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Harper Texas Weekly
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Your address could be in this box and you could be re-
ceiving this in the mail every week by subscribing...
Harper Texas Weekly
13 December 2013
Still just a buck…
Volume 1 Issue 3 www.HarperTexasWeekly.com
Park Board Application
Continued from page: 5
Way to go Harper...
Harper Texas Weekly
A weekly newspaper serving Harper
288 E. Kroll, Harper, TX 78631
(830) 377-5729
Editor and Publisher - Virgil Bierschwale
Advertising Director - Position is open
Sales - Position is open
Reporter - Position is open
Sports Editor - Position is open
Harper Texas Weekly is published weekly by Virgil
Bierschwale at 288 E. Kroll, Harper, TX 78631.
Postmaster: Send address changes to Harper Texas
Weekly, 288 E. Kroll, Harper, Texas 78631
Annual Subscription Rate: $35.00
Any erroneous reflection upon the character or
standing of any person or firm appearing in these col-
umns will be gladly and promptly corrected upon call-
ing the attention of the management to the article in
question.
The publishers liability for errors or omissions in con-
nection with an advertisement is strictly limited to
publication of the advertisement in any subsequent
issue or the refund of any monies paid for the adver-
tisement.
Application Pending
Periodicals Postage Paid at Harper, Texas
USPS
Three Laws:
Being a former software developer, there is a guy
named Ralph Gomory that used to work for IBM
that I follow.
Recently he came out with a article that listed
these three laws and I thought I would share them
with you:
1. It is almost impossible by rational argument to
persuade people to believe what they do not
want to believe.
2. Almost any argument, no matter how feeble,
will convince people of what they do want to
believe.
3. If you think your opponent’s position doesn’t
make sense, or that he or she is stupid or unin-
formed or irrational, think again. Almost cer-
tainly, YOU are the one who does not under-
stand.
He goes on to say “The meaning of the Third Law is
this: Your opponent may look stupid or irrational to
you, but in fact he or she is probably doing some-
thing that does make sense. Most likely you simply
don’t know enough about your opponent’s real mo-
tivation; if you understood more, you would see
that he is anything but stupid.
So you think you have utility bills?
In all of my travels, one
thing that has been con-
sistent is people com-
plaining about their utility
bills, or complaining about
how high their taxes are.
My apologies to the Har-
per School District, but
the largest employer here
in Harper is the Harper
School District, and they
are also the largest user
of utilities in Harper.
So I’m going to use them
as an example.
After all, I believe we all
want to teach our kids all
that we can so that they
can build a better life for
themselves than we had.
And this means that we
need a great school with
great teachers who can
show our kids how to
think, and why it is neces-
sary for them to question
things rather than blindly
follow a bunch of lem-
mings over a cliff.
This takes money.
Lots of money.
But even then, I don’t be-
lieve most people realize
how much which is why I
decided to write a article
showing what the utilities
alone cost.
It looks like they are doing
a pretty good at conserv-
ing energy except for wa-
ter and we all realize that
is probably out of their
hands, don’t we?
How are they doing dollar
wise?
Personally I think we
should congratulate them
on doing their part to con-
serve energy and we
should write to the public
utilities commission to
complain about our water
bills.
One thing I did find inter-
esting was that the water
usage was going up, yet
the water cost seems to
have leveled off.
Public Utility Commission of Texas
1701 N. Congress Avenue
PO Box 13326
Austin, TX 78711-3326
(888) 782-8477
Have you mailed your subscription yet?
When I first moved back to Harper a wise
person gave me this advice:
“Believe none of what you hear and only
about half of what you see.”
After ten years of researching the global
economy I can guarantee you that this
advice was very good.
All I can say is:
Trust, but Verify...
How many organizations
do we have out in the
woods that do important
work that people may or
may not know about?
That is a question that
came to me this morning
as I’m changing the pa-
per from 12 pages to 8
pages (It’s a long story,
but there is a big differ-
ence in pricing between
the two and if I wanted to
bring you another paper,
I have to trim the amount
of pages, unless of
course, more people
subscribe, at which
point I will bring even
more pages into play
that focus on our com-
munity).
Do you have a organiza-
tion like the food bank,
or some other such or-
ganization that you
would like to list in each
issue of the paper?
How about any kids or-
ganizations?
Any church organiza-
tions?
I ask these questions
because many of us
grow complacent over
time and we assume that
everybody knows about
our organization.
However if you really sit
down and study the pic-
ture you soon realize
that people are moving
in, and moving away
from our community all
the time.
Bottom line, your organi-
zation needs to be here
if you want people to
know about it
-- Community Organizations -- Did you ever hear the one about the guy that started a
business and refused to advertise so that people would
know about his business?
No?
Probably because nobody knew about him...
It’s time to renew your favorite community
organization membership dues.
If it’s not, consider giving them a extra buck or two to
help them out
Help us to grow by subscribing, advertising and
telling your friends and neighbors about us, and
if you are the type that is interested in such, by
writing for us and helping us to sell subscriptions
and advertisements.
Realtors Corner
For the most part, we have two Multiple Listing Ser-
vices that service this area.
One is located in Gillespie County and the other is lo-
cated in Kerr County.
When I ran a “Historical Active Report” from 1 Nov
2013 to 9 Dec 2013, I find the following statistics in the
Gillespie County System.
70 - Total Count
336 - Average Days on Market
$477,916.00 - Average List Price
$178,388.00 - Median List Price
Basically this means that we have 70 properties for
sale in the Harper area and they have been on the
market for an average of 336 days.
Are you a licensed realtor?
Are you interested in building your business in the
Harper Area?
If so, I am making this space available for all realtors
that would like to share their knowledge of the real
estate market in this portion of Gillespie County.
HVFD AUXILIARY
Our mission is to provide volunteer support
to the Harper Volunteer Fire Department
UPCOMING MEETING DATES
January 27th 2014
February 24th 2014
March 24th 2014
HARPER VOLUNTEER FIRE
DEPARTMENT AND EMS
FIRE OR MEDICAL EMERGENCY - DIAL 911
EMERGENCY LINE - (830) 864-4444
NON-EMERGENCY LINE (830) 864-4253
FIRE DEPARTMENT
MONTHLY CALL LOG FOR 2013
JAN - 4, FEB - 5, MAR - 6, APR - 2, MAY - 6, JUN - 4
JUL - 3, AUG - 12, SEP - 3
YEARLY CALL LOG
2008 - 74, 2009 - 58, 2010 - 72, 2011 - 91, 2012 - 67
EMS
MONTHLY CALL LOG FOR 2013
JAN - 7, FEB - 10, MAR - 11, APR - 13, MAY - 19, JUN -
9
JUL - 11, AUG - 20, SEP - 14, OCT - 19
YEARLY CALL LOG
2009 - 132, 2010 - 125, 2011 - 141, 2012 - 145
Gillespie Livestock Company
Market Report
December 4, 2013 CWT is priced per If sold by head will note HD after
Cattle: 1273 HD
Cows & Bulls 1 Higher
Cows 60.00-83.00 CWT
Bulls 85.00-95.00 CWT
Steers 2 - 3 Lower
Heifers 2 - 3 Lower
Bred Cows 1200.00 - 1500.00 HD
Cow & Calf Pairs 1400.00 - 1850.00 HD
Medium to Large Frame #1
Steers Heifers
200 - 300 LB 200.00 - 260.00 190.00 - 230.00 CWT
300 - 400 LB 190.00 - 250.00 170.00 - 210.00 CWT
400 - 500 LB 175.00 - 225.00 155.00 - 190.00 CWT
500 - 600 LB 160.00 - 190.00 145.00 - 187.50 CWT
600 - 700 LB 140.00 - 171.00 135.00 - 155.00 CWT
700 - 800 LB 135.00 - 162.00 130.00 - 150.00 CWT
Lower Quality Steers 75.00 - 120.00 CWT
Lower Quality Heifers 70.00 - 110.00 CWT
Sheep & Goats: 2887 HD
Lambs 5 Higher and Kids 5
#1 Wool Lambs 40-60 LB 150.00 - 210.00 CWT
#1 Wool Lambs 60-80 LB 150.00 - 210.00 CWT
Packer Ewes 30.00 - 85.00 CWT
SP/BOEX Kids (20 - 40 LB) 200.00 - 320.00 CWT
SP/BOEX Kids (40 - 60 LB) 170.00 - 261.00 CWT
SP/BOEX Kids (60 - 80 LB) 170.00 - 240.00 CWT
Packer SP/BOEX Nannies 80.00 - 130.00 CWT
Stocker SP/BOEX Nannies 100.00 - 150.00 CWT
BBD Lambs (40 - 60 LB) 150.00 - 210.00 CWT
DORPX Lambs (40 - 60 LB) 180.00 - 250.00 CWT
DORPX Lambs (60 - 80 LB) 175.00 - 225.00 CWT
SP/BOEX Muttons 150.00 - 180.00 CWT
Angora Nannies 60.00 - 100.00 CWT
Angora Kids (Shorn) 160.00 - 185.00 CWT
BOEX Billies 110.00 - 160.00 CWT
Slaughter Lambs ( 100-150 125.00 - 155.00 CWT
Light Slaughter Lambs (45- 180.00 - 250.00 CWT
Representative Sales
1 BLK STR 410# 225.00 CWT
1 BLK STR 510# 187.50 CWT
3 BLK STR 609# 171.00 CWT
1 BLK HFR 385# 187.50 CWT
1 BLK HFR 620# 172.50 CWT
1 CH HFR 415# 187.50 CWT
(830) 997-4394 For More Information
Advertising Prices
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Our Businessman ad is a quarter page ad that will cost you $170.63 each time that you
put in the paper, or you can save money by agreeing to place the ad for a minimum of
four issues which will cost you $50.00 each time that you put it in the paper. You can
pay for it all at once, or you can pay $50.00 before each issue comes out ( by Wednes-
day ).
Our Big Spender ad is a half page ad that will cost you $341.25 each time that you put
it in the paper, or you can save money by agreeing to place the ad for a minimum of
four issues which will cost you $100.00 each time that you put it in the paper. You can
pay for it all at once, or you can pay $100.00 before each issue comes out ( by
Wednesday ).
Our MR. BIG SPENDER ad is a full page ad with a cost of $682.50 for one time or
$200.00 per issue for four issues using the above terms.
Subscriptions
Name: ____________________________________________________________________________
Address:__________________________________________________________________________
City: ______________________________________________________________________________
State: ____________________________________________________________________________
Zip Code: ________________________________________________________________________
Mail To:
Virgil Bierschwale
288 E. Kroll
Harper, TX 78631
Rates:
3 months for $10.00
6 months for $18.00
1 year for $35.00
3 years for $102.00
This will be our first guest
editorial.
When I first started re-
searching the economic
numbers in 2007 I couldn’t
believe my eyes.
And I wondered why the
media wasn’t telling each
and every one of us about
it.
Slowly I began to realize
that the media was owned
by six corporations and
they were focused only on
their bottom line.
So I began to research the
editors that used to con-
trol what we read in our
newspapers.
You’ve already seen what I
wrote about R.C. Hoiles in
the first issue.
If you haven’t, let me know
and I will get you a copy of
it.
I’m a big fan of the Wall
Street Journal, or I used to
be.
Let me introduce you to
somebody that used to be
the editor of the Wall
Street Journal when I be-
lieved what they wrote.
====================
Dr. Roberts was associate
editor and columnist for
The Wall Street Journal
and columnist for Busi-
ness Week and the
Scripps Howard News
Service. He was a nation-
ally syndicated columnist
for Creators Syndicate in
Los Angeles. In 1992 he
received the Warren
Brookes Award for Excel-
lence in Journalism. In
1993 the Forbes Media
Guide ranked him as one
of the top seven journalists
in the United States.
President Reagan appoint-
ed Dr. Roberts Assistant
Secretary of the Treasury
for Economic Policy and
he was confirmed in office
by the U.S. Senate. From
1975 to 1978, Dr. Roberts
served on the congres-
sional staff where he draft-
ed the Kemp-Roth bill and
played a leading role in
developing bipartisan sup-
port for a supply-side eco-
nomic policy. After leaving
the Treasury, he served as
a consultant to the U.S.
Department of Defense
and the U.S. Department
of Commerce.
=====================
As you can tell, he has an
interesting background,
but that is not why I follow
his articles.
When I was doing my own
research, every avenue
led me back to what he
had written.
Every single one…
So I began to trust his re-
search.
That doesn’t mean that I
agree with everything that
he writes.
But, I can guarantee you
that after ten years of re-
search, I can vouch for
what he is saying in this
particular article titled
“The Money Changers Ser-
enade: A new Plot Hatch-
es” by Paul Craig Roberts
=== Article Follows =
Former Treasury Secre-
tary Timothy Geithner, a
protege of Treasury Sec-
retaries Rubin and Sum-
mers, has received his
reward for continuing the
Rubin-Summers-Paulson
Instead of being paid interest on their bank deposits,
people should be penalized for keeping their money
in banks instead of spending it.
policy of supporting the
“banks too big to fail” at the
expense of the economy and
American people. For his ser-
vice to the handful of gigantic
banks, whose existence at-
tests to the fact that the Anti-
Trust Act is a dead-letter law,
Geithner has been appointed
president and managing di-
rector of the private equity
firm, Warburg Pincus and is
on his way to his fortune.
A Warburg in-law financed
Woodrow Wilson’s presiden-
tial campaign. Part of the re-
ward was Wilson’s appoint-
ment of Paul Warburg to the
first Federal Reserve Board.
The symbiotic relationship
between presidents and bank-
ers has continued ever since.
The same small clique contin-
ues to wield financial power.
Geithner’s career is illustra-
tive. In the 1980s, Geithner
worked for Kissinger Associ-
ates. In the mid to late 1990s,
Geithner served as a deputy
assistant Treasury secretary.
Under Rubin and Summers he
moved up to undersecretary
of the Treasury.
From the Treasury he went to
the Council on Foreign Rela-
tions and from there to the
International Monetary Fund
(IMF). From there he was ap-
pointed president of the Fed-
eral Reserve Bank of New
York, where he worked to
make banks more profitable
by allowing higher ratios of
debt to capital, thus contrib-
uting to the financial crisis.
Geithner arranged the sale of
the failed Wall Street firm of
Bear Stearns, helped with the
taxpayer bailout of AIG, and
rejected saving Lehman
Brothers from bankruptcy in
order to create the crisis at-
mosphere needed to more
fully subordinate US economic
policy to the needs of the few
large banks.
Rubin, a 26-year veteran of
Goldman Sachs, was reward-
ed by Citibank for his service
to the banks while Treasury
Secretary with a $50 million
Continued in next column
Continued on page 7
Harper Community Park News
Great News!
The Internal Revenue Ser-
vice has approved the 501(c)
(3) application for the Harper
Community Park!
The Harper Community Park
is now able to accept tax
deductible donations!
The Park is actively seeking
enthusiastic volunteers who
are ready, willing, and able
to help with all aspects of the
Park, but specifically in
those areas that interest
them most!
From Community Events and
Fundraising, to Basic Park
Maintenance and Clerical
help, all Volunteer help is
greatly appreciated.
If interested in helping with
any events or helping with a
Committee, please contact
us at member-
ship@harpercommunitypark
.org or by contacting either
Park President, Damon Clark
(830) 739-1328 or Park Sec-
retary, Diane Earhart (830)
895-5422.
NOTICE:
There is a $1000 reward be-
ing offered for information on
the vandalism in the park.
Previously the Park has been
targeted by vandals, includ-
ing the water truck, trash
barrels, and the BBQ hut and
pits.
Damage has been reported
to the Sheriff's Department
and information regarding
the damages would be great-
ly appreciated.
Please contact the Gillespie
County Sheriff's Depart-
ment or a park board mem-
ber if you have any infor-
mation that would be helpful
in stopping this continued
vandalism.
The Park is here for every-
one to enjoy and it must be
valued and taken care of by
the Community if it is to con-
tinue to be an asset to our
town.
History
"The Harper Community
Park was established in
1946 and has been serving
the Harper community for
about 67 years.
Our organization was found-
ed with the intention to serve
the community and provide a
space that the town and area
ranchers could meet for spe-
cial events, take part in spe-
cific pastimes, raise money
for special needs or organi-
zations, or just relax and en-
joy the beauty of a quiet
neighborhood with a picnic.
As the Harper Community
itself has grown and
changed over the years, so
has the Harper Community
Park.
In order to meet the continu-
ing & changing needs of the
community that we strive to
serve, the Harper Communi-
ty Park Association, Inc.
Park Board, encourages the
use of the park & its facilities
for charitable, religious, and
educational activities by
providing free use of Park
Facilities to approved chari-
table organizations and non-
profits organizations alike.
These groups include the
Harper Independent School
District, 501 (c)(3) groups
such as the Harper Commu-
nity Library, Harper Parent
Teacher Organization, Har-
per Chamber of Commerce,
area Churches, as well as
the Historical Society & Pio-
neer Museum who would not
otherwise have access to the
necessary venue that the
Park provides to help aid
them in their fundraising
needs.
Also, the Park fosters nation-
al and international amateur
sports competitions by
providing a venue for youth
horse riding clubs, rodeos, &
other groups in our rural ar-
ea that would not otherwise
have access to the much
needed facilities that the
Harper Community Park of-
fers.
Just as in its early days, the
Park Board continues to en-
courage the use of the
grounds & facilities for those
groups advocating for relief
of the poor, the distressed,
the underprivileged, as well
as a venue for groups help-
ing with the advancement of
religion, education & scienc-
es.
The Annual Brush Arbor Day
is a great example of an
Event that brings multiple
groups together to foster a
spirit of Community and Fel-
lowship in our rural locale.
From an educational per-
spective, the Park is always
available for the school to
use both for fundraising
needs such as the Harper
PTO's Annual 5K Run that
draws in both local and out
of town participants alike to
support our HISD students
and teachers, as well as the
hands-on, out of the class-
room educational opportuni-
ties that abound in our natu-
ral setting with the Hill Coun-
try native plant & animal hab-
itats and pond to explore!
The erection and mainte-
nance of public buildings
and historical sites, in addi-
tion to the Community Park
itself, is also of vital im-
portance to the Harper Com-
munity Park Association, Inc.
Board.
Many do not realize that
there is NO government sup-
port of the facilities and the
structures maintained by the
Park.
Both our funding and labor
are generously donated by
community volunteers and
friends of the park.
While the amount we are pre-
viously generated as a 501
(c)(4) is not great, it IS great-
ly appreciated because
those structures now serving
the Park would deteriorate
without the support of the
Harper Community Park As-
sociation, Inc., and the finan-
cial support of the communi-
ty which it serves.
Of particular interest in re-
gards to the erection of, or
maintenance of, public build-
ings, monuments or works,
and the Harper Community
Park Association Board's
need to lessen the burdens
of government by combating
community deterioration, it
should be noted that without
the ability to seek large
grants and individual donors
as a 501 (c)(3), the Harper
Community Park is in jeop-
ardy of becoming neglected
and obsolete unless steps
are taken to help the Park
continue to help the Commu-
nity that created it and who it
serves.
Please visit us in Harper,
TX and see why we LOVE
our Community, our Park, &
our Heritage! Help us contin-
ue to help others..."
2013 Park Board Members:
Interim Park Board:
Damon Clark - President
Jimmy Leinneweber - Vice
President
Pam Fogle - Treasurer
Diane Earhart - Secretary
Mike Weaver
Mark Del Toro
Bill Meeks
Bud Wright.
Community Hall Rental Information:
Rental fee: $300.00 per event day plus a $200.00 refundable cleaning deposit. Extra days for decorating are $75.00 per day. Booking Calendar located at Dauna's. Building includes
large walk-in cooler, deep freeze, under bar cooler, commercial sink, kitchen area, 10 rows of 18 ft. tables and chairs, stage area, water coolers, large wood dance floor. The build-
ing is approximately 100' x 100'. Water must be turned on to hall. Valves are located on east side of building.
Walk-in Cooler: Clean out after use an do not leave food in it. Deep Freeze: ICE ONLY! Do not put food in it.
Window Coolers: Water must be turned on before use and turned off when done. Wood Dance Floor: Do not put anything on this floor that will damage it. No chairs or tables without
rubber "feet". No liquids can be placed on floor. Tables and chairs: If moved these MUST be put back when done.
Cleaning: Remove personal items, or items you plan to keep when done. Take down any decorations. The person that cleans after functions cannot move heavy tables and chairs
back into place or climb up and take down your decorations from the walls or ceiling. The money collected on rents is used for maintenance and upkeep on the Park, it also pays for
the cleaning of the Hall, mowing, paper goods for restrooms, utilities and taxes for the Park.
You can help support the Community Park by joining -and yes, I myself, will be doing the same
from labor arbitrage across
national borders (jobs off-
shoring), to rising homeless-
ness, to cuts in the social
safety net, to the transfor-
mation of their full time jobs
to part time jobs (employers’
response to Obamacare),
has been to reduce their sav-
ings rate. Indeed, few have
any savings at all. The US
personal saving rate is cur-
rently 2 percentage points,
about 30%, below the long
term average. Retired peo-
ple, unable to earn any inter-
est on their savings from the
Fed’s zero interest rate poli-
cy, are being forced to draw
down their savings in order
to pay their bills.
Moreover, it is unclear
whether the savings rate is
an accurate measure or
merely a residual of other
calculations. With so many
people having to draw down
their savings, I wouldn’t be
surprised if an accurate
measure showed the person-
al savings rate to be nega-
tive.
But for Summers the plight of
the consumer is not the
problem. The problem is the
profits of the banks. Sum-
mers has the solution, and
the establishment, including
Paul Krugman, is applauding
it. Once the economy official-
ly turns down again, watch
out.
Yep, this is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard
of.
Hopefully it will NEVER be voted on by our
Government.
But I would not be doing my duty to protect
your interests if I did not let you know that
there are some fools advocating things like
this that have the ear of our politicians...
Think about that the next time you buy something...
Community Churches St. James Lutheran Church
P.O. Box 191
23932 West Hwy 290
(830) 864-4193
Sunday School Classes
Kinder - 7th grades / 9:30 am / 1st & 3rd Sunday
Adult Bible Study / 9:30 am
Worship Service / 10:30 am
Holy Communion / 1st & 3rd Sunday
Praise & Worship / 4th & 5th Sundays
A walk thru grief / 2nd Monday
Men’s Breakfast / 1st Monday / 6:30 am
Sarah’s Circle / 3rd Wednesday / 2 pm
Wild Ride Ministries
23809 W. Hwy 290
Harper, TX 78631
(830) 864-5577
Sunday
Adult Sunday School / 9:30 am
Children’s Sunday School / 9:30 am
Main Service / 10:30 AM
Tuesday
Mid-Week Service / 7:00 pm
Communion and Fellowship Meal / 1st Sunday
Men’s Breakfast and Fellowship / 3rd Saturday
Women’s Prayer and Share / 3rd Thursday
Harper Presbyterian Church
147 Oak Road
Harper, TX 78631
(830) 864-5042
St. Anthony’s Catholic Church
163 N. 3rd Street
Harper, TX 78631
(830) 864-4026
First Baptist Church
23038 U.S. HWY 290
Harper, TX 78631
(830) 864-4241
Lighthouse Fellowship Chapel
2nd & Roberts Street
Harper, TX 78631
(830) 864-5293
Upcoming Special Events
Please notify me if anything needs updating
Harper United Methodist Church
US 290
Harper, TX 78631
(830) 864-4533
Oops
I gathered all of the church information off of the inter-
net and for some reason the Methodist Church did not
show up.
If your information is not accurate, please let me know
so that I can fix it as people are wanting information
about your church
How much do you care about your children or your grand children's future?
I’m betting that is everything
to most of you which is how it
should be.
Which is why I want to show
you some things that you
need to understand are hap-
pening.
I’m not going to go into who
is right or who is wrong as I
realize that you believe, or
want to believe whoever you
are getting your news from.
I just am going to show you a
few questions that you
should be asking them rather
than blindly following them
over a cliff like a herd of cat-
tle in a stampede.
Most of you believe that
there are plenty of jobs out
there and those that are not
working now do not want to
work.
After all, any fool can see
that the unemployment num-
bers are going down as
shown by the U3 and U6
numbers in the chart below.
And we all know that our
government does not lie.
The chart on the right hand
side is produced by the
same government organiza-
tion that prepares the unem-
ployment numbers.
Funny thing about this chart
is it shows that there are
fewer and fewer people
working.
Anybody remember Mr.
Dunn?
He taught me that every ac-
tion has a equal and opposite
reaction.
Which makes me wonder.
If unemployment is going
down, how can there be few-
er people working?
Seems to me that if fewer
people are working, unem-
ployment would be going
higher?
And last time I looked, peo-
ple were still looking to make
babies, weren't they?
Which means at the same
time, our population is in-
creasing, so this should be
easy to prove or disprove.
After all, we have the popula-
tion numbers for each year
from 1976 - 2012.
And thanks to the Dept of
Labor, we have the employ-
ee participation numbers.
So let’s do some simple
math.
In 1976 we had a population
of 218,035,164.
In 1976 in December we had
a participation rate of 61.8%
And if we multiply the popu-
lation by the participation
rate, we come up with
134,745,731 people that
were working.
Once we have these num-
bers, it is a simple thing to
produce the chart at the top
of the next page on the left.
As you can see, the popula-
tion continues to grow.
And the people that are em-
ployed has been pretty flat
since about 2006.
Now if I were a betting man, I
would think that if I subtract-
ed the employed from the
population, this would give
me a pretty good idea how
many really are unemployed
and unable to find work if I
compare to those years from
1976 - 1996.
After all, every television
journalist out there will tell
you that things were great
from 1976 - 1996, won’t
they?
Interesting chart, isn’t it?
(top right of next page)
Don’t forget, it includes
women, children, retired,
students, etc.
Which means we need an
average to figure out how
many of them we should de-
duct from the totals, doesn’t
it?
See how from 1976 till 1996
it pretty well stayed steady
at around 80 million people?
That is our baseline, or the
number that we want to work
with.
And it will give you the chart
at the top of the next page.
As you can see, doing it this
way we had an average un-
employment number from
1976 - 1990 of less than 5
million people.
Since 1991 it has steadily
gone up, hasn’t it?
Do you reckon sending our
jobs offshore via free trade
agreements or as in my case
importing H-1B’s has any-
thing to do with these num-
bers rising so much?
Better yet, do you think that
if we have forced so many
people out of work via free
trade agreements and im-
porting visa holders, that this
might have created the so
called sub prime mortgage
crisis that we are living
through now?
After all, people without jobs
can’t make mortgage pay-
ments, can they?
Remember in the 70’s when we had several places to buy groceries and our own butcher,
trash dump, drugstore and other stores?
Is this not what happens when we do not buy local?
This makes me wonder why we are buying our items from other towns and countries.
compensation package in
2008 and $126,000,000 be-
tween 1999 and 2009.
When a person becomes a
Treasury official it is made
clear that the choice is be-
tween serving the banks and
becoming rich or trying to
serve the public and becom-
ing poor. Few make the latter
choice.
As MIchael Hudson has in-
formed us, the goal of the fi-
nancial sector has always
been to convert all income,
from corporate profits to gov-
ernment tax revenues, to the
service of debt. From the
bankers standpoint, the more
debt the richer the bankers.
Rubin, Summers, Paulson,
Geithner, and now banker
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew
faithfully serve this goal.
The Federal Reserve de-
scribes its policy of Quantita-
tive Easing — the creation of
new money with which the
Fed purchases Treasury debt
and mortgage backed securi-
ties — as a low interest rate
policy in order to stimulate
employment and economic
growth. Economists and the
financial media have parroted
this cover story.
In contrast, I have exposed
QE as a scheme for pumping
profits into the banks and
boosting their balance sheets.
The real purpose of QE is to
drive up the prices of the debt
-related derivatives on the
banks’ books, thus keeping
the banks with solvent bal-
ance sheets.
Writing in the Wall Street
Journal (“Confessions of a
Quantitative Easer,” Novem-
ber 11, 2013), Andrew Huszar
confirms my explanation to be
the correct one. Huszar is the
Federal Reserve official who
implemented the policy of QE.
He resigned when he realized
that the real purposes of QE
was to drive up the prices of
the banks’ holdings of debt
instruments, to provide the
banks with trillions of dollars
at zero cost with which to lend
and speculate, and to provide
the banks with “fat commis-
sions from brokering most of
the Fed’s QE transac-
tions.” (See:
www.paulcraigroberts.org )
This vast con game remains
unrecognized by Congress
and the public. At the IMF Re-
search Conference on No-
vember 8, 2013, former Treas-
ury Secretary Larry Summers
presented a plan to expand
the con game.
Summers says that it is not
enough merely to give the
banks interest free money.
More should be done for the
banks. Instead of being paid
interest on their bank depos-
its, people should be penal-
ized for keeping their money
in banks instead of spending
it.
To sell this new rip-off
scheme, Summers has con-
jured up an explanation based
on the crude and discredited
Keynesianism of the 1940s
that explained the Great De-
pression as a problem caused
by too much savings. Instead
of spending their money, peo-
ple hoarded it, thus causing
aggregate demand and em-
ployment to fall.
Summers says that today the
problem of too much saving
has reappeared. The center-
piece of his argument is “the
natural interest rate,” defined
as the interest rate at which
full employment is established
by the equality of saving with
investment. If people save
more than investors invest,
the saved money will not find
its way back into the econo-
my, and output and employ-
ment will fall.
Summers notes that despite a
zero real rate of interest,
there is still substantial unem-
ployment. In other words, not
even a zero rate of interest
can reduce saving to the level
of investment, thus frustrating
a full employment recovery.
Summers concludes that the
natural rate of interest has
become negative and is stuck
below zero.
How to fix this? The way to fix
it, Summers says, is to charge
people for saving money. To
avoid the charges, people
would spend the money, thus
reducing savings to the level
of investment and restoring
full employment.
Summers acknowledges that
the problem with his solution
is that people would take their
money out of banks and hoard
it in cash holdings. In other
words, the cash form of mon-
ey provides consumers with a
freedom to save that holds
down consumption and pre-
vents full employment.
Summers has a fix for this:
eliminate the freedom by im-
posing a cashless society
where the only money is elec-
tronic. As electronic money
cannot be hoarded except in
bank deposits, penalties can
be imposed that force unpro-
ductive savings into consump-
tion.
Summers’ scheme, of course,
is a harebrained one. With
governments running huge
deficits, who would purchase
bonds at negative interest
rates? How would pension
and retirement funds oper-
ate? Would they also be sub-
ject to an annual percentage
confiscation?
We know that the response of
consumers to the long term
decline in real median family
income, to the loss of jobs
Continued on page 5
God blessed us with a great
day, we give Him all the
honor and glory!
The girls simply ran their
best race of the season
when it counted the most.
I am so proud of them and
how they competed, they
responded to the chal-
lenge and got after it, it was
special, I can not say it
enough of how blessed I
am, they gave it their all
and it paid off for them, they
did a great job of represent-
ing Harper.
The girls simply ran their best race of the season when it counted
the most.
Harper Ladyhorn Cross Country: UIL State Meet Results
Team Standings:
1. Harper - 78 - 1A Girls State Cham-pions
2. San Saba - 86
3. Sundown - 115
4. Gruver - 117
5. Goldthwaite - 129
6. Ozona - 131
7. Mason - 185
8. Garden City - 187
9. Brackett - 217
10. Frost - 225
11. Cushing - 238
12. Shelbyville - 302
Harper results: 116 girls competed
Sydney Collins - 29th - 12:41
Payton Reid - 31st - 12:47
Hope Dillon - 34th - 12:51
Taylor Reid - 45th - 13:01
Rachel Maner - 47th - 13:03
Kayla Inmon - 48th - 13:03
Rebekah Lester - 60th - 13:18
Harper Longhorn Cross Country: UIL State Meet Results
Micah Middleton was the lone qualifier for Harper in the 1A boy's division and finished 58th out of 108 runners posting a time of 18:43 for the 3.1 mile course. Micah did a great job and ran his best time ever at the State meet which he has qualified for every year he has been in high school.
You have enemies?
Good.
That means you’ve stood up for some-
thing, sometime in your life.
Winston Churchill
Way to go Harper!
