I iused the good offices and advise of one of the mates on a merchant ship. We had complete net access and he used it to do the penny stock thing and tutored some of us as well. That was at the time of the suitcase economy of Eastern Europe (see Casino Moscow by Brazenski) and some of us were into the blue jeans for whatever trading business. We were able to move some of the gains by putting them into the penny stock markets.the trick was to watch for the tax consequences and not run afoul. Number Two to do the homework and due diligence on selecting stocks to buy and at what price and at what sale price. A daily or nightly discussion as we moved around the world. What happened in the end?

No one is chasing me with a tax bill in hand and that's all that counts.

Example of that is the Russians under the Soviets. "When they quit pretending to pay us we shall quit pretending to work."

20 years ago one dollar or less US would buy a gallon of real gasoline. A hamburger was less than a dollar about to seventy cents along with a cheap loaf of bread. You may not remember those days. My wages working construction ranged from $ 7.50 an hour flagging traffic for a part time agency to $23.25 if it was a Davis Bacon local prevailing wage union only job. Average for the union was high teens and the city and county mid teens in Dollars. The $7.50 was for the majority of people at that skill level but prevailing according to DC was $23.00 To give both sides of the picture we bottom enders paid no union dues nor made donations to no political funds. The unions did.

We worked eight to sixteen hours a day but time and a half was unheard of so I went back to sea at age 55 where the chicanery was just as prevalent but conditions better and everyone worked seven days a week

What has changed? By 2006 I had determned to move my retirement savings out of the country it was evident a crash was coming. Tht happened in 2008. Two major items fueled that occurence not including a war that started in 2001 and still has not been won. In fact we lost it. One was ethanol we benefited a few agri and fuel corporations, destroyed engines, and cost more in subsidies than it was worth without producing better milage nor reducing pump prices no lessening noxious emissions. What it did do was drive up the price of food natinal and world wide by 30%. the hamburger now cost a dollar plus or would have except for another crisis and the cost of sending free food around the world went up 30% or so.

The other crisis was the housing bubble boom busted. The notion of affordable housing for those who had zero credit rating caused another rise in the cost of living as hundreds of thousands of home buyers who couldn't or wouldn't pay were back looking for cheap rent. N otice Not one home OWNER was in trouble at this point until those two occurences caused a lot of other problems among them tax increases. Now everyone or most everyone was in trouble. Loss of buying power for the dollar? About 40% or so. That included Mom, Pop, Grandparents now retired and anyone on unfunded retirement.

But let's call it 30% and leave room for the next one. When they quit calling it Recession II We'll pretend our dollars are worth more than 60 cents.

Along came a large and then a tsunami government borrowing as jobs disappeared what little we had. Businesses and money fled the country and when the wars were slowed down and reservists sent home they reclaimed their old jobs which put more people out of work.

More money was borrowed but i t became evident there was no intent to every pay it back.

Instead we got inflation we got more devaluation of buying power and we got debt repudiation meaning the government reneged on it's debts.

One quick example is COLA. After six or seven or eight years o f zero to one percent adjustments that 30% loss of buying power has never been included in COLA even though the government caused it.

So I guess while they are calling it Cola we'll pretend it Pepsi.

IT's called the (Cycle or Circle of Economic Repression) There' a another go round coming up to pay for the Obama's eight or nine trillion addition to the national debt which MUST be service else no one would lend any more money. Except perhaps for the forced loans in the forms of Savings Bonds the military is strong armed into buying.

So who will pay the frieght this time? WhyGrandpa and Grandma stillhave a dollar or two of their retirement funds left. Mom and Dad are thinking about life on Social Security and their retirement totaling enough to buy whaqt SSA by itself. Juniors college fund. Forget it. he can sign up for the draft along with Juniorette and try to get a government loan. except...the one's who got in first have decided not to pay theirs back.

Jobs are not happening and the only relief offered is a $15.00 minimum wage which after taxes means you can afford that $5. to $7 hamburger.

Gas is down? Yes but a new gas tax is on the way...after all that gas decrease is found money for the government so..........

Remember the Russians. While they pretend to know how to govern and run an economy. We'll pretend to registere and vote.

The only way it's going to be fixed is gt rid of the problem. One President, one Vice President, 100 Senators and 435 Representatives and then cut government by 30%. After all it's a fair share is it not?