Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Il commercialista di Dick Cheney: L'economia Americana e' in crisi

http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney07052006.html
Is Cheney Betting On Economic Collapse?
By MIKE WHITNEY
Wouldn't you like to know where Dick Cheney puts his money? Then you'd
know whether his "deficits don't matter" claim is just baloney or not.
Well, as it turns out, Kiplinger Magazine ran an article based on
Cheney's financial disclosure statement and, sure enough, found out
that the VP is lying to the American people for the umpteenth time.
Deficits do matter and Cheney has invested his money accordingly.
The article is called "Cheney's betting on bad news" and provides an
account of where Cheney has socked away more than $25 million. While
the figures may be estimates, the investments are not. According to Tom
Blackburn of the Palm Beach Post, Cheney has invested heavily in "a
fund that specializes in short-term municipal bonds, a tax-exempt money
market fund and an inflation protected securities fund. The first two
hold up if interest rates rise with inflation. The third is protected
against inflation."
Cheney has dumped another (estimated) $10 to $25 million in a European
bond fund which tells us that he is counting on a steadily weakening
dollar. So, while working class Americans are loosing ground to
inflation and rising energy costs, Darth Cheney will be enhancing his
wealth in "Old Europe". As Blackburn sagely notes, "Not all bad news'
is bad for everybody."
This should put to rest once and for all the foolish notion that the
"Bush Economic Plan" is anything more than a scam aimed at looting the
public till. The whole deal is intended to shift the nation's wealth
from one class to another. It's also clear that Bush-Cheney couldn't
have carried this off without the tacit approval of the thieves at the
Federal Reserve who engineered the low-interest rate boondoggle to put
the American people to sleep while they picked their pockets.
Reasonable people can dispute that Bush is "intentionally" skewering
the dollar with his lavish tax cuts, but how does that explain Cheney's
portfolio?
It doesn't. And, one thing we can say with metaphysical certainty is
that the miserly Cheney would never plunk his money into an investment
that wasn't a sure thing. If Cheney is counting on the dollar tanking
and interest rates going up, then, by Gawd, that's what'll happen.
The Bush-Cheney team has racked up another $3 trillion in debt in just
6 years. The US national debt now stands at $8.4 trillion dollars while
the trade deficit has ballooned to $800 billion nearly 7% of GDP.
This is lunacy. No country, however powerful, can maintain these
staggering numbers. The country is in hock up to its neck and has to
borrow $2.5 billion per day just to stay above water. Presently, the
Fed is expanding the money supply and buying back its own treasuries to
hide the hemorrhaging from the public. Its utter madness.
Last month the trade deficit climbed to $70 billion. More importantly,
foreign central banks only purchased a meager $47 billion in treasuries
to shore up our ravenous appetite for cheap junk from China.
Do the math! They're not investing in America anymore. They are
decreasing their stockpiles of dollars. We're sinking fast and Cheney
and his pals are manning the lifeboats while the public is diverted
with gay marriage amendments and "American Celebrity".
The American manufacturing sector has been hollowed out by cutthroat
corporations who've abandoned their country to make a fast-buck in
China or Mexico. The $3 trillion housing (equity) bubble is quickly
loosing air while the anemic dollar continues to sag. All the signs
indicate that the economy is slowing at the same time that energy
prices continue to rise.
This is the onset of stagflation; the dreaded combo of a slowing
economy and inflation.
Did Americans really think they'd be spared the same type of economic
colonization that has been applied throughout the developing world
under the rubric of "neoliberalism"?
Well, think again. The American economy is barrel-rolling towards earth
and there are only enough parachutes for Cheney and the gang.
The country has lost 3 million jobs from outsourcing since Bush took
office; more than 200,000 of those are the high-paying, high-tech jobs
that are the life's-blood of every economy.
Consider this from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) June edition
of Foreign Affairs, the Bible of globalists and plutocrats:
    "Between 2000 and 2003 alone, foreign firms built
60,000manufacturing plants in China. European chemical companies,
Japanese carmakers, and US industrial conglomerates are all building
factories in China to supply export markets around the world.
Similarly, banks, insurance companies, professional-service firms, and
IT companies are building R&D and service centers in India to support
employees, customers, and production worldwide." ("The Globally
integrated Enterprise" Samuel Palmisano, Foreign Affairs page 130)
    "60,000 manufacturing plants" in 3 years?!?
    "Banks, insurance companies, professional-service firms, and IT
companies"?
No job is safe. American elites and corporate tycoons are loading the
boats and heading for foreign shores. The only thing they're leaving
behind is the insurmountable debt that will be shackled to our children
into perpetuity and the carefully arranged levers of a modern
police-surveillance state.
Welcome to Bush's 21st Century gulag; third world luxury in a
Guantanamo-type setting.
Take another look at Cheney's investment strategy; it tells the whole
ugly story. Interest rates are going up, the middle class is going
down, and the poor dollar is headed for the dumpster. The country is
not simply teetering on the brink of financial collapse; it is being
thrust headfirst by the blackguards in office and their satrapies at
Federal Reserve.

 
http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney07052006.html
Un'articolo un po' piu professionale
http://www.kiplinger.com/personalfinance/features/archives/2006/05/president.html
Are Dick Cheney's Money Managers Betting on Bad News?
A look at the President and Vice President's financial disclosure
forms.
By Steven Goldberg
May 17, 2006
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Vice President Cheney's financial advisers are apparently betting on a
rise in inflation and interest rates and on a decline in the value of
the dollar against foreign currencies. That's the conclusion we draw
after scouring the financial disclosure form released by Cheney this
week.
As of the end of last year, Cheney and his wife, Lynne, held between
$10 million and $25 million in Vanguard Short-Term Tax-Exempt fund
(it's impossible to be more precise because the disclosure form lists
holdings within ranges). The fund's holdings of tax-free municipal
bonds mature, on average, in a little more than a year -- meaning that
the fund should hold up well if rates rise. The Cheneys held another $1
million to $5 million in Vanguard Tax-Exempt Money Market fund, which
is practically risk-free and could benefit from continued increases in
short-term interest rates. And the couple had between $2 million and
$10 million in Vanguard Inflation-Protected Securities fund. The
principal and interest payments of inflation-protected bonds rise along
with consumer prices, making them good inflation hedges.
The Cheneys also had between $10 million and $25 million in American
Century International Bond. The fund buys mainly high-quality foreign
bonds (predominantly in Europe) and rarely hedges against possible
increases in the value of the dollar. Indeed, its prospectus limits
dollar exposure to 25% of assets and the fund currently has only 6% of
assets in dollars, according to an American Century spokesman.
The Cheneys' total assets could be as high as $94.6 million, according
to the disclosure form. The vice-president's advisers say the vice
president pays no attention to his investments. His lawyer, Terrence
O'Donnell, says outside money managers supervise the investments. "He
has nothing to do with it," O'Donnell says.
As for stocks, the couple held between $1 million and $5 million in
Lazard International Equity and a like amount in Lazard Emerging
Markets funds. The Cheneys' relatively few U.S. stock fund holdings
include $1 million to $5 million in GMO Tax-Managed U.S. Equities III.
President Bush may be bold in his public policies, but his private
investments appear decidedly on the meek side. Bush and his wife,
Laura, reported on their disclosure form that they held combined assets
of $7.2 million to $20.9 million.
As of the end of last year, the Bushes' two largest assets were their
Texas ranch, valued at between $1 million and $5 million, and a blind
trust, also valued at between $1 million and $5 million. Of course,
it's impossible to tell how the trust is invested, so it could be
heavily in stocks. The White House would not make the trust's managers
available for comment.
Beyond the trust, the First Family's investable assets are largely in
super-safe Treasury notes, money-market funds and bank certificates of
deposit. The Bushes' holdings in these instruments totaled between $1.7
million and $4.4 million. The President also listed a Health Savings
Account worth between $1,000 and $15,000.
The Bushes confine most of their stock investing to their relatively
small IRAs and to the President's retirement account from when he was
governor of Texas. As of last December, that account was worth $108,016
and was invested entirely in Vanguard Wellington, which owns stocks and
bonds. The President's IRA, worth $87,074, includes $30,142 in Capital
Income Builder, a balanced fund that's part of the American funds
family; $30,866 in Growth Fund of America, another American fund; and
$24,219 in zero-coupon U.S. Treasury bonds. Nearly all of the First
Lady's IRA, worth $8,556, was also in Capital Income Builder.