For Carol

Personal Messages Two - Rhonda

Personal Messages One - Larry

Farmville Neighbor Requests Messed Up?

I can't get rid of these. What are they?

Testing Picasa Web Album

Roofover, sort of, for mobile home

This is our house as it is now:




I took this picture - a shed like I want, I think:




And I want the house to look like this - shed extending 6 or 8' over the sides of the house:



The power lines could be a problem .... Other things too, maybe. I just don't know.

The PUsher

Please note: The following isn't as localized as it appears, and isn't meant to be demeaning, derogatory, etc, etc. This is just the way it is in the trucking industry, no matter who the driver or dispatcher is. Until they come up with a way to move trucks by remote control, or find a way to turn us into robots, it'll always be this way. And it's important to note that most of my trips are event free and painless; however, it's hard for me to remember this in the heat of the moment.

From the Qualcomm:
Thurdsay, 10/1/09

2:11
ME: Going to wait at the Flying J. I'm out of cigs.
13:02
007: U have a load coming here to del in SC in the am.
13:04
ME: Ok get me back in time for stress test Monday AM. I can't miss it my medical certificate expires 10/13.
13:08
007: Already worked out
13:08
ME: Cool! Thx much.
13:38
ME: Do you know when it'll be here?
What truck?
What Trlr?
13:48
007 Local bringing it in not sure sorry.
13:50
ME: Ok. Thx anyway.
(I'm thinking, "This is just great. I wish she'd told me earlier, so I could'ave been trying to sleep.")
14:02
ME: One last question where to in SC? So I can figure when I need to leave.
14:17
007: Rock Hill SC
14:24
Me : Might as well say Charlotte looks like the best way. 500 miles by the time it's said and done. 9 hours. Whatever. I'm going to bed.
(I was gonna have to drive all night. Why didn't she tell me earlier?)
14:28
007: 42 (Trucker slang for 10/4 or OK.)
14:29
007: Do you want me to call you when load gets here?
14:30
ME: No I'll check with guard when I get up. Thanks anyway.
14:32
ME: Time started at 3am today, so I'm taking 10 now. Is there some way the guard can dispatch me tonight? So qquam won't go off?
14:43
007 : I'll tell him.
14:45
ME: Good deal. Thx
14:54
007: Bills are here now. Sending now. Bills will be with guard.
(She meant she was dispatching me now. I guess they can't dispatch somebody from the yard without the bills.)
14:55
ME: Ok



When you're telling yourself, "I gotta get to sleep; I gotta get to sleep; I gotta get to sleep...." it's hard to get to sleep. So when 7:30PM rolled around, the time my 10 hours was up, I was already tired. I hooked to the trailer, picked up the bills at the guard shack, and headed towards Rock Hill SC.

BTW - LonnieMac told me the other day he was leaving AMX. I reckon he'll miss the golf cart ....

NEXT DAY
Friday, 10/2/09

00:38
ME: I hate doing an overnight trip after I've been up all day. I got to shut my eyes for a while.

It was for the record more than anything else because nobody was in the office. I made it to the Petro at Carnesville GA before I decided I was becoming a safety hazard. I set the Screaming Meanie for 3 hours. When it went off I got up and started driving again, but I was having to stomp my feet on the floor to stay awake. I was praying too. After the sun started coming up it got a little easier to keep my eyes open, and I delivered shortly after 8:00AM eastern. Only an hour or so late.

07:38
007: Load and take to Montgomery and drop it and get an empty trailer and go home.


Shipper and Consignee information was "TBA" (To be announced) call broker. Another mystery load.

07:45
ME: Ok thx.
08:06
ME: Broker says it loads a 5pm, but they might have it ready early. If it's ok with y'all, it's ok with me.
(All I knew at that point was that I was exhausted. I thought I could get some sleep in the meantime.)
08:11
007: 42
10:32
007: Driver will be in Montgomery 07:00 on AM to get this load.
10:34
ME: I'm pretty sure I won't be there.
10:45
007: No. I'm telling you you need to be there no reason not to be this load has to be delivered on time monday driver can not wait for you to get into montgomery late tomorrow you need to take your break now and when your load is ready you will have your full break behind you and drive it to montgomery.
(If I'd been sleepy at all, 007 just squashed it. Ever try to sleep when you're mad?)
10:51
ME: I'll do the best I can. That's all I'll commit to.
10:53
007: 430 miles is all it is so they will be expecting it there.



10:53
ME: Like I said, the only thing I'll promise is the best I can do. If I find myself nodding off tonight because I can't sleep now you can bet I'm going to stop for a while.
11:11
ME: When y'all planned this, did y'all know it wouldn't load until 5PM? Because the load info says 7:00AM....
11:16
007: Load at five you would have full break.
(What!!??)

11:22
ME: I logged off here at 10:15AM. Now I'm wide awake and couldn't sleep if I had a bottle full of sleeping pills. I was awake all day yesterday, did the run last night on 3 hours sleep, and you're telling me to do another overnight on no sleep? Like I said, I'll do the best I can. I'm not a machine.
11:24
007: We are doing this to get you home so lets not forget that.
11:27
ME: I knew something like this was going to happen. It always does. This is the last time I'll say it I'll do the best I can do. The matter's closed as far as I'm concerned.

At that point I went ahead and called Whatagreatguy because 007 and Princess Leeya have gotten in the habit of telling me to call him when their plans fall through. I got his voice mail and left a message that (paraphrasing) I would probably he told to call him anyway, and I was just beating 007 to the punch. I told him the Qualcomm messages pretty much said it all; and that I hated to run it illegally; and that I didn't want to have a wreck because I was too tired to drive, etc. I hoped the message made sense, because I could barely remember where I was. Almost immediately after I hung up, he sent the following:

11:50
Whatagreatguy: 10/4 Best you can do. Whatagreatguy.
11:51
ME: I promise it'll be my best. Thanks much.

Bless his heart, Whatagreatguy just get banged around in the middle of everybody's arguments.

NEXT DAY
Saturday, 10/3/09

03:50
ME: I'm afraid to drive any further until the sun comes up. Fog is so thick I can't see and I'm exhausted.

Again, it was for the record more than anything else. I was only 75 miles from Montgomery by this time, but the fog was messing up my perception of things around me kind of like Black Dog hallucinations (from the movie Black Dog), or white line fever, maybe. It happens to drivers who are extremely fatigued. Anyway, I slept a couple of hours, and made it to the Montgomery yard around 8:30AM this morning:
08:32
ME: Where's the driver that wants this load so bad? I expected hin/her to be here with baited breath the way 007 pushed me to get here. What a crock...."
8:37
ME: I feel like throwing up I'm so exhausted, and the driver's not even here. I should'ave taken 10 when I needed to instead of when 007 wanted me to.
09:08
ME: ...I'm taking 007 off my Christmas card list.
(And seriously thinking about changing her name to "Pusher".)

But It's Only This Far On The Map

This is gonna be pretty boring to most people.

Everybody has bad days at work. My days seem to be worse than everybody else's.

I had problems with trip 197, Salem VA to Houston, from the beginning.

From the QualComm on 09/02/09:

ME: 14:47
This freight is 55 gal drums of stuff on pallets held together with only shrinkwrap. They put a "rope" of shrinkwrap at the top of the drums, and the guy said that was stronget than anything else they could use.

Said that to say this: The woman who brought my bills out said I needed to put a strap or load bar on the stuff. She wasn't around by the time I got on the dock with my load lock, but that guy was. I said, "Why does this need a load lock?" He said, "You don't have a strap?" I said no. He tried to help me put the bar up, but the sides of the trailer are so bowed out it wouldn't stretch across, and we couldn't make it reach a rib.

I said, "Well, if anything happens, I've done my part." and I told him, "just between you and me, y'all ought to use something better than shrinkwrap to hold these things together."

Will try CHR again in a minute.

A few notes here: CHR = C.H. Robinson, the broker. When CHR dispatched me, they only asked if I had load locks. I've talked about CHR before - look over in the sidebar; find the tag "C.H. Robinson"; and click on it if you want to see what I've said in previous posts.

Putting a load lock in the trailer wasn't a problem, but when I saw the load was low and solid, I wondered why they wanted me to secure it. Most of the shippers I deal with don't ask for securement, and we don't haul much freight where it's needed. But there've been times when I secured a load anyway - just to be sure. Take the load of 12 packs of Dr. Pepper the other day, for instance. Using a load lock was my choice, and I decided to put one up - just to be sure.

Anyway, at the time, I didn't think about this being a liquid load. It meant that the stuff would slosh around in the drums, and maybe cause the last pallet to "walk" around some - if the shrink wrap held. Still, the guy on the dock said, "If the drivers have straps, ok. If they don't, we don't use anything."

AMX provides us with load locks - we carry them in a rack on the back of our tractors. AMX doesn't provide straps.

This is how a load lock works:



And this is how a strap works:






ME: 14:52
...we left the load lock on the floor and he didn't seem to think it was a big deal that we couldn't secure them.

007: 15:14
You may need to go buy some straps to secure the load. Need to make sure you do that.

Note: 007 never uses any kind of punctuation in her messages, so what I read looked like this (all incoming messages are in capital letters): YOU MAY NEED TO GO BUY SOME STRAPS TO SECURE THE LOAD NEED TO MAKE SURE YOU DO THAT

ME: 15:22
So are you telling me to buy some straps for this load? BTW - I may not be able to make it by 3:00pm Friday, but will do my best.

Note: Trip 197 paid 1147 loaded miles, but actual miles are closer to 1175.
No dispatcher ever figures trip time by actual miles.
No dispatcher ever considers the fact that a heavy load in mountainous terrain will slow a driver down considerably.
No dispatcher ever considers that a curving, twisting, or winding highway will slow a driver down considerably - not to mention that kind of driving is real work.
No dispatcher ever considers the possibility that we may have to wait in line for fuel for 45 minutes.
No dispatcher ever considers the fatigue factor - that a driver may need a little extra time simply because he/she is worn out.
No dispatcher ever considers waiting to load or unload is not a "rest" period.
No dispatcher ever considers that sweeping a trailer out, or other equipment issues, involves physical labor.
I could go on and on.

It's not just 007 either. All dispatchers are this way. It's their job. See this post - 14 Hour Violation

In orientation at AMX, when I first hired on, Nolielauri said trips were figured at 55mph, and in the next breath said 50mph. I usually figure actual miles at 55, so Trip 197, 1175 miles at 55mph = 21.36 hours. 11 hours of driving requires a 10 hour break. So 21.36 divded by 11 = two 10 hour breaks. Now the trip's up to 43.5 hours.

And at 2:45pm, about the time I finally got loaded, I had 48 hours to get there - logging it legally. That left 4.5 extra hours for whatever might come up. It was doable on paper but it mean driving 10 hours straight from Salem - and I'd already been working since 8:00am.

When I called CHR to tell them I was loaded, I mentioned the load lock problem, and the girl blew it off. I also told her I might not be able to make it by 3:00pm. After some checking and being put on hold a couple of times, the girl came back and told me it had to deliver by 3:00 - Monday would be too late. I didn't realize Monday was a holiday yet.

ME: 15:34
... come on somebody - b4 I get to fuel stop - u want me to buy straps for this load?

007: 15:36
IF IT WILL SECURE THE PRODUCT YES YOU NEED TO ALSO THIS LOAD MUST NO EXCEPTION DELIVER ON FRIDAY THEERE IS NO REASON IN THIS WORLD THAT YOU CANT MAKE THAT IT BY 1500 ON FRIDAY YOU HAVE 46 HRS TO DO IT IN I DONT THINK THAT IS AKING TO MUCH

ME: 15:40 Y'all will reimburse me for straps, right? As for making it by 3 Friday, I won't argue about it.

Note: 007 hadn't specifically told me to buy straps for the load yet, and I wanted to be sure I'd get reimbursed. Straps are not cheap. As for not arguing about the delivery time, I already knew I was going to do whatever it took to make it. By this time I knew Monday was Memorial Day, the reason for the "007 push".

007: 15:43 I SAID YES BUY THEM IF IT WILL HELP SUCURE THE LOAD I SENT YOU A MESSAGE

ME: 15:45 Ok

007: 15:46 YES PUT PER CAROL ON THE RECEIPT AND PER DAN AND KEITH LOAD MUST BE THERE ON TIME FRIDAY

ME: 15:51 That's all I needed to hear. If Dan and Keith say to get it there regardless, it'll be there. Sometimes I think y'all put your index finger and thumb in the air and say "It's only this far on the map."

Note: 007 didn't respond, so to me this meant Whatagreatguy and Keith knew the circumstances, and I wouldn't get called down for throwing the log book out the window. I had to get some rest, but I'd do it in snatches instead of 10 hours at a time. That way I'd be able to make it on time.

ME: 17:19 ...and y'all never figure things like 45 mins just to get to a fuel pump.... (Sent while I was sitting in line at the pumps. This was where the fuel route on the QualComm told me to stop.)

From the QualComm on 09/04/09:

ME: 8:55 PLEASE DON'T STOP TILL YOU GET TO CUSTOMER NEED TO RELOAD BY 15:00

ME: 9:00 Sometime today I've got to take a full 10 hour break to get legal again, but I don't intend to stop again until I get there.

ME: 9:02 YOU CAN TAKE A BREAK AFTER U RELOAD YOU ARE RELOADING IN HOUSTIN 800 MILES FROM NOW TO TUESDAY I THINK YOU CAN GET PLENTY OF BREAKS IN

ME: 9:03 Good deal.

ME: 9:04 I'll drive 24/7 as long as Keith and Dan approve it.

ME: 9:07 ...2 hour nap here, 5 hours there - I'd rather do it that way anyway.

007: 11:26 ARE U ALMOST AT CUSTOMER

ME: 11:27 Yes

ME: 12:14 unloading now

I sent in my empty call and she sent the next load info to me. It picked up at BASF on the west side of Houston. I drove over there.

ME: 13:51 Guy at BASF says this load has already been picked up

007: 14:00 WE ARE CALLING NOW

007: 14:23 TAKING YOU OFF LOAD UPDATE YOU ASP

ME: 14:24 I'm going back to the east side of town then - to the truck stops.

ME: 15:15 Do you think y'all will be able to get me out of here today?

I was hoping they wouldn't. I was totally exhausted, and I didn't like the shape my log book was in compared to the GPS.

007: 15:38 NOT SURE

ME: 15:39 Ok, thx.

ME: 16:12 Just leave he here. Unless it's across the street, I can't get anywhere by closing time anyway.

Please just leave me here.

007: 16:44 WE HAVE A LOAD IN HOUSTON TODAY AS SOON AS I GET THE FAX ILL SEN TO YOU SO BE READY THANKS

ME: 16:51 It'll take forever to get there the way traffic is now, but good deal.

I didn't really think it was a good deal.

And then came the Load Assignment at 17:02:



007: 17:02 CALL BROKER ASAP # IN COMMENTS
...and she was gone. It was after 5:00pm and her day was done. She could walk away and leave it all behind.

When I saw the load assignment my heart sank. No information whatsoever, and the numbers listed were both for C.H. Robinson. And 007 had walked away leaving me holding the bag. I was sick.

I called CHR and the guy told me it was one pallet (seriously, one pallet) of phones. I said, "Aw man, this isn't going to pan out." He said, "It might not, it might not." He told me to sit tight and he'd call me back in 10 minutes - because he didn't want me to go after the one pallet of phone if it wasn't a sure-fire thing. By this time he knew I had log problems, and he knew I was seriously concerned about it.

Me: 17:07 Y'all better not count these chickens yet - this sounds like another fall through

...but nobody was listening. I kept trying though:

Me: 17:28 ... this is not a good deal at all.
Let me stay where I am. It's not worth the risk if anything should happen.

CHR didn't call me 10 minutes later, so I called him. I told him about how I'd never drive again if anything happened in the traffic - not to mention AMX would be sued for everything they had. I told him I couldn't get anybody to answer at AMX. I was almost in tears. I told him I was between a rock and hard place, but I'd go pick it up if it was legitimate.

He told me the shipper hadn't called him back so he thought it wasn't going to work out anyway. I told him, "Let's pray it doesn't". He said he'd call me right back - that he was going to tell the shipper he needed a "yes" or "no". He called back so quickly that I got the impression the shipper didn't answer. After all, it was almost 5:45pm by now - on a 3 day weekend. When he did, he said, "Your praying paid off, so just get some rest, and we'll talk to you Tuesday I guess."

Me: 17:43 CHR just called me back. The deal fell through."

Me: 17:55 I've been trying to call, but I guess everybody's gone home now. I'm not going to worry about it anymore. Maybe something'll turn up tomorrow. Things will be better then anyway.

I didn't know who sent the message at 18:46: CAN YOU CALL ME PLEASE?

ME: 18:52: I've been trying to call. Nobody answers - not even the guard

GUARD: 18:56: THIS IS THE GUARD. I HAVE NOT HAD A CALL FROM YOU.

So I called and talked to a young man I didn't know. CHR had called him, and he wanted to know what was going on. I told him.

From the QualComm on 09/05/09:

ME: 10:00: Dispatch, did you see that my load fell through yesterday?

007: 10:02: SURE DID AND BROKER ALSO INFORMED US THAT YOU WERE GLAD IT DID SO YOU CAN SIT THERE TILL TUESDAY

ME: 10:23: I don't care if I sit here 'till doom's day. At least everything's legal again, and nobody got hurt.

The broker knew I was worried about my log problem, but I told him I'd go get it if it was a legitimate load. He told me to sit tight while he called the shipper

He was going to tell the shipper to give him a yes or no

He called back almost immediately and said it wasn't a load. I got the impression nobody answered at the shipper.

I was glad because nobody was at risk anymore if anything had happened in the heavy holiday traffic. In fact, I was real glad - for myself and AMX.

The more I thought about it, the more worried I got that something might happen. I was between a rock and a hard place. So yeah, I'm glad it fell through.

So here I sit at the Flying J in Houston - across the street from the TA. Thank goodness it's not like last Christmas was when a "007 push" didn't work out. Everybody knows about that by now though, when Buddy and I spent 4 or 5 days at a Flying J in PA - and I missed a doctor's appointment because of it.






This is gonna be pretty boring to most people.

Everybody has bad days at work. My days seem to be worse than everybody else's.

I had problems with trip 197, Salem VA to Houston, from the beginning.

From the QualComm on 09/02/09:

ME: 14:47
This freight is 55 gal drums of stuff on pallets held together with only shrinkwrap. They put a "rope" of shrinkwrap at the top of the drums, and the guy said that was stronget than anything else they could use.

Said that to say this: The woman who brought my bills out said I needed to put a strap or load bar on the stuff. She wasn't around by the time I got on the dock with my load lock, but that guy was. I said, "Why does this need a load lock?" He said, "You don't have a strap?" I said no. He tried to help me put the bar up, but the sides of the trailer are so bowed out it wouldn't stretch across, and we couldn't make it reach a rib.

I said, "Well, if anything happens, I've done my part." and I told him, "just between you and me, y'all ought to use something better than shrinkwrap to hold these things together."

Will try CHR again in a minute.

A few notes here: CHR = C.H. Robinson, the broker. When CHR dispatched me, they only asked if I had load locks. I've talked about CHR before - look over in the sidebar; find the tag "C.H. Robinson"; and click on it if you want to see what I've said in previous posts.

Putting a load lock in the trailer wasn't a problem, but when I saw the load was low and solid, I wondered why they wanted me to secure it. Most of the shippers I deal with don't ask for securement, and we don't haul much freight where it's needed. But there've been times when I secured a load anyway - just to be sure. Take the load of 12 packs of Dr. Pepper the other day, for instance. Using a load lock was my choice, and I decided to put one up - just to be sure.

Anyway, at the time, I didn't think about this being a liquid load. It meant that the stuff would slosh around in the drums, and maybe cause the last pallet to "walk" around some - if the shrink wrap held. Still, the guy on the dock said, "If the drivers have straps, ok. If they don't, we don't use anything."

AMX provides us with load locks - we carry them in a rack on the back of our tractors. AMX doesn't provide straps.

This is how a load lock works:



And this is how a strap works:






ME: 14:52
...we left the load lock on the floor and he didn't seem to think it was a big deal that we couldn't secure them.

007: 15:14
You may need to go buy some straps to secure the load. Need to make sure you do that.

Note: 007 never uses any kind of punctuation in her messages, so what I read looked like this (all incoming messages are in capital letters): YOU MAY NEED TO GO BUY SOME STRAPS TO SECURE THE LOAD NEED TO MAKE SURE YOU DO THAT

ME: 15:22
So are you telling me to buy some straps for this load? BTW - I may not be able to make it by 3:00pm Friday, but will do my best.

Note: Trip 197 paid 1147 loaded miles, but actual miles are closer to 1175.
No dispatcher ever figures trip time by actual miles.
No dispatcher ever considers the fact that a heavy load in mountainous terrain will slow a driver down considerably.
No dispatcher ever considers that a curving, twisting, or winding highway will slow a driver down considerably - not to mention that kind of driving is real work.
No dispatcher ever considers the possibility that we may have to wait in line for fuel for 45 minutes.
No dispatcher ever considers the fatigue factor - that a driver may need a little extra time simply because he/she is worn out.
No dispatcher ever considers waiting to load or unload is not a "rest" period.
No dispatcher ever considers that sweeping a trailer out, or other equipment issues, involves physical labor.
I could go on and on.

It's not just 007 either. All dispatchers are this way. It's their job. See this post - 14 Hour Violation

In orientation at AMX, when I first hired on, Nolielauri said trips were figured at 55mph, and in the next breath said 50mph. I usually figure actual miles at 55, so Trip 197, 1175 miles at 55mph = 21.36 hours. 11 hours of driving requires a 10 hour break. So 21.36 divded by 11 = two 10 hour breaks. Now the trip's up to 43.5 hours.

And at 2:45pm, about the time I finally got loaded, I had 48 hours to get there - logging it legally. That left 4.5 extra hours for whatever might come up. It was doable on paper but it mean driving 10 hours straight from Salem - and I'd already been working since 8:00am.

When I called CHR to tell them I was loaded, I mentioned the load lock problem, and the girl blew it off. I also told her I might not be able to make it by 3:00pm. After some checking and being put on hold a couple of times, the girl came back and told me it had to deliver by 3:00 - Monday would be too late. I didn't realize Monday was a holiday yet.

ME: 15:34
... come on somebody - b4 I get to fuel stop - u want me to buy straps for this load?

007: 15:36
IF IT WILL SECURE THE PRODUCT YES YOU NEED TO ALSO THIS LOAD MUST NO EXCEPTION DELIVER ON FRIDAY THEERE IS NO REASON IN THIS WORLD THAT YOU CANT MAKE THAT IT BY 1500 ON FRIDAY YOU HAVE 46 HRS TO DO IT IN I DONT THINK THAT IS AKING TO MUCH

ME: 15:40 Y'all will reimburse me for straps, right? As for making it by 3 Friday, I won't argue about it.

Note: 007 hadn't specifically told me to buy straps for the load yet, and I wanted to be sure I'd get reimbursed. Straps are not cheap. As for not arguing about the delivery time, I already knew I was going to do whatever it took to make it. By this time I knew Monday was Memorial Day, the reason for the "007 push".

007: 15:43 I SAID YES BUY THEM IF IT WILL HELP SUCURE THE LOAD I SENT YOU A MESSAGE

ME: 15:45 Ok

007: 15:46 YES PUT PER 007 ON THE RECEIPT AND PER WHATAGREATGUY AND KUNG FU LOAD MUST BE THERE ON TIME FRIDAY

ME: 15:51 That's all I needed to hear. If Whatagreatguy and Kung Fu say to get it there regardless, it'll be there. Sometimes I think y'all put your index finger and thumb in the air and say "It's only this far on the map."

Note: 007 didn't respond, so to me this meant Whatagreatguy and Kung Fu knew the circumstances, and I wouldn't get called down for throwing the log book out the window. I had to get some rest, but I'd do it in snatches instead of 10 hours at a time. That way I'd be able to make it on time.

ME: 17:19 ...and y'all never figure things like 45 mins just to get to a fuel pump.... (Sent while I was sitting in line at the pumps. This was where the fuel route on the QualComm told me to stop.)

From the QualComm on 09/04/09:

ME: 8:55 PLEASE DON'T STOP TILL YOU GET TO CUSTOMER NEED TO RELOAD BY 15:00

ME: 9:00 Sometime today I've got to take a full 10 hour break to get legal again, but I don't intend to stop again until I get there.

ME: 9:02 YOU CAN TAKE A BREAK AFTER U RELOAD YOU ARE RELOADING IN HOUSTIN 800 MILES FROM NOW TO TUESDAY I THINK YOU CAN GET PLENTY OF BREAKS IN

ME: 9:03 Good deal.

ME: 9:04 I'll drive 24/7 as long as Kung Fu and Whatagreatguy approve it.

ME: 9:07 ...2 hour nap here, 5 hours there - I'd rather do it that way anyway.

007: 11:26 ARE U ALMOST AT CUSTOMER

ME: 11:27 Yes

ME: 12:14 unloading now

I sent in my empty call and she sent the next load info to me. It picked up at BASF on the west side of Houston. I drove over there.

ME: 13:51 Guy at BASF says this load has already been picked up

007: 14:00 WE ARE CALLING NOW

007: 14:23 TAKING YOU OFF LOAD UPDATE YOU ASP

ME: 14:24 I'm going back to the east side of town then - to the truck stops.

ME: 15:15 Do you think y'all will be able to get me out of here today?

I was hoping they wouldn't. I was totally exhausted, and I didn't like the shape my log book was in compared to the GPS.

007: 15:38 NOT SURE

ME: 15:39 Ok, thx.

ME: 16:12 Just leave he here. Unless it's across the street, I can't get anywhere by closing time anyway.

Please just leave me here.

007: 16:44 WE HAVE A LOAD IN HOUSTON TODAY AS SOON AS I GET THE FAX ILL SEN TO YOU SO BE READY THANKS

ME: 16:51 It'll take forever to get there the way traffic is now, but good deal.

I didn't really think it was a good deal.

And then came the Load Assignment at 17:02:



007: 17:02 CALL BROKER ASAP # IN COMMENTS
...and she was gone. It was after 5:00pm and her day was done. She could walk away and leave it all behind.

When I saw the load assignment my heart sank. No information whatsoever, and the numbers listed were both for C.H. Robinson. And 007 had walked away leaving me holding the bag. I was sick.

I called CHR and the guy told me it was one pallet (seriously, one pallet) of phones. I said, "Aw man, this isn't going to pan out." He said, "It might not, it might not." He told me to sit tight and he'd call me back in 10 minutes - because he didn't want me to go after the one pallet of phone if it wasn't a sure-fire thing. By this time he knew I had log problems, and he knew I was seriously concerned about it.

Me: 17:07 Y'all better not count these chickens yet - this sounds like another fall through

...but nobody was listening. I kept trying though:

Me: 17:28 ... this is not a good deal at all.
Let me stay where I am. It's not worth the risk if anything should happen.

CHR didn't call me 10 minutes later, so I called him. I told him about how I'd never drive again if anything happened in the traffic - not to mention AMX would be sued for everything they had. I told him I couldn't get anybody to answer at AMX. I was almost in tears. I told him I was between a rock and hard place, but I'd go pick it up if it was legitimate.

He told me the shipper hadn't called him back so he thought it wasn't going to work out anyway. I told him, "Let's pray it doesn't". He said he'd call me right back - that he was going to tell the shipper he needed a "yes" or "no". He called back so quickly that I got the impression the shipper didn't answer. After all, it was almost 5:45pm by now - on a 3 day weekend. When he did, he said, "Your praying paid off, so just get some rest, and we'll talk to you Tuesday I guess."

Me: 17:43 CHR just called me back. The deal fell through."

Me: 17:55 I've been trying to call, but I guess everybody's gone home now. I'm not going to worry about it anymore. Maybe something'll turn up tomorrow. Things will be better then anyway.

I didn't know who sent the message at 18:46: CAN YOU CALL ME PLEASE?

ME: 18:52: I've been trying to call. Nobody answers - not even the guard

GUARD: 18:56: THIS IS THE GUARD. I HAVE NOT HAD A CALL FROM YOU.

So I called and talked to a young man I didn't know. CHR had called him, and he wanted to know what was going on. I told him.

From the QualComm on 09/05/09:

ME: 10:00: Dispatch, did you see that my load fell through yesterday?

007: 10:02: SURE DID AND BROKER ALSO INFORMED US THAT YOU WERE GLAD IT DID SO YOU CAN SIT THERE TILL TUESDAY

ME: 10:23: I don't care if I sit here 'till doom's day. At least everything's legal again, and nobody got hurt.

The broker knew I was worried about my log problem, but I told him I'd go get it if it was a legitimate load. He told me to sit tight while he called the shipper

He was going to tell the shipper to give him a yes or no

He called back almost immediately and said it wasn't a load. I got the impression nobody answered at the shipper.

I was glad because nobody was at risk anymore if anything had happened in the heavy holiday traffic. In fact, I was real glad - for myself and AMX.

The more I thought about it, the more worried I got that something might happen. I was between a rock and a hard place. So yeah, I'm glad it fell through.

So here I sit at the Flying J in Houston - across the street from the TA. Thank goodness it's not like last Christmas was when a "007 push" didn't work out. Everybody knows about that by now though, when Buddy and I spent 4 or 5 days at a Flying J in PA - and I missed a doctor's appointment because of it.

Understanding Facebook - Maybe

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Scott's Wedding

This is a link to Scott's Wedding

Posting Picasa Pictures

From Scott's Wedding

Sandy

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Glenn Beck: Who Owns The Federal Reserve?

I've just discovered there are some great videos on my topic here - National Economic Understanding. Here's another one with Glenn Beck (from Sep 22, 2008):

Glenn Beck: Who Owns The Federal Reserve?

Fundamental Problems of US Economy

Another English article broke it down like this:

Fundamental Problems of US Economy

• National Debt of $10,000 billion [10 trillion] (68% GDP)
• Current Account Deficit $857 billion equivalent of 6.5% of GDP
• Housing Market - House prices have fallen by 30% in some areas.
• Rising [Income] Inequality
• Devaluing Dollar - Loss of Confidence In America and America's economy.
• Record Debt Levels - Past growth has been financed by consumer borrowing
• Credit Crunch - Loss of confidence in banking system due to bad loans

As of this writing, the National Debt is $10,948,502,005,127.63. That's almost $11 Trillion Dollars.

Glenn Beck: Inconvenient Debt

Glenn Beck's Inconvenient Debt



This is great!

Stimulus Plan - Health Provisions Slipped in Without Discussion.

My thanks to RoninPhx for posting a link to this story. I felt I had to say something about it.

Everything's getting so unreal....

(brought over from the Truckalogue)
This Stimulus Bill that passed in the Senate yesterday - $838 billion, just for the record. There's 'hidden legislation' concerning healthcare in the bill that is, according to Betsy McCaughey of Bloomburg.com

"...is virtually identical to what [former Senator and former Health and Human Services secretary nominee] Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.” ...

Elderly Hardest Hit

Daschle says health-care reform “will not be pain free.” Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt.

Medicare now pays for treatments deemed safe and effective. The stimulus bill would change that and apply a cost- effectiveness standard set by the Federal Council (464).

The Federal Council is modeled after a U.K. board discussed in Daschle’s book. This board approves or rejects treatments using a formula that divides the cost of the treatment by the number of years the patient is likely to benefit. Treatments for younger patients are more often approved than treatments for diseases that affect the elderly, such as osteoporosis.
In 2006, a U.K. health board decreed that elderly patients with macular degeneration had to wait until they went blind in one eye before they could get a costly new drug to save the other eye. It took almost three years of public protests before the board reversed its decision....

The bill allocates more funding for this bureaucracy than for the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force combined (90-92, 174-177, 181).

I said all that to say this: I walked through the living room just now to get a cup of coffee. Mother said, in a scared and amazed tone, "Oh amx, have you heard about this health legislation?" I just nodded and told her I couldn't talk about it. She said, "This is so scary." It's scary to me too.

This whole Stimulus package is so frightening and alarming .... I've thought for a long time now that an age was coming when we would revert to the status of a third world country; and we would see days with limited power and food, etc. I think we are closer to it than I thought.

I need to remind myself of what I told Mike: "When it gets really bad, I'll muddle along with everybody else and we'll survive just like everybody else. What good is my Faith if I don't fully trust in God to take care of me & mine? What good is my Faith if I worry about anything for that matter ... Seriously, I want God to handle this stuff when gets down to affecting me personally, so I have nooo problem "turning it over", so to speak."

Started a new blog yesterday - amx's Quest for National Economic Understanding. Worked on it almost all day.

James West Article Part II

From U.S. Debt Default, Dollar Collapse Altogether Likely - an article written by James West.

James West writes:

Is 2009 the year that the United States formally defaults? And with that, will the dollar collapse be rolled back ten FOR one or more?

There are a lot of reasons to support that theory. To Wall Street economists, such an event is heresy and therefore unthinkable. Yet Wall Street is the very La-la-land that bred the idea of a perpetually indebted nation in the first place.

Number one among the indicators favoring this scenario is what is happening in the U.S. Treasuries auction market.

Last Thursday, an $30 billion auction in five-year notes failed to stir the interest of traditional primary dealers. The auction itself was saved by an anonymous “indirect” bid.

Buyers are discouraged by the prospect of what is expected to amount to $2 trillion total issuance for the full year of 2009. The further out the maturities on notes, the more bearish the sentiment towards them. The only way to entice buyers is through the increase in yields.

But with yields at 1.82 per cent, five-year notes were met with a demand for 1.98 times the amount offered - the lowest bid-to-cover ratio since September. A sell-off in treasuries began in earnest upon the conclusion of that auction.

Ok. What is the "U.S. Treasuries auction market"?
Again, thanks to mike762, who said this: "...when the Treasury gets a budget or spending request from Congress,

they hold an auction to sell bonds and bills to finance whatever portion is not covered by current receipts-taxes, tariffs etc.

Investors buy these bonds/bills at a coupon rate (interest rate) that is dependent upon the level of risk associated with these bonds/bills.

When there are not enough buyers at the auction to cover the amounts required,

the Fed or it's proxies buy the bonds/bills.

This is what is meant by monetization, and it is highly inflationary.

Credit is then placed on the books at the Fed for the Treasury to draw on

to turn into checks and cash to pay for the programs in the budget.

It is a circular process that will continue until the currency and the bond market collapses."

Source - "The biggest reasons that T-Bills are so popular is that they are one of the few money market instruments that are affordable to the individual investors. T-bills are usually issued in denominations of $1,000, $5,000, $10,000, $25,000, $50,000, $100,000 and $1 million. Other positives are that T-bills (and all Treasuries) are considered to be the safest investments in the world because the U.S. government backs them. In fact, they are considered risk-free. Furthermore, they are exempt from state and local taxes."

Off on a tangent.
I found this while I was digging. It's just a Yahoo Answers thing, but I want to keep it: Where does the government get money from to keep paying treasury bond interest? One of the answers included this: : "...In order to establish this, we look at the National Debt relative to the GDP(adjusted for Purchasing Power Parity)...."
I don't understand what this part of the answer meant, but it's the first time I've seen "GDP". GDP stands for Gross Domestic Product.

Who are the "traditional primary dealers"?
According to Wikipedia: A primary dealer is a bank or securities broker-dealer that may trade directly with the Federal Reserve System of the United States. They are required to make bids or offers when the Fed conducts open market operations, ..., and to participate actively in U.S. Treasury securities auctions.

The current list of primary dealers:
As of October 1, 2008 according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York the list includes:
BNP Paribas Securities Corp.
Bank of America Securities LLC
Barclays Capital Inc.
Cantor Fitzgerald & Co.
Citigroup Global Markets Inc.
Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC
Daiwa Securities America Inc.
Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.
Dresdner Kleinwort Securities LLC.
Goldman, Sachs & Co.
Greenwich Capital Markets Inc.
HSBC Securities (USA) Inc.
J. P. Morgan Securities Inc.
Merrill Lynch Government Securities Inc.
Mizuho Securities USA Inc.
Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated
UBS Securities LLC.

Three notable changes to the list have occurred in 2008. Countrywide Securities Corporation was removed on July 15 due to its acquisition by Bank of America. Lehman Brothers Inc. was removed on September 22 due to bankruptcy. Bear Stearns & Co. Inc. was removed from the list on October 1 due to its acquisition by J.P. Morgan Chase.

What does "bid-to-cover ratio" mean?
Wikipedia: "Bid-To-Cover Ratio is a ratio used to express the demand for a particular security during offerings and auctions. In general, it is used for shares, bonds, and other securities. It is computed in two ways: the number of bids received divided by the number of bids accepted, or the total amount of the bids is used instead.

The higher the ratio, the higher the demand. A ratio above 2.0 indicates a successful auction comprised of aggressive bids. A low ratio is an indication of a disappointing auction, marked by a wide bid-ask spread.

For example, suppose debt managers are seeking to raise $10 billion in ten-year notes with a 5.125% coupon, and in aggregate the bids are as follows:

$1.00 billion at 5.115%
$2.50 billion at 5.120%
$3.50 billion at 5.125%
$4.50 billion at 5.130%
$3.75 billion at 5.135%
$2.75 billion at 5.140%
$1.50 billion at 5.145%
The total of all bids is $19.5 billion and the number of bids accepted would be $10 billion, therefore leading to a bid-to-cover ratio of 1.95."

Thanks to chuck_tree: "The bid-to-cover ratio shows demand versus supply. That is how many bonds were wanted versus the number of bonds (or notes or bills) that are available."

So what West is really saying is (30 x 1.98) = 59.4 billion was offered for 30 billion in 5yr notes that pay 1.82%.

Mike once more: The higher the demand the lower the rate, the lower the demand the higher the rate. When the Treasury held the auction and didn't have enough demand (bids) to cover the offer, then they had to raise the rate to entice people to purchase. In this case there were no takers, so the Fed bought them at the offer rate, or par. ... It expands the money supply and keeps interest rates artificially low. This helps when servicing the interest on the debt, which is the fourth highest item on the annual budget. ... Investors are looking at our debt level, and the addition of $3T over the last 6 months, and are not willing to buy, because they know they will lose due to devaluation.

What's devaluation again? From Investopedia:

"What Does Devaluation Mean?
A deliberate downward adjustment to a country's official exchange rate relative to other currencies. In a fixed exchange rate regime, only a decision by a country's government (i.e central bank) can alter the official value of the currency. Contrast to "revaluation".

Investopedia explains Devaluation
There are two implications for a currency devaluation. First, devaluation makes a country's exports relatively less expensive for foreigners and second, it makes foreign products relatively more expensive for domestic consumers, discouraging imports. As a result, this may help to reduce a country's trade deficit."

More Keepers

The problem is what happened during the Depression. Banking panics were nothing new -- that is what the Fed was created for. But when banking panics started (as unemployment abruptly jumpted from 6% to 15% at the end of 1930), the Federal Reserve suddenly didn't trust banks enough to back them up. If the banks were insolvent, evidently, they must be allowed to fail. Unfortunately, so many banks were seen as insolvent and allowed to fail that it took the whole United States economy down with it. But the Federal Reserve could be proud of being financially solid itself! This served no purpose, however, beyond bureaucratic ass-covering.

This turns out to be a classic example of bureaucrats who do not have to pay the cost that results from their actions. The banks may fail, the economy may collapse, but they still have their jobs! Indeed, if the Depression could be blamed on "speculators," the bureaucrats could actually see their status, pay, and power increase! In 1907, it is obvious that the banks could work out their own salvation because they actually did not want to fail. Failed banks means bankers out of a job. Perhaps even bankers committing suicide. But among all the Depression stories about window leaps on Wall Street, there don't seem to be any about leaps from the nearby Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Keepers

http://www.treas.gov/


Six Kinds of United States Paper Currency - Although the Treasury had been unable to print money since 1878, it was now given an indirect ability to do so, whenever it could persuade the Federal Reserve to create money by buying United States securities itself, either directly from the Treasury or indirectly off the open market.

Mike - The Constitution in Article 1 Sections 8 and 10 requires that only gold and silver COIN shall be used as legal tender, and that no bills of credit such as our current day Federal Reserve Note shall be emitted. The Constitution was never amended to change this,

When United States Note (Wikipedia): After the death of Abraham Lincoln in April 1865, additional "first charter period" (i.e. banks chartered between 1863 and 1882) National Bank Notes and Gold Certificates of 1865 were issued. The notes were issued until January 1971, after which they were entirely replaced by the Federal Reserve Notes which had circulated alongside them since 1914....
This colorization continued with the later and more widespread United States Notes later in this war, which were not directly redeemable in specie. The still-later Federal Reserve Notes and also gold certificates and silver certificates in the United States, were printed with distinctive green reverse sides to mimic the well-known United States Note.

Fiat Currency (Wikipedia) : Fiat currency (fiat money) is money that exists because an authority or custom declares it to be money. (From the Latin fiat, which means "let it be done"). It achieves value because a government says it can be used to pay debt or buy goods and services and because people trust that the currency will be reasonably stable.[1] Fiat money is a subset of credit money (money backed by promise to pay in goods or services controlled by the creditor) in which a government, often through a central bank or reserve bank, is the major creditor backing the currency.

Federal Reserve Note (Wikipedia): A Federal Reserve Note is a type of banknote issued by the Federal Reserve System and is the only type of U.S. banknote that is still produced today.

Federal Reserve Bank Note (Wikipedia): Federal Reserve bank notes were United States currency banknotes issued by individual Federal Reserve Banks. They were based upon the earlier National Bank Notes. They differed from Federal Reserve Notes in that they could only be redeemed at the Federal Reserve bank that issued them. Federal Reserve notes could be redeemed at any Federal Reserve bank.


Series of 1929 Federal Reserve Bank NoteAs large size notes they were first issued in 1914 with a design that shared elements with the both the National Bank Notes, and the Federal Reserve Notes of the time, but as small size notes they were issued only as an emergency issue in 1933 using the same paper stock used for National Bank Notes. This emergency issue was prompted by the public hoarding of cash because of the many bank failures happening at the time. This also limited the ability of the National Banks to issue notes of their own. They were phased out within 2 years, but served their purpose dutifully. As small size notes, they have brown seals and serial numbers, the same as National Bank Notes of the era.


Keep Yahoo Answer: Does the Federal Reserve print money out of "thin air?" And if so, is it responsible for massive inflation?

Keep How Does the Federal Reserve "Print Money?"

Keep Where can I purchase sheets of uncut money?
2006 seried Dollar Bills - $16.00 costs $32.00 at the The United States Treasury Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

Of course, the Fed doesn't actually print the money. According to the U.S. Department of the Treasury FAQs, "The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 authorized the production and circulation of Federal Reserve notes. Although the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) prints these notes, they move into circulation through the Federal Reserve System. They are obligations of both the Federal Reserve System and the United States Government...."


_________________________________________________
________________________________________________

Among suggested viewing was Freedom to Fascism a 2006 film by Aaron Russo. Some of the premises of the film include:
1. The Federal Reserve System is unconstitutional and has maxed out the national debt and bankrupted the United States government.
2. Federal income taxes were imposed in response to, or as part of, the plan implementing the Federal Reserve System.
3. Federal income taxes are unconstitutional or otherwise legally invalid.
4. The use of the Federal income tax to counter the economic effects of the Federal Reserve System is futile.

The film has been critiqued as factually dubious by some reviewers. It has, however, developed a cult following. And if you watch the first few minutes, it's easy to see why I was drawn into it.

In fact, at one point in the thread at 24hourcampfie, I said, "I'm beginning to feel I'm in the Matrix with Keanu Reeves." Frankly, I felt a little sick too.

But as I researched and read on, I came across something about the "Country's available credit" that no one at the "'fire" could explain to my satisfaction. And then there was this:

On August 15, 1971 the U.S. government announced that it was "ending the dollar's convertibility, closing the gold window, cutting the dollar's tie to gold, and allowing the dollar to float."

and this:

... On December 18, 1971 the U.S. government raised the "official gold price" from $35 to $38. This was a devaluation of 8.57%.

And so I asked the intelligent folks involved in that thread: "How was this a devaluation? They raised the price, but gold didn't increase in value? I don't understand." And I asked, "And did the gv't possess all the gold in America? I mean, like, were they the 'Gold Store'? I can see they probably did have A LOT, but now that it no longer backed up the currency, so what? Gold was just for jewelery now, right?"

Nobody could explain that one either. Because this stuff wasn't about the currency in the first place. It was all about gold. And I let myself get caught up in it for a while.

My last post in that thread was

I've about decided I like the Matrix. Still, it's very intriguing how and why Philander Knox played his part in all this. I'd like to find out more about the whole deal because it's such a mystery to me - a cloak and dagger kind of thing.

I appreciate everyone's effort in trying to educate me. But I think I'll stick to Wikipedia for the answers.

The Federal Reserve Prints Money?

Wikipedia: Banks can swap deposit liabilities of the Fed for Federal Reserve Notes back and forth as needed to match demand from customers, and the Fed can have the Bureau of Engraving and Printing create the paper bills as needed to match demand from banks for paper money. The amount of money printed has no relation to the growth of the monetary base (M0).

A Cloak And Dagger Look At The Federal Reserve

When I went to bed last night I was reading something on the web called Secrets Of The Federal Reserve



It's a cloak and dagger thing that starts out like this:
"Jekyll Island [Georgia]. On the night of November 22, 1910, a group of newspaper reporters stood disconsolately in the railway station at Hoboken, New Jersey. They had just watched a delegation of the nation’s leading financiers leave the station on a secret mission. It would be years before they discovered what that mission was, and even then they would not understand that the history of the United States underwent a drastic change after that night in Hoboken.

The delegation had left in a sealed railway car, with blinds drawn, for an undisclosed destination. They were led by...."
Some of the names on the list were:
Senator Nelson Aldrich, head of the National Monetary Commission
Shelton (?), Aldrich's private secretary
A. Piatt Andrew, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, and Special Assistant of the National Monetary Commission
Frank Vanderlip, president of the National City Bank of New York
Henry P. Davison, senior partner of J.P. Morgan Company
Charles D. Norton, president of the Morgan-dominated First National Bank of New York
Benjamin Strong, also known as a lieutenant of J.P. Morgan
Paul Warburg, a recent immigrant from Germany who had joined the banking house of Kuhn, Loeb and Company in NY.

The story goes on to say: "Six years later, a financial writer named Bertie Charles Forbes (who later founded the Forbes Magazine; the present editor, Malcom Forbes, is his son), wrote: 'Picture a party of the nation’s greatest bankers stealing out of New York on a private railroad car under cover of darkness, stealthily hieing hundred of miles South, embarking on a mysterious launch, sneaking onto an island deserted by all but a few servants, living there a full week under such rigid secrecy that the names of not one of them was once mentioned lest the servants learn the identity and disclose to the world this strangest, most secret expedition in the history of American finance.

I am not romancing; I am giving to the world, for the first time, the real story of how the famous Aldrich currency report, the foundation of our new currency system, was written . . . . The utmost secrecy was enjoined upon all. The public must not glean a hint of what was to be done. Senator Aldrich notified each one to go quietly into a private car of which the railroad had received orders to draw up on an unfrequented platform. Off the party set. New York’s ubiquitous reporters had been foiled . . .

Nelson (Aldrich) had confided to Henry, Frank, Paul and Piatt that he was to keep them locked up at Jekyll Island, out of the rest of the world, until they had evolved and compiled a scientific currency system for the United States, the real birth of the present Federal Reserve System, the plan done on Jekyll Island in the conference with Paul, Frank and Henry . . . . Warburg is the link that binds the Aldrich system and the present system together. He more than any one man has made the system possible as a working reality.' "

Google "Aldrich currency report" to continue....

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9F07E1D91130E733A25750C0A9659C946297D6CF

A Cloak And Dagger Look At The Federal Reserve

This has been copied

Thanks to mike762

I started a thread at the other place called Has anyone heard of Seeking Alpha , James West, or the Midas Letter?      mike762, (who's been so patient with me as try to understand this stuff over there,) said something that caused a lightbulb to come on

...Gold and silver have no counterparty who must perform to give them value. ...

One side of the deal fails to perform, like pay his mortgage or his credit card bill, then the products based upon that fail too.

...If there's not enough money in capital reserves to cover the loss, then the entity is insolvent. That is where our system is today. ...

...The Federal Reserve and other central banks are trying to hide this ...

by taking these [insolvent entities] as "collateral" and giving out dollars in return.

[But] The banks are not loaning out this money because they have to strengthen their balance sheets, ....

...the various derivatives that are floating around...There are more than $1,000,000,000,000,000 (that's a quadrillion) notional value

of derivatives in the financial system worldwide

held by banks, pension funds, individuals, municipalities etc.

When these products fail, that notional value becomes real value,

and the loss must be accounted for on the books.

James West Article Part I

Yesterday I read an interesting article posted by Barak - The Federal Reserve's Self-Imposed Dilemma. (A lot of my posts here are prompted by and intermingled with posts from the forum Hunter's Campfire at 24hourcampfire.com. I'm going to change the header here to reflect this.) For now I'm only mentioning Barak's thread so I can find it later. Barak is very knowledgeable about this economy stuff, along with Mike, Archerhunter, and a few others.

I was trying to find out if lenders were really forced to make loans to bad risks.
So I Googled "Mandatory loans to unqualified borrowers". One of the first results caught my attention - U.S. Debt Default, Dollar Collapse Altogether Likely - an article written by somebody I've never heard of on a website I've never heard of. Nevertheless, it's interesting enough that I want to digest it further.

James West writes:

The prospect of the United States defaulting on its debt is not just likely. It's inevitable, and imminent.

The regulatory black holes into which sanity and reason disappear on a daily basis are soon to collapse under the mass of their sheer size. The circle jerk going on among G7 governments has to end – the steady advance of gold, even in the face of a managed price, exposes the real value of the U.S. dollar, as opposed to its apparent value expressed in the dollar index.

Ok. So here come my first questions.

What are G7 governments?
From Wikipedia: "The Group of Eight (G8, and formerly the (G6) or Group of Six) is a forum for governments of eight nations of the northern hemisphere: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States; ... The G8 can refer to the member states or to the annual summit meeting of the G8 heads of government. The former term G6 is now frequently applied to the six most populous countries within the European Union."
Seems like I can remember the first one of these. It was kinda like "I'd like to buy the world a Coke...." And the reason they get along so well now is because they don't do anything.

Who manages the price of gold?
According to Wikipedia: "The usual benchmark for the price of gold is known as the London Gold Fixing, a twice-daily (telephone) meeting of representatives from five bullion-trading firms. Furthermore, there is active gold trading based on the intra-day spot price, derived from gold-trading markets around the world as they open and close throughout the day.
     Today, like all investments and commodities, the price of gold is ultimately driven by supply and demand. Unlike most other commodities, the hoarding and disposal plays a much bigger role in affecting the price, because most of the gold ever mined still exists and is potentially able to come on to the market for the right price.
     Given the huge quantity of stored gold, compared to the annual production, the price of gold is mainly affected by changes in sentiment, rather than changes in annual production. " (There's more good stuff here, but that would lead me into another wormhole....)

What is the dollar index? (See this )
Wikipedia: "The US Dollar Index (USDX) is a measure of the value of the United States Dollar relative to a basket of of foreign currencies. It is a weighted geometric mean of the dollar's value compared to the euro (EUR), Japanese yen (JPY), Pound sterling (GBP), Canadian dollar (CAD), Swedish krona (SEK) and Swiss franc (CHF).
     It was started in March 1973, soon after the dismantling of the Bretton Woods system. At that time, the value of the Dollar Index was 100.000 and has since traded as high as the mid-160s but also into the low 70s. As of October 2008, the USDX was trading in the mid-80s. On March 6, 2008, the index touched 72.89, the lowest since its inception in 1973. It continued downward and reached 70.698 on March 16.
     The index is updated 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is listed on ICE Futures Exchange US (e.g., New York Board of Trade [NYBOT])."


I'm gonna have to break this down into another post - called James West Article Part II

A "Fire" Thread - What's Wrong With The Economy

derby_dude started a "Fire" thread called What's Wrong with the Economy on 01/29/09. He said:

"For about 100 years our economy has been a 'borrow and spend' economy. The consumer can't borrow any more so he must pay down his debt. When the consumer has built up his savings and paid his debt down to a more manageable level he will start spending again. No amount of stimulus from Big Uncle is going to get us out of this.

I look for unemployment to hit around 30%, the illegal immigrants to go home, many people working for $7.25 an hour dang thankful they have work, inflation pushing toward 20%, foreclosures to skyrocket, bankruptcies to hit the stratosphere, etc. I look for at least a 10 year deep depression if for no other reason that the government will do everything it can to make last at least that long"

I spent the better part of the day trying to understand responses to his thread. To give an idea of how ignorant I was about this stuff: Bristoe said "The "so called" stimulus package is just a diversion to keep people thinking that something is being done by the government to fix the economic disaster. Just more theater." I said, "So, are you saying it'll pass, but the money isn't really there, so the money won't really be thrown up in the air, so to speak, - no harm done? No real harm, that is."

Bristoe said, "No,..I'm saying that it'll pass and the money will *always* be there. It's just paper. If it ever runs short they'll just print up more. The government never runs out of money. When it needs some, the Federal Reserve just runs some off for them. Of course, everytime they run off a batch of new money it makes the existing money worth just that much less."

Part of my problem understanding this comes from the idea that our money has to be backed up by something valuable. It is, but that 'valuable something' is the same 'valuable something' that's already backing up our money. Every time the Fed prints and issues more money, it divides the 'valuable something' into even smaller pieces; thereby causing our money to be worth even less.

According to the U.S. Department of the Treasury FAQs,Federal Reserve notes are not redeemable in gold, silver or any other commodity, and receive no backing by anything. This has been the case since 1933. The notes have no value for themselves, but for what they will buy. In another sense, because they are legal tender, Federal Reserve notes are "backed" by all the goods and services in the economy." So Federal Reserve Notes are backed by the Gross Domestic Product.

From an English article (The Money Oracle): "...a graphical representation of the fall in value of the US$ since the Federal Reserve took control of the monetary system"



There's a lot of this kind of stuff on the web about the Federal Reserve. Most of it I take with a grain of salt. I don't take Glenn Beck with a grain of salt:
Glenn Beck: Look Behind The Curtain

Lava Tubes, The Federal Reserve, and The Economy

ehunter started a "fire" thread called Well I have been laid off on 01/27/09. It started a discussion about the deteriorating economic situation wherein I eventually said, "I guess I have a doomsday outlook on things. I think in 20yrs we will have become like Afghanistan with regards to our infrastructure. I think there'll be days when we will only have 4 or 5 hours electricity - or none at all. I think we'll have limited telephone service. Etc. And I think a full out depression is imminent. How could it not be?"

I really believe this, but I don't know why. Not yet.

From here my interest turned to this thread and the Federal Reserve. Some poignant things were said by people I believe know what they're talking about:
Bristoe - "The Federal Reserve has been playing games with the nation's monetary system and crashed it,...badly,...extremely badly. Even if massive numbers of people weren't losing their jobs, they wouldn't be able to work enough to fix it. This crash is of a scale that's never been seen before. Nobody has any idea how to deal with it or even if there *is* a way to deal with it."

Emphasis on "...Even if massive numbers of people weren't losing their jobs, they wouldn't be able to work enough to fix it."

mike762 - "...The further our economy descends, the easier it will be for the statists to gain permanent control, much as they did after the New Deal. Unfortunately, I think it will collapse along the way, long before it gets better. ..."

And I said, "...I don't know too much about the Fed's purpose - what it can/can't do. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that ... what's a good analogy? all this money flowing so freely around is kinda like a lava tube ripe to collapse on itself. Or a lava tube that's outgrown the volcano, yet still needs to be fed. Something along those lines. ... Where's all this 'free flowing money' coming from? It's scary...."

I finally invested all my thoughts in a thread called What's Wrong with the Economy....