III. The PHYSICAL ECONOMY and Infrastructure Deficit

"The current infrastructure deficit is around 5 Trillion Dollars, possibly more...." - Webster Tarpley

As one can see, we are in a FAR WORSE situation then the Great Depression - and one could only hope for an FDR or Lincoln right now in light of what we face. You think Franklin Roosevelt instituted Socialism?, well - now you are going to get Fascism, and you aren't going to like it. For those who wish to scream endlessly about Gold Confiscation (Which at the time, was necessary to avert a complete economic collapse, and hence end of the Republic due to Gold Hoarding) and parrot lies from the Morgan/Mellon/Rockefeller controlled American Liberty League, an organization which was setup to derail the Presidency of Franklin Roosevelt (Which was defeated http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2006/3 ... _plot.html ). Now you have President Barack Obama, or whatever his real name is, and he is far from Franklin Roosevelt - infact , he is the opposite. Barack Obama is indeed implementing Austerity and Fascist policies to the tune of Adolf Hitler in his early years, so calling Obama a "Socialist" does nothing but provide him with cover and allow him to further carry the "Fascist football" down the field. Call him as you see him, Obama is not rebuilding anything and is infact, cutting all Social Services while simoultaniously bailing out the Derivative Monster Zombie Banks - This is Austerity and Corporatism (The Economics of Fascism) , not Socialism or anything near the likes of FDR. Anyone can see the difference between FDR and Obama, Roosevelt shut banks down and split them up (National Bank Holiday, Glass/Steagall Act) - Obama bails them out. Roosevelt expanded Social Services (Social Security, Food Stamp Act) , Obama plans to destroy them. http://www.larouchepac.com/health/ (Obama Adopts Hitler's Health Program)

I am not going to get into a detailed history of the New Deal in this paper, however distorted it has been on the Internet in recent years for the specific reason of getting people to bash it before even looking at what it accomplished.... even if you disagree with some of his policies, if anything it [The New Deal] proved the necessity of a Physical Economy to allow the private sector to function and strong Leadership during Economic Chaos, which we unfortunately do not have at the moment. The Tennesse Valley Authority and Reconstruction Finance Corporation are things worth looking into, two of many infrastructure lending conduits created by FDR , after putting the Federal Reserve System into bankruptcy and pressuring the board to keep interest rates at 1% or below to rebuild the outdated and collapsed infrastructure in the 1930's. The myth (Or deliberate lie) from the Austrian School that World War II Got us out of the Great Depression is one of the greatest lies (And acts of stupidity) ever told, infact , wars destroy economies by killing human beings and hence their jobs and diverting resources away from Infrastructure and into destroying the ENEMIES INFRASTRUCTURE (It is noteworthy that during any war, the first target is the Nations Economic Infrastructure, Remember Hitler's Blitzkreig?).

[note; to those who wish to derail this entire post into a Franklin Roosevelt bashing festival, do it elsewhere - this is about economics]

There are many serious problems we are currently facing , first and foremost an Infrastructure Deficit of mamoth proportions. The most important issue to address before continuing is:


WHAT IS A PHYSICAL ECONOMY?

A Physical Economy is a Nations Underlying Infrastructure, which allows trade , transport and commerce to occur. A Nations Economic Infrastructure, or "Physical Economy" are Scientific structures and innovations that spurr the Private Sector. It is important to note, that a Nations Economic Infrastructure directly reflects the needs of it's POPULATION LEVELS. Without a modernized infrastructure , The Nations economy will not function without a sudden and dramatic DROP in Population Levels to facilitate the Infrastructure Deficit. People neglect to even mention the word PHYSICAL ECONOMY when talking about economics, specifically so called 'Economists' from the Austrian School, and other lunatics from Princeton, Harvard, Yale and the like. WHY is this? Because they have either been Brainwashed or they are Malthusians (Population Reductionists). In our current situation, we have such a massive Infrastructure deficit that the entire Physical Economy is utterly falling apart. Our Railways are 50-100 years old, our bridges are literally FALLING DOWN!, we have a lack of Energy Output PER Population Density (CAPITA) which drives energy prices up (Thus driving the price of doing business up), Hospitals closing/falling apart , a Dwindling supply of CLEAN WATER and a general lack of modernized infrastructure required for any civilization to function with a decent standard of living. What drives all of these things? ENERGY in the form of POWER PLANTS.

http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2009/3 ... nergy.html

The Astounding High Cost of `Free' Energy
........Here in the United States, we have about 3 kilowatts of electrical generating capacity available per capita - much less than we need to be a truly productive economy, but still, something that most of the world comes nowhere near. Thus, we could say that every person in the United States, on average, has the work of 12 horses available to him every hour of the day and night, in the form of electricity.[1] Without electricity, the work of those silent horses must be done by men and women, laboring to turn pumps, to carry water on their heads, to spend a whole day scrubbing clothes, and another heating irons on a fire to press them, while such simple requirements as water and sewage treatment, refrigeration, and even the light bulb, go wanting. Such and worse remains the condition of a majority of the world's population - some 1.7 billion people who are entirely without electricity, and several billion more for whom the supply is intermittent and deficient.

China, for example, which produces a great part of the manufactured products consumed in the U.S.A., had only 0.3 kilowatts of generating capacity available per capita in 2005, which increased by 2008 to an estimated 0.5 kilowatts. Well over half of this electricity goes to power Chinese industry, the product of which is primarily exported. Thus, the amount available per person for use in China is less than 0.25 kilowatts, about one-third of a horsepower. Taken over the full 24 hours, we can say that the average person in China has available to him the work of 1 horse, compared to the 12 horses available in the United States. The source of most U.S. manufactured products is the low-wage labor of millions of Chinese, many of them from families with no access to even the electric light........

Advantage per unit weight of Uranium ...[4]
... over Wood: 11.5 million times
... over Coal: 3.0 million times[5]
... over Petroleum: 2.2 million times...

Nuclear for Fuel and Water
In many parts of the world, including some of extremely high population density, such as the east coast of India, the supply of clean water is running out. Ground wells are becoming contaminated as the fossil water supply within the ground becomes exhausted. Substantial regions of the United States, including Southern California and the American Southwest, are also reaching critical water supply limits. Producing drinking water by desalination of seawater is a proven process. Currently, 40 million cubic meters of water a day are produced by desalination, mostly in the Middle East and North Africa. The leading methods are reverse osmosis, using electric-powered pumps to force salt or brackish water through a specially designed membrane, and flash distillation. However, desalination is an energy-intensive process.

- What is Infrastructure? Infrastructure, as i have just mentioned , allows an economy to function. Infrastructure definitions can differ depending on your political views, however - there are certain things a civilization and economy need to function, and they are not mathematical equations, but Scientific Innovations that modernize and progress the human race, allowing the expansion of Economic Activity. Examples of Infrastructure can be seen in all of our Great Presidents list of Accomplishments starting with George Washingtons developement of Canals for transport, Benjaman Franklins scientific innovations / Post Office , John Quincy Adams & Abraham Lincolns planning for a Trans-Continental Railway (Which happened to make the United States the most powerful economy in the wolrd) , Franklin Roosevelts Hydro-Electric Dams, Schools, Hospitals, Roadways, Bridges , Eisenhowers Interstate Highway Program / Nasa, and finally John F. Kennedy's Space Program.

-What do all of these things have in common? They are Government Ventures (The Government exists to provide for the General Welfare of the population, as specified in numerous clauses in the Constitution, which are never mentioned by the Austrian School) That developed programs using Science , or the Human Mind to modernize the Nations Physical Economy thereby allowing for expansion. There are so many examples of Infrastructure Projects that have allowed population levels to expand and standards of living to go up that it would be impossible to list all of them, however it is easy to list the amount of large scale projects acheived since LBJ left office......... ZERO. Have the PRIVATE MARKETS taken up where the Government stopped in regards to developing the Nations Infrastructure? NO. A climbing 5 TRILLION DOLLAR Infrastructure Deficit is what we were left with after some 45+ years of Monetarism and Wild West parasitic predatory Capitalism..... Do you now understand WHY they waited till now to release the Swine Flu pandemic? Because over 1/3rd of the Nations Hospitals Per Capita have been SHUTDOWN.

I have heard arguments from Austrian 'School' preachers that a "Space Program" or "Water Treatment Plants" are a "WASTE OF MONEY" , or in a specific argument "NONSENSE". This is the fundamental flaw in so called, "Free Market" ideals. It is worthy to note that:

A) Without the Kennedy Space Program there is a good chance you would not have a modernized Computer to be reading this critique right now since almost all modern Computer Chip Technology was DERIVED from that program, in addition to thousands of other patents that ended up in the 'Free Markets' . Likewise, without DARPA inventing the Internet, you would not even be looking at this essay i have typed right now, and if you want to argue the 'Free Markets' would have invented it - I challenge YOU (Whoever you may be) to produce one successful LARGE SCALE INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT that was developed initially by the PRIVATE SECTOR that benefited the entire population. I am still awaiting for this phenomena to occur because to my knowledge it has never happened.

B) Without basic things like Water Treatment Plants and Power Plants to run them, you would likely be starving or dead. Here is a picture of a Nation with no Physical Economy, or Economic Infrastructure, i don't believe the 'Free Markets' are assisting this poor human being obtain water at a reasonable cost.

Zimbabwe:

- Examples Let's start with a basic example here. Suppose Columbus just arrived to the Americas and there is an economy with 2 Major Population Centers. There is no infrastructure and people are forced to barter locally. The distance from Population Center A and Population Center B is a 3 day journey by horse and carriage due to forestry and other blockages in the way of transport and the slow speed of the horse and carriage transportation method. How do you get the two population centers to begin trading with each other? BUILD A ROAD........ But the economy doesn't have enough "Money" to build a road...... What do you do?. The road would certainly INCREASE productivity and transport speeds, and hence commerce as a whole in our simplistic example of a new economy - how do we build it with no money?. The answer lies in the United States Constitution:

Article I Section 8 United States Constitution

Section 8. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;

To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;

To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States;

To establish post offices and post roads;

To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;

As one can see, by simply reading this excerpt of Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution, One can tell the Founding Fathers were WELL aware that a Bankrupt Nation could not issue currency, so they gave us a clause that allowed us to do so for productive means. One can also see , even back in the late 18th Century the Founding Fathers were well aware of the need for Roads, Scientific developments, arts and discoveries. Therefore, the argument that it is "Unconstitutional" for the Government to issue currency without gold, build roads (And other infrastructure) , and promote scientific research is a FALSEHOOD. The piles upon piles of brainwashing falsehoods found in the Austrian School of Economics are really too long to address, but we can certainly address the important ones.

So why don't we take our simple two population center economy and make it a 50 population center economy. 50 Sovereign Nation States , separated by boarders and obstructions that wish to produce goods and trade with each other. In our more realistic economy we must set the population level higher for this example, and this is where the real Science of Economics is. What would allow the transportation of large quantities of goods around the 50 Sovereign Nation States, at a rapid speed and lower cost than a Horse and Carriage?. How about a Trans Continental Railway? I believe we've been through Abraham Lincoln's accomplishments in this field, however that was in the late 1800's. We are now in the 21st Century and we require a MODERNIZED version of the TransContinental Railway - that would be a TransContinental MAGNETIC LEVITATION RAILWAY. Mag-Lev Railways in Japan can achieve speeds of 350 Miles Per Hour and operate at a far LOWER COST. What better way to interlink a Union of 50 Sovereign States for the purposes of Trade and Transport then a Mag-Lev?. After reading the (Entire) following article, you will understand very well that a Mag-Lev has far too many advantages to be ignored as "NONSENSE" , the label of Austrian choice. So, would you like to commute 3 hours to and from work, or 30 minutes?. Would you like your companies products shipped 5X Faster and Cheaper? Or would you like to label the advancement of civilization "Nonsense".

http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology ... index.html

Japan's Maglev Train Sets World Speed Record
TOKYO (AP) -- A magnetically levitated Japanese train raced to a new record Tuesday, topping its own record set just last month.
The experimental maglev set the world's top speed for a train, clocking 361 mph in a test run in Yamanashi Prefecture (state), west of Tokyo, Central Japan Railway Co., which is carrying out the experiments, said in a statement

http://www.larouchepub.com/eiw/public/2 ... 55_737.pdf
excerpt;

Maglev: Transport Mode For the 21st Century
Maglev is a completely new mode of transport that will join the ship, the wheel, and the airplane as a mainstay in moving people and goods throughout the world. Maglev has unique advantages over these earlier modes of transport and will radically transform society and the world economy in the 21st Century. Compared to ships and wheeled vehicles—autos, trucks, and trains—it moves passengers and freight at much higher speed and lower cost, using less energy. Compared to airplanes, which travel at similar speeds, Maglev moves passengers and freight at much lower cost, and in much greater volume. In addition to its enormous impact on transport, Maglev will allow millions of human beings to travel into space, and can move vast amounts of water over long distances to eliminate droughts....

Why is Maglev important? There are four basic reasons. First, Maglev is a much better way to move people and
freight than by existing modes. It is cheaper, faster, not congested, and has a much longer service life. A Maglev guideway can transport tens of thousands of passengers per day along with thousands of piggyback trucks and automobiles. Maglev operating costs will be only 3 cents per passenger mile and 7 cents per ton mile, compared to 15 cents per passenger mile for airplanes, and 30 cents per ton mile for intercity trucks. Maglev guideways will last for 50 years or more with minimal maintenance, because there is no mechanical contact and wear, and because the vehicle loads are uniformly distributed, rather than concentrated at wheels. Similarly, Maglev vehicles will have much longer lifetimes than autos, trucks, and airplanes.
Second, Maglev is very energy efficient. Unlike autos, trucks, and airplanes, Maglev does not burn oil, but instead consumes electricity, which can be produced by coal-fired, nuclear, hydro, fusion, wind, or solar power plants (the most efficient source now being nuclear). At 300 miles per hour in the open atmosphere, Maglev consumes only 0.4 megajoules per passenger mile, compared to 4 megajoules per passenger mile of oil fuel for a 20-miles-per-gallon auto that carries 1.8 people (the national average) at 60 miles per hour (mph). At 150 mph in the atmosphere, Maglev consumes only 0.1 of a megajoule per passenger mile, which is just 2 percent of the energy consumption of a typical 60-mph auto. In low-pressure tunnels or tubes, like those proposed for Switzerland’s Metro system, energy consumption per passenger mile will shrink to the equivalent of 10,000 miles per gallon.......


- SO In this regard (Railways) , the options are clear
A) Status Quo, Resulting in the inevitable collapse of our railways (One of hundreds of major problems)
[Image too large to display. Click to view.]

-OR-

B) Modernize and Increase YOUR STANDARD OF LIVING




What else spurs, or allows an Economy to function?

- Hospitals : As seen by the current Swine Flu Pandemic, a mutated strain of a virus can wipe an economy out. With modernized Hospitals that can facilitate the ENTIRE POPULATION, this mess would have been containable - even if it were intentionally released. However, since we have 30+% LESS Hospitals in the United States then we did in the aftermath of the Great Depression, we cannot contain a pandemic outbreak and it will likely kill many people. When people die, jobs disappear, when jobs disappear the economy plunges. I don't think further explanation of this is required, as it is common sense.

- Schools : So, how do people invent things?. With their MINDS. How do people develope their minds? EDUCATION. Does this mean the Government should run all aspects of education? No, but it does mean the Government should provide Public Schools (This area is in regards to College, not K-12) for the portion of the population that cannot afford a 40,000$ / Year Yale Degree. We no longer live in the 1700's , Austrians...... As times progress so does civilization - and i know you wish to to be caged in an 18th Century - No Technology , mindset...... but DO NOT IMPOSE THAT IDEAL ON THE REST OF US. The Governmnet "Building" a school does not dictate the curriculum of the teacher - the Department of Education does, so take it out on them. As we are now in an Economic Break-Down Crisis , it is required that people who cannot afford private schooling be educated for our workforce and the General Welfare of the Nation. That is not to say, the Government should dictate what is taught in all aspects or people should be FORCED to attend, however i see nothing wrong with providing affordable education services to those who WISH to receive them.

- Roads, Canals and Bridges : How do we Transport the goods we produce in order to sell them?. The Mag-Lev , as shown, would be very efficient. However, Local Transport and Naval Transport must also be taken into account. Our Roads and Bridges (Which are collapsing) are self explanatory. It is also obviously infeasable to build a Railway from the United States to Europe, i am sure you can use your minds on this subject to come up with numerous flaws in that idea..... so why are we not modernizing our Canals and Maritime transportation?. George Washington, our first President knew Canal Development was extremely important in the 18th Century - this remains a fact today. If you live on the water, you have a clear advantage at your disposal... that advantage is International Trade. Planes are not efficient for transporting large quantities of goods to other far away continents, however new Modern Boats are efficient in these regards. So, would a Mag-Lev that linked all major population centers and an updated way to transport goods to other Nations help the economy? Yes!.

In the 19th and 20th Century, Naval Technology was upgraded from Coal driven boats (in which people had to feed coal into many furnaces for the boat to propell itself) to Petrolium or oil, which eliminated the need for several dozen humans to constantly shovel coal into the boats furnace, increased speed and capacity......... Today we can do this again. By advancing from Petrolium (Fossil Fuels) to Nuclear or Other Scientific Advancements, we can do the same thing on the Ocean, that the Mag-Lev would do on Land. Although we are well aware "Global Warming" and "Climate Change" are hoaxes, this does not render an invention that would not rely on typical methods for power useless (Example):

http://news.softpedia.com/news/New-Carg ... 1183.shtml


New Cargo Ships Float on Air, Not Water


- Waterways , Water Systems , Sewage Systems & Dams :
Dams
The nation has 82,642 dams recorded in the National Dam Inventory, serving purposes of flood control, navigation, hydroelectric power, irrigation, recreation, water supply, wildlife habitation, fire control, and other uses. The average age of these dams is 49 years, with tens of thousands of dams over 60 years old. Nearly 30% of dams are classified as hazardous - either high hazard (11,881) or significant hazard (13,549). The remainder, 57,194, are designated low hazard. The degree of hazard refers to the danger, especially threat of loss of life, to what is downstream. (A high-hazard dam can be one in decent condition, but at a site where there are many people residing downstream).

Of the 30,000 dams considered to be in some category of hazard, 3,000 are considered as actually unsafe. The "Report Card" of the American Society of Civil Engineers gives dam safety overall a "D," partially because of the lack of funding available to deal with these unsafe structures. In 2002, and estimate of $10 billion was given by the Association of Dam Safety Officials for what it would have taken then to rehabilitate the most critical high-hazard dams.

More than 70,000 dams are regulated by the dam safety officers of the 50 states. Various authorities have responsibility for the dams: Federal (3,382), state (4,189), local government (16,497), public utility (1,703), private (53,166), and some others. The Agriculture Department has 10,000 upper watershed dams. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' National Inventory of Dams is available at: www.tec.army.mil/NIDpublic

Of the dams tracked by the Association of State Dam Safety Officials, there are many causes of failure:

34% fail because of overtopping, from inadequate spillway design, debris blockage of spillways, or settlement of the dam crest.

30% fail because of foundation defects.

20% fail because of piping (internal erosion caused by seepage).

Seepage often occurs around hydraulic structures, from animal burrows, vegetation, cracks, and so on. See www.damsafety.org

Navigable Waterways
There are lock chambers in use that are over 80 years old. The backlog of Army Corps waterways work is well over $3 billion.

Water Supply, Sewage Treatment
The United States has 54,000 community water supply systems and 16,000 publicly owned sewage treatment operations. All these systems are aging and there is a huge repair and replacement deficit. In New York City, for example, there are water mains that are more than 150 years old, and they rupture with regularity.

There is also a need to provide new systems because of the 30 years of sprawl associated with real estate speculation, where housing has been located in areas with no central sewage infrastructure. In the former cornfields of suburban Washington, D.C., fecal bacteria counts in streams and run-off has reached the stage of a public health threat.

Replacing aging urban systems is going at a snail's pace. On July 16, 2007, the United States Conference of Mayors relased the results of a study conducted by the Mayors' Water Council that showed that 48% of American cities are on a water and sewer pipe replacement schedule of 20 to 100 years, and between 18% and 23% of cities are on a replacement schedule that will exceed 100 years. The estimated cost of overcoming the crisis, by making the repairs in the next 20 years, is in the range of minimally $300 to $500 billion.

A 2003 study by the Congressional Budget Office concluded that over a 20-year period it would require between $178 billion and $331 billion in pipe replacement costs alone.

The situation is urgent. The nation's capital is typical. The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, which maintains freshwater and sewer pipes for two counties outside the District of Columbia—Montgomery and Prince George counties in Maryland reported that during February 2007, there were a stunning 477 water main breaks at 16 per day. Sixty percent of the system's 5,300 miles of pipe is 30 years or older; another 25% is 50 years or older. With its current meager funding, the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission will get around to replacing each mile of pipe only once in every 200 years!

IV. Forecasting, The United States system , Presidents and Leaders that utilized it.

Webster Tarpley , a well known Historian and Economist in the 9-11 Truth Movement , whom came from the Schiller Institute of Lyndon LaRouche (www.LaRouchePAC.com) wrote a short article that was circulated on the Internet last year, and the article happens to encompass alot of important information. Lyndon LaRouche has been warning of a progressive Economic Break-Down Crisis since the 1970's when Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon dismantled the Bretton Woods System. LaRouche uses his "Triple Curve Forecast" to forecast Recessions, Depressions and Collapses, and has never been wrong. The reason he has never been wrong is because his forecasts rely on data in regards to Wealth, Infrastructure and Productivity PER POPULATION DENSITY as opposed to every other economist, whom rely on Statistics , which ignore Dynamics.

Example of Dynamics in an Economy (In regards to the U.S. Auto Industry creating 2-year life-span cars and using 36 month loans):

http://larouchepac.com/news/2009/01/24/ ... -2009.html

The Only Successful Economic Forecaster
"Then you look at the 1950s, where I began doing some consulting work then, and had a chance to come up with a forecast about a 1957 recession. Well, how did I do that? Because I knew what was going on. And I looked at the way that the industries were behaving, and that Arthur Burns' influence was working inside the administration of Eisenhower. And what was happening, is, I was able to forecast; I said, inevitably, this thing is coming down. I knew it from consulting.

Take the auto industry, which was one of the industries which I forecast was going to collapse and it did, in 1957, along with others. How did it collapse?

Well: They were trying to build up an expansion of automobile sales and production. So what they did, is they increased the life-span of automobiles being sold, and this went from 12 months to 24 months to 36 months, and 36 months with a balloon note at the end - a big note at the end, the last payment. And this happened, not only in the automobile industry, it happened in virtually every other aspect of that kind of industry. And so, I simply knew the calculations. I knew that physically, the physical values for which credit was outstanding, and paper credit, had nothing to back them up. So, I said, "Well, we're going to have a recession by February of 1957." We had a recession by 1957. - Lyndon LaRouche