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Last Saturday we celebrated the marriage of our youngest son, Mark and his bride, Jess. The wedding was beautiful. It was an amazing and perfect day from the start, with the gorgeous weather, the blessed ceremony, the delicious food and fun at the reception to the after party at our hotel. I wanted to share a few pictures with you.
Murray T. Holland is a resident of Dallas, Texas. He graduated in 1975 from Washington and Lee University with a B.S. in Chemistry and Biology. He earned an M.B.A. from the University of Virginia in 1978 and a law degree from Washington and Lee University in 1980. During the 1980s, he practiced corporate and securities law with Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer and Feld in Dallas, Texas. In 1987, he became an investment banker in New York with First Boston and later moved to Kidder, Peabody & Co. where he was a Managing Director. In the early 1990s, he started the private equity firm of Convergent Associates, based in Dallas, Texas.
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Will The U.S. Go Bust?
Will the government go bust? This is the question that everyone would like answered. America is in very bad financial shape, maybe the worst it has ever experienced. Even after World War II, when the U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio was about 120 percent, the government was able to reduce its deficit to essentially zero without a massive depression, but it took 35 years to get that ratio down to a respectable 35 percent.
The United States is already caught in the first jaw of the Debt Trap because the economy is dependent on the deficit spending of the federal government. If the federal government instantly balanced the budget by either spending reductions or higher taxes, it would instantly reduce GDP by 4 percent, and this would put the United States in a severe recession.
When interest rates start to escalate, which they will as the debt continues to accumulate, the interest expense on the national debt will take up more and more of the budget, leaving less and less for other operating items such as military, medical care, and social security. Interest expense will become the largest budget item in the federal budget.
Debt Problem Not Created Overnight
The federal government debt problem did not happen overnight. It was not caused by some catastrophic event like a banking system meltdown, and no one stole all the money and ran off with it. The problem has been one of slow accumulation of more government regulation, spending, and commitment to do more things for people. The administrations and agencies referred to previously were not created in a single day. They were created one at a time over the last 80 years. The funding programs were also not created in a day. To normal citizens, the slow creep of more and more spending and regulation by the government has gone unnoticed. We each go about our everyday business and do not pay attention to the daily activities of Congress. This is simply human nature. Congressional actions are also human nature. U.S. citizens elected representatives to go to Washington and spend money…and that the congressmen and senators have done. Most people in government want to do something “for the country” and “for the people,” which inevitably leads to spending Other People’s Money.
Our government debt is rising every day. Our population is shifting as more people retire and fewer people are able to find work. Our social programs, including the Affordable Care Act, are only adding to our financial burden, and rising taxes are hindering economic growth. We are a nation in the red. “A Nation In The Red” by Murray T. Holland is a powerful wake-up call to leaders, investors, and citizens. Holland’s research reveals the surprising truth about our national debt – and what we can do about it.
“A Nation In The Red” presents a reasoned, straightforward approach to one of the most controversial issues of our time. You’ll also discover the fascinating psychological reasons that have led to the creation of our debt trap, you’ll learn about the 2,200 federal programs that we’re all paying for, and you’ll find five ways to reduce our nation’s debt, some of which stand as a viable solution to our country’s problems. In the book, Holland reveals:
· How large our debt really is – and is heading to be: It is far worse than previous calculations or projections – it is actually $19 trillion and may well be over $33 trillion in just ten years.
· How Congress and people on the street think “it can’t happen here,” but it can and will happen here.
· What the debt truly means to individuals, businesses, and the nation — and takes us through the doomsday devastation a debt out of control can unleash on us.
· How individuals and businesses can actually contribute to the solution – and how to best insulate themselves from a looming depression if Congress fails to act.
· Why just a small increase in the interest rate — which is bound to happen given the 50-year average is an annual rate of 6% — will more than double the amount of interest paid, and why that amount will swallow 25% of our tax revenue in the near future.
· Why the U.S. has, out of 183 largest economies, the 9th worst debt-to-GDP ratio – and why only two nations that have ever had a ratio worse than our 121% — averted a depression (but most experience a depression like Greece, Portugal, and Spain or long-term recessions like Japan, France and Italy).
· There are only five options for countries with our level of debt– and then recommends his strongest, viable solution – and even that will take 30 years to unfold in order to get us back to where we were five years ago.
· What the Federal Reserve must do – including its new chief – to steer the country properly.
· Why moms and dads, particularly with children in their teens, twenties and thirties, are the key to solving this mess.
Holland wrote the book as a call to action for the nation to take responsibility of this impending danger. He started to conduct research in wanting to know the impact of the national debt on his investments. He wrote it like he would an investment banking study. He ended up spending over three years researching the history of government defaults, what governments in the past and present do when they find themselves in this precarious position, how they got into the mess, what affect government debt has on the country’s economy and currency and how only two countries have ever gotten out of debt this high.
He He believes his book will:
· Educate the public and inform them of the debt trap the United States is in.
· Mobilize businesses, citizens and Congress to take action.
· Provide a complete analysis of the federal debt bomb and the implications for every American.
· Show why we are on the same path as Spain, Italy, Portugal and Ireland – all economic busts.
· Reveal why bailouts, printing money, borrowing more, reworking loan terms, or defaulting are not realistic options to avoid the debt meltdown.
· Explain how to grow the economy but not overheat it – and why coupling this with expense-cutting, avoiding tax increases, and slicing government regulations can put us back on a tract to growth.
BOOK DETAILS:
Genre: Finance, Free Enterprise, Economics-General
Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition
Publication Date: October 23, 2013
Number of Pages: 272 pages
ISBN-10: 0071829792
ISBN-13: 978-0071829793PURCHASE LINKS:
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Thanks to Marissa and the wonderful folks
at Forever Romance/ The Hachette Book Group,
one lucky winner will win an e-book prize pack
with the following six (6) titles!!!!!!
ALL FIRED UP by Kate Meader
Cool as a Chicago winter, private events planner Cara DeLuca is a model of self-control . . . until she meets the one temptation she can’t resist: Shane Doyle. The sexy, Irish pastry chef is too hot, too sure, too young, and after a crazy night in Vegas-her new husband. While at first Cara wants nothing more than a way out of her sham marriage to Shane, she soon finds that beneath his farm boy demeanor lies a man who can match her drive, both in and out of the bedroom. How can the wrong guy feel so deliciously right?
ALONG CAME TROUBLE by Erin Kern
Elisa Cardoso longs for passion in her life. Though she’d much rather spend her days photographing the stunning Wyoming landscape, food photography is a lucrative, if uninspiring, way to pay her bills. But when her next assignment brings her face to face with sexy restaurant owner Brody McDermott, Elisa can’t deny the delicious effect
DELICIOUS by Adrianne Lee
Workaholic Nick Taziano wasn’t too thrilled to be reunited with promising chef Jane Wilson, but after one taste of her lips, nothing—not even her famous blueberry pie—compares. Now Nick’s company has been hired to do Big Sky Pie’s marketing. How’s a girl supposed to bake the best pastries in town when he’s a constant reminder of their steamy chemistry? Jane has no room for a man in her life, yet sometimes the most delicious dishes don’t follow the recipes…
ENTWINED by Kristen Callihan
Eamon Evernight has always lived in his older brother’s shadow. While his brother is fair of hair and lithe in body, Eamon sparks fear with his fiery locks and massive frame-and rumors of a mysterious power. But when his brother has the good fortune to be betrothed to a beautiful stranger, it’s Eamon’s help-and quick wit and romantic heart–that he needs. Eamon agrees to write the noble lady…a generous offer that will forever leave him a changed man.
REDEMPTION by C.J Barry
Reya Sinclair is a Redeemer of Souls. Her mission is to give Earth’s most depraved sinners a shot at redemption just before they are slated to die. Her own redemption is on the line as she fulfills her duties, leaving a trail of dead bodies in her wake. It’s all going perfectly well until one detective takes notice, possibly bringing her salvation to a halt.
UNSTOPPABLE by Shannon Richard
Melanie O’Bryan knows life is too short to be afraid of taking chances. And former Air Force sergeant Bennett Hart is certainly worth taking a chance on. He’s agreed to help her students with a school project, but she’s hoping the handsome handyman will offer her a whole lot more. Yet despite his heated glances and teasing touches, Mel senses there’s something holding him back . . .
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Bonnie vividly recalls the book that helped her decide she could out-write another writer: it was a junior reader’s biography of Sir William Harvey, the 17th century English physician credited (in the West) with discovering how blood circulates. After about 30 pages of telling herself “I can write better than that!” she grabbed a crayon that just happened to be blue and started editing. She was all of seven years old at the time. Unfortunately for her juvenile bottom it was a library book. She followed the dream through college and after grad school, freelancing feature articles for newspapers along the East Coast. Milani even wrote a cover story for Science Digest! Alas life and grown up responsibilities caught up with her and by her late twenties she put writing away with so many other dreams while she followed a ‘career track’. After losing her entire family, she realized story telling just a want but a need and a gift God gave her. So here she is, a self-declared “middle-aged pudge” working on getting back into a writer’s kind of real life!
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Where Do You Get Your Ideas?
I don’t think there’s any one answer to that question. Story ideas pop out of conversations, observations, day dreams, or even just a flat out ‘what it’? Or sometimes even from just a shuddery moment. I’m working on a short story right now that grew out of an incident like that many years ago. Back when I was young and thin and thoughtless, I walked into a pet shop just to ooh and aah and the puppies. I noticed a fellow with a circle – a wide circle – around him over at the store counter, but didn’t pay him any attention. After all, to a ‘tweener what’s a guy compared to a puppy? I should’ve noticed, though. Because I was still ogling the puppy cages when I started to walk out – and found myself face-to-fanged face with the tarantula sitting on the back of that fellow’s hand. Now, I don’t know about the spider, but I’m reasonably sure I broke an Olympic record for standing side jump. I know I woke up ever living creature within a couple of hundred yards. I certainly annoyed the fellow; turns out tarantulas hate loud noises and that one was sitting on his hand. I didn’t stay around to find out. Now the reason I’m telling this story purpose of this story is that while I was shuddering my way home I got to wondering what the incident felt like from the tarantula’s perspective. And suddenly a very put-upon arachnid popped his head out of a web at the back of my mind and introduced himself as Rahss. Took many years and more questions to spin a story (sorry; couldn’t resist) around him, but Rahss is finally coming into his own.
By contrast, the idea for Home World grew out of a dream I had. In it a young woman in a highly decorated military dress uniform was chained to a dungeon wall. The imagery was so disturbing it woke me up. I am emphatically not into S & M or bondage. Fifty Shades does NOT have a place on my bookshelf. So the idea of a chained woman both puzzled and intrigued me. Maybe that’s why it turned into a recurring dream; I just couldn’t let the idea go. Gradually I worked out that she was Keiko Yakamoto, a Samurai-trained native Hawaiian from the wrong side of the gene pool. What grew up around her was a love story of interstellar political intrigue as two young princes vie for Keiko’s love with the very existence of humanity at stake.
I think we all come up with story ideas every day. Most of the time we just don’t realize it. Do you have something that feels like a story idea? An incident, maybe, in search of a plot? Sometimes all you need to do to find a good story is take a simple, everyday incident and turn it around. And voila! A story!
Home World is a fast paced well written story about the power and the price of love. This story takes place amid the ruins of a post-apocalyptic Waikiki. Jezekiah Van Buren thinks he has found a way to restore Earth – Home World, to the other worlds of the human commonwealth. His goal is to restore his home to her lost glory.
Ingenious even by the standards of the genetically enhanced Great Family Van Buren, Jezekiah has achieved the impossible: he has arranged a treaty that will convert Earth’s ancient enemies, the Lupans, to her most powerful allies. Not only will the treaty terms make Earth rich again, it will let him escape the Ring that condemns him to be Earth’s next ruler. Best of all, the treaty leaves him free to marry Keiko Yakamoto, the Samurai-trained woman he loves. Everything’s set. All Jezekiah has to do is convince his xenophobic sister to accept the Lupan’s alpha warlord in marriage.
Before, that is, the assassin she’s put on his tail succeeds in killing him. Or the interstellar crime ring called Ho Tong succeed in raising another rebellion. Or before his ruling relatives on competing worlds manage to execute him for treason. But Jezekiah was bred for politics and trained to rule. He’s got it all under control. Until his Lupan warlord-partner reaches Earth. And suddenly these two most powerful men find themselves in love with the same woman. A woman who just may be the most deadly assassin of them all.
BOOK DETAILS:
Publisher: Promontory Press; 1ST edition
Publication Date: Aug. 22n 2013
Number of Pages: 423
ISBN-10: 1927559235
ISBN-13: 978-1927559239PURCHASE LINKS:
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