Sins of the Past

Sins of the Past

By Bruce Krasting

Ben Bernanke has said many times that Marriner Eccles, the head of the Federal Reserve in 1936/37 made a mistake by tightening credit (raising reserve requirements). Bernanke blames Eccles’s actions for the 50% stock market collapse in 1937 and the second leg of the depression that followed.

Bernanke’s interpretation of Eccles’s actions is widely held by historians. It was FDR who first (conveniently) blamed the Fed. I think that Bernanke is also (conveniently) blaming Eccles. He is using history's interpretation to support his position that monetary policy must be set on MAX for the next three years. He has said that he will not make the same mistake that poor old Eccles made.

Eccles was in a bind. His job at the Fed was to maintain relative stability of prices and the stock of money. In the years prior to 1937 money flowed into the USA from Europe. This "flight capital" fled to the USA in the form of gold shipments. The money came because the holders of wealth were anticipating a major war. With gold reserves rising, so did the supply of money. M1 increased 55%, and money in demand accounts rose 71% from 1933 to 1936. More troubling were rising inflationary pressures. In the first six-months of 1936, wages rose by 11%. Wages in the critical steel industry rose by 33%. These conditions would scare any reasonable Central Banker.

The Fed itself answered the historical question of whether the Fed’s actions in 1936-37 was responsible for the 1937-38 double dip. In a research paper, (PDF Link) St. Louis Fed researcher Charles Calomiris concluded:

We find that despite being doubled, reserve requirements were not binding on bank reserve demand in 1936 and 1937, and therefore could not have produced a significant contraction in the money multiplier.

Much of today’s monetary policy is based on the historical interpretation of the consequences of the Fed’s actions. If the Fed was not to blame for the 1937 crash, then who/what was? In her book, “The Forgotten Man”, Amity Shlaes provides some answers. She points to a critical speech by then Treasury Secretary Morgenthau on November 10, 1936:

The war against the Depression had required deficit spending. But the emergency is ending, and the domestic problems we face today are essentially different from those which faced us four years ago. We want private business to expand. We believe that one of the most important ways of achieving these ends is to continue toward a balance in the federal budget.

Morgenthau’s comments 75 years ago (and the following cut backs in federal spending that took place in 1937) remind me of where we sit today. After four-years of spending like mad to fight the recession/depression of 2008, the federal government has committed itself to dramatic cuts in spending starting in January of 2013. Coupled with those cuts are across the board tax increases for every individual who has income.

In the book, Shlaes points to other factors that contributed to the crash of '37:

*The rapid rise of wages/raw materials in 36/37 led to a conclusion by many that corporations were going to face a profit squeeze. It was this threat that led to the 1937 stock market fall. We face a similar situation today. Rising commodity prices and global wages will impact consumers and company’s bottom line. (Think Apple and Foxconn)

*Social Security was collecting money from every paycheck by 1937. This reduced disposable income and contributed to the recession. This is not unlike what we face in 2013 when SS taxes are scheduled to rise by 2%.

*FDR wanted to balance the budget. He raised taxes in 1937; this was a big factor in the decline of the economy. We face the same scenario in 2013 when large increases in taxes are scheduled.

*In November of 1936 Nazi Germany signed the Anti-Comintern Act with Japan and Italy. While there were many like Neville Chamberlain, who ignored the evidence that a war was coming, the financial markets did not. This too, has similarities with 2012.

I think we are about to re-make many of the mistakes of 1936/37. The programmed spending cutbacks, couple with the many impending tax increases on 1/1/2013, will certainly cause a sharp contraction in economic activity.

Bernanke’s Fed has sworn that it won’t make the mistakes of 1936/37. But I've shown (and the Fed’s own research confirms) that Fed policy was not the cause of the '37 crash. Bernanke is relying on a false interpretation of history to justify his monetary policy today.

We will face an economic slowdown due to lower federal spending, and at the same time, inflation will be rising as a result of the excessively loose monetary policy. Stagflation is in our future. Should this be the result, the historians will say that both the Fed and fiscal policy are to blame. In other words, we have not learned a thing from our past mistakes.

.

Comments

[canuck]

Thanks for the interesting interpretation of the thirties and the parallels to today. You are not 100 percent correct however. Ha ha. Bad. You're as right or more so than the vast majority. And I haven't read any of the other comments, so this is purely directed at the article.

[mikem54321]

"Cut??" Where's the cut? The Messiah just submitted the largest budget in the history of mankind at around $3.8 TRILLION for 2013. They don't call him The Messiah for nothing. If you actually think they will enact the legally agreed to cuts, then you under estimate the power of The Ministry of Truth. As we have seen, they can convince sheeple up is down and down is up all day long. That's child's play for them. Spending more money for the greatest socialist America has ever elected and lying about it, is as natural as growing grass.

[Breaker]

"I think we are about to re-make many of the mistakes of 1936/37. The programmed spending cutbacks, couple with the many impending tax increases on 1/1/2013, will certainly cause a sharp contraction in economic activity."

The mistake was running up 1.5 trillion a year in deficits in the first place and spending 15-20 years running up a huge credit bubble. Once you start down that path, there is no good result. Neither is OK but one has to happen. So calling budget cutting a "mistake" seems pretty silly. The mistakes have already happened. We could have gotten out with just a bad hit had we not turned the economy over to Pelosi, Reid and Obama. They have emphatically removed any "merely bad" options from the table.

[MrPalladium]

"In November of 1936 Nazi Germany signed the Anti-Comintern Act with Japan and Italy."

History will record that we fought WWII to make the world safe for communism and to open up the great competition between the bolshevic brand (Russia) and the Frankfort School brand (the U.S.)

And keeping the world safe for communism was so important that I received the same "combat" ribbon my father earned, (United States Army of Occupation, Europe) even though I was born after that war.

[drwillia]

GLD & SLV

http://sheepgetslaughtered.blogspot.com

[ekm]

Mr. Krasting

I have immense respect for you and Ms Shlaes, but if people of your caliber studied some military history, both you and Ms Shlaes would be much more helpful to us with your research and analytical experience and skills.

Simply put: MILITARY = FINANCE. Inseparable.

All those reasons you mentioned were good ones. However, as you mentioned there was a war coming up. Hence, world was in balance. Shrinking of money supply was bad, but nothing as bad as international tariffs and protectionism. Real Goods were not circulating the world because no superpower existed to guarantee world trade, movement of goods. Countries had no problem denying food exports etc. Nobody would bother them. 

Enter United States Navy. US Navy and the military might of US is the only reason we do not have a full blown depression. US Navy makes sure goods go from point A to point B to point C..... Regardless of the emotional power of war and its human cost (no doubt about it), US Navy is doing this job perfectly well.

To make things clear, I am not american. I am from Europe living in Canada and have dual citizenship. This doesn't mean that I shouldn't be grateful to US Navy for securing world trade. Canada has its important part as a NORAD ally. It's clear that the lack of world  balance is good for world trade.

And since US Navy secures world trade, a nice chunk of DEBT DESTRUCTION is necessary in order to reduce the interest payments on all parties, states, businesses and individuals.

It will lead to DEATH AND RESURRECTION rather than the current death by a thousand cuts. Anybody is aware of Jesus Christ story?

[falak pema]

You would have made a good roman tribune in the year 200 AD under Septimius Severus; the man who was of African origin from Leptis Magna, built the best marble toilets in his home town (Chicago, Chicago; gave me big entitlements), and ramped up his own Praetorian guard to 50000 (3 wars and still more coming; Guantanamolese and NDAA sauce) and ran the Empire further down the road to debt ruin and adventurism, all the while the moral fabric of its elites became more effete. 

So yes, militarism and finance go hand in hand on the road to ruin. MIC + WS is the writing on the wall today of Pax Americana, and guess whose winning this battle.

 Septimius Severus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[ekm]

GLAD YOU AGREE ON THE CONCEPT.

Commentary on it is subject to further studies and opinions. You have yours I have mine.

People with resources like Krasting and Shlaes should run with this concept that you and I agree upon and expand into further studies by using their excellent analytical skills and experience.

[Vlad Tepid]

+1  FP.  Here's someone who knows a little military history!

[the tower]

How about Europe and USA/Canada/Mexico start making their own products instead of shipping everything accross the world? We wouldn't need the US Navy and war after war. This globalization thing is so warped, can we finally stop with this nonsense?

[Clinteastwood]

I can't really follow all you are asserting; please expand on how you know what you know.  Simply put, write more.

[ekm]

Thx for the comment.

I am as curious as you are. But when China asserted its soverignity over South China sea in 2008 right after the crash thinking USA is weak now, Bloomberg interviewed the commander of the US Navy Fleet on South China sea. He basically said in nice words, FUCKOFF. He also emphasised that his job was protect trade routes from Far East to Europe and North America. That's when I started being curious.

Unfortunately, the argument is very emotional because soldiers are getting killed in Afghanistan and Iraq (God bless their souls).

Moreover, we do not see anywhere in the news or employment data, how many people are employed by miltary, directly or indirectly.

Anybody knows?

[egoist]

Ultimately, w/o productivity, things fall apart. Our culture has one potent product: promotion of sloth. The parasites are enabled (if not outright encouraged) to mooch (or actually have somebody else mooch on their behalf). The productive are discouraged (if not outright attacked) for earning wealth. The spirit of the self-supporting individual is being sucked out and crushed. If you can't turn that around, all of the technical tweaks won't fix shit.

[New_Meat]

egoist:

" ... promotion of sloth."

don't cha' know.  Why, it is unsustainable!

- Ned

[justsayin2u]

No way is the goobermint going to stop the defecit (read stimulus) spending.  It'll amount to 1.8T again this year and continue at that rate for the forseeable future.  The prigs may raise taxes but that'll all get redistributed to the helpless folks as EBT raises and tax rebates for those that never pay tax anyways.  All those highways e just built - we'll just tear em all up and do it all over again - shovel ready!

Oh.  Have a nice day! :-) 

PS - Go long Apple and retail as it'll be Toys-R-US forever.

[John_Coltrane]

Interesting post.  The boom and bust cycles will never cease as long as we use a fractional reservse system backed by "faith" in money backed only by government debt.  Only sound money backed by a finite resource like gold will provide a stable system, where saving from production and work are the basis of future capital investment.  This minimizes malinvestments but cannot eliminate them as humans, ruled by greed and fear are involved and can't resist the "something for nothing" philosophy.  Obviously, among politicians only Ron Paul, has studied and understands monetary history enough to get us on the right trajectory but he knows he can't do it alone.

[cranky-old-geezer]

He has said that he will not make the same mistake that poor old Eccles made.

Ya gotta give up thinking these things are mistakes if you hope to understand what's happening.

There's been no mistakes. Everything back then happened as planned just like everything now is happening as planned.

The '08 collapse was planned along with everything since then, money printing, bailouts, QE, all of it.

You have to understand the true plan, robbing America blind, stealing all the wealth they can from the American people.

[RiverRoad]

Yur darned tootin'.

[forexskin]

yup yup yup

+1000

[CEOoftheSOFA]

You don't turn a recession into a great depression with one stupid mistake.  It takes a lot of stupid mistakes.  I made a list of them:

Hoover:

1. Upon taking office, immediately began reducing the money supply. 
2. April, 1929:  Started pushing for an increased tariff. 
3. November, 1929:  Expanded the public buildings program by $423 million under the theory that increased government spending would boost the economy. 
4. November 19, 1929:  Called a meeting of all railroad executives to goad them into a railroad construction binge, even though the bursting of railroad construction bubbles caused three depressions in the 19^th century.  $1 billion was pledged by the federal government for railroad construction.  This was 30% of the entire budget. 
5. November 21, 1929:  Hoover met with Henry Ford, Julius Rosenwald (Sears), Pierre du Pont, Alfred Sloan (GM), and Julius Barnes (US Chamber of Commerce).  Hoover strong-armed them to pledge not to lay- off or reduce wages of employees. 
6. November 22, 1929:  Met with labor leaders to encourage them to push for higher wages.
7. November 22, 1929: Met with construction executives to strong arm them into not laying off workers.
8. November 23, 1929:  Telegraphed all state governors and many mayors to goad them into increasing spending on public works.  Received the greatest support in this effort from New York Governor Roosevelt. 
9. November 25, 1929:  Met with agriculture executives and promised support.
10. November 27, 1929:  Met with Utility executives to goad them into expanding the electric grid at a faster pace.        
11. December 1929:  Hoover submitted bills to congress to call for 1) the expansion of the merchant marine; 2) the regulation of the interstate distribution of electric power; 3) Consolidation of railroads; 4) development of public health services; 5) created a department for “the reorganization of the greater economy”. 
12. December 1929:  Hoover pledged to use the Executive Branch to broker the recovery.
13. Hoover forced all businesses to increase capital expenditures when they did not want to due to the downturn.  He required companies to take a hit in profits.  This further depressed the stock market.  Many businesses were forced to shut down rather than lay off employees. 
14. December 1929:  Pushed congress to endorse huge public works spending. 
15. December 1929:  Ordered all state governors to increase public works spending.
16. December 1929:  Hoover attempted to boost farm prices.  Farm prices were depressed due to over-production as a result of production incentives advanced by Hoover in the early 1920’s when he was Commerce Secretary.  The government lured the farmers into over-production.  
17. December 1929:  Former President Coolidge said “These are socialistic notions of government”.  Hoover had been in the Harding and Coolidge cabinets.  Coolidge campaigned against Hoover in the primary for being an excessive interventionist saying “Hoover gave me a lot of advice, all of it bad”.  Also quoted as saying “Hoover has it backwards.  High wages do not make prosperity.  Prosperity makes high wages”.    
18. Hoover promoted collusion among companies in violation of anti-trust laws. 
19. 1930:  Public works spending at the highest level in 5 years. 
20. June:  1930:  Smoot-Hawley Act Increased Tariff to highest tariff levels in US history.  Reduced imports by 40%.  Reduced exports markedly.  Reduced ability of other countries to pay debts to U.S.
21. Increased farm subsidies in order to raise farm prices.  A return to the Gold Standard Mechanism would have relieved the farmers’ problems. 
22. Forced wage controls and job sharing.  Pressured companies to raise wages in a deflationary environment, causing corporations’ financials to deteriorate, and worsened downturn. 
23. Federal share of GNP increased markedly from 1930 – 1931.
24. Revenue Act of 1932 - Largest peacetime tax increase in history doubled Federal income tax revenue.  Top tax bracket increased from 24% to 63%.  Reduced exemptions.  Abolished earned income credit.  Corporate taxes raised.  Auto tax raised. 
25. NCC - National Credit Corp - Big banks forced to lend to small banks to avoid foreclosure.
26. Reconstruction Finance Corp subsidized politically influential businesses.
27. Federal Home Loan Bank Act was passed to spur new home construction, causing real estate bubble.
28. Emergency Relief Construction Act authorized excessive funds for public works.
29. Check Tax charged 2 cents for every check written (30 cents in today's dollars).
30. Huge budget deficit weakened economy. 
31. Attempted to pass laws making short selling unlawful. 
32. Attempted to bail out German debts by calling for a moratorium on interest payments. 
33. Hoover said Depression was aggravated by “People giving up jobs so they can make more money gouging people with high prices for apples”. 

FDR:

1. Devalued dollar by 40% in the first 100 days.
2. First FDR budget had $10 billion in spending, $3 billion revenue. 
3. Federal expenditures rose by 83% and debt rose by 73% from 1933 - 1936.
4. Forced bank holiday for 9 days.  Resulted in 5000 banks failing to reopen, 2000 of which were permanently closed.
5.  Treasury Dept. defaulted on its promise of honoring gold backed bonds. 
6.  Treasury Dept. defaulted on its promise of redeeming paper money for gold. 
7. Socialist Security Act created legal Ponzi scheme.  Treasury Secretary Morganthau advised FDR against the passage of the Socialist Security Act saying "The program will be broke by 1980.  I cannot put this burden on future Treasury Secretaries."
8. Works Progress Administration gave jobs based on political patronage.
9. National Recovery Act (NRA) - Forced companies into cartels in violation of anti-trust laws. Regulated prices.  Raised taxes.  500 codes controlled production.  NRA headed by Hugh Johnson, who was an admirer of Mussolini.  Industrial production dropped 25% within 6 months of passage.  Poultry retailer Schechter of Brooklyn was charged under NRA and jailed for lowering poultry prices from the mandated 21 cents per pound to 19 cents per pound. Schechter case brought to Supreme Court.  Supreme Court found in favor of Schechter.  NRA declared unconstitutional by Supreme Court. The Supreme Court forced the NRA to drop 500 court cases. 
10. Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) forced farmers to plow under crops and kill livestock to be buried in mass graves.  Paid farmers not to work.  Initiated new tax on agricultural processors. Only helped large farms.  Caused food prices to go up at a time when many people could not afford enough food.  Artificially increasing food prices was FDR’s method of “reducing deflation”.  Outlawed by Supreme Court. 
11. United States Housing Authority bailed out people from their mortgages. 
12. Civilian Conservation Corp. created make-work jobs to improve employment data, weakening economy.
13.  Excessively increased regulatory powers of FTC.
14. Fair Standards Act created minimum wage increasing unemployment.  Caused 500,000 Blacks to be laid off. 
15. Moved the control of the money supply from the New York Federal Reserve to the Washington Federal Reserve which increased the political influence of the money supply. 
16. Retroactively made it illegal to take advantage of legal tax loopholes. 
17. Nominated known bootlegger, stock swindler and inside trader to lead the Security and Exchange Commission, Joseph Kennedy.  When asked why he had tapped such a crook, FDR replied, "Takes one to catch one".
18. TVA created government-owned and subsidized utility in violation of Constitution. Forced private utilities out of business.  Wiped out $650 million in market cap of southern utilities. 
19. Public Utilities Holding Co. Act outlawed public utility holding companies. 
20. Frazier - Lemke Act limited the ability of banks to reposess property.  Declared unconstitutional by Supreme Court. 
21. Charged former Treasury Secretary Mellon for taking too many tax deductions.  The trial concluded that Mellon's deductions were all legal and that he didn't take advantage of all the deductions that he was entitled to.  FDR was found to have taken illegal deductions, but charges were never filed. 
22. Executive Order 6102 confiscated gold of every citizen and paid them $20 per ounce.  Later increased the exchange rate to $32 per ounce.  Made it illegal for people to own gold.  Found to be unconstitutional by Supreme Court, but Roosevelt ignored order.
23. Works Progress Administration gave jobs to politically connected.  Forced workers to collect campaign contributions for Democrats. 
24. In 1936 Federal spending surpassed all state and local spending for the first time, increasing by 50% as a percentage of the GNP. 
25. National debt increased from 16% of GNP to 32% of GNP.
26. Initiated 5% tax on dividends.
27. Wagner Act of 1937. Took labor disputes out of the courts and into the NLRB, whose members were packed with pro labor socialists by FDR in violation of constitutional checks and balances.  The NLRB became prosecutor, judge, and jury in labor disputes. Workers were not allowed the freedom to get rid of a union, once a union was voted in.  Union workers were allowed to shut out non-union workers.  FDR encouraged the unions to commit acts of violence by saying "The refusal of employers to allow workers to organize will lead to strikes and industrial strife".    FDR passed this as retribution for the Supreme Court outlawing the AAA and NRA.  It became unlawful for any company to resist any demand from labor unions.  Labor union membership increased 10-fold in one year.  This resulted in labor unions going on a frenzy of threats, boycotts, strikes, and seizures of plant and widespread violence.  Resulted in reduced productivity and increased unemployment.  Caused "Depression of 1937 - the Depression within a Depression".  
28. FDR passed an executive order to tax all income over $25,000 at 100%, but was struck down by congress. 
29. FDR proposed a 99.5% federal Income Tax on all income over $100,000 per year.  Struck down by congress. 
30. Personal Income tax top rate raised to 91%.
31. Steel mill capacity dropped from 83% to 35% during 1937.  When this news was released, FDR was on a 9 day fishing trip. 
32. Undistributed Profits tax of 1937, increased corporate taxes.  This was in response to companies hoarding cash and postponing capital expenditures due to political uncertainty.  According to the Boston Herald: "The Undistributed Profits Tax will deepen the depression by leaving companies unable to save for a downturn forcing them to lay off more workers, and suspend dividends". 
33. Tried to pack the Supreme Court with 5 additional judges in violation of constitutional checks and balances.  Capital investment declined markedly until this issue was resolved. 
34. Members of FDR administration published a book entitled "Nine Old Men" which was a smear of the existing members of the Supreme Court, calling them the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse".  The book was an unconstitutional attempt to control the Supreme Court. 
35. Treasury Secretary Morganthau admitted in 1939 that the New Deal was a failure.  A poll in 1939 blamed FDR for prolonging the Depression by a 2:1 margin.  
36. US became unnecessarily involved in WW2 in Europe in violation of George Washington's warning concerning the avoidance of European alliances.  Should have instead remained neutral and watched Germany and the USSR beat each other into another Dark Age.  Winston Churchill later declared that the war was unnecessary.  The war caused the Great Depression to be replaced by a wartime economic bubble which resulted in inflation peaking at 6% per month.   
37. Attempted to manipulate the entire economy by imposing artificial wage and price controls.   
38. Sold war bonds to finance the war so the next administration would have to pay for the war.

Assisted the USSR in the take-over of half of Europe, causing the initiation of the Cold War which substantially increased Federal defense spending for decades, reducing net economic activity

[Vlad Tepid]

Got one for Bush and Obama yet?

[CEOoftheSOFA]

Yes and they are longer.

[New American Re...]

PS... also, your history starts too late to get an accurate grip on what happened, because the table was set after the war, and finally set in stone by 1927.  So you're late.   Check out www.nar2012.com, you might want to buy the book, it's an inexpensive way to get a grip. 

  Via con Dios Amigo

[New American Re...]

Hate to rain on your parade dude, but Taft Hawley wasn't anywhere near the largest tariff hike in U.S. history.   I'll stop there, because so much of your stuff is off the cuff it reads like Wikipedia... somewhere around 70% accurate.   Yawn....

[Chupacabra]

Whatever, fag.  Rebutt or STFU.

[New_Meat]

dang, who knew that Milton's and Anna's Nobel Prize could be summarized so well.  Plus 1 on the CEO thingie ! - Ned

{ED. of course, this is on the Hoover-statist bastard as well as the double-FDR-Double-bastard-statist-bastardz}

[bigwavedave]

Bruce. You should look at the global economy of 1421. Much more relevant today than 1921.

[Coldfire]

Yeah, if we could only get this central planning of the time value of money thing right, everything would be OK.

[El Hosel]

They learned plenty, they can keep "running the table" on the sheep as long as they want with no repercussions. Its all bought and paid for with 17 Trillion of debt kicked down the road.  The banksters ride off  into the sunset with ALL the bags of loot ....again.

                           "Nobody could have seen it coming"

[CH1]

So, we let politicians and banksters skim everyone's money, demand obedience, and run the world.

What could possibly go wrong with that???

[Diamond Jim]

In taking responsibility for our excessive spending we must stop spending what we do not have. Getting rid of this debt will take years and alot of pain. Austerity will be our motto for years to come. There is alot still going for us here if we start now, sort of like starting a real energy policy for a change. We do not have to end up like europe or a stagnatting Japan. We need leadership willing to give up getting re-elected and get the job started. Not one of the reasons for our dilemna we are currently in has been fixed. All we have done is expand the money supply (QE) and bailed out banksters and Wall Street and added more regulation to the economy (can we say Dodd Frank, Obamacare, Volker rules for examples). Prez Owe is getting his wish to destroy America and bring us to our knees...he is spending us into oblivion. This is not the capitalist path. Tar and feather the Keynsians...welcome in the Austrian economics of Hayek et. al.....

[Fix It Again Timmy]

Bennie - the Ponzi Ball Wizzard...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK33CY68s1w&feature=related

[VelvetHog]

We are all the new Sodomites.

[chindit13]

Better a Sodomite than a Gomorrahian.  Whatever the act was that gave that city its name and invoked the wrath of God is unknown, but it must have been particularly nasty to have been expunged from the pages of history.  One shudders to think.

[Ghordius]

unknown? are you sure? the hints are quite clear, I thought: the Sodomites maintained that the male sexual urge should be satisfied - always and with whatever. And Gomorrans maintained the same for for the female sexual urge. both was not ok for the God of Abraham, who urged some restraint - best by a social order and institutions like marriage.

[Ghordius]

note that in antiquity there were many walled cities that had customs inside the walls that were radically different from the customs outside the walls. (including a holy ban on arms inside the walls)

and many that had Aphrodite Temples where religious prostitution was encouraged - many poor country girls around Corinth were brought for a year in the city by their fathers so that they could earn their dowry and then marry. and this with the blessing of the priests, of course.

[Chupacabra]

I like the way you think.

[falak pema]

more like doing it with flies if the market is now centrally owned, thats all thats left to the small guys; flies. 

[Chupacabra]

Where are you from, dude?

[falak pema]

I'm from "free of flies" land and you?

[Ghordius]

eh? that part of Egypt that was free of flies because the Israelites lived there?

I was not aware there was a real land completely free of flies

[falak pema]

You haven't been to Xanadu where I llive?

[Ghordius]

LOL - all I know is that you are very attentive and knowlegdable about French politics - let me guess: you live in Tahiti and are sleepless with a nice glass of Armagnac next to you.

I met once the General of the Legion that was overseeing the nuclear experiments there - nice chap, of polish origins - hence the guess...

[DB Cooper]

S/b Ain't learnt a dang thang.

[Everybodys All ...]

Bernanke is mistaken and his policy has already landed this country one downgrade of the AAA credit rating with more to follow. How in the hell is this guy lauded for leadership of our econoomy is beyond me. This is nothing but short sided thinking that will likely bankrupt all of us. I'm not so cynical to think that this is his plan but it makes you wonder.

[michael_engineer]

Is the slowdown really due to structural peak resource issues?

[riphowardkatz]

Oil boom in Wyoming? Shale s of Canada? The low low low price of natural gas that people are switching over to in droves? The influx of cheap solar from China? The new fracking technology? The list goes on and on and on. Most of the world hasnt even been explored yet. There is plenty of energy and wealth left to exploit that energy despite what the dilbert curve says.

[Orly]

And don't forget about Texas from El Paso to Brownsville- covered with shale oil and natural gas.

It's actually embarrassing to hear people go on about Hubbard's Peak Oil.  Almost like they can't think at all for themselves.  Embarrassing.

[falak pema]

my my, land of milk and burpy honey; maybe they'll find truffles when they make it land of gruyere cheese!

[Chupacabra]

Orly, is that really you?  (>  (>  (>