One Wing Bird

As the Federal budget director — and as an American and a certified public accountant—I must pass on to you a solemn warning.

Unless we as a government insist right now upon living within our income, we face certain hard inevitabilities. Either there will be more tax increases, piled on top of our already heavy tax load; or there will be a mounting national debt and growing inflation with disastrous rises in the cost of living and a dangerous weakening of our national strength.

Either way the prospect is menacing. Few of us want to pay more taxes. And all of us have been victimized by past cycles of inflation, the economic fever that jacks up the prices of everything we buy, that mercilessly drains our earnings and savings. Yet inflation is a man-made sickness, one we can combat—if every citizen recognizes the causes and does something about them.

Inflation feeds on the delusion that the federal Treasury is a free-flowing well, that money from Washington doesn’t cost anyone a cent. It is this something-for-nothing delusion that allows special-interest groups to smooth-talk the public into believing that all their federal spending proposals are possible. This is why gigantic spending bills are passed without tax measures to pay for them. This is why astronomic national spending goes on regardless of the revenue that comes in and despite the efforts of economy-minded members of both parties in Congress. And this is why these pressure groups are trying to push us headlong into ever greater debt, heedless of the nightmare of inflation that would result.

The President, his Cabinet, all the rest of us in the Executive Branch feel it is essential that America wake up and face these grim facts. Behind this conviction is a significant . series of events you should think about.

Despite our warnings a year ago against too much panicky recession spending, and in the face of dwindling tax receipts, federal spending surpassed all expectations. Last September, when staff experts at the Bureau of the Budget came to me with sheaves of figures for the 1959 fiscal year, our worst fears were confirmed. The government was piling up the biggest one-year budget deficit in peacetime history—a staggering 13 billion dollars! And, with a nearly three-billion-dollar deficit from the year before, the Treasury for the two years was in the hole by almost 16 billion dollars, or an additional new debt of $360 for every family across the land. The total national debt had risen to an all-time high of 285 billion dollars, or some $6400 for every family.

To add to our worries high government officials returning from trips abroad met us with disturbing news. They told us that other nations were beginning to question America’s financial stability, and its will to face up to dangerous fiscal practices that in the past had almost destroyed them.

Next, signs began to emerge of an inflationary psychology, influenced by the government’s deficit spending. The public, perhaps uneasy about the dollar, was tending to speculate rather than save, an attitude that could lead to boom and bust. This was serious. As Secretary of the Treasury Robert Anderson said, “If we ever reach the point where people believe that to speculate is safe but to save is to gamble, then we are indeed in trouble.”

These were some of the compelling reasons why the President and his advisers concluded that it was more imperative this year than ever before to get the government out of the red. With the country obviously getting back on its feet and entering a prosperous period, here was a chance to shake off our deficit habit. If we couldn’t do it now, when could we ever?

By balancing the budget there is still time to counter intolerable inflation—the force that has made hot dogs today more expensive than round steak in 1945, that has doubled the cost of bread and pushed the price of hamburger up 90 percent. For these are the back-door ways that inflation steals part of your earnings, your pension, your insurance, your life savings.

Take the citizen who put $100 in a savings account at three-percent interest in 1939, setting it aside for old age. Today that $100 investment is worth $175, rewarding him with $75 in compounded interest. But how good is that money now when he needs it to buy groceries? In 1939 his $100 bought 1266 loaves of bread, but today the $175 purchases only 909 loaves—a loss of 357 loaves for his prudence. That is not all. The $175 buys 127 fewer quarts of milk, 128 pounds less leg of lamb, 215 pounds less coffee than did $100 in1939-Moreover, if future inflation were to occur at the rate which prevailed in the seven years following World War II, the mattress you now pay $50 for will cost you $85 by 1966. A $4 man’s shirt will be $6.40. The children’s shoes you now lay out $6.50 for will cost $11.27.

Despite the plain evidence of what government deficit spending and inflation have already done to our dollar, bills have been introduced in Congress this session that would burden the national debt by another jo billion dollars a year.

Federal expenditures have multiplied 25-fold in the last 30 years, and half of that is due to inflation. Today the combined governmental tax in this country —federal, state and local — claims more than 30 percent of our national income. How much more taxation can the people take? We must curb spending now.

We can’t excuse ourselves on the ground that we don’t know where spending cuts can be made. Vast sums can be saved in such areas as farm price supports;* urban-renewal and slum-clearance projects, in which cities ought to carry at least half the load; benefits to veterans who have means of support and no service-connected disability; rural electrification (95 percent of our farms now have electricity); and public assistance, an emergency measure inherited from the ‘30*5, for which the federal government has needlessly increased its contribution so that now it far exceeds the state and local share.

The budget which the President gave Congress this year lists 18 ways to save your tax dollars. If they are adopted we can even look forward to cutting taxes, instead of increasing them. And if we are willing to do it we can certainly begin to cut our enormous debt and put the budget in order.

Yet too often when a penny is taken away from entrenched federal spending programs, letters and telegrams deluge Congressmen. The voices of those who speak out against spending are lost in the tumult that the pressure groups drum up. That is why you heard wails of protest when the President presented his balanced budget. Special interests claim it cripples essential activities and threatens the economy. However, these are the facts:

The President’s 77-billion-dollar budget for the fiscal year 1960, which begins July i, 1959, provides more money for the nation’s military se¬curity than in any other peacetime year in our history. The Joint Chiefs of Staff, the National Security Council, the Secretary of Defense and the President gave exhaustive attention to our military needs. As a result 59 cents of every dollar in the budget goes toward national security. This budget also provides more money for water resources, scientific research, education, health and welfare than ever before. After all, 77 billion dollars is not petty cash.

If, on the other hand, you wonder why our budget is so large, don’t forget that it contains gigantic sums totally beyond budgetary control: for example, more than eight billion dollars in interest on the 285-billion-dollar national debt. Also, the budget is loaded down with heavy spending required by laws passed in previous years. Because of these inescapable commitments expenditures cannot help but go up by two or three billion dollars in 1961 even if the President’s 1960 balanced budget is approved. And if Congress goes over the 77-billion-dollar spending mark we will be on the way toward a go-billion-dollar budget in a few years and a still greater national debt.

We, all of us, have the power to halt this ruinous race toward calamity.

If you are a businessman who believes government spending must be cut to keep our enterprise system free, then you can make sure that you do not support industry groups driving for government subsidies, direct or indirect.

If you are a union member who wants to keep your living standards high, you can fight against labor leaders who urge huge government programs that rob your wages by forcing higher taxes or deficit spending and inflation.

If you are a farmer, veteran or school teacher, or belong to any group that is asking for government money or special treatment, stop and ask yourself whether the nation’s interests shouldn’t come first.

If you are just a citizen who doesn’t want economic calamity for yourself and your children, then insist on prudent government. To block the self-serving special interests that are ceaselessly driving us toward bankruptcy, I urge you to mobilize yourselves. Make yourself heard. Now. It is your own future that is at stake.

Don’t Let Freedom Slip Away! February 13, 2009

Warnings and thoughts from 50 years ago pertaining to today’s world of finance, government and taxes

There is grave danger that we may be losing our most precious heritage—without realizing it

WE HAVE SEEN in the past quarter century a tremendous shift from individual to governmental responsibility in many phases of economic and social life. We have seen a rapid shift of responsibility from the states to the federal government.

The magnitude of these changes is revealed by a few simple figures. Twenty-five years ago the federal government received one fourth of all the taxes collected in the United States. Today the federal government collects not one fourth but three fourths of all our taxes. Twenty-five years ago all taxes, federal, state and local, took 21 percent of our national income. Today taxes take 31 percent.

I recognize that there have been reasons for doing more things through government, and for doing them from Washington. Fighting first a prolonged depression and then a war unavoidably shifted responsibility to the federal government. Yet, deep in their hearts, the American people instinctively know that great concentration of power is an evil and a dangerous thing.

What lies behind this conviction? Basically, it is an intuitive knowledge that, sooner or later, the accumulation of power in a central government leads to a loss of freedom. Once power is concentrated, even for helpful purposes, it is all there, in one package, where it can be grabbed by those who may not be helpful in its use.

If power is diffused, this cannot happen. This is why the founders of our country carefully divided power. Our traditional federal-state relationship, we must never forget, starts with a general presumption in favor of state and individual rights. Under the Constitution, powers not granted to the federal government are reserved to the states or the people.

Many forces work toward the concentration of power at the federal level. It somehow seems easier to impose so-called “progress” on localities than to wait for them to bring it about themselves. Raids on the fed¬eral Treasury can be all too readily accomplished by an organized few over the feeble protests of an apathetic majority. With more and more activity centered in the federal government, the relationship between the costs and the benefits of government programs becomes obscure. What follows is the voting of public money without having to accept direct local responsibility for higher taxes.

If this trend continues, the states may be left hollow shells, operating primarily as the field districts of federal departments and dependent upon the federal Treasury for their support.

It has been truly said by our present Chief Executive that, “The federal government did not create the states of this republic. The states created the federal government. . . . If the states lose their meaning our entire system of government loses its meaning, and the next step is the rise of the centralized national state in which the seeds of autocracy can take root and grow.”

Those are strong but true words. There is hardly a single instance in all of history where the dictatorial centralization of power has been compatible with individual freedoms—where it has not reduced the citizenry to the status of pawns and mere creatures of the state. God forbid that this should happen in the United States. Yet I am persuaded that the continuation of the trend of the past 25 years could make us pallbearers at the burial of the states as effective units of government.

Inevitably, in centralized federal programs, the money is not as wisely spent as if the states participated financially.

The people come to look to the federal government as the provider, at no cost to them, of whatever is needful. Such a planned and subsidized economy weakens initiative, discourages industry, destroys character and demoralizes the people.

The truth is that the federal government has no funds which it does not first, in some manner, take from the people. A dollar cannot make the round trip to Washington and back without shrinking in the process. As taxpayers we need to recognize these facts.

The thought that the federal government is wealthy and the states poverty-stricken is a dangerous illusion. The federal debt is now five times as great as the combined state and local debts. It is difficult for the states to make a strong case for assistance from the federal government when anything the federal government spends must come from the states.

Our phenomenal material advances have been the fruit of our freedom, our free-enterprise system, our American way of life, our God-given freedom of choice. Yet these basic American beliefs, principles and attitudes are threatened today as never before.

If we lose these freedoms, it will be because we did not care enough — because we were not alert enough — because we were too apathetic to take note while the precious waters of our God-given freedom slipped, drop by drop, down the drain. George Washington said, “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence — it is force! Like fire, it is a troublesome servant and a fearful master!”

With all my heart I love this nation. I have lived and traveled abroad just enough to make me appreciate rather fully what we have here. To me, this is not just another nation. This is not just one of a family of nations. This is a nation with a great mission for the benefit of liberty-loving people everywhere. It is my firm conviction that the Constitution of this land was established by men whom the God of heaven raised up unto this very purpose.

The days ahead are sobering and challenging and will demand the faith, prayers and loyalty of every American. Our challenge is to keep America strong and free—strong socially, strong economically and, above all, strong spiritually. There is no other way. Only in this course is there safety for our nation.

God grant we may resolutely follow this course in humility and faith, I humbly pray.

Six Seconds for Exercise February 12, 2009

Find it hard to keep in shape? Here how, without gadgets or expense, and with a minimum investment of time, you can keep your muscles tout, your figure trim.

By Keith Monroe – Reader’s Digest – July 1959

To many of us, exercise is a bore or chore, Yet it needn’t be. Without workouts at a gym or a “daily dozen” every morning, we can still et all the exercise we need and keep ourselves in to trim by using odd moments during the day – those few seconds spent waiting for a traffic light, telephoning, standing in line.

This secret of health has long been known by some of the busiest people in America. The peppy Charles F. Kettering of General Motors, who worked at full speed until his death at 82, never took any formal exercise; instead, he just didn’t wait for elevators. Whenever he had to visit upper-story offices or laboratories he walked up at least two floors and down three. Theodore Roosevelt built his scrawny neck to a solid muscular one by kneading it in spare moments. For years Darryl F. Zanuck, the movie mogul, swung a polo mallet in his office while dictating our phoning. This was not Hollywood eccentricity, but a method of strengthening the wrist and forearm. More and more doctors and trainers are advocating these simple practices.

“What kind of exercise is more important than how much,” says Dr. Arthur H. Steinhaus, dean and professor of physiology at George Williams College, “In a German laboratory where I worked, it was discovered that a muscle can grow at only a certain rate – and a very small amount of the right exercise will start it growing at that rate. If you contract any one of your muscles to about two thirds of its maximum power and hold that for six seconds once a day, the muscle will grow just as fast as it can grow.

“Every day there are bound to be intervals when you have six seconds to relax. They can make a tremendous difference. Pull in your stomach. Pull up your chin. Wriggle, Yawn, Stretch. Do these exercises on company time! Do them while going from one place to another. Weave them into the day’s routine.”

Gene Tunney says, “Take regular exercise – not violent week ends of golf, or sporadic bursts of squash, but a daily drill that becomes as much a part of your life as brushing your teeth.”

Many show-business stars make idle seconds count to help their health and appearance. High O’Brian, the TV Western hero, has an unobtrusive habit of pressing the clenched fist of one hand forcibly into the open palm of the other, at waist level, whenever he stands talking with someone. It keeps his forearms and biceps powerful. Jane Powell, Frankie Laine and other singers have an exercise for the moments when, sitting in their cars, they wait for traffic lights to change. Borrowing an idea from Indian yoga, they slowly pull in the stomach, sucking the diaphragm up and up until the whole abdomen is flat from groin to chest – then little by little release it. When you first try this, is can make you lightheaded if you tighten too hard, Miss Powell warns. “Begin gently, But keep at it, It’s the simplest trick I know for building good posture and a flat tummy.”

For muscle tone, Dr. Steinhaus advocates a few seconds of planned exercise while toweling yourself after a bath. “Loop the towel behind your neck,” he suggests, “Then pull your chin in, pull forward on both ends of the towel and resist the towel with your neck, as hard as you can, for just six seconds. Do it only once. Now slide he towel down to the small of your back. While pulling forward on the towel, resist by contracting the muscles in your buttock and your belly. Push back hard against the towel and count six. Now that’s done, Loop the towel under your toes and pull up with both hands while your toes push down. Hold it for six seconds, then let go. Once on each foot and you’re done for the day.”

U.S. Navy submariners, cramped into small space, have learned to keep fit without moving more than a few inches. Lying flat on their bunks, they put hands under head, lift the head while resisting with the neck, and keep lifting until this touches chest. Then they let the head down slowly. Or, in rising to sitting position, they arrest the motion part-way up, hold it a few seconds and sink back again. These brief drills are good for anyone.

You may want to tray a few moments of similar exercise yourself. At night in bed, stretch all over slowly and luxuriously, like a cat. Then, start at your toes and work up to eyelids and scalp, tensing each muscle for a moment, then relaxing it. You’ll probably be almost asleep when you finish.

In the morning, a simple breathing exercise can help rouse you and clear out cobwebs. As you lie half awake take the deepest breath you can; fill your lungs with air. Then close your mouth, pinch your nose and lie still. Time it, and you’ll be amazed to find that you can hold your breath without discomfort for twice as long as usual. And when you finally let your breath out you’ll be wide-awake.

Now you can limber up before getting out of bed. Like on your back, stretch your arms overhead till you feel the pull all the way down to your waist. Hold them there a moment; then drop them limply. Next kick the covers off and raise your legs. Then lower them – - but don’t let your heels quite touch the bed. Repeat this several times. At first you’ll feel as strain on your stomach muscles, but after a few days your midsection will begin to firm up.

While dressing, stand on one foot as you put on your shoe and tie the shoelaces. You may have to start by putting your foot in the shoe on the floor, and leaning against a wall while tying the laces. However you do it, daily repetitions will tighten your stomach and give you stronger, suppler legs and feet.

When you think about it, you’ll be surprised to notice how many brief periods of idleness there are in your day: riding to work, waiting at a counter for a clerk’s attention, sitting at your desk or standing by your workbench between chores. Put some life into those intervals! Use them for a “seventh-inning stretch.”

If you want to firm a flabby chin, your can. Push your chin out, pull it back, drop it, tilt it. Then give yourself a five-second massage under the jaw. To tone the muscles around your midriff, draw your abdomen up and in whenever you think of it, whether sitting or standing. At the phone, instead of doodling, use your free hand to knead your belly or give it a gentle pummeling, Dave Garroway hold an umbrella or golf club out in front of him with the heavy end away, flipping it up and down. You’d be surprised how this tightens the torso muscles.

Perhaps you bulge and wobble at the seat. Every notice that truck drivers nearly always have firm hindquarters? So do cowboys. That’s because they constantly bounce up and down. Try it yourself. Pick out a hard chair in home or office. Bounce on it a few times whenever you’re alone. Vary the routine by extending your legs and shifting your weight from side to side.

For spine-straightening, stand with your back to a wall and try to push firmly up against it so you’re touching from head to heels – buttocks, shoulder blades, if possible every vertebra. You’ll feel a strong pull along your backbone and neck. This stretching is recommended by physical culturists to improve posture, get rid of aches in back or neck and make your feel alive all over.

The “heel stretch” is a favorite of health experts for use while sitting at a desk or table. You needn’t get out of your chair to do it. Just lift your feet and push the heels forward as if trying to push a wall away. Bring your toes up – so you feel the muscles in back of your knee pulling like a rope – count six, and slowly relax.

Dr. Jay A. Bender, director of the physical-fitness program of Peoria, Ill., says, “All you need do is use your muscles correctly as you go through a routine day at home or office.” If you pick up something from the floor, for example, don’t spraddle your legs and bend. Put one foot forward and kneel erectly. Or, when it’s a light object, keep your knees stiff and reach straight down. For variety, squat and rise like a jack-in-the-box; it tightens flabby legs.

When you must wait in line, teeter on your toes a few times to uncramp foot and leg muscles. Put your hands in your pockets and clench and unclench the fingers to get the blood speeded up. Take a whopper of a breath and see how far you can expand your belt. Deep-breathing exercises should be employed every day. When you go up stairs, climb slowly with head and chest high and stomach muscles tight. If you can, walk up two steps at a time, or even three.

Basically, there are nine essential exercises which authorities advise you to take every day, in does of a few seconds at a time:

1. Stretch – while sitting, lying or standing.
2. Straighten your spine – while standing with your back against something straight.
3. Roll your neck – up, down and around.
4. Suck in your stomach – while sitting or bending over.
5. Expand your chest.
6. Flex your arms – by pushing pulling and reaching.
7. Bend your legs – by squatting, climbing and walking.
8. Limber your toes and feet.
9. Firm your muscles – by bouncing, pinching, kneading, pummeling.

A little of each of these every day, and you’ll be slimmer, stranger and peppier. Try then and see!

BEWARE OF “Debt-Adjustment” Racketeers November 29, 2008

To go with the post before this one – another Reader’s Digest article dated October 1955!. I know you’ve seen the commercials . . .

Owe more than you can pay? You can get help from ethical agencies . . .

“Get out of debt!” “Restore your credit without a loan!” “We can help you even if you’ve been turned down by everyone else!”

In the past two years these and similar slogans have lured thousands of debt-ridden families into a scheme for paying off all their financial obligations gradually through one agency. Debt-adjustment is the formal name; often it’s called “prorating,” “debt-lumping” or “debt-pooling.” By any name it’s often an incredibly vicious racket. The operator takes a substantial fee and usually the victims are left more hopelessly in debt than ever.

“These operations are well on their way to becoming a national problem,” warns Allen E. Backman, executive vice-president of the National Association of Better Business Bureaus.

Nearly 350 firms are no in the debt-pooling business, and new ones appear every month. Some conduct their businesses honestly, but the majority are out to get all they can as quickly as possible.

It’s an easy business to get into. Only in Minnesota, Colorado, Wisconsin, Maine and Pennsylvania are there any adequate legal restrictions; in the other 43 states anyone can set up as a debt lumper without a license. He merely contracts to have clients pay him a certain sum every payday so he can pay off their creditors piecemeal. All he needs is a line of smooth talk.

The people who turn to the debt adjusters are truly desperate. Generally they owe about $1500 to small loan companies, auto-finance firms, installment houses. An end of over-time work or a costly illness suddenly makes their burden of debt unbearable.

The debt-adjuster is slickly reassuring when you come to his office. He will shield you from your creditors. They won’t dare bother you any more once you sign up with him. How much can you spare every week to pay off your debt? Twenty dollars? Fine, He will apportion a little to each of your creditors and in 18 months or two years you’ll be out of debt.

How much for his services? Just some bookkeeping charges, a few pennies a day. Even those who read his small-print contract carefully seldom understand that they are committing themselves to pay up to 25 percent of the amount of their debts for the service; that in order to pay off $1000, for example, they are taking on an additional debt of $250.

Consider the case of a Philadelphia postal employee. He owed $2500. A debt-adjustment firm offered to relieve him of all debt worries for $500, so he arranged to pay them $100 every two weeks until the total, $3000, was paid off. Ten weeks later, after he had paid in $500, the auto finance company took his car away: no payments had been made on it. Angry, he tried to withdraw from the clutches of the debt-adjuster. He could get out, they said, but it would still cost him $500.

He now found that a jeweler to whom the debt-lumper was supposed to be paying $24 a month on his behalf hadn’t been getting a cent. The firm made excuses, and started paying $10 a month. But when a third creditor informed him that its payments weren’t begin met, he sensibly went to the Legal Aid Society of Philadelphia – and discovered that 70 others were complaining against the same company. In view of the contracts they had signed, nothing could be done to help them. “It cost me $500 to find out I could handle my debts better than the debt-lumpers could,” the victim commented grimly.

In Columbus, Ohio, the Better Business Bureau checked 28 complaints against one debt-lumping firm and found that although these clients had paid in $3804 the company had paid out only $1224 to their creditors. And nothing could be done about it because of the contracts these clients signed.

By one means or another the prorater makes sure he gets his commission first. Once he does it isn’t surprising that he’s no longer interested in whether the client maintains his payments – in fact, if the debtor drops out it relieves the firm of further paper work.

Can’t the law do something about the racket? It isn’t easy, as Robert D. Abrahams, chief counsel of the Legal Aid Society in Philadelphia, discovered when he saw how ironclad the debt-lumper’s contract is. However, he decided to try to help the 115 persons who had complained about their unhappy relations with two debt-adjustment firms.

After careful planning Abrahams attacked on three points. First he had a warrant issued against one of them on a charge of violating the State’s Collection Agency Act. Then he got the Bar Association to conduct an investigation to see if these firms, by making distinctions between certain classes of creditors, were practicing law without a license. And finally, he got the Philadelphia Credit Bureau to publicize it’s free debt-consultation service.

One of the firms was convicted on trial and has appealed. Both closed their Philadelphia offices. But Philadelphia is an exception. It is one of the few major cities where no debt-lumpers are operating today.

In Boston, District Attorney Garrett H. Byrne faced a similar situation. Hundreds of complaints about six debt-adjustment firms were piling up, but there was nothing in the statue books to cover their operations. Finally, Byrne got one of the more flagrant operators indicted for larceny and “general scheme to defraud.” This indictment, and the consequent refusal of Boston newspapers to take the ads of the unsavory debt-lumpers, quickly drove most of them out of business.

Today four debt-pooling firms in Boston belong to an Advisory Budget Council which has drawn up its own code of ethics. Two of the key rules are; no firm may charge more than six percent of the client’s total indebtedness; the fee is to be prorated over the period in which the debts are being paid off. Such voluntary action, plus unfavorable newspaper publicity on debt-pooling enterprises, has decreased debt-pooling complaints in Boston.

There are several little-known agencies that will help a hard-pressed wage earner liquidate his debts over a long period at no cost or at low cost. For example, many city wide credit bureaus offer such services free or at charges that seldom exceed ten percent. Typical and perhaps best known is the one run by the Spokane Retail Credit Association since 1918. Its Pool Accounts Department has handled more than 5000 accounts successfully and the charges are only $5 plus six percent a year. In some cities the Legal Aid office, working with the family welfare agencies, will render a similar service, usually without charge.

In Ohio, debt-plagued families can turn to the municipal court for free debt-adjustment. Last year in Cleveland alone more than 700 debtors were paying off their obligations under court protection and direction. Your local Legal Aid can tell you whether your state has a similar provisions.

Even at best, none of these methods is an easy way out of debt. And most business leaders agree that, for certain people, credit is too easy to obtain. These people can no more resist excess credit than a drunkard can resist another drink.

“Credit drunkenness is not something you find only among the poor,” says V.N. Thoen of Minneapolis, who runs the oldest private debt-pooling agency in the country. “We’ve had hundreds of well-to-do clients, and people you’d think would know better.

Thoen has drawn up four key points for the “Solvency Code” he gives to every client:

1. Rigidly control impulse buying.
2. Shop carefully for the best buy.
3. Don’t sign any installment contract blindly.
4. Keep a margin of safety. Anyone who mortgages his income 100 percent is headed for trouble. Remember, you can jump into debt but you have to crawl out.

“If people only kept those points in mind,” Thoen says, “every debt-pooler in the country would be out of business in a month.”

What “Tight Money” Really Means November 28, 2008

Finding it hard to borrow money these days? Here are the reasons why. . .

It is becoming harder and harder to borrow money these days – for businessmen, farmers, home builders, private individuals, even for governments. Money, in other words, is “tight.” Lenders have less of it to provide, and for what they do have, they are charging higher interest rates than at any time since the early 1930’s.

Nearly everybody is affected by “tight money.” Your next car may be harder to buy because money is tight. Instead of 36 months to pay, you are likely to be held to 30 months, maybe to 24 months. Where a monthly payment was around $75, it may now become $100.

If you are thinking of buying a home, you may have some trouble arranging a mortgage. The lender is likely to ask for a larger down payment than he would have required last year, and to insist on a shorter term for repayment. He will want 5 1/2 or even 6 percent interest, instead of 4 1/2 or 5 percent. Farmers and businesses seeking loans are similarly affected.

Why this sudden tightening of money? It is all according to plan. Borrowed money, when spent, adds to demand for materials and labor, both now in short supply. The result is pressure for rising prices. That is what Government planners want to prevent.

There is at present a strong inflationary demand for credit. Industry is seeking record amounts to finance huge expansion programs. State and local governments have vast programs of public works. Builders are pressing for funds to finance more homes. Consumers are spending record sums, and want to borrow to keep on spending. Meanwhile, most of the labor force is already fully occupied and unions are demanding and getting wage increases. Many production lines are operating at capacity. With costs increasing and prices rising, the possibility of greater inflation threatens.

The men on the Federal Reserve Board who shape money policy for the Government are determined to keep this situation under control. Their aim is to supply an amount of money considered adequate for normal needed, but to keep the supply tight enough to discourage lots of undertakings that can be postponed.

Tight money has prompted criticism from home builders, some state and local officials and some members of Congress. This criticism has had little noticeable effect on the Federal Reserve Board. The Board began to let credit tighten more than a year ago, when the **** boom showed strength, and has continued that policy up to the present. Now, with indications of continued strength in business activity, there are no signs that the money managers will change their course.

Signs are that money available for borrowing is likely to become even scarcer and more expensive before it again becomes abundant and cheaper. The day of “cheap” money probably will not return until the upward spiral of wages and prices is brought under control.

NOTE: Sound pretty much like today doesn’t it? Hmmmm – -This is an article written in the December 1956 Reader’s Digest and the number indicated with **** is actually 1955. Apparently things never change!

November 13, 2008

“I Cried but NOT for Irma” June 1, 2008

Sometimes you need to stop and think about what “Do No Harm” means. This article is very much a reminder of what many of us witness as it happens to people whom we love very much. People who have been so much a part of our lives and given so much of themselves to everyone over the years of their lives. We all need to honestly examine where and how we want to be in our final hours and what should be done to allow us to legally make these individual choices.

Max Ferber – - Reader’s Digest – April 1976 – Condensed from the LA Times

It was six months ago that Irma and I first drove to the hospital. The internist had been concerned about my wife’s occasional spotting.  The gynecologist, apprehensive about what his examination indicated, had suggested a hysterectomy.

Following the operation, the surgeon came up to me in the waiting room.  After some preliminary words he said: “it’s terminal cancer.”

It’s terminal cancer.

In something of a whisper, I asked, “How long does she have?”

“It’s difficult to say. I could be six months to five years.”

Now Irma is dead, after six months, at 75.

It was not over her sure death that I cried. It was for the ignominious way of her going: the degradation of the spirit that was once her, the flagellation of her body, the torture inflicted by medical ethics and by a society that values the flesh over the spirit.

Irma recovered from the operation. She came home after three weeks in the hospital.  During her convalexcence she was up and about. She was at the table for meals. We visited friends, attended the theater, dined out. The pills were effective; there was no pain.

Had there been a remission? Were the doctors only mortals who had guessed wrong? Were we witnessing a miracle?

Two months of hope, then began the journey to the other shore. Irma was tired. Tempting her to eat was futile.  Sedation was needed on a regular schedule. In vigils through the night, we reacted to a gesture, kept adjusting her pillow. Terminal cancer: Please let her not have pain.

In time, the burden of caring became too great, even with family members sharing the shifts. Exhaustion set in – physical, mental, emotional. The only alternative was the hospital. “There are to be no heroic measures,” I said. “I just don’t want her to have any pain.”

They said that they understood, but it was not to be.

The first ten days in the hospital were a time for gratitude. The nurses were kind and compassionate.  Medication was given as needed. Irma’s position in bed was changed on schedule to prevent bed sores and to provide comfort. A tube hung from a bedside stand for intravenous feeding.

Irma was not aware of the world – but she was comfortable. There was no pain.

Each day, I watched, wondered – dulled to what was taking place but grateful to the nurses for their concern.

One morning of the third week, I entered the room and was startled. The intravenous tube had been removed from Irma’s arm. Instead, she was being fed through a tube inserted in her nose.

She lay on her back in the bed, her hands tied to the rails. I asked why this had to be. “Because,” the nurse said, “she was pulling out the tube.”

Everyone was considerate.  The nurses changed her position every two hours, retying her hands to the rails.  They provided pillows to support her changed position.  I saw her that evening on her side, tied down for immobility. Only her fingers twitched.

That night, at home in bed, I tried the various positions I had observed Irma take. I could hold each position for only 15 minutes, having to shift to relieve the tension, to release the straining of my muscles. But it was all right. Irma’s position was being changed every two hours.  She had no pain.

In the fifth week, a catheter was introduced to catch her urine.  Now the chemicals that dripped through the tube inserted in her nose passed through her body and emptied efficiently into a pouch at the foot of her bed. In this way Irma was being kept alive. I paled at the sight.

The sixth week showed a change.  Irma looked better: there was a flush in her cheeks. I wondered what this could mean.

“We pulled her through pneumonia by suctioning the mucus from her lungs,” they said.  “she is resting more easily now.”

How thoughtful.  The idea came to me: Irma will make a good looking corpse, thanks to medical science.

Through it all I was led to believe – by comments, by shrugging shoulders – that it would be a matter of only two weeks. Always two weeks, by increments. At the end of three months, I was told Irma could no longer be kept in the hospital: she would have to be moved to a sanitarium.

That night I went to look over the sanitarium they had chosen.  I was disheartened. The place was dim; it seemed gloomy and desolate.

The next morning, as usual, I stopped at the hospital. Irma’s room was empty.  She had been moved to the sanitarium earlier than I had expected.  I hurried there. In daylight it looked better than it had by night.

I found the room where Irma was imprisoned.  Yes, that word was inescapable. She was receiving the same care and attention as in the hospital. Again the tube was inserted in her nose, again the catheter pouch hung at the foot of her bed, again her hand were tied to the bed rails.

Irma’s squirming had caused her sheet to slip off, and she was lying nude. I covered her and kissed her forehead.

The nurses, again, were kind and compassionate. Sedation came on schedule. Irma was suffering no pain.

Another six weeks passed.

Then, at last, I was privileged to watch Irma being ferried across the River Styx. It had been a long journey, not because the river was wide – from where I stood, I had long since seen the opposite shrouded shore – but because the man-made current was almost irresistible. The force of public opinion, of medical and legal ethics, had run furiously, almost vengefully, resisting Irma’s passage.

As I sat, patiently watching, I saw her finally reach the other shore and disappear into the mist of infinity.  Her trials were over. It was Saturday, exactly 11:17 a.m. Society had claimed its last ounce of flesh, and after a while I could stop crying.

I left the sanitarium. As I drove away, a seething anger swept over me.  It was a fetish, nothing less, for society to worship the flesh while it destroyed the spirit.

At any hospital, the dedication is heedlessly to prolong life.  No, not just to prolong life but to do so by using ingenious devices that not only measure the semblance of life but also confirm that the machinery itself is functioning.

Why had Irma been subjected to degradation that made a mockery of living? What does society want, and in heaven’s name, why?

The anger has not left me. It will consume me as long as I live. Why are those who value living so insensitive to dying? In memory of Irma – for all the Irmas of this world – I make a simple but heartfelt plea: let us rise, all of us, to defend the defenseless body against the machine.

The Big Lie About America January 9, 2008

We often hear the complaint that the United States has to regain respect that this administration has eroded? Hmmm – makes me stop to realize that the people saying these things must have had blinders on over the last decades. Other countries have often held negative feelings toward the United States. This post from 1961 and the following article from October 1976 demonstrate just that.

Condensed from Toronto Star – Robert Nielsen – A Canadian journalist asks: How did America ever get cast in the role of a villain?

The most successful Big Lie since Adolph Hitler and Joseph Goebbels were in the mendacity business is that the United States of America is the prime villain in world affairs. How did this whopper come to be widely believed about the nation which 30 years ago, was almost universally regarded as a benefactor to humanity?

Part of the answer is easy. As the powerhouse of capitalism and democracy, the United States had to be discredited if possible by the Soviet Union and its satellites. For decades these communist countries have fed their peoples a diet of lies and distortions picturing the United States as a ruthless imperialist abroad and cruel oppressor at home.

Anti-Americanism in the so-called Third World nations, neither communist nor aligned with the West, is more complex. Here the United States has certainly earned, though not always for dishonorable reasons, some, animosity:

• Its position as the lone ally of Israel could only arouse suspicion and enmity among the Arabs.
• Its diplomatic leaning toward Pakistan in the Indo-Pakistan war has not been forgiven by India; the affront easily overcame any Indian gratitude for billions of dollars’ worth of U.S. economic aid.
• Its covert actions toward the overthrow of the Allende government in Chile betrayed democratic principles.
• And, of course, Vietnam – although it is worth noting that several Asian countries were glad to have the Americans holding the line against communist expansion in Southeast Asia.

But the United States has not, by its own actions, come close to earning the amount of abuse heaped on it by the Third World. It has done many things that should have earned goodwill there – such as being nearly always first with the most emergency relief in time of famine, flood or earthquake.

Another part of the explanation is simply envy and resentment of the poor and weak toward the rich and powerful. The trend toward authoritarian rule in the new nations has also produced a lot of mangy dictatorships and one-party regimes that would be undetermined if their people could make true comparisons with the biggest democracy; so it profits their rulers to slander the United States.

Now we come to the strangest and saddest part of the story, which is how free and democratic peoples have supported the Big Lie and thereby helped discredit the main champion of freedom. With few exceptions, the Western news media have done this quite innocently, by covering the news as it happens and where it’s available. And about 99 percent of it is available only in open societies like the United States. Totalitarian states simply deny access to everything they don’t want reported. By the time a Solzhenitsyn tells us of the oceans of blood and tears shed in the Gulag Archipelago, the story is “old,” and its continuation hard to report, so the Western media give it only passing attention.

When this unbalanced access is combined with the critical, negative tradition of Western journalism – things that are going well usually aren’t news – the result is a continuous distortion of the world picture. Russia’s strangling of a whole country, Czechoslovakia, was a nine-day wonder in the media; America’s maladroit and callously executed attempt to keep half of Vietnam from falling to communists was so vividly and copiously reported that it provoked ten years of global outrage, as well as a political convulsion within the United States.

We owe most of our knowledge of the sins and errors of the United States, from My Lai to Watergate, to American reporters. The point here is not that the United States or any other democratic state should be spared close scrutiny and criticism; that’s how we stay free. But we could do more by way of commentary to redress the unavoidable lack of balance in reporting on the free and unfree countries.

In this sorry business of free people tarring Uncle Sam, I’ve given first place to the media only because we deserve it. But the contributions of academics and teachers shouldn’t be overlooked, either. Academics generally don’t admire the Soviet Union anymore, as many tended to do in the 1930s and 1940s. A popular cop-out for liberal-leftists is to find the United States and the Soviets equally reprehensible. They equate a Chile on the American side with ten countries permanently subjugated by the Soviet Union. This relieves them of the responsibility of choosing sides, even where the differences in terms of human decency and liberty are immense.

The United States, notwithstanding grievous errors, mistakes and occasional villainies, is committed by its whole history to fundamental human rights. The Soviet Union, on its record, is inexorably bent on the destruction of those rights. They are the present protagonists in the endless struggle between liberty and tyranny. After a long stalemate, tyranny is clearly gaining ground as the West loses unity and the will to resist. The United States is now retreating toward a new isolationism. One reason is the thanklessness of its task as leader of the democracies.

For democrats of every persuasion – liberal, socialist or conservative – anti-Americanism has become a costly indulgence.

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10 Things Learned in a Half Century of Living

1. A man who wants time to read and write must let the grass grow long.
2. The hardest part of raising children is teaching them to ride bicycles. A father can either run beside the bicycle or stand yelling directions while the child falls. A shakey child on a bicycle for the first time needs both support and freedom. The realization that this is what the child will always need can hit hard.
3. It’s impossible to treat a child too well. Children are spoiled by being ignored too much or by harshness, not by kindness. Rich kids are often spoiled not by their toys and automobiles, but by parents who are too busy to pay much attention to them.
4. It is impossible to treat a woman too well.
5. The definition of a beautiful woman is one who loves me.
6. Children go away and live their own lives, starting when they are about 18. Parents who accept this as a natural part of the order of things will see their grown children surprisingly often.
7. Success in almost any field depends more on energy and drive than it does on intelligence. This explains why we have so many stupid leaders.
8. When things break around the house, call a handyman. No intelligent man is capable of fixing anything, unless he has made home repair his business.
9. Either afloat or ashore, it is normal for everything to go wrong. No one should ever be surprised or unduly upset by foul-ups. They are a basic part of the human condition.
10. When I was young I was briefly interested in politics, but politics soon bored me. I was interested in business for a long while, but business eventually bored me. Religion I never understood at all. Although it may sound sentimental, the only real meaning I have found in life has been in my wife and children. Without them, I would be in more despair than a bankrupt millionaire.

Condensed from “What Shall We Wear to This Party?” by Sloan Wilson. Printed in the Reader’s Digest – October, 1976