Welcome to my leadership blog. Ideas have consequences and the goal of this blog is to discuss ideas of consequence. Some ideas you may agree with and some you may disagree. No worries. The only rules are that you post under your own name and that you think and discuss in a civil manner. People who attack others only prove they have reached the limit of their logic. The Bible states, "Iron sharpens iron" and we will sharpen one another by what we read, write and think. The goal of this blog is to help us identify and follow truth in all areas of our lives. I encourage you to join our leadership discussion and transform yourself and others through the renewing of our minds.
This is the blog where leaders come to learn with NY Times, Wall St. Journal, USA Today, Money & Business Weekly best selling co-author of Launching a Leadership Revolution & Top 25 Leadership Gurus List Best of the Rest Selection - Orrin Woodward. This blog is an Alltop selection and ranked in HR's Top 100 Blogs for Management & Leadership.
Today, with a heavy heart, I will share breaking news on the immoral monetary activity of the Federal Reserve.Money supply must be tied to economic output of a country or the printed money is merely paper only good for starting fires.Paper money is a moral promise that the paper is backed by the economic strength of the creator of the paper money.The reason the Gold Standard was used as a standard practice was to ensure the public that the government producing the money had the wealth that backed up the paper money.When a government goes off the Gold Standard, it is a clear indicator that the government has run out of money, but would like to print paper to pay its debts without a real wealth to back it.Argentina, Germany, and other countries that attempted to print money without real wealth backing it have all learned the valuable lesson of inflation and loss of trust.Would you trade real gold for fake paper?
I am an American patriot and very proud to be called an American.Today is the saddest day for me as an American.The following graph clearly displays that America has chosen to inflate its money supply without real wealth to back the paper money and money credits.This is immoral in the highest degree.This is no different than if I owed someone a million dollars and I only had one hundred dollars so I handed him Monopoly money and told him that it was legal tender.Money should be like a promissory note and that is the true origin of paper money – a promised note to redeem the above legal tender with gold at the owner’s discretion.This is no longer the case and has proven to be to great a temptation in the hands of our quick fix political leadership.This is not a Republican vs. Democrat post because I believe all of the politicians have let us down. Do you honestly believe that real wealth in this country has rocketed straight up like a spacecraft in the past few months? This is clearly producing money out of thin air with no real wealth backing, which is another name for inflationary policies!
Are there any concerned citizens with enough understanding of the history of the damaging effects of inflationary policies to demand accountability?Inflationary policies destroy the virtues of savings, destroy the fixed income retirements, destroy the confidence of the markets in our dollar and reward all types of character-less behavior.Americans cannot print our way out of our debt.ONLY real wealth producing strategies in the market combined with moral leadership in Washington will right this sinking ship.Please read Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt, Road to Serfdom by F. A. Hayek, Free to Choose by Milton Friedman, and The Case Against the Fed by Murray Rothbard.We must learn, teach and then do something about this mess.Our children and grand-children are in peril of never enjoying the American Experiment because we have drifted far from our American principles. It is time to bring fiscal responsibility to Washington. Get an amendment passed that forces our political leaders to balance their budget like every American citizen must do. No borrowing against our children's futures and no inflationary policies which punishes all the virtuous characteristics needed to operate society. Will you help?Get started today by learning this material and then sharing with everyone that want to learn in your local communities.
As for me, my family and our team, we promise to play our part in the American Restoration!God Bless, Orrin Woodward
Thanks, Orrin. I learned about a month & 1/2 ago that the "Bailout" and the so-called "Stimulous" did not consist of Tax Dollars but merely of printed money.
So, based upon my belief that Barack Obama is an enemy of the U.S. Constitution and its capitalistic framework, the question I raise is this:
Is this one more step in a chain of linked steps, to destroy the U.S. economy and bring us down to the level of the rest of the world...in the name of "Fairness" & "Equality"?
Viewed from that perspective, what we do daily, in reaching out to those citizens frustrated with the direction of the country, takes on a truly different thrust and significance.
This is a war. A war of opposing ideas and ideologies...and the stakes are quite high.
by
Anonymous
on Tue 17 Feb 2009 08:42 AM EST | Permanent Link
What really gauls me is they passed this legislation without reading it. This stimulation package was authored by Nancy Pelosi (the queen of pork) who should be in jail for her part in the tuna gate scandal. Her state (California) is the model for the direction the country is headed. California is proud to be the testing grounds and leader in auto emissions, clean air acts, and budget deficits. They are a shining example of what not to do in Government. They are the highest taxed, highest unemployment, most bankrupt state in the country, yet we turn to their representative for economic legislation.
Leadership is lacking in Washington. Common sense eludes our public officials. It's our job to hold them accountable. Leadership begins with you. Pick up the phone, write a letter, or send an e-mail to your elected official to be sure they know your not happy with what's going on. It's time Washington understands what true change is. Politics seem to sway to public pressure, let's apply some! Then we need to plot a course to elect common sense fiscally responsible representatives who act in the country's best interest before it's too late. I suggest we select leaders from our own pool of highly qualified, well read, integrity based leaders. I've been told Washington is a give and take atmosphere, but it doesn't have to be. We should have to make concessions on what's morally and financially correct.
by
D.L. Hall
on Tue 17 Feb 2009 10:20 AM EST | Permanent Link
I wonder if as a "patriot" you complained about the immoral act of cutting taxes for wealthy Americans (costing 2 trillion, is it?) or in spending over a trillion in a false war, promulgated by lies? This is my issue with "moral" reasoning against Obama. You all who are sounding these alarms (and, I am also alarmed, but I have been for the last 8 years) remember hearing nothing from you while the problem was developing. Your silence during that time indicates you were no patriot. If I'm wrong about that, please point me to an earlier entry on your blog so that I can read and believe in your moral reasoning.
D. L., There is only about 50 blog post over the several years that stated the same core issue during Bush's administration. Like I said, this has nothing to do with right, left, republican or democrat. This has to do with moral restraint, honest money, and the future of America. Here is one post, but feel free to read the blog and you will find plenty more. I even did a post on George Bush stating he was abandoning free enterprise principles to save free enterprise. This is ludicrous thinking! http://orrinwoodward.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2008/1/18/3471883.html thanks, Orrin
by
dean clouse
on Tue 17 Feb 2009 10:37 AM EST | Permanent Link
How is cutting taxes for the wealthy immoral?
And the problem hasn't been going on for the last 8 years, they've been going on for a century. And sorry for not raising the alarms a century ago, my parents weren't married and having kids then and neither was I. However, Orrin has been speaking about this for a long time. And you won't find any blog entries of Orrin talking about these problems 8 years ago because he hasn't had this blog that long (what a year and a half now Orrin?). And if it seems that we've been silent, as you say we were, therefore we are not patiots, I've got two things to say. Naysaying your government does not automatically make you a patriot (we do like to say good things about it on occasion) and just because you haven't been listening does not make us silent. Also, simply because we may disagree does not make the other unpatriotic nor does it make us patriotic. Two people can come up with the opposite ideas and conclusions and both still be patriots.
by
Anonymous
on Tue 17 Feb 2009 01:06 PM EST | Permanent Link
I do not understand the mind set of someone that believes,people who earn a large amount of money somehow owe a greater percentage of it in taxes than someone who earns a lesser amount.
DL I understand where you are coming from in this situation and as for me and what I believe if you don't have a way to regulate the way the money supply you do have unnecessary wars that occur (i.e. Iraq; our troops on something like 131 countries ; over 50,000 troops in GERMANY!?!?!), and to be honest after looking at the economic record of bush and clinton ; Clinton was able to get close to the dream of a balanced budget, unlike bush. When you make tax cuts for the wealthy you must also cut programs from government but unfortunately bush didn't (hence $400 billion defecits); and now things are moving quicker and quicker into an economic catastrophe. Morally I believe diluting the money supply is immoral.
I have attached the link for the movie IOUSA which was done by the Comptroller General ; David Walker.
It's a great 30 minute movie (bipartisan agreement on the numbers) on the mess we find ourselves in : http://bit.ly/VQ3a
Also one other video that I love is by Ron Paul done in 1983 : http://bit.ly/oDJi4
by
dean clouse
on Tue 17 Feb 2009 10:26 AM EST | Permanent Link
Orrin, basically every politician since President Johnson has promised more to the American people than they can ever cash in. If you account for all national debts (which most people, economists and politicians refuse to do for reasons I am about to make clear) the federal debt is hovering at about $50 Trillion. That is $50,000,000,000,000 if you want to write it out. And that does not include anything Obama and our current congress has done or is planning to do. The problem here is that there is not that much money in the world. Now the politicians can go back on their promises, which none are prepared to do, or they can simply print off that much money and call it good, which it seems is exactly their plan. When they do this, assuming they reign in the spending (doubtful), the debts will be gone and they will look like champions--no debts and all promises fulfilled. The downside is that our dollar then (about ten years should do the trick) will be worth about a penny now. Do the math. That means everything we buy will be 100 times more expensive, but our checks will not increase (historically, the last thing affected by inflation is income and the thing never affected by inflation is fixed income such as social security and retirement accounts). To make it simpler to understand, keep all prices the same as they are now, but your paycheck is cut by a factor of 100. For instance, if you make $25 dollars an hour (about the middle of the average incomes), you now have the same expenses but your income goes to 25 cents an hour. What can you afford? Nothing is the answer. But it is the only solution our government has. They've been doing this since the late 1800's or very early 1900's. It got a boost under FDR, and a huge boost under Johnson. Bush (the latter) gave it a big boost in his last year in office and Obama has promised to double it in the next two years. So far, there is no end in sight. If they control the spending, this idea will get all their promises fulfilled and get us out of debt at the same time. However, I've never in my life seen government control spending. This is the tip of the iceburg--nah, this is us running into Antarctica at full speed cheering the Captain of the ship on thinking the whole continent will gladly move out of our way. Let's put up some reality here. Keynesianism has never worked and has only made rich countries poor. It's time to put that failed economic theory to rest at long last.
by
Brian Lycklama
on Tue 17 Feb 2009 10:43 AM EST | Permanent Link
I got this email this morning and thought it relevant to your post.
How many zeros in a billion?
This is too true to be funny.
The next time you hear a politician use the
word 'billion' in a casual manner, think about
whether you want the 'politicians' spending
YOUR tax money.
A billion is a difficult number to comprehend,
but one advertising agency did a good job of
putting that figure into some perspective in
one of it's releases.
A.
A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
B.
A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.
C.
A billion hours ago our ancestors were
living in the Stone Age.
D.
A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.
E.
A billion dollars ago was only
8 hours and 20 minutes,
at the rate our government
is spending it.
While this thought is still fresh in our brain...
let's take a look at New Orleans ....
It's amazing what you can learn with some simple division.
Louisiana Senator,
Mary Landrieu (D)
is presently asking Congress for
250 BILLION DOLLARS
to rebuild New Orleans . Interesting number...
what does it mean?
A.
Well... if you are one of the 484,674 residents of New Orleans
(every man, woman, and child)
you each get $516,528.
B.
Or... if you have one of the 188,251 homes in
New Orleans , your home gets $1,329,787.
C.
Or... if you are a family of four...
your family gets $2,066,012.
Washington, D. C
< HELLO! >
Are all your calculators broken??
Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL License Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax)
IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Tax
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service charge taxes
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Tax (Truckers)
Sales Taxes
Recreational Vehicle Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Tax
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax
Telephone State and Local Tax
Telephone Usage Charge Tax
Utility Tax
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax
STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?
Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago...
and our nation was the most prosperous in the world.
We had absolutely no national debt..
We had the largest middle class in the world...
and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.
What happened?
Can you spell 'politicians!'
And I still have to
press '1'
for English.
I hope this goes around the
USA
at least 100 times
by
Anonymous
on Tue 17 Feb 2009 01:30 PM EST | Permanent Link
Rush said yesterday something about 401k's being the next target of oportunity for the left.I've long believed that politicians can't stand it to have so large an amount of money in a place where where they can't get their greasy hands on it,(funny how that works),It seems now that they want to combine 401k's,acording to Rush Limbaugh, with Social Security.Like the old song says,"wouldn't it be loverly." John W. Fisher
I knew what was going on before, but after seeing the graph you found, this is insane! I'm almost speechless thinking about the consequences. How do you think that vertical line will affect society in the next year or two, as the market adjusts itself to make up for the inflated currency?
by
Debbie Spolar
on Tue 17 Feb 2009 04:14 PM EST | Permanent Link
Something For Nothing
I read this blog on the net this morning. It fits!
<u>The ARRA makes clear that we have not learned one great moral
lesson: You can’t have something for nothing. Or, among economists,
there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
I’m not even sure that anybody is seriously arguing that most of the items contained in this bill constitute “stimulus.” Congress can genuinely
stimulate the economy in two ways: decreasing taxes and decreasing
regulation. In other words, by putting fewer hindrances in the way of those who wish to produce and consume. Everything else is smoke and mirrors. Government puts money into one person’s hands only by taking it out of someone else’s.
If the bill has any positive impact, it will be psychological, making people
believe that the economy will improve and therefore generating positive economic activity. This possibility seems doubtful at this point. It appears
instead that the measure’s most significant effect will be to increase the
cynicism with which the American people view their government. I’m
undecided yet as to whether that is a favorable development. </u>
Proper leadership is so important! It involves a vision to see farther
than the end of one's own nose. Perhaps the current crisis will awaken
people to practice the principles that have stood the test of time. We are commited to help people create their own stimulus package with alot more security. Sounds like a sound plan to me. :)
Wikipedia's entry on Gold Standard we have an alarming set of statistics to counter.
The total amount of gold that has ever been mined has been estimated at around 142,000 tonnes. Assuming a gold price of US$1,000 per ounce, or $32,500 per kilogram, the total value of all the gold ever mined would be around $4.5 trillion. This is less than the value of circulating money in the U.S. alone, where more than $7.6 trillion is in circulation or in deposit (although international banking currently practices fractional reserves).
Let's save Gloomsday from becoming Doomsday. My detailed comments are on my blog
Orrin, please take a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xKPcyvlfnc - especially from the 2:15 mark. I'm shocked that this has been available on youtube since 1/30 and ONLY has about 20k hits. I'm not sure if the lack of interest is because people don't know about this or just don't understand its significance.
by
Dave Nelson
on Wed 18 Feb 2009 10:44 AM EST | Permanent Link
Hey, were all the same.
We see all this crap going on but DO NOTHING. We elected which ever president and they do/did whatever they wanted, irrespective of us, including all elected people.
We go to jobs and forget what our elected people are doing to us.
Most people who want more money do something to get it.
The buck an hour worker, union or not, does nothing or cries.
God is using America, and the world, to accomplish his plan. People, from
Obama to me are a part of it. My job is to build his Kingdom. He wants the
people I have trouble with to be saved.
On the Video;
1- turn off the TV, computer. Stop wasting time playing games or entertaining
your self
2- Build a community of people and help them think and become optimists.
3- The problems are not going away. We need to learn how to cope with them.
It's like living with mosquitoes or house fly's or bees.
Were going to have to co-exist with people who don't or won't think.
Have you accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior? Yet?
Could your future be in jepordy because of present actions?
Are you trying to lead your life or do you let God lead it?
The Israelites did not go immediately from Egypt to the Promised Land.
They had to be tested by God. Some flunked. Are you flunking God's test?
Dear DL , I can point to the past 10 years in which people like Orrin Woodward have been actively "sounding the alarm" for America. Key point, you can't stand ontop of the Empire State Building with a blowhorn because we're a society of "deaf ears". The majority of the people in this country have been educated to not care about these issues. Our corporate driven media has drilled it into the mainstream conscience that "what we don't know, won't hurt us"! Which happens to be the biggest lie holding our society back. Unfortunately, masses have bought into this. Sometimes it takes "going under the radar" in order to eventually, turn the tide! People like Orrin Woodward aren't among the popular voice for America out there because it's the voice of truth, which as the "Casting Crowns" would say, "the voice of truth will tell a different story". To put it bluntly, the leaders that we need leading the charge aren't exactly the most popular people in our society's eye's because most people aren't equipped to handle what they need to hear! What we don't know, can and will hurt us! The proper media will prove that to be the case. I applaud you for asking questions and getting clarification. One thing I've learned from people like Orrin Woodward and other great leaders stepping up to make a difference is, they don't act like they have a corner on the market when it comes to wisdom. They're constantly learning everyday which is something they've taught me to do. A great leader will always be challenged by the test of time. Time is becoming the TEAM'S best friend!
by
Anonymous
on Wed 18 Feb 2009 08:28 PM EST | Permanent Link
I could not agree with you more Orrin. Kyosaki predicted this in on of his books. How ever Orrin, do you have a solution to get us back on the gold standard or not?
Wikipedia's entry on Gold Standard we have an alarming set of statistics to counter.
The total amount of gold that has ever been mined has been estimated at around 142,000 tonnes. Assuming a gold price of US$1,000 per ounce, or $32,500 per kilogram, the total value of all the gold ever mined would be around $4.5 trillion. This is less than the value of circulating money in the U.S. alone, where more than $7.6 trillion is in circulation or in deposit (although international banking currently practices fractional reserves).
Let's save Gloomsday from becoming Doomsday. My detailed comments are on my blog
You are absolutely right, Orrin. See you back at twitter.
My brother is an NYU professor and just wrote about this: sixpence none the wiser. You and he are saying the same thing. Glad you're saying this!
by
Kevin North
on Mon 09 Mar 2009 06:20 AM EDT | Permanent Link
The graph shown, while accurate (I checked), is NOT of the total money supply, but only of the amount of printed currency ("M0"). The total money supply has actually decreased recently; see:
http://www.nowandfutures.com/key_stats.html
So the government is not "printing money" in the traditional sense; at least not yet. Be careful before scaring everyone!! Maybe the government is increasing M0 to stave off runs on banks, such as the one Yitz reported.