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Must Watch: Stockman Explains To Ratigan How In Thirty Years America Spent Enough Debt To LBO Itself, And Ended Up Bankrupt
After recently debunking the economic "recovery's" flagrantly misrepresented employment data, the OMB's David Stockman makes a third appearance in as many months (previously here and here), this time on Dylan Ratigan. And as always, it is a must see: key soundbite: "We have had a Fed engineered serial bubble, that has created the appearance of wealth, that has caused people to consume beyond their means through borrowing, and that has flushed the income and wealth of our society up to the top, as a result of the Fed turning the financial markets into a casino. These are pure casinos, they are not capital markets, they are not adding to the productive capacity of our economy, they simply are a bunch of robots trading with each other by the millisecond as a result of the Fed giving them zero cost overnight money, and giving them all kinds of hand signals on what to front-run." It is almost as if Stockman reads Zero Hedge... And he continues: "The Fed is destroying prosperity by funding demand that we can't support with earnings and productions, causing massive current accounts deficits and the flow of funds overseas and the build up in China, OPEC and Korea of massive dollar reserves which is a totally unsustainable, unsupportable system, and we are coming near the edge of where that can continue to remain stable." Ironically, Stockman is spot one when he notes that America incurred enough debt to have effectively LBOed itself. The net result, as every PE principal knows all too well, is a husk of an entity, whose most valuable assets have been bled dry. At this point, the last straw for America will be the inevitable rise in interest rates (at some point over the next five years, the Fed and Treasury will have to sell a combined $5 trillion in debt - that alone will destroy the supply/demand equilibrium and send rates surging) which will result in either debt repudiation or outright bankruptcy. The only good outcome is that the great experiment of LBOing America by the kleptocratic elite is coming to its sad conclusion.
Some other facts:
- In 2000, there were 72 million middle-class jobs: manufacturing, construction, FIRE, transportation, etc; today, there are 65 million jobs, we have lost 10% of our middle class supporting jobs. We have replaced these with part-time jobs.
- In 1981 the national debt was $1 trillion. Today, it is $14 trillion. The economy in the same period is 3.5-4 times bigger, the national debt is 14 times bigger.
- Booby-trapping the 2012 election with a the latest set of tax-cuts that expire just days ahead, will panic the White House into doing the wrong decision for the economy once again in another political trade off that delays the inevitable collapse.
Full clip:
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Nice try there, Scarecrow! Everyone knows though that Straw Men have NO BRAINZ! Argue fairly, or not at all!
"What do you suggest we do with those born with the lack of mental or physical capacity to be a "master of the universe?""
Ricardo's Law of Comparative Advantage shows that even disabled or retarded people - or unskilled teens or youths, say - can have a place in the work force and that everyone can be better off as a result. That is, in a free market. But they may indeed have no place in society or future if they are barred from the workforce by government meddling, i.e. minimum wage laws designed to "protect" workers by taking away their opportunites.
And for the totally disabled, say a vegatative person, there is charity. Alas, with 50% or more of my paycheck being stolen by the government, I am financially strapped and have nothing to give. Furthermore, I wouldn't want to be a entrepeneur providing charity services, where I'd have to compete with government-errected monopolies and cope with government red tape. Probably in your opinion it would be OK to rob what little I have left to give it to someone of your choosing.
"Euthanize them? maybe you would like to apply for that job."
If you support minimum wage laws, it is you who are choosing to cripple mankind's freedom and potential with your crackpot economic theories. It is you who is euthanizing people's futures.
If you support kidnapping ("arresting") people because they voluntarily agreed to exchange labor for money in a way you didn't approve of, and then you support shooting them when they resist your unjustified aggression against them, then it is you who support the murder of innocent people. Not I.
F*** YOU for wanting the citizens of this country to be forced to support your illegally hired employees for your benefit! These illegal immigrants will put a stress on any and all social services of the country and will not be paying into the system.
Stupid argument.
I think you missed his point... There should be no "system" for them to burden. America was built on immigration and the desire to work hard to get ahead. It has become a nation of entitlement citizens who want because they are.
Lots of people want to work but there weren't any jobs. Most people would rather be productive. The people who seem to feel entitled are the Banksters.
That is a load of bullshit. Most people do not want to work; just like monkeys if you keep feeding them they will play all day. And there are many bankers that put in 60-100 hours a week of hard work that while they are part of they system didn't create it and are integral parts of their communities without having tried to shovel feed the megabank mortgage/pension/mutual fund/401k/annuity/heloc/freemoney/loose credit bullshit that the other bloodsucking monsters were. Some bankers want to get people money to start a business, save for their kids, get a car so they can get to work or get work period.
There are lazy people and there are hard working people. Some people are dumb and work really fucking hard but are poor and some people are really smart to work little and are rich. It is their ultimate motives that matter most. If the hard worker steals from alzeheimers patients it is irrelevant if they work hard. If a lazy person is a beach comber but uses every penny in their pockets to help a fellow human when they are in need it is irrelevant if they are lazy.
I think it is most disingenuous to say "most people would rather be productive" when there are so many more examples of people that get what they want by not being productive. I know enough people from different economic and social strata to see that individuals are unique unto themselves and people that get what they want/need enough turn lazy as often as not. They turn physically and intellectually lazy as well as emotionally and socially.
People are people. Monkeys are monkeys. I know...jebus says otherwise but...let's go with monkeys for now.
>F*** YOU for wanting the citizens of this country to be forced to support your illegally hired employees for your benefit!
Your statement is nonsense. No one is forced to purchase the goods or services that "illegal" employees produce. If you don't like a business because everyone working there has brown skin, then go somewhere else. Be prepared to pay higher prices for your hatred and ignorance, though. Meanwhile, others will enjoy the benefits of cheap agricultural, landscaping, and hospitality services.
And if it bothers you that the state enslaves you and takes a large portion of your income, then maybe you should blame the state directly and not obssess about all the crap the stolen money gets wasted on. I guess I'd rather have the stolen money go to Mexicans anyway than be spent on blowing up pregnant Iraqi women.
"People don't need special privileges to breathe, to travel, or to work"
Spot on Doc, however if these people travel on the roadways, use emergency rooms or any other Gov service my taxes paid for it. So if you would like to chopper them in and drop them on your land have at it, no problem on your property, I could not agree more, but you keep them off what I paid for capiche? You see, the social contract I signed up for states those other things above, those requires legal standing in this country. Ever check on our neighbors south of the Rio Grande's immigration laws, a little tougher than ours.
The employer is responsible for paying to the gubmint the correct witholding and payroll taxes- and they do. Too much risk to the business to ignore. The "illegals" as you call them are paying taxes. They get no deductions and file no returns. What a deal for lazy Americans.
So the wonderfull democracy to the south has a tough immigration policy? You really want to become more like Mexico ?
Buenas suerte.
You cannot give Govt. Officials any rights that you do not have yourself.
Virtue can only exist when there is FREE choice.
Evil does not arise only from evil people, but also from good people who
tolerate the initiation of force as a means to their own ends. In this
manner, good people have empowered evil throughout History.
"Spot on Doc, however if these people travel on the roadways"
If the immigrants are on private roads, then the private road owner rightfully sets the rules and may have a claim of trespass against them. If they are "public" roads, owned by a criminal organization and paid for with stolen money, then it's not clear that the criminal organization has any rightful say. To wrongfully take or use a man's property is theft; to use a thief's stolen property cannot be called theft.
In other words there is no social contract or construct, I would say this conversation has ended as I am not aware that my city which has private roads (which all travel) is a criminal orgnaization. It is a collection of tax payers that expect value for their tax. You say that a non-citizen has exactly the same rights as a citizen.. What is the point of the whole charade in this case anarchy, dissolution?
Yeah! Let's hurt all those brown people who were born in other places! How dare they cross an imaginary line to do such evil... like providing honest services!!
That kind of thinking demands a tyrant to implement it. Keep it up and you may get one.
GET OVER IT. Your problems belong to you, not to the Other.
i don't care what flavor anyone is.
so, i went into a local restaurant the other night to get a burrito. on my way out, i see some guy get out of his nice, new ride, with wife and ...five... children in tow. i estimated the guy was probably ten years younger than i, from the looks of it. it struck me based on my local demographic that he was living quite large given his financial reality.
and here i am, never sunk money into a house because i knew the market was a fraud. dumped my life savings into PMs and i live very financially responsibly. i never had kids because i didn't want to have to rely on the government to fund their upbringing...! i put myself through college. i have no debt, and have been doing most everything 'right' in my eyes. at least from a fiscal perspective.
seeing someone gaming the system as hard as they can - and it's not just this guy - makes you realize how far this entitlement society has gone. knowing i am financing poor life decisions (who's to say they are poor, right?), and then realizing that there is a strong possibility that those gaming the system are illegal on top of it all? and there are millions of people are being paid out benefits?
now, i may have assumed far too much, and i could be way off base about this guy and his situation. however, i feel the train of thought still has its merit.
Now add to all those indignations the really big one: his 5 kids, 25 grandkids, 125 greatgrandkids, etc. will get the country that the kids you never had should've inherited.
My plan is to have lots of kids too and pay for them myself, of course. But the future only belongs to those groups that can reproduce...
So, how long a pole did you need to jump to this conclusion??
I could really warm up to this argument if the brown people just to the South of us did not kick the shit out of the brown people to the South of them for wanting to emigrate there.. Check Mexico's immigration laws, open your eyes to the reality of limited resources and the reasons for Nation states..
And the prize for consuming those resources as quick as they can be mined goes to?
Every single human who has ever lived?
Sshh, the malthusians have arrived at the party. Uh, oh dog food ran out, quick kill a puppy or something, ..
The real sad part is that they speak of it as though it hasn't already happened, as though it is something preventable. "If only enough people would advocate for the proper solution." Hope and fear, hope and fear.... hope.... and fear....
These are all spot-on points. In addition, I would also argue that US companies themselves have hollowed-out the country's production capacity in the interest of short-term profit and all-important quarterly results. A large chunk of what US companies manufacture is manufactured abroad, which although admittedly it adds to the company's margins, it also diminishes the ability of the country to produce meaningful jobs that produce a strong middle-class and all the peripheral benefits that go along with that, including the ability to invest in strong, growing companies that have a vested interest in the country's welfare, since their expensive manufacturing facilities would be located here. In fact, the drive to go public has in large part caused a lot of this mess. We have too many public companies that have no business being public. In my view, going public ruins a lot of companies because it brings them into the orb of large financial cartels, drives them to concentrate on short-term results, and forces them to grow or die. I find the old saw "grow or die" to be bullshit. All of this ties in to what Stockman is talking about. What we have done, as Americans, is to force the world into a type of globalization that basically only we wanted (on our terms), which hollowed out our economy, and drove the now-public financial cartels to find profits in ways that have devastated this country. Now, everyone is on the hook for it. It was a giant LBO...but the US did not go private, it went massively public with an economy with no core infrastructure, profits based on ephemeral services and fees and a management morality that would make PT Barnum blush. We have met the enemy...and the enemy is us. Et Tu Uncle Sam?
I chuckle at how willingly the Democrats are to become the party of higher taxes. This is the issue they put their foot down on. But when it comes to stopping all the fraud and graft in government they're deafly silent.
Obama will promise higher taxes next campaign and all his empty headed followers will cheer loudly.
"I chuckle at how willingly the Democrats are to become the party of higher taxes... But when it comes to stopping all the fraud and graft in government they're deafly silent."
Since they support robbery, supporting fraud and graft as well makes sense.
Well... yeah!
Obama - the prefect president for people that don't even know how to feed their kids
I know this may sound trite but it bears repeating. Dollar cost averaging into a flat market will give you a net positive return. In your college savings accounts and your retirement accounts often choices are limited. Just hold your nose and dollar cost average those accounts. If you are in your twenties you should start investing now and pray for a serious bear market sometime in the near future. it will be the best thing that could happen to you. You will realize it when you are fifty.
Were you born a complete idiot, or did you just evolve that way?
For someone who has been a member of ZH for a grand total of 11 days, I'm wondering if your brain has somehow developed a major tumor over the last 24 hours?
Just curious.
Boy, that is good advice, now I am off to buy some bobby socks for my baby, they will go great with her poodle skirt. Yep, just driving to Wards in my 56' Chevy....
The following dollar cost averaging commercial brought to you by Camel, great taste in every puff, 9 of 10 Doctors recommend them over other brands..
If you’re tired of being robbed by Bankster’s and Politicians that line their pockets at the expense of the PEOPLE, then watch the YouTube video “Join the WAVE” at (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HMnI8X6rvk).
Fight tyranny and help the movement to go viral!! It’s time to take OUR COUNTRY BACK!!
by Anonymous
Inspiring. It is true that a class losing it's wealth due to fraud, it is wise for them to stand up when you still? have the ability to, before the strife.
The Answer: Start using digital gold currencies.
www.dgcmagazine.com
Thanks for the link. I looked around. Are there any that link back to PayPal - that would be useful...
Go shopping everyone, deficits don't matter
Brains...............BRAAIINSSS!!!!
Don't matter until that currency you use to shop is crushed under the weight of debt.
"I think we're coming near the edge of where that can remain stable."
I take away that the FED is funding OPEC. They are thru their Monetary policy's creating increasing prices for Oil that is transferring wealth to the Oil Countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran etc.
Great so we are sending all of the Money Bennie Boy is printing to Arab Nations.
someone has to fund the entity that justifies the
astronomic defense budget. complex if you will.
call it a way of life thing.
extend and pretend america! extend and pretend...
A good supply of REALITY....doesnt bode well for the "Thought POLICE/MEDIA".....URBAN AMERICA and their masters.....the MEDIA.....are in for a dreadful realization...........SOON. I wish my property was in North Dakota....plenty of OIL, Cattle, Pheasant, & Deer to live off!!!!!!!!!!!..............Final Analysis is this will soon turn into a FU--ING REWIND OF THE CLOCK TO 1872!!!!!
Yeehaw!
Leave it to the Republicans to consistently ignore their own advice and keep shoveling cash upstream to the high echelons of the money class.
If the middelclass and poor do not have a stake in the country, don't expect them to like you or save your bacon.
Like any ponzi scheme, you need new people and a large middleclass or cemter pocket to shovel and expand the ponzi.
If the republicans blow up the ponzi, then all they have is worthlessness i. Dollars. Or they can go with their natural instincts and go completely autocratic on us.
Unfortunately, most ponzis are based on cashing out in fiat curremy. Where are you going to go if the ponzi scheme is based on the global Economic scale.
And thanks to the spineless Democrats, they do that same old democrat head in the sand routine on the budget and the overall malaise. It will all just work out.
Plus, of course, in the end they are all crooks in the PONZI mechanism.
Fucking wealthy don't understand that they are in a closed ecosystem of slaves,upwardly mobile,bourgoisie class and rich.
Bammy says it must pass so the middle class do not have their taxes raised, I must have misunderstood the deep intellect of the TOTUS.
Well, I guess a deathbed confession is better than none...
Stockman is no fucking saint--specifically making his large fortune in just the credit-driven PE explosion he now decries so loudly.
Hypocrisy is nauseating, and I hope he really does wind up in whatever circle Dante has designated for his kind.
+1
You can't handle the truth. So, as you are typically in form . . .
Just piss on the messenger.
Dump on the messenger's politics so as to conveniently ignore his message.
Yup.
You da Man!
Agree!
" THE FED IS DESTROYING PROSPERITY" D.S.
they are stealing, transferring wealth and value.
the two mandates. but no one sees it cause the
wizard is concealed behind his curtain. it is show biz.
show biz kids!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvAO3fr5Q4c
They are doing more than just stealing wealth.
With their fiduciary meddling, they disrupt the market price system, distort the structure of production, cause malinvestments, engender boom-bust cycles, prop up engines of wealth destruction, and encourage indebtedness and profligacy.
so it is true.."they don't give a fuck about anybody else."
Right on !!
Is "Dancing with the Stars" on tonight, I sure wouldn't want to miss it.
Nah, I think its the little people finale or some other can't miss show
Dancing with The Ben is on Thursday.
Don't miss it.
Harry Wanger and Leo Kolivakis certainly won't.
Their lips will be hanging on every government scrotum available.
The video will likely be excellent.
what's amazing to me is just how numb people are when it comes to this shit.
why do i feel like i am in the extreme when i believe the actions of the fed and their banking constituents is criminal?
you can't entirely blame the people for being so subdued. they are constantly being assaulted on multiple levels, while being suckled by the credit line teet as a means of satiation in the midst of it all.
it would be nearly impossible to reverse the current momentum.
There are benefits to being sheeple - no worries, live for today the gubmit will take care of me tomorrow
Please don't make excuses for "the people".
The people brought this all on themselves and deserve every single bit of what ensues.
There certainly seems to be a lot of scorn directed to the American public, often referred to as the "sheeple" etc. I think that most people (especially if they have kids)are so fucking busy trying to make ends meet that they don't have the time or energy to keep up with what is really going on. I wonder how many people here are trying to raise a family, or are more likely single guys who log eight hours a day of internet time.
And let's not underestimate the systematic dumbing down and lowering the expectations of the American worker. This has been going on since the late 70s. Between that, and the bought-and-paid for mainstream media, most people don't have a clue.
Nobody told anyone to go have fucking babies. I don't care personally if someone is overwhelmed because they brought on responsibilities to themselves without understanding what those responsibilites were. That is one reason why contracts aren't legal for children...because they can't handle shit. Raising a family is not a fucking right and it's not a privelege it is an act of nature like shitting and I don't go making my shit other people's business so their kids should be none of mine. Again...monkeys can make kids...so can cockroaches.
And dumbed down workers since the 70s are you fucking kidding? What about every technological job ever since then like...I don't know...IT and anything related to computers and the internet...or maybe medicine...graphics and movies effects...telecomunications...for fucks sake can you really believe the shit you type?
It's what you LEARN after you THINK you know everything that counts. Know everything yet?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZJoCfgAEuE&feature=player_embedded#
And I thought extending the Bush tax cuts cost $4 trillion. MSM should stop talking about just what it costs to raise the taxes on the rich. Ratigan should be pushing to let all tax cuts expire if he is truly worried about deficits.
The left has been whining for a decade how evil the Bush tax cuts were. Fine. Let them ALL expire. The left has never suggested over the past decade that they like 80% of the Bush tax cuts, but just not 20% of them.
Ratigan = douche bag of Pelosi
you got a little koolaide on your lip.
clear critical tinking isn't easy at first, but we will talk you down.
Peter what did the acid look like?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDaKag7GZlo
Bob and Penis - two dickheads. Thanks for your observations, guys.
Well reasoned response to the Bush tax cuts the left called awful for ten years and now they want to keep 80% of them -- absurd.
Let them all expire.
Right...pay NO ATTENTION to all that spending going on -- it'll burn itself out.
Raise the taxes to 100% on the rich dammit! That'll get the old economy crankin!
Member for 2 weeks and what like 15 posts on one thread? How much do you get paid per post to troll?
Why does no one ever talk about the corporate tax being 35% - one of the highest in the world? Maybe these corporations would keep some stuff here if they were charged a little less?
The other thing that is hardly talked about is how fat so many people are. They wouldn't last five fucking minutes if they didn't have some government job or can't be fired because of some ACLU bullshit action. I think there should be a weight tax just like on cigarettes because I really don't feel like paying taxes to pay for the health care of a bunch of useless fat diabetic slugs. Charles Darwin must be spinning in his grave.
I don't know where they get those pants for those fat bitch deputies who couldn't catch a fucking cold at an elementary school. Nice new world we live in. It's time to get real folks and if it does come to having to use your body physically for a few days, hopefully a lot of people have their own defibulator already pre-hooked up and set on stun.
Most large corporations pay no US taxes at all. The structure of the corporate tax is a gift to the multi-nationals - one more moat around their business plans.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/16/news/companies/ge_7000_tax_returns/
I believe obesity is a result of the PTB's desire to dumb down the population - see the documentary Food Inc. Not an excuse for being fat, but the system is performing as it was intended too...
I wonder if the tax rate was lower, would GE pay some tax here rather than taking the loss. I know what you are saying though. Maybe a flat tax rate is the best option.
It's up to us to take care of our bodies and I don't buy that the government can make me 300lbs. I've got 5 employees and none of them are overweight. We work hard, get paid well, and take pretty good care of ourselves. I get sick when I go to the mall or Wallmart and see how badly our society has fallen.
With the Supreme Court decision that corporations are people too...maybe the Worldwide Tax Net that applies to US Citizens could be applied to corporations...get a deduction for your 12.5% Irish tax but pay the rest...Google.
Low Balling Operations
Tyler - can you please start a thread on this 2000 page omnibus 1.1 trillion sprending bill with 10,000 earmarks in it? think this is what spooked the bond market late in session....
"Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?"
I think you're looking for "Peace on Earth, Good Will to Wankers," a few posts below. It's both beautiful and heartwarming.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-peace-earth-good-will-wankers
I'm already making preparations for what I'm going to do with my
windfall PM profits after this unfortunate situation all shakes out. I've decided to become a philanthrapist and humanitarian. Currently I'm drafting a polite invitation to Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. With my soon to be elavated status I'm making room for them at my table so we can discuss ways to help the 3rd world masses by distributing birth control (cough. cough.) I mean vacines for disease. Also I'm interested in working with scientists from the good folks at the CDC to help develop and promote new fluoride compounds for drinking water to subdue (ehem. hork. cha. hmmmm. La.) Scuse me. Got a really bad frog in my throat here. I mean help children fight cavities. Unlike you selfish bastards at Zerohedge I'm not just
interested in money. I'm here to help too.
Absolutely, he gets it. An excellent delivery by all concerned. Stockman has been getting a lot of attention with his clear /concise to the point explanations of the current circumstances and how we got here and what we need to do to correct things. A long time ago I thought he was a tithead, now I know I was. Funny how a little time can change our thinking ?
"Crazy! I mean like so many positive waves maybe we can't lose! You're on!"
How about this for a contrary opinion...
First off, the fed will never sell the paper they are buying, so there will be no bond market crash. Ask yourself why the fed needs to make a profit or limit losses.
Second, the US is not Ireland or Greece. The deficit won't matter for a very long time, because our trading partners have no choice but to fund us. If they force austerity on the US it is mutually assured destruction. Possibly in 30 years it will matter, but not until Chindia has a middle class consumer base that can replace the US. The US taxpayer is only paying about half what the gov spends. Until that punch bowl is taken away it is like a free lunch. I contend it will never be paid back, so enjoy it as long as it lasts. Lard on all the free health care and let China pay for it.
"Don't hit me with them negative waves so early in the morning. Think the bridge will be there and it will be there. It's a mother, beautiful bridge, and it's gonna be there. Ok?"
Actually, you may be on to something.
Yes, nobody is exposing the PORK in the tax cut bill. The reps and Tparty are way behind the curve and will lose lots of credibility if they let this slide. Tired of beating up on only donkeys, lets be fair and equitable with our disdain. Take no prisoners or wounded !
I keep seeing all manner of refernces to the republicans do this and the democrats do that. PLEEEEEASE realize that is part of the game and illusions. They are nearly all criminals one way or the other, they simply come in different flavors to accommodate all.
We should simply "defund" the US government - with a well organized repudiation of all federal income tax payments in 2011. There are not enough IRS agents to enforce collection. We simply need to show the federal elite cartel that we are not obligated to relinquish our property rights any further to fund this pathetically fraudulent monopolistic monetary system any longer.
I'm in favor of a tax strike as well, so long as enough other tax payers man up too!
+1
Sorry to be off topic, I'm rather new here, have no other place to turn for this info, but can anybody confirm for me the NYSE 10 week moving average rising? I'm trying to verify the Hindenburg Omen, and believe the other criteria are met, No?
http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=$NYMO&p=D&b=5&g=0&id=p20489603975
David Laughingstockman? People really listen to him? From the Reagan-astrological-administration? Oh, the credibility!
Really, no kidding, huh. It's almost as incredible as those folks claiming how their places of employment are hiring like crazy - in fact can't even find enough qualified people. Yeah that's the ticket.
among the unemployable, eh? sorry about that.
No, switched jobs in the midst, but too many friends and relatives still grabbing their 99 weeks worth or working multiple part time jobs and still not making what they were. Union electrician for example - hard to make a living doing that when NOTHING IS GETTING BUILT.
OK, in the building trades that seems to be true. Though I have relatives who are electricians and they are getting along fine. Mostly with hospital/medical construction now (& remodeling). But they are working. In engineering (electrical, software, mechanical), we are having difficulty finding good people in the US to fill openings. Sad but true.
Saul of Tarsus also had an epiphany on the road to Damascus -- people are allowed to change their minds in light of new information, oh Cynical One!
I thought it was so telling that Ratigan put up a chart at 4:10 reading
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE: 9.8%
REAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE: 17%
...and this passed without comment! Reality is now accepted normality!
Lies not working so well anymore?
Figure someone had to have observed that Stockman was right there at the start of all this nonsense, of borrowing our way to phony prosperity, and now seeks redemption by calling it as it really is. He's right of course: "trickle down", the theory behind the notion that the rich should keep their fucking tax cuts after effectively fleecing the country due to their monetarily-funded oversized influence on laws and taxes, was born by the Great Obstetrician, Ronald Reagan, the modern era's latest servant and vassal of the super-rich, whose will Stockman carried out.
The only way this ends is with blood and tears. If I were rich, I'd hire someone with lots of firepower - Marie Antoinette found out the hard way what happens when this sort of thing goes on too long.
Wow, all the negativity - really heavy - like a Ned Zeppelin perhaps.......
We could cut US federal income taxes for the people who really need the most help -- the bottom half of US income earners (albeit among the top quintile in the world).
Oh....never mind....they don't pay any US federal income taxes. Nuts.
Crank up the class warfare the liberals want.
Please, if there is a God, tell me I don't have to wait five years for this fucking ponzi to implode. I don't think I can take this for another 260 weeks. Somehow "tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies" doesn't do it for me anymore.
In the video he said the Bush tax cuts were the biggest fiscal mistake ever because they caused big deficits, and yet he never mentioned the possibility of cutting spending. He didn't really back up his claims either, and thus he is not going to convert anyone. I guess my expectations were too high from reading the comments here first.
Cut spending? Ah hahahahahaha
The bad news for anyone "hiring" protection is that you cannot "buy" loyalty. The protection may just decide that it is easier to "take" than to earn - and what are you going to do about it anyways?
Honestly, this stuff just cracks me up. Leaders that don't lead (on either side), people that believe they "earned" their wealth - (as though they were building and selling things with their own two hands) - and not just telling others to go out and do it. Folks believing that somehow they are better than others because they have leased a Mercedes...
This just will not end well.
Our politicians simply can't think past tomorrow. It's just unbelievable how little of a spine they have. To get re-elected next term, they earmark spending for their state and give tax breaks to the rich that decide elections. As long as politicians are able to make a life-long career out of it, they will sacrafice the entire country just to get re-elected again.
Forget the politicians - let's talk about our "Captains of Industry". ROFLMAO
I suppose I just can't get past the image of the various CEO's that got dragged into court (i.e. Skilling, Koslowski) under oath - "no, I had no idea how we actually made money - I just kind of go from meeting to meeting and provide inspiration..."
The current banksters, credit raters and their political minions could at least provide some entertainment in exchange for the money, backstop, etc. that they have been given.
The guy in charge of Enron had a PhD in Calisthenics. The Guy in Charge of the Federal reserve has a PhD in Economics. They both drop the soap the same way and want others to know how to do it right.
So, what dya have in mind, Gladitorial Games?
“I invest in anything that Bernanke can’t destroy, including gold, canned beans, bottled water and flashlight batteries."
Stockman is the ultimate "convert." This is the guy who sold this bullshit to the American public when Reagan was in the White House. I was there. I remember. He literally put in plug lines the magic $40.0 savings that never came about to show a blanced buget as the result of "supply side" effects of the Reagan tax cuts. It was and is total nonsense. Now he is on the air claiming that it was all the fault of the BushII tax cuts. Truth is that Stockman should be part of the group who are rounded up when this is all over. He is just trying to make us all forget that he was the original sales guy for this crap. Now he is a covert telling us that cutting taxes really do not create more revenues. YIKES.
Actually, the Laffer curve is a valid concept. If only the Reagan administration had the 'nads to cut Decepticratic spending as well, this mess would be further up the road somewhere.
Niall Ferguson thinks the collapse of the US is inevitable very soon.
http://fora.tv/2010/07/28/Niall_Ferguson_Empires_on_the_Edge_of_Chaos#Ni...
Maybe the Democrats' strategy is to delay the final collapse until the Republicans get back in control in 2012...
I love David stockman, Tomas Hoening, Doug Noland and of course Tyler Durden.
From HP "Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank President Thomas Hoenig again expressed concerns that the program could destabilize the economy, the Fed's statement showed. He has dissented at every Fed policy meeting this year"
Thomas has seen his past errors with the fed he now see's clearly
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
The rest of the FED is still on the slave boat, still making errors, creating the problems that will create the final crisis of confidence.
Meanwhile... looking back to the interview with David Stockman.
Ahhh, is this THE Stockman who got shown the door for 'inconvenient' truth?
Haven't there been a number of truth casualties in the various administrations
since then .... such as that guy early on in the bush admin who had the nerve
to forecast that the Iraq War might cost as much as $50 Billion.
Oh....... no way, .......... $50 billion? Get the F... out of here.
Inconceivable!
Government LIES. Government LIES. Goverment LIES.
Hey ... did it register will y'all with what Stockman sees coming next?
Higher interest rates.
Surely that should strike terror into Ben's pitiful, sorry ass of a soul.
As soon as they show up.. Ben gets to his 'Marie Antoinette" moment.
Why does everyone talk about our national debt being some impending threat???
The full debt load DOES NOT come due all at once!
I just don't understand how Hyper-Inflation can happen? Even if you monetize and put into circulation 14 trillion dollars of bennies, that still is only 15% inflation (hardly Depressionary) we had it for a couple months when gas went to the moon, already...
How can the "worst" still be in front of us?
Read up on Weimar Germany and find some "understanding", then.
Our problem is not revenue, our problem is spending, but there's no sign that anyone in DC is going to address the spending.
In typical fashion no one in DC will address anything relevant until the crisis is at the doorstep. And this time there will be no easy money / credit creation solution to fall back on because the creator of all that paper money is the origin of the crisis.
The worst is still ahead because all of the risk of the rotten paper has now been forced onto the backs of the tax payers and their wallets, and TBH there's nothing left in the middle-class wallet.
I like seeing Stockman, but man that blowhard Ratigan is so difficult to take for more 3-4 seconds in a row. Loud huff-puff didactic rhetoric and how many times he forgets it's not morning radio and he can SHUT THE FUCK UP every once in awhile.
Amazing the man is successful as a teevee pundit. It would be so terrific if someone who wasn't painful to listen to would rip off some of Ratigan's content and ethical posture.
this is the third time, (a charm?) for stockman. The problem is we've heard variations on this theme before. David Walker? Concord Coalition? Problem is, markets keep moving higher.
Talk of federal spending reductions? Suddenly we have nearly another $1T stimulus bill, filled with $8B in earmarks, and a proposed federal budget that weighs in at a cool $1Trillion. Even for someone who lives inside the Beltway, I'm having trouble coming to grips with the fact that Trillion is the new Billion.
But we're not done...
All the talk about the Fed's balance sheet, and Ron Paul challenging Ben? The Fed comes out on 60 Minutes and dares everyone to stop them. Today's release had virtually no changes in its statement or its plan to keep pumping the system with a flood of dollars.
No one can even begin to explain where all this money is coming from and going to...but somehow the Fed is going to be able to pull it back in like some kind of yoyo.
Yet, I dare anyone here to short this thing...
Tyler, keep pressing on derivatives, they really are the next black swan. Too bad Stockman can't explain that
So anyways... I have 5, count that.. FIVE!!!>>> Gold to CASH stores within a 12 mile radius from my home. I live in a middle-class North-East suburb of Chicago.
Gold is a bubble folks... I am not being sarcastic.
Literally... the only new businesses have been jewlery or Gold/Silver Depots....
BUBBLES!
It's fascinating that you think that's what that means...
If by fascinating you mean dumbest shit ever then it is the most fascinating thing I have ever heard.
A wise man learns MORE from a fool than a fool will learn from a wise man. He who has ears...
Debt Repudiation or Bankruptcy take your pick. I think it will be both, first it will repudiation and when that happens to one or more countries holding our debt everybody will bolt and drop dollars and we will be in bankruptcy.
If you really want to know the direction of the U.S., look to California, whether trying to predict fashion trends, new vernacular or financial trends.
And THAT, my friends, spells D-E-F-A-U-L-T.
In fact, it may already have, IOU style.
There is so much bullcrap and diarrhea in this video I cannot see much value in watching it to try and gather a few specs of real insight.
I am so sick of this peddled crap about "you cannot afford the bush tax cuts". So if I lose my job or get a cut in my salary but continue my same spending habits am I allowed to say "I cannot afford my income loss?". Further, do I then idiotically justify borrowing money to supplement my lost income so I can maintain my insane spending levels?
NO, that is beyond idiotic, I have to cut my spending and live within my means, only the left assumes that spending cannot be touched that it is sacred or some other asinine mentally deluded brain f&$#ed assumption.
Second, the CBO scored the $900 billion with this same stupid reasoning, and this idiot peddles it without shame. There is concluded by the CBO to be about $500 billion more that would be collected if the taxes were allowed to increase (but this is based on the same software models that Al Gore used to predict that our planet would burn up a couple years ago...ooops). There is some $300-400 billion in new pork spending. That is actual real spending not delusional leftwing nut job idiotic mathematical computer voodoo zodiac simulation software modeling conclusions. It is funny how some people think voodoo or astrological predictions are somehow different than modern computer modeling. I believe the track record on predictions is better using chicken blood and bones to predict things than CBO models. Garbage in, garbage logic, garbage out.
Hey I just wrote this great computer model that predicts exactly what the stock market will do, just send me $1000 bucks and I'll give you a copy, better yet just make me president you won't regret it, trust me. If you don't then you must hate your country and hate your fellow Americans because you are depriving them of guaranteed prosperity from my program.
Then you are sick of your own fantasy and delusion. Because that is not the situation. The situation is a person who has tons of obligations and instead of meeting on the obligations, prefer to slash on the revenues to render the obligations harder and harder to meet.
Not sure it would work on individual levels: tell you boss to keep your wages for a few months then tell people you are in debt to that you can not pay back because your revenues are down. Might be worth a try. Pretty sure it is fraud but you can never know before trying.
Oh shove your crap back up your delusional ass. The situation is not a person who has tons of natural obligations, the situation would be more similar to a spouse who has gone out of control spending and spending and spending and then expecting the other half to take on more jobs to pay for the obsessive, criminally isane spending.
Oh and I would not tell my boss anything; the personal out of control spending derangements is not a responsibility of my boss you retard. Get a clue!
Oh and also, the left controlled lame duck congress is not trying to shove a trillion plus ominbus bill in the last minute before their criminal asses are tossed out of congress on January loaded with thousands and thousands of pork laden ear marks that even make Farmer John marvel. Oh but we cannot "afford" to keep the current tax rates the same, we don't have a spending problem, no this is all normal! Get a clue you retard.
I am ready for a divorce and the subsequent fight in the divorce proceedings, I have had it with people like you on the liberal left in this country, who once had one saving grace that they stated they were against the war/nation building racket. But one had to always tolerate or look past the left's insane love affair with their Marxist and fascist big government nutjob religon. But it turns out that the truth is that the left is only against war run by Republicans and are completely fine when they are running the war racket show. The wars were so intolerable on a daily basis when Bush was in charge but now silence. So their one grace is gone and nothing is left but their idiotic Marxist religon and separation of church and state does not apply to themselves of course.
Why is Stockman talking about math and reality? Just go toke up with Ben Bernanke and visualize the fake fantasy of how this all works out.....
Stockman didn't get the memo. The four Republican members of the bi-partisan Financial Crisis Commission just decided to issue their own report because the Democrats on the panel wouldn't agree to the following:
During a private commission meeting last week, all four Republicans voted in favor of banning the phrases "Wall Street" and "shadow banking" and the words "interconnection" and "deregulation" from the panel's final report, according to a person familiar with the matter and confirmed by Brooksley E. Born, one of the six commissioners who voted against the proposal.
Full article on Huff & Puff
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/14/financial-crisis-panel-wall-street_n_796839.html
"I invest in anything that Bernanke (The Bernank) can't destroy including gold, canned beans, bottled water and flashlight batteries..." David Stockman [parenthesis mine]
The Reagan amnesty and the millions of indigent diabetic Socialist immigrant voters that it delivered had more to do with America going bankrupt than anything.
CA is exhibit "A".
Reagan literally threw us under the bus for political expediency, thanks for nuthin Gipper.
Immigrant's are NOT the cause of our financial woes... what rock did you crawl out from?
I would like to short Swiss Franc against Brazilian Real. Anyone knows how can this be done? Thanks!
I know its off topic, but i thought here would be someone who knows how to do this.
Lissen up:
It's real simple. Government can do nothing but add liquidity to the economy. Nothing.
There are too many people, being made obsolete by technology, efficiency, and other creations, inventions, and robotics (even securities are being traded by robots) to employ. Therefore, employment as we have come to know it is disappearing at an ever increasingly rapid rate.
Period.
A new paradigm is aborning and has been for decades. Somehow those who can not find work because there is less and less work to be found, must have a way of getting the things they need to survive.
Unless there are a whole buncha new entrepeneurs inventing industries that employ billions of people pretty f'ing fast---and good luck with that scenario---the existing global population will either have to disappear in a 'moving' pandemic, OR be given money, or 'earn' money at do-nothing jobs.
There are tens of millions of jobs right now that are completely unproductive in the classic sense----tax accountants, attorneys, franchises that exploit those functions like H & R Block, government jobs in the millions that essentially do nothing but create other do-nothing jobs....and many more to come. That is why government jumps on stuff like 'airport security' that we all know will do nothing to stop the next tragedy.
Does no one see this but Anony???
i see it too. the miracle of techno fixes and the advantages
of industrialization and unintended consequences meets biology.
extend and pretend is not a viable strategy at this stage of the "game".
I am all for tax cuts however there has to be a paln to pay for the deficit. Like I don't know,cutting spending across the board 49%. However this is not the case we will have a 900 billion dollar deficit next year plus the democraps have a 1.1 trillion dollar spending plan for 2011. However many people think it cannot happen here. "WE ARE AMERICA HISTORY AND THE LAWS OF ECONOMICS AND FINANCE DO NOT APPLY TO US !"
I am all for tax cuts however there has to be a paln to pay for the deficit. Like I don't know,cutting spending across the board 49%. However this is not the case we will have a 900 billion dollar deficit next year plus the democraps have a 1.1 trillion dollar spending plan for 2011. However many people think it cannot happen here. "WE ARE AMERICA HISTORY AND THE LAWS OF ECONOMICS AND FINANCE DO NOT APPLY TO US !"
Cut federal taxes 100%.
Cut federal government 100%.
Anyone who seriously thinks the dollar is going to collapse should be planning on leaving the country, not staying and shooting it out. Secondly, what good will gold do in this situation? Will you pay for bread at the corner store with a Krugerand? Will the local gas station be accepting gold dust in lieu of cash? As in other countries with collapsed economies, another currency will be accepted if and when dollars become worthless...Canadian dollars, for example. Even barter is more likely given the average man's inability to test gold for purity.
The dollar will collapse.
And I will be permanently gone within 4 months.
Anyone with half a brain should start planning now!
gold for bread in zimbabwe.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ubJp6rmUYM