, Yaron Brook, President of ARI, adding me on my facebook account, a computer repair job scheduled for later today for a sum of $50, an application for the beta test of Starcraft 2!

And lest I not forget the music! I have developed a "B" section to my chord progression in my original post, sliding naturally from the F-A#-D chord to D#-G#-C. From there it gets a little more complicated: from D#-G#-C go to A#-D-F, then to A#-D#-G, followed by C-G-A#, and finishing with C-G-C. It sounds rather nice to play the 1st chord, alternate between the 2rd and 3rd, play the 4th, and then alternate between the 4th and the 5th. And it transistions back into the original progression perfectly!

One last thing. I recorded the Dave Burris Trio featuring Matt Tollentino again and have decided to post the video. A quick note about the song; it was written by one of my favorite composers, Harry Roy, whose rendition of Canadian Capers is brilliant. While the song might be a bit rediculous, it's a good kind, and I think it fits this post nicely.

 

 May your happiness know no bounds, citizens!

-C




 

That should be enough of a wake-up call to warrant a pause and at least a moment's reflection. But no, the Treasury must act! Like with the TARP money, the auto-bailouts, and god knows what other schemes they've cooked up in the sewers of Washington, the Treasury is going to loan the Fed TARP money in order to bail it out. It is a bad sign when the Fed has to be bailed out. So while the Treasury depletes itself on investments that are liable to yield no return, the question arises: Where the hell is all this money going to come from?
 
That's a very good question, citizen! The are two possibilities: One, they print more. Two, they take it from you by force and pour it down the well of "economic relief." The first decreases the value of the dollar, forces a rising interest rate thereby depleting the capital of businesses and financial institutions. The second just makes you a poor sonuvabitch.

Well, to give you an idea of how much money the Treasury puts out, they conjured $750m out of thin air in 2007. So it's probably not going to be from the former. And as far as taxation is concerned, you, the reader, probably will not bear the brunt of this. You can expect the wealthy, betrayed by their brothers who endorse this insane economic practice, to be skinned to the tune of anywhere from 33% to 50% of their income. The Treasury is literally looting from the American citizen to shore up its Reserves, and then carelessly loaning it out to private and public entities alike. Want to stop them? You might as well build an atomic bomb in your backyard, citizen.

In other news, Ford is posting less loses than expected by reducing its overhead and thus will not require a government bailout. Now if Chrysler and GM would just collapse, Ford can take over the American market and perhaps even post a profit. Speaking of GM, they just closed their Pontiac division. Not that it allows their to escape from Union obligations. Unions extortion is not simply an America Trend: demonstrating the logical progression of their US brothers, the savages who make up France's Electric Utilities Union have begun smashing power plants and electric transmission facilities to make sure that governments are forced to accept their demands of a universal 10% raise. These mongrels almost killed two people in intensive care with their brazen use of force; someone should just arrest the organizer and guard the facilities with the military. Shoot on sight is a really easy order to follow.

The upcoming stress tests on US banks will - supposedly - be released on May 4th, along with the method of testing the Treasury is employing. Stress testing implies letting something function as it naturally would to see if it would break. How the Treasury manages to conduct this on a bank, short of doing nothing, is beyond me. Perchance they measured the amount the bank lost in a given period of time against its assets and revenue, then caluclated the amount of money needed to refinance the bank so as to cover its losses within a given (see also: arbritary) span of time? I am going to make a shocking prediction, citizens - most American Banks, including Bank of America, will be almost completely insolvent, meaning their liabilities and debts exceed their all of their assets.

The Treasury says they might need another projected $1t. That's the first time I've used the "t" before and I rather dislike it in this context.

-C



 

Let me just give you a quick review of recent events:

A few dictators in South America said that President Obama didn't do enough for them, while some smiled and handed him literature. GE is trying to convince the world that the economic crisis is "resetting the rules of capitalism," meaning that their inability to generate profit demands money seized by force. The debt on GM is mounting, and talks of bankruptcy are whispered in the offices of lawyers, and politicians. GM is not the only one feeling the looming spectre of bankruptcy - The New York Times is $1.3b in debt, with $43m in its bank account, on top of which is placed $625m in Union obligations. The Boston Globe also needs $20m to by May 1st to pay off similar Union extorsions, and is now operating at a loss of $1m a month.  Senator Kerry is doing his best to land the Boston Globe in his pocket by holding Senate hearings to bail them out of bankruptcy.  Somehow, Kerry believes, their failure grants them a right to your money. No shock here; the Republicans and Democrats both supported the TARP funds and the Automaker bailout.  I wonder what will be done about that? Senator Cardin of Maryland suggests letting the newspaper operate as non-profits. He thinks their failure should make them exempt from taxation - nevermind the property rights of all businesses to that.

-C

Citizens,

Well if there was any doubt that the Fed could close a bank, it happened just yesterday, with the Fed closing American Sterling at a loss of $42m to the FDIC. Realizing the power they have given away, banks are scrambling to repay their TARP funds. It would be a fitting irony if the government converted those loans into equity shares. After all, who can stop them?

This is precisley the reason why the Federal Government should stay out of the economy, despite whether or not they can "help" in a given situation. Sure, the government could give your company a loan, your company could succeed and pay off that loan with interest, but in this process the principle that the government should be invovled whatsoever is conceeded. Suddenly the only legitimate user of force, the government, is an actor within the economy. The danger of this should be self-evident.

President Obama could learn a lesson or two on this subject from his new friend, Hugo Chavez. Chavez, the dictator of Venezuela, has been murdering, stealing, and destroying lives and property for several decades, climbing over a heap of corpses on his way to the complete control of his country. I'm glad to learn that Obama thinks this is a man we should cooperate with. Their apparent chuminess, in my opinion, comes from one single fact: both have explicitly condemned capitalism. Endorsing Obama allows Chavez to be consistent - Obama does not claim to be a Capitalist, but a progressive, a changer, a whole lot of pleasant sounding nouns - and gain credibility and perhaps a "favor" from the President. Obama gains credit in South America and will use it - for what purposes I can only guess. Ultimately, they are just playing each other for prestige and power, and you can see it in the smug little smile they give each other when shaking hands.

Well citizens, enough bad news! I have music for you, courtesy of Dave Burris and Matt Tollentino. They performed, amongst other hits, "Minor Swing" with Mr. Tollentino on the clarinet. Forgive the movement in the beginning; I spilled my beer on myself hitting the record button.
 

That's it for the weekend, citizens. May these next seven days be even better than the last!

-C


 

For those of you citizens who suffer from rising sea levels and unbearable temperatures, the EPA is taking the first steps to relieve your climate related plight. The EPA stated today that greenhouse gases linked to climate change "endanger public health and welfare," thus gaining regulatory power over all sources of these gases, made possible by the Federal Clean Air Act and bolstered by a Supreme Court decision two years ago stating that the EPA did indeed have regulatory power should greenhouse gases be considered to a public health risk. Rest assured, the EPA will do everything possible to limit and stop production in every sector of the Economy, and thus save you from a problem that has no scientific proof of its existence. Whether by bans, government enforced standards, or a "cap and trade" system where producers must purchase their right to produce from those who are not, it seems that the United States has accepted the doctorine of climate change and is ready to act on it. Ironically, these same men claim they will create jobs and reduce the prices of goods and services - while preventing them from coming into existence.

Banks are also finding themselves in a strange regulatory situation. Several banks wishing to return the TARP money provided to them by the Treasury are discovering that the US Treasury is literally refusing to respond to them, forcing them to keep the money. One such case is the Minnesota bank TCF Financial, who have for thirty days attempted to contact the Treasury as to the means to return their TARP loan. The Treasury has refused to answer, declining to comment to both the Bank and the press. TCF spokesman Jason Korstange said this about TCF's acceptance of the loan.

“They came to all the banks,” said Korstange. “They did come to us and suggested that it would be a good idea, that if you didn’t take it you would be looked on as a bank that couldn’t get it, that you were too bad to get it.
 
“It made sense to do it at that time. We thought we were being good citizens. We didn’t need the money,” Korstange added.

In fact, the US Treasury has decided to add a post-loan amendment to all US Banks who took TARP money that is leaving some banks cursing themselves for being such moral cowards. The US Treasury has stipulated that Federal Regulatory Agents, dispatched to any Bank who received TARP funds, will have the power to determine whether or not the Bank is "fit to survive," or if they must accept additional loans from the Treasury with any provisions it chooses to impose.

For US Banks, I would like to call attention to an old story. A man who desires something makes a strange deal with a fellow named Mephistopholes, and winds up being dragged down into a rather nasty place to fufill his end of the bargain. I'm certain the deal seemed attractive at the time, perhaps even necessary, but when legions of damned souls are tearing at your robes, you may just regret your contract. While government regulation and manipulation through such institutions as the Fed may be the direct cause in many cases, it was not regulation, but fear and stupidity that has TCF and their brothers-in-debt dangling over the abyss of nationalization.

Feeling worried over up and coming economic issues, citizens? I have a perscription for you. Simply listen to my "Exciting Music" station on www.pandora.com at http://www.pandora.com/?sc=sh87246333670530012 and enjoy it. Nothing soothes the soul like good music. 

-C