ALL THE GOVERNMENT HAS TO OFFER IS WHAT THEY TAKE FROM YOU. ; )

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Unnecessarily autocratic, comrade


Let's be honest and direct about this. See the story below:



This is essentially the same law they wanted a few months ago. Combined with "net neutrality," this would give Dear Leader and the federal government complete control to run the internet and everything on it at their discretion. The standard would be that, in the president's judgment, the government needs to take control. It would be effective immediately, and they would then have the authority to shut down anyone, and to monitor and/or edit all content. It is explained as "only in emergencies," but the actual language says really anytime the president thinks it's necessary. Even if it was only when he deemed it an emergency, remember, he called a national emergency because of swine flu. Swine flu. The kids and I had it; it was inconvenient for five days, but not a national emergency.

This is China-like absolute control of the internet, frilly words and justifications aside. There would be no legal controls on it, and no firm laws or rules around how they would wield their power. Of course China uses the power to get rid of all dissent, monitor dissidents, shut down the internet after the government does something provocative, etc. It would simply be at their discretion. the discretion of people like Obama, Cass Sunstein (Regulatory Czar), and Mark Lloyd (FCC Diversity Czar, spearheading the takeover of the internet and cell phone service).

The last two have been very clear and open about being rabidly Maoist communist, rabidly anti-capitalist, and desirous of having control over whether people can have children, what they can do inside their homes, etc. Mark Lloyd stated in a press conference that he "is not interested in free speech," and seeks to "eradicate capitalist whoring." Research it if you have any question about whether it's true. Look up their statements about net neutrality and the purpose of it, and watch video clips of them. Giving them complete control of the most democratic of technologies is a nightmare. Read the laws proposed. For a second you'll think, "Those soviets sure are crazy...wait, this is law proposed for America!"

Friday, February 26, 2010

How are my 2010 predictions doing?

I know it's very early in the year, but let's look at my predictions for the year and how they're doing. Especially since they are so dire, essentially an apocalypse making the Great Depression look like a bad hair day, it could be very useful to see if they are on track to come true. Below are original predictions, with today's updates in green:

1. Residential real estate prices in general will drop at least another 10 to 20%. Starts in the spring.

This has started, just announced.

2. Commercial real estate will lose a lot more value and default like crazy.

This has started.

3. Unemployment, even the official rate, will hit at least 11%.

Likely. Right now the numbers are being manipulated with statistical tricks.

4. Personal bankruptcies will continue to set new records. Why would they not?

They are.

5. The value of the dollar will continue to drop, driving up prices of gold, gas, oil, food, etc.

Stalled relative to Euro, still dropping relative to other currencies.

6. It will become clear that inflation has arrived, despite official denials.

Done. PPI and real CPI starting to cause alarm with large increases.

7. The stock market will drop by a few thousand points.

Dropped 800 points. The drop I’m talking about has been held off by direct Fed intervention.

8. Small banks will fail in droves.

Hundreds more have been added to the critical list. They officially expect the rate of growth of that list to increase, and hundreds to fail. About 1,800 are technically bankrupt, since their loss reserves could never cover their losses they are trying to ignore.

9. Talk of a recovery will evaporate as people realize unemployment is still rising, bankruptcies rising, defaults and foreclosures rising, and Christmas sales were dismal.

Done. Consumer confidence has plunged, hundreds of analysts, and some lawmakers are talking of the “inevitable collapse and depression”

10. Gold will continue to rise as people run to it as they worry about paper money

Stuck at the moment at a high level.

11. We will see the default/ bankruptcy of at least a couple of countries.

Greece and Portugal are teetering precariously. Ten more are right behind them.

12. Commodity prices will continue to rise, as free government money all over the world is chasing investments.

Some have so far.

13. Despite what most experts say, China’s economy will prove to be a bubble if they don’t rein it in soon.

Chinese have decided to rein it in and have started. There were clear signs of bubbles.

14. As I have mentioned in previous posts, I don’t see how the federal government is going to finance its debt. What they are trying to borrow this year is far, far beyond what any government has ever tried to borrow before. Americans are likely to lend about 5% of it. Foreigners, based on current trends, won’t lend any of it.

The Treasury auctions have been deteriorating. There was a near-failed auction on the 12th, bid to cover ratios are down, China is reducing its holdings of US debt, foreign buyers in general are reducing their US debt. A plan is afoot to force Americans to lend money to the government. That’s not a good sign. People have always lent money voluntarily until now.

Unfortunately, the verdict so far is that things are right on track to say the least, the wrong track. There are no lollipops and rainbows on this track!

Car killer


It was announced yesterday that the Hummer auto brand would be killed. What a totally avoidable disaster from the beginning. It was similar to many other retarded strategies from the most dysfunctional of companies, Government Motors.

Think about how this happened. The Hummer was badass, ultra-rugged military vehicle. It could drive through forty inch deep rivers, in rocky deserts, through underbrush, etc. It was much admired and frankly made men weak in the knees to think of having such a huge, uber manly beast. It wouldn't be convenient for getting groceries, but who cares?

Then Arnold Schwartzenegger got one. Even better. Only the Terminator can get one. So, GM got the rights to make it for the general public. So, we have this exclusive, huge, boxy monster that men want to pretend they will drive up mountains with. What is GM's strategy? First, they make it smaller and classier and more refined. Then they make tons of them to kill any idea that it is an exclusive brand. Then they make an even more docile, mannerly version derisively called "the girl Hummer." They make sure to emphasize not the name Hummer, or even better, Humvee, which even sounds like a military nickname (because it is). They call them H2 and H3.

They keep making them less boxy and more genteel, so that these well-mannered lapdog-type vehicles wouldn't intimidate a schoolgirl in pigtails. Also, they came in all kinds of pretty colors. It was a Barbie beach party kind of vehicle. In other words, they killed the soul of the vehicle, then drove a stake through the heart of it. I believe I read that they never made a profit on them, and sales started declining sharply after just a couple of years.

They had a lot of experience killing cars. They have done it over and over again. They popularized a car as an expensive sportscar. It was popular, so they made it into a cheaper family car. Then it wasn't popular, so they made it into a station wagon with a huge engine. Then they discontinued it. Then brought it back as a sportscar again before ruining it again.

In my mind, GM got completely and hopelessly lost in the 1960's and has never recovered. They were by far the biggest company in the world, richer than almost any country. They have whittled that down continuously for decades. Only the fact that they were so gigantic to start with has kept them alive after such a long continuous decline. Pathetic.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Nice summary

I think I read that responsibility for one's actions was outlawed as part of the drunken sailor spending bills.



Global warming crowd should leave climatology to scientists

Gore film would be banned in UK schools
Currently, if a teacher wants to show the film he or she has to inform the kids that it is propaganda, show the film, then explain that the 11 main points of the film are misleading or false and present the actual information.


Three more articles about serious problems of the global warming crowd:

online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703630404575053781465774008.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_opinion

bigjournalism.com/rtrzupek/2010/02/14/is-the-great-global-warming-snowjob-finally-coming-to-an-end/

network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpcomment/archive/2010/02/06/lawrence-solomon-ipcc-beyond-the-himalayas.aspx IPCC in tatters

This is extraordinary. A top global warming clown who now admits the earth hasn't shown signs of warming in 15 years, and has to admit that he and his buddies couldn't get rid of the 500 year period known as the Medieval Warm Period. They tried to spirit it away, but it turns out people missed those 500 years of history. Oops!
Article It's a big U-turn.

What do we think of this?!

Unfortunately, I can vouch for most of this information. If you have any doubt that leftists are making a giant push right now for a one-world government, listen to the news or research it right now online. You can watch Al Gore and Ban Ki Moon talk about Copenhagen being the first step to setting up the world government, watch G20 meeting announcements about global government, read about the various proposals for global governance of finance, etc.

As a thinking person, it seems obvious to me that the three words "One world government" don't logically go together and can't be anything but terrifying. Even having only one party in a particular country has always meant tyranny, oppression, abuse, poverty. How could having only one party and one government (unelected and based on Marxist principles, I might add) on the whole earth is a bad, bad idea. No place to run to, no recourse, no place to appeal to. As someone who has studied history his whole life, I can tell you there is no reason, based on what has happened in this world so far, to believe this could work out ok.

Should I also mention that stupid policies of one country combined with a much-too-interconnected finance system is what caused the current worldwide recession? The only thing that insulates anyone from the stupidity of a few decision-makers is having things not too interconnected. Why would we want everything under a few unelected overlords? Could that make sense?

Article the excerpt below came from

"An Emerging Global Government


A recent article in the Financial Post stated that, “The danger in the present course is that if the world moves to a “super sovereign” reserve currency engineered by experts, such as the “UN Commission of Experts” led by Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz, we would give up the possibility of a spontaneous money order and financial harmony for a centrally planned order and the politicization of money. Such a regime change would endanger not only the future value of money but, more importantly, our freedom and prosperity.”[57]


Further, “An uncomfortable characteristic of the new world order may well turn out to be that global income gaps will widen because the rising powers, such as China, India and Brazil, regard those below them on the ladder as potential rivals.” The author further states that, “The new world order thus won't necessarily be any better than the old one,” and that, “What is certain, though, is that global affairs are going to be considerably different from now on.”[58]

\
In April of 2009, Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank, said that, “If leaders are serious about creating new global responsibilities or governance, let them start by modernising multilateralism to empower the WTO, the IMF, and the World Bank Group to monitor national policies.”[59]


David Rothkopf, a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, former Deputy Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade in the Clinton administration, and former managing director of Kissinger and Associates, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, recently wrote a book titled, Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They are Making, of which he is certainly a member. When discussing the role and agenda of the global “superclass”, he states that, “In a world of global movements and threats that don’t present their passports at national borders, it is no longer possible for a nation-state acting alone to fulfill its portion of the social contract.”[60]


He writes that, “even the international organizations and alliances we have today, flawed as they are, would have seemed impossible until recently, notably the success of the European Union – a unitary democratic state the size of India. The evolution and achievements of such entities against all odds suggest not isolated instances but an overall trend in the direction of what Tennyson called “the Parliament of Man,” or ‘universal law’.” He states that he is “optimistic that progress will continue to be made,” but it will be difficult, because it “undercuts many national and local power structures and cultural concepts that have foundations deep in the bedrock of human civilization, namely the notion of sovereignty.”[61]


He further writes that, “Mechanisms of global governance are more achievable in today’s environment,” and that these mechanisms “are often creative with temporary solutions to urgent problems that cannot wait for the world to embrace a bigger and more controversial idea like real global government.”[62]


In December of 2008, the Financial Times ran an article written by Gideon Rachman, a past Bilderberg attendee, who wrote that, “for the first time in my life, I think the formation of some sort of world government is plausible,” and that, “A ‘world government’ would involve much more than co-operation between nations. It would be an entity with state-like characteristics, backed by a body of laws. The European Union has already set up a continental government for 27 countries, which could be a model. The EU has a supreme court, a currency, thousands of pages of law, a large civil service and the ability to deploy military force.”


He then asks if the European model could “go global,” and states that there are three reasons for thinking that may be the case. First, he states, “it is increasingly clear that the most difficult issues facing national governments are international in nature: there is global warming, a global financial crisis and a ‘global war on terror’.” Secondly, he states that, “It could be done,” largely as a result of the transport and communications revolutions having “shrunk the world.” Thirdly, this is made possible through an awakening “change in the political atmosphere,” as “The financial crisis and climate change are pushing national governments towards global solutions, even in countries such as China and the US that are traditionally fierce guardians of national sovereignty.”


He quoted an adviser to French President Nicolas Sarkozy as saying, “Global governance is just a euphemism for global government,” and that the “core of the international financial crisis is that we have global financial markets and no global rule of law.” However, Rachman states that any push towards a global government “will be a painful, slow process.” He then states that a key problem in this push can be explained with an example from the EU, which “has suffered a series of humiliating defeats in referendums, when plans for “ever closer union” have been referred to the voters. In general, the Union has progressed fastest when far-reaching deals have been agreed by technocrats and politicians – and then pushed through without direct reference to the voters. International governance tends to be effective, only when it is anti-democratic. [Emphasis added]”[63]


In November of 2008, the United States National Intelligence Council (NIC), the US intelligence community’s “center for midterm and long-term strategic thinking,” released a report that it produced in collaboration with numerous think tanks, consulting firms, academic institutions and hundreds of other experts, among them are the Atlantic Council of the United States, the Wilson Center, RAND Corporation, the Brookings Institution, American Enterprise Institute, Texas A&M University, the Council on Foreign Relations and Chatham House in London.[64]


The report, titled, Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World, outlines the current global political and economic trends that the world may be going through by the year 2025. In terms of the financial crisis, it states that solving this “will require long-term efforts to establish a new international system.”[65] It suggests that as the “China-model” for development becomes increasingly attractive, there may be a “decline in democratization” for emerging economies, authoritarian regimes, and “weak democracies frustrated by years of economic underperformance.” Further, the dollar will cease to be the global reserve currency, as there would likely be a “move away from the dollar.”[66]


It states that the dollar will become “something of a first among equals in a basket of currencies by 2025. This could occur suddenly in the wake of a crisis, or gradually with global rebalancing.”[67] The report elaborates on the construction of a new international system, stating that, “By 2025, nation-states will no longer be the only – and often not the most important – actors on the world stage and the ‘international system’ will have morphed to accommodate the new reality. But the transformation will be incomplete and uneven.” Further, it would be “unlikely to see an overarching, comprehensive, unitary approach to global governance. Current trends suggest that global governance in 2025 will be a patchwork of overlapping, often ad hoc and fragmented efforts, with shifting coalitions of member nations, international organizations, social movements, NGOs, philanthropic foundations, and companies.” It also notes that, “Most of the pressing transnational problems – including climate change, regulation of globalized financial markets, migration, failing states, crime networks, etc. – are unlikely to be effectively resolved by the actions of individual nation-states. The need for effective global governance will increase faster than existing mechanisms can respond.”[68]


The report discusses the topic of regionalism, stating that, “Greater Asian integration, if it occurs, could fill the vacuum left by a weakening multilaterally based international order but could also further undermine that order. In the aftermath of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, a remarkable series of pan-Asian ventures—the most significant being ASEAN + 3—began to take root. Although few would argue that an Asian counterpart to the EU is a likely outcome even by 2025, if 1997 is taken as a starting point, Asia arguably has evolved more rapidly over the last decade than the European integration did in its first decade(s).” It further states that, “movement over the next 15 years toward an Asian basket of currencies—if not an Asian currency unit as a third reserve—is more than a theoretical possibility.”


It elaborates that, “Asian regionalism would have global implications, possibly sparking or reinforcing a trend toward three trade and financial clusters that could become quasi-blocs (North America, Europe, and East Asia).” These blocs “would have implications for the ability to achieve future global World Trade Organization agreements and regional clusters could compete in the setting of trans-regional product standards for IT, biotech, nanotech, intellectual property rights, and other ‘new economy’ products.”[69]


Of great importance to address, and reflecting similar assumptions made by Rachman in his article advocating for a world government, is the topic of democratization, saying that, “advances are likely to slow and globalization will subject many recently democratized countries to increasing social and economic pressures that could undermine liberal institutions.” This is largely because “the better economic performance of many authoritarian governments could sow doubts among some about democracy as the best form of government. The surveys we consulted indicated that many East Asians put greater emphasis on good management, including increasing standards of livings, than democracy.” Further, “even in many well-established democracies, surveys show growing frustration with the current workings of democratic government and questioning among elites over the ability of democratic governments to take the bold actions necessary to deal rapidly and effectively with the growing number of transnational challenges.”[70"

The Financial New World Order Andrew Marshall

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

The weight of the government monkey on our backs

Hmmm. Does that seem right to you? Household incomes go up a little, but the cost of having government riding on our back explodes through the roof?

I could write quite a bit about this. Ten stimulus bills in eight years. Near-zero interest rates. Sound familiar. It's exactly what we are doing, the idiocy of Keynesian economics in a balance sheet recession. When virtually free money causes bubbles, prices go too high and the bubbles pop. Then you offer more virtually free money to try to get prices back up to too high again. But now people are looking at things differently since the bubble popped, so it doesn't work...ever. The country drags it out until they are completely bankrupt and collapse. Inspiring.

Incredible prodigy



Why not address the problems?

Is this...

"To fathom the immensity of one trillion dollars, one would have had to start spending $1 million daily soon after Rome was founded and continue for 2,738 years until today."

...related to this?

Consumer confidence falls sharply

or this:

"In October 2008, the mainstream media and politicians of the Western world were warning of an impending depression if actions were not taken to quickly prevent this. The problem was that this crisis had been a long-time coming, and what’s worse, is that the actions governments took did not address any of the core, systemic issues and problems with the global economy; they merely set out to save the banking industry from collapse. To do this, governments around the world implemented massive “stimulus” and “bailout” packages, plunging their countries deeper into debt to save the banks from themselves, while charging it to people of the world.

Then an uproar of stock market speculation followed, as money was pumped into the stocks, but not the real economy. This recovery has been nothing but a complete and utter illusion, and within the next two years, the illusion will likely come to a complete collapse.

The governments gave the banks a blank check, charged it to the public, and now it’s time to pay. In May of 2009, Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), warned that Britain faces a major struggle in the next phase of the economic crisis:

'[T]he mountain of debt that had poisoned the financial system had not disappeared overnight. Instead, it has been shifted from the private sector onto the public sector balance sheet. Britain has taken on hundreds of billions of pounds of bank debt and stands behind potentially trillions of dollars of contingent liabilities.'

If the first stage of the crisis was the financial implosion and the second the economic crunch, the third stage – the one heralded by Johnson – is where governments start to topple under the weight of this debt. If 2008 was a year of private sector bankruptcies, 2009 and 2010, it goes, will be the years of government insolvency.

However, as dire as things look for Britain, “The UK is likely to be joined by other countries as the full scale of the downturn becomes apparent and more financial skeletons are pulled from the sub-prime closet.”[58]

In September of 2009, the former Chief Economist of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), William White, who had accurately predicted the previous crisis, warned that, “The world has not tackled the problems at the heart of the economic downturn and is likely to slip back into recession.” He “also warned that government actions to help the economy in the short run may be sowing the seeds for future crises.” An article in the Financial Times elaborated:

“Are we going into a W[-shaped recession]? Almost certainly. Are we going into an L? I would not be in the slightest bit surprised,” [White] said, referring to the risks of a so-called double-dip recession or a protracted stagnation like Japan suffered in the 1990s.

“The only thing that would really surprise me is a rapid and sustainable recovery from the position we’re in.”

The comments from Mr White, who ran the economic department at the central banks’ bank from 1995 to 2008, carry weight because he was one of the few senior figures to predict the financial crisis in the years before it struck.

Mr White repeatedly warned of dangerous imbalances in the global financial system as far back as 2003 and – breaking a great taboo in central banking circles at the time – he dared to challenge Alan Greenspan, then chairman of the Federal Reserve, over his policy of persistent cheap money [i.e., low interest rates].

[. . . ] Worldwide, central banks have pumped [trillions] of dollars of new money into the financial system over the past two years in an effort to prevent a depression. Meanwhile, governments have gone to similar extremes, taking on vast sums of debt to prop up industries from banking to car making.

These measures may already be inflating a bubble in asset prices, from equities to commodities, he said, and there was a small risk that inflation would get out of control over the medium term if central banks miss-time their “exit strategies”.

Meanwhile, the underlying problems in the global economy, such as unsustainable trade imbalances between the US, Europe and Asia, had not been resolved.[59]

In late September of 2009, the General Manager of the BIS warned governments against complacency, saying that, “the market rebound should not be misinterpreted,” and that, “The profile of the recovery is not clear.”[60]

In September, the Financial Times further reported that William White, former Chief Economist at the BIS, also “argued that after two years of government support for the financial system, we now have a set of banks that are even bigger – and more dangerous – than ever before,” which also, “has been argued by Simon Johnson, former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund,” who “says that the finance industry has in effect captured the US government,” and pointedly stated: “recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform.”[61]

In mid-September, the BIS released a warning about the global financial system, as “The global market for derivatives rebounded to $426 trillion in the second quarter [of 2009] as risk appetite returned, but the system remains unstable and prone to crises.” The derivatives rose by 16% “mostly due to a surge in futures and options contracts on three-month interest rates.” In other words, speculation is back in full force as bailout money to banks in turn fed speculative practices that have not been subjected to reform or regulation. Thus, the problems that created the previous crisis are still present and growing:

.Andrew Marshall, Global Research, 2/22/2010

Yes, that's $426 Trillion worth of derivative contracts. The entire world economy is $55 trillion a year. Who could pay $426 trillion of interwoven derivatives contracts? Trick question. Of course, no one can. At least it's comforting to know that the people who created the problems are in charge of fixing them, and that none of the causes have been addressed. I feel all warm inside.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Get out of the way!


Ever seen our government healthcare czar's "Complete Lives" program? Google it, since he has the power to make things happen. That freak Ezekiel Emmanuel is a monster. You will literally get a chill down your spine when you read his ideas about getting rid of people who don't think like him, who aren't smart, who no longer can work, and on and on. He has a huge list of people who should have healthcare denied or rationed, or who should just "step aside" (Karl Marx used the words "get out of the way" to mean be killed for the sake of the community).

I couldn't exaggerate the stuff this psycho advocates. That doesn't really make him stand out among the League of Distinguished Psychos who are our czars (Russian word for caesar, hmmm). Check it out and be very afraid. I would like to think the land of the free and home of the brave doesn't even have one pox on humanity like him. Our Dear Leader has managed to find tons of them. Why would he do that?

Bad company


Check this out. If you plot the position of the USA relative to Greece and other profligate countries on the edge, we are in the same vicinity as the worst and worse off than some known problem children like Portugal. Vertical axis is fiscal debt to GDP. Horizontal axis is total debt to GDP.

"Welcome to “Credit Crunch II.” By stuffing billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money into the balance-sheet holes of the banking industry, governments have transmogrified private risk into public liabilities. The “too-big-to-fail” label just reattaches itself to governments from financial companies."

"The real driver here is not that the private debt problem is becoming a sovereign debt problem, but the opposite–the sovereign debt problem is threatening to renew the private sector banking crisis. Consider the BIS data that is cited in press reports today: German bank exposure to Greece is 43 bln euros, to Portugal 47 bln euros, to Ireland 193 bln euros and to Spain 240 bln euros."


Time to rant about this again. I'm tired of this fictional chart. Unicorns are prettier if we're going to look at imaginary things. Last year the federal government took in $1.5 trillion. The economy is going steeply downhill. Let's pretend that tax receipts aren't still falling sharply. Pretend they go back to the same as last year. That would make a deficit of $2.3 Trillion for one year!!! There is no way we are going to see tax receipts like they're projecting in this chart. Still think our government is at least trying to do a good job? Joke's on you. This doesn't represent a credible effort.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Now for something completely different...

Since I doubt many of my readers peruse the foreign press, I have included this article in its entirety from Pravda, an official Russian newspaper and website. Just for the record, I check out European, Russian, British, and American media. I'm an information junkie. This article features the kind of sarcastic, forceful language that is one of the most amusing features of Russian writing, though the English and spelling aren't great.

What can I say about this article except that I don't agree with everything in it, but I can tell you that based on Pravda and Tass, this is a common viewpoint in Russia, which is more than a little interesting. Next I need to find the article where Putin warns the US not to fall into socialism because "nobody wants to see that."

"It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.

True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists.

Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and betters.

First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas then the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their "right" to choke down a McDonalds burger or a BurgerKing burger than for their constitutional rights. Then they turn around and lecture us about our rights and about our "democracy". Pride blind the foolish.

Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different "branches and denominations" were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the "winning" side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another. Their flocks may complain, but when explained that they would be on the "winning" side, their flocks were ever so quick to reject Christ in hopes for earthly power. Even our Holy Orthodox churches are scandalously liberalized in America.

The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.

These past two weeks have been the most breath taking of all. First came the announcement of a planned redesign of the American Byzantine tax system, by the very thieves who used it to bankroll their thefts, loses and swindles of hundreds of billions of dollars. These make our Russian oligarchs look little more then ordinary street thugs, in comparison. Yes, the Americans have beat our own thieves in the shear volumes. Should we congratulate them?

These men, of course, are not an elected panel but made up of appointees picked from the very financial oligarchs and their henchmen who are now gorging themselves on trillions of American dollars, in one bailout after another. They are also usurping the rights, duties and powers of the American congress (parliament). Again, congress has put up little more then a whimper to their masters.

Then came Barack Obama's command that GM's (General Motor) president step down from leadership of his company. That is correct, dear reader, in the land of "pure" free markets, the American president now has the power, the self given power, to fire CEOs and we can assume other employees of private companies, at will. Come hither, go dither, the centurion commands his minions.

So it should be no surprise, that the American president has followed this up with a "bold" move of declaring that he and another group of unelected, chosen stooges will now redesign the entire automotive industry and will even be the guarantee of automobile policies. I am sure that if given the chance, they would happily try and redesign it for the whole of the world, too. Prime Minister Putin, less then two months ago, warned Obama and UK's Blair, not to follow the path to Marxism, it only leads to disaster. Apparently, even though we suffered 70 years of this Western sponsored horror show, we know nothing, as foolish, drunken Russians, so let our "wise" Anglo-Saxon fools find out the folly of their own pride.

Again, the American public has taken this with barely a whimper...but a "freeman" whimper.

So, should it be any surprise to discover that the Democratically controlled Congress of America is working on passing a new regulation that would give the American Treasury department the power to set "fair" maximum salaries, evaluate performance and control how private companies give out pay raises and bonuses? Senator Barney Franks, a social pervert basking in his homosexuality (of course, amongst the modern, enlightened American societal norm, as well as that of the general West, homosexuality is not only not a looked down upon life choice, but is often praised as a virtue) and his Marxist enlightenment, has led this effort. He stresses that this only affects companies that receive government monies, but it is retroactive and taken to a logical extreme, this would include any company or industry that has ever received a tax break or incentive.

The Russian owners of American companies and industries should look thoughtfully at this and the option of closing their facilities down and fleeing the land of the Red as fast as possible. In other words, divest while there is still value left.

The proud American will go down into his slavery with out a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world, how free he really is. The world will only snicker."

Stanislav Mishin

4/27/2009


Recession over? Who cares?

Great article about the mixed signals about whether the recession is over

Really, who cares?
  • There is no official, agreed-upon definition of recession
  • The other shoes that have yet to drop ensure this thing is nowhere remotely close to over. Pretending otherwise will lead to a lot of stupid decisions.
  • What difference would it make since almost every number is still getting a lot worse? If you're unemployed, there's inflation, and your house is worth a lot less than you owe, does it matter that some technical indicator sounded the all clear?
  • I don't care what anyone says, when the number of unemployed goes up by 650,000 in one month, but the number who totally run out of all unemployment benefits is 600,000 (so they are no longer counted), that is not an increase of 50,000 unemployed. and it's still not a good number. Those 650,000 still don't have a job, even if 600,000 who dropped off the end of the chart "offset" them. They don't really offset anything. The new unemployed and old unemployed are all unemployed.

Some real nonsense

No nonsense symbol of freedom

I was watching a movie the other day about the holocaust. Throughout the whole movie they worked to maintain the fiction that the Nazi's were not socialists. I would love to write ten pages debunking that Hollywood propaganda, but I think the following is sufficient. Remember, Nazi is short for Nazionale Socialiste. I think I misspelled my German, but you get the point. They were national socialists. Other than the thing with the Jews, they were about three inches to the left of Hollywood. The reason for the propaganda about this is simply that Hollywood and the American left was way too outspoken and blatant about their slobbering love affair with Hitler. When he turned out to be a very hardcore, orthodox socialist and that was proven (again) to be an abhorrent result for humans, they needed to put distance between themselves and him.

Another thing. That opportunistic hate-monger Jesse Jackson was in town. Why on God's earth would anyone listen to him? Every time he speaks it's a hate crime. I think he is a grotesque caricature of the civil rights movement that he once proudly had a part in. Now he is just an ambulance chaser, who uses the opportunities to beat black people down more and persuade them they are victims and powerless and should be full of hate. I think Reverend Martin Luther King would be repulsed by what he has become. King lifted people up and gave them hope to persevere, as opposed to this.

As anyone who has heard this racist parasite can tell you, it almost doesn't matter what happened to bring him here. What did happen is that a man's family reported to the police that he was agitated, suicidal, and was waving a gun around. Some details, details...and the man refused to comply with anything the police said, including to put down his gun. He started to run and reach into his waistband area and they killed him. Jesse Jackson called the police "terrorists" and claimed they "executed" the guy.

Of course, if they had said, "Hey look, I know you're an armed threat, but since you have that melanin in your skin, you get a free pass. Carry on." If he had then shot a couple of people then his girlfriend and himself, Jackson would say it was a deliberate "holocaust," and that the only reason the police didn't bother to keep people safe was because they wanted to see black people dead. Either way Jackson gets to be a media whore, and maybe get some donations.

More nonsense. People say the problems in Greece won't affect anything else because their GDP is 2% of the EU. One, Lehman Brothers' size was smaller than that relative to our GDP, and look what happened when they failed. Two, it has to do with confidence, nitwit, not the dollar value of the problem. If investors worldwide lose confidence that the risk of default is worth the measly return offered by countries who want to borrow, it could be game over. The most valuable thing in the world is confidence. At the least this could cause a repricing of risk, meaning higher borrowing costs for everyone everywhere. Do you think the economy is strong enough for that?

Want to talk about nonsense? How about the EPA ruling that the CO2 that we exhale, which is absolutely necessary for plant life, is a pollutant dangerous to humans? Is that daffy enough for you? Luckily, starting today three states (so far) and four industry groups have sued the EPA for attacking American business and consumers based on junk science. I would love to see the EPA have to prove that CO2 hurts people. Ultimately, that would mean it would have to be mandated that each person only gets one breath per lifetime. They inhale once and that's it. If they were to exhale, they would be poisoning everyone else.

You know, rotting vegetation releases 440 TRILLION tons of CO2 per year. If they outlawed vegetation and outlawed breathing, POOF! Problem solved.

What do you think about this?

"...Economic forecasters say future generations of Americans could have a substantially lower standard of living than their predecessors' for the first time in the country's history if the debt is not brought under control.

Government debt, which fuels the risk of inflation, could make everyday Americans' savings worth less. Higher interest rates would make it harder for consumers and businesses to borrow. Wages would remain stagnant and fewer jobs would be created. The government's ability to cut taxes or provide a safety net would also be weakened, economists say.Wages would remain stagnant and fewer jobs would be created. The government's ability to cut taxes or provide a safety net would also be weakened, economists say.

While much attention has been focused on the government's deficit-spending surge during the recession, many economists agree short-term budget overruns -- as ominous as they may seem -- are not particularly problematic.

"What threatens the ship are large, known and growing structural deficits," said Walker, a problem that few politicians seem eager and readily able to fix..."

ABC News Feb. 17

It kind of gives me a warm feeling.

What about this?

Goldman Sachs Wants You to Pay-by-the-Mile to Drive on U.S. Roadways

On January 12, AFP interviewed Mike Robinson, the editor of the UK Column, a liberty-minded newspaper not unlike AMERICAN FREE PRESS.

“Road charging,” as it is called in England, is widespread, he told AFP, as fiber optic cable has been laid along most English roads to help track vehicle travel by the mile so drivers can be charged.

“It has been on the European Union agenda for quite a long time,” he added.

His comments came amid recent news of a radical plan to raise $200 billion by privatizing “the motorway network,” as Brits call it. The plan was presented to the three main political parties by NM Rothschild, the influential investment bank, British news sources say.

The Rothschild bank, called “an architect of several privatizations,” reportedly made its pitch in the weeks running up to the summer recess back on July 21, 2009. Bankers told leading politicians that the sale of the roads overseen by the [public] Highways Agency—all motorways and most “big trunk roads”—could help revive battered public finances. This is the same story Americans have been told…….

And how did U.S. politicians get the idea that privatizing roads was an acceptable future? Two words: Goldman Sachs, according to noted Texas columnist Ed Wallace.

“Yes, large Wall Street investment banks, led by Goldman, started advising states across the nation on how to raise fast money by diverting the most necessary publicly owned assets—roads—into private ownership,” wrote Wallace. “You have to admit, it’s brilliant, because it’s a forced and guaranteed market: Americans can’t get out of driving.”

And as Daniel Schulman and James Ridgeway wrote in a scathing article, “The Highwaymen,” in January 2007, “Many similar deals are now on the horizon, and MIG and Cintra are often part of them. So is Goldman Sachs, the huge Wall Street firm that has played a remarkable role advising states on how to structure privatization deals—even while positioning itself to invest in the toll road market.”

This quick cash will not and is not designed to solve States’ structural financial problems. It enriches Goldman Sachs while forestalling States’ financial day of reckoning.

So, what Goldman Sachs really brings to the table – as evidenced in the example above - is sophisticated financial products for HUGE fees or profits to Goldman Sachs, which cause their clients to undertake big financial risk which likely weaken [think tapeworm] their clients’ financial position over time. Rob Kirby

Does anyone think this won't happen, even though our tax dollars already paid for those roads? At least it enriches Goldman Sachs. Based on the amount of loving attention given to this task by our president, that must be important.

Or this...

The price of freedom of religion, or of speech, or of the press, is that we must put up with a good deal of rubbish.
Robert Jackson

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Snow job

It's not super important to see the detail of this graphic. I think you can enlarge it. It just shows snow depths in the US. I'm looking at the extent of the snow in the US. Wow. I think we even had a little this year, if I remember right.

And for those who are members of the church of global warming, this doesn't prove that global warming is fake. When we point out the snow, we are making fun of you. Get it? You have told us many times that the days of snow in places like D.C. are over, and that every time it didn't snow it proved global warming was real. Really? Then what does three consecutive years of record cold and snow all over the world prove? Not much, any more than some lack of snow made your hypothesis come to life. It is interesting, though, since we have been trying to explain to you for ten years that using only facts we have to conclude that the earth is cooling as much as one would expect during a solar minimum.

Right on track, the wrong track


Famous economist Art Laffer "2011 Budget is perfect plan for catastrophe."

Comments I like by Dr. Martin Weiss (investment guru)

"...Bailouts, previously reserved strictly for unique emergencies, soon became the norm.

Yes, each successive bailout deal was typically larger than the previous. And yes, each was hailed as the “end-all solution” to the crisis.

But in reality, the deals did little more than spread the toxic material up the food chain — from niche players to Wall Street giants … and from Wall Street giants to sovereign governments.

Ultimately, however, as Mike Larson eloquently explained, ALL of the bailouts fail the most basic of smell tests.

Reason: The debts stink up the joint. Investors hear rumors of big blunders. And they feel it in the gut when numbers don’t add up. That’s why they dumped tech stocks in 2000; that’s why they dumped bank stocks in 2008.

The most important pattern of all: Until and unless excess debts are liquidated, the disease cannot be subdued. It will merely return at a different time, in a different form. Next to feel the pain: Sovereign nations!

After nearly three years of escalating government bailouts, it should come as no surprise that the biggest debtors of all — and the biggest warehouses of bad debts — are now sovereign governments..."


Commercial real estate is one of the next time bombs. Duh! But they claim it hits in 2011. What have they been smoking? It starts in about a month. Snap out of it.

Demand for US Treasury debt is failing. Another duh. I have been predicting this for months. It is actually much worse than they make it sound. A lot of that "demand" is our own Fed doing all kinds of shenanigans. Also in the "demand" is foreigners fleeing from Fannie and Freddie garbage by being allowed to swap for treasuries as if the Fannie and Freddie stuff was worth something. Also in the "demand" is the fact that all last year foreign governments were running away from our long term debt and getting the shortest stuff they could. In other words, they are standing by the exit.

Notice the chart above. The perception that the US may default on its debt is rising, as reflected in the default insurance rates. People are getting worried about sovereign debt in general. This problem could very well come across the Atlantic. This is a confidence problem. Confidence is fragile.

If you keep moving the bad debts around, do they go away? We're looking at the bankruptcy of a number of whole countries based on this, "shuffle the debt around" idea. How long until people realize it's idiotic and lose confidence in the whole idea?

Remember, I predicted this pattern of events. We're right on track. Unfortunately, the track goes right through the gates of hell. My predictions for 2010

Monday, February 15, 2010

Good times...good times...


Smart analyst totally disagrees with my view on economy. It helps to have a good working knowledge of macroeconomics for this one.



And this:

Deficit to Explode with Obama’s Spending Plans Even with Recovery

Sunday, 14 Feb 2010 Financial Times

. . . It's bad enough that Greece's debt problems have rattled global financial markets. In the world's largest economic and military power, there's a far more serious debt dilemma.

For the U.S., the crushing weight of its debt threatens to overwhelm everything the federal government does, even in the short-term, best-case financial scenario — a full recovery and a return to prerecession employment levels.

The government already has made so many promises to so many expanding "mandatory" programs. Just keeping these commitments, without major changes in taxing and spending, will lead to deficits that cannot be sustained.

Take Social Security, Medicare and other benefits. Add in interest payments on a national debt that now exceeds $12.3 trillion. It all will gobble up 80 percent of all federal revenues by 2020, government economists project.

That doesn't leave room for much else. What's left is the entire rest of the government. . ."

One note on this quote. I believe I have shown you the math. There is no combination of cuts (which would have to be 98% of the federal budget) or tax increases (which would have to entail a 68% increase just to stabilize, though it wouldn't because that would cause a depression) that will make our new insane national debt work.

Some readers may have noticed that I often refer to articles on the Market Oracle website. This is not nearly as narrow a reference as it might appear. They are an aggregator of articles from 400 economists, traders, advisors, and analysts. They select the best of the 400 and I select the best and most relevant for you.

Also, I wanted to mention my philosophy about references. Sometimes I provide them, and sometimes I don't. I often just opine about things. This is an opinion blog, after all. The way I make the decision whether to provide a link or reference has to do with my philosophy about it. If I found some instructive financial charts and good explanation with them, for example, I provide a link or reference, and you can judge their value. I am fulfilling my role in wading through the world of information that is going to affect you, and bringing just the best bits to you.

When it comes to something like whether the primary actors in the global warming charade are politicians and have a tremendous amount to gain by persuading you (and whether it's true or not is irrelevant to them), I want to force you to research it yourself by not providing a quick link to prove the point. I may alert you that there is a new wave of information, or give you some points to think about, but I wouldn't want anyone to take my word for it, any more than I would want someone to take (God forbid) Al Gore's word for it. In that kind of situation, I hope you will research for yourself and see if they have ever proven any of their case in terms of verifiable science.