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Enjoying Coffee at the Lodge with Jesse
THE BANKS MUST BE RESTRAINED, AND THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM REFORMED, WITH BALANCE RESTORED TO THE ECONOMY, BEFORE THERE CAN BE ANY SUSTAINED RECOVERY - Jesse
Enjoying Coffee at the Lodge with Jesse
By Ilene at Phil's Stock World
I have long been a fan of Jesse's Café Américain. Jesse is a brilliant writer and a deep thinker who uniquely transcends politics, easily seeing through lies and disinformation. He has a great feel for what really matters, and the courage to speak out about it. Jesse and I have spoken before about the economy, markets and politics, and being at a crossroads once again, it was a perfect time to catch up.
****
Ilene: Hi Jesse, since our last interview, I would guess that we'd both agree that nothing has been done to clean up the financial system - the banks and government interconnectedness, conflicts of interest, and out-and-out fraudulent activities. Are things better or worse, or in line, with what you were expecting over a year ago?
Jesse: I think things are progressing in line with what I had expected, with the Fed and the government trying to prop up an unsustainable status quo by monetizing debt. I am still a little shocked by the brazen manner in which the financial markets are being conducted and regulated, and the news is reported in the US. It is one thing to hold a theory that says something will happen, but it is quite another to see it actually happening, and so blatantly, almost without a word of protest.
Ilene: How do you view our financial system and the global financial system now, with no progress towards any kind of reform?
Jesse: The US is now being run by an oligarchy, with lip service being paid to the electorate in allowing the people to vote for the candidates that the parties and the powers will put forward. There will be no recovery for the middle class until they assert themselves. I know I have stated this often in my tag phrase, “The banks must be restrained…” But it is the case.
There are areas of resistance to this trend on what one might call ‘the fringes of Empire,’ those client states which have been ruled by powerful cliques with the support and the protection of the US. Although certainly not a great analogy, it does remind one of the freedom movements in the former Soviet satellite countries as that empire faltered. The walls are coming down.
Ilene: You wrote an excellent article "Modern Monetary Theory: The Sophistry of the US Dollar" in which you countered points made by Pragcap (Cullen) who maintains that the Fed is not "printing money" and not causing inflation. He makes an academic argument which I can't understand, and couldn't intelligently challenge, except that we see inflation in prices of necessities everywhere. And other countries are revolting and overthrowing their governments, at least in part spurred by severe increases in food prices. When theory (good as it may sound) is in conflict with what you see in front of you, it's hard to stick with the theory. I thought your counterpoints were compelling and addressed the real situation rather than theory. On this topic, which has been confusing me for months, here are some questions that might hopefully help non-economic types understand the mechanism of the Fed's QE2 program as it applies to the real world.
The Fed may not be really "printing" money, but it is monetizing debt, isn't it? Creating more debt, and more liquidity in the market based on debt. Can you elaborate?
Jesse: There are three basic ways that ‘money’ is created in this fiat system. The Treasury issues debt to support government expenditures and the markets accept that debt through the Primary Dealers and the Federal Reserve System. The second major manner is money expansion based on fractional reserve lending, in which the banks and other financial institutions can essentially expand the available money supply through using their credit facilities. And the third method is for the Fed to expand its balance sheet and monetize existing debt. That is pure ‘hairy-knuckled’ money creation.
The Fed does not issue debt per se, as it leaves that to the Treasury and to the financial sector. But it legitimizes and regulates that money creation, and in extremis, will become the ‘lender of last resort’ and the money creation mechanism when the system falters. The Fed in a sense is always presiding over the money creation process in the US – that is what they do! But there are times when they must fall back on their own balance sheet to expand the money supply as the private sector has faltered, and is not able to support the credit creation process by the Treasury and the financial sector.
I am not surprised when some people in the manner of talented amateurs distort the bookkeeping aspects of the banking system or the markets to promote theories that are not correct, to paint a picture that is false in support of policies that are hare-brained. But I am a little disappointed when professional people, especially responsible people in banking or the Fed, do this same thing promoting things like ‘the efficient markets hypothesis’ or some neo-monetary theory.
No matter how one handles the accounts, the limits of the power of an economy to create money are the acceptance, the valuations if you will, of their bonds and currency, which these days are just bonds of zero duration, in a free market and holders exogenous to that particular economy. If you want to know how an economy is doing, look to the sentiment amongst its foreign creditors.
By the way, I do not have a problem with the direct issuance of currency by a Treasury, instead of a debt financed system managed by private banks. But no matter how one structures the financing, the limitations as noted above remain the same.
Ilene: "Inflation" is an inconsistently defined term. Different financial authors seem to define it in various ways which can be the difference in whether they will see it or not. How would you define inflation? What would a situation be in "flation" terms when we have necessities - food and energy - and in this case stocks, gold and silver too - while the biggest investment many people have, their houses, are still falling in value?
Jesse: Inflation can mean many things to many people including a simple supply-demand imbalance, including a general slump in demand because of some business cycle fluctuation. But what is most problematic is a true monetary inflation.
A monetary inflation is a condition in which the supply of money is expanding in excess of productive uses for that money and the organic growth of relatively riskless credit. If the Fed were to double its balance sheet again tomorrow by buying stocks at a multiple of their closing price today, this would represent a monetary inflation. The problem always comes down to measurements, definitions, and lag times. I am not saying that the growth in real GDP must exceed 1:1 for each marginal dollar added, given the realities of investment and capital expenditure. But when one is creating four or five dollars in a broad money supply for each new dollar in real GDP you know something is very wrong.
An expansion in the Fed’s monetary base does not immediately translate into an increase in money supply as more broadly measured in the economy, in something like MZM or M2. (See Money Supply: A Primer.)
And if they manage it correctly, and are also very fortunate, it may not to any significant degree. But the Fed is the locus of monetary inflation, the place where it originates. At times it may be indirect, when for example the Fed fails to manage the credit creation and margin process and permits a stock asset bubble to form. This is their job; this is why they were given the power to pull those levers. And it is a tremendous power for a small group of individuals to have.
They may make excuses, may say they did not know, but in point of fact subsequently released documents show that they did know, they knew exactly what they were doing. And they did it anyway, and tried to bluff and hide what they have done by abusing their independent stewardship, which is another pretty invention that depends on a utopian vision of society, like the inherent goodness and freedom in markets without rules and regulations.
In a purely fiat system, monetary deflation and inflation are essentially policy decisions. And for a net debtor to choose deflation is tantamount to suicide. But what the Fed cannot do is create a productive economy which requires labor, management, and investment. And this is why my forecast has been for a stagflation to occur, roughly since 2002. I think we would have seen it sooner but I underestimated the amount of cooperation which the US would receive from Japan and China in their ‘vendor financing’ arrangements. I also underestimated the Fed’s willingness to create a massive housing bubble and turn a blind eye to systemic financial fraud.
Ilene: We've been noticing that on POMO days (permanent open market operations, a tool to implement QE2), the stock market rises. One way may be that as the value of the dollar falls, people (or high frequency trading machines) take their dollars and buy stocks so their dollars maintain some value as stocks go up but the dollar drops. Because the market rises most on POMO days, we have suggested that the Primary Dealers who get the POMO money for selling Treasuries, are taking the money and throwing it into equities and commodities, driving these prices up (to the detriment of the world). Would you agree with my assessment, or de-confuse me if I'm missing something?
Jesse: I think this is a bit of a simplification but it is directionally correct. The Fed adds liquidity through the POMO facility, and that ‘hot money’ chases beta or higher risk returns in the markets, which remain broken in terms of efficient capital asset allocation. This is a ‘bubble ready’ financial system, and will continue to produce bubbles until it is reformed. The financial sector is primarily a wealth transference mechanism. And with the productive economy foundering because of gross mishandling over the past twenty years or more, the sector is transferring wealth from the future of the economy in the form of Treasury debt to the monied interests on Wall Street in the form of asset bubbles, bonuses and fees.
Ilene: What are your thoughts on the markets, economy, commodity prices (oil, gold, silver) and U.S. dollar for the near future, and more distant future?
Jesse: I think that there are some significant policy and exogenous policy variables in there that will affect the timing of this. What will China do? What will Europe do? In an ideal world according to the Fed, all of the world’s currencies would inflate and allow the US to inflate its dollar even more, to dilute the debts which are unpayable. Don’t laugh too much, because that is what has been done since the US rallied the rest of the world to this cause in 1971 with its unilateral dissolution of the Bretton Woods agreement.
The central banks would like to have one currency, because this would make it much easier to engineer the financial system. But they could not stop there; they would eventually have to become central planners in the manner of an autocracy because there are so many competing forms of wealth to their paper, particularly in troublesome commodities like food and real goods.
Ilene: Speaking of real goods, this question is from Elliott, who writes Stock World Weekly. He asked if you have heard rumors of gold bars that supposedly have a tungsten core with a thick plating of gold. He writes: "To date I have yet to see anything that I could point to as a seriously credible source for this story. Supposedly the fraud was exposed recently when the Chinese had the bad taste to melt down some bars they got from London, and when they melted the tungsten cores popped right up to the top of the melt and were floating around. Anyway, that's one story of fake gold I've heard. Is there any truth to it? If so, where's the "smoking gun" and why isn't this being reported in a big way?"
I think this is probably more of a side issue and a distraction. Why worry about tungsten bars when the US will not agree to an independent audit of Fort Knox in the first place? When the silver market is so obviously leveraged with essentially fraudulent paper in the manner of a Ponzi scheme? Let’s worry about the possibility of some tungsten bars in the midst of wholesale looting. Distractions tend to dissipate energy from the critical issue, which is the lack of transparency and accountability in the financial dealings of the Wall Street Banks and the Fed in particular.
Ilene: With the horrific news coming out of Japan lately, first the earthquakes and tsunami, and now the nuclear meltdowns, do you have any thoughts on the tragic situation over there?
Jesse: The markets are getting very mixed news on this, depending on the source. There are weighty papers from MIT saying the risks are minimal, and the US Ambassador in Tokyo issued reassuring words this morning. A new statement from the US came out after the close of trading today which called the levels of radiation dangerously high and urged caution. Therefore traders are jittery because of the uncertainty regarding the quality of information being released from a variety of sources, and some are thinking that risk is being understated by the Japanese government and Tokyo Electric in order to avoid a panic. So the bias is to act first and fact check later.
This is what is called a "trader's market." Triple black diamond slopes IF you can handle them. Danger, une chute dans cette piste peut entrainer de graves lesions et meme la mort. Most people should stay off the slopes and enjoy their coffee in the lodge.
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Oklahoma City, dude. The guy who flew his plane into the IRS office.
+1
"A society that indulges itself in overt abuses and does not correct them is doomed."..."groups will be pitted against each other in a last-ditch effort at hiding the real culprits."
Bullseye SWR!
Now that Keynes & Krugman have been thoroughly discredited it's up to some of those "groups" to take a long hard look at themselves and what it represented and join us.
The oligarchs are few in number but they control the apparatus...people desire change until confronted with it's consequences, then always back down...oh noes, my pension (for the government worker), my job (for the private sector worker), my benefits (for the retiree), my foodstamps (for the poor), my grant (for the scientist/artist/small town mayor) etc...the powerful, connected & monied class depend on this addiction for their power, like a drug dealer.
One thing to always keep in mind...they need us, we do not need them.
One thing to always keep in mind...they need us, we do not need them.
A perfect truth. They provide nothing, add nothing; they only take away and make everything worse and harder. We could truly excise the lot of them and not even bother about the government. I increasingly view the government as a mere structural satrapy made up of weak-minded, cowardly and venal people who need masters to serve but who also get off on pushing other people around every now and then; the important thing is they will serve whoever is master. I think history is on my side here.
People desire a system of justice & order...the expectation that when wronged, there is a process by which justice & order can be restored...I am in this camp also, I'm not an anarchist.
However, when these desires are not met the system degenerates.
You are correct, history is on your side.
IMHO it is breaking down at the federal level (world wide, not just here) because of the demands placed on it and the obvious corruption associated with those demands (the no one is entitled to the fruits of my labor principle)...it will, in time, devolve back to us locally again.
Locke's early development of The State of Nature and The State of War are his statements of his understanding of human nature. To paraphrase: "I have the same rights as anyone else." "Since there is no one superior to anyone else here on earth, I have the right to protect myself if no one else can or will."
In his words:
Want of a common judge with authority, puts all men in a state of nature: force without right, upon a man's person, makes a state of war, both where there is, and is not, a common judge.
This is what is threatened by the overt breakdown in the "rule of law" that we are witnessing. Chaos. It is so obvious that it has to be deliberate.
"This is what is threatened by the overt breakdown in the "rule of law" that we are witnessing. Chaos. It is so obvious that it has to be deliberate."
Seems so and long recognized for what it is.
"Legal plunder can be committed in an infinite number of ways; hence, there are an infinite number of plans for organizing it: tariffs, protection, bonuses, subsidies, incentives, the progressive income tax, free education, the right to employment, the right to profit, the right to wages, the right to relief, the right to the tools of production, interest free credit etc., etc. And it the aggregate of all these plans, in respect to what they have in common, legal plunder, that goes under the name of socialism." Frederic Bastiat"It is not so easy for us to so this thing you call "assert" because we are not wealthy..."
You won the argument with that one line. The rest was highly arguable, but fuck it. ++++
In Argentina, a bunch of women banging pots and pans took down their banking oligarchs. Got a pot?
Fiscal restraint is what we need, but we need to start with the big fish instead of those too small to fry.
Divisive right wing loonies piss me off. And before you tell me who you think I am, let me nip that bud and tell you that you're probably wrong on that too.
START AT THE TOP
Yah, I know, it'll be harder; the top actually has resources to fight back with, unlike the defenceless impoverished or otherwise handicapped (the usual 'soft' targets of choice for the bully/coward).
FOR ONCE
Then we can go back to pushing the weak around, k?
Regards
I think it's plain that we can't afford the welfare/warfare state. I think it's plain that "we" made promises to people that "we're" not going to be able to keep. I'm sure it's plain that the lawlessness, corruption, and outright looting at the highest levels are on full public display, and the "justice" system that is supposed to serve everyone equally...isn't. The list of abuses is long, everyone here is familiar with it. The system is, in the eyes of many, beyond repair. It doesn't make sense for us to argue about whose ox will be gored first: they're all going to die, soon. That argument is a waste of time, and you should know better.
I want to suggest this article: http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2011/03/shadow-knows-part-one.html#more (props to westernrifleshooters for the link)
The author might express a few opinions that might be controversial, but goes on to talk about the growing shadow government, which is then contrasted to the usual and known shadow governments constructed by dems and Repubs, when the so-called "other" party is in power, in the U.S. This shadow government was once even formalized into a television show that was very popular with left-progressives and socialists. What is suggested in the gates of vienna piece is that the broad populace is in the process right now of forming its own shadow government, to be activated after the collapse that many expect. The author observes correctly. The power blocks are forming. They do NOT include the high income / passive income crowd, with the possible exception of a few genuine free marketers, and perhaps a few who think they can use this as an opportunity to set up an oligarchy like in russia where public assets are auctioned off, and the masses get to rent back things they already paid to build. I'm not that fucking stupid.
sorry buddy, but the leftists are FAR ahead of those slow footed patriots
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=842
and daddy Soros has plenty of practice with starting "color" revolutions. not such a good record of seeing them through though.
you fucking wanna be conservative, would be dick sucking republicants.. cant grasp the fact that all of the welfare going out the door to the broke people could have been paid for DECADES!! AND DECADES!!! with 1/2 of the fucking TARP funds alone..
TRILLIONS!
and
TRILLIONS MORE!!
go out the door ever year to Wall Street.. the broke people, the mexicans.. the blacks.. the who the fuck ever is not the porblem.. that money is penny's!
WAKE THE FUCK UP!
POMO last month could float welfare, unemployment and Obama Care for the whole year and next as well..
and if I am off by a weeks POMO, spare me the details.
WALLSTREET!!! CORPORATE WELFARE!!! IS THE PROBLEM!!! YOU FUCKING MORONS!!
Hey, do you think a bunch of people who live off from governmetn grants and welfare give a crap if there is corporate welfare, as long as they are getting their bribe money to shut up? Really, you think weflare recipients cares a bit about wallstreet taking trillions of dollars from tax payers?
What you don't realize is government money is bribe money. People who live off from the government's "generosity" don't give one fuck about reforming the government and in fact, they're goign to fight you tooth and nail from reforming it.
This is what the liberals don't get.
Am I to assume that you are including unemployment insurance as "government money?"
I can assure you, there are TONS of people collecting unemployment that care.
I believe you. People need jobs, not unemployment checks. I would much rather you had a job. The simple fact is, the government would rather you had an unemployment check, as it makes you more likely to vote for maintaining the government in all of its enlarged roles (Obamacare, etc). Your liberty is being subverted through dependence. There is now a reliable majority constituency for more and more government: government employees, structural welfare recipients, and the structurally unemployed all form the majority voting mass, and the campaigns are all funded by the corporate welfare class. The ever-shrinking producer class is truly enslaved. If we stop working, our families suffer, so we work.
I'd really like to get to the "assert" part but I'm too busy trying to stay alive and maintain the self-respect of economic self-reliance. At some point the "self-respect" will take over and I will try to throw off my chains. No one will like it, least of all the Patricians.
"Quack quack quack"
You're scraping the bottom of the barrel for pennies as your wallet's being emptied from behind. While you're down there kiss your ass goodbye.
Your liberty is being subverted via dupedom.
And your ignorant generalisations about 'liberals', or the unfortunates on those programs plainly show all that you don't get, last year's man. I'm sure for some on welfare it's a game and a frolic, but don't try to spin it that every single one wouldn't give their right arm to get out of the crap life they are living.
Shift the shit outta the stalls at the top, and you won't even notice the parasites at the bottom anymore, 'cuz the high and mighty leeches are costing you a thousand times more than those struck low. Hell, work your way down and there would be a lot less on the bottom anyway, for a variety of reasons, not least of which because there will no longer be the crappy example set by the 'leaders' for them to yearn to emulate.
Look, all I am saying is FOCUS. This has to be a top down thing or it just won't work. 'You can't fight city hall' ain't gonna cut it anymore. Gird your loins, buck up, take aim, attack. Hit 'em where it hurts. For once in your life don't take the path of least resistance.
"Its not too late to make the world a better place."
-Tommy Douglas
And, IMO, that doesn't mean kicking the least of us when they're already down. Let's go for the real money, the real bloodsuckers this time. Just this once.
++
End corporate welfare.
The Zombie Corps... no major share holders to cause the books to be opened.. the rest (dilluted) share holders being sold the unicorn shitting skittles all is well routine..
The Lobby that serves the soulless Corps...
The Goobermint Whores who cant live without those dollars to do battle / put on a dog and pony show for the idiot masses...
The quarterly mentality that drives our goobermint thru lobby dollars has long been the largest threat to "We the People" for the short an long term..
It is OUTRIGHT TREASON!!! our Country is at risk.. and the NSA doesnt have a grip on these idiots? "O" wait.. they want the easy money post public service, and so our fates go down the toilet.
When will we get together and start figuring out how to educate the broader populace, thusly taking the fight to them?
When will we decide that educating the broader populace is almost impossible and move into the gray area?
Worldwide.
These idiots who keep piping "if only we could bust the public employees unions my taxes will go down" are either complicit or unwitting dupes. As if their/your taxes will ever go down; this is about transferring wealth away from the 2nd and 3rd estates to the first, as it has been for quite some time. If the oligarchs can't get it by overt taxation, then inflation will suffice quite nicely, thanks.
During the 'good times' these loopy self-righteous asses were laughing at anyone in the public sector working for less, and now they want a pound of flesh because they eff'd themselves by buying Chinese toaster ovens for two dollars less than the ones made in the US. Pathetic, and so effing dumb.
Personally, I would rather a teacher get my tax dollars than the CEO of a bank; shit I'd rather the guy running the street sweeper get them, at least he actually provided us with a tangible service...And that is exactly what this is about.
Regards
"..are either complicit or unwitting dupes..."
Perhaps, GoinFawr, but more than likely they are simply typical Ameritards, the American version of the moron.
For decades, going back to the early part of the 20th century, knowledge-based surveys have been administered to American adults at all educational levels, and their progress tracked.
This survey has since been discontinued, due to the last three times the vast majority of American adults, across the educational spectrum, rated as retarded in the general knowledge levels, which had steadily been increasing up until the '70s, then began to drastically slack off.
We may have reached critical mass for dullards, I'm afraid...
It may partially be a result of the lead content in those marginally cheaper Chinese toaster ovens I referred to earlier.
These idiots who keep piping "if only we could bust the public employees unions my taxes will go down" are either complicit or unwitting dupes.
These idiots who keep framing the debate in terms of left and right are complicit. Period.
Personally, I would rather a teacher get my tax dollars than the CEO of a bank; shit I'd rather the guy running the street sweeper get them, at least he actually provided us with a tangible service!
False choice, progressive / class warfarist. See? You're complicit. Why can't I keep it for myself, and pay the teacher I choose for my kids?
Interesting misdirection, but getting back to my actual points: so it's your contention that revoking collective bargaining rights for non-emergency service providing public unions will actually reduce your taxes? Heh, pull the other one.
Oh I just can't wait until we privatize breathable air. /sarc
IE mb some things shouldn't be entirely privatized... education provides a NET benefit for any society. eg. Here's a simple game for you: take each word from the first set and match it with the corresponding word in the second.
(educated, uneducated) and (liability, asset)
You're absolutely correct, this isn't left or right, and I have never said it was. Unfortunately that doesn't make you any less of a divisive right wing loon, sorry. I mean I don't know what demographic you run in, but a public union employee making 50k a year is definitely middle class. Sounds like you're pretty against that person to me, Mr. "I am a progressive not a class warfarist". Good luck once they're all your competitors in the private sector! Shooting yourself in the face; what a novel stratagem... Sun Tzu you isn't, I'll give you that.
"I'm all right so ef all the rest" isn't much of a philosophy.
Stay healthy!
But let's go with your plan, ok? I'm willing; just reverse the order of operations and begin with frog marches and orange jumpsuits for malevolent banksters and their gov't puppets BEFORE we pile drive those 'greedy' union workers. Even you have to admit that it would be wise to keep them on your side until then, agreed?
Public employees are not at all like workers in a private corporations.
A public employee doesn't have to actually produce anything that is needed or wanted by the public.
A private corporation that has a union that is too expensive to support will go out of business - public employees can strike and shut down government for any reason, and the government can't move.
Public employees already have collective bargaining rights, it's called voting.
"A public employee doesn't have to actually produce anything that is needed or wanted by the public."
What a load of regurgitated rote. I see the words but it's all just "Quack quack quack."
Yeah, libraries run by Blockbuster, great. Nothing but 500 thousand copies of Oprah's latest reco' in every one, yay.
"A private corporation that has a union that is too expensive to support will go out of business - public employees can strike and shut down government for any reason, and the government can't move"
And yet despite your ignorant assertion plenty of industries have managed to keep it deep in the black with union workers, while others fail because they, or their products, suck. Surprise; the exact same things happen to businesses that don't use union workers! Providing a living wage should be inherent in the cost of doing business, not wage slavery.
"Public employees already have collective bargaining rights, it's called voting."
Don't forget striking. I so effing hope they remind you of that, hard. Maybe if your house is on fire and no one cares you'll be able to pry your thick, gummy eyes open wide enough to see just how idiotic a statement like
"A public employee doesn't have to actually produce anything that is needed or wanted by the public."
really is.
I so effing hope they remind you of that, hard.
Me too. I hope they all go on strike and never come back.
Maybe if your house is on fire and no one cares
Thanks for pointing out how willing you think public employees are to wreak havoc to get their way. Maybe a few instances of that kind of deliberate inaction would help convince the public that public employees are willing to kill to prove their point. That would be the end of public sector unions. Bring it. Please.
"Thanks for pointing out how willing you think public employees are to wreak havoc to get their way"
Wrong, I demonstrated that Public Union employees actually provide essential services, and are entitled to earn a decent living for it, you 'useful idiot' you.
It truly is a tragedy that what most find obvious is so difficult for you.
" The wealthy / media will attempt to cast it as the middle class against the poor; they will not get away with it."
This strategy worked well in the 70s particularly when they could work in the racial angle.
BTW SWR, I always look for and appreciate your comments.
The flow of information is in the hands of the people, edcuating the people to repeat the truth to others.. online.. to the point that NBC / CNN / FOX.. get drowned out.
We have the ability that "We the People" lacked in the 1970's.. Communication, Hence the Internet Switch.
Instead of being the fringe.. we need to be the majority.
The Banks / Wall Street OWN! the Goobermint thru the Lobby Dollars spent.. The Federal Reserve Bank is not the Goobermint.. it is privately owned... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_11110 / http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggADLt4s4pM
Why cant the mint print money for the treasury? minus the 6% interest and the 30% - 40% carry that our tax dolars now support?
B-b-but Michael Moore said we're not broke!
As a whole the USA is wealthy, but the wealth has landed in the hands of the top 1%. I'm not asking for crude wealth re-distribution, but we should consider if the playing field is level; even for small businessmen and entrepreneurs.
Your comment, Bicycle Repairman, is as pansy and prissy as pansy & prissy can be.
The money is concentrated in the those debt-financed billionaires, and a few debt-financed trillionaires now, thanks to their klepto-plutocratic ways.
It is the day of the guillotine, sonny, and nothing less.
can you imagine if America's economy was shown as a drug deal?? the amount of people pinching would leave just a bit of dust in the bag
good post. As you hint in your second paragraph, historical corruptive growth calls for a different kind of assertion. The parties are criminal, the system is broken. I don't mind suffering if, like Iceland, we can strike them and their system down, refuse the bailouts, go after the criminals, and start over.
+++
I know from his writings that Jesse is a gold bull, but in this interview he is quite restrained. I wonder why.
Nicely done.
Awesome.
I thought you meant Jesse Livermore.
I thought Jesse Jackson or Elvis dead twin Jesse. I guess the Swiss kept Sharpton and his bullhorn off the slopes.
Elvis's dead twin Jesse has not weighed in yet on the economic situation.
I didn't even consider anything other than Jesse of the Cafe.
Great article Ilene. I wish he'd given us a little more of his perspective on the long view.
"The US is now being run by an oligarchy.."
Seriously, Ilene, I love your blog posts to death, I really do, but the US has long been run by an oligarchy, it is simply that a few are beginning to catch on and because they sincerely believe something doesn't exist until they are aware of it, they believe it to be a new condition.
Simply familiarize yourself with the great sociological and socioeconomic thinker, Ferdinand Lundberg, who wrote about this back in 1954 in his The Treason of the People.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ferdinand_Lundberg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Lundberg
I do appreciate the post, though, so thank you.
In Lundberg's The Rich and the Super-Rich, he completely demolishes C. Wright Mills, who is far better known than Lundberg because he was writing to the oligarchic status quo; but his scholarship was nonexistent as he ignored, or was ignorant of, the most crucial socioeconomic studies of his time.
Well worth the effort.
Thank you Sgt. doom.
Thanks High Wire, I will ask Jesse your question in the next interview - stay tuned. However, his tag line: "THE BANKS MUST BE RESTRAINED, AND THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM REFORMED, WITH BALANCE RESTORED TO THE ECONOMY, BEFORE THERE CAN BE ANY SUSTAINED RECOVERY" suggests to me that it will be a while before Jesse gets more optimistic, and things will probably have to get worse first because we are not seeing anything that he is looking for for a sustained recovery.
Check out Jesse's blog . Very nicely done . Not gloom and doomish . Just facts and observations with a proper tone .