Keep It Simple, Stupid
Words to live by. Remember that when someone starts explaining which
way the smoke on an electric train is gonna blow, you should probably
check your wallet.
I’m tired of convoluted explanations of simple problems. It
distracts people from the truth, which is usually the intent of those
doing the explaining. The end result is large numbers of people pretending to understand things they don’t. Bernie Madoff’s “success”, ETFs, Treasury auctions, the housing market.
The easiest way to confuse people is with numbers so mind-numbingly
big they mean nothing to the average person. What’s 13 and a half
Trillion dollars supposed to mean to Joe Sixpack? This is the best I
could come up with:
Can you say “Unsustainable”?
Another way to confuse people is with words. Focus, if you will, on just two words from the Purposes page of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008:
The purposes of this chapter are—
(1) to
immediately provide authority and facilities that the Secretary of the
Treasury can use to restore liquidity and stability to the financial
system of the United States; and(2) to ensure that such authority and such facilities are used in a manner that—
(A) protects home values, college funds, retirement accounts, and life savings;
(B) preserves homeownership and promotes jobs and economic growth;
(C) maximizes overall returns to the taxpayers of the United States; and
(D) provides public accountability for the exercise of such authority.
Protect values. Sounds downright noble, doesn’t
it? It does until you think about what those words really mean in this
context. The inescapable conclusion is:
Protecting values means distorting prices
In order to distort prices, you must distort markets. Sure, that Commodore 64
you bought in ’82 would still be worth 600 bucks if we had
outlawed improving computer design and Commodore would still be alive
and well today. Thankfully, no one concerned themselves with protecting
the value of the C-64 and Commodore declared bankruptcy in 1994.
That’s how markets work and that’s why capitalism works.
Distorting prices and markets is an
absolute fool’s game, so we find ourselves with a never-ending
procession of Ivy League fucktards, who fancy themselves masters of the
Universe, lining up to take a whack at it. Yes, you can keep house
prices up, if you can keep interest rates low, but in order to keep
interest rates low, you must rig the credit market. To rig the credit
market without destroying stock prices, you must create money out of
thin air to buy debt, which devalues your currency, so you have to hide
it as much as you can. So now you’re rigging the Forex and precious
metals markets to cover your tracks…..
Next thing you know, you’re selling choppers to Saudi Arabia.
There’s no such thing as a free
lunch. Everybody with an IQ below 140, who’s not in politics knows
that. What most of those people don’t understand is how much this
little magic show costs. This next chart shows the monthly cost of the
changes in the National Debt, per person. In other words, this is what it would cost just to stop adding to the National Debt.
This is the real cost of the so-called
“recovery.” Is there a family of four on this side of the rainbow
willing to cough up 2 grand a month to keep it going?
Anyone?
God I hate Elmo...seriously. Anyone that has a toddler wants to strangle that little bastard.
Both of my kids learned who Elmo was before they ever watched Sesame Street. Kind of eerie. He's like crack for two year olds.
For his first birthday three years ago, my son got the new TMX Elmo doll. He also got a Little People ride-in electric car from the grandparents...he pushed the button on the steering wheel and the car jerked forward and ran over Elmo...it activated the doll, which began slapping the front bumper with its hand like it was in pain.
We have the whole thing on video, and to this day I swear it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen in my life!
you wouldn't happen to live in elmstreet right?
ps: If I answer "Black" on Tylers question, does that makes me a racist?
That should be on YouTube, if it isn't already.
Dude.. sell it to AFV or its ilk.. make a couple bucks..
Check out Barney or the Teletubbies. WAAAY worse. My son did indeed want to hurt Barney. It was so weird. He disrespected that Barney was a dinosaur and did not have savage, jagged, teeth.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsKO_r76kfQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiaLOzP1lCA
You're behind the times, these days it's all about Yo Gabba Gabba
Well, after all, you shouldn't bite your friends. Even if you do happen to have a party in your tummy.
Regards
Seriously, these Elmo visuals are money.
~MV
These Elmo visuals are better:
http://blogs.forbes.com/briancaulfield/2010/09/24/watch-the-censored-katie-perry-elmo-video-video/
Tyler needs to sex-up his presentation to keep up with Sesame Street.
Wonderpets is the worst.
Yea, that's pretty shitty also.
boo bah - PBS = teletubbies on acid (like, literally - google it). little sperm-like fig newtons w/ ADD. unbelievable. haven't seen or heard in a while. thank god.
Shouldn't we be using The Count for this instead?
Just between us, you know... they call him The Count, because he likes to count things :)
The Count is OCD to the hilt!
He's an ameteur at OCD.
http://icanhascheezburger.com/2009/01/12/funny-pictures-disturbed-by-the...
Even The Count would have gotten tired after counting to $1 Million, let alone $13+ Trillion!
Do you mean Archduke Chocula?
Man my 1.5 year old kid has 4 Elmo dolls. And they ALL talk. We need to purge this character for the sake of humanity.
America has 1 President who talks(thats pretty much all he does) is your doll any different from him ?
you can almost see the rothschilds' hands up his ass.
http://www.faithmouse.com/barack_omuppet.jpg
Your picture looks like it captured the very moment it went up there.
ROFL - My niece is a HUGE fan of Elmo - the tradegy is as I read the Elmo caption I could actually hear his voice reciting what I read - time for more adderall & Grey Goose -
How very fitting that Sesame Street should be the performer here.
After all, it was Peter G. Peterson's wife, Joan Ganz Cooney, who was a creator of Sesame Street.
And since Peterson has helped so arduously and benefitted so much -- from the dismantling of the American economy -- and was the Rockefeller lackey who was appointed to head that commission on foundations (so they would continue on as tax-free holding companies, designed to hide the true wealth, for tax avoidance and evasion, and as an under-the-radar investment vehicle) known as the Peterson Commission.
Yup, very fitting indeed!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_George_Peterson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Ganz_Cooney
+1
Sir. Please Remove your bag head. I'd like to know more.
Give me a break, of all the dumb, wasteful and rent-seeking things the government does, Sesame Street is pretty far down the cost/benefit list.
Besides, Oscar The Grouch is the man.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H75eQX006jA
Are you sure that's not Grover?
OH no, that's Elmo. I don't even know where in the hell he came from. He wasn't even part of Sesame Street when I was a kid. I was always more of a fan of 'Count von Count'.
Elmo appeared mid-late 80's i think, he is nowehere near as hard core as the Count, Guy Smiley, Grover, Kermit (who was fired from Seaseme St News for submitting an unfavorable report on the letter O) or Cookie Monster. In fact Cookie Monster is now pretty much banned by the leftards who think he promotes unhealthy eating habits... i mean for fuck sakes he is a sock puppet! Anyone who is using a sock puppet for their kids role models has more to worry about than the terrifying possibility that their children may like cookies.
At least in Germany, Cookie Monster is now...Veggie Monster, I shit you not.
Ouch! My childhood is bleeding... Again.
now *that's* just way too messed up...
No joke, a 4 year old told me in a rather serious tone that Cookie Monster is now known as the Apple Monster. I said "you made that up."
http://www.sesamestreet.org/parents/healthyeating
One more piece of evidence that we will be living in Orwell's "1984" very soon...
... er ...
... er ...
What? Expecting a comment about Miss Piggy?
lol, no it was about the future tense: "we will be living in 1984."
but you bring up a good point.
MP: "You're ugly, I'm fat--I can diet."
- Ned
I think we're all Oscar. We're all getting grouchy cause we'll all end up in the can.
Maybe Oscar is grouchy because his can has all those uncomfortable gold bars at the bottom.
Fucking GARBAGE. Bastards. I hate you. I have friends who can be of service if you go public, though.
Grover is just as annoying as Elmo and about a million times creepier.
People in Europe are paying about 20% more in taxes than USA, you still have ways to go
Well the Europeans 'pay more' in taxes but unlike them, we dont have the small populations with guaranteed jobs you can never get fired from and 5 months paid vacation every year either. Their post WW2 era of easy livin in their little socialist playgrounds is coming to a screeching halt as well.
You can get 1 of those 'never fired' jobs if youre
1st dumb enough (dont ask questions)
2nd a natural born boot licker
3rd have no ambitions (except for food and watter)
4th a 'team player' which means Never question 'authority'
5th your job description could fit a dog, 'always serve your master, for food and a few privelages'
Hey I live in the socialist paradise of Australia, and I gotta say its not all bad. If you have an accident and need hospital, everyone except the UBER rich go to the same hospitals, private insurance just means you get a nicer room, same treatment. We pay 1.5% extra on income tax, and people above 70K (the average wage ish) pay 2.5% and its all paid for! Sure the system is a haven for tens of thousands of parasitic adminstrators, but it kinda works. Certainly better than the US system which fails to provide care to those who need it, causing them to become a net drain on the system due to disability caused by preventable health conditions.
Our schools are a joke, public and private, you cant buy a good education in this country any more, but thats no worse than the USA.
Of course we are completely incapable of defending ourselves from a serious agressor nation, we really should be chipping in to the US defence budget like a protected state, I wouldnt be against that. I think how we pay our share is that we dont subsidise farmers who produce in competition to the USA, whereas you supposedly 'free market' Americans are subsidised to the tune of billions.
Ok rant over... God Save the Queen, God bless America and God protect Australia.
Interesting rant, but several off base comments.
The major problem with health care in the US is 2 fold:
1. Catastrophic care (people having an emergency situation without coverage)
2. Lack of long term health management (people eating crap and not exercising)
The "poor" get health care. Actually, many times they get pretty good care without paying. If you've ever been in a hospital emergency room (which doubles as a primary care center for the very poor), you'll see the signs that say "nobody can be denied care based on inability to pay". Of course, this drives up MY costs....so it's a "tax" of a sort. But everyone complains about it because they'd rather give an extra $500 a month to the government's corrupt bureaucracy than an extra $200 a month to a slight less corrupt insurance company.
The other problem you mention is that you'd be OK with paying for "protection" to the US....but that's just one more cost....which drives up your costs....and so on. Better to do it yourself, right?
Probably.
Oh, by the way, schools here are pretty damn good, last I looked. We still are the country every other country sends their best students to. Too bad you can't "Export" education. Guess this is the best we can do in that regard.
That's a bunch of nonsense. The problem with health care in the USA is that we have an aging population which is all covered by Medicare and spends the largest amounts of money of a lifetime in the last decade on joint replacement and critical care for people who are about to die anyway.
Health care expenses skyrocketed not because of fatties, but because of OLDIES. In fact, fat smokers are GOOD for overall health-care expenses because they die younger, rather than kicking around on Medicare until they're 90.
False dichotomy...
and don't forget what we pay for drugs in this country (compared to others). oldies take their fair share a day. We couldn't risk that cheap imitation stuff from third world countries like canada and england. Rohm made sure of that.
The reason we have a health care problem is because people no longer have the incentive to question, consider and weigh the pros and cons of treatments and neither do they have an incentive to try and change lifestyle or habits to find a way to heal themselves. When you go into the hospital or doctor they just treat you and charge you what they want and you never have a chance to opt out of treatment due to the cost out weighing the benefits. If they were to ask me if I wanted to pay $10 for a dose of asprin i would certainly decline and bring my own. It is no longer a free market with the checks and balances but just a racket.
I know of a case where someone who, in the course of testing before four- vessel coronary artery bypass surgery, was discovered to have advanced liver cancer. A death sentence and a rather unpleasant one at that. The patient was being rushed to get the bypass surgery done, so that the cancer treatments could commence. Now, if the frightened patient had been properly counseled, and given time to think about it a little bit, I would have thought they might have chosen to forego the bypass surgery altogether. I certainly would prefer to go out with a nice clean heart attack to this person's alternative. I doubt if the physicians mentioned that option. And really, why not? Why does everything have to been done in every instance?
(replying to myself for simplicity's sake. I talk to myself enough anyway.)
Simple facts:
1) What medicine can do for *anyone* has become far more expensive over the past 20 years.
2) The cost of what medicine CAN do to treat *any* patient is universally weighted towards the end of life for *everyone.* It is relatively cheap to be healthy--as soon as you become sick, the potential expense of treatment increases by orders of magnitude. It doesn't matter how you reach end of life--maybe it's cancer, maybe it's a car-wreck, maybe it's heart-disease. You will see the biggest bills aggregate over the final 12 months of your time on this planet.
3) Boomers are getting older, and they're the single biggest demographic bulge.
4) In the past decade, the Feds were put on the hook for prescription medications, at high price, for all Medicare recipients.
5) If you do absolutely everything right and no part of your body ever begins to fail on you, you will lose the ability to function because of dementia, and your bills will be for nursing care and personal assistants and residence.
Long story short: we're all gonna die and the last few years are going to cost us ALL a fortune unless we change our policies about both how we pay for the treatment and how much treatment we're going to provide.
It may not make the most sense to spend 10 years' worth of a grandchild's salary on two hip replacements for grandma at the age of 78.
Yeah. It sucks. Getting old sucks. Dying doesn't look like fun, either.
Fucking deal with it.
(If I'm going to be junked, I should at least state the points clearly.)
You are somewhat
offbase because
the US healthcare
system is utterly
ridiculous: based
on your employer!
What sort of nut
system is that?
Why should anyone's
employer have
control over one's
healthcare? It is
a personal issue
and a lifelong issue.
Get over yourselves US,
you haven't got a clue,
"Their post WW2 era of easy livin in their little socialist playgrounds is coming to a screeching halt as well."
Oh yeah! Norway and Finland and Sweden are just f'd...what with their fancyschmancy 'in the black' Sovereign Wealth Funds, and their hoidy-toidy-holier-than-thou 'Higher Standards of Living', what a bunch of commies; Didn't they listen to Ronald Reagan's album? That guy had it all figured out, man.
Pah, sure some of those socialies even waltzed through 2008 with little more than a scratch, but...
er, uh, wait: How did you say that it was going to go down again?
Regards
Couple a things
1) These are small population (< 20M total between them), nearly societally monolithic (> 80% "pure" native) countries where "not pulling your weight" societally unthinkable - so socialism can work there, for quite some time
2) What makes you think these aren't going to be the next to fall right after the PIIGS?
1) Agreed, but size is not the issue, priorities are. And not only is the population vaster, but the revenue generated by the US is of a different order of magnitude as well, despite contracting over the last two years. Priorities.
2) Did you miss the part about in the black Sovereign Wealth Funds? GS hasn't managed to, uh, do that thing they do there yet..
Regards
1) Chicken and the egg - I'd argue that you can only get those priorities agreed upon in small, essentially monolithic societies with a strong work ethic. Take any of those things away and the consensus falls apart.
2) Got to admit I really don't know much of anything about SWF's, but will certainly give it a look see. I'm largely in agreement with the Swede below, though.
Cheers -
one thing to add is that in sweden we keep slashing our defense budget year after year. actually our weapons export business is so succesful the army might be turning a profit for all i know.
about the financial crisis we only dodged that bullet because strict rules on banks implemented after our crises in the early nineties.
our bankers are as sociopathic as americas, but we have clever regulations and a finance inspection unit not staffed with trannyporn surfing monkeys.
but the single greatest thing about the swedish model imo is
"The Principle of Public Access" explained here:
http://www.sweden.gov.se/sb/d/2184/a/15521
Well, the "slashing of defense budgets" is a luxury the whole of Europe (and Japan) has been afforded though the "generosity" of the American taxpayer. Frankly, I just assume we cut back, mightily,on said "generosity" but it looks like you folks are going to continue to get that free ride for a long time to come.
Good point on bank regs - and I'm sure your bankers are less sociopathic than are ours, but that's a pretty low bar over which to vault.
"The Principle of Public Access" is, for the most part, in place in the US as well. Trouble is, nobody cares. Given the choice between keeping tabs on the various levels of Gubermint here and watching Dancing With The Stars it's painfully obvious most of Idol Nation choses the latter over the former. Bread and circuses, and all that.
Cheers -
GRRR, docj,
"Well, the "slashing of defense budgets" is a luxury the whole of Europe (and Japan) has been afforded though the "generosity" of the American taxpayer."
I am very sorry, but you're ringing the jingoism bell.
Deposing democratically elected leaders, invading small, relatively unarmed countries to rob them of their natural resources (if this end can't be achieved through economic or political pressure) or occupy them with the intent of controlling their strategic geography, and otherwise stirring up hornets' nests worldwide... IMO such acts can hardly be defined as a 'protective largesse'.
But let's assume that I am wrong and you are right about current US foreign policy altruistically, selflessly, and single-handedly holding at bay all 'clear and present dangers' , then cuts in the US 'defense' budget would merely mean that the rest of the world would be forced to pick up the slack, right? Start payin' their damn fair share, and all that cal. Either that or get used to the idea of speaking Farsi or Mandarin (or whatever domino effect you and former Presidents Nixon/Reagan/Bushes predilect).
I doubt any nation would begrudge the US a cut in their 'defense' budget. I can name a few internationally operating companies, some not even based in the US anymore, that would certainly feel the pinch of any budgetary cuts in that area, though I can't see any of those nations mentioned above being immediately concerned. Understanding, more like, not to mention relieved.
In other words: we agree! The US should take that trillion dollars per year and otherwise invest it in America, through attacking gov't spending, or gold purchases, or $4,000 worth of UHC/US citizen, or education, or freakin' any other area where it could do some actual good for Americans. (Priorities)
Regards
funniest. shit. ever
Umm, Elmo feels unusally uncertain right now! (About the future)
Whether you like it
or not even France
which the US just
loves to hate has
more Mom and
Pop businesses
than the US and
more successful
artisans so stuff
it and shop at
Walmart for your
Chinese crap.
Vive la France.
Az,
You should have left the part in about giving one in the face:-)
I am upset already by the thievery perpetrated in the form of taxes over here. I would be even more angry if the government told me it wanted half--and thats just payroll tax! systems where the tyrants in government feel that entitled to other people's money just will not last. Eventually, no one will want to work because the government is taking it all...what happens then?
Funemployment?
We're European? ;)
...
When I was young(only a few years ago) I wanted to invent things, build my own company and make a shit load of money(I had a few good ideas too) but than I did the math, and just said fuk this! I am not supporting those fuktards on social wealthare I now just sit (comfortably) in a job I like buying gold and silver and wait for this socialist shitstrom to blow over, if it does not happen in a few decades than I will take all my gold move to a poor 3rd world country and live like a king, and if they try to take my savings, than its an all out war(and I dont mean metaphores)
Expatriation is a wonderful thing. Socialist shit storms can take a long time to blow over.
http://www.sovereignman.com/
I subscribe to that +1
"Governments can remain irrational far longer than you can remain alive."
Apparently, in the UK, they are considering having employers send their payroll right to their version of the IRS, who will extract their due and forward on that portion they feel the worker is entitled to.
Europe and the USA seem to be in similar boats (overgeneralizing of course). Debt levels, deficits, entitlements, illegals, etc.
Many, many problems in both our economies.
In general, Europe's demographic woes (graying population) are worse than ours.
I have been in manufacturing since I was fourteen years old. I have built up a small amount of capital and expertise that would be good for a reasonably advanced society in central America. The machine tools weigh in at tens of tonnes apiece. Mobile it is not.
That leaves saved capital and software and brainware. I don't see that there are any feelers out there for importing my kind of capital in the few places that I have visited. I do know that my stuff is just another thing to be looted in the US state that I am in. I do not believe any more that my insurance company will protect me from any chickenshit lawsuit that will be heard in any of the various courts that now exist to strip those that didn't buy the FED's lines.
My worst adversary now for costs is the "health insurance". My costs have qauadrupled in the past ten years and now several of my employees are costing over 15k/ year for a fairly high deductible HSA.
The only way out of this blind alley is default. We middle class slobs that did the "right thing" are the last hope of the goomint asset strippers. Default now so that there can be a little bit left to start anew.
Other countries do not exist. There is only America.
And if another country does exist, the way it does things will never work here because we are different.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WM73Dg7j70 Rammstein - Amerika, its double funny if you know the lyrics
Well, Once you factor in all the thrash fees that are inflicted on American taxpayers, I am not so sure. In Europe we don't have to pay for higher education, medical insurance, the zillions of fines on misdemenours, property taxes are much lower than they are in the US e.t.c.
BUT, we will get there; The Europeans are incapable of resisting stupid ideas - especially grand ideologies that are obviously failing wherever they are tried.
Wrong. Too many
Europeans have
travelled to the US
and have had to
deal with the idiots
there and want
absolutely nothing to
do with it anymore.
Ha!!!!! Ah how the manipulation of language has allowed for the obfuscation of simple and obvious truths...
Sorry, Barney is worse, Massachusetts thing.
Since waterboarding is now considered torture, is listening to Bawney Fwank speaches or to Barney songs now considered torture? I mean, in the Army Field Manual and all. After all, you could tell Bawney "I ain't askin' and please don't tell"
- Ned
OT-Howie brought up the useful word today.
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la.....Federal Reserve,
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la.....Federal Reserve!!!!
Government likes fiat, they hate gold too!!!!
That's the Federal Reserve!!!!!!!
arrrrggghhhhhh.
Awesome article.
Nope, I still don't get it. Could you dumb it down a little?
I don't know if you want to get it or not. Kind of like VD. A social disease.
+1 LOL!
ping
+1
"...brought to you by the letter D(ebt!) and the number $14Trillion."
Elmo's so annoying, just put on my favorite The Count, Onnne Twoooo THREEEEEE trillion more pumped into bubble equity markets! Hey Oscar what are you doing in that trash can with that AK 47 and canned food stores??
Think of all the pemmican you could make from Mr. Snuffleupagus. Maybe that is why Big Bird likes to keep him around?
You fuckin' with me? He's big. He's yellow. Who can say no to Big Bird? Not me.
Ok, I tried to resist, but I cannot.
SNUFFLEUPAGUS: real or not real?
i.e. purely a figment of Big Bird's imagination or a running-gag that coincidentally NO ONE else ever manages to see him?
Snuffleupagus was most certainly real. He was SS's resident junky with his too cool for school attitude always gliding through the streets with his slightly off balance swagger noddin' off whenever he felt like it trying to be all inconspicuous and shit never in a rush to get anywhere always dodging authority figures plus the terminally runny nose and goofed eyes that cat was trippin'.
Thanks for the laugh SheepDog-One. Thanks for the laugh!
Those charts are typically adjusted with inflation.
Lots of inflation.
LMAO
Where's the chick with the cleavage?
Next time....
All we have to do is stop spending, lol
"The Never-Ending Procession of Ivy League Fucktards" would be a great band name.
The "Higher Education" bubble popping will be glorious.
There was another great chart in this report that featured Katy Perry, but they had to pull it due to parents' concerns.
+5
I gotta wonder, where is all the parental "concern(s)", as their Govt sells their children and grand-children into debt-slavery? Cheesecake? Puuullleeze!
Protecting home values, for me, means that my spouse and I will have to borrow more to buy. This is a transfer of wealth from us to the banking industry. I refuse to participate in this system 1% more than I have to. I will not take debt. This is the ultimate act of rebellion. My government actively works to extract revenue from me and pass it to the bankers.
Back in your cage!!.. You weren't suppose to figure that out.
Let's ask Mr. Noodle how we can balance the budget without crashing the economy. Oh Mr. Noodle...?
BNN (Canada's nationwide financial news television network) has an interview with GATA regarding the price of gold! http://j.mp/b1DfHr
Don't forget about "Hip Hop Harry" for the straight brimmed, "pants on the ground" set.
this skit is excellent for the liberal numnuts who nothing else but spend our tax dollars.
Grover was purple. Elmo came along after my Sesame Street days.
Purple. The color of royalty.
Grover was blue. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover
Nice summary, yet you violated B9K9's maxim (which itself is lifted practically verbatim from Goodwin):
"As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a suggestion involving lack of knowledge or understanding by the power-elite approaches 1."
It is imperative to understand that everyone, and I mean everyone, understands perfectly well what is occurring. What we have are master game players who, even though they have benefited to the tune of $trillions in stolen wealth from their $USD reserve system, are still shorting the fuck out of it to make even more.
Imagine a casino where management is knowingly killing a perfectly fine franchise by breaking the law & cheating customers. However, the owners are making even more money shorting the stock AND going long the prosecutor. That's because the prosecutor is running for mayor and is promising to unlock vast tracts of new property for development. - and they control the water/utilities/roads/banks (mortgages), etc.
That is what is going on here - they are actively killing the $USD reserve system, but are positioning themselves to make an even bigger killing on the back-end. Imagine trying to explain to the casino owners above that they're killing the golden goose (or in our case, it's unsustainable!); their response would be "no shit Sherlock".
Likewise the situation we find here. These guys know the USA is toast (big 4: demographics, [lack of] resources, outsourcing and debt load) - we're a spent force, in part because we've already been sucked dry. So the bigger players (many of whom are owners of the $USD reserve system) are moving their pieces around, all the while jockeying for position on the next big sting. Focus on the game(s) within the game.
Havana Nocturne. It is in one's nature to overstep boundaries when using greed and chasing lavish dreams.
it ain't my dog and he acts like a puppy. if he get's through the fence don't make him suffer.
Bullshit. The elites are the biggest koolaid drinkers around.
Like I said to one of them, "this is not the truth," and he replied, "the system has its own truth."
There are no potent directors, no "these" guys; the people with all the money really don't understand peak oil either. In fact, they deny it.
B9K9 makes an most lucid and brilliant post, and your predictable response, trav7777, is predictably moronic.
Follow the timeline, douchebag, follow the timeline. But, as many of us have discerned, the Dark Agers are numerous today and, even when they've been shown all the connections, they still require the most minute instruction of their obviousness. (Please reference Jane Jacobs' Dark Age Ahead.)
And the beat goes on......
I got to think people are blind to it because they don't want to think these guys are evil. It makes them feel better that all these guys with their fancy educations, countless advisers, and reams of information are simply incompetent. That somehow everyone is brutally, savagely, and completely incompetent. It's easier to believe people are dumb then there is a group out there literally sucking the blood right form your next and not only want your blood but want you dead because you are sucking up their resources. If it was just raw incompetence wouldn't they sometimes be right in the common mans favor?
Good analogy with the casino, I'm going to steal that one.
couldn't agree more. in almost every criminal scenario that involves an inferior superior position of trust exploitation, the victim and their family have a very difficult time accepting the evil. Warning, once the do, they often go all out.
"As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a suggestion involving lack of knowledge or understanding by the power-elite approaches 1."
What is the maxim about the probability of someone referring to oneself in the third person? lol.
But a dead on analysis. TPTB are perfectly content that we simply accept that they are a bunch of "Ivy League fucktards." This is one of the few sentiments I tend to attack on sight. It's a gateway drug to full-tilt ignorance.
Not that there isn't plenty of incompetence, but there also happens to be the nice juicing of the helplessness index, tending to generate more of a flavor of "just one of those things" rather than the outrage that would tend to accompany an understanding that it was not just bumbling idiots at all, in fact it was all part of a sinister plan.
Also love the casino metaphor. I've been using it for a few years now. If nothing else than the idea that even if we ran the economy like a perfectly legitimate casino, we would be very, very far from broke. Instead, while we were all playing, the house levered up on a bunch of prop bets, and now we discover the chips we're playing with are worse than worthless, because they aren't really redeemable for much, except a ponzi of new entrants (new collective noun? School of fish; ponzi of suckers) might bring. It's a metaphor that gives and gives, and tends to bring some informal game theory-like thinking to the minds of those who would otherwise not have thought twice about what might really be going on.
True, although I have heard a rumor that when Larry returns to Harvard he's going to team up with Martin Feldstein and together they plan to teach a fresman seminar course titled:
"The Dismantling of the American Economy"
(It's going to be a zero credit course, 'natch!)
Great post, B9K9, couldn't have articulated it any better myself.
(sgt_doom's highest praise!)
Elmo gets around.
http://omg.yahoo.com/blogs/a-line/sesame-street-pulls-controversial-katy...
Yeah, I'd love to pull Katy myself, she's smokin'.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1in2C6HYBSQ&NR=1&feature=fvwp
I like the simpler is better explanations, too. We're not selling enough stuff to the world to pay for the stuff we buy so we're broke. Consumers have cut back. Now it's the government's turn to get with the program.
even if i'm right i get killed by inflation. Houston? YOU have a problem.
So did I need all my FRN's being blown away in currency wars stamped triple A by the 3 stooges of rating agencies? moody's, S&P, Fitch!! Are they still in business?
100% DEPT OF GDP IN 2011!!!
BONDCRASH BITSHES!!
National debt = Never was so much owed by so many to so few.
nice
I hear debt slavery is the new black.
thought it was the new red
KISS!
Freaking outstanding article!!!
oh god . . .
we are so screwed
. . . when we have to use Sesame Street and Winnie the Pooh to communicate with our financial wizards.
Awaiting the next installment: Elmo the guillotine operator.
How did you get those congressional barcharts?
CNB PIGGIE
http://williambanzai7.blogspot.com/2010/09/cnb-pork.html
K9Bk, thanks for the casino analogy. Now I understand perfectly well.
Just finished lining up my Nov. 2 ballot choices from nationa level down to town level. If everyone in the country votes as I will do, there will not be many old faces around next year.
I'm with you, Freshman. I wish there was a lever marked "535 Americans selected completely at random."
I'm in favor of a national lottery, wherein if you LOSE, you gotta serve a stint in the Congress or Senate!
Imagine a House and Senate filled with Sarah Palins'? Corporations just dropping by the Senate Hearings with wheelbarrows of CASH. New Cable Channel "Shooting wolves from helicopters" TV.
Vote smarter this time or lose it all.
voting smarter? how could you vote smart with choices like McCain/Obama, etc. (point = they all suck...)
out of 300 million, that's the best we could do? i say no, *we* had nothing to do with it.
we'll do what we can... but the random idea (above) feels more plausible than anything i've seen going down yet. at this point, i would gladly take my chances! heh.
BTW - you could do a great avatar(s) with that handle...
Yes, we do need to vote smarter.
ZERO Republicans.
Zero Tea Party.
More Liberals to put the Corporate Thieves in Jail. On Wall Street and in the Unsurance industry( Rescission: The illegal cancellation of someone's healthcare just because they got sick: FRAUD )
A vote for a Republican is a vote for Wall Street Fraud.
why, when you let the smoke out of an electric gizmo, well, it doesn't work any more.
Keep all smoke inside of your lights, expecially the curly mercury filled PC CFLs. Otherwise, gotta get a hazmat team in.
- Ned
[ed. spelling]