2264-ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? | View Thread

It might be hard to imagine President Ronald Reagan agreeing with President Barack Obama's take on wealth inequality. But Reagan's first director of the Office of Management and Budget, David Stockman, says that the disparity in household wealth is a major problem that ought to be addressed. He just has very different ideas about how to deal with it.

Stockman's specific concern is gains in the stock market, which he say have contributed massively to wealth inequality. Since he maintains that stocks have been propped up by the actions of the Federal Reserve, he has a problem with the money that Americans have made from rising stocks.

Profits off of stocks are "totally ill-gotten gains," Stockman said Thursday on CNBC's "Futures Now."

"This is a massive windfall to the 5 percent or 1 percent" wealthiest American households, he said. "This prosperity we've had in the top 5 percent—and that's where most of the consumption growth has been—is entirely a function of artificially ballooning stock prices and other risk assets."

Meanwhile, "the 'Main Street' households in America are not doing well. Their incomes are not growing."

Douglas Healey | Bloomberg | Getty Images / Getty Images

David Stockman and President Barack Obama.

In making this point, Stockman sounds a bit like Obama, who criticized low tax rates on capital gains in his recent State of the Union address.

"Let's close the loopholes that lead to inequality by allowing the top 1 percent to avoid paying taxes on their accumulated wealth. ... We need a tax code that truly helps working Americans trying to get a leg up in the new economy," the president said last week.

But Stockman says blame lays not with the tax code (indeed, he pioneered a trickle-down approach to taxes under Reagan) but with the Fed.

Obama "is talking about a symptom, but he's clueless as to the cause. The cause is not capitalism. The cause is not some entrepreneur out there trying to invent something and improve the performance of his business. The problem is in the Eccles building [home to the main office of the Fed] and in the 12 people sitting there and thinking that interest rates are some magic elixir that'll cause this very troubled and difficult economy to revive," Stockman said.

"It's not true," he said. "These people are dangerous and destructive, and they're creating this massive income inequality that, sooner or later, is going to cause a huge political reaction."

That said, because Stockman thinks that stocks are set to plunge, he believes that those who have their money in the market are set to lose a great deal of it.

"We've had two huge bubbles that collapsed already in this century," he said. "When this third bubble collapses—and surely it will—I believe that will be the day of reckoning. The credibility of all this central-bank-dominated, Wall-Street-coddling policy will be totally repudiated, and maybe then we can clean the slate and start over."

Watch "Futures Now" Tuesdays and Thursdays at 1 p.m. ET exclusively on FuturesNow.CNBC.com!

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Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 1/31/2015 1:14:52 AM
	Reagan’s OMB head: Wealth inequality is a problem Alex Rosenberg \| @CNBCAlex Thursday, 29 Jan 2015 \| 4:24 PM ET Watch video It might be hard to imagine President Ronald Reagan agreeing with President Barack Obama's take on wealth inequality. But Reagan's first director of the Office of Management and Budget, David Stockman, says that the disparity in household wealth is a major problem that ought to be addressed. He just has very different ideas about how to deal with it. Stockman's specific concern is gains in the stock market, which he say have contributed massively to wealth inequality. Since he maintains that stocks have been propped up by the actions of the Federal Reserve, he has a problem with the money that Americans have made from rising stocks. Profits off of stocks are "totally ill-gotten gains," Stockman said Thursday on CNBC's "Futures Now." Read MoreBill Gross: Fed tightening won't be too painful "This is a massive windfall to the 5 percent or 1 percent" wealthiest American households, he said. "This prosperity we've had in the top 5 percent—and that's where most of the consumption growth has been—is entirely a function of artificially ballooning stock prices and other risk assets." Meanwhile, "the 'Main Street' households in America are not doing well. Their incomes are not growing." Douglas Healey \| Bloomberg \| Getty Images / Getty Images David Stockman and President Barack Obama. In making this point, Stockman sounds a bit like Obama, who criticized low tax rates on capital gains in his recent State of the Union address. "Let's close the loopholes that lead to inequality by allowing the top 1 percent to avoid paying taxes on their accumulated wealth. ... We need a tax code that truly helps working Americans trying to get a leg up in the new economy," the president said last week. But Stockman says blame lays not with the tax code (indeed, he pioneered a trickle-down approach to taxes under Reagan) but with the Fed. Obama "is talking about a symptom, but he's clueless as to the cause. The cause is not capitalism. The cause is not some entrepreneur out there trying to invent something and improve the performance of his business. The problem is in the Eccles building [home to the main office of the Fed] and in the 12 people sitting there and thinking that interest rates are some magic elixir that'll cause this very troubled and difficult economy to revive," Stockman said. "It's not true," he said. "These people are dangerous and destructive, and they're creating this massive income inequality that, sooner or later, is going to cause a huge political reaction." That said, because Stockman thinks that stocks are set to plunge, he believes that those who have their money in the market are set to lose a great deal of it. "We've had two huge bubbles that collapsed already in this century," he said. "When this third bubble collapses—and surely it will—I believe that will be the day of reckoning. The credibility of all this central-bank-dominated, Wall-Street-coddling policy will be totally repudiated, and maybe then we can clean the slate and start over." Watch "Futures Now" Tuesdays and Thursdays at 1 p.m. ET exclusively on FuturesNow.CNBC.com!
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
	+1

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 1/31/2015 1:25:19 AM
	THE TERRIFYING END TIMES BOOK THAT POPE FRANCIS WANTS THE WORLD TO READ NTEB News Desk \| January 29, 2015 IN AN AIRPLANE NEWS CONFERENCE ON HIS WAY BACK FROM THE PHILIPPINES, POPE FRANCES REFERENCED A 1907 BOOK ENTITLED “LORD OF THE WORLD” AND ADVISED ALL OF THOSE IN ATTENDANCE TO READ IT “And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” Revelation 17:5 (KJV) From the day he became pope, NTEB has always maintained that Pope Francis was a man on a mission and destined to fulfill end times bible prophecy in a big way. Evidentially, he would seem to agree with our assessment. The book he wants everyone to read is centered around two main people – the Antichrist and the Catholic pope. Seriously, we couldn’t make this stuff up. It’s not the first time Pope Francis has mentioned the 1907 novel by Robert Hugh Benson, but his recommendation appears to be due to the daunting warning that is contained in the novel’s plot line. “Lord of the World” portrays a dystopian vision of the future and culminates in the final battle between humanism and Catholicism, which eventually leads to Armageddon. The author depicts a Marxist world in which a charismatic senator from Vermont named Julian Felsenburgh promises world peace if world’s citizens follow him obediently. CLICK FOR MORE ON THIS STORY… He is made president of Europe, and then the world, due to his charisma and promises of utopia, but little remains known about him, even after his rise to power. He replaces the belief in God with secularism and tortures and kills those who oppose his doctrine. As it becomes clear that the Felsenburgh is, in fact, the “anti-Christ,” the Pope gathers with the Cardinals in Rome in an effort to avoid the coming apocalypse. In the end, Felsenburgh ends up destroying Rome, killing the Pope and with the assistance of other world leaders and destroys the remaining vestiges of faith on Earth. Pope Francis has mentioned “Lord of the World” on several occasions and says that it depicts what he refers to as “ideological colonization” and in a sermon in 2013 described it as depicting “the spirit of the world which leads to apostasy almost as if it were a prophecy.” In his 2005 book “Literary Giants, Literary Catholics” British writer and former director of the Center for Faith and Culture at Aquinas College, Joseph Pearce described the book as a “..novel-nightmare” that “…is coming true before our very eyes.” “The world depicted in Lord of the World is one where creeping secularism and godless humanism have triumphed over traditional morality. It is a world where philosophical relativism has triumphed over objectivity; a world where, in the name of tolerance, religious doctrine is not tolerated. It is a world where euthanasia is practiced widely and religion hardly practiced at all. The lord of this nightmare world is a benign-looking politician intent on power in the name of “peace”, and intent on the destruction of religion in the name of “truth”. In such a world, only a small and shrinking Church stands resolutely against the demonic “Lord of the World” It is unclear whether Pope Francis believes that the apocalypse is nigh, but he clearly views the book as a warning to people of faith about the consequences of the choices that humanity makes.
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
	+1

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Reagan’s OMB head: Wealth inequality is a problem

THE TERRIFYING END TIMES BOOK THAT POPE FRANCIS WANTS THE WORLD TO READ

IN AN AIRPLANE NEWS CONFERENCE ON HIS WAY BACK FROM THE PHILIPPINES, POPE FRANCES REFERENCED A 1907 BOOK ENTITLED “LORD OF THE WORLD” AND ADVISED ALL OF THOSE IN ATTENDANCE TO READ IT