Ok. So I am not much of a Larry Kudlow fan. But for once he has a conversation (instead of a shouting match) with two very smart fellas, one of them being David Walker. Mr. Walker was the the U.S. Comptroller General, basically the chief accountant, from 1998 to 2008 and was also one of the starring "characters" in the documentary I.O.U.S.A. which focused on the extreme budgetary problems our nation is facing. Here he talks about a further decline in the dollar over the next few years and comments on Obama's health care reform, the key point being that you can't reduce health care costs by expanding coverage.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Lies... All LIES!
Here is Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's interview, courtesy of the WSJ and the Digg community. Scroll down to see the video.
Lie Number 1:
He starts with a commentary on the Federal Reserve Transparency Act and says that "we need to keep politics away from monetary policy," and mentions that we had two centuries of repeated crisis due to the fact that the U.S. had no central bank until 1913. First of all we did have two central banks, each one destroyed by Congress by letting their charter expire without renewing it. Second of all, Geithner acts like after 1913 we have no disasters due to the Federal Reserve coming to save the day. How about the Great Depression, which arrived due to the Fed's inflationary policy of easy credit and an increasing money supply in the 1920's, creating a huge bubble that eventually popped in the crash of '29? And then too late, they decide to cut the money supply, deepening the deflationary spiral already gripping the economy. They do so again in 1936, sending us dipping into another recessionary period until the war breaks out and we ship all our unemployed overseas. How about the inflationary monetary policy that they pursued in the 60's and 70's that led to the coining of a new term: stagflation? The Federal Reserve was very complicit in easing credit to try to cover up a sour economy just to get Nixon elected for a second term. You can thank Chairman Arthur Burns for that weakness. And you can thank Alan Greenspan for the creating the housing bubble that just recently burst in 2006 by lowering rates down to 1%. Now we can watch Helicopter Ben pursue a policy of printing free money and raining dollar bills from the skies. Crisis hasn't stopped because of a Federal Reserve. They have solved nothing, but contributed greatly to every mess in the past century!
Lie 2: The Federal Reserve is independent and you don't want to let monetary policy become political.
Truth is there is a lot of politics at the Federal Reserve, and most of it has to do with collusion with the executive branch. Mariner Eccles was chairman during the Great Depression and WWII and was basically FDR's right hand man. But when he tried to break away from White House policy after the war and attempted to raise interest rates despite warnings from the White House, he was booted from his position in 1948. In 1951 Chairman William McChesney Martin had to negotiate for higher rates with the Treasury Department and only came to a compromise where rates could be pushed up slightly, but not high enough to stop inflation. Arthur Burns colluded with Nixon on the issue of interest rates. And recently Ben Bernanke had to pat himself on the back in Jackson Hole to campaign for his reappointment by Obama.
Lie 3: The loose monetary policy of the early 2000's responsible for the housing bubble was the fault of other countries. Not the U.S.
That is just outright stupid. Every central bank in the world follows closely what the U.S. Federal Reserve is doing and bases policy around U.S. policy. Foreign banks were irrelevant in a U.S. housing market that had gone loony, where prices for homes were rising on a weekly basis due to low interest rates perpetrated by the Federal Reserve.
Lie 4: Goldman Sachs' executives are great statesmen.
I am not even going to dignify a long response to the idea that Goldman Sachs' executives are great public statesmen and servants to some American ideal. I can only bang my head on the desk in front of me. And he says that we should never tolerate people in high government positions who use those positions to benefit private institutions. Isn't that why we are so angry now, Mr. Geithner?
Lie 5: The Obama administration is committed to decreasing the deficit.
The biggest lie of them all. In Geithner's eyes, all the blame falls on the prior administration. Yet he doesn't mention the fact that the stimulus plans, auto maker bailouts, health care reform, cash for clunkers and many, many more spending programs (all Obama's own policies) will only serve to increase our deficit over the course of the next ten years to about 2 trillion dollars or more per year.
In the words of Frau Farbissina:
Lie Number 1:
He starts with a commentary on the Federal Reserve Transparency Act and says that "we need to keep politics away from monetary policy," and mentions that we had two centuries of repeated crisis due to the fact that the U.S. had no central bank until 1913. First of all we did have two central banks, each one destroyed by Congress by letting their charter expire without renewing it. Second of all, Geithner acts like after 1913 we have no disasters due to the Federal Reserve coming to save the day. How about the Great Depression, which arrived due to the Fed's inflationary policy of easy credit and an increasing money supply in the 1920's, creating a huge bubble that eventually popped in the crash of '29? And then too late, they decide to cut the money supply, deepening the deflationary spiral already gripping the economy. They do so again in 1936, sending us dipping into another recessionary period until the war breaks out and we ship all our unemployed overseas. How about the inflationary monetary policy that they pursued in the 60's and 70's that led to the coining of a new term: stagflation? The Federal Reserve was very complicit in easing credit to try to cover up a sour economy just to get Nixon elected for a second term. You can thank Chairman Arthur Burns for that weakness. And you can thank Alan Greenspan for the creating the housing bubble that just recently burst in 2006 by lowering rates down to 1%. Now we can watch Helicopter Ben pursue a policy of printing free money and raining dollar bills from the skies. Crisis hasn't stopped because of a Federal Reserve. They have solved nothing, but contributed greatly to every mess in the past century!
Lie 2: The Federal Reserve is independent and you don't want to let monetary policy become political.
Truth is there is a lot of politics at the Federal Reserve, and most of it has to do with collusion with the executive branch. Mariner Eccles was chairman during the Great Depression and WWII and was basically FDR's right hand man. But when he tried to break away from White House policy after the war and attempted to raise interest rates despite warnings from the White House, he was booted from his position in 1948. In 1951 Chairman William McChesney Martin had to negotiate for higher rates with the Treasury Department and only came to a compromise where rates could be pushed up slightly, but not high enough to stop inflation. Arthur Burns colluded with Nixon on the issue of interest rates. And recently Ben Bernanke had to pat himself on the back in Jackson Hole to campaign for his reappointment by Obama.
Lie 3: The loose monetary policy of the early 2000's responsible for the housing bubble was the fault of other countries. Not the U.S.
That is just outright stupid. Every central bank in the world follows closely what the U.S. Federal Reserve is doing and bases policy around U.S. policy. Foreign banks were irrelevant in a U.S. housing market that had gone loony, where prices for homes were rising on a weekly basis due to low interest rates perpetrated by the Federal Reserve.
Lie 4: Goldman Sachs' executives are great statesmen.
I am not even going to dignify a long response to the idea that Goldman Sachs' executives are great public statesmen and servants to some American ideal. I can only bang my head on the desk in front of me. And he says that we should never tolerate people in high government positions who use those positions to benefit private institutions. Isn't that why we are so angry now, Mr. Geithner?
Lie 5: The Obama administration is committed to decreasing the deficit.
The biggest lie of them all. In Geithner's eyes, all the blame falls on the prior administration. Yet he doesn't mention the fact that the stimulus plans, auto maker bailouts, health care reform, cash for clunkers and many, many more spending programs (all Obama's own policies) will only serve to increase our deficit over the course of the next ten years to about 2 trillion dollars or more per year.
In the words of Frau Farbissina:
Lies. All LIES!
Monday, August 24, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
Bernanke Tries to Save His Job
So upon waking this morning to peruse the financial news, I get slapped in the face with this most exaggerated headline on Marketwatch, proclaiming that Bernanke has saved the world.
My immediate response was to snicker, thinking that the headline's boasts were just as inflated as the market in recent months. My second thought was that here is the supposedly "apolitical" Federal Reserve playing politics. It's inevitable and incredibly naive to think that this institution doesn't play around in the realm of politics, and during the Fed's recent meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the spotlight is on and Bernanke now has to say some wonderful things for the camera, not so he can save the world, but so he can save his own job.
You see, Bernanke's reappointment is coming up soon, and Obama may decide to pick someone else for the role of Fed chairman, perhaps someone who is willing to craft monetary policy that is in line with the White House's own inflationary fiscal policy. Larry Summers, Obama's chief economist, is waiting in the wings to snatch up the lucrative job. And so, Bernanke has to audition for his position, exclaiming all the virtues he has caused to arise in a time of deep recession.
So Bernanke proceeded to grandstand, and spoke about how the Federal Reserve under his leadership acted so wonderfully to mop up the chaos in the banking sector that exploded last September and October with the failure of Lehman Brothers, AIG, Wachovia, and WaMu. And yet he fails to mention even once, what the leading failure was that led us to this point in time, that put our financial sector on the brink of destruction. The Federal Reserve takes full on blame for inflating the housing bubble, that when popped, caused the economy to go into the deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression. Sure there are other factors that have contributed: Repealing Glass-Steagall, failure to enforce regulation upon credit derivatives, and free loans for every deadbeat in America. But by and large, the Federal Reserve's move to slice interest rates down to 1% during the last recession, caused the housing bubble in the first place.
Yes, Bernanke wasn't responsible for that. It was under Alan Greenspan's tenure that such dramatic bubble-making was pursued. But I guess it would be bad form for Bernanke to criticize Alan Greenspan for lowering rates when Bernanke himself has lowered rates down to 0%. Insinuating Alan Greenspan's guilt would only serve to implicate Bernanke in whatever consequences should follow from his move into quantitative easing. And so Bernanke stays mum on that guilt and continues to pump up the results of a "job well done" and continues to pump up the stock market as well. He exacerbates his lies to the public, telling anyone who will listen that the recession is over. This is purely to protect his job, for how can Obama validate replacing Ben Bernanke when the recession has ended and the Fed under his leadership has sucessfully contained the crisis. Right?
All that remains for Bernanke to do, is to keep his fingers crossed behind his back, and hope that nothing untoward creeps out of the financial or housing sectors in the months to follow. At least until he gets reappointed. Only then can he let the mountain begin to crumble again.
Read Bernanke's speech HERE.
My immediate response was to snicker, thinking that the headline's boasts were just as inflated as the market in recent months. My second thought was that here is the supposedly "apolitical" Federal Reserve playing politics. It's inevitable and incredibly naive to think that this institution doesn't play around in the realm of politics, and during the Fed's recent meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the spotlight is on and Bernanke now has to say some wonderful things for the camera, not so he can save the world, but so he can save his own job.
You see, Bernanke's reappointment is coming up soon, and Obama may decide to pick someone else for the role of Fed chairman, perhaps someone who is willing to craft monetary policy that is in line with the White House's own inflationary fiscal policy. Larry Summers, Obama's chief economist, is waiting in the wings to snatch up the lucrative job. And so, Bernanke has to audition for his position, exclaiming all the virtues he has caused to arise in a time of deep recession.
So Bernanke proceeded to grandstand, and spoke about how the Federal Reserve under his leadership acted so wonderfully to mop up the chaos in the banking sector that exploded last September and October with the failure of Lehman Brothers, AIG, Wachovia, and WaMu. And yet he fails to mention even once, what the leading failure was that led us to this point in time, that put our financial sector on the brink of destruction. The Federal Reserve takes full on blame for inflating the housing bubble, that when popped, caused the economy to go into the deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression. Sure there are other factors that have contributed: Repealing Glass-Steagall, failure to enforce regulation upon credit derivatives, and free loans for every deadbeat in America. But by and large, the Federal Reserve's move to slice interest rates down to 1% during the last recession, caused the housing bubble in the first place.
Yes, Bernanke wasn't responsible for that. It was under Alan Greenspan's tenure that such dramatic bubble-making was pursued. But I guess it would be bad form for Bernanke to criticize Alan Greenspan for lowering rates when Bernanke himself has lowered rates down to 0%. Insinuating Alan Greenspan's guilt would only serve to implicate Bernanke in whatever consequences should follow from his move into quantitative easing. And so Bernanke stays mum on that guilt and continues to pump up the results of a "job well done" and continues to pump up the stock market as well. He exacerbates his lies to the public, telling anyone who will listen that the recession is over. This is purely to protect his job, for how can Obama validate replacing Ben Bernanke when the recession has ended and the Fed under his leadership has sucessfully contained the crisis. Right?
All that remains for Bernanke to do, is to keep his fingers crossed behind his back, and hope that nothing untoward creeps out of the financial or housing sectors in the months to follow. At least until he gets reappointed. Only then can he let the mountain begin to crumble again.
Read Bernanke's speech HERE.
The Problem With Health Insurers
Here's a great opinion piece on the problems within the health insurance industry. Too much government intervention has led to the corporate and monopolistic form of health care that we have today. The author reminds us, that while conservatives are busy fighting against the Democrats' reform plan, they must not forget that there are major problems with how we do health care today. The system is a far cry from perfect.
Read the article HERE.
Read the article HERE.
Timothy P. Carney: Down with the health insurers
By: Timothy P. Carney
Dear conservatives: Health insurance companies are not your friends. Keep opposing a new government-run insurer, a single-payer plan, and new regulations on the HMOs. But grant that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is correct on this: Insurance companies are villains....
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Flag@whitehouse.gov Defeated
It seems that after a lot of complaints from Republicans and repeated attacks from online blogs, the government has closed down their tip-line which was to be used to report people spreading "disinformation" about Obama's health care reform. I don't know what they were thinking, but a president advocating that people should turn in other citizens for their beliefs on health care, whether ill-informed or not, should never have seemed like a good idea in the first place. I'm just glad it's gone.
Read the article HERE.
Read the article HERE.
Peter Schiff Comments On Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett's recent op-ed piece (you can read that here), warns of a future where a burgeoning debt stokes a burst of inflation. Yet at the same time, he seems to give credit to the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury whose actions will have caused this inflation in the first place. Warren Buffett, you were so close to putting all the pieces together, yet you unfortunately fell far from the mark.
Peter Schiff, an economist and contender for the Senate against Democrat Christopher Dodd, comments about Warren Buffett's op-ed piece and a host of other topics in this interesting video.
Peter Schiff, an economist and contender for the Senate against Democrat Christopher Dodd, comments about Warren Buffett's op-ed piece and a host of other topics in this interesting video.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
U.S. Dollar To Lose Reserve Status
The U.S. dollar, one of the greatest symbols of all time, not just to Americans, but to every citizen in the world, is about to undergo a loss of prestige so devastating that it will lose the title of the world's reserve currency. The huge decline in the dollar over the last ten years has been the impetus of a rise in commodities that have pushed oil to a high of $150 and gold to $1000. And now, as our politicians continue their irresponsible spending on stimulus packages, bailouts, and health care reform, and the Federal Reserve continues down the path of quantitative easing, we face a budget that will increasingly become unmanageable and therefore unappetizing to those foreign nations that hold dollars as a reserve. Just as the British pound lost that status in the early 1900's, so can and so will the United States.
Read the article HERE.
Pimco Says Dollar to Weaken as Reserve Status Erodes
Aug. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Pacific Investment Management Co., the world’s biggest manager of bond funds, said the dollar will weaken as the U.S. pumps “massive” amounts of money into the economy....
Read the article HERE.
Pimco Says Dollar to Weaken as Reserve Status Erodes
Aug. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Pacific Investment Management Co., the world’s biggest manager of bond funds, said the dollar will weaken as the U.S. pumps “massive” amounts of money into the economy....
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
We've Only Just Begun...White Lace And Promises
While the CNBC pundits, the Obama administration, and Federal Reserve officials promise us nothing but white lace in our future, this op-ed piece on Seeking Alpha tries to show us that the banking crisis has only just begun...
Read the article HERE.
Read the article HERE.
Coming Soon: Banking Crisis of Historic Proportions
With everyone (well, almost everyone - I am one of the lonely skeptics) convinced that we have stepped back from the "edge of the abyss", the title of this article may be viewed as laughable. When you connect the dots, as I will in this article, you will at least stop laughing, and, maybe, realize that we still have a big problem...Monday, August 17, 2009
The United States of Weimar
Here's an educational video on the hyperinflation event that plagued Weimar Germany. Sounds eerily familiar to where we stand today. A gigantic debt bubble that can't be serviced. A ballooning financial bubble. An increase in the money supply created by the Federal Reserve's program of quantitative easing that masks an economy that is driving itself into the ground. Dollars printed. Dollars decreasing in value. Commodities rising.
Protect your money by holding precious metals!
Protect your money by holding precious metals!
A Party of Hypocrites
As a libertarian, my philosophy closely follows that of "stay out of my wallet and stay out of my bedroom." Democrats will typically stay out of may bedroom, but just love to reach deep into my wallet. Republicans are the opposite, letting me keep my money, but interfering in the private matters of my bedroom based on their version of morality. Both parties are war hawks (although the Democratic party less so) which is against the libertarian ideals of staying out of other nations' business unless they attack first. Both parties are also big deficit spenders, though the Republican party would have you believe that they value a balanced budget much more than their Democratic rivals.
What is a libertarian to do then? Traditionally, libertarians ally themselves with the Republican party, but I find it very hard to do so. The religious right ruins it for me. Their supposed moral superiority which they try to force on every American is as anti-libertarian as creating a socialized system of health care. And the Bill O'Reillies and Rush Limbaughs of the world do nothing but try to fearmonger their listeners into making them think the way that they think. They push an agenda using hate as the tool to get what they want. In addition, Republican hypocrisy of the past eight years allowed Bush to spend whatever he wanted whenever he wanted, and to cut taxes on top of that, leading to huge budgetary problems which are currently being exacerbated by the current administration. But now, suddenly Republicans are fiscal conservatives again, like the past eight years have never happened.
2009 brought Barack Obama to Washington where already there happened to be a Democratic majority in both Houses of Congress. It seemed that Republicans had been beaten, that the Democrats were going to have a blank slate to do whatever it was they wished when they pursued their liberal agenda. But Obama acted too soon. He decided to push for health care reform without getting his own fiscally conservative blue dogs on the same page. Then he offers to drop the public option which has many liberals like Howard Dean up in arms. So it seems, we are seeing the fracturing of the Democratic party so soon after they received almost absolute power in Washington.
I should rejoice right? The Democrats may have very well sown the seeds of their own destruction. Midterm elections will be coming up soon, and the Republicans may very well steal back some seats. Hallelujah!
No. That's not how I feel. I wish the Republican party had been crushed to oblivion. I wish the Rush Limbaughs and the Bill O'Reillies and the Sara Palins had been chased into the wilderness, never to show their faces again. I wish the Democratic party was able to enforce a huge wave of socialistic change that would sweep over America, nationalizing and subsidizing everything in its wake. I wish the religious right would sprint back to their churches and hide in their basements waiting for a Rapture that would never come, while they prayed for God to strike down the Democrats with their abortion and their homosexuality and indecent ways.
Maybe then, after all that was said and done, with the Republican party in great disarray, would the few truly conservative politicians left come to Washington and pick up the pieces of a shattered party and bring it back to its roots. Starting small, they would be able to start amassing a true following of individuals, create a new platform based on fiscal conservatism, smaller government, individual rights, and less intervention over seas. Out of the ashes, something new and fresh can be born.
But as it stands now, we still have the status quo. We have the Republican party just as it was before the Democrats came into power, a party of hypocrites. And while I disagree mightily with everything that Obama has pursued, there is a small piece of me deep inside that wishes him great success in his agenda. As odd as it sounds, only Obama can recreate the Republican party into something new and meaningful, and he can only do that by being successful. If Obama is not sucessful, he will only revitalize a Grand Old Party of Hypocrites.
What is a libertarian to do then? Traditionally, libertarians ally themselves with the Republican party, but I find it very hard to do so. The religious right ruins it for me. Their supposed moral superiority which they try to force on every American is as anti-libertarian as creating a socialized system of health care. And the Bill O'Reillies and Rush Limbaughs of the world do nothing but try to fearmonger their listeners into making them think the way that they think. They push an agenda using hate as the tool to get what they want. In addition, Republican hypocrisy of the past eight years allowed Bush to spend whatever he wanted whenever he wanted, and to cut taxes on top of that, leading to huge budgetary problems which are currently being exacerbated by the current administration. But now, suddenly Republicans are fiscal conservatives again, like the past eight years have never happened.
2009 brought Barack Obama to Washington where already there happened to be a Democratic majority in both Houses of Congress. It seemed that Republicans had been beaten, that the Democrats were going to have a blank slate to do whatever it was they wished when they pursued their liberal agenda. But Obama acted too soon. He decided to push for health care reform without getting his own fiscally conservative blue dogs on the same page. Then he offers to drop the public option which has many liberals like Howard Dean up in arms. So it seems, we are seeing the fracturing of the Democratic party so soon after they received almost absolute power in Washington.
I should rejoice right? The Democrats may have very well sown the seeds of their own destruction. Midterm elections will be coming up soon, and the Republicans may very well steal back some seats. Hallelujah!
No. That's not how I feel. I wish the Republican party had been crushed to oblivion. I wish the Rush Limbaughs and the Bill O'Reillies and the Sara Palins had been chased into the wilderness, never to show their faces again. I wish the Democratic party was able to enforce a huge wave of socialistic change that would sweep over America, nationalizing and subsidizing everything in its wake. I wish the religious right would sprint back to their churches and hide in their basements waiting for a Rapture that would never come, while they prayed for God to strike down the Democrats with their abortion and their homosexuality and indecent ways.
Maybe then, after all that was said and done, with the Republican party in great disarray, would the few truly conservative politicians left come to Washington and pick up the pieces of a shattered party and bring it back to its roots. Starting small, they would be able to start amassing a true following of individuals, create a new platform based on fiscal conservatism, smaller government, individual rights, and less intervention over seas. Out of the ashes, something new and fresh can be born.
But as it stands now, we still have the status quo. We have the Republican party just as it was before the Democrats came into power, a party of hypocrites. And while I disagree mightily with everything that Obama has pursued, there is a small piece of me deep inside that wishes him great success in his agenda. As odd as it sounds, only Obama can recreate the Republican party into something new and meaningful, and he can only do that by being successful. If Obama is not sucessful, he will only revitalize a Grand Old Party of Hypocrites.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Here Comes our "Compromise"
Coming to Americans soon: Your water-down money pit of a health care bill. Now reports are saying that Obama is willing to drop the public option of the health care reform legislation in order to bring more Republicans on board. Democrats can claim victory for trying to fix the problem of unaffordable health care. Republicans can declare victory for stopping the administration from putting through a public option. Both sides can obsolve themselves of wrong-doing when this legislation fails to do a damn thing but cost taxpayers money. Republicans can say that this is the Democrats fault for pushing through with a faulty health plan. Democrats can say this is the Republicans fault for denying the government a bigger role in regulating prices. Everyone in Washington wins. Everyone in America loses. The same old song and dance of American politics in the end.
Never compromise. Not even in the face of Armageddon- Rorschach from the Watchmen Movie
Read the article HERE.
Never compromise. Not even in the face of Armageddon- Rorschach from the Watchmen Movie
Read the article HERE.
White House appears ready to drop 'public option'
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's administration signaled on Sunday it is ready to abandon the idea of giving Americans the option of government-run health insurance as part of his ambitious health care proposal....Nixon "Temporarily" Closes Gold Window
Yesterday, August 15, was the anniversary of the closing of the gold window by President Nixon. It was the end of the commodity-backed money system that attempted to keep politicians honest about how much of a government spending policy they could pursue. From thenceforth, we would be able to print our money without the constraints of the gold standard. The war in Indochina and the domestic changes of the Great Society created by LBJ had increased the deficit to record amounts. That, coupled with irresponsible monetary policy by the Federal Reserve led to a bout of huge inflation that would engulf the rest of the 1970's, even while unemployment remained high. Arthur Burns was the Fed chairman at this time, appointed by Nixon in 1970 and then threatened by Nixon in 1971 to keep monetary policy relaxed during his reelection campaign. This would temporarily decrease unemployment and generate a false prosperity that would help to land Nixon in the White House for a second term. Both LBJ and Nixon are representatives of the type of politicians that we have with us today. They will do the irresponsible thing for our future, to grant them reelection today. Remember them when you look at our current politicians.
In this video, we see Nixon's faulty reasoning for his "temporary" closing of the gold window. With the increased fiscal irresponsibility of the Kennedy-LBJ idea of lower taxes in addition to higher government spending, we amounted huge deficits. Those large deficits coupled with Nixon's declaration that he was now a "Keynesian" in favor of deficit spending, only added to the budgetary problems of the United States. This bad budget led to a direct pressure on the value of the dollar. As the dollar plummeted, nations abroad, who looked for the stability of the dollar as an international unit of trade, began to worry. If they now converted their devalued dollars to gold, they could quickly exhaust the United States' supply of gold. Nixon blames speculators, when it was the United States' own fault that the dollar was failing. It seems to be the age-old excuse. Whenever you see a politician start to blame speculators, you can be sure that those problems are that politician's own fault.
In this video, we see Nixon's faulty reasoning for his "temporary" closing of the gold window. With the increased fiscal irresponsibility of the Kennedy-LBJ idea of lower taxes in addition to higher government spending, we amounted huge deficits. Those large deficits coupled with Nixon's declaration that he was now a "Keynesian" in favor of deficit spending, only added to the budgetary problems of the United States. This bad budget led to a direct pressure on the value of the dollar. As the dollar plummeted, nations abroad, who looked for the stability of the dollar as an international unit of trade, began to worry. If they now converted their devalued dollars to gold, they could quickly exhaust the United States' supply of gold. Nixon blames speculators, when it was the United States' own fault that the dollar was failing. It seems to be the age-old excuse. Whenever you see a politician start to blame speculators, you can be sure that those problems are that politician's own fault.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Bloomberg gearing for a FOURTH term????
What a douche! On a radio address to NYC, Mayor Bloomberg who recently pushed the City Council so he could gain the ability to run for a third term slips up and mentions plans for what he would try to accomplish in a fourth term. He later swears that he has no intention to run for a fourth term and says that the law will not allow that. Does he think we forgot that the NYC law didn't allow a third term and he had earlier sworn that he had no interest in extending his rule? He can NOT be trusted, this man. Mayor Bloomberg must be evicted from office.
Read the article HERE.
Read the article HERE.
Never Compromise. Not Even In The Face of Armageddon.
With all the hype by the Democrats about how government-subsidized health care will save the world, coupled along side the severe criticism by many staunch Republicans about how the government is going to kill grandma, we forget that there are people putting out viable solutions to the problem. Yes, there is a problem getting affordable health insurance, and maybe the problem started with government getting involved in the first place.
Look at what federal student loans have done to our education system. Giving a loan to every young man and woman in America has caused the price of going to college to skyrocket. It used to be that a determined person could put themselves through school by waiting tables on the side. Now you would have a hard time paying for just the text books with a part-time job. More demand for something is only going to increase prices. So if government makes it so that everyone in America can attend college, then the price for education is going to rise. So it is with the health insurance industry. If government makes it so that everyone in America is covered, then those prices are going to rise regardless, even if the government is paying the bill. Which is is why a $600 billion dollar proposal by Obama can easily turn into a monster that can only grow to astronomic proportions.
At the Ludwig von Mises institute, a Libertarian think-tank, they have proposed a 4 part solution to fixing healthcare, which unfortunately would never have a chance if it was proposed in the halls of power. Why? Because it would involve making HARD DECISIONS. And as we know, our politicians (both Republican and Democrat) are not in the habit of making hard decisions. They would rather debate things endlessly, and then come up with a middle-ground solution. This solution is called COMPROMISE, which is the most dirtiest and dangerous word in the human language, because it means you have sold part of yourself, your ideology and anything you hold dear, to an idea that you don't believe in. In the end you wind up with a watered down version of a plan that wont fully do what it was originally proposed to do and will cost the taxpayer billions of dollars to implement. Compromise always leads to a monstrous conclusion.
For those who are interested in the hard decisions that would be needed to completely reform healthcare, please follow the below link and learn what the von Mises Institute would do to fix the problem. It is quite an interesting read.
Read the proposal HERE.
Never compromise. Not even in the face of Armageddon- Rorschach from The Watchmen Movie
Look at what federal student loans have done to our education system. Giving a loan to every young man and woman in America has caused the price of going to college to skyrocket. It used to be that a determined person could put themselves through school by waiting tables on the side. Now you would have a hard time paying for just the text books with a part-time job. More demand for something is only going to increase prices. So if government makes it so that everyone in America can attend college, then the price for education is going to rise. So it is with the health insurance industry. If government makes it so that everyone in America is covered, then those prices are going to rise regardless, even if the government is paying the bill. Which is is why a $600 billion dollar proposal by Obama can easily turn into a monster that can only grow to astronomic proportions.
At the Ludwig von Mises institute, a Libertarian think-tank, they have proposed a 4 part solution to fixing healthcare, which unfortunately would never have a chance if it was proposed in the halls of power. Why? Because it would involve making HARD DECISIONS. And as we know, our politicians (both Republican and Democrat) are not in the habit of making hard decisions. They would rather debate things endlessly, and then come up with a middle-ground solution. This solution is called COMPROMISE, which is the most dirtiest and dangerous word in the human language, because it means you have sold part of yourself, your ideology and anything you hold dear, to an idea that you don't believe in. In the end you wind up with a watered down version of a plan that wont fully do what it was originally proposed to do and will cost the taxpayer billions of dollars to implement. Compromise always leads to a monstrous conclusion.
For those who are interested in the hard decisions that would be needed to completely reform healthcare, please follow the below link and learn what the von Mises Institute would do to fix the problem. It is quite an interesting read.
Read the proposal HERE.
Never compromise. Not even in the face of Armageddon- Rorschach from The Watchmen Movie
Friday, August 14, 2009
Cash For Clunkers a Real Clunker
SPIN METER: $3 billion buys not-so-green vehicles
WASHINGTON – Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, the nation's top car salesman in recent weeks, has cited the Obama administration's best-seller list of mostly smaller, fuel-saving cars like the Ford Focus to describe the success of the Cash for Clunkers rebate program.
But what LaHood and other administration officials usually don't mention is that some trucks and sport-utility vehicles that get less than 20 miles per gallon, like the Ford F-150 truck and one version of the Cadillac SRX Crossover, also are being purchased with the new government subsidies. Both are bulky vehicles weighing more than 6,000 pounds when loaded that boast at least 248 horsepower...
Read rest of the article HERE.
Government Bailouts
Let's just pause to remember the events of the stock market crash last fall, and reflect on how our government acts in times of crisis...
July Foreclosures Hit Record
The Federal Reserve and the Treasury have been doing exactly what they do best, these past few months. They have been trying to promote the idea that the "recession" is nearing its end and have continued with their Bubble School of Economics view on the market. The amazing 50% rally we have seen in the S&P is a byproduct of their "Goldilocks" spin, a direct result of their cheap, freshly printed money and quantitative easing. While the CNBC pundits and the politicians would have you believe that this is the beginning of the next great bull market in equities, I think the fundamentals show that we still have a long way to go. More foreclosures is going to mean more write-downs on the banks' books at some point, and god knows what destruction can be caused by those worthless credit derivatives that they have amounted in vast sums. Remember the tumultuous events of last fall when Lehman Brother's failed, and the government officials ran around like chickens with their heads cut off to figure out how to contain the counterparty risk? Merrill Lynch, AIG, Wachovia, WaMu, all victims of that mountain of worthless paper. Well it can happen again, and if the housing market continues to crumble, and commercial real estate joins the ranks of suffering sectors of the economy, then I think we can be assured that things are far from over. The most important thing to do is protect your money.
Read the article HERE.
Read the article HERE.
Home foreclosures set another record in July
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. home loans failed at a record pace in July despite ongoing federal and state programs to avoid foreclosures, which have severely strained housing and the economy.
Foreclosure activity jumped 7 percent in July from June and 32 percent from a year earlier as one in every 355 households with a loan got a foreclosure filing, RealtyTrac said on Thursday...
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Toxic Assets Still a BIG Problem
Here's an interesting and informative article that talks about the huge amounts of bad debt on the balance sheets of our banks, that with a stroke of a pen and a change in accounting rules, suddenly disappears. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Well, not so. I have a feeling that the huge lump of dirt the government swept under the rug is still there, and we'll see its effects at some point.
Read it HERE
Excerpt:
Read it HERE
Excerpt:
Banks’ Toxic Assets Still There: The Accounting Cannot Be Trusted
In other words, much of the improvement we have seen in the banking system, particularly among the big 19 stress-tested banks - such as J.P. Morgan (JPM: 42.21 +0.97 +2.35%), Goldman Sachs (GS: 163.76 +4.54 +2.85%) and U.S. Bank (USB: 22.02 -0.08 -0.36%) - has come from changes in the accounting rules, rather than a change in the fundamental economic value of the securities. There has been some real improvement in the condition of the banks, but that is mostly due to the large round of capital raising in the wake of the stress tests.Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself
Watch Mr. Obama liken government subsidized healthcare to the problems with the U.S. Postal Service. I almost shot soda through my nostrils in response to this.
Where did $1.5 Trillion Dollars Go?
The Fed aint saying, the Government aint cooperating, the Courts aint helping. If anyone out there cares about where the Fed has sent this money, please look up the Federal Reserve Transparency Act (HR 1207), and The Federal Reserve Sunshine Act (S 604) and learn about the issue. There seems to be much support in the House, but it is in the Senate where this act of legislation may fail. Contact your Senators and Representatives and demand that they support auditing the Federal Reserve. In a time when everyone is up in arms over $600 Billion in healthcare reforms, there should be much more outrage directed at the $1.5 Trillion that has disappeared from the hands of the Federal Reserve. All we want is transparency. All we want is to know where that money went.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Health Care Backlash Continues!
Here we have Democratic Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania fighting back a crowd at a town hall meeting. Obama, Pelosi and the rest of the bunch keep trying to push the idea that these protests against their health care plan are orchestrated by hired thugs from conservative organizations. But the video attached to this article shows what look like normal people to me. They just happen to be pissed at what is going on in this country. It amazes me that this guy has still managed to maintain his position in Washington. This is the same man who started out as a Democrat, switched to the Republican party, only to go back again to the Democratic party, all in response to poll numbers during his elections. He'll bend with the wind and be whoever or whatever you want just to get elected. Then he'll turn his back and try to ram unconstitutional legislation down your throat in gratitude. Wonderful man.
Watch the video HERE.
Watch the video HERE.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Sunday, August 9, 2009
I seem to have misplaced $700 Billion. Has anyone seen it?
Where did that bank bailout go? Watchdogs aren't entirely sure.
WASHINGTON — Although hundreds of well-trained eyes are watching over the $700 billion that Congress last year decided to spend bailing out the nation's financial sector, it's still difficult to answer some of the most basic questions about where the money went.
Despite a new oversight panel, a new special inspector general, the existing Government Accountability Office and eight other inspectors general, those charged with minding the store say they don't have all the weapons they need. Ten months into the Troubled Asset Relief Program, some members of Congress say that some oversight of bailout dollars has been so lacking that it's essentially worthless...
Read the rest of the article here.Peter Schiff vs Chris Dodd?
Economist Peter Schiff talks about the disastrous state of the economy and his potential bid for the Senate against Chris Dodd.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Mother of all Bums!
One of the most important things that keeps power away from those who wish to accumulate it is the idea of term limits. After 9/11, then Mayor Rudolph Giuliani wished to seek a third term (only two terms were allowed in NYC), rationalizing that only he could see NYC through the horrible terror attacks. Bloomberg, wishing to achieve that post for himself, derided Giuliani, saying that no one person was indispensable. Yet two terms later and here we have Mike Bloomberg rewriting city law to allow him to run for mayor yet again, saying that only he has the ability to see NYC through these financial crises. Afraid of loosing his power, Mike
browbeat the City Council into allowing a third term, which in November he is running for.Yet despite this obvious quest for more power, and his scandal surrounding the Deutsche Bank Fire, Bloomberg is unleashing his insurmountable war chest to gain reelection. Yet perhaps people have become disgusted enough with Bloomberg that even his money wont be able to buy his way back. Recent polls have shown that his democratic opponent Bill Thompson is gaining some foothold and may become a viable adversary for Mayor Bloomberg.
While I am no advocate of Bill Thompson (He seems too much like a Robin Hood-redistribute-the-wealth type of guy for my likes), I find it even more offensive that Bloomberg has attempted to set himself up as Dictator of New York. Our first responsibility as voters is to throw out the bums, and I am branding Mike Bloomberg, despite his wealth, as the mother of all bums. Power is not meant to be abused, it is meant to be taken away, and I for one will attempt to do my part to take it away from Bloomberg.
I'll worry about Bill Thompson when he becomes the inevitable problem. But something tells me he'll be easier to depose than Mike. Maybe then, we'll have a prospect for mayor who actually cares about this city.
Article: Thompson closing gap on Bloomberg in mayoral race: Poll
Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s lead over City Councilman Tony Avella (D-Bayside) and city Comptroller William Thompson in the bid for the city’s highest office has slimmed, although many city and Queens residents said they still do not know much about either of the mayor’s challengers, according to a new Quinnipiac poll...
Friday, August 7, 2009
Another Crook Gets Away With His Crime
Well, we can only hope that the voters have the sense to boot Dodd out when the time comes. We can't hope for Justice in the Halls of Corruption, can we?
Committee drops Countrywide probe
The Senate Ethics Committee has dismissed complaints against Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) alleging that they had received special mortgage deals from Countrywide Financial.
Read more: http://tinyurl.com/doddcountrywide
Committee drops Countrywide probe
The Senate Ethics Committee has dismissed complaints against Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) alleging that they had received special mortgage deals from Countrywide Financial.
Read more: http://tinyurl.com/doddcountrywide
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Iconoclasts At Work
It seems to me that there is a strong undercurrent running through this country where many people have become seriously disgruntled at their political leaders. While many politicians in both Houses of Congress are patting themselves on the back for doing what they see as hard work and a job well done, many regular people across America have been taking matters into their own hands to help bring this country back to some semblance of reality.
The issue this time is Obama's health care plan which we CANNOT afford as long as this country's balance sheet lies in disarray. We can thank both George W. Bush and Barrack Obama for exacerbating our national debt to unsustainable levels. Our debt as a percentage of GDP for 2008 is about 70% and is expected to be approximately 90% for 2009. Folks, this is absolutely amazing. We haven’t had this level of debt/GDP since the end of World War II. The debt doubled under W’s presidency and is expected to double again under the current administration, and I think those expectations are being kind
to Mr. Obama. Pushing this health care plan forward is a hugely irresponsible move on Obama’s part. Congress, who holds the purse strings, should have squashed this plan before it even left Obama’s lips, but there they are pushing America towards impending disaster like a surging locomotive that has suddenly run out of tracks. They will weaken this country, and ensure that our place in the world is diminished.
To me this health care issue should live or die based solely on affordability. The pundits on TV speak of a MORAL OBLIGATION to the people of America to insure each and every person. The Democrats see it as a sacred right of every man, woman and child. They’ll tax and tax and tax, and redistribute that wealh to cover the cost. And then just for the fun of it, they’ll tax some more. The Republicans are no better. Rather than intelligently debating the gross side-effects of health care reform they continue their FEAR MONGERING by telling anyone who will listen that Obama plans to kill the elderly. Why can’t someone just come forward and say, “Hey look. We’re broke. It ain’t gonna work. Sorry. No dice.”
So it’s left to the citizen to do what is right. We must confront our Senators and Congressmen and threaten their jobs. We must make them listen. We put them in power, now they should listen to public sentiment before they do something stupid. Again!
So, I applaud everyone who has attended those townhall meetings and disrupted their counterproductive speeches. Let them be afraid for once. Let them see people, angry people who are rising up and saying, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take it anymore.”
Good job!
Check out the article: http://tinyurl.com/healthcareprotests
The issue this time is Obama's health care plan which we CANNOT afford as long as this country's balance sheet lies in disarray. We can thank both George W. Bush and Barrack Obama for exacerbating our national debt to unsustainable levels. Our debt as a percentage of GDP for 2008 is about 70% and is expected to be approximately 90% for 2009. Folks, this is absolutely amazing. We haven’t had this level of debt/GDP since the end of World War II. The debt doubled under W’s presidency and is expected to double again under the current administration, and I think those expectations are being kind
to Mr. Obama. Pushing this health care plan forward is a hugely irresponsible move on Obama’s part. Congress, who holds the purse strings, should have squashed this plan before it even left Obama’s lips, but there they are pushing America towards impending disaster like a surging locomotive that has suddenly run out of tracks. They will weaken this country, and ensure that our place in the world is diminished.To me this health care issue should live or die based solely on affordability. The pundits on TV speak of a MORAL OBLIGATION to the people of America to insure each and every person. The Democrats see it as a sacred right of every man, woman and child. They’ll tax and tax and tax, and redistribute that wealh to cover the cost. And then just for the fun of it, they’ll tax some more. The Republicans are no better. Rather than intelligently debating the gross side-effects of health care reform they continue their FEAR MONGERING by telling anyone who will listen that Obama plans to kill the elderly. Why can’t someone just come forward and say, “Hey look. We’re broke. It ain’t gonna work. Sorry. No dice.”
So it’s left to the citizen to do what is right. We must confront our Senators and Congressmen and threaten their jobs. We must make them listen. We put them in power, now they should listen to public sentiment before they do something stupid. Again!
So, I applaud everyone who has attended those townhall meetings and disrupted their counterproductive speeches. Let them be afraid for once. Let them see people, angry people who are rising up and saying, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take it anymore.”
Good job!
Check out the article: http://tinyurl.com/healthcareprotests
To those expecting an economic recovery: Beware!
Since the March lows in the stock market, the S&P has risen from 666 to 1000. This rally has had commentators on CNBC and elsewhere crowing that we are in the midst of a recovery and are busy trying to get everybody to lose their money by buying into the market. Keep in mind that any positive GDP reports coming out in the near future will only be because of increased government spending from our bottomless pit stimulus program that will have to end sometime. Housing is still on shaky ground as this article shows, and as goes housing, so goes the rest of the market.
About half of U.S. mortgages seen underwater by 2011
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The percentage of U.S. homeowners who owe more than their house is worth will nearly double to 48 percent in 2011 from 26 percent at the end of March, portending another blow to the housing market, Deutsche Bank said on Wednesday.
Home price declines will have their biggest impact on prime "conforming" loans that meet underwriting and size guidelines of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the bank said in a report. Prime conforming loans make up two-thirds of mortgages, and are typically less risky because of stringent requirements.
"We project the next phase of the housing decline will have a far greater impact on prime borrowers," Deutsche analysts Karen Weaver and Ying Shen said in the report....
http://tinyurl.com/n953x5
About half of U.S. mortgages seen underwater by 2011
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The percentage of U.S. homeowners who owe more than their house is worth will nearly double to 48 percent in 2011 from 26 percent at the end of March, portending another blow to the housing market, Deutsche Bank said on Wednesday.
Home price declines will have their biggest impact on prime "conforming" loans that meet underwriting and size guidelines of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the bank said in a report. Prime conforming loans make up two-thirds of mortgages, and are typically less risky because of stringent requirements.
"We project the next phase of the housing decline will have a far greater impact on prime borrowers," Deutsche analysts Karen Weaver and Ying Shen said in the report....
http://tinyurl.com/n953x5
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Get Off That Breadline, Mr. Iconoclast!
Welcome to my blog! I haven't really decided what this blog should be focused on, but perhaps in creating the title I have created the subject matter for this blog. An iconoclast, in the classic term, is a person who tears down and destroys religious icons, usually during a tumultuous time of religious reform or turmoil. In this day and age, when religion in Western society has been pushed to the backburner, alas, there is little for an iconoclast to do, and he would be relegated to the unemployment lines that crisscross America with his hands spread apart craving his part of the bailout money.
But wait! There is hope for the iconoclast yet! There are plenty of symbols to tear down in this modern 21st century world. They may not be religious, but there seem to be flocks of sheeple crawling on their hands and knees to worship America's two most sacred animals: The Donkey and the Elephant. Long have we cried out for salvation from these two competing force
s of animal nature, to save us from the horrors of the world. To represent us in times of need! Every year, we run to the polls and cry out, "Please help us! Please bring justice and prosperity to myself and 
my family and my friends."
And each year, as a few lucky people are elevated to the highest halls of power by our electorate, they turn back to us and answer our pleas, not with gratitude manifesting itself as a job well done. No. They respond with slaps to our faces as they race to pursue their own agendas and struggle for power amongst themselves, each hoping to gain more influence and more wealth, and therefore more power over the lives of every man, woman, and child.
So, Mr. Iconoclast, leave your unemployment line. Those Elephants and Donkeys need to be torn down and only you and others like you can do it. There will be other symbols you shall encounter, some carrying an even more religious connotation than others. Lying silent behind those white halls of incredible power lies the greatest symbol of all: A Temple that hides not the corruption of elected politicians, but the deviltry associated with our unelected class of priests. There lies the Eccles Building, home of the Federal Reserve, and orchestrator of most of this countries most heinous crimes against society.
Now, I may be a little dramatic here, but the actions of this institution needs to be looked at closer. And maybe, once everyone who once turned a blind eye at this institution begins to examine it with a more critical eye, we can decide what to do with it. Hopefully it will be to abolish it, set restriction upon it, or just flat out destroy it.
Now I leave you with a quote from one of my favorite movies that seems to illustrate this point very well: V for Vendetta.
"A building is a symbol, as is the act of destroying it. Symbols are given power by people. A symbol, in and of itself is powerless, but with enough people behind it, blowing up a building can change the world. "
But wait! There is hope for the iconoclast yet! There are plenty of symbols to tear down in this modern 21st century world. They may not be religious, but there seem to be flocks of sheeple crawling on their hands and knees to worship America's two most sacred animals: The Donkey and the Elephant. Long have we cried out for salvation from these two competing force
s of animal nature, to save us from the horrors of the world. To represent us in times of need! Every year, we run to the polls and cry out, "Please help us! Please bring justice and prosperity to myself and 
my family and my friends."And each year, as a few lucky people are elevated to the highest halls of power by our electorate, they turn back to us and answer our pleas, not with gratitude manifesting itself as a job well done. No. They respond with slaps to our faces as they race to pursue their own agendas and struggle for power amongst themselves, each hoping to gain more influence and more wealth, and therefore more power over the lives of every man, woman, and child.
So, Mr. Iconoclast, leave your unemployment line. Those Elephants and Donkeys need to be torn down and only you and others like you can do it. There will be other symbols you shall encounter, some carrying an even more religious connotation than others. Lying silent behind those white halls of incredible power lies the greatest symbol of all: A Temple that hides not the corruption of elected politicians, but the deviltry associated with our unelected class of priests. There lies the Eccles Building, home of the Federal Reserve, and orchestrator of most of this countries most heinous crimes against society.
Now, I may be a little dramatic here, but the actions of this institution needs to be looked at closer. And maybe, once everyone who once turned a blind eye at this institution begins to examine it with a more critical eye, we can decide what to do with it. Hopefully it will be to abolish it, set restriction upon it, or just flat out destroy it.
Now I leave you with a quote from one of my favorite movies that seems to illustrate this point very well: V for Vendetta.
"A building is a symbol, as is the act of destroying it. Symbols are given power by people. A symbol, in and of itself is powerless, but with enough people behind it, blowing up a building can change the world. "
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