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Observations On The Road To Serfdom And An Open Thread
Due to some upcoming travel, posting over the next few days will be somewhat sporadic. We will attempt to provide recap thoughts on any major developments, although we have a sense the task will be pretty much comparable to the job of a weatherman in San Diego: "The market was... up. Back to you." Please use this post as an open thread for items of relevance. We leave you with this video in which Bruce Caldwell, a Professor of Economics and the Director of the Center for the History of Political Economy at Duke University and expert "Austrian," discusses a very relevant topic for our day and age: Friedrich Hayek's observations on the Road to Serfdom.
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Excellent! No squid with that indictment???
Toil and trouble, a bullisht bubble, the cops at the door? Hey, hey, stock's goin' double!
This is a fascinating case and we will have to see how it plays out. Commune di Milano are trying to make out they were duped by the banks, but if you actually look at the local statutes, they very cleverly drafted laws that enabled them to use structured derivative overlays to obtain upfront cash benefits but defer losses until later. They may not have been aware of how lucrative the trades were for the banks, but you should kind of be able to link the amount of attention you get from banks to how much money they are making out of it. I suspect they knew they were taking a risk on the path of future interest rates, but also thought, if it goes against us, let's make sure we have a excuse to challenge this in court.
copy
I feel the withdrawal already. What shall I do with my time????
*scratches balls*
*burps*
*falls asleep*
*repeat*
Because I'm in a different time zone, my recommendation might seem out of place: a good Milano salami, aged parmesan, and a cold Prosecco. It ain't so bad, and takes one's mind off of Bernanke, Geithner and Dow 36000.
Chindit13: it makes me salivate already...
Read this biopsy from Bloomberg and ask yourself the question, "Why?" Take the time to examine their motives.
The US Government is racing to pass an $875 billion bill, that is more complicated than a human mind can calculate, despite the polls that show public opinion is overwhelmingly against them, using a mechanism that would “deem” the legislation passed without a full vote, even though there are a lot of people who don’t want to vote for it.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? WHY?
· Congressional Democrats are RACING to finish work on an overhaul of the U.S. health system before they leave Washington for a two-week recess on March 26.
· Democrats are trying to pass the $875 billion bill that calls for the biggest health-care changes in four decades despite the polls that show public opinion is overwhelmingly against them.
· Each time there is a change, the CBO has to run the numbers through a complicated computer model because “the interactive effects are more than a human mind can calculate.”
· Pelosi is also considering trying to shield her members from a vote on the Senate bill by using a mechanism that would “deem” the legislation passed without a full vote.
· “There are a lot of people who don’t want to vote for it,” she said yesterday. Nevertheless, she says, “We will do what is necessary to pass a health-care bill.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBsIcRZBh3A
Full article:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=adCnzGIhu4r8&pos=8Because they think they can. If will be something to behold if Pelosi can actually get enough vulnerable pols to fall on their swords.
Dick Armey accuses Democrats of not reading the Federalist Papers, when he apparently didn't either.
They should have Mussolini-ed his ass right there, stuffed the sweet meats into his Stetson, and Fedex-ed them to Hannity. That would have sent a bi-partisan message.
Well, that's why they were Federalists, right? If Armey were looking for historical support for less central government specifically, he'd be better served to cite to the Anti-Federalists. If, on the other hand, he were looking for support for what the Framers of the Constitution envisioned, then the Federalist Papers is the place to look, right?
Sorry, but this seems like kind of a dumb post.
Moreover, "strong central government" kind of means a different thing today than it would have then, no? Even the most ardent Federalist in the 18th century would surely vomit at the discovery of HUD, No Child Left Behind, Homeland Security, the DOE ... ad infinitum.
I'm still chewing on it, but I think that we can expose Dick Armey as one of those that would co-opt an angry populace to allow it to be marginalized and ridiculed. It was an astute question because it is Thomas Jefferson and his compatriot Anti-Feds that stood for individual freedom and sovereignty, as thou hast shewn.
But that's the point: Armey is a tool. And also a tool of those that would manipulate and subvert to maintain control. The intentional corporate over-fertilization of the Tea Party has burned the grass roots of populist anger, for now. Can anyone else not see the machinations and furtherance of puppet politics to deflect righteous anger?
Agreed, and they would then develop the taste for it, because I believe that among the Federalists could be found the servants of the banking cabal.
I thought you made a valid enough point, kiddo. You shouldn't feel need to apologize for your post halfway into it, it is an open thread...
TD - pump up the volume, please. Can't hear it at all even turned way up.
Same here.
Sonofabitch now how do I fill my appetite for truth?
Time to crack open Proverbs again
'The greater the truth, the greater the libel'
An excellent interview on CNBS with El Erian (towards the end he lets them know that his presence on their pitiful network is at his pleasure)
El-Erian on CNBS
Another Open Thread Item:
Sugar prices are getting absolutely fucked over.
Indeed they are. Anyone know why?
My guess is because Ethanol margins are shit...
Snow?
Haven't followed the markets on sugar, but I know that for the last year there has been a shortage around the globe, especially places like India. I have also been seeing people talking about a coming food crisis for over a year now, so maybe some fund just went all in.
Speculation -----> Glut
It happens.
I took a small position this morning. We'll see how this goes.
SEC Didn’t Act on Lehman’s ‘Problematic’ Liquidity, Report Says
March 17 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission didn’t take action after determining in June 2008 that Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. was exaggerating the liquid assets on its books, the bankruptcy examiner’s report shows.
BREAKING NEWS! The SEC is really the new studio 54 for the wall street bankers. Apparently after 8 pm it has been used by wall street bankers, hedge funds, and 'bank holding companies' as the new disco palace. Police raided the SEC and found over 1000 folks burning evidence, snorting cocaine, and drinking Cristal, as they danced to the hit song Stayin Alive!
LMAO!
Add Indentured Servitude and Debtors Prison to the ends our economic system is moving towards.
How many people are working just to service their debt or to maintain health insurance?
Bankruptcy is better they forbearance when your income will never exceed you expenses enough to pay back your debts, be you a country or an individual.
Yep. And if you want to make it in the lucrative end of the service sector you either need to be a psychopath (zero empathy; lying for gain) or spend a lot of money on "self-help" books and seminars to lie to yourself that you are happy as a cold-calling licensee of the F.I.R.E. ministry.
Enjoy your travel and have a safe trip.
Up is down.
Black is white.
And if you argue with that they question your patriotism.
That was my favorite little ditty for the Bush administration. As the pablum narrative trumpets the madness of cowards (i.e. Nancy Capitalists that socialize the downside and piratize the upside), your humble blogger wonders exactly where did we jump the shark?
Nixon & Carter were certainly bizarre in their own respects but the Reagan administration really seemed to get the bizarro universe ball rolling. Remember Ollie North being willing to do a G. Gordon Liddy? Remember John Poindexter, he of the photographic memory, testifying under oath that he didn't 'recall' or 'remember' 184 times? Remember how ultimately they just blamed a corpse(Casey)?
I'm sure most folks don't have a clue as to what I'm referring to, and if you're a kid in Texas ... most certainly you won't!
Clinton, the kid from Hope, and his whore-mongering buddy Dickie Morris triangulated themselves into reforming welfare and balancing budgets ... perhaps that was the first sign that we had shifted into some alternate plane of political reality. A liberal boomer that leaves a liberal legacy of what ... parental leave?
Incurious George took the 'bizarro universe' to an art form though. Staffing Justice with lawyers from fourth-rate universities, putting wolves in charge of hen houses ( i.e. department heads that had spent their entire life fighting against the regulations they were supposed to now enforce), passing budget busters like Medicare Part D which added oh about 8 trillion in unfunded liabilities to your kids and grandkids, and launching a war in Iraq run with the aplomb of a bong-addicted college liberal. Hey we didn't put up that Mission Accomplished sign, we have no idea how it got there. Democracy is on the march dude!
Yes Bush passed tax cuts and bailed out Wall Street ... fiscal prudence aside, that is what a conservative is supposed to do.
Now to the current president. as a fierce social liberal (and fiscal conservative ... duality of life dontchaknow) well I guess the best I can say that all us social liberals have thus far is a t-shirt that says 'I voted for Barack Obama but I got Barry Dunham.'
An ubiquitous bankster friendly policy from the enabling Federales ... check.
An insurance friendly 'health reform' initiative ... check.
You want to reform the 'health' industry Barry? Public option or forget it. And while you are at it get rid of those 'ask your doctor' commercials. 336 BILLION to the insurance industry over 10 years is porn not reform. Spare us the Chuck Yeager 'defense is a jobs program' antimatter incarnation that the 'health reform' plan is a jobs program. We need wealth reform not some Potemkin health reform. Apply the doctrine of capitalism where it belongs ... liquidating and ring-fencing rich folks' bad speculative bets that if allowed to continue roaming the earth in a zombified state will continue to liquidate the productive economy. Health reform falls under 'promote the general welfare', given your background there is no need to email you the constitution in hopes that you might read it, is there?
Up is down.
Down is up.
And we all know that the Oracle at Eccles has junk in the trunk.
Toil and trouble, a bullisht bubble, the cops at the door? Hey, hey, stock's goin' double!
It won't matter until it does.
And when it does...
Oh mama!
I want the Black French guy I voted for.
Black is White...Jobless Recovery...Off Balance Sheet Accounting...
Who hired Craig Livingstone?
Jolly good! Your post, that is.
"your humble blogger wonders exactly where did we jump the shark?"
It depends upon which illusion you're currently experiencing. The answer may be since the last election, the last decade, the last century, since Christ was born. I say all of the above.
"I'm sure most folks don't have a clue as to what I'm referring to, and if you're a kid in Texas ... most certainly you won't!"
The average Joe has no idea that there is an entire alternative universe of printed material other there. On the one hand, there is the official propaganda. And then there is everything else. For those who wander off the yellow brick road of the mainstream media, the alternative reality is one very scary place. There is no decompression chamber or transition area, there is either "The Matrix" or "Other". For so many, the cognitive dissonance experienced after a few paces off the beaten path quickly chases them back to the safety of officially approved thought.
We all vote for dictators.
Friends and relatives will give you a hell of a lot more than a blank stare as well. Humans differ from sheep in that we herd each other to the slaughterhouse - this whole thing is almost on auto-pilot. Orwell would be sadly proud to know his dystopian vision is proceeding to completion.
"Friends and relatives will give you a hell of a lot more than a blank stare as well."
I am not allowed in the homes of my friends or family unless I swear not to discuss these issues. I agree, as long as they promise not to discuss the issues as well. This usually brings quick agreement. But within 30 minutes, someone starts talking about the recession or bail-outs or whatever and I always clear my throat and remind them of the agreement.
This ALWAY causes hurt feelings. Since they are in the majority, they feel it's their "right" to discuss the majority "opinion" but because I'm the lone wolf, I should bow to the majority. Sorry I reply, that wasn't the agreement. I'm then shown the door.
You can't tell someone their ignorance is showing when their ignorance is shared by the majority. I'm not even talking about whether I'm correct or not, I'm talking about information that was not displayed on the TV or in the newspaper. They have no desire to think or inquire. If what they hear makes them feel better or fits their worldview, the need to explore any further is gone.
Ignorance is Bliss.
Feel your pain. Never underestimate the power of denial.
[Socrates] And when he remembered his old habitation, and the wisdom of the cave and his fellow-prisoners, do you not suppose that he would felicitate himself on the change, and pity them?
[Glaucon] Certainly, he would.
[Socrates] And if they were in the habit of conferring honors among themselves on those who were quickest to observe the passing shadows and to remark which of them went before, and which followed after, and which were together; and who were therefore best able to draw conclusions as to the future, do you think that he would care for such honors and glories, or envy the possessors of them? Would he not say with Homer,
Better to be the poor servant of a poor master,
and to endure anything, rather than think as they do and live after their manner?
[Glaucon] Yes, he said, I think that he would rather suffer anything than entertain these false notions and live in this miserable manner.
[Socrates] Imagine once more, I said, such an one coming suddenly out of the sun to be replaced in his old situation; would he not be certain to have his eyes full of darkness?
[Glaucon] To be sure, he said.
[Socrates] And if there were a contest, and he had to compete in measuring the shadows with the prisoners who had never moved out of the cave, while his sight was still weak, and before his eyes had become steady (and the time which would be needed to acquire this new habit of sight might be very considerable) would he not be ridiculous? Men would say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes; and that it was better not even to think of ascending; and if any one tried to loose another and lead him up to the light, let them only catch the offender, and they would put him to death.
[Glaucon] No question, he said.
http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/allegory.html
Think outside the cave!
Staples push-button: "That was easy."
http://www.youtube.com//watch?v=Eovei355l4o
See, now that's one of the many reasons I really like coming here. Well done, WaterWings, I had not thought of that one in over a decade. So true. It's amazing that even though all the truly important things have been out there for millennia -- it takes us ever shorter and shorter periods to forget...
Where are the days when the above text was required reading for all wishing to obtain a (non-vocational) high-school diploma? How long until they come again (or at all, here in the States)?
The cyclical repetition of the same fundamental human truths in all major religions, philosophies throughout the ages is eerie – why is humankind so willing and inclined to keep forgetting them? It seems every time 'revelations' are made by a prophet/messiah/enlightened one/God's chosen spokesperson/etc, (which spawn "new" schools of thought, sometimes entire cultures, civilizations) a good chunk of the material based on OLD, OLD wisdom already recorded by generations past. Despite the potential for destruction of such revelations, don’t they sometimes drive progress? Or are they always and by definition used as tools against the masses as Uncle Karl was fond of claiming?
One of my favorite famous quotes whose popular interpretations generally are way off from the (to me) most obvious meaning [do not covet material goods, retain the ability for happiness even without luxuries] is ""Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven". Now that I look at them again, all of the beatitudes are kind of like that.
It seems like each time around, we are convinced that our current rehashed version of the ‘original wisdom’, twisted to meet current circumstances/needs/aims/aspirations is THE truth. Yet even so, there are at least those who honestly believe they are helping their fellow humans, the ones consigned to the gloom of the cave.
However, even worse than prophets whose teachings are later twisted to mislead, and certainly worse than those chained in the cave, doomed to watch flickering shadows on the wall are those who – having seen the light outside, or at least enough evidence to know that it exists – come back not to lead others out, but to further subjugate the trapped ones using their knowledge that a) the shapes seen are shadows, b) knowing what the original objects casting the shadows are, and c) being able to stand between the flame and the wall, effectively destroying the shapes (temporarily) causing panic, confusion and lack of ability to decide anything. That’s really what it feels like – not only are we chained, still facing that cave wall, eyelids propped and unable to stop watching the shadows, but a) we know there is light outside, and b) we know there are a bunch of mofos messing with the flickering light of the flames, and c) that the shadows whose recognition our current lives depend on are really just that, shadows.
"Where are the days when the above text was required reading for all wishing to obtain a (non-vocational) high-school diploma? How long until they come again (or at all, here in the States)?"
While my answer is an oversimplification, the control system (how ever you wish to describe it) doesn't want, need or require an informed and aware population. It wants the opposite.
That has always been the case. Even Socrates himself was executed for questioning the status quo.
See this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2rsiER-OnU
"Socrates has come to symbolize one of philosophy's most inspiring gifts to the rest of us: the idea that thinking logically about our lives could help us be more certain of ourselves, more independent, less confirmist, less hamstrung by what people think. It is the dream that philosophy might set us free."
I was fortunate enough to be taught the Allegory of the Cave from Plato's Republic my freshman year of high-school. The Matrix was still in the theaters. I was infatuated with them both. I had never before experiencing them realised how much I hated The System and only after began to realize what The System is.
Carlin stated what I believe you're getting at well, I think. BTW, Cog, I'm a big fan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGL8FE
Oh, yes. Try this one. Less than a minute of your time, but digestible enough for the masses (the people we are trying to save):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vblJ6RF7rM
A humble bow to you.
hey CD and any irish, enjoy.
i read your reply on this article. i took it to be quite possible in this decade. i am planning accordingly but have so much empathy for our children. really scary really scary. it has started in britian with this announcement from the bank of england to it's people today, to expect a major lower standard of living.
also another thought our USG system has ceased to function and has gone from representing the people to representing money.
Crashing Towards a New World Social Order 2012http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article17568.html
i am probably late to this here party page but maybe you will come back and see this post.
oh and this blows my bloody mind.
High Speed Trains To Run From Beijing to Londonhttp://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/03/high-speed-rail-across-europe.php
"I took it to be quite possible in this decade."
This decade or next, unless there is an awakening of the people, not just of what's going on but their responsibility to resist, I have little hope of the powers-that-be reversing their inevitable march towards ever more power.
I'm slowly working on an article that will talk to some of this. I've put aside the "part 2" of my last article to take this up. The sad part is that for those hopelessly caught in the web of the Matrix, the pain of cognitive dissonance is so great as to assure they will rush back to where it's safe and comfortable, their own denial.
"People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own soul." - Carl Jung
Jung wasn't talking about the religious soul, he was talking about the inner dialogue, the inner being, the black abyss that one must face if one is to grow. We are all capable of doing exactly what these bastards are doing. As long as we don't admit this and hide from this understanding, the more infantile we become and the more we cede control to those that will do anything to gain power. I've said before that these bastard are willing to do anything to get what they want. Are we willing to do anything to stop them? If the answer is "No" then we are defenseless.
I am teaching my kids to farm At least they
will always have something to eat and a
revenue stream.
Also teaching basic handgun and rifle skills
to them now, something I didn't think
would be necessary when they were young
Don't forget fishing! Teach them how to find worms and bait a hook and they'll never go hungry. I bought a kayak for my wife and I each also. That, some seeds, a little silver and gold along with some cash, basic hand tools(pistol included) and antibiotics and we should be all right. Hope it doesn't get to that point, but if it does...well it didnt cost me much to be ready.
They can actually fish much better than I !
We built a spring fed pond and have stocked it with trout fingerlings
In a couple of years, it should be quite productive
We are well stocked up on the other items you mention, its
a working Farm now. (Started out as 100 acres of mixed forest and brush, due to 60 acres having been clearcut 10 years ago)
Love what both of you are talking about.
It actually started out with something cog dis mentioned today.
The wake up, go to work, come home, watch tv, rinse and repeat
cycle started driving me nuts years back and I started looking for something else. I was raised with subsistence farming (very lucky to have experienced that) and decided to go back.
Then potential oil crisis hit, now financial crisis, so going back is a no brainer..Others have blazed the pasture based farming method
(Joel Salatin) so at this point I am just following his lead.
The pasture based farm products are extremely popular now,
folks are really tuned into the quality of their food...
Fuckin A, that was beautiful! Sums thing up pretty well from a "social liberal" perspective.
A few days ago the infamous "liberal" group MoveOn.org polled its membership on the question "Should we support or oppose the President's Health Reform bill" and, they say, 89% of its members voted to support. Enlightened pragmatists, apparently. Or enthralled by the continuing illusion that Barry is the Black French Guy they voted for. Funny thing that all those white liberals don't have a clue about the concept of an "Oreo." I now fully understand the seemingly bizarre concerns of the Black Intelligentsia (Cornell West et al) before Barry's ascendency as favored son in the campaign about whether he was "black enough." Question now answered a trillion times over. Too late.
If you're on Barry's email list, however, you get a few opportunities to register your real thoughts using their web tools to "Let Congress Know What You Think About The President's Plan(s)." Pathetic satisfaction to find in this evolving dystopian madness . . . but what more are you gonna get these days?
MoveOn.org is just part of the political system and its interests.
Barrys other choice was to be a dead hero
Perhaps an argument for a minimum age for the office--you can't shrug off the reticence of a man with young children. Don't know what to say about that. . . guess I expect someone who claims to have what it takes to do what he says. He wouldn't be the only guy on the planet risking--or even sacrificing--himself for a cause. Including the many people without whose sacrifices he wouldn't have had any chance of winning that prize.
I'm not so sure it's as simple as either he follows his marching orders or they gun him down, however.
It does NOT fall under "promote the general welfare".
That, my friend, is the biggest, most F'ed up (and commonly tossed out defense of gubbmint action) misinterpretation of the US Constitution of all times.
I for one, am sick and tired of hearing this lie repeated ad infinitum until it's accepted as "truth". A lot of people believe this with all honest intent but the facts speak otherwise. Allow me to show you:
FEDERALIST No. 41General View of the Powers Conferred by The Constitution
For the Independent Journal.
James Madison
Some, who have not denied the necessity of the power of taxation, have grounded a very fierce attack against the Constitution, on the language in which it is defined. It has been urged and echoed, that the power "to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts, and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States," amounts to an unlimited commission to exercise every power which may be alleged to be necessary for the common defense or general welfare. No stronger proof could be given of the distress under which these writers labor for objections, than their stooping to such a misconstruction.
Had no other enumeration or definition of the powers of the Congress been found in the Constitution, than the general expressions just cited, the authors of the objection might have had some color for it; though it would have been difficult to find a reason for so awkward a form of describing an authority to legislate in all possible cases. A power to destroy the freedom of the press, the trial by jury, or even to regulate the course of descents, or the forms of conveyances, must be very singularly expressed by the terms "to raise money for the general welfare.
http://www.foundingfathers.info/federalistpapers/fed41.htm
TD - Go fast have fun and be safe.
And, we are on the road, and not with fellow travelers!
Schiff vs Krugman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11WlFlO_mDg
Schiff ripped Krugman apart ...
It gets particularly interesting when Schiff starts drilling into Krugman's perspectives on import/export and the dollar.
"... What "goods" is he talking about?!"
"...China has a trillion dollar, but that's one part of their portfolio ... they still have their productive capacity ..."
"...the fact that they (China) choose to export their production, it's their lost ... the fact that chinese could produce, they could consume ..."
"...Krugman ... is in for a rude awakening..."
One of the more passionate vlog by PS. Let the discussion begin...
OH MY GAWD!
When the Supreme Court decided the case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, henceforth allowing corporate soft money to influence U.S. elections, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) cynically opined that it would lead to the election of the "congressman from Wal-Mart."
Turns out, he may be right.
Meet Murray Hill, Inc., the first corporation to run for Congress in the United States.
"Until now, corporations only influenced politics with high-paid lobbyists and backroom deals," the company's YouTube account declares. "But today, thanks to an enlightened supreme court, corporations now have all the rights the founding fathers meant for us. That's why Murray Hill Incorporated is taking democracy's next step-- running for Congress."
Murray Hill is some sort of design corporation - I strongly suspect they are only doing this for the publicity, a political commentary of sorts if you will.
And a good one, imo. Is it not bizarre that an issue so big as this one fell completely off the charts? Hell, even here it no longer gets much mention . . . yet every day brings us closer to our first officially Corporate Sponsored election.
You mean a completely retarded, idiotic one, that makes zero sense.
You do realize it's satirical ...?
Satire is tragedy plus time. - Lenny Bruce
Murray Hill is still better than "None of the above". Correct? Right?
Please, someone tell me what to do? Anything more than two choices is too confusing. Besides, the two political parties tell me I'm wasting my vote if I vote for a third party. Now I have a choice between animal, vegetable or corporation? Oh the humanity! What happened to the simplicity of the party lever?
BTW, if you want a receipt from your electronic voting machine, you're obviously a communist because only commie's don't trust their government. I'm a red blooded American driving a Toyota Camry built in the great state of Kentucky, or was that Kiichiro. These red, white and blue (made in China) colors don't run, as long as I use cold water and the gentle cycle.
<sarcasm off>
CD, the decision in FEC vs Citizens United was good, and I'm tired of seeing idiots who do not understand the law or what the case was really about applaud protests like this against it. Has the world gone insane? So that just because a GROUP of people get together and pool money, they can't run a political ad if it puts a currently running candidate or a government proposition in a negative light? Really? Are people really that stupid? Do they really think the government should be able to censor political speech just because they don't like the way it was funded?
I assume you saw the sarcasm label? Just askin!
Yeah, I am just easily angered. :)
They have a fast growing FB page. I just love this gem off their profile: "It's our democracy: we bought it, we paid for it and we're going to keep it."
It's time to dump political correctness and start to call a spade a spade.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPgB0QvzB9A
They were just on NPR yesterday:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124742358
Hilarious, in a masochistic kind of way. Props to them for the idea, though it seems unlikely any PR firm is used these days in non-nefarious ways.
Props to them for being a retarded free speech hating John McCain dicklickers! Yay! So Awesome!
Seriously. I mean.. this was on NPR... that alone should make you question their motivation.
Read again, I WAS questioning their motivation. But, on the off chance they are in the right, I mentioned that at least they BRING UP the point that otherwise would (will) be swallowed in the consciousness of the vast majority, despite being potentially pretty important.
Citizens vs. Federal election committee
I don't know all the laws but it appears that there is no law prohibiting this and until someone passes one the Supreme court couldn't vote against it since they go by the law supposedly. That would mean to me that it was sent to the SC knowing it wouldn't be ruled against and setting a prescedence for any future debate.
facepalm.jpg
Turns out you have to be 25 and Murray Hill is too young.
LOL
Don't you take in consideration the average age of the senior executives? What if Murray Hill were to be bought by a company that is older than 25 years? Will that qualify?
:>))
And someone explain to me how this Supreme Court decision was bad? The idea it allows corporations to suddenly run for office and vote is absurd. It has absolutely nothing to do with that. That case was totally about an anti-hillary documentary being censored because the political elite wanted it to, and the Supreme Court gave them the finger, GOOD!
Well here is a 'development' from yesterday that is going to leave a lot of people destitute.
PR Log (Press Release) – Mar 16, 2010 – NEW YORK, NY: Congress is cutting the lifeline to the hardest hit and most suffering group of long term unemployed by excluding them in the current HR 4213 bill. The excluded group contains those who will soon exhaust their tier four benefits extension or who had not qualified for tier four benefits and reached the current 99 week maximum. The current benefits end the week of March 28 – ironically the same week that Congress leaves for their two week Spring Recess; by their return, this excluded group will be out of luck and cut off.
Both offices of New York Senator Schumer and Senator Gillibrand say there are no plans to provide for this group in the current bill and there are no plans to initiate another bill to add benefits for this group. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s office says that he is aware of the issue and it is “on his radar”; Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s office had no comment."
Nice to see our Congress hard at work fiddling with bills that can extract money from the banking, healthcare, pharma and insurance industries as Obama flies around proclaiming his/hers/their's healthcare bill ( whatever is in it) is the finest legislation since the 10 Commandments. Meanwhile back at the soup kitchen or under a freeway overpass yesterday's six figure man fcounts the remaining pennies in his pocket.
Yes, you're right. Maybe we should pay EVERYBODY to not work FOREVER.
If we had paid Barney Frank, Lloyd Blankfein and a few others not to 'work' we might not have so many workers without work.
Hopefully, Barney will be unemployed in November.
These lazy bastards. Lame excuse using an imploding economy as an excuse to suck off of the government tit. Cry me a river. We're ALL experiencing this biblical event unfolding. Get a job! Jesus. A dying economy is no excuse for not working. We might have to scrape up another 10-15 trillion again to bail out the too big to fails and "save our system". How the hell are we going to do that with all this economic collateral damage bitching about wanting to eat? Hmm???
Self sufficiency, pull oneself up by their bootstraps, blah blah, Rush, blah blah Limbaugh blah.
I'm watching for greatly expanded "opportunities" in the National Guard as the powers that be struggle desperately to meet the needs of those millions of unmoneyed unemployed.
You're not kidding! Maybe the millions of unmoneyed unemployed will be meeting the needs of the few. Kids! We're going to the Gulags!
http://www.goarmy.com/JobDetail.do?id=292
Yeah, wish I were kidding. They're running extended length, NG recruiting commercials at the theaters ("Coming Attractions"?) that are some of the the most potent cinema I've ever seen--including Super Bowl commercials, HBO and Oscars night winners. I was truly frightened (and, if the sound track wasn't Wagner, it sure as hell fooled me.) The theme was absolute merger of what have previously been two separate concepts into one: "Citizen Soldier."
Future ain't looking good from that perspective.
Is this is the one you mean, Bob?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbfPj00pTNY
These seem just as potent in terms of getting the populace ready for what's to come...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgV6VUinDEA
Damn, this paranoid fantasy sure is addictive...
That's the one! Thanks, man--I came directly home from the theater and went to the NG website, but couldn't find it there.
Imagine it being sprung on you by surprise, full theater screen and huge surround sound. I was looking around wondering if I had somehow gone into the wrong theater, thinking it sure as hell looked and sounded like a movie at first, one that was starting out massive.
That thing gives me the willies.
Jesus, there's a 3 Doors Down version, too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x27mBqqIwAo&NR=1&feature=fvwp
Duh, I see your second link was 3 Doors Down. Yeah, looks like we're being primed . . . and they're pulling out all the stops.
I think in many parts of the country, "three squares and a cot" is already starting to sound like a winning proposition. If/when things get worse, MUCH worse (whether augmented by any natural or manmade catastrophes or not), it will sure seem a lot better to be the one handling the hardware while wearing camo than to be on the receiving end of that mission (rescue or other).
Then again, the AF needs to replenish and rotate out already overstrained personnel.
On the other hand, one wonders idly whether any extensive AF-related advertising was prominently visible in US media in the months January-August 2001.
Paranoid or not - a good friend of mine has taught me that there are times when it is especially important to stop, stand quietly, and observe your surroundings with all of your senses.
I am getting the feeling that now is such a time.
Water Wings, the language in that job description is troubling. What is on the docket?
Be all that you can be.
"Internment/Resettlement (I/R) Specialists in the Army are primarily responsible for day-to-day operations in a military confinement/correctional facility or detention/internment facility. I/R Specialists provide rehabilitative, health, welfare, and security to U.S. military prisoners within a confinement or correctional facility; conduct inspections; prepare written reports; and coordinate activities of prisoners/internees and staff personnel.
Some of your duties as an Internment/Resettlement Specialist may include:
The third bullet point sounds like waterboarding.
Journo thinks he can "15-seconds" the waterboarding bull. The freaky part is the candid explanations of his handler:
http://videoplayer.playboy.com/services/player/bcpid1579920046?bctid=200...
Cheaper and more effective than plain ole sleep deprivation.
Oh my, the time that has been wasted in the endless grappling with the inflation/deflation prognostications, inaccurate depictions of free markets, historical revisionism of the thirties, and threats between econ 101 combatants and all the rest. IMO, it’s time to go on from here and not go back to there. My candidate for the starting line in future discussions is this ice-water-in-the-face axiom posted late last night by htp and hereby reposted:
The terms inflation and deflation no longer suit our era. Those are for free market capitalist systems, and free market was killed by the government with its unprecedented bailout policy.
It's a redistribution of wealth from the powerless to the powerful, pure and simple. The powerless are seeing their wages decline and cost of living go up, while the powerful are enjoying free money to gamble -- win they keep profits, lose they get bailed out by taxpayers. This is worse than feudalism.
This is profound, IMO, a clarifying explanation of a paradigm shift intentionally obfuscated in America’s current economic environment. It cuts through the chaff, the BS, and gets to the heart of America’s government-created economic problems—including the so-called “inflation swindle,” the upcoming cap and trade and healthcare swindles, the emerging Social Security swindle, and all the rest. Perhaps, now, we can begin a restoration of the American Dream.
The heart of the American Dream was freedom: its lifeblood free enterprise. It was not about government’s taking huge sums of money from citizens by force, government control of the individual and his property and massive wealth redistribution. It’s time to draw the line on Big Brother and take America back from the politicians and the international bankers.
+100, htp.
Same here. Who cares inflation/deflation - we still have a gov't that doesn't have the consent of the People anymore.
Uncle Sam: "Would you like your crap sandwich with or without lettuce?"
The People: "Uh, I don't want crap in my sandwich."
Uncle Sam: "Answer the question...or else."
The People: "How about I give you a knuckle sandwich!"
JR,
Although I agree with most of your assessments, I think the inflation/deflation debate is critical because it explains current policy actions and also drives the performance of the American housing market, consumer market, labor markets, stock markets, etc.
In my opinion, fractional reserve banking and the easy money of the Greenspan era produced a money bubble like America has never seen. Now that the asset bubbles that created this boom have finally popped, banks won't lend anymore in the face of declining collateral. This has caused the fractional reserve banking system to collapse. Thus, the money supply has, and will continue, to shrink until they can get enough liquidity into the system to cause asset prices to rise. Thus, the money printing MUST continue or everybody goes bust including the government, the US dollar, and the American populace.
So for the average guy, slowly accumulate hard assets during deflation and wait for the huge inflation that must and will inevitably come.
Also, the inflation/deflation debate is important because it shows to people the worthlessness of the money we all toil for all day long. It is an arbitrary thing that is produced out of nowhere, yet we are all slaves to it and the money-printers. If only the American population could learn about the Federal Reserve and Fractional Reserve Banking. Boy oh boy, the heads would roll!
Thanks for your analysis, it is an excellent recap and assessment, IMO. I agree with the consequences of your points and your advice for the average guy. However, I cannot agree that the cure all is for the money printing to continue.
It’s the legitimacy of the inflation/deflation debate that must be debunked, IMO, if America is to survive. Inflation, IMO, is the one-government scheme above all others that must be demystified.
Paul Johnson, in A History of Christianity, formulated Goebbels’ Law in such a way that fits it into today’s inflation swindle: “The louder the abuse, the bigger the lie.”
According to author Robert Ringer, “The lies that government has spread about inflation are beyond belief. That is because inflation is the greatest abuse imaginable. The money/inflation scheme of government is so incredible that it defies imagination. Which is exactly why this gigantic swindle is the world’s best-kept secret.”
Said John Hospers: “Inflation is the biggest killer of civilizations, even more than war itself.”
Germany’s runaway inflation of the early 1920’s was her real executioner. Pearl Buck describes the devastation wrought upon the German people by the runaway inflation of 1923:
The cities were still there, the houses not yet bombed and in ruins, but the victims were millions of people. They had lost their fortunes, their savings; they were dazed and inflation-shocked and did not understand how it had happened to them and who the foe was who had defeated them. Yet they had lost their self-assurance, their feeling that they themselves could be the masters of their own lives if only they worked hard enough; and lost, too, were the old values of morals, of ethics, of decency.
America is collapsing economically and politically, IMO. The reason her collapse has taken so long is that, unlike in a normal bankruptcy, the government has had the power to institute one illegal measure after another to postpone the collapse.
As Ringer put it: “That is, in fact, exactly what is has been doing for many years via the printing of counterfeit money and the arbitrary passage of laws which keep changing the rules of the game; these rule changes are specifically designed to shift the blame from the real culprit—government—to innocent parties…
“It is Big Brother who causes inflation… through big printing of paper money; he is the only one who has the power to increase the money supply…
“Plain and simple, inflation is just another redistribution-of-the-wealth scheme. When someone else receives dollars without producing wealth, his dollars compete with yours for available goods and services.”
Says Ringer, and I agree: “Inflation can be stopped—simply by shutting off the printing presses,” something Big Brother Bernanke has sworn he will not do.
Unfortunately, financial collapse brought on by inflation brings on saviors, i.e., ironfisted tyrants who clamp down on freedom that will in turn result in the loss of most, if not all, remaining freedoms. America must not allow this to happen. Big Brother must be stopped. Even now, today, the chairman of the Board of the Federal Reserve System is in the halls of Congress asking (or is it demanding?) that his power not be moderated.
That would be "the chairman of the Board of the Federal Reserve System" that is a private enterprise that few of us think really represents the interests of anybody except the banks.
Can't disagree with much of what you say, but damn it's hard to even have sensible discussions when the meanings of the very words themselves have become so fucked up. You can't even separate "government" from "banks," "public" from "private" sufficiently to allow meaningful communication using the old terms.
Anybody else feel this frustration?
It seems like if it ain't Kafka, it must be Hesse or Orwell or . . .
The language itself has already been hijacked on us.
Yup. The "War on Terror" became "Overseas Contigency Operations" under the newest administration. Same people dying, new title!
I believe a lot of that frustration comes from the audiences lack of desire to learn new things that appear to be esoteric - when they are actually the heart of everything. "What to you is fractional reserve banking?" Inner response: "Do I care?"
JR, again I agree with all your points. However, your distaste for the "government" I think is a little misplaced. It is the Fed and its member banks you should point your well aimed vitriol at...not our elected officials. They are simply pawns.
Ignorance does not constitute a defense. And because the do know, no matter to what degree, their corruption is a side dish for the main course of TREASON.
Everything else is the stuff of pleasantries that further our enslavement.
Agreed that, while recognizing their difficult position in the larger picture, we excuse their critical position in the game to our own profound detriment. Our goverment officials are, in theory, accountable. The government is the only thing that can make criminal bankers accountable (yes, understanding that there could have been a free market alternative).
Without fully accountable government officials, there can be no rule of law.
Treason is a damn strong word, but it definitely captures something essential to our present condition.
Roy, Bob and Waterwings!
Thanks; great discussion. Clarifications well taken. I’m struck by the word picture of government and the financial powers now meaning the same thing. And there’s no more graphic demonstration of this than the escapades of the House and Senate banking committees. The latest example is when the allegations of a member of Congress, for which he had proof, were called “absolutely bizarre” by Fed Chairman Bernanke. It’s beginning to look as if the people’s representatives are shut out from the power structure.
Agreed. And yes, I don't see any real difference between the Fed, Banks and our "elected officials". The question is whether or not we really have a choice about who gets elected as big business contributions are necessary to get elected.
The biggest joke of all are the two parties. It makes me barf when these politicians get on the TV and start bantering about "Democrats did this" or "Republicans did that" BRRRRRAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
If they're doin work for the banks and getting paid by the banks, doesn't that make 'em employees of the banks? Methinks yeah. Does the power flow up any higher than the Bilderberg group? That's my real question.
True Dat. Ever looked at the ownership structure of the Fed? Good reading and good -luck figuring it all out!
RB>Enjoyed your read on things. You're right. Having supposedly been well educated through private schools and elite colleges etc, nowhere was the history and the consequences of the Federal Reserve and fractional reserve banking taught.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoqaMzBK4pc&NR=1
Thank you, i could never say it as well. To JR
Lap Dogs
London’s hedge fund and private equity industry won a last-minute reprieve from contentious new European regulations on Tuesday, after Gordon Brown pleaded that the issue be shelved until after the general election.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/73f3149c-30ea-11df-b057-00144feabdc0.html
Now now. Were it not for a certain San Diego weather man we might not have 24 hrs of Weather Channel that has devolved into 24 hrs of examples human stupidity in the physical world. We also might be under some kind of Crap n Trade redistribution ponzi. A weatherman in San Diego:
http://www.kusi.com/weather/colemanscorner/38574742.html
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/01/14/john-colemans-hourlong-news-specia...
San Diego, by many accounts is the birth place of the Global Warming/Cooling/Climate change movement
Growing up in Chicago, we knew John Coleman as the singing weatherman. He even released a single, a I recall, of "I Can See Clearly Now (the rain has come)." Maybe he could do a re-release. "I Can See Clearly Now (AL Gore is scum)."
Happy St. Patricks Day!
So I printed up the LIESman/Santelli voting record/comments and gave them to Rick yesterday.
I work on the floor and he actually rides the same elavator bank I do, so I see him often. He said thank-you very much and he appreciates TD/ZH efforts. Anybody else on the floor and want to go to Ceres for a drink?
Know The Daily Bell? I suggest signing up--after going here...........
http://www.thedailybell.com/895/Chinese-Inflation-the-Final-Unraveling.html
That's perfect Johnny. Kudos!
Give that fella a nicotine patch!
Happy St. Patty's Day and a dram of Black Bush.
"It’s time to draw the line on Big Brother and take America back from the politicians and the international bankers."
I agree with JR. Nothing is over until we say it is. Who's with me?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8lT1o0sDwI
Let's do it!
Ah memories ....
Friday December 12, 2008
Ben S. Blutarsky
Hanky: War's over, man. You dropped the big one.
Benny: Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!
Bush: Germans?
Cheney: Forget it, he's rolling.
Benny: And it ain't over now. 'Cause when the goin' gets tough...
[thinks hard]
Benny: the tough get goin'! Who's with me? Let's go!
[runs out, alone; then returns]
Benny: What the f%&@ happened to the U.S.A I used to know? Where's the spirit? Where's the guts, huh? This could be the greatest night of our lives, but you're gonna let it be the worst. "Ooh, we're afraid to go with you Benny, we might get in trouble." Well just kiss my a$% from now on! Not me! I'm not gonna take this. Waggoner, he's a dead man! Mullaly, dead! Nardelli...
Cheney: Dead! Benny's right. Psychotic, but absolutely right. We gotta take these bastards. Now we could do it with conventional weapons that could take years and cost millions of lives. No, I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part.
Benny: We're just the guys to do it.
Hanky: Let's do it.
Benny: *Let’s do it*!
From Bill King:
Fed funds traded at zero late last night. We have screamed for months that the official or 'target' Fed Funds rate was irrelevant because the effective funds rate was much lower, and near zero. Now funds are trading at zero.
Yet there will be pundits and experts that will assert that the Fed might cut its target funds rate this week to 50bps or even 25bps - even though the cut in the target rate is meaningless.
Now that the Fed is paying interest to banks, why did the Fed allow funds to trade at zero? Yep, they are terrified by something.
Suicide Watch
The value of the Chinese currency is an extremely sensitive topic for Beijing. The central government has already raised the possibility of revaluing the yuan by about 10%. With reserves worth up to US$3 trillion, according to some a revaluation would result in a theoretical loss of $300 billion. A 40% revaluation, as some American economists request, would be worth an astounding $1.2 trillion.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/LC18Ad01.html
Perhaps we could compromise by cashing them out at the dollar value they bought at and then change the rate?
Funny that sounds so crazy. It would be a normal resolution to a dispute on the school playground. What's up with that?
It would be worth less in Yuan, but it still buys the same amount of stuff elsewhere.
That is, unless they admit that the Yuan peg to the dollar is the only thing holding the dollar up right now...
jd wins.
We're certainly slouching towards Gamorah.
We're certainly slouching towards Gamorah.
Make...it...go...AWAY!!
We're certainly slouching towards Gamorah.
Commercial RE:
http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2010/03/fontainebleau_miami_hasnt...
Can you imagine if one of us didn't make a loan payment in six months? Oh wait, actually that's allowed for everyone now. I'm the moron for not maxing out any and all potential debt and then squatting on it. "It's a great hotel reopened at the wrong time." And I'm rich, in terms of money in the 19th century. I was just born 100-200 years too late.
Fifty-plus years of anti-communist rhetoric has warped the US definition of 'socialism'. Most americans wouldn't know socialism if it bought them breakfast. The rest of the developed world doesn't have these hang-ups, and understands that a balanced economy demands social spending and social development. Nothing wrong with it...why is it other countries can make it work and the US can't? Mainly because no one...repeat, no one, in the US understands it. It's got nothing to do with 'free markets' or funding...it's got everything to do with national priorities, and in the case of the US, the national priorities seem to be guns, crap TV and paying no taxes, each of which is useless if your goal is to build clean communities and foster sustainable social development.
Most Americans would know one thing about socialism; if Socialism did in fact pick up the tab for breakfast - it was most likely from taxpayer money.
Just like taxpayers are picking up the tab on the 'free market' system. I'm not anti-capitalist...I'm pro-society.
Safety nets are fine as long as they intend to climb out eventually. But what are we talking about here any-hoo? Taxes, in the age of the fiat printing press, are a mere tool of social control: 1) perceived equal redistribution of wealth 2) price control.
The only reason they don't print to the moon more quickly instead of taxing is because of perception control. I mean it would really piss off any honest individual to know that inflation is actually nothing more than theft.
I'm pro-society
well see to it pick up the tab,,
Yeah, Socialism's working real well for the Eurozone ain't it, with all those funding shortfalls and untennable budget deficits.
Hello from Manitoba, Social Democracy at work. Economic performance?
http://gov.mb.ca/finance/pdf/highlights.pdf
Government? The NDP:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Democratic_Party
You guys don't got socialism, you got facism. There's a definition for that one too:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facism
.... but the facts only confuse USA folks - that's pretty clear at this point.
Funny that neither the Republican or Democratic parties show up under your Wikipedia Fascism link (you might try spell check too). Maybe you need to try and edit Wikipedia so that it incorporates your "mainstream" view of the current situation in the USA.
ehh?!
I stand corrected on the spelling; although, strangely enough, the wikipedia URL echos my poor spelling...
Don't worry about confusion--hell, we don't even hear anything we don't want to think about, no matter how you say it. Hard to explain, but strangely easy to do on this side o' the border.
I would submit it is impossible to have free markets and socialism coexistant on a national level. Any enforcement of socialized [name your good or service] necessitates government manipulation of market forces. That sort of thing should be minimized, not embraced and encouraged.
Open thread? OK.....Gold bitches and Silver snitches!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dear Nancy
You are doing so because this bill is not about Health Care at all. It is about revenue, and you know it. It is about the fact that The Federal Government is running into a wall at warp speed trying to furiously cover up all the fraud and scams in the financial system while at the same time spending over $1.5 trillion we do not have to replace collapsed consumer demand.
You must raise revenues, and you know it - or this ship called "The USS Treasury" sinks beneath the waves, and the first sacrifices to go overboard will be all the Seniors on Medicare and Social Security - not by choice, but by force of fiscal insolvency.
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/2087-A-Very-Serious-Warning-...
Safe travels TD.
Now that you are on the road, we will witness the greatest crash in history and you will be without access to your b'berg terminal.
A rudderless Zero Hedge? Gracious me!
"...we will witness the greatest crash in history..."
I love the smell of desperation in the morning........It smelled like victory. Some day this war's gonna end.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPXVGQnJm0w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSWMYmzCBwc
Apocalypse Now - Charli no hace surf (I made sure to use the new American language so that the broader amount of readers would more easily comprehend the meaning as English is their second language.)
Arm, I think you made some very concise, cogent observations.
Well, you deserve a vacation, no question about that. But, where the heck is Marla? She can pick up where you left. Stop being a slacker Marla and start contributing again.