I thought this might be beneficial to some on this list, esp. given the way the stockmarket is heading. It is from the redoubtable www.skolnicksreport.com
http://www.skolnicksreport.com/straps1.html "THE SUCKER TRAPS, Part One" by Sherman H. Skolnick 12/29/01 Some people are just busy with their personal lives. So all they know about the world is what they ingest from the oil-soaked, spy-riddled monopoly press. If it is not mentioned there, well, it did not happen. And common Americans, occupied with their personal circles, often do not make time to sit and listen to their elders. Some rather ship their elders into expensive warehouses called nursing homes. [The nursing home rackets are a story for another time.] So the wisdom to be learned from past generations and their mistakes falls into the black hole of the unknown. Here is a list of what ordinary people should have learned but often have not. Such as the blunders of the 1920s and 1930s SUCKER TRAP NUMBER ONE "Business cycles have been abolished". Oh yeah? By whom and when and how? "Prosperity is just around the corner". Slogans like that were mouthed off by President Herbert Hoover. Not surprisingly nowadays, some mistake that name for the infamous FBI Dictator. A possibility that we are NOT facing a "great prosperity" returned, is sent off to be studied by a "Presidential Commission". Their report, if any, if ever, is filed in Never-Never land. SUCKER TRAP NUMBER TWO Invest in the "Great American Dream". Yes, if you are young, and somehow survived a world war just ended, and was not shot or bombed to pieces, you can rightfully buy stock in American big business and expect a period of prosperity. Many born into the tail-end of business cycles, however, refuse to realize their position in time and place. Endlessly mouthing off "now is my time" may avail you nothing. Do not expect the newsfakers to set you wise. Well-oiled press whores are not about to risk their jobs to bring you harsh reality. They write and speak on-air what they understand the presslords want said. Contradictions are not specified clearly. The ultra-rich want to even further enrich themselves by having as many Americans as possible paid only minimum wage or just above that. "We have to be productive and competitive". At the same time, they are flooding the nation with non-citizens who do not protest being paid, under the table, LESS than minimum wages. What we call "the liars and whores of the press" have advertisers urging us to buy fifteen and twenty thousand dollar cars. What? To be paid with cheap wages? Some grow up never having read Ferdinand Lundberg's great work, "The Rich and the Super-Rich" (Lyle Stuart publishers, 1968, still more or less available hardcover and paperback). Lundberg points out the ultra rich are often just plain stupid. Certainly with a lot less sense than the average working person. The very rich are forever beating down the common people who sooner or later, as Lundberg shows, rise up and smash their tormentors. One reason there was no revolution in the Great Depression of the 1930s, was the great number of newly arrived immigrants. They were quite satisfied to be in America, even to sleep under bridges when it rains. Better than elsewhere. Will common Americans, moreso born here not elsewhere, now act also somewhat subdued in the face of adversity? Of course, there were labor riots in the 1930s, beaten down by goons from General Motors and hired thugs of Ford Motor Company. [The unemployment and food riots in Argentina, December, 2001. Can THAT also happen here?] SUCKER TRAP NUMBER THREE "Interest rates are reasonable. So now is the time to suck the equity out of your house". That is, pile up on yourself more mortgages? The so-called mortgage peddlers have multiplied like a swarm of locusts, to eat out our substance. Basically, they are urging ordinary Americans to wreck themselves. With a recession belatedly officially proclaimed and an apparent new Great Depression again looming, it is a time not to pull a wagon of rocks. Too many ordinary Americans find their wagons so heavy, it requires two horses, both husband and wife working. And everyone over the age of ten should be working not schooling? Hey, have we all forgotten the terrible struggles of bygone years to stop mis-using Child Labor? Have corrupt public officials stopped enforcing Child Labor Laws put on the statute books after great turmoil and bloodshed? If you do not comprehend what is here being said, well, spend time at a unit of McDonald's Hamburgers. The Child Labor rushes around polishing doorknobs and such. And, often they work after closing hours, not paid for that, while cleaning up the fake milk-shake equipment. McDonald's seems to encourage their Child Labor to be illiterate. Cash registers have pictures, not numbers. In plain talk, it should be a time of no mortgages, no credit cards, no vast installment payments. And Child Labor should be wide-awake in school being educated, not sleepy-eyed, with no time for homework, not used at cheap wages to enrich fast food giants. Late night COMMERCIAL television is laughable. There is an ad basically telling you that even deadbeats will be given credit to a buy a car. A moment later, your local bankruptcy lawyer (or liar?) is announcing he is available to save you. Oh yeah? As we have pointed out on our website and on our NON-COMMERCIAL television programs (public access Cable TV), the bankruptcy courts too often are a giant fraud, seizing for the vultures of the local "Bankruptcy Club" what is left of the property and assets of the sick and the unemployed. Do the monopoly press ever tell you HOW to protect your hind-quarter? SUCKER TRAP NUMBER FOUR "I do not have to worry about my stockbroker. After all, they are insured by the Government". Really? If your broker goes under in a crash or scandal, your account in the meantime is frozen. Your "great long-term investment" may melt to almost nothing while you are powerless and forbidden to do anything about it. And, are there adequate reserve funds in the supposed "government" set up insurance fund? Really? Not everyone thinks so. If you really understand finance, ask your broker a forbidden question "What if the Clearing House itself goes down?" The reply may be, "Stop asking. That cannot happen". Well, in 1984, when Continental Bank of Chicago collapsed, a Clearing House came within a hair of going down as well. [I had the distinction of accurately predicting the downfall of Continental Bank, a major owner of which was the highly corrupt Chief Judge of the Federal Appeals Court in Chicago, 7th Circuit. I was a few months ahead of my time, and some in key places enjoyed a brief period of calling me a "liar". Later did they eat their words?] Also, the regulations of insurance for failing and failed brokers are riddled with traps and loop-holes. Such as, your stock was bought through ANOTHER firm which is actually holding the shares. Hence, YOUR broker is not responsible. More sucker traps identified. Stay tuned. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- Since 1958, Mr.Skolnick has been a court reformer. Since 1963, founder/chairman, Citizen's Committee to Clean Up the Courts, disclosing certain instances of judicial and other bribery and political murders. Since 1991 a regular panelist, and since 1995, moderator/producer, of one-hour,weekly public access Cable TV Show, "Broadsides", Cablecast on Channel 21, 9 p.m. each Monday in Chicago. For a heavy packet of printed stories, send $5.00 [U.S. funds] and a stamped, self-addressed business sized envelope [4-1/4 x 9-1/2 #10 size] WITH THREE STAMPS ON IT, to Citizen's Committee to Clean Up the Courts, Sherman H. Skolnick, Chairman, 9800 South Oglesby Ave., Chicago IL 60617-4870. Office, 7 days, 8 a.m. to midnight, (773) 375-5741 [PLEASE, no "just routine calls]. Before sending FAX, call. --- Send the right message --- + Today freemail + Get your free, private email address at http://www.today.com.au --- You are currently subscribed to e-gold-list as: archive@jab.org To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Use e-gold's Secure Randomized Keyboard (SRK) when accessing your e-gold account(s) via the web and shopping cart interfaces to help thwart keystroke loggers and common viruses.
