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Date Posted: 10:52:25 11/25/07 Sun
Author: part 1
Subject: November 25, 2007

ICLC BRIEFING INTERNATIONAL VERSION

BY: LYNDON LAROUCHE/TONY PAPERT/KRN
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
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| MORNING BRIEFING |
| |
| Sunday, November 25, 2007 |
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+---------------------------------------------------------------+

Address to LA China Conf.:

- THE USA & CHINA -

by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.

{These remarks were presented by Lyndon LaRouche, and translated
into Chinese, for a conference titled, "Forum on the U.S.-China
Relationship and the Peaceful Reunification of China," sponsored
by the Institute of Sino Strategic Studies in Los Angeles on Nov.
24.}

As I reported in an international webcast, broadcast from
Washington, D.C. on July 25th this year, the present world
monetary-financial system has entered the most deadly crisis of
recent centuries. At that time, I emphasized two things about
that forecast: that the end of the present world
monetary-financial system were inevitable, {unless} that system
were replaced by a new world system during a relatively brief,
remaining time available.
Since that time, evidence bearing on all relevant leading
developments from around the world, has confirmed the essential
accuracy of my July 25th forecast on all relevant points. Since
that time, nothing visible has been actually been done by any
government to change the present world system in ways which would
tend to solve this crisis. For example, every action taken,
since that date, by the U.S. Federal government and the U.S.
Federal Reserve System, has been an intrinsically tragic mistake.
So far, every reaction of the governments of the U.S.A., and of
western and central Europe, in particular, to deal with their
crisis, has been worse than a failure. The crisis has an
inherently hyperinflationary form which should remind us of
developments like those of 1923 Weimar Germany, but, this time,
on a world scale.
However, we must not ignore the crucially relevant fact,
that any monetary-financial system, when considered by itself,
is, essentially, only the equivalent of a "paper system."
Fortunately, monetary-financial systems can be replaced. In the
long term, {{it is the choice of the ruling form of social system
on which the design of the physical economy is based, which is
essential.}}
When we take into account the knowledge which we have
available to us today, the following rule applies: whenever a
powerful combination of national governments can arrive at a
suitable agreement to change a failed financial-monetary system,
a solution for any modern financial crisis can be found.
{{Therefore, my leading point in this report today, is
that:}} {Specifically, were the government of the U.S.A. to
propose cooperation on a suitable reform, to an initial
sponsoring group made up of the governments of the U.S.A.,
Russia, China, and India, it would be possible to bring the
present international crisis under control, and, therefore, to
rally a majority of the world's nations to join in measures which
would stabilize the world system, and provide the foundation for
a general economic recovery.}
The last general recovery of the economy of the U.S.A. and
western and central Europe, was initiated within the United
States under President Franklin Roosevelt. The death of
President Roosevelt was a great loss to humanity; but, despite
his death, although the policy-changes made under his successor
were, generally, a big mistake, the U.S.A. economy continued to
prosper under the continued benefit of the then deceased
President Roosevelt's policies until the assassination of
President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963 (despite the bad
policies introduced under President Truman).
The effects of the 1964 U.S. entry into the long war in
Indo-China, like the more recent, very foolish wars which were
launched by the Tony Blair and George W. Bush governments of the
United Kingdom and the U.S.A., have led, successively, into the
wrecking of the international monetary system in August 1971, and
a general physical-economic decline in the economies of Europe
and the Americas. This decline over, approximately, the
1968-2007 interval, has led into the consistently worsening
physical-economic situation in those nations up to the present
time.
The decline in those economies of Europe and the Americas,
has had many contributing causes, but it was chiefly the result
of the introduction, beginning 1971-1972, of {a presently
continuing, ruinous, pro-Malthusian type of global
floating-exchange-rate monetary system.} Despite some important
trends for improvements in some leading national economies in
Asia, the per-capita level of net physical-economic strength in
the world as a whole has collapsed.
Thus, despite the improvements for a significant portion of
the total economy in some leading nations of Asia, the deficit in
development for the largest fraction of the populations is
critical, at the same time that the productive powers of labor in
western and central Europe, and in North America, continue to
collapse catastrophically. Therefore, the needed development in
even progressive economies in Asia, requires a mobilization of
the physical capital and technology needed to raise the level of
basic economic infrastructure and physical productivity
throughout Asia and Africa, and also in the dangerously decadent,
present form of the national economies of western and central
Europe and of the Americas.
The most crucial among the urgently required actions to be
taken jointly a group of nations led by the U.S.A., Russia,
China, and India, are the following.
1. The present world monetary-financial system must be
placed in a prevalent, juridical status of reorganization in
bankruptcy.
{{This means that:}} As provided by the U.S.A.'s Federal
Constitution, all central banking heretofore independent of
sovereign governments, are placed under the sovereign powers of
the relevant constitutional government.
This means that: The government, through an institution
equivalent in authority to the constitutional design for a
Federal Treasury Department elaborated by U.S. Treasury Secretary
Alexander Hamilton, will assure that: {under rules for
reorganization in bankruptcy, those payments authorized either
specifically or categorically by the Federal authority will be
treated in a normal fashion, as prior to placing the old
monetary-financial system into receivership, but subject to
supervision in the matter of regulating the retirement of
outstanding capital-financial obligations.}
The included objective of these reforms of a system in
bankruptcy, is to maintain, and to elevate the level of existing
essential levels of employment, payment of ordinary pensions, and
so forth, and production of essential goods and services, this
with a view to accelerating rates of growth of net physical
output, per-capita, and per-square-kilometer productivity of the
economy.
2. The physical-economic recovery and net growth of these
economies, per capita and per square kilometer of total
territory, requires an emphasis on the application of physical
improvements in basic economic infrastructure, and the use of
capital-intensive investments in basic economic infrastructure as
the physical-economic driver for the other forms of production in
the economy.
3. The success of such intentions by governments, and
others, demands a fixed-exchange-rate system not much unlike the
design for the Bretton Woods fixed-exchange-rate system under
President Franklin Roosevelt.
In other words, the needed reforms must be premised on the
equivalent of a pervasive science-driver policy for the economies
and territories as a whole.

- Science & Raw Materials -

The possibility of success for such required programs,
depends to a very large degree on two global considerations,
considerations which bear on each part of the world, and the
world's necessary development viewed as a whole. 1.) The first,
{{is development and refinement of raw materials supplies.}} 2.)
The second, {{is science as defined in terms of fundamental,
universal physical principles.}} The two are functionally
inseparable: {{there can not be sustained development of needed
raw materials supplies without emphasis in fundamental
physical-scientific progress measurable in terms of
characteristic energy-flux density of modes of production.}}
The realization of those crucial objectives demands a
clearly defined shift from what has been, hitherto, the strategic
advantage of maritime powers over the quality of power of
continental interiors. For most of a period reaching as far back
into the times prior to the last glaciation in the northern
regions of the northern hemisphere, ocean-going and related
development of maritime power has been economically and
strategically at a great advantage over the economies of inland
habitations. This began to be changed with the so-called
"geopolitical" implications of the appearance of the
transcontinental railways of the U.S.A. Since that time, the
related clash of maritime powers, such as those of the British
Empire, with the nations and peoples of continental Eurasia and
the U.S.A. had been dominated, strategically, by the challenge to
this domination, which had been represented the by victory of
President Abraham's U.S.A. That victory had been the root of the
reaction against the U.S. success, a reaction reflected as Prince
of Wales Edward Albert's launching of the 1895-1945 war of Japan
against China, and by those related imperialist wars of the
1905-1945 interval, which illustrate the challenge which
continues in either similar or relevant other expressions still
today.
As in the case of China, the elevation of the conditions of
life of the entire population of China (and, also, relevant other
nations), demands a scientifically very advanced approach to
development of raw materials supplies in presently poorly
developed northern Eurasian territories. Improvements of
management of water supplies throughout Eurasia, extended and
qualitatively improved forms of global (e.g.,
transcontinental/intercontinental) transport systems, and "crash
program" qualities of emphasis of both power supplies and
production technologies based upon nuclear-fission and
thermonuclear-fusion modalities, are now indispensable.
This urgently needed transformation of policies within the
Eurasian territories and beyond, is beyond the present resources
of Asian nations by themselves. Western and central Europe, for
example, must be mobilized to earn their livelihoods by producing
an immense volume of physical products of very advanced
technologies as supplements needed for the appetites of the
densely populated regions of Asia.
For example, the potential for such developments is
illustrated by the present implications of the reopening of the
rail-systems leading from Korea as a whole, into China and
Russia. The implicit common physical-economic interest of Japan,
Korea, China, and Russia (among others) in this opening up of
systems in North and East Asia, are to be regarded as one of the
presently great opportunities for the benefit of humanity.

- The Obstacle to Sanity -

Today, the world as a whole is menaced by a kind of threat
to the continued existence of civilization, which is to be
remembered from what became known as the "New Dark Age" of
Europe's mid-Fourteenth Century. Then, as in places such as
Southwest Asia now, civilization is destroying itself through the
predatory actions of a reigning social class of predatory
financiers, financiers, like those of the Lombard bankers of the
Fourteenth Century, who used the financial profits taken from the
financing of wars, as in Southwest Asia now, as a mode of
financier life.
These predatory descendants of the Venetian financier
tradition of Europe's so-called "Middle Ages," have created vast
amounts of accumulated purely fictitious financial gains from
predatory speculation. These accumulations have reached levels
at which the entire financial bubble created in this mode is now
collapsing in a way which mimics the experience of Weimar Germany
during the latter half of 1923.
These financier interests, are not merely predatory, but
have entrenched themselves as a powerful, controlling interest
over the governments and leading political parties of leading
nations. As a result, there is presently, an existential clash
of the appetites of that class of predatory financier interest
with the most vital interests of not only the majority of the
population within nations, such as the U.S.A., but the very
continued existence of anything resembling a reasonable order
throughout our planet.
That medieval legacy of predatory power of usury has gained
such power that it can not be defeated except through a concert
of clearly defined, mutual self-interest among a combination of
powerful nation-states.
That is the common interest which we in the U.S.A. and
China, share at this juncture. That is the crucial importance of
those within the U.S.A. who typify that common interest of the
people of the U.S.A. and Asia. It is our awareness of this
common interest, which is therefore a crucial factor in world
history at this juncture.

- LAROUCHE -

- ECONOMICS -

BIS REPORT REVEALS MASSIVE DERIVATIVES HOLDINGS IN FRANCE.
(see slug)

HEATING OIL PRICES UP 83%; people return to wood (see slug)

- UNITED STATES -

Franklin Delano Roosevelt speech in Monterrey, Mexico, April
21, 1943. "Our peoples have common aspirations. They can work
together for a common objective. Let us never lose our hold upon
that truth." (see documentation)

BLOOMBERG CAMPAIGN BEING PRIMED; LaRouche was right! (see
slug)

IMMIGRATION SERVICES BACKLOG could keep new citizens from
voting in 2008. (see slug)

FRANCE'S {LIBERATION} ON NOV. 22 RAN A FULL-PAGE COVERAGE OF
THE DECISION BY A CLEVELAND FEDERAL JUDGE TO FORBID 14 HOME
FORECLOSURES demanded by Deutsche Bank Trust, because the bank
had no legal registry that it owned the homes it was trying to
foreclose on. Outside of the LaRouche movement in France--whose
oneline coverage has received at least 1200 visits--there is no
other coverage in France. [cbi/krn]

- IBERO AMERICA -

PRESIDENT CORREA IN CHINA to seek strategic alliance. (see
slug)

BRAZIL AND ARGENTINA TO EMBARK ON AEROSPACE, NUCLEAR
COOPERATION. (see slug)

- WESTERN EUROPE -

- EASTERN EUROPE -

NEW POLISH PRIME MINISTER PROMISES TO CONSULT ALL NEIGHBORS
ON ABM SYSTEM, before implementing the arrangement. This is a
serious blow to the Bush Administration's provocation policy
toward Russia.

- AFRICA -

- SOUTHWEST ASIA

IRAN'S LARIJANI suggests that another freeze on enrichment
of uranium is possible. (see slug)

WILL LEBANESE STABILITY HOLD, with no President, but
agreement to let military keep order? (see slug)

YOSSI BEILIN SAYS ISRAEL MUST TALK TO HAMAS and reach
ceasefire agreement. (see slug)

BRITISH-STYLE "MAU MAU" COUNTERGANGS BEING SET UP IN IRAQ to
assassinate insurgents. (see slug)

- ASIA/PACIFIC -

CHENEY-AC IN AUSTRALIA, JOHN HOWARD WAS SWEPT OUT OF OFFICE
IN THE NOVEMBER 23 ELECTIONS.

LEADING DEVELOPMENTS

Lyndon LaRouche Press Conference, Los Angeles, Nov. 23, 2007

Nov. 24, 2007 (LPAC)--Lyndon LaRouche gave the following press
conference in Los Angeles on Nov. 23, prior to the Nov. 24
proceedings of the "Forum on U.S.-China Relationship and Peaceful
Reunification of China," sponsored by the Institute for Sino
Strategic Studies. Twelve press attended, and as of Nov. 24, at
least five had run coverage.
Mr. LaRouche spoke after an introduction in Chinese, and his
remarks and responses in the brief open discussion were
translated into Chinese sequentially.} [proofed]

MODERATOR: I have the great pleasure to introduce Mr. Lyndon
LaRouche! [applause]
LYNDON LAROUCHE: Thank you. Obviously I shall speak English.
[laughter]
But, in short, as you have noticed, the dollar took another
plunge in international value today, and this process will
continue. This collapse of the dollar is not good for China, it
is not good for the United States. China needs to invest in
capital improvements, over many generations to come, in order to
achieve for the Chinese people, for a time to come, the necessary
improvement in the standard of living and conditions of life.
Much of this will depend upon China's investment in U.S. dollars,
either to buy U.S. goods, which is good for the U.S. economy, or
to buy goods from other countries, using U.S. dollars to buy
those goods. This means infrastructure investment that would
benefit the Chinese people as a whole. It is also in our
national interest to defend our dollar.
So this creates a great bond of common interest between
China and the United States. And it is extremely important, that
we reverse some very silly antipathy toward China from a number
of our members in Congress here in the United States and
elsewhere. And those of us who are influential, in one degree or
another in our own respective countries, should work to bring
about that agreement.
I should say, that, also, that the crisis of the U.S. dollar
can be solved. It will require important, sweeping, deep changes
in current U.S. policy, but these measures are possible: They
are feasible, they will work.
And this brings up another great principle of statecraft: In
U.S. time, European time, from 1492 to 1648, all of Europe was
torn apart by religious warfare. A great figure, Cardinal
Mazarin of France, [was able] to bring about an agreement among
the people who had been killing each other, this was called the
"Peace of Westphalia." There was one great principle upon which
this treaty depended: {Each party must work for the benefit of
the other.} With the same effort, would we look for the complete
unification of China. We in the United States and China, who
understand this problem, must follow in the footsteps of the
Treaty of Westphalia. This will bring peace across the Pacific
Ocean, and benefit for us both, all, for generations to come. And
those of us who are more conscious of these matters must take the
leadership in initiating that proposal toward peace and progress
between our peoples.
Thank you. [applause]

- DIALOGUE -

MALE: [remarks in Chinese]
Q: [in English] I have one question for Professor LaRouche.
You mentioned in your great comment earlier, that each party
should try to improve the other side's well-being, and so that's
how in essence you'll be able to reach peace and prosperity for
both sides.
LAROUCHE: Mm-hmm.
Q: But, as we know, the Strait relationship depends much on
the U.S. policies. After the 17th Chinese Party Congress,
President Hu pointed out that the peace agreement voted, and also
KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou also brought up this idea, a so-called
{modus vivendi}, which both have a lot of resentments. My
question to you is: What U.S. can do to facilitate, since both
sides both reach out, showing a good faith, after trying to
improve the current secure relationship on both sides? Or even,
the candidate from the DDP that also vowed to open up the trade,
or the communication, direct flights. So, my question: What U.S.
can do, to facilitate these both sides? We know both sides need
to do more, but my question is, what U.S. can to facilitate both
sides, more to reach accord for the peace agreements. Thank you.

MODERATOR: Identify yourself please?
Q: My name is [Julian Lee] from San Francisco. I'm from
China Focus of Unification, Northern California.
MALE: Hold on, I need to translate.
LAROUCHE: Good work, okay.
Diplomacy is a very complicated business. And it springs
from inside the country and inside the wise old men of each
country. [soft laughter] The President of the United States
today is not a wise old man. [laughter] Therefore, in a case
like this, you must use, as I do--you must use the occurrence of
crisis, not as a problem, but as an opportunity.
A failure of a government -- and the collapse of the U.S.
dollar in value is the failure of the U.S. government; the
Democratic Party in the Congress has 10% popularity with the
American people--that's a crisis. We must use the failures of
government, to induce government to change its ways when it errs
from our national interest. It is the national interest of the
United States as a nation, to have cooperation with China, and
not on a negative basis, but on an {affirmative} basis.
Those of us who are human beings, who are human beings above
all, think of other human beings and their needs. And I can
think of the needs of people of China. I have some knowledge of
the problems of the people of China, their well-being. For the
future of our descendants, I wish the people of China to be happy
people; I wish the United States' people to be happy people.
Therefore, those things which spoil our relationship must be
corrected. Sometimes it's someone like me, or people like me,
who move in our own country, to try to change our country's
mistaken policies to get to correct policies. That's the way
it's done.
This is {not} a simple process. It's a complicated process.
It's a dangerous process. You put your life on the line
sometimes, when you do what I do. But you do it, because you do
it: It's the right thing to do.
And your saying it, fine! It's true. We must do something
about it. We should all do something about it.
Q: Okay! Fine, okay. [laughs]

Q: I'd like to make a basic comment to your answer to Mr.
Lee's question. In fact, I think the most obvious thing that
U.S. can do, is to reexamine, or abolish the Taiwan Relations
Act. Because that is the apparent domestic law that interferes
with another country's internal business. And with that Taiwan
Relations Act, U.S. is selling arms, against its promise in the
Aug. 17th Communique, in which it promised the reduction of arms
sales with Taiwan.
Last, because I remember in D.C., there was this conference,
and Bonnie Glaser from Brookings Institution--she was saying,
what U.S. was trying to do by keeping the status quo, is trying
to bring peace across the Strait. I totally disagree with that
argument. Because, by selling arms to Taiwan, and trying to
balance the military strength of the cross-Strait, is creating a
power balance. Power balance is not peace. It escalate the
tension. So I really think, if there any ways our American
friends, or American politicians can reexamine the Taiwan
Relations Act?
MALE: Okay. Let me translate, because this is long...
[translates, then to LaRouche] Okay--now, speak! [laughter]
LAROUCHE: All right. I'll try to keep it as short as
possible. It's an important question, and should be answered. I
shall not answer it totally here, because it's a long story.
MODERATOR: Tomorrow we'll have the opportunity to discuss.
LAROUCHE: Right. But, the point is, we are all aware, I
think, here, that the United States stands on the verge of a new
attack, this time on Iran. This is part of a policy which was
cooked up, between largely the Vice President of the United
States, Mr. Dick Cheney, and Tony Blair, the former Prime
Minister of England. They played with people inside Taiwan, and
inside the city of Tokyo, Japan, to set this policy into motion.
I understand the policy: It's extremely dangerous. It is a
very serious threat. And one of the people, who in a sense
tolerated it, was a good friend of mine, in a sense--Chuck
Schumer, the Senator from New York State--who is a good person,
but he's a political person, and he's in a position, and
therefore he has supported some things, which from the standpoint
of his morality, he should not have promoted.
The point is, it's a legitimate question. Your raising it
is useful, because we have to raise the question: This is a
threat. We achieved a miracle in the case of Korea, with the
Six-Power agreement, on Korean reunification. It is not complete
reunification, but it's a step forward. It opens the way for
good things in Asia, among Russia, Japan--one faction in
Japan--and the factions in Korea and in China. This is a very
important development, and a contribution to the development of
Asia.
We must work for these kinds of ends, and some of us have to
put ourselves on the line, in danger, to try to make some changes
in the kinds of horror-show that you just identified. It's evil.
It should be denounced as evil. Its intention is obvious.
There's no honesty to it. Yes, there are people in Taiwan, who
are of certain faction, who are drawn into this thing. But this
is evil, it's a danger to peace. It's a danger to us all, and we
must stop it.
I think the only way to stop it is by inducing a change in
the way the U.S. government functions, which means, getting rid
of this administration, and getting the Democratic Party to be a
Democratic Party again.

LaRouche Addresses China Unification Conference in Los Angeles

Nov. 24, 2007 (LPAC)--Lyndon LaRouche today addressed the "Forum
on the U.S.-China Relationship and the Peaceful Reunification of
China," in Los Angeles, sponsored by the Institute of Sino
Strategic Studies. The English-language text of his address is
reported elsewhere; what follows is a brief telephone report by
another participant and speaker, Harley Schlanger, Lyndon
LaRouche's West Coast spokesman.
Lyndon LaRouche delivered the keynote address at the
luncheon session. The LaRouche Youth Movement began the session
with a four-part musical presentation, including Mozart's {Ave
Verum Corpus}, which was well-received.
LaRouche was introduced by the head of the Institute of Sino
Strategic Studies as "a philosopher, an economist, a historian,
and a scientist. But most of all, a thinker. He makes me
think!"
"Lyndon LaRouche has achieved success in everything he has
undertaken," he continued, "except becoming President of the
United States. I believe we would be living in a very different
world, if he had succeeded in that."
Mr. LaRouche then read his address (reprinted elsewhere).
Each paragraph was translated sequentially into Chinese. A
Chinese translation had been distributed, and many participants
were seen reading each paragraph in Chinese as the speech
progressed.
There were three questions. The first involved how to make
the shift from the cheap-labor policy which governs present
China-U.S. relations. In his answer, LaRouche cited the need to
develop the interior of China, and China's need for dollars to
import capital goods to do this. He said (in rough
approximation) that U.S. policy can be made to change when the
government is terrified, and every bank is bankrupt. Then we
will be able to realize the advantages of the interdependence of
China and the United States.
The second question, a passionate question from a woman,
again involved how U.S. policy can be changed. LaRouche said
that the U.S. population is suffering, and described their hatred
for the Congress. We are fighting powerful fascist financial
forces, like the Felix Rohatyn who controls California's Sen.
Dianne Feinstein.
But power ultimately rests with the people. The lower 80%
have been totally cut off. You have to mobilize in the counties,
in the states,-- which is exactly what we're doing. We stand
immediately before the one of the greatest changes ever in
history,-- whether for the better, or the worse.
The third questioner criticized the United States as an
aggressor in Iraq, and as the world's greatest polluter. LaRouche
began his answer by explaining how chlorophyll works.
At the end of the session, participants crowded forward to
congratulate Mr. LaRouche, and also the LaRouche Youth on their
singing.
A transcription of the English portions of the event,
including the introduction and Lyn's response to questions is in
progress.

ECONOMICS

Three Banks Control The Whopping Derivatives Market In France

PARIS, Nov. 24--While French banks have so far announced reduced
losses, things could dramatically change as the financial crash
extends to the market of derivative products. According to the
Nov. 22 Bank for International Settlements (BIS) report which
noted a huge increase of derivative products between June 2006
and June 2007, in France, three main banks control 82% of the
global derivative market in the country. French investments in
derivatives doubled in the last three years (2004 to 2007) to $65
trillion, 75% of which are invested in speculation on rates. Huge
growth is observed in investments into credit derivatives --
supposed to act as insurance against bankruptcies and losses. In
the same time frame, that market went from $476 billion to $6,497
billion end of June. Fully 80% of that is invested in Credit
Default Swaps (CDS), which are beginning to enter into the crash.
Derivatives products speculating on stocks and raw materials also
grew by 200% over the last three years.
In total denial of reality, experts cited by {Le Monde}
yesterday, believe, however, that derivative products have a long
life before them, while other "financial innovations," such as
conduits, which are securitized derivative products, are likely
to "disappear." Not all of those products have yet
"disappeared," however. Le Monde reports that bankers observe a
boom of structured (securitized) products on stocks, including
entities called "discount certificates." Exane is presently
selling to private banks a certificate on a group of stock values
betting that if the stock of those banks does not drop more than
50% during one year, the investor in that certificate will make a
20% profit on its invested capital! (cbi)

Rising Heating Oil Costs Boost Wood Burning Alternative

November 24, 2007 (LPAC)--As oil flirts with $100 per barrel, and
cold weather moves into the Northeast, people who are able to,
are moving from the recent tradition of heating oil for home
heating, to a venerable older tradition for home
heating--wood-burning stoves and boilers.
Although nationally, heating oil is used by only 7% of
homes, in the Northeast, closer to 50% of households heat with
heating oil. But this year, heating oil prices have shot up 83%
over last year's, making firewood a bargain. Wood is plentiful,
and many are able to gather and cut their own wood to save money.
In 2001, some 10% of New England households got some heat
from burning wood; now that is on the rise, as heating oil is
being priced out of reach for the poor at the same time that
Federal heating subsidies are being curtailed. Unfortunately,
many of the poor do not have the luxury to switch to wood. The
capital costs of a wood-fired boiler, a pellet stove, or even
just a simple wood stove, are substantial, and subject to stiff
code and environmental regulations. And wood is not easy to
gather and cut for the aged, who must pay a premium for cut,
corded, and delivered wood.
A story in the {New York Times} on Nov. 24 makes the point.
In Maine, many of the aged poor, who have eked a hard living from
seasonal fishing, lobstering, and other activities, are now
barely surviving on minimal Social Security benefits and
declining heat subsidies. The Federal heating assistance check
for those applying, will probably drop this Winter to $579 from
$688. Meanwhile, the cost to heat a home has jumped from $1800
last year to perhaps $3000 this year. For many, the only solution
available this Winter will be to bundle up and turn off the heat
at night. (clc)

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