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Guest Post: The Road to Madness Is Paved With $100 Bills
Submitted by Graham Summers of Phoenix Capital Research
The Road to Madness is Paved with $100 Bills
…just as I am affected by the maniac, so I am affected by most modern thinkers. That unmistakable mood or note that I hear from Hanwell [an insane asylum], I hear also from half the chairs of science and seats of learning to-day; and most of the mad doctors are mad doctors in more senses than one. They all have exactly that combination we have noted: the combination of an expansive and exhaustive reason with a contracted common sense. They are universal only in the sense that they take one thin explanation and carry it very far. But a pattern can stretch for ever and still be a small pattern. They see a chess-board white on black, and if the universe is paved with it, it is still white on black. Like the lunatic, they cannot alter their standpoint; they cannot make a mental effort and suddenly see it black on white.
~C.K. Chesterton
Ben Bernanke is insane.
I mean neither insane in a flippant sense, nor in the ordinary sense (as in plain nuts), but an even more insidious form of insanity, namely the insanity of one who cannot see the world as a place outside his own thoughts and beliefs.
I am speaking of the insanity of one who believes that all things can be reduced to a simple issue or pattern, the insanity of which Chesterton spoke in his essay The Maniac.
Indeed, all of Bernanke’s monetary policies and actions can be traced to his one core belief: that the US Federal Reserve didn’t do enough to stave off the Great Depression. Never mind that this belief is completely inaccurate (as the data clearly shows), it is the foundation of Bernanke’s entire academic and now monetary career. It is the lone road on his mental map of the world.
It doesn’t matter that the road is leading us all to disaster, for Bernanke there is simply no other course of action to take. In his mind, the Fed failed to act in the ‘30s and so he MUST act regardless of facts, data, or consequence.
Indeed, were any of us to point out to Bernanke that his claims regarding inflation (that it is contained), unemployment (that QE will help it), or economic growth (that we’re in a recovery) are all at complete odds with reality, his answer would be, “well, it would be much worse if I hadn’t acted.”
This is the hallmark of an insane argument. It is logic without common sense, reason taken to the absolute limit, unable to consider anything outside the confines of its own understanding. Bernanke will drive us all to ruin, pushing ever harder on the gas pedal and repeating, “I must act, I must act, I must act” under his breath in order drown out the cries of, “stop, you’ll kill us” from the 308+ million of us sitting in the backseat.
Indeed, the only ones whom Bernanke can hear are the Primary Dealer banks, all of whom slap him on the back and tell him he’s doing a great job. Bernanke is the nerd with a single skill the jocks currently find useful. And he’s mistaken their support for genuine admiration and camaraderie. He feels their hands slapping his back and doesn’t notice the “kick me” sign they’ve installed there.
And herein lies the great irony of Ben Bernanke and his academic theories. The Primary Dealer banks, who pull the real strings at the Fed and who are only interested in making money (not theories), will use him and his misguided beliefs to serve themselves for as long as the benefits of said theories, namely hundreds of billions in free money, outweigh the risks (public outrage), just like all capitalists do when considering an investment.
However, once Bernanke’s policies bring the US public to a true boil, the puppet masters will discard their Chairman and his misguided theories like an old, broken toy. They’ll make a human sacrifice of him, pinning the blame for the collapse of the US Dollar and the US’s descent into 3rd world status on his slouched academic shoulders right next to the “kick me” sign. For when the public wants blood, it will be Bernanke, not the banks or their bonuses, who will be sacrificed.
It’s tragic, especially for the thousands of people who are now literally starving because of Bernanke’s monetary madness, that the nerd who wanted so desperately to fit in with the big shots will find himself and his theories discarded in the dustbin.
At least he got a Time Magazine cover out of it. For the rest of history, his 15 minutes of fame will stare out at us from the archives of other discarded maniacs. Indeed, he’ll find himself in good company, surrounded by others who believed the world fit only into their own manias; men such as Hitler and Stalin.
Good Investing!
Graham Summers
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I don't have time to go all the way into this with you right now but here's some of it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/sep/02/bp-oil-find-gulf-of-mexico
US to Boost supply 50% in 2011: http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51837
Frack just puts a whole in the ground and what you take out of it is up to you.
http://www.wealthdaily.com/articles/the-three-forks-sanish-oil-formation...
Has it ever ocurred to you that I would rather you be right than me? I would really really like to see us off of this shit. Why do you attack instead of discuss? We're all here just trying to figure this out.
Tech sure enough won't change supply, just the access.
Ok, gotta go get into my natural (partially bio)gas powered van full of bicycles and get off to the farm now. You're out there practicing what you preach yourself no doubt even if you sound like some guy in an Escalade running down folks that don't believe what you do or look like you.
The article you referenced on the BP find was from 2009. It is 2011 now.
Even if this reserve is as large as Forties, that does not in any way make it the largest find ever and it would be smaller than Prudhoe, which did not establish a new US production peak, much less having the capability to arrest world production declines.
Again, DO NOT focus on the reserves stated. Focus ONLY on the expected production rate from said reserves. I do not know how many times I can say this or how I can rephrase it so that people will understand. YES, I am telling you to IGNORE nearly everything you read in a press release about an oil find and to go do subsequent research to determine the QUALITY of the reserves in terms of RATE of production. That may be more difficult than just pasting links.
The US will not boost oil supply 50% in 2011. We will not go from 6mbpd to 9 in one year; it won't happen. The Jack field article you posted is from 2006, dude! Stop pasting STALE articles and pretending like press release HYPE can substitute for reality!
I honestly TIRE of having the same old crap thrown up as evidence when evidence to the contrary is so ubiquitous or when the crap has already been refuted.
NOTHING matters other than production rate. Nothing. This is because all reserves are not of the same EROI or what I called "quality." For example, we often hear how tarsands have as much oil reserves as Saudi Arabia. However, tarsands will at most produce oil at 1/3 the rate of KSA's reserves, less if you account for the substantially lower EROI of the tarsands vs. KSA's conventional deposits.
He's one of those believers in democracy: yknow, someone who believes that even the most moronic, intellectually inferior piece of shit has something worthwhile to contribute.
I do not subscribe to such silly and idiotic notions.
Morons do not make worthwhile contributions to intelligent discussion. Democracy can go fuck itself; it got us to where we are now.
To paraphrase, if the road you followed brought you to this, of what use was the road?
What would you suggest Mr. Wizard?
Wish more strenuously.
If we all hold hands and wish as hard as we can, collectively, upon a bunch of stars, perhaps reality will do us the favor of conforming itself to our desires...right?
We better meet in the desert, like during Burning Man or something, bc we can see more stars to wish upon. And the moonbats around here will be around like kind n'shit
They always told me to wish in one hand, and shit in another...
Hey, that sounds like something a troll like you would say!
Don't stop now... you are on a roll..
Priceless shit, ma man...
"Democracy can go fuck itself; it got us to where we are now."
We have been given freedoms enjoyed by few other people on the earth. Our Founders cherished that freedom because everyone of them had lived under the rule of tyranny. We have taken those freedoms for granted and have sat idly by while our Constition has been circumvented by the left for some 100 years now. The only trully consevative movement by what I would call the mainstream American was the Tea Party.
Socialism and communism are proven losers, what form of government would you recommend?
Communism and Fascism are proven losers....Keep to the facts, it just makes for a better discussion.
Edited out. needless stuff.
Uh, actually we're facing a much more complex problem when you include the banksters and their foot soldier politicos looting the system to get their MAX return before -0- hour...
Or didn't you notice that one, Mister Wizard...
There are days when Trav makes sense. Makes me wonder about my own sanity.
No, he gets it, it is just that he is still in the anger phase. As for me, I have moved on to somewhere between acceptance and depression...
nope.
I never get angry about things like this. I have accepted it. I actually don't think the end of the world as we know it will be all that bad because this effin world SUCKS. I mean look around you for a minute and ask yourself is this shit so great? Some of it is, sure, but a lot of it ain't.
I ain't angry at reality; that's stupid. It's like bein angry at the rain. I don't get mad at reality or nature; I get mad at people. I'm not pissed at the clouds, I'm pissed at the morons who can't drive in a bit of drizzle. I am angry at people for being so goddamned...human.
There are a lot of unfortunate psychological artifacts in play that make humans their own worst enemy and no matter how hard you try, you can't reach people. THAT is what frustrates me. People call me a cynic or doomer, which is bullshit, but who would get as frustrated as I if they didn't really care?
I wish I could get people to understand, but most just don't want to. This entire situation is a failing of humans who do not know what to do and do the wrong thing. Plus, eTalk is cheap and cathartic.
surely there was one of me on Easter Island...had to be at least one. And they probably laughed at him and built those fuckin statues while they continued their virus-like behaviors.
Maybe for some, but for me eTalk reminds me of how stupidly fucked things are and tricks me into wanting to take up a banner I put down over a decade ago (natural law), when I realized that most are either too stupid to get "it", or too jaded by anger or lack of self-fulfillment.
So why give a flying fuck, eh?
Quix_Not Out!
Is calling people moonbats cathartic for you? Is taking the distorted, "accidental" view of history and cramming it down someone's throat how you get off?
Misanthropes can STFU.
Fair enough.... There are a lot of people that just don't get it, or upon recieving the first glimpse of wisdom recoil from looking into the abyss that their life really is.
BTW, if you had been on Easter Island, you probably would have been one of the first sacrifices to appease the gods. My fate as well, no doubt.
I hope we can hold enough of what is good together and painfully (for most) learn a new value system. If we fall too far, there will not be a renaissance.
A solution to Fermi's Paradox re: Intelligent life in the Universe, is that most civilizations never made it past the hydrocarbon age, they decayed or immolated themselves.
Ciao for niao....
Could be. Whatever it is, the big killer probably lies ahead of us- see the Great Filter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_filter
I'm guessing world government and irresponsible use of time travel are the big civilization-killers.
Do you believe that you hold all the answers to the world's problems?
I admire and respect self-confidence with regard to another's knowledge base, however when it appears as if someone is trying to generalize on an issue that they actually know very little about, that self-confidence can be perceived as arrogance.
The condescending and insulting demeanor of your posts causes me to immediately label you a troll.
All the answers? Absolutely not. Some of the answers, yes.
A troll would not speak the truth- I speak the truth.
What happens when a simpleton gets cast upon a juggernolt? All they can do is fake it.
It's a mistake to think these people are insane or stupid.
If by implementing "insane" or "stupid" policies they consistently get richer and richer (I mean Wall Street), you have to question your assumption.
The widespread failure of calling thieves what they really are even in blogsphere, and instead giving them the benefit of the doubt as if there were still any doubt, and addressing them with endearing "you are so foolish", are signs of a cultural decline, loss of courage and rigor. It's a form of denial.
Denninger does it day in and day out. market-ticker.org
Denninger is a computer nerd cum stock day trader that is so invested in the current system that he dare not question any of it's basic tenents;ie, that the current system has left the tracks and is headed for the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
*BINGO*
He's not insane, he a cold calculating counterfeiter helping his friends on Wall Street, by transferring society's wealth to the chosen few.
Mulligan is in charge of the Fed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS0eeaOI01E
We can't have real growth, but BB will make damn sure we have nominal growth. The problem is it can only go so far. We can no longer even mange the illusion of business as usual. Hot spots are popping up all over the globe. We've set a fine example for them to follow. If you don't have it, then go take it from somebody who does. It's human nature. It's going to get worse too, a lot worse. Easier to go to war than to sit and starve. If necessity is the mother of invention, then somebody better tell us what it is we need.
Bernanke's not insane, IMHO (humility is a virtue).
He knows exactly what he's doing, and it's a race against the clock for him to pull it off.
It's not a conspiracy, as trav has alleged, either. So he and I agree on that (but only that).
A conspiracy is done in attempted secrecy.
Bernanke's course of action and beneficiaries are all out in the open, in plain view of anyone bothering to look, which sadly, isn't that many.
But there's hope that more are apparently beginning to look.
It was right here on ZeroHedge where I encountered the observation ...something to the effect that:
"the puppets masters were so desperate that they no longer even made the attempt to hide the strings going to their puppets".
I think that aptly describes what we have now.
There's some ultra wealthy people out there (think George Soros level but without the big mouth) who not only want to hold on to what they have, no... beyond that they wish to expand on it if possible.
The ol' 'never let a crisis go to waste thing'.
on Tue, 02/01/2011 - 02:01
#923014
"There's some ultra wealthy people out there (think George Soros level but without the big mouth)"
*******************************************************************************
Soros is... and always will be nothing more than the help.
LOL. Great point.
BB: "Yes, we are rich bankers. And we are smart. Read all the books on our sordid history and try to do something about it. Few will care about inflationary theft until it is too late. Get in our way and you will be destroyed."
of course bernanke is acting under orders from the bohemian grove club, bildebergers, trilateral commission, axis of evil (rockefeller, rothschild)....he is doing the evil he was fore-ordained to commit...
I'm not defending The Bernank, but it's worth pointing out that the official interest rate in Japan is 0.1%, and the EuroZone is 1%. I believe the central banks of the US, Japan, the EuroZone, and the UK are all engaged or have recently engaged in QE. So is singling out the Bernank just anti-Americanism?
According to cannibals, human beings taste like pork....
Bernank says we're all pigs!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH69fKaWUyk
The fact that you both post, is enlightening Keep up the good work.
If he is insane then he is criminally insane, helping the finest criminal minds in the US today.
Wake up America, its a racket.
Only there's one glaring difference, Americans are armed.
Armed to the teeth.
Hold on to that thought!!!!
Only there's one glaring difference, Americans are armed.
Armed to the teeth.
Hold on to that thought!!!!
"Only there's one glaring difference, Americans are armed.
Armed to the teeth."
Just who would you use those 'arms' against?
Are you going to shoot someone in the employ of the US Gov? Your county Gov? Your city Gov?
If so, you will have those 'arms' that you are so fond of stuffed in an orafice where the sun will not shine on them... rapidly.
Bear in mind that it will be some Gov Employee that will knock on your door and ask for you to give up your arms during an amnesty grace period.
If you lie and tell them you have no arms then you will be catagorized as a felon. Forget the Second Amendment...it might have been an effective deterrent to an overbearing government prior to the Abrams Tank, but not now.
How many want to be placed in the Felon catagory?
Or, perhaps you want to be involved in a shoot out with the US Army, Marine Corps, or cops? Now, that is insanity.
"…just as I am affected by the maniac,"
While many people value self-confidence and self-belief very highly, it is actually a grave fault. Taken to its extreme, self-confidence can turn into madness. The question that is considered in this book is "what is a person is to believe in if he does not believe in himself?" In previous periods, this discussion could begin with the assumption that man is himself intrinsically sinful—that men, by nature, do evil things. However, in the modern period it has become fashionable to deny the existence of sin, so one might start, instead, with the belief that even if man cannot lose his soul through sin, he can at least lose his mind, and that this is a bad thing.
Damn, I knew this was a joke
Damn, I knew this was a joke
"However, once Bernanke’s policies bring the US public to a true boil, the puppet masters will discard their Chairman and his misguided theories like an old, broken toy. They’ll make a human sacrifice of him, pinning the blame for the collapse of the US Dollar and the US’s descent into 3rd world status on his slouched academic shoulders right next to the “kick me” sign. For when the public wants blood, it will be Bernanke, not the banks or their bonuses, who will be sacrificed."
I wouldn't be risking any good money on that dodgy bet being confined to the Ben "The Stool Pigeon" Bernanke, folks, for the puppet masters are all too firmly framed and embedded in the picture for flash mob attention, such is the nature of global information and intelligence sharing these days/zerodays. It aint like the ole days, no more, bubba, capiche.
And it is only fair that everyone gets exactly what they richly deserve, and that is the perfectly natural way of things too which you cannot change, no matter how often you would delude yourself with the notion that you can, because you suddenly start thinking that you don't deserve what is coming down the line with your name written all over it. Just ask even an old fool like Lloyd C. Blankfein doing God's work to know the veracity of that inevitability.
what happened to brave new world?
You will have to be brave (and prepared) to face the new world.
I see it coming now.
Ben's not insane, don't be so naive. He's just following orders.
Do you really think some relatively broke scholar calls the shots for the global monetary system??
Please... Go back to bed.
What do you make of this?
Deflation vs. Hyperinflation
STONELEIGH vs. LIRA
Live, 9pm EST, February 10, 2011. http://fosslira.blogspot.com/
As I have said before about Bernanke, there is a very fine line between Genius and Madness.
I think Bernanke is Maniacal.
Bush appointed Bernanke but obviously Bush is not an academic economist. Does anyone know who actually suggested Bernanke as the next chair of the Fed? What is the process by which the "short list" gets drawn up? Anyone?
The Bernank insane?
Come on, let's cut the rebbe some slack.
He's just following orders.
I've been getting questioned at the bank too... I've been buying silver, and every time I take the cash out they ask me why... I say 'none of your business'.
Now they smile and flirt and offer me additional services at no charge. I think the banks can feel it coming...