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?
And now Mr. Bernanke as Chef - Errrrr de BOOM de BOOM
Oh that is just toooo good. Every time I see or hear Bernanke I will be thinking of the swedish chef. "First we put the Chickie in the pottie..." I guess the poor bastards with the "upside down" mortages and no jobs are Beaker.
Keep It Simple
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.
One of their main strategies, if it was kept simple then everyone would see it. Obfuscation is the dishonest mans tool.
Keep it even simpler, chart debt vs GDP.
It sure feels strange to agree with Greenspan. Strangely, he's turning into one of the few mainstream "sages" who are warning of the next crash. Well I'd rather cut spending, but knowing that won't happen, tax increases would be a lot better than a fiscal crisis.
http://keynesianfailure.wordpress.com/2010/09/24/why-this-time-qe-really-will-spur-inflation/
Budget Gap Means Extending Tax Cuts a Bad Idea, Greenspan Says
By Courtney Schlisserman
Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- It’s more important for the U.S. to cut its budget deficit than to extend tax cuts currently set to expire at the end of this year, former Federal Reserve Governor Alan Greenspan said in an interview on PBS.
“The budget deficit problem, I believe, is far more dangerous than most of us contemplate on a day-to-day basis,” Greenspan said in an interview broadcast on PBS television’s “Newshour.” While low interest rates have made it easy for the government to sell bonds, “assuredly they’re not going to stay here.”
Taxes and spending are dominating the congressional agenda with less than two months before elections that will determine control of the House and Senate. Democrats and Republicans’ main dispute is over who should be covered by an extension, with the former wanting to continue lower rates for individual income up to $200,000 and up to $250,000 for couples filing jointly, and the latter wanting to keep the tax rates for all brackets.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday said the House may vote in the new week on extending the cuts, many of which were supported by Greenspan in 2001. Greenspan was Fed Chairman from 1987 to 2006. At the time the cuts were enacted, the federal government operated with a surplus, and Greenspan told Congress he didn’t think the cuts would lead to a deficit.
While eliminating the tax cuts now “will have a negative impact” on the economy, it will not have a “major” influence, he said. The choice between lower taxes and higher debt “is a tradeoff between bad and worse.”
If the U.S. makes a mistake by trying to reduce the deficit too quickly, “that’s a very reparable problem,” Greenspan said. The threat of expanding government debt beyond the country’s ability to borrow, opens “very dangerous possibilities,” he said.
In the evening ceremony chanel bags,chanel handbags sale as the first high-level chanel designer handbags custom Chinese star chanel bags prices uk XuQing alone in Paris – 2010 Shanghai chanel bags online uk,chanel bags uk online shopping early series dress coach outlet as ceremony. coach outlet store is Karl Lagrange coach outlet online the anfield fantasy coach outlet 2010 is 30-40 in Shanghai outlet 2010 coach handbags,coach handbags oulet China’s amorous feelings chanel 2.55 handbags,chanel handbags black different dress.