The article is called "Cheney's betting on bad news" and provides an account of where Cheney has socked away more than $25 million. While the figures may be estimates, the investments are not. According to Tom Blackburn of the Palm Beach Post, Cheney has invested heavily in "a fund that specializes in short-term municipal bonds, a tax-exempt money market fund and an inflation protected securities fund. The first two hold up if interest rates rise with inflation. The third is protected against inflation."

Cheney has dumped another (estimated) $10 to $25 million in a European bond fund which tells us that he is counting on a steadily weakening dollar. So, while working class Americans are loosing ground to inflation and rising energy costs, Darth Cheney will be enhancing his wealth in "Old Europe". As Blackburn sagely notes, "Not all 'bad news' is bad for everybody."

This should put to rest once and for all the foolish notion that the "Bush Economic Plan" is anything more than a scam aimed at looting the public till. The whole deal is intended to shift the nation's wealth from one class to another. It's also clear that Bush-Cheney couldn't have carried this off without the tacit approval of the thieves at the Federal Reserve who engineered the low-interest rate boondoggle to put the American people to sleep while they picked their pockets.

Reasonable people can dispute that Bush is "intentionally" skewering the dollar with his lavish tax cuts, but how does that explain Cheney's portfolio?

It doesn't. And, one thing we can say with metaphysical certainty is that the miserly Cheney would never plunk his money into an investment that wasn't a sure thing. If Cheney is counting on the dollar tanking and interest rates going up, then, by Gawd, that's what'll happen.

The Bush-Cheney team has racked up another $3 trillion in debt in just 6 years. The US national debt now stands at $8.4 trillion dollars while the trade deficit has ballooned to $800 billion nearly 7% of GDP.

This is lunacy. No country, however powerful, can maintain these staggering numbers. The country is in hock up to its neck and has to borrow $2.5 billion per day just to stay above water. Presently, the Fed is expanding the money supply and buying back its own treasuries to hide the hemorrhaging from the public. Its utter madness.

Last month the trade deficit climbed to $70 billion. More importantly, foreign central banks only purchased a meager $47 billion in treasuries to shore up our ravenous appetite for cheap junk from China.

Do the math! They're not investing in America anymore. They are decreasing their stockpiles of dollars. We're sinking fast and Cheney and his pals are manning the lifeboats while the public is diverted with gay marriage amendments and "American Celebrity".

The American manufacturing sector has been hollowed out by cutthroat corporations who've abandoned their country to make a fast-buck in China or Mexico. The $3 trillion housing (equity) bubble is quickly loosing air while the anemic dollar continues to sag. All the signs indicate that the economy is slowing at the same time that energy prices continue to rise.

This is the onset of stagflation; the dreaded combo of a slowing economy and inflation.

Did Americans really think they'd be spared the same type of economic colonization that has been applied throughout the developing world under the rubric of "neoliberalism"?

Well, think again. The American economy is barrel-rolling towards earth and there are only enough parachutes for Cheney and the gang.

The country has lost 3 million jobs from outsourcing since Bush took office; more than 200,000 of those are the high-paying, high-tech jobs that are the life's-blood of every economy.

Consider this from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) June edition of Foreign Affairs, the Bible of globalists and plutocrats:

"Between 2000 and 2003 alone, foreign firms built 60,000manufacturing plants in China. European chemical companies, Japanese carmakers, and US industrial conglomerates are all building factories in China to supply export markets around the world. Similarly, banks, insurance companies, professional-service firms, and IT companies are building R&D and service centers in India to support employees, customers, and production worldwide." ("The Globally integrated Enterprise" Samuel Palmisano, Foreign Affairs page 130)

"60,000manufacturing plants" in 3 years?!?

"Banks, insurance companies, professional-service firms, and IT companies"?

No job is safe. American elites and corporate tycoons are loading the boats and heading for foreign shores. The only thing they're leaving behind is the insurmountable debt that will be shackled to our children into perpetuity and the carefully arranged levers of a modern police-surveillance state.

Welcome to Bush's 21st Century gulag; third world luxury in a Guantanamo-type setting.

Take another look at Cheney's investment strategy; it tells the whole ugly story. Interest rates are going up, the middle class is going down, and the poor dollar is headed for the dumpster. The country is not simply teetering on the brink of financial collapse; it is being thrust headfirst by the blackguards in office and their satrapies at Federal Reserve.

The reasons for their plight are many. For some, residual stress from daily insurgent attacks and roadside bombs makes it tough to adjust to civilian life; some can't navigate government assistance programs; others simply can't afford a house or apartment.

They are living on the edge in towns and cities big and small, from Washington state to California and Florida. Some of the hardest hit are in New York City, where housing costs "can be very tough," says Peter Dougherty, head of the federal government's Homeless Veterans Program. Studio apartments routinely exceed $1,000 a month - no small sum for veterans trying to land on their feet.

As a member of the National Guard, Nadine Beckford patrolled New York train stations after the Sept. 11 attacks, then served a treacherous year in the Gulf region.

But when she returned home from Iraq, she found her storage locker had been emptied of all of her belongings and her bank account had been depleted. She believes her boyfriend took everything and "just vanished."

Six months after her return to America, she lives in a homeless shelter in Brooklyn, sharing a room with eight other women and attending a job training program. Her parents live in Jamaica and are barely making ends meet, she says.

"I'm just an ordinary person who served. I'm not embarrassed about my homelessness, because the circumstances that created it were not my fault," says Beckford, 30, who was a military-supply specialist at a U.S. base in Iraq - a sitting duck for around-the-clock attacks "where hell was your home."

It was a "hell" familiar to Noel during his eight months in Iraq. But it didn't stop when he returned home to New York last year and couldn't find a job to support his wife and three children. Without enough money to rent an apartment, he turned to the housing programs for vets, "but they were overbooked," Noel says.

While he was in Iraq, his family had lived in military housing in Georgia.

In New York, they ended up in a Bronx shelter "with people who were just out of prison, and with roaches," Noel says. "I'm a young black man from the ghetto, but this was culture shock. This is not what I fought for, what I almost died for. This is not what I was supposed to come home to."

There are about 200,000 homeless vets in the United States, according to government figures. About 10 percent are from either the 1991 Gulf War or the current one, about 40 percent are Vietnam veterans, and most of the others served when the country was not officially at war.

"In recent years, we've tried to reach out sooner to new veterans who are having problems with post-traumatic stress, depression or substance abuse, after seeing combat," says Dougherty. "These are the veterans who most often end up homeless."

About 350 nonprofit service organizations are working with the Department of Veterans Affairs to help veterans.

But the veterans still land on a hard bottom line: Almost half of America's 2.7 million disabled veterans receive $337 or less a month in benefits, according to the government. Fewer than one-tenth are rated 100 percent disabled, meaning they get $2,393 a month, tax free.

"And only those who receive that 100 percent benefit rating can survive in New York," says J.B. White, a 36-year-old former Marine who served with a National Guard unit in Iraq. His colon was removed after he was diagnosed with severe ulcerative colitis, which civilian medical experts believe started in Iraq under the stress of war.

"I'd be homeless if it weren't for the support of my family," says White, who is trying to win benefits from the VA. He also helps others, like Beckford, as head of a Manhattan-based social service agency that finds non-government housing for vets.

Noel now attends a program to get work in studio sound production. He was the protagonist of the documentary film "When I Came Home," which was named best New York-made documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival this year.

Just after the news reports about his plight, he learned the government was granting him the 100 percent disability compensation he sought - after being turned down.

Noel doesn't blame the Army, which "helped make my dreams come true," he says, recalling the military base life in Georgia and in Korea that his family enjoyed before his deployment to Iraq.

"I had a house, a car - they gave me everything they promised me," he says. "Now it's up to the government and the people we're defending to take care of their soldiers."

The tough sales comparison comes at a time when GM's board is under pressure to consider a three-way alliance with Renault SA and Nissan Motor Co.

Ford's June sales dropped 7 percent and DaimlerChrysler's plunged 13 percent, underscoring the pressure on Detroit automakers at the start of a summer season they are counting on to clear an unsold inventory of 2006 models.

By contrast, Toyota -- now No. 3 in the U.S. market for cars and trucks -- posted a 14 percent sales gain. Toyota sold more cars in June than Ford and Chrysler combined.

Toyota's share of the total U.S. vehicle market rose to 15 percent in June, up from 12 percent a year earlier. The Detroit-based companies' market share sagged to 56 percent, down from 62 percent.

"Toyota is unstoppable. They have the right product mix, the right price, the right image, and momentum of product," said analyst Jesse Toprak of industry tracking service Edmunds.com.

Overall, U.S. light vehicle sales -- cars, pickup trucks and SUVs -- fell to 1.5 million units, down 11 percent, according to industry tracking firm Autodata Corp.

Toyota has taken a bigger share of a weakening U.S. market on the fuel efficiency of its line-up, which trails only Honda Motor Co. in average fuel economy among major manufacturers.

In the first half of 2006, Toyota sales rose 10 percent, boosted by the revamped Camry sedan and the new Yaris subcompact. "We expect that sales pace is going to continue in the rest of the year," said Jim Lentz, executive vice president of Toyota Motor Sales.

He said Yaris sales were stronger than anticipated and Toyota was working to import them in higher volume from Japan.

Toyota has only a 9-day inventory of the Yaris, and an even tighter 4-day sales inventory of its Prius hybrid, essentially making both vehicles sellout hits.

Meanwhile, sales of Ford's Explorer, a best-selling SUV, dropped by 36 percent in June while sales of the larger Expedition were down 46 percent. "There's no question that higher gas prices have hurt demand for these products," said Ford sales analyst George Pipas.

Auto executives said there were signs that consumers were also waiting for better deals in July, when both GM and Chrysler rolled out new discount offers.

CHRYSLER INCENTIVES UP, SALES DOWN

The weak June numbers capped a rough quarter for Chrysler, the only Detroit-based automaker to post a profit in the first quarter. Chrysler saw its inventory balloon to 91 days of sales at the end of June, and has had to resort to the biggest discounts in the industry this year.

DaimlerChrysler's first-half U.S. sales were down 5 percent as a 17 percent gain for Mercedes-Benz was more than offset by a 3 percent drop for the bigger-volume Chrysler brand.

Chrysler is attempting to shore up its flagging sales with the most aggressive discount offer of the year, combining employee-level pricing with zero-percent financing and a 30-day money back guarantee.

Chrysler executives said they were confident that would boost July sales and run down a glut of almost 648,000 unsold vehicles, with trucks representing almost 85 percent of the total.

GM said its June result, in line with the company's cautionary forecast, was on track with the terms of its restructuring plan, which includes a dozen plant closings and some 30,000 job cuts.

The year-on-year GM decline reflected an unusually strong performance in 2005 when it rolled out an employee pricing offer that touched off a summer price war in Detroit.

GM has vowed to avoid cutting margins through a similarly sweeping program this year, saying last year's discounts hurt the image of its brands and the resale value of its vehicles.

GLOBAL POWERHOUSE?

Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian is looking to broker the three-way alliance among GM and Nissan-Renault. Such a tie-up would create a global automotive powerhouse with almost twice the sales of Toyota, the No. 2 automaker worldwide.

The boards of Nissan and Renault on Monday approved discussions about the deal.

But Nissan has struggled in the U.S market this year, and its June sales tumbled by 19 percent.

Nissan's difficulties have included a disruptive move in its headquarters to Nashville, Tennessee, production cuts and an embarrassing recall of some Altima and Sentra sedans due to evidence of engine fires.

Rival Honda Motor Co. , which is building a new U.S. assembly plant to keep up with demand, posted flat overall sales in June. Strong sales for its fuel-efficient Fit and Civic models were offset by declines in truck sales and for its Acura luxury line.

Russia now has signed bilateral protocols with 57 members out of the 58-member Working Party on accession. Talks with the United States have been complicated over a number of issues, including access to Russia's banking sector, intellectual property rights, import duties, and agricultural subsidies.

Putin said America's position contradicted rules of diplomacy, as did "attempts to negotiate a protocol in accordance with U.S. legislation, rather than with WTO rules."

Russia this year holds the chair of the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations, and will host the group's annual summit in St. Petersburg, Putin's hometown, July 15-17.

A Kremlin aide said earlier Tuesday that Russia wanted to sign a bilateral deal with the United States on its WTO accession at the July summit.

"But if it does not happen, it will be no tragedy," Sergei Prikhodko said. "We will continue working."