Trickle-Down Theory vs Trickle-Down Reality

by Alfred Adask

Trickle-Down Theory

 In the aftermath of the onset of the Great Recession of A.D. 2008, the Federal Reserve gave trillions of dollars to major ("too big to fail") banks and set interest rates at nearly zero.  It was presumed that the banks would lend those trillions of free fiat dollars to the public at low, low interest rates.  It was presumed that all of the free money given the banks would thereby "trickle down" to the great unwashed. 

It was also presumed that the public would borrow the enormous sums of "free" dollars at fantastically low interest rates to invest in businesses or just buy stuff.  All the resulting public investment and purchasing was expected to stimulate the economy, and-ta-da!-America would almost see an almost instant "Recovery" from the Great Recession.

Historically, this "Trickle-Down Theory" was based on the unstated presumption that "money" still has a physical reality that prevents it from moving easily to another "jurisdiction" -especially if that jurisdiction is on the other side of the Atlantic or Pacific oceans. I.e., so long as "money" was made of gold or silver, it couldn't easily move to another country. 

Money's former physical nature caused it to be "trapped" in the U.S..  As a result, creditors who had money to lend were generally compelled to accept whatever interest rate is imposed by the Federal Reserve and/or the federal government. 

The presumption that money couldn't easily move to another country was absolutely valid so long as the "money" was made of gold and silver.  But once our "money" became a fiat currency composed of electronic digits, the presumption failed.   Fiat, digital currency, isn't trapped anywhere and can flow at the speed of light over the internet to whatever foreign market pays the highest rates of interest.

Trickle-Down Reality 

In the aftermath of the onset of the Great Recession of A.D. 2008, the Federal Reserve "printed" and gave trillions of fiat dollars to major ("too big to fail") banks and set interest rates at nearly zero. 

It was supposed that, because the major financial institutions had received trillions of "free" dollars, they'd then generously lend those trillions to the public at fantastically low (near zero percent) interest rates.  However, the banks essentially said, "Screw that.  We're not running a charity.  We're not lending 'our' money (even though we got it for free from the Fed) to anyone for artificially low interest rates.  Therefore, we'll either keep our trillions of "free" dollars in our vaults or we'll lend them out at high interest rates to foreign borrowers to make a good return on our investments.

It was supposed that the American public would borrow enormous sums of "free" dollars at fantastically low interest rates to invest in businesses or just buy stuff and thereby "stimulate" the economy back to health.  However, the "crash" of 2007-2008 had scared the public so badly that they weren't about to borrow anything and go even deeper into debt-regardless of how low the interest rates were.

Because the banks weren't lending at artificially low interest rates to Americans, and Americans weren't borrowing at any interest rate, not much of the Fed's "free money" was loaned into our domestic economy.  Therefore, not much was spent, and the Trickle-Down Theory-that by giving free trillions to the banks and imposing low interest rates, the banks would generously lend, the public would greedily borrow and spend, and the Great Recession would be thereby quickly quashed-failed.

Result?  The Great Recession of A.D. 2008 lingers still and the "Recovery" remains almost as mythical as unicorns. 

Why, this result?  Because digital dollars are no longer "trapped" by a physical nature within the borders of the U.S.. 

Today, paper, and especially digital, currency can flee from any country that pays low interest rates and go to any country that pays high interest rates. 

As a result, low interest rates-which historically helped stimulate an economy by encouraging people to borrow and forcing lenders to accept low interest rates-may now have the opposite effect.  Today, low interest rates drive currency out of the local economy in search of other economies that pay high interest rates.  Low interest rates thereby cause the local currency supply to shrink and thereby contribute to deflation.

If this hypothesis is roughly correct, then the Federal Reserve's policy of imposing artificially-low interest rates (which are justified as a means to encourage inflation and economic stimulation) may, in fact, contribute to deflation, recession or even economic depression.

*  According to Bloomberg ("IMF Cuts Global Outlook as 'Frothy' Stocks Raise Correction Risk"):

"'In advanced economies, the legacies of the pre-crisis boom and the subsequent crisis, including high private and public debt, still cast a shadow on the recovery,' the IMF said in its latest World Economic Outlook. . . . IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde warned that officials need to act to prevent a prolonged period of sluggish growth, a trend she called the 'New Mediocre.'  Raising growth in emerging and advanced economies 'must remain a priority'."

How will the Powers That Be (central banks and/or their owners) "raise growth" on a global level without inflating one or most of the world's fiat currencies?

Since Quantitative Easing (the Fed buying US bonds with freshly-printed fiat dollars) has ended, the domestic supply of fiat dollars is no longer increasing and the currency is not inflating to the same degree as was formerly true.  Judging from the US Dollar Index (US$X) and the currently falling price of gold, the dollar may actually be deflating. 

This is not to say that deflation is currently predominant. In any economic scenario, there are elements of both inflation (some prices, like food and stocks, go up) and deflation (some prices, like gold and gasoline, go down).  These indications of inflation and deflation co-exist at the same time. We say that we're in a period of inflation when the vast majority of prices are rising.  We say that we're in a period of deflation when the vast majority of prices are falling. 

It may well be that we are still, primarily, in a period of inflation.  But it's also true that evidence of deflation is growing at a surprising rate.  Deflation that seemed inconceivable a year ago now seems possible.  After two or three generations (40 years) of persistent inflation, we're now left to ponder whether deflation could soon become predominant.

*  Three things happen in conjunction with deflation: 

1)    The value of the currency rises. If you could buy a pound of steak for, say, $5 last year, after some significant deflation, you might buy an identical portion of steak this year for just $3.  Although most people suppose the steak is cheaper, the truth is that the dollar has gained purchasing power and is more valuable.  Whenever a currency increases its purchasing power, we have deflation.

2)    The burden of existing debt grows because debtors are forced to repay their debts with more expensive dollars.  Deflation is absolutely ruinous to debtors, to governments that have enormous national debts, and to nations that have debt-based monetary systems.

3)    Deflation is at least a characteristic, and perhaps a cause, of economic depression.

If the dollar is allowed (or caused) to deflate, the national debt will grow in terms of purchasing power and become increasingly difficult for the U.S. gov-co to repay.  Sooner or later, persistent deflation will not only make it impossible to pay the principal on the national debt but also make it impossible to pay the interest on that debt and render the bonds non-performing.  Once the government openly defaults on parts of the National Debt, the value of the remaining US bonds should fall and the US dollar might be replaced or at least revalued in some sort of "reset" that will cause prices to rise (inflation) rather than fall (deflation).

If the dollar is allowed (or caused) to deflate, the US economy should slow and perhaps slide into an overt economic depression.

Unless the government wants the national debt to be openly repudiated-i.e., unless the government wants a national depression-the government should do whatever it can to increase the forces of inflation.

Strangely, the Fed seems to be currently allowing (or even encouraging) deflation.  I don't know if this current phenomenon is accidental or intentional. 

But I do know that:

1)    Since the dollar became a pure fiat currency in A.D. 1971, inflation has reduced the purchasing power of the dollar by about 97%.  This established, 43-year trend is evidence that government wants inflation.  Unless government has decided to intentionally reverse this 43-year old trend, I presume that government still wants and needs inflation.

2)    Deflation is absolutely contrary to the government's self-interest in reducing the size (purchasing power) of the national debt;

3)    A prolonged period of deflation risks a national depression comparable to the Great Depression; 

4)    During a period of deflation, American products become more expensive and less competitive in foreign trade. With deflation, we'll export fewer U.S. products overseas and have less jobs here at home.

5)    Global free trade compels a multi-national currency war wherein each nation fights to prove that its currency is worth less than the other currencies, so its exports are therefore perceived to be "cheaper" and the best buys on the global market.  Insofar as global free trade encourages currency wars, global free trade encourages inflation.

6)    The fiat dollar can survive inflation for quite a while, but will quickly collapse under the weight of deflation.

Therefore, unless:

1) The government has simply lost control of the economy and has no means to prevent the current deflation; or

2) The government wants an economic depression-

it should follow that the current evidence of deflation (and falling gold prices) should be of short duration.  

Although I'm convinced that our government has been seized by a pack of treasonous whores who are actively working to diminish the power and prosperity of the USA, I nevertheless presume that our government is not yet ready to "pull the plug" intentionally collapse our economy.  I know our leaders are a bunch of lying villains, but I presume that that they're not yet sufficiently villainous to intentionally collapse our economy and plunge the nation into chaos.

My presumptions may be mistaken.  Perhaps government is already acting to intentionally collapse out economy. If so, you'd better have lots of food, water, guns, bullets and gold stored up because God only knows where we're heading.

*  But assuming my presumption (that government is not yet ready to intentionally collapse the economy) is correct, the government needs to restore inflation. What can government do to increase inflation? 

Most people vaguely understand that printing more fiat dollars should contribute to inflation.  If government wants inflation, it should restore the Quantitative Easing that it recently terminated and start pumping more billions of fiat dollars into the economy.  As the domestic money supply grows, each fiat dollar should lose purchasing power and become less valuable.  That's the essence of inflation.

Most people do not understand that raising interest rates should also contribute to inflation. 

I.e., as interest rates fall in the US, creditors don't want to lend into the US because they can't make a profit.  Therefore, both foreign and domestic creditors lend to foreign borrowers that pay higher interest rates. 

While low interest rates were supposed to encourage ordinary Americans to take out loans to buy cars or new homes, the actual effect may have been to drive fiat dollars overseas where they sparked the recent economic boom in "Emerging Economies".

As low interest rates drove currency out of the US, the net effect of low interest rates was to reduce the money supply that was actually available within the U.S..  As the domestic money supply was reduced, dollars became increasingly scarce and increasingly valuable.  A rising value/purchasing-power of a currency is the essence of deflation.  Thus, imposing low interest rates should contribute to deflation, a slowing economy, and perhaps even a national economic depression.

Get that? 

The Fed prints trillions of fiat dollars for the apparent purpose of increasing the domestic money supply since, by increasing the domestic money supply, the Fed makes each dollar worth less, and thereby causes inflation which they believe will stimulate the economy.

But, when the Fed suppresses interest rates, it drives currency out of the domestic economy in search of higher returns in foreign markets and thereby reduces the domestic money supply.  Reducing the domestic money supply should make each fiat dollar more valuable and thereby contribute to deflation-which most believe will slow the economy and perhaps precipitate a "Greater Depression".

Which leaves me to wonder, What the helck is the Fed really up to? 

Given that the Fed prints fiat dollars to increase the domestic money supply and thereby cause inflation, but also lowers the interest rates to decrease the domestic money supply and cause deflation, has the Fed become schizophrenic?  What does the Fed really want?  Inflation (economic stimulation) or deflation (economic depression)?

The Fed has repeatedly claimed that it's determined to restore 2% inflation in the U.S. economy.  I'm beginning to wonder if that claim is a lie. 

But, assuming the Fed's claim is true, and assuming that the hypothesis I'm advancing in this article is roughly correct, it should follow that the Fed will not demonstrate a real commitment to causing inflation and thereby stimulating the economy until it raises interest rates.

I understand that conclusion is controversial and so contrary to conventional wisdom that it may strike most readers as absurd.

Still, some fundamental facts remain to support that conclusion:

1)    Digital currency is no longer trapped within any nation or economy.

2)    Creditors will naturally seek the highest interest rates they can find for whatever funds they have to lend.

3)    By lowering domestic interest rates, the Fed should cause creditors to lend their currency into foreign markets that pay higher interest rates.

4)    As lenders move their currency from the US economy to foreign markets, the domestic currency supply should be reduced. 

5)    A reduction in the domestic money supply should contribute to deflation.

For me, the implications of those five facts support the conclusion that low interest rates contribute to deflation.

 If would seem to follow that, if and when the Federal Reserve decides to start raising US interest rates, creditors should be more inclined to lend into the US markets, dollars should flow from the "Emerging Economies" back into the US, the supply of currency actually available within the US should rise and therefore contribute to inflation that, in theory, should "stimulate" the economy and also raise the price for gold.

On the other hand, so long as the Fed does not raise interest rates, I'll be increasingly inclined to embrace the seemingly irrational possibility that the Fed is actually working to cause deflation and perhaps even an economic depression. 

I know who crazy this sounds.  But the logic of the "facts" I've listed push me to this conclusion.

 *  The US national debt has nearly doubled during the Obama administration.  This doubling is evidence of the government's unsuccessful attempts to print trillions of fiat dollars and inject them into the economy to provide inflation and economic "stimulation".  That attempted "stimulus" succeeded only in providing economic stagnation.  The economy didn't collapse, but it didn't recover, either.

Although price inflation (at the grocery store, for example) is much higher than government admits, we haven't yet seen the magnitude of inflation many expected after the Fed injected trillions of dollars into the major banks or after the economic stimulation government had predicted would flow from printing all those trillions of "extra" fiat dollars.

Instead, much of the newly-created dollars flowed overseas to escape low U.S. interest rates.

Result?  After all of the Federal Reserve's heroic printing, our fiat dollars were inflated somewhat (but much less than many expected)-and the US economy remained stagnant and unstimulated.

We didn't get much inflationary bang for our trillions of freshly-printed bucks.  Why all those trillions of freshly-printed fiat dollars didn't cause more inflation has remained a mystery.

I suspect that the explanation for the minimal inflation achieved over the past six years was the Fed's simultaneous determination to impose near-zero interest rates.  Strangely, the Fed has been stepping on the "gas" to cause more inflation by printing more fiat dollars at the same time it's been stepping on the "brake" by suppressing interest rates, causing an outflow of domestic dollars and a reduction in the domestic currency supply and thereby contributing to deflation. 

If my conjecture is roughly correct, it implies that either the Fed is either too dumb to understand that reducing interest rates drives money out of the country and thereby contributes to deflation-or, that they've only been pretending to cause inflation (by printing) when they really wanted deflation (by holding interest rates down). 

Both explanations are scary. 

Either the people running this economy are too dumb to have the job, or the people running this economy never wanted the Recession of A.D. 2008 to end, never really wanted us to inflate our way out of the Recession, but are currently working to cause deflation and an overt economic depression.

3 Assault weapons to Intimidate, punish and silence Americans - Illegal Alien - Gay and Islamic Rights

 BY ADMIN, ON OCTOBER 28TH, 2014

 Obama and his progressive-transformationalists have always targeted the desires of groups and turned those into mountain size needs that only Obama and progressive/Democrat politicians can fill. They cannot function in a country that is free and standing on the Constitution and Holy Bible for direction. Obama and the progressive/Democrats must have a nation of dependent and obedient 'Stepford wives.'

We have heard now for many years about the extraordinary rights of gays, Islamics and Illegal aliens. Let us look for a minute at these 'special' groups of people. Regarding the gay rights movement...Now, even our compromised Supreme court has voted against our States rights, how God Himself defines marriage in the Holy Bible and what most Americans want - marriage between a man and a woman.

Marriage has been neutered and Pastors and the media are to shut up about it. The new landscape has so much variety to its evil; Children are to be raised by 2 women - 2 men, or a group of women and men. The same men and women can change their sex the next weekend. Then there are those who even marry the neighborhood or themselves.

Only recently we saw the lesbian Mayor of Houston throwing subpoenas at the local Pastors and demanding to see any sermons on homosexuality or related topics. Thankfully, there was such a national backlash with Pastors standing their ground that she backed down. What if the public, media and Pastors hadn't stood up for their rights, she and the aggressive 'no rights for you' gay agenda would have bolted forward in its preferred dictatorial, all or nothing manner? Now is not the time to back down...ever.

We saw the same 'no rights for you' madness regarding 'The Hitching Post' wedding chapel in Coeur d 'Alene Idaho close to where I live. Pastors Donald and Evelyn Knapp were asked to officiate a gay marriage ceremony at their chapel. They respectively declined. All hell broke lose at them with Coeur d'Alene officials threatening them with thousands if dollars of fines, building each day they wouldn't grant the gay wedding. They were also threatened with potentially years in jail. Well...this nightmare caused a national and local media uproar. The Knapps thankfully stood up for their religious and Constitutional rights. With the legal and media heat coming at Coeur d 'Alene officials, they are backing down a bit now. We shall see where things go.

Marriage rights for gays is landing in over half our states now and being slammed into school curriculums all through the UN Constitutional Common Core Government school curriculum. Now, we are seeing more and more the assaults on anyone of difference - Pastors, parents anyone in media who dares have a different opinion.

Regarding Islam...How many times have we heard that we Americans cause Islam to attack us. We persecute them, thus they have to blow us up and behead us. Really? The truth is known by most of us with any size brain, that the Islamic Disneyland of variety groups are mostly murderous. They target anyone of difference, especially Christians and Jews for torture and murder. They do this because they are obeying Muhammad and Allah, not getting revenge because we terrorize them. How many times have I read and printed from their own Koran chapter 9, which gives us infidels 3 choices. 1) Forcibly convert to Islam 2) Submit to their high tax and slavery just so we can live or 3) be executed by them.

How many times has Obama said that ISIS and Al Kae Da are not Islamic when the truth is they are boldly and completely Islamic, obeying the Jihad calling of Muhammad? As usual, the Islamic in your face - Activist groups, play the persecuted - victim card. We are all violating them and their speech. We are to notice nothing and say nothing about Islam re-writing their real history and slamming their religion down our children's throats through out Common Core school curriculum and the media. Business owners are to have no rights but to submit 100% of the time to the endless rights of Islamic workers who demand a multitude of things while suing if they don't get their way and playing the martyr to perfection.

Illegal aliens...oh yes that is now hate speech. They are undocumented workers or immigrants...Never mind that they knowingly break our laws, violate our borders, bring in endless diseases, drugs, terrorists and danger to America. With this last planned and orchestrated entourage of 10s of thousands of illegal aliens at the hands of Obama, buses were shipped in the cover of darkness to cities all across America. Cities and schools have been lined with tattoo covered adult criminals, drug dealers and terrorists masquerading as children. Obama has enabled his illegal and criminal group to sore by now defining a child up to age 23.

We are seeing dangerous diseases spread to our children in public schools all across America and some are already dying from these viruses, while Obama and the progressive Democrats scream about their rights. What rights? They shouldn't be here. Our children are getting sick and dying. Terrorists and cartel members are going back and forth across the border making billions, while we are insulted and told we hate Hispanics, children and poor people. The cherry on top for Obama and the progressive left is a hoped for numb brained voter block.

Do not forget the truth about Islam, the gay agenda and Illegal aliens when you go to vote soon. Most of us don't want to hurt anyone and their rights, however, we won't put up with groups rewriting and destroying all our rights, crushing our real history, Judeo/Christian values and Constitution.

Stand up for all your rights and be counted. Vote conservative and with heart. Remember Americans who love God, family, freedom and our Constitution ARE the special class.

Join me each day on my national radio show from 7-10pm PAC at www.ksbn.net. Or listen later on my free archives at www.therothshow.com.

An un-named floor trader said the difference between gold's behavior during Friday's break of $1,180 and when the market made its triple bottom in early October is the positioning of speculators. In early October, speculators had sizable short positions, so when gold bounced from its early-month losses, a mix of short covering and new buying pushed gold back to $1,255.

This time, the floor trader said, there were more long position-holders in the market, so when the support at $1,180 broke, traders sold their losing positions, likely uncovering sell stops.

Two metals could see a short-covering bounce to start off November if they can find support around the $1,150-$1,160 area. However, the markets also need to contend with the European Central Bank meeting next week and the U.S. October jobs report, due out Friday.

Most economists don't expect any policy action by the ECB.

Japan's $1.1 trillion public pension fund OK's plan to boost share purchases, pare bonds

TOKYO (AP) - Japan's $1.1 trillion public pension fund on Friday approved a plan to double its holdings of shares and cut back sharply on bonds to help improve investment returns and meet its obligations to a swelling number of retirees. The much-anticipated decision came just a few hours after a surprise announcement by the Bank of Japan that it will increase its annual asset purchases to as much as 80 trillion yen ($725 billion) to shore up faltering growth. Japan's stock benchmark had meandered this year while other major markets swept past record highs. But Friday's double dose of stimulus drove the Nikkei 225 stock index up 4.8 percent to a seven-year high of 16,413.76. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says moving tens of billions of dollars out of low-yielding bonds and into higher-yielding but riskier stocks is needed to ensure the fund can meet its future obligations to retirees. Japan is rapidly aging and its overall population is shrinking as birth rates decline.

Russia's central bank hikes its main interest rate to 9.5 percent in response to falling ruble

(AP:MOSCOW) MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's central bank has raised its main interest rate by more than anticipated as it tries to stem the ruble's fall.

The bank on Friday lifted its main rate from 8 percent to 9.5 percent in a move reflecting the bank's concern over the plummeting currency. The ruble fell to an all-time dollar low of 43.4 earlier this week, but has recovered somewhat trading at around 42 rubles.

The bank has been quickly eating through its hard currency reserves, (GOLD??)spending billions of dollars to support the ruble.

Since March, it has raised the rate from 5.5 percent, but the currency has kept falling amid plummeting oil prices and tensions over Ukraine.

The ruble's sharp fall this year has prompted a surge in inflation that may erode President Vladimir Putin's popularity.

It's the burning question of the day: "Will the state of the U.S. economy affect your Halloween plans?" asks a National Retail Federation survey to some 6,300 respondents.

The answer: 81 percent said dismal financial reports would not deter them from whooping it up on Friday and throughout the weekend. The practical translation: Americans will spend $7.4 billion on Halloween this year, the industry group says - that includes $350 million that will go towards pet costumes.

Orders for U.S. durable goods fell in September for the second month in a row as demand waned for a variety of products including autos, aircraft, computers and heavy machinery.

Although orders rose sharply during the summer, the surprising decline in the final month of the third quarter raises questions as to whether a slowdown in the global economy could cause U.S. businesses to scale back their spending plans as 2014 draws to a close.

 In September, orders for durable goods declined by a seasonally adjusted 1.3%, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected orders to rise by 0.2%.

The up-and-down airline category was a chief culprit, with orders sinking a seasonally adjusted 16.1% after a 74% drop in August and a whopping 315% spike in July. Airline orders barely fell in September, but it's typically a big month for sales so the adjusted number showed an even bigger decline than the raw numbers would suggest.

Orders for cars and trucks also slid 0.1% in September, but they rose at a 10% annual pace in the third quarter.

Orders fell by a smaller 0.2% if the volatile transportation sector is stripped out, though that was still weaker than expected. Defense orders fell sharply while bookings dropped 2.8% for machinery and 5.3% for computers. Orders for computers have fallen four straight months.

"The weakness on the shipment side and the forward looking orders suggests fourth-quarter investment is off to a weak start," said Bricklin Dwyer, senior economist at BNP Paribas.

Meanwhile, orders for core capital goods - a good stand-in for business investment - dropped 1.7% in the biggest decline since January.

Shipments of core capital goods, a category used to calculate quarterly economic growth, dipped 0.2% in September. Still, shipments increased at a healthy 11.1% annual clip in the third quarter.

The U.S. probably expanded at a 3.1% rate in the June-to-September period, according to the latest MarketWatch survey of economists. The preliminary release of gross domestic product for the third quarter will be issued Thursday.

Washington (CNN) -- Nearly 7 in 10 Americans are angry at the direction the country is headed and 53% of Americans disapprove of President Barack Obama's job performance

GOP Senate wild card races

The CNN/ORC poll shows that 30% of Americans are "very angry" and 38% are "somewhat angry" about the way things are going in the country, while 31% expressed "no anger" at all. CNN Polling Director Keating Holland notes the 31% of "very angry" Americans matches the mood of the country in 2010 when Republicans took back control of the House.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - Megan Madden has tried to educate herself about the eight measures facing North Dakota voters on Election Day. But only one - an amendment that would declare in the state constitution that life begins at conception - still has her confused.

"I read the paper and I've read all the brochures about it that are stuck in my door," the 27-year-old Bismarck convenience store manager said. "I understand what the measure says but I still don't know what it really means."

The single-sentence measure would be the nation's first to amend a state constitution and require the "inalienable right to life" at "any stage of development."

 Those opposed believe the intent is to outlaw abortion altogether and say the vague wording could affect birth control, end-of-life care plans and in vitro fertilization.

The Republican-led Legislature passed some of the nation's strictest abortion laws last year, including one that bans abortions when a fetal heartbeat can be detected. A Bismarck-based federal judge blocked the law from taking affect and the state has appealed.

The prospect of changing the North Dakota constitution has abortion-rights advocates and others nervous. Oil-rich North Dakota is a highly religious red state, where few mind that buying most anything other than groceries on Sunday mornings is banned by state law.

"We are very Christian and very conservative," said Rep. Kathy Hawken, a Republican from Fargo who supports legal abortion. She called the measure's wording ambiguous and "scary as heck" if it passes.

"I'm extremely hopeful people will realize this isn't the answer for banning abortion. It has other consequences and could cost the state millions of dollars in endless litigation," she said.

Dina Butcher, a Republican  said the measure's vague language is meant to "camouflage" its real intent to bar abortions and also could potentially affect end-of-life care plans and cause problems for infertile couples seeking to use in vitro fertilization.

But Dr. Steffen Christensen, who founded North Dakota's only in vitro fertilization clinic in Fargo 20 years ago, said he will close the clinic if the measure passes. His attorneys have told him doctors and workers are at risk of legal action "if there is a loss of an embryo."

"We are covered for malpractice but criminal charges? We're on our own," he said. "Sooner or later, someone would try to make an example of us."

THE EVOLUTION OF ORGAN TRANSPLANTS

 by Herbalist Wendy Wilson