A Comparative Assessment of the German & American Economies Since World War II

Ordoliberalism vs. Outkeynesianizing Keynes:
A Comparative Assessment of the German and American Economies Since World War II

by Siegfried H. Sutterlin, Ph.D.

Presented to the Society for German-American Studies, April 18, 2009

The Freiburg School of Ordoliberalism, which determined post-war West German economic policy, and Keynesianism, which determined U.S. post-war policy, originated in 1936. Keynes’ famous book, “The General Theory,” suggested that the solution to unemployment resides in government aggregate demand stimulation. If consumers refuse to spend during economic downturns, then the government should do it for them. Savings, for Keynes, was a form of avarice and greed. The chief opponent to Keynes, Friedrich Hayek, who later became associated with Ordoliberalism, warned Keynes that if the politicians embraced Keynes’ theory, they would cause inflation in the long run.

Almost simultaneously with the publication of Keynes’ famous book, Ludwig Erhard, who had written his Ph.D. dissertation under Franz Oppenheimer, published the roots of Ordoliberalism. Founded in Freiburg after WWII by Walter Eucken, Franz Boehm, Wilhelm Roepke, and Alfred Mueller-Armack, it set the stage for the social market economy, the “soziale Marktwirtschaft.” Eucken’s central thesis was to preserve liberty, to assure human dignity and maximize “Vermoegensbildung,” that is to say, asset accumulation and increasing the net worth of the people. Economic policy had to be rational, free of ideology, with a functional market economy, a neutral monetary policy and functional price mechanism. Unrestrained laissez-faire, for Eucken, in effect would not result in capitalism but in trusts, monopolies, and cartels. They would threaten freedom and efficient allocation of resources once prices no longer fulfilled their communicating and
rationing functions.

Rejecting both extreme socialism and unfettered capitalism, Ordoliberalism combines private enterprise with fair competition, low inflation, good working conditions and social welfare.

Decisive to post-war policies was Article 115, also known as “the Golden Rule,” of the ’49 “ Fundamental Law.” It states that budget deficits can only be incurred for investments such as infrastructure that enhance productivity. In the U.S. budget deficits are incurred for almost anything.

According to Mueller-Armack who coined the term “social market economy” in ‘46, the state would provide a regulatory policy for a competitive environment that would serve all people and not just one to five percent.

In sharp contrast to the Nazi period which centralized, imposed a four-year plan, dangerously suppressed inflation through the imposition of wage and price controls while excessively increasing the money supply and nationalized the “Reichsbank” in ‘38, post-war policies reversed all of this. Most decisive and crucial was the creation of the “Bundesbank” and its predecessor the Bank for German States. Under Blessing, Emminger, Poehl, and others, the central bank was the most independent and de-politicized central bank of any advanced economy. Its aim was to assure a stable currency which preserved purchasing power and fulfilled its function as a store of value so that the people could trust it.

This policy had several consequences: Savings was encouraged, consumption was de-emphasized. Inflation did not act as a work coercer forcing second breadwinners to enter the labor force or lengthening the work year to overcome inflation. Long-term planning on part of corporations, private and public entities was less disrupted and “Vermoegensbildung,” asset accumulation was encouraged.

In ‘49, the Federation of German Trade Unions was founded by Hans Bockler. Among its objectives were political neutrality and labor sharing with owners the management of industries. Bockler proposed the far-reaching “Mitbestimmung,” co-determination between owners and labor which was enacted in the early ‘50s. It was a consensus strategy which assured an almost strike-free beginning for West-Germany and an annual average of only 56 days lost in industry strikes between ‘67 to ‘76 in contrast to 1349 days lost in the U.S.

In the late sixties, Karl Schiller toyed with Keynesianism but ultimately retreated from it. Helmut Schmidt, in the seventies, did the same and also backed off. Neither outkeynesianized Keynes. In fact, Schmidt’s policy, in co-operation with the “Bundesbank’s“ tight monetary control, guided Germany far better than the U.S. through the devastating two oil crises of ’74 and ’79. In spite of having to import 98 percent of its oil, inflation rates for the two oil shock years were about half of the U.S. rate, even though the U.S. imported only 25 to 30 percent.

In fact, the Schmidt SPD administration used free market principles to overcome the oil shocks notably more successfully than the presumed capitalistic U.S. No major national plan, no rationing coupons, no allocation formulas, no price controls but only a few car-free Sundays were enacted. Gasoline prices were allowed to rise, while the contrary was the case in the U.S. where the Supreme Court in the early fifties approved ceilings on gas prices, a policy which inhibited the development of fuel efficient cars.

Consequently, oil supplies were diverted from the U.S. and other economies to chase after the rising prices in Germany. This had the effect of regional gas shortages in the U.S., while no major ones materialized in Germany. It was a crucial demonstration that the private sector of the socialistic German economy is in fact in major ways far more capitalistic than the private sector of the U.S. economy.

After ‘83, the German economy lost much of its momentum, and its GDP, though far from being an accurate measurement of economic well-being, fell noticeably behind the U.S. Labor rigidity, an overload of social welfare policies, high labor costs, among other elements were thought to be responsible. While some of this may be true, a closer look at the well-being of the German people reveals that they, in spite of a slower growing economy, still got wealthier while the same was not true to the same extent in the U.S. In fact, a seemingly contradictory development surfaced more and more, namely this, Germans worked less and less, having more and more vacation, and a lower GDP growth, yet they were still getting wealthier at a faster rate than Americans. Between ’94 to ’06, the full-time contractual workweek of a VW worker was 28.8 hours, probably the lowest workweek anywhere. Along with high labor cost, this obviously could not be sustained and
was recently changed.

During the unification, serious inefficiencies and some notable corruptions materialized along with a monumental irony. East Germany’s socialistic-communistic economy was dismantled, that is to say the public sector shrank, and the private sector was restored. Yet, to do so the public sector was expanded significantly in West Germany as is reflected in the annual 100 billion dollar subsidy granted to East Germany. To counteract this, the financing of much of the unification cost and the “Treuhandanstalt” was put off budget with time limits.

In the ’80s and ’90s, the German economy escaped an equivalent of the U.S. Savings and Loan catastrophe which cost the taxpayer 150 billions in ‘89 dollars (about 350 to 400 billion in current dollars.) Nor did the German economy have a four-year agricultural crisis of ’80 to ’84. Both were, in part, avoided due to the fact that German accounting procedures by law are required to value assets, not at current market prices, but at the original costs, hence providing banks and corporations with so-called “hidden reserves.” Had this been practiced in the U.S., the farm crisis would not have happened, and many other problems, including the subprime mess, would have been lessened in their severity.

German taxes after WWII were imposed by Allied governments at a terrifically high level to finance the occupation costs, a form of military expenditure, as well as reparations. Added to this was the 20-year long equalization of burden tax, the “Lastenausgleich.” Over the decades they were eased year after year. Professional economists of the Finance Ministry formulate tax policies and work out rational plans serving economic growth. Thereafter, they are submitted for approval to the parliament. Hence, German taxes are relatively immune from self-serving lobbying. In sharp contrast, the U.S. Tax Code, judged by many economists to be one the worst codes of all advanced economies, is the product not so much of a rational plan but more the sum-total of lobbying which tends to be inherently irrational.

In ‘68 a consumption tax, the value-added tax, was introduced, further restraining consumption and encouraging savings. It rose to 14 percent and currently is at 19 percent and provides the second highest revenues after the income tax. In sharp contrast, former House Ways and Means Chair Al Ullman attempted to introduce a value-added tax for the U.S. but was, in part, not re-elected for this reason in 1980.

Home purchases in Germany require heavy down payments, ranging between 20 to 40 percent while zero down payment and 100 percent financing are freely available in the U.S. In one of the sharpest and most meaningful contrasting tax policies, residential homes in Germany are not taxed, only the lot, the so-called “Grundsteuer,” while in the U.S. real estate taxes are anywhere from 8 to 25 times higher than in Germany and thus, no doubt, contribute to the slum-like conditions of many U.S. homes. Even though U.S. houses are subject to rapid deterioration, they are viewed as investments while economists in Germany view house purchases as consumption, again a crucial difference. Once a home is paid off, it can be passed on mortgage free to the next generation, hence storing and accumulating wealth in the time dimension and freeing spending for other purposes. In the U.S. nearly every generation assumes a mortgage, thus adding to an already overly
indebted economy.

During the roaring ’90s, the Germans escaped, relatively speaking, the stock market bubble with its associated corruption. Their savings continued at a high rate, and they poured their wealth into their homes, leisure time and more and more travels across the globe. Annual tourist spending of 73 billion almost matched total U.S. spending of 74 billion which means Germans spend roughly three times more than Americans.

*

While the theoretical framework for the German social market economy was being formulated in ‘46, the Full Employment and Balanced Economic Growth Act was passed by the U.S. Congress. It institutionalized Keynesian aggregate demand management and empowered the federal government to assure full employment and stable economic growth. It was later affirmed and expanded in the ’78 Humphrey-Hawkins’ Act.

In ‘48 Paul Samuelson’s famous economics textbook popularized Keynesianism and advocated a constant increase of the money supply to generate an annual inflation rate of 1 to 2 percent for a constant stimulation of aggregate demand. Subsequent editions of his highly popular textbook increased the suggested annual inflation rate until the disastrously high inflation decade of the seventies.

Inflation became institutionalized, and it was forgotten that in a normal economy that has productivity increases, prices, if all other things remain equal, should be trending downward in the long run commensurate to productivity increases. In the fifties inflation was in the 1 to 2 percent range, in the sixties in the 2-4 percent range and it peaked in ’74 and ’79 at 11 to 12 percent, something of a record for peacetime.

Beyond this---and here is where outkeynesianizing Keynes is quantifiably proven---federal budget deficits to stimulate aggregate demand, according to Keynes should only be incurred during recessionary times. Yet, federal deficits occurred from the sixties on forward routinely during economic boom times. There were only 2 to 3 federal budget surpluses in the last forty odd years, thus giving incontestable proof that outkeynesianizing Keynes does indeed characterize the post-war U.S. economy, a policy essentially pursued by both parties.

The question arises why stimulate aggregate demand through outkeynesianizing Keynes over the decades. The answer resides in the fact that businesspeople and corporations, starting in ’46, eagerly embraced Keynesianism. Eventually, they lobbied to outkeynesianize Keynes. Having acquired a gargantuan tool to stimulate demand for their products, they equated maximizing the selling of their product with the health of the economy.

Having overdone the inflationary mechanism for stimulating aggregate demand by ‘79, the Fed and Paul Volcker received the message in October that if the Federal Reserve were to continue to inflate, the dollar would be dethroned as a reserve currency and a basket of currencies would be demanded for the purchase of oil. Combined with advice from monetarist economists like Milton Friedman, the Fed targeted the money supply instead of interest rates and reduced the inflation rate substantially at the heavy cost of the severe recession of ‘81-’82.

But this did not reduce the attempts of the producer to stimulate aggregate demand. Outkeynesianizing Keynes gradually transmogrified into more subtle patterns to satisfy the producer’s demand for selling products. Alan Greenspan, who headed the Federal Reserve between ’87 to ’06, discovered in the seventies that consumer demand could also be generated through home owners taking out home equity loans, cashing out capital gains on homes, or, for retirees, assuming reverse mortgages to sustain aggregate demand and consumption to satisfy the producer. Added to this pattern were massive debt assumptions through expanded use of credit cards and increasing purchases of homes, cars and other consumer items based on no down payment, no payments until six months or a year from the time of purchase. GMAC, founded in ‘19, and FMCC, founded in ‘23, constantly expanded through the post-war decades. A few years ago, Wal-Mart attempted to do the same
but was stopped.

This pattern of overstimulating aggregate demand and consumption was also reflected in bizarre advertisement and marketing techniques that targeted not just unqualified home buyers in the subprime mortgage sector but also showed up in media ads of car lots and furniture stores to catch those who have “bad credit or no credit, no problem, come see us.” (I have never seen an ad trying to solicit the responsible consumer.)

Economists heavily abetted overconsumption by vigorously praising the consumer for sustaining the health of the economy. The University of Michigan, more than 35 years ago, developed the Consumer Confidence Index to measure every month, not just every quarter, the degree to which the consumer is willing to spend money. Forgotten was the fact that a Savers’ Confidence Index would be far more beneficial for the people’s interest.

And thus, in the post-war period saving rates constantly trended downward in the U.S. and by ‘05 and ’06 actually went into dissavings for several years in a row, a meaningful symptom that had not happened to the U.S. economy since ‘32 in the depth of the Great Depression.

Essentially, it could be said that the U.S. economy, through outkeynesianizing Keynes, became an asset destroying economy wherein the interest of the people became excessively subordinated to the interest of the corporation and the producer.

On top of this, during the last 30 years or so, hedge funds, private equity firms and subprime mortgage corporations started or expanded explosively. A financialization of the U.S. economy was forged which dangerously neglected manufacturing. These new instruments, far less regulated, offered quick and outlandish profits and bonuses. While they evolved, analyzing the economy by professional economists such as Lester Thurow, John Kenneth Galbraith or Milton Friedman was supplanted by Wall Street brokers and salespeople of the financial industry.

Gradually, through TV programs such as Wall Street Week, the Nightly Business Report, Moneyline and new TV channels, the economy was analyzed from the perspective of stock markets. In effect, the well-being of Wall Street was equated with the health of the economy. A process that had started in the late forties when Merrill Lynch took Wall Street to main street came to a high point in 2000 when 54 percent of all Americans owned stock, up from 25 percent in ‘90. Comparable figures for the German economy show a far lower range of 6 to 12 percent. Wall Street became too big to fail just like megabanks became too big to fail.

Since WWII, Wall Street was forging nationally the most intensely collectivizing investment stream of any advanced economy, and it was doing so by urging investors to diversify. But diversification in a collectivized investment stream, while it has a logic and also subtly serves to protect the brokers, is neglecting the important fact that true diversification of investment resides in local and regional investments which tend to spread wealth more uniformly across the nation, as the German economy quite clearly proves in the high level of regional living standards.

Collectivizing investments into Wall Street maximizes fees, involves vast geographical distances, minimizes transparency, operates in an asymmetric knowledge market that always favors the insiders, the sophisticated investors, and maximizes opportunities for corruption. German emphasis on local and regional investments minimizes these negative elements. Re-injecting the money back into the economy aggravates the already intensely collectivized private sector of the U.S. economy in the form of chain fast food outlets, chain restaurants, chain hotels, chain stores in sharp contrast to the German economy which still maintains highly attractive family owned restaurants and family owned hotels. It is not surprising that Wal-Mart has become, in the last 20 years, the largest corporation. It tried to export its disease to Germany but was rebuffed.

It must be understood that in sharp contrast to popular myths, the private sector of the U.S. economy is, in fact, intensely collectivistic/socialistic. A parasitic cost shifting pulsates intensely throughout the U.S. economy far more than in Germany. It is exemplified in the broadcasting industry and even in free restrooms. Rush Limbaugh’s 50 million annual income causes the products of his corporate sponsors to rise and the cost to be passed on to those not in the market, those who receive no benefit, who had no choice and who have no transparency.

l. Risk transfer and risk dispersion characterize the U.S. economy. It surfaced in the S and L crisis, in the stock market bubble and the current subprime mess. Risks are transferred and dispersed through insurance premiums, through monetary policy, and also onto the taxpayer.

2. The constantly declining dollar did not solve the trade deficits for the U.S. v. the constantly rising Mark and Euro did not reduce German trade surpluses.

3. Military spending, a major taboo, is thought to have collapsed the Soviet Union. Yet, few if any admit that it has done and is doing the same to the U.S. Just to withdraw from Iraq is estimated to cost 1 trillion dollars.

3. The computer revolution and the hi-tech internet revolution were both started in the U.S., yet were largely misapplied.

4. Wealth has constantly shifted from family/individual control to bureaucratic control in the U.S. v. Germany.

5. Catastrophic increases in people living in marginal trailerhomes characterize the U.S. In the ‘60 census of 180 mill. people 1.4 million lived in trailerhomes by the ‘90 census of 240 mill. more than 15 mill. did so. Almost no one lives in a trailer home in Germany.

6. An oasis economy has developed in the U.S. in the form of gated and securitized communities which rose from 2000 in ’50 census to 20,000 in 2000. The wealthy who retreat to them in effect vote no confidence in the overall economic development.

7. Massive wealth shifting from foreign economies to the U.S. through Seigniorage, (above 400 bill.), through subprime investments, and possibly outright theft---Carlyle Group.

8. Medical costs are 16 percent of GDP in the U.S. v. 10.5 percent in Germany, yet life expectancy is one year higher in Germany.

9. Corrective measures too often come from external sources----car industry, inflationary seventies, education, etc.

10. Comparative actions and policies of U.S. v. German bureaucracies.

To summarize: about two years ago the U.S. economy had a massive trade deficit of c. 870 billion while the German economy had a 280 billion dollar trade surplus in spite of a constantly rising currency. The U.S. was developing a subprime and mortgage bubble while Germany had none. Beyond this, the German federal budget had a surplus of 1 percent of GDP while the U.S. had a 3.5 percent deficit. Dissavings prevailed in the U.S. while the savings rate was still high in Germany. Unemployment, which had been far higher in Germany for many years, was actually declining while it was rising in the U.S.

And so what did the immigrants leave and what did they find. They left an economy which has done far more with far fewer resources while working less and less and found an economy which has done far less with far more resources while working more and more. Those 580,000 who left in the fifties had their net worth decline commensurate to the constantly falling dollar relative to the German currency and the Euro by c. 70 percent. Yet, those who came to retire in the U.S. in the last few decades benefited in similar ways in which American retirees benefit from living in Mexico.

America's Suicide in Progress

“That public men publish falsehoods
Is nothing new. That America must accept
Like the historical republics corruption and empire
Has been known for years.

Be angry at the sun for setting
If these things anger you.”
-- Robinson Jeffers, American poet

I am feeling homesick, fuzzy and warm all over. With a chill down my spine.

For years, I have claimed that The greater the Public Silence about a Public Problem, the greater that Problem is. For many years I have heard a lot of thundering silence.

As a child I played with a box full of trillions of German currency bills. Hyperinflation had rendered them completely worthless. Now I am very concerned that the dollar might be destroyed in a similar manner, because we cannot stand the pain of a deflationary depression that would occur as a consequence of our present wonderful financial meltdown.

An economic depression would kick us out of our state of denial and fantasy into having to deal with our harsh reality. Sooner or later we will have to go through such a long, painful process in order to survive. The longer we postpone it, the more prolonged and traumatic it will be.

"An article by J.B. Williams in the Canadian Free Press paints a stark portrait of the actions of the current U.S. government -- actions that have been met with silence by the bulk of the U.S. populace.

"According to Williams, “After trillions in taxpayer debt has been foolishly poured into the bottomless black hole ... Geithner asks Congress for even broader power to seize private firms as the average American stumbles through their daily routine as if nothing is happening.”

"He notes that the new administration has taken the nation from a trillion in debt to over $4 trillion in debt in the first 60 days, with even more federal spending promised.

“I don’t know what it will take to wake up the average American,” writes Williams, “but whatever it is, it hasn’t happened yet.”

Global Pain and Smiley Faces

Perhaps because I grew up under sometimes deadly conditions, I have remained very sane and very closely connected with reality. My mind is on a constant search for brutal reality in order to avoid it and to help improve our world.

Therefore, I have often been complimented as a "doom and gloomer" and such, even though I spoke the truth, joked, whistled and laughed a lot.

Our society teaches for us to always be positive and not to complain. Many broadcasters now even smile while talking about great disasters. You can compare facial expressions and mannerisms of today's talking heads with those in TV news broadcasts from years ago.

Not being able to "complain," that is to talk about problems, can make it more difficult to solve them, and can let them fester into huge problems.

As for example in regards to our wonderful financial global meltdown. Very few people in the know complained about its development. Others went into denial, were ignored and were thought of as complainers.

In a saner society there would have been loud chorus of complaints during all of the following phases:

“In other words, (A) monetary policy that kept interest rates low for an extended period of time, (B)tax policy that favored debt over equity, regulatory policy that allowed financial institutions to operate opaquely, (C) and social policy that pushed home ownership regardless of affordability, all combined to create artificial economic demand that could only be financed with debt (D) because the savings (i.e. equity) to purchase them did not exist.”

... “Following conventional economic thinking, the government believes that the solution lies in policies designed to reflate the value of these assets. The problem with this approach is that it is based on the incurrence of trillions of dollars of additional debt to create the demand needed to purchase these assets. Debt begetting more debt is a poor prescription for sustainable long-term economic growth.”
Michael E. Lewitt

Dangers of Insect Pest Control

Many of us are accumulating pesticides in our bodies faster than we can eliminate them. This stresses immune systems and can result in long-term illnesses like chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, ADHD, cancer, autism and others. Most of these were extremely rare or did not exist when I was growing up under years of even very traumatic nation-wide conditions. For example, two dozen years ago, one out of about 10,000 children suffered from autism in the US. Now it is a shocking one out of one hundred-twenty.

Too few of us are paying attention to this frightening development, because we are not being educated about this subject. On the contrary. Powerful greedy corporations are suppressing this information. For the last two years, Governor Otter has declared May to be “Toxin Injury Education and Awareness Month.” Even so, few people learned of his proclamation, because the media did not report it.

Like the long public silence about growth of the global financial bubble, public health problems caused by pesticides and other toxins have also been silently growing for many years. They will soon become a screaming social crisis, if we continue our ignorant and health-destroying practices. Aerial spraying for mosquitoes can damage everyone’s health, but only about 0.1 percent hits adult mosquitoes. Learn more about this at the www.beyondpesticides.org Website, "The Truth About Mosquitoes, Pesticides and West Nile Virus."

Several people I know, or know of, have become incurably very sick from pesticide spraying. Or have died. One of my neighbor’s yard was doused during a “surgical air strike.” My cattle were stampeded and my property sprayed in such manner. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that mosquito and fly control is done in a responsible manner and does not cause more long-term health problems than it solves.

From Whence Milk Comes

Each whitish dot in this landscape represents four stomachs containing up to 75 gallons of feed in processing, up to a couple of buckets of milk, four teats, all decorated with external organic accoutrements.

Why did massive E. coli make us stronger, my little brother and me?

Excerpt from Heroes from the Attic: A Gripping True Story of Triumph:

"Siggi (My little brother) and I spent much of our spare time outdoors. We often wandered about, always curious, always looking for something to find or to do. Occasionally we found objects from World War II, such as a potato masher hand grenade. We tossed it about and had no idea that it might be dangerous, because it looked only a like a cut-off baseball bat stuck in a steel can.

"Siggi (My little brother) and I spent much of our spare time outdoors. We often wandered about, always curious, always looking for something to find or to do. Occasionally we found objects from World War II, such as a potato masher hand grenade. We tossed it about and had no idea that it might be dangerous, because it looked only a like a cut-off baseball bat stuck in a steel can.

"We found a military-type canister in a ditch that contained a rotten egg in a lot of salt. Nearby we found a steel helmet and ribbons of bullets that we also took home. While we were hammering off the bullets to see what was in them, Ma came out and was horrified. I did not know why she was horrified, because I was not horrified, and I was always the first to be terrified. She lifted a board of the cesspool cover and dumped our powder into it, creating explosive fertilizer. She also took away our remaining ammo and had a neighbor try to pound a flat spot on top of the helmet to make it into a bowl.

"There were two cesspools next to the back of our house. A covered one that received excrements from the hole that stank inside the barn, and an uncovered one nearby for dish and bath water. Whenever the covered pool was full, full of poop, pee and maggots, a farmer scooped it out with a bucket, which had a very long handle, to prevent him from kicking the bucket, into a big ox-drawn wooden cask on wheels, to spread this potpourri over fields before plowing it under."

These agricultural practices, combined with our ancient personal hygiene and sanitation methods, seemed to have caused surprisingly few illnesses. In contrast to this, we now have laws requiring signs in chemically sanitized public restrooms, instructing people how to wash hands, for so many seconds, complete with a series of pictures depicting this process. In spite of such laws, germicides and practices, we now have screaming headlines about E.coli happening all across the land.

There are many huge underlying secrets in these differences between then and now that have yet to be discovered by the masses and the most brilliant scientists.

Do you know some of the reasons?

We must reverse Human Collapse Disorder (HCD)

Dear Governor Butch Otter,

My name is Herman Neuman, and I am a miraculous survivor of two dozen years of early-life extreme traumas. These have blessed me with an intuition and wisdom beyond the ordinary.

It is truly frightening what I have been learning through such gifts, personal experiences, years of research and face-to-face visits with many people that have included hundreds of hospital patients. So many people have told me personal horror stories that I have become very motivated to do my small part to help reverse what could be called , Human Collapse Disorder (HCD).

In 1932, when Hitler was coming into power and my parents were living in Feldenfartenburghensteinplatz, Germany, my father wrote to my mother, not to speak about politics and such to anyone. Over the years, I have become evermore convinced that the greater the public silence about a public problem, the bigger that problem can grow. The global financial/economic meltdown is just the latest example of such a scenario. It silently grew over many years until it exploded into a screaming crisis. Likewise, the public silence, and ignorance, about our chemically-induced illnesses has been allowing them to fester for decades and they are beginning to explode. Therefore, the public has to become much better informed, so that the causes of such illnesses can be avoided, reduced or eliminated. Since most of them only came into being during the last few decades, they can also be eliminated again with disciplined efforts.

I am speaking for a group of people that have little representation in Idaho. An undetermined number of them have been so poisoned or sensitized by multitudes of everyday toxic chemicals, including pesticides, that they can no longer lead normal lives. I have gotten to know some of these victims. They are mostly housebound, if they are lucky, or nearly homeless, and are suffering greatly.

Just recently, I happened to meet a lady, who was wearing a facemask, in a Twin Falls parking lot. She had to sell her home and was living in her car, because she had become very allergic to the “normal” chemicals out-gassing from its materials. She also needed the money to survive. She told me that, “there is not one building in Twin Falls that I can enter.” Mostly because of such restrictions, many chemically-injured people lose their families and friends, leaving them without help or hope.

Long-term low-level toxic exposures can cause one to become also allergic to many other chemicals, including everyday foods. This lady is one of a growing number of homeless people that are no longer able to work, and many of these have to sell everything they own in their attempts to find comfort and healing. Unfortunately, science is only in the beginning stages of researching chemical injuries, and therefore, avoidance of toxic chemicals is of great importance. In addition, as has been the case with other social ills, no profit-driven industry has yet developed around these particular issues to bring about a true reversal of this mostly silent epidemic.

During the first thirty-some years of my life, I remember hearing about only two cases of cancer, and I never knew of the other diseases that mainly result from made-made chemicals. Included among these are fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, multiple sclerosis, ADHD, ALS, cancer, and often even depression. Some people even commit suicide, because no one can find the root causes of such suffering to cure them permanently. In stark contrast, however, nowadays hardly a week or month passes when I do not learn of someone I personally know who has or has had cancer. They are not necessarily caused by “old age,“ because the biggest concentration of cancer onset seems to be in the fifties and sixties age group.

The great number of books about multiple chemical sensitivity and the most shocking Canadian Broadcasting System documentary “The Disappearing Male” attest to the extent and severity of toxic chemical problems. They "... may be a threat to the survival of the species." Many credible sources are claiming that up to twelve to fifteen percent of Americans are already been affected to various degrees by multiple chemical sensitivity, and this is only the beginning.

The book, “Our Toxic World, A Wakeup Call” by Doris J. Rapp, M.D., states: “In children, since 1973, brain tumors are up 21% and lymphomas up 30%. Over 90% of children and adults have toxic brain-damaging or cancer-causing chemicals in their urine or blood… If safe, less expensive pest control (call 1-800-221-6188) is available, why is it not being used?”

It is obvious, like the bee Colony Collapse Disorder, humanity is facing Human Collapse Disorder (HCD).

Therefore, I would like to thank you, Governor Butch Otter, for having proclaimed May to be the Toxic Injury Awareness and Education Month. A growing number of other state governors have also made similar pronouncements over the last decade. However, such proclamations are only a beginning in resolving these issues.

My recent search of the Internet for “toxic injury proclamation” and related keywords returned very few links to Websites about such, for Idaho and other states. These sites were mostly created by toxically-injured people and lawyers. I found very few media, government and healthcare Websites relating to these proclamations. This is also the case with a closely related subject, nuclear radiation. A search for the Idaho “Downwinders Day of Remembrance” proclamation returned only forty-six Website links.

The information dearth about these proclamations would indicate that the public is not being educated about these most important subjects. It might also indicate a deliberate cover-up, especially when considering that much more obvious and much lesser drink-eight-glasses-of-water-a-day-type advice have been published repeatedly over the years.

This is a travesty, because ever more people are being affected by man-made chemicals, of which there are thousands in the market place. These may have been tested as being harmless in laboratories, but a reaction between even only two of them can produce widespread unexpected and undesirable results.

Two years ago, a number of chemically-affected people and I testified before the Twin Falls County Commission about its mosquito control spraying. Our group presented a lot of scientific documentation about such pest control. Fortunately, the commissioners thereupon chose a wise course, concentrating on localized larvicide treatments instead of wide-area adult spraying. The following year had far fewer West Nile cases in Idaho anyway and probably also partly because of naturally-occurring cycles.

This coming year the Twin Falls County pest control will be different. Black flies are planned to be included in a pesticide control district that was voted in by a poorly informed public. Black flies hatch in clean flowing streams before they can travel for miles. The NDSU Extension Service states that black fly “control is difficult… area sprays or general topical applications of insecticides are not very effective.”

This proposed Twin Falls County control program will potentially have a much greater negative human health impact with its proposed and questionable inclusion of black flies. If not done safely, it could help torture and kill more people over the long run with chemical injuries than it might save.

Idaho government and private efforts about environmental health matters lags far behind other states and especially European countries. The long-running, continuous political wrangling about the “Magic” Valley manure-related overload indicates that our state agencies, et. al., do not yet have control over even this most obvious and long-term big health issue.

Everyone has to take environmental health issues much more seriously, because of great harm to the entire population. Present land use practices are restricting economic growth in Magic Valley for future technology industries and tourism. Idaho counties are again planning pest control measures for the coming year. Rather than having each locality “reinvent the wheel,” important planning and research could be accomplished more efficiently with a centralized approach to such a common problem. Therefore, I would like request that our State government provide this kind of service to the public and local governmental agencies to help guide pest control efforts that cause the least impact on health.

Twin Falls County has over $400,000 allocated for its pest control next year. Rather than taking a broad shotgun approach, would it not make more sense for people to take precautions with individual personal measures? This amount of money buys a lot of insect repellent, electronic zappers and other personal protective items.

Everyone in the Magic Valley already gets overly exposed to toxic chemicals by incessant yard and agricultural spraying. In addition to those, everyone also is exposed every day to multiple volatile organic compounds, such as perfumes and household cleaners. Some schools and other public places around the country have already banned the use of these. Wide area spraying would cause additional and immediate suffering for chemically-injured people, and again, unwittingly, to everyone else over the long run.

Many chemically-injured people are afraid to speak out publicly for several reasons. One of the main ones is that their overloaded or damaged nervous, endocrine and lymphatic systems are constantly under stress, and therefore, they try to avoid all other kinds of stresses. They have to withdraw from society to avoid exposures and the ridicule of “it is all in your head“ attitudes. Most of their symptoms are not psychological as some causative parties claim, but are caused by real physical body changes from chemicals. The many variable symptoms are expensive and difficult to diagnose, because science has not yet had enough time to research and discover effective treatments.

Therefore, I would appreciate if you will again issue a Toxic Injury Awareness and Education Month during future years. I also beg you and the State legislators to make sure that this subject will get a lot of broad, in-death media coverage so that the public really does get educated. Few other public issues are as important as this particular one.

I would like to thank you in advance for your help and efforts in this regard.

Sincerely,
Herman Neuman
www.herobooks.com

Stinking Village under Bovine Digest Hills, Country down Commode

I know this sounds very harsh, but it is the painful truth. Ignoring it will make it worse. I worry.

I am sitting here in a stinking little village. To roadrage is too expensive. Breaks axles, breaks teeth. Too many potholes, deep potholes, stocked with jalopy parts, the likes of which I could not find in all of Europe. Anywhere.

It stinks here when the wind blows from the East, from over the Manure Mountains. The Reagan Manure buyout began to make this stink possible. Also, during spring and summer, when little bugs feast in the fields around us, spray planes bomb them, with the hope that the pesticides won't drift over the city to sicken us peons. Of course, there is nothing to worry about. Many villager are already sick, or too doped up, and most houses are not even up to aesthetic or construction standards of European chicken coops. They are in constant state of dis-rerairing themselves. Yet everybody says how nice it is here.

Dung beetles don’t know that dung beetles exist in dung. I think they even like it.

Aside from this, the world is sinking into its eco-financial barnyard soup. Much like the stuff, I had to grunt, heave and scoop when my uncle held me in slavery. Have yet to learn who caused it, today's global barnyard soup, but it is immaterial anyway who concocted it, because its chefs will get their rewards. Billions more from us taxpayers, what’s left of us.

Since there are not too many productive workers anymore, we are a consumer and service economy and don't produce tangibles, we have been consuming ourselves, while servicing each other, in so many ways, our new president and Congress will have to perform miracles to prevent a deflationary depression and / or a hyperinflationary wipe-out.

My family lost almost everything during such wipe-outs, that is why I have been sensitized to such possible events. It may have also made me a little cynical at times. If you are not yet cynical, you still have a football stuck in your brain and still don't know what is happening to you and everyone else.

Be forewarned hereby:

$2,000,000,000,000 is only a start.

How do I know about the wipe-out part. As I said before, as a kid I played with a box full of worthless paper currency bills. Worthless money wasn't good enough, so the nation made war to stimulate the economy. And it did. Unemployment rate imploded and the world exploded.

Therefore, I must ask, will I someday soon be able to play with funny money again? Will the world will explode again?

Deja Vue of Our Present Financial Disaster.

A few days ago I sent the following statement to the President Bush, Henry Paulsen and our Idaho Legislators:

* * *

I oppose the proposed bailout plan because as a child I played with a box full of worthless currency bills. Their total face 'value' was in the trillions. An example of the effects of the German hyperinflation is described in my memoir (Heroes from the Attic: A Gripping True Story of Triumph):

In January of 1921 the wage of a worker was about two and one-half Reichsmarks per hour. By April 1923, it had risen to 1,200 marks and by October, it had exploded to 25,000,000 marks. Twenty-five million marks per hour. Rarely had so many people become multi-millionaires, and simultaneously paupers as well, and so fast.

For example, a builder in Boennigheim had contracted to build a three-story house for a fixed sum. It took, and still does now, about eighteen months to build an average home in Germany. When he finished this home, his contracted sum could then only buy one carpenter's pencil. A three-story masonry house with a basement for one pencil.

* * *

Several central banks have being issuing large quantities of money and many lenders are now restricting their lending, because of uncertainty and loss of confidence. However, as shown by the example above, the excess money already in the global monetary system can start flooding the global market and cause hyperinflation. In some ways hyperinflation can be as destructive as wars, and even cause wars.

Our fiat monetary system is mostly based on confidence in this paper-based system. If people lose that confidence, collapse will follow.

Financial institutions have now stopped lending because they have lost confidence, and at the same time, central banks have been issuing huge amounts of paper money. This combination of loss of confidence and excess money will lead to hyperinflation or stagflation, both of which will be very destructive to individuals and societies.

A System to Help You Remember Everything

I will soon give this speech about improving one's memory, but I will have only about eight minutes to do so and therefore cannot explain the whole system. I could never remember numbers very well. So years ago I learned "The Harry Lorayne" memory system, and with it, was able to remember the first 150 decimals of the "pi" ratio for a long time. I could have remembered a lot more digits, but I was satisfied that Harry's method works extremely well. Therefore I recommend it for everyone.

“Doctor, doctor, I've lost my memory."
"When did it happen?"
"When did what happen?"

I think that we all have had moments when we tried to recall telephone numbers, names, faces, etc., and became frustrated because we were not quite able to do so.

Well, I have very good news for you. Most likely you do not have a poor memory. You may only have difficulty recalling what is stored in your brain. So today I will briefly demonstrate how, with a some practice, you will be able to recall a lot more than you might ever have thought possible. With lessons from The Harry Lorayne Memory Isometrics Course.Ó Time magazine called it “a never-fail system to remember everything.” It teaches you how you can store information and assemble a virtual file index in your head. And later retrieve this memorized information again by using this virtual linked-files index.

You “rediculize” objects by visualizing them being in at least one of the following states or conditions: Action, Proportion, Exaggeration and Substitution. You will be amazed how much easier it will be to remember something which is ridiculous. And the more ridiculous your visualization incorporating these mental aides, the better you can remember them, and in the sequence in which you linked them together initially. And much later you will still remember your objects in sequence even though you will have forgotten the ridiculous images which helped you remember them.

This how Harry Lorayne remembers numbers. He uses the sounds of consonants in words to represent numbers. Consonant sounds such as S, T, R, M, N, etc. But we will exclude the use of consonants which can sometimes be silent such as “h” or” w“.

To help us remember the consonant-number association, we choose consonants that remind us of the numbers they most closely represent. For example, the consonant “t” resembles the digit “1.” “n” can represent 2. To help us remember this association, “n” has 2 legs, 3 is “m” which has 3 legs. And so on.

To help us remember the association of the basic digits of our decimal system, we can remember the expression: “TeN MoRe LoGiC FiBS. I kid you not.

For example, to help us remember long numbers, we visually link a sequence of objects, keywords, to represent numbers. The underlying numbers are represented by the consonants in such words. Suitable words for use with number-word associations from 1 through 100 are listed in the hand-outs which I gave you. You do not have to remember these, because you can choose your own linking peg words. But I found it easier to memorize this list, and did so by using the Harry Lorayne method. That way I don’t have to think up new representative words. With some practice you can even count with these words just like with numbers.

Now then. In order to remember as many numbers as you wish, you visualize their representative objects in ridiculous ways, and link them with ridiculous associations. This is a lot easier than you might think. And this becomes easier with practice and with the re-use of the same 100 key words. You can practice visualizing the number-consonant pairs while driving a lonely stretch of highway. Practicing ridiculous linked keyword associations will even make you arrive a lot faster at your destination. Or shake you out of your virtual world, when you crash you into a lava rock cave, mistaking it for a tunnel. In desperation you try to unlock the car door with your finger which gets stuck in the lock. I just told you the numbers 58-47-78-57, because that’s what “lava,” “rock,” “cave” and “lock” represent.

Now let me elaborate as to how you might visualize a ridiculous sequence of objects to help you remember numbers which you cannot see or feel. That is why they are the most difficult for most of us to remember. Let’s remember the digits represented by the symbol P . In mathematics it represents the ratio of 3.141 ad infinitum. For the first number 3 visualize your mother, “Ma.” Then a “tie” for 1, because it contains only the consonant “t.” “Rye,” as a loaf of rye bread, can represent 4, because it only contains the consonant sound “r.” And so on.

Now close your eyes and actually visualize your “Ma,” which represents the digit “3.“ She is so tall that her hair is getting scorched by the sun. Actually see her giant stature with your mind’s eye. A ridiculous exaggeration in size. Then add a fluorescent, psychedelic tie, hanging from her waist, and it is so long that Ma keeps stumbling over it. Ridiculous Exaggeration and Action. The next number in the series of P is 4, so visually link a long “tie” with a loaf of “rye” bread fixed to its end. And they are spinning around your neck. You are desperately trying to take a bite out of it as it zooms around. Ridiculous link association and action. You associate the tie with a ridiculous way of eating “rye” bread. Next is again a “tie” for the next digit of 1. And so forth.

As I said before, supposedly this memory system works for anything you want to remember. But we are running out of time. So in conclusion, I will prove that this system works by reciting the decimals of P in proper sequence, while you can follow me on your hand-outs. Please count how many mistakes I will make. Remember I’m going to translate the words in my memory into numbers: 3.14159 26535 89793 23846 ……83011 94921.

“Doctor! Doctor! Now I can remember my wife‘s birthday, and I won‘t have to sleep in the doghouse this year!”