All Hope And Change Roads Lead To Greece

Who says Barron's covers are only good for timing contrarian market inflection points to the millisecond? In this specific case, we learn that all hope and change roads (soon to be de-potholed following another trillion in road renewal stimulus, aka ARRA 2.0, spent shortly and paying a minimum wage of $9.00 to the depotholers) lead to, where else, Athens, Greece.

Meanwhile in Greece, free food for everyone!

Comments

[B2u]

Looks like Walmart on Black Friday.

[Skateboarder]

Walmart stampedes on Black Friday will look like common decency compared to what a similar situation in America would look like should there be no food ferreals.

[Manthong]

At least we are gaining a lot of new residents and friends.

http://i.imgur.com/CE16QB8.jpg

[TruthInSunshine]

Never forget--

"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that the buck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better."

Senator Barack Obama (D-IL)

Speech Given on U.S. Senate Floor Objecting To Raising Debt Ceiling Limit

March 16, 2006

Official National Debt at that time: 8 trillion USD

Q.E.D.

*Even Obama/Krugman/Feinstein bootlickers are losing Hope, and scraping for Change:

Barack Obama, Wall Street Co-Conspirator? -Bill Moyers

http://billmoyers.com/2013/01/31/barack-obama-wall-street-co-conspirator...

[francis_sawyer]

 PRIVATE jew bankers [who print the shit out of thin air] love all that freshly minted debt [dontcha kno]?

~~~

NEVER FORGET, however, to call it all what it really is... 'PAPER FIATS'... [NOT 'joobux' ~ oh heavens no, not THAT word]...

[Bendromeda Strain]

Why not just call it "judefetzen"? Worked the first time it was used...

[Mr Lennon Hendrix]

Solent Green is horse meat!

[WayBehind]

Print, print, print .... oooops .... where can I get some ammo? 

[Jay Gould Esq.]

Well done, Barron's.

Frankly, I did not think you had it in you.

[TwoShortPlanks]

3 missed meals and America will be under new [the ultimate] free market rules.

1. Cardio
2. The Double Tap
3. Beware of Bathrooms
4. Wear Seat Belts
5. No Attachments
6. The “Skillet”
7. Travel Light
8. Get a Kick Ass Partner
9. With your Bare Hands
10. Don’t Swing Low
11. Use Your Foot
12. Bounty Paper Towels
13. Shake it Off
14. Always carry a change of underwear
15. Bowling Ball
16. Opportunity Knocks
17. Don’t be a hero (later crossed out to be a hero)
18. Limber Up
19. Break it Up
20. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, unless it’s a sprint, then sprint
21. Avoid Strip Clubs
22. When in doubt Know your way out
23. Zipplock
24. Use your thumbs
25. Shoot First
26. A little sun screen never hurt anybody
27. Incoming!
28. Double-Knot your Shoes
29. The Buddy System
30. Pack your stain stick
31. Check the back seat
32. Enjoy the little things
33. Swiss army Knife

[francis_sawyer]

Sorry about the rude comment there above...

~~~

I forgot that the debt just printed itself & NOBODY was the beneficiary... Especially not families who are the private shareholders of the Federal Reserve...

@TIS ~ You use an avatar that says END THE FED... I'm speechless...

[TruthInSunshine]

What's going on, Francis.

The Fed is just the latest institution, made of bricks, mortar, double-speak and bag men, to represent the tentacles of fractional reserve private fiat banks that swallow "sovereign governments" (ostensibly democratic and other forms, included) whole, and make the citizenry & their future children perpertual debt slaves.

We're on our 3rd version of this monstrosity in the United States, and when it implodes, they'll merely attempt to bring it back in some other form and iteration, for the same true purpose, but with a much more "warm & patriotic" name, and with a rehashed stated mission of improving the American Economy & allegedly setting "monetary policy" to assist in improving the lives of the majority of Americans, while doing the precise opposite.

But I couldn't fit all that in my avatar.

[walküre]

Rude? Dude, you're right on the money. Have they ever apologized for anything? They just cry every time someone dares point a finger at them and go all wailing about persecution. Whatever, it's in their own book. Speak of a self fullfilled prophecy. They started the debasing of currencies and creating their own wealth and fortunes from nothing but fraud and manipulations. The best gig in town since Christ was an infant. Several other industries are "in on it" as well and part of the process to protect the gig. Think about the legal profession. They've got it all in the bag.

[DoChenRollingBearing]

Attention Barron's publishers!

Your issue, for the 3rd week in a row, has not been available in my town, not even at the Ritz-Carlton!  Your distribution is in tatters here in S Fla!  I had to go to the AIRPORT to buy it, and NewsLink (one of the two newstand chains there) does not even carry it...

I wonder if there is a decline in readership or what.  As she told me at 7-11 (who carried until two weeks ago, "No lo traen."

Review in due course when I finish...

[Freddie]

I think Barrons readership is wiped out due to Hope & Change for seniors and baby boomers.   A lot of Barrons readers were probably in that age group.  Loads of those people have been wiped out.   Obummer has destroyed everything including magazines, newspapers, small business, etc.   F the media.  They supported it.

[TruthInSunshine]

For those who (for whatever reason) are being redirected to a pay wall(?) http://billmoyers.com/2013/01/31/barack-obama-wall-street-co-conspirator... Related Features

• Obama Gift Wraps the SEC
• Stories From Washington’s Revolving Door
• Washington’s Revolving Door: As Old as Lincoln

Barack Obama, Wall Street Co-Conspirator? January 31, 2013 by David Sirota

This article first appeared on Salon.com.

After all the big news last week about Barack Obama’s all-too-close relationship with Wall Street, my dad and I got into a back and forth email exchange about whether to feel optimistic about the president’s second term and about how to explain the administration’s refusal to prosecute a single banker connected to the financial meltdown.

Though my father is no Obama apologist by any stretch, his politics lean liberal, and so in response to watching last week’s PBS Frontline report, he asked me questions that were similar to those I’ve heard before. He wants to believe Obama really hopes to “hold Wall Street accountable,” as the president claimed, and so my dad wonders whether the president’s refusal to do so can be explained by something other than corruption. He wants to believe — or at least to explore the possibility — that the depressing situation isn’t simply about Obama raking in massive Wall Streetcontributions and then paying back his donors with immunity from prosecution — immunity, mind you, that the rest of us are not afforded.

It goes without saying, of course, that when this line of discussion is initiated by liberals about Obama, there is a serious double standard at work. Simply put, if a Republican was president right now and hadn’t prosecuted a single banker and had appointed a scandal-plagued Wall Street defense lawyer to head the SEC, liberals would be — rightly — screaming bloody murder on Twitter, on Facebook, on blogs and on cable television. They wouldn’t be looking for ways to excuse that president from personal culpability, nor would they be looking to claim the situation exemplified anything other than the kind of ugly-but-legal bribery that dominates American politics.

No doubt, that depressing double standard illustrates a deeply problematic red-versus-blue-ification of our society — one that blinds Americans to their responsibilities as citizens. However, let’s set that whole crisis aside for a moment and go to the substance of my dad’s question. Regardless of why he and others may be asking them, the queries are important: How can we explain Obama’s servile posture toward and genuflecting reverence of Wall Street? Is it possible Obama is not at fault?

To my mind, the only school of thought that could even slightly reduce the amount of blame Obama deserves is the one so harrowingly evinced in Oliver Stone’s 1995 film, Nixon. In that movie’s scene at the Lincoln Memorial, the sullen president tries to have a rational discussion with anti-war protestors about his escalation of the Vietnam War. Nixon claims to sympathize with those who want to end the conflict. Yet, when he is asked why he doesn’t just use his presidential authority to stop the war, Nixon has no answer, leading the students to conclude that the president actually doesn’t have the power to stop the war, because the Military-Industrial Complex is just too big for even a commander in chief to assert his will.

In theory, you could try to make the same argument about Obama and Wall Street. You could argue that through campaign contributions to Congress, through revolving-door promises of future riches to current regulators and through an army of lawyers who tilt the judicial system in its favor, Wall Street has so much political power that a president simply has no ability to change things, even if he wanted to.

The problem with this argument, though, is that it doesn’t make sense when it comes to actions over which the executive has complete control.

A president, for instance, has the unilateral power to at least propose tough Wall Street regulations, even if Congress is too corrupt to pass them. A president, likewise, has the unilateral power to nominate genuinely independent regulators, even if a Wall Street-dominated Senate might try to halt such a nomination. In short, a president has the unilateral power to at least force a serious fight over these issues — and Obama has refused to even do that. Instead, he championed bailouts and a Wall Street “reform” package that let the banks off the hook, and he has appointed Wall Street pals like Lanny Breuer at Justice and Mary Jo White at the Securities Exchange Commission.

One hackneyed retort to all that is to cast Obama as a “realist” who doesn’t want to pick fights with Congress that he knows he cannot win. That logic is predicated on the absurd notion that a president cannot use the bully pulpit to change public opinion — that is, to actually lead and, ultimately, to win. But even if you accept such apologism, it still cannot account for how the president has used — or, really, not used — his unilateral power to prosecute.

Obama is a president who asserts the right to execute American citizens without judge, jury or trial. That means that in his role overseeing the Department of Justice, he (like his predecessors) clearly retains the lesser-but-still-serious power to tell his political appointees at the Justice Department to prioritize certain kinds of prosecutions. In fact, this is exactly what he just did when this month he issued an executive order instructing the Department of Justice to “maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.”

He could just as easily have a similar executive order after winning a presidential election on promises to “hold Wall Street accountable.” But he chose not to back then, just as he chooses not to today.

To know that is an active choice rather than a decision forced on Obama, recall the prosecutorial record of a New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. He had to run for office in the very state that domiciles Wall Street and he held an office with far less power than President of the United States. And yet, he chose to use his prosecutorial power in a way that made him the “Sheriff of Wall Street.”

Considering all of this, and further considering, again, just how much money Obama has taken from the financial industry, it is hard to believe anyone can see Obama as anything but an active, proud, engaged co-conspirator with Wall Street.

Of course, that many can and do see him as something else is proof that Obama’s cynical political formula works — and works well. As I wrote in my column last week, he seems to know that in a short-attention-span country where the electorate focuses more on TV packaged rhetoric than on reality, he can give tough-sounding speeches and be widely credited as “tough on Wall Street” — even if he isn’t doing anything to stop financial crime.

He also seems to know that liberals, in particular, want to believe “their guy” is trying to do the right thing, even when he’s trying to do the opposite. He knows that for many liberals, it is simply too painful to admit “their guy” is often as duplicitous and destructive as their sworn GOP enemies — and so he knows he probably will face no real opposition movement among the voters who put him in office.

In this, he is not some weakling getting bowled over by more powerful forces. Like I told my dad, he is one of the strongest presidents in recent history, deftly leveraging the most powerful office in the world to get exactly what he and his Wall Street donors want. Those donors didn’t give him millions as an altruistic gift — they gave him millions as an investment. And he is paying back that investment every single day the bankers who cratered the economy are not prosecuted.

_{David Sirota is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist, magazine journalist and the best-selling author of the books Hostile Takeover, The Uprising and Back to Our Future. E-mail him at [e-mail], follow him on Twitter @davidsirota or visit his website at www.davidsirota.com}

[JR]

Thanks,Truth.

I wouldn’t miss Salon; I read it, every day. They’re over-the-top liberal but I get more from them than anything. If there’s anything anti-government, they find it. Salon had the frightening background and the details of Obama’s pick for SEC head, Mary Jo White, material that few other websites dared to use.

And how many sites would run the story I saw yesterday regarding surveillance cameras at intersections and on the city streets…? So in Berlin guys get together, all in black with black masks, and go out and break these things up. They call it Camover. And so now it’s starting in the US.

Who would support anything like that?  Salon would.

The Obama article is spot on, but as for Sirota telling his dad that Obama is “one of the strongest presidents in recent history,” the reality is, it’s as if he wasn’t there. He’s not powerful. He’s a follower. It would happen without him. When he has all his economic advisers on the stage so he can lead, who’s on the stage?  Bob Rubin. The Fed cartel pipes the tune and Obama skips along to the music.

http://www.salon.com/2013/02/15/guerilla_surveillance_camera_destruction_hits_the_u_s/

[CompassionateFascist]

It took Moyers and the Libtards at Salon 4 years to figure this out? Alex Cockburn and the Left-populist gang at http://counterpunch.com had Zero pegged from Day One. 

[Tippoo Sultan]

+1, Freddie.

[boogerbently]

Ha !

S. Fla.!!

You answered your own question.

[DoChenRollingBearing]

We have a derogatory term (which actually IS pretty mean and a little uncalled-for) down here: "Cuban Craftsmanship", which would apply to distribution as well, certainly in this case...

90 minutes more...

EDIT:

Better late than never?

Review of Barron's -- Dated 18 February 2013

http://tinyurl.com/betzhjf

[steve from virginia]

Hey Schicklgruber, why not just quote a line or two from The Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion next time. 

[The Heart]

"Why not just call it "judefetzen"? Worked the first time it was used..."

...and they are so really still angry that they now call them stupid Americans.

[Antifaschistische]

NEVER FORGET to call it what it really REALLY is.  Counterfeiting!!   Counterfeiting always has, and always will benefit the counterfeiter because the first spenders of counterfeit money not only get money for free, they buy without dilution.  Only the 99% have to deal with the dilution.

[Mr Lennon Hendrix]

I'm not sure why anybody would focus on which branch of the unHoly Religion Tree is printing the money, when it is obvious that the whole Tree is a deak oak. 

Sure, there are some evil ass Jews out there, and Israel is as bad as anyone when it comes to killing innocents.  We all know about the deRotheschilde family, and that they are Zionists.  We all know that the US Establishment is Pro-Israel.  But at the same time, lets look at the other angles of the Tree.

First, let's look at WWII, a war fought to save Jews, suppossedly.  How many Jews died?  5M?  10M?  15M?  Well how many Christians died?  So was it a war to kill Jews, or CHristians?  Or was it a war to kill people.  Anybody, no mater their religion, just get rid of some bodies and bring forth bloodshed.

Now the US establishment is far from Jewish.  Sure, Hollywood is heavily Jewish and the media has that influence, but the banking sector is not very Jewish.  The Rockefellers are not Jewish; the Pierces, the Forbes, the Vanderbilts, the Morgans, the Pierponts, the Astors, the Goulds, the Bakers, the Carnegies, the Mellons, the Bushes, the Walkers, the Harrimans, the Whitneys, the Delanos, they are all WASPs.  Wall Street is a group of WASPs, not Jews.

The idea that Jew bankers run the world is laughable.  Which banks went bankrupt in '08?  The Jew banks of Bear and Lehman.  The WASP banks threw them under the bus.  Sure, Bernanke is a Jew, and so was Greenspan, but Volker isn't.  G. William Miller wasn't jewish.  Burns was jewish, but WIlliam McChesney Martin wasn't.  Thomas McCabe wasn't.  Mariner Eccles was a Morman.

I don't know about the rest of the group (Meyer is probably jewish) but I don't think they are.  So the whole "Jew Banker" running the world is just a recent Greenspan/Bernanke thing.

[Temporalist]

I was going to say the same LH so thanks for that.  On Banzai's latest post there is more of the same hate directed at one group of people without asking "who has run the US govt for decades?"  Who created the Fed?  Who allowed the Fed to be created?  Big Bad Billy Clinton eliminated Glass-Steagal.  How many congresscritters are not and have not prosecuted lying stealing cheating scum and are they all the same?  How about the FBI?  Or the CIA?  Or the DOJ?  Are they all run by the same people?  And the MIC are they all the same?

I think the overall point is greed is not specific to any group and stupidity certainly isn't. It's easy and lazy to think so narrowmindedly.  Ever look at Chinese, Japanese or Roman history?  Those civilizations had the same problems as anywhere else, which are egomaniacs, megalomaniacs, greedy and violent rulers.  The Britsish empire, the Dutch, the Spanish...all the same.  Putting trust in people in power who wantonly rob and kill with little recourse and it doesn't matter where they came from.

The first problem is that people want to believe that humans are inherently good.  They may inherently know the difference between right and wrong but that doesn't make them fall on the side of good.  The majority of humans are greedy, jealous, selfserving, insecure and the only way to make things better is to make sure people like that don't get into power just by making empty promises.  That is way too much to ask since the people that vote are also greedy, jealous, selfserving, etc.

What is the opposite of a virtuous cycle?  A death spiral.  Civilization crashes and burns time and again because of the same reasons.  Humans won't get it right.  The US got corrupted and it was the first and last experiment of its kind that could prevent people from making the same mistakes they always make. 

[CompassionateFascist]

One Bank to Rule Them All: Rothschild. As for the US, Franklin said it at the Convention and in his Letters: "do not let the Jews in. They will destroy all we have accomplished." And so it has come to pass. 

[Kitler]

Well said. And you forget Hank "the shank" Paulson.

Also let's not forget that ALL Christians are actually Jews since Christianty was merely another Jewish sect at the time of it's evolution. (Check out the Popes cap...)

Jesus (or Joshua as he was then called) was a social advocate for the sick, poor and elderly unlike most American Jewish Christians today.

He was decidedly anti-banker.

[The Heart]

He was anti-moneychangers for sure.

Truth is not only known by the eyes, ears, hands, taste, and nose, but more so by the Heart.

Learn to follow your heart!

[exartizo]

he that trusts in his own heart is a fool.

Proverbs 28:26a

[Buckaroo Banzai]

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Jeremiah 17:9

[Cap Matifou]

And 3 days later he was a goner.

[Freddie]

Got the same treatment as U.S. Presidents who crossed Central Banksters.  James Garfield, Abe Lincoln (who sucked on the civil war), JFK. They also tried to kill Andrew Jackson. Central Banskters were constantly attacking JAckson.

[zapdude]

Jesus actually cleaned out the temple twice, about three years apart. 

The first time was at the start of his public ministry, the second was at the end. 

"He made a whip of cords..." -- He was far more merciful than what many others have suggested here (ropes & lamp posts, torches & pitchforks, etc).

[boogerbently]

Following your logic, all humans are neanderthals, as evidenced by the "haters."

[Anusocracy]

Savages certainly.

They would rather have someone killed than let them be free of their control.

[exartizo]

.

[exartizo]

he that despises the Word shall be destroyed.

Proverbs 13:13a

[Phoenix_Rising]

But he's back..and he's pissed

http://www.hulu.com/watch/457671

[Things that go bump]

Mr. Lennon Hendrix, so sorry, the US certainly did not enter WWII to save the Jews.  There is actually very good circumstantial evidence to the contrary, and that we, in fact, facilitated it or at the very least, if you want to be generous, turned a blind eye to it; as train lines that were used for transporting Jews were scrupulously avoided, even though the underground resistance was pleading with the allies to bomb them.  Whocudanode? Anti-semitism was not then and is not now unknown in America. The US entered WWII after we were attacked by Japan, though Roosevelt was certainly champing at the bit to get involved.  Three days after the Pearl Harbor attack, Germany and Italy declared war on the US.  

[Diogenes]

Oh yes, and if they had bombed trains full of innocent (Jewish) civilians, in contravention of the Geneva Convention and all the rules of civilized warfare, what do you suppose the reaction would have been?

How in the Hell did NOT bombing train loads of Jews become antisemitic?

Railroads were targeted because they were carrying troops or weapons or military supplies. Specifically, carrying them towards the front lines. Not trains going in the opposite direction, that had no military value, carrying civilians.

To have done any different would have made no sense, and would have been counterproductive in terms of ending the war, not to mention being war crimes.

[Things that go bump]

They were asked to bomb the tracks, of course, not the trains full of people. That, of course, would have been a war crime.

[lasvegaspersona]

Mr LH

well said

Truth be told every single jewish male i know is a doctor (but then I am too). The whole 'zionist conspiracy falls apart when the real problems with the monetary system are considered. In the end we may see Ben was really just doing all he could to keep the system going a bit longer (as I fear what comes next will be rather unpleasant)....or maybe not...

[lasvegaspersona]

dupe

[walküre]

First, let's look at WWII, a war fought to save Jews, suppossedly

Who is teaching you that the war was fought to save Jews? Complete and utter bullshit. The war was fought over resources and the expansion of Germany's influence in the ME. Rommel's objective in North Africa was to secure oil fields for Germany. It was a race about who would secure the Saudi oil fields FIRST.

Germany was technologically superior to America which ultimately couldn't happen and naturally had to be stopped. In the process, Germany was completely decimated and thousands of IP stolen from all sorts of industrial sites.

As for the rest .. pure speculation from either side.

http://www.henrymakow.com/_jay_rockefeller_left.html

Gutenberg invented printing, a Jew invented money printing and the English and French royalty were all too eager to have their faces printed on currency that was backed by their warfare. Jewish loans to finance the wars of England and France even against each other is what made the banking sector. The first bankers were Jews and eventually WASPs entered the game. The English Lords were all too cogniscant of the Jewish money problem and they didn't trust the Jews just as little as anybody else did. The Jew bankers made their first home in the City of London and later-on migrated to Jew York. Jewish banking families spanning all corners of the world today.

[SeattleBruce]

@francis_sawyer: I thought they were 'joos' according to your 'fine' British sensibilities?! Come on man blast on your own minority race now and again!

[Al Gorerhythm]

At Francis;

Blaming Jewish bankers is like claiming only lions feed at night.

You have to eliminate the racist overtones and go to the core of the matter; Who enabled them? The legislation for them to practice their embezzlement, of using a deposit as their asset to use (use MF Global as a prime example of this fraud, where customer accounts were used (stolen) for the benefit of the bank's business), became standard practice under law about 200 years ago, after courtcases embarrassed certain bankers, caught red handed using depositor's money as their own to risk. A currency deposit used to be recorded as athe asset of the depositor but now it is recorded on the asset side of the bank's balance sheet, which is fradulent because the bank and the depositor can't own the deposit at the same time. Bankers have been gifted the cover of legality in using depositor's money, through government legislation. You or I cannot do this legally, so the laws that are enacted in favour of the banks is diametrically opposed to the laws that govern individuals. Whether or not the banks or the government approval came first is irrelevant; The mere fact that the governing bodies that are empowered with creating laws for the nation allow two different outcomes under law, creates a situation of elitism under that law.

Bankers are universal. You can't ignore the whole by only blaming a subset. Under bailment laws of contract, the warehouse (bank) is obligated to return the item stored, in the same condition as when it was deposited. This is irrelevent whether it is a car or money. The car has to be returned as it was deposited, not with an extra 20K miles on it and money has to be returned with the same purchasing power. The depositor always owns the deposit under bailment contracts. Under "tantundem" agreements, depositors hand over ownership rights to the warehouse. These contracts are devised for "pool" deposits where the deposits are qualitively the same, such as wheat or grains of the same quality, siloed for storage by various farmers and where the silo operator can sell quantities of the same grain without ownership issues relative to hallmarked and ID numbers.

Money was never included in the "tantundem" catagory until it was unteathered from the weights and measures that identifed its quality and ownership. Bailment contracts are no longer legally tied to money deposits. The banks collectively have been given a free ride in swindling purchasing power from depositors by using their stored savings as their own, by counterfeiting (copying through fraud) the depositor's warehouse receipts (currency) and using it to demand goods fraudlently in the open market. They spend your purchasing power whilst your demand deposit is locked away, waiting to be used in the future. Surprise!; Sucker!

[eatthebanksters]

Yes, so true...and isn't it wonderful that he is enjoying all the privileges afforded to a man of his stature and position. I am so proud tha he has the courage to show the world that America is strong, so strong in fact that he can take so much vacation time while flying off to one spot on Air Force One to spend $1,000 per hour on golf lessons while his wife and children fly on a different jet to Aspen to play and ski with their very affluent friends...and Michelle will get to eat lobster every day! (Just like when she took all her friends to Europe!). Aren't we so very lucky that we have a president who can stand up to world opinion!? Better yet, aren't you proud of your fellow Americans who are so supportive of this agent of hope and change...after all, can anyone say when was the last time we had an emperor, er president, like Obama? He certainly knows better than me what's best for me and I am so grateful he shouts that message to the world! Fore! Would love to hear an opinion from MDB

[macholatte]

Greece is an upgrade compared to what the Communist Muslim - Soros Clinton Machine has in mind.

Think Totalitarianism, brutality, opression, thought control, propaganda.    Think Mao.

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?
Mahatma Gandhi

Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.
Mao Zedong 

I once said, "We will bury you," and I got into trouble with it. Of course we will not bury you with a shovel. Your own working class will bury you.
Nikita Khrushchev

Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas.
Joseph Stalin 

[steve from virginia]

"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?
Mahatma Gandhi"

   In the long run we're all dead!

   John Maynard Keynes

"Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.
Mao Zedong"

   Wrong, power grows out of a hole in a woman's butt.

"I once said, "We will bury you," and I got into trouble with it. Of course we will not bury you with a shovel. Your own working class will bury you.
Nikita Khrushchev"

Your own working class will bury you with shovels.

"Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas.
Joseph Stalin"

That obviously worked!

[ElvisDog]

You know how to defeat thought control and propaganda? Just don't pay any attention. Turn off the MSM news shows. Don't read MSM newspapers or news magazines. Never listen to politician speeches. Get your news from alternative sources. You will not only be better informed, but you will be healthier and have less stress in your life.

[tbd108]

You misspelled Moochelle.

[yabyum]

Got some links there sport? PS fox and Drudge don't count.

[El Oregonian]

.

[BlueStreet]

Would have been great to see Ben Carson read that Obame quote at the prayer breakfast just before he said it would take over 500,000 years to count to 16 trillion. 

[Yen Cross]

 I love a Man with Conviction :-)

[El Oregonian]

Makes me want to cry, really... How sad is the state of affairs globally because some sick psychopaths deemed it necessary to purchase another Island, another country, another Billion dollar yacht... Well, enjoy it for the little time you all have left...

[Nick Jihad]

Don't be silly. This state of affairs enjoys broad popular support in the US, as we saw back in November. This is purely the work of the free-stuff brigades. If Soros or Buffet takes advantage, well, that's what they're good at, so that's what they do.

History shows that bad ideas don't die when they're shown to be bad - they only die when the generation that believes them dies.

[Almost Solvent]

The bailouts will continue until morale improves!

[knukles]

The Barrons cover or the video?

[mofreedom]

and prbably smells as bad as walmart on any ebt day.

[TruthInSunshine]

It's Too Late, Anyways. Idiocracy Is Now A Documentary. Meet Your Future President, Amerika- "The Machine Will Make It; Free Land; Food Will Be Free, etc."

[Eireann go Brach]

If there is justice in this world, the US economy will crash under his watch! He deserved to be voted in so he can finsh off what he started before the end of his 2nd term!

[I need more cowbell]

Fuck sakes, he is just a muppet. They are all muppets. Can we get a sign over the door into Fight Club, please?

THEY ARE ALL FUCKING MUPPETS, THEY HAVE ROTHSCHILD'S HANDS UP THEIR ASSES. OK, YOU MAY PROCEED.

[kridkrid]

that people don't get this is bad enough... the fact that they think you're the crazy one for this simple observation... almost too much.

[Skateboarder]

Quite the joke of an existence, really.

[Freddie]

F Barrons/WSJ/Murdoch/NewsCorp/AlWaleed/Jeezera - they have been for open borders and illegals.  Alan Abelson of Barrons probably voted for O twice.   F the media, TV and Hollywood.

[Monedas]

Red Friday ..... Black May Day

[OutLookingIn]

Greece leads the way!

As in times of old when she led the way into democracy.

Now she leads the marching parade of nations, heading for soveriegn default.

And guess who is the leader of the marching band? O'Bammy and his bunch of merry thieves!

See you at the fair grounds, for a ride on the REAL merry-go-round! Get there early for your seat.   

[MoneyThangs]

Imagine how high this market would be if things were actually good, don't forget to sign up for the new rounds of welfare plans this year.. Obama offerring the two for twenty thousand a year if you walk in with a limp

[dpr10]

25????:))))wishfullll thinkinggg..

[Curt W]

I am thinking more like 5 years

[AllWorkedUp]

The sooner the better. Let's just get this shit over with. Let the empire collapse already so we can rebuild it.

[The Heart]

Yes!

Pondering this yesterday on the river. We still have the old reliable infrastructure standing. Old, but still standing because it is still strong. If Americans would take pride in their lands, and preserve what we have to persevere through the planed destruction, then after the banks crash, it will be back to sweat equity and the kind of pioneering that developed this country in the first place. The good news is, there are still barely enough elders left to teach the people how they lived during the first depression, and rebuilt after world war two.

Learn from your elders while you can, and keep the peace in your own neighborhoods with the awareness of what is coming to a theater near you soon.

[Things that go bump]

There is a little old granny on YouTube who has a series on Depression-era recipes.   

[verum quod lies]

Just once it would be nice to have a more accurate and honest headline. If they want to compare the US to Greece the headline should read: "We are in worse shape than Greece now and if our credit card stopped working it would even be clear to Barron's: thank you bond prostitutes". Twenty five years from now? What the hell are they smoking?

[Whiner]

Barron's didn't count the intergovernmental debt in ratio to GDP. What dorks!

[gould's fisker]

Nobody pays attention to math or basic economics anymore--we're in feelgood land until the bottom drops out--and the O is willing to say whatever anyone wants to hear as long as he gets out of his second term before the bottom drops out.  It's as simple as that--fucktards all around.

[Skateboarder]

Being able to objectively state a list of possible outcomes in a future timeslice, given a current timeslice... it's called conspiracy. Watch out what outcome you permute out loud man, dem popo's gonna write you up a nice ticket for Possession of Illegal Probability.

[Cardinal Fang]

Yes. Didn't they "bust Madame Marie for telling fortunes better than they do?"...

[Bad Attitude]

When the economy collapses, Dear Leader will not be held responsible for his role in destroying the economy. He will blame his predecessors and Congress, and the media will not question him.

[TheSilverJournal]

Obama will also blame:

1. Capitalism
2. Greedy Speculators
3. The Rich
4. Conservatives
5. Preppers and Conspiracy Theorists
6. China, Russia, and MENA
7. The Weather
8. Natural Disasters

[Phoenix_Rising]

I don't think we're making it through his second term....

[wee-weed up]

I KNOW we're not making it through his second term!

[earleflorida]

it's his 3rd term that scares me...

[kridkrid]

nah... it's whoever is next. TPTB control the system... they control both parties and have owned both candidates all the way back to at least JFK (thought they had JFK, but the father went and had a stroke). The "election" is the biggest part of the illusion. No way they let that piece go. There will be an election and we'll get the same fascist leader that we've been given for a half of a century.

[ElvisDog]

Bingo. This is how the system works: The oligarchs don't care who wins the general elections. They intervene in the primaries with money and media control to ensure that the candidate for both parties will support them and their policies. At that point, it doesn't matter who wins in November. It's a win-win situation for the oligarchs. That is how the U.S. political system works these days. You are correct in that the oligarchs don't want to change anything about the two-term limits because most of the sheeple still believe that the November election makes a difference, "it's the most important election in our lifetime" and so on. TPTB want to maintain that illusion.

[FreedomGuy]

I agree with you at the American government level. I think they are going to fully test the idea that deficits and debt don't matter as long as you can get the central banker to add more zero's to some paper somewhere. We laughed at the trillion dollar coin a few months ago. You may not laugh in the future.

Where I disagree is that I perceive a general malaise in the back of the mind of most people who pay any attention to current events. My whole family, friends, coworkers seem to have an underlying sense of doom or foreboding. I don't think most can tell you why but they have an instinct for the numbers and the general situation. If you combine this with a general sense of powerlessness it is why most people just go about their normal daily lives hoping for best, hoping their instincts are wrong and living in the present moment...before some vague economic tsunami rolls in. I do it myself at times.

Sometimes I get so depressed I cannot sleep. I am happier when I ignore it. I have transferred from the hopeful libertarian type to the one where given our form of unconstitutional government, human nature, the size of the problem and the crew in charge...it's over. It's just a matter of time. It is a painful process to go from optimist to pessimist.

So, i was at a gun show yesterday and the prices of any AR-15 or AK-47 style weapon has skyrocketed, ammo is on major backorder and I bought a couple months of survival food...finally. So, many people are paying attention to different aspects of the coming apocalypse. it's just that none of them are in government or the mainstream press.

Basic math and economics will have their day and it won't be pretty.

[whstlblwr]

Instead of optimist to pessimist work to become the status quo. It's hard, but can be done. Look at Elizabeth Warren. Without her there now, her questions would not be asked.

[Blankenstein]

While I think Elizabeth Warren's current tough stance is admirable, I have to wonder what prompted the massive exposure of her hard line of questioning.  Ron Paul has been taking The Bernanke and Geitner to task numerous times in the past, but that has never been featured in the MSM, only alternative news sites that provide links to CSpan.  

Another example, when Cliff Stearns calls out Hank Paulson, but again not a peep from the MSM.

http://dailybail.com/home/the-hammer-gets-hit-by-a-tree.html 

[whstlblwr]

The last thing the status quo want is lazy ass Americans to get with it and start running for office, and take over. Keep telling yourself there is nothing you can do, it's too big at this point, so when it falls apart you can look at your fingernails and nod I told you so.

[ElvisDog]

Oh, please, Elizabeth Warren is just the latest "bad cop" they roll out every once in a while to talk tough but do nothing to change the system. I'll believe it when she actually does something to change the status quo instead of just talking tough.

[whstlblwr]

Takes more than one to change the system, and it's good that she has the guts and highlights the bullshit on Wall Street for MSM.

You bankers here are boiling mad she won the election, the Scott Brown loss cost you the big bucks. And more of us are running and winning local elections, school board, city council, state offices and up to federal.

Besides whining or prepping, we can take over.

[Harbanger]

Elizabeth Warren the fake cherokee, is a statist, progressive Democrat, and a fraud. Everything she does and says is staged.

[formadesika3]

That pretty much sums it up.

[AllWorkedUp]

Exactly. If she were for real there is no way she'd be getting face time on the MSM or from the clowns at CNBC. You should've seen Maria interview that idiot Bahney Fwank - both of them are scared to death of the banksters.

Warren is all show.

[whstlblwr]

Or maybe she had face time to put all the corporatists on red alert.

[Freddie]

Warren has benefitted greatly by rigging the game and engaging in fraud and the idiots still voted her in.  She is a liar and a fake. The Senate is totally evil and has been for a LONG time.  The Senate and senators are a major part of the problem.  My guess is this fake indian knows how much the public hates these people and their hatred is increasing.

[FreedomGuy]

Well, Whistle, I accept your point and I do sort of preach the gospel of liberty to any and all who will listen. It is in my blood and I cannot do otherwise: but it will not be enough to overcome current economic and social forces that are in play already.

[Harbanger]

keep speaking truth to power, FreedomGuy.  It unsettles the Fascists and Statists in power, one day we will overcome.

[Buckaroo Banzai]

Seriously?? You're counting on Princess Lie-awatha for any kind of help?? Fauxcahontas is controlled opposition. She's a classic Post Turtle, put in place to make some squawking noises that will lend an appearance to the idea that things might change...but she won't be allowed to actually do anything.

If you have any doubts, just look and see how effective or useful she was at her last job.

Yeesh.

[Adahy]

I'll bet she could make a nice pair of mocassins.
Let me rephrase that, it was a little vague:
I'll bet she could be made into a nice pair of mocassins.

[Skateboarder]

Economics is the bastard son of the bastard son of the bastard son of Mathematics. Economics can get away with much bullshiting, but Math does not bullshit, and when Mathematics gets mad, there is no forgiveness. None.

[tbd108]

You give too much credit to the normal birth process. I believe economics was spawned from underneath a rock.

[formadesika3]

Economics by itself is pretty harmless. The problems began when it was subverted by the elites as a policy tool to help control the masses.

[tbd108]

So is rat poison until it is shoved down your throat.

[Mr Lennon Hendrix]

And math is the son of Philosophy.

[Skateboarder]

Both Philosophy and Mathematics are twin sons of a notion called truth, without which neither can speak.

[FreedomGuy]

Economics is actually not mathematics at all. Mathematics may be used in an attempt to describe relationships but it is the relationship recognition that is the point. One may make an equation for GDP or the effects of a dollar of goverment stimulus but they are simply describing relationships or are inexact measures.

Economics is the study of human behavior on small and larger scales. Math does apply but it is the realm of finance, balance sheets and currencies and as you imply...it will have it's day.

[Skateboarder]

Hmm... I think I did not make clear what I mean by Mathematics. It's not the cut'n'dry stuff they teach you in the classroom. Pure Mathematics is the class of all propositions in the form "p implies q," (won't go into details) and I don't think I have to tell you that following the axioms of logic, symbolic and otherwise, you can describe most everything using the notion of truth and untruth. All that exists, including Economics, is a subset of Mathematics, which in turn is a subset of truth.

[StychoKiller]

Could all be replaced with an "expert system..."

[Anusocracy]

Mathematics is based on abstract logical thinking.

Economics is based on abstract emotional thinking.

[Missiondweller]

I agree with you about people's malaise and yet they re-elected the same President, essentially saying "more please".

[AllWorkedUp]

Can't tell you how many times I've heard "I know things are fucked up but I can't do anything about it anyway."

I'm convinced that the clueless are the lucky ones. It sucks knowing the truth, sucks even more trying to invest based on it.

[Nick Jihad]

Ironically, when people are insecure and worried about their future, they tend to vote for bigger government. Most of us believe that that is the source of the insecurity (e.g. Obamacare), but it's not easy to persuade others on this point.

[gould's fisker]

FreedomGuy--point well taken, and I'm not trying to piss on normal folks, hell I'm normal folks.  But math was never my strong suit, ocassionally good at it especially when I was in school but it's been awhile.  And I too know many people that have forboding, but shit with that many zeros applied to every fiscal number I see, and O saying that he's cut $1.5T with only $2.5T to go over however many decades they'll spread that small amount over with $1T annual deficits-- the only way i can describe it in my own head is the School of Hallucinatory Economics.  Folks just stumbling around muttering to themselves, and we just had a fucking election, just seems to put all of this in la la land, bullshit.  People need to wake the fuck up, or start digging their own fucking graves, so to speak.

[FreedomGuy]

Well, you are the person I am describing. We don't know when the Prez is really telling the truth on the numbers and history tells us to be suspicious. That is where your instincts come in. For you whole life you have heard how things are getting better despite occasional setbacks, whether it is unemployment or the national fiscal situation. Yet, you see the final numbers, the deficits and total debt and they are going exponential. So, the Big O says he's cutting government, yet you see $20+ trillion in debt forecasts. Your instincts are correct because you look at the proper numbers and you know they are so large you and I really cannot comprehend them and given that it is debt, not surplusses you know it has a bad ending.

There is some really great storable food out there for reasonable prices.

[ElvisDog]

That $1.5 trillion is really 150 billion. The current trick (that no one in the MSM calls them on) is to multiply that annual figure by 10 years and use the inflated number for their talking point.

[I need more cowbell]

Au contraire, mon frere. They, yes the almighty "They", pay very close attention. You have to pay attention 24/7 so They can twist the math, twist the basic economics message so the MSM and the sheeple are fed MOPE, MOPE, and more MOPE.

As long as WE have the internet, ZH, et al WE can also pay attention, and We do. My takeaway from much reading is WE need to get to 3% of the population and that apparently is the magical critical mass to effect change. I wonder where we are at presently?

[Skateboarder]

Of the % of people in the world who are aware of the truth of how global system and interconnects fully work? Proabbly sub 1%. There certainly would be a lot more pissed off people if they weren't either pacified or in denial.

[peter4805]

It's his third and fourth terms that I'm worried about.

[Professor Fate]

But the "O" is worried about his legacy.  Terrified of being labled the retard of the century when its all over.  As his minions of poorly educated leftist conscript suffer and struggle in what could now easily become an economic reset of the 30's or worse, the name Barack Hussein Obama and the legacy of this presidency could readily become comparable and appropriately added to the list of the most hated and despised fools of the last two centuries.  I can see his picture now, on a "Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime" book cover, centered between the "Bearded Potato" Krugman, Alfred E. Greenspan, and the Village Idiot "Bernank".  

[MFLTucson]

I think they meant 2 to 5 months, forget the 25 years, thats utter bullshit!  Unless of course, they are figuring during this jackoffs term he can do 25 years more of damage?

[wee-weed up]

ObamaCare alone will easily ensure 25 years more of damage!

[Phoenix_Rising]

Just wait, wait till that fiasco get's started.

At this point we need a miracle.

[machineh]

Why, oh why, did Barron's not commission a Banzai7 cover? 

They missed the punch.

[gould's fisker]

Excellent point on WB, and I'd put money on that type of recognition coming cause a great thing like Banzai's work has got to break out sometime, especially in times like these.

[Larry Dallas]

How any rational American citizen doesn't see that O is try to destroy this country as quickly as possible boggles my mind.

[FreedomGuy]

I struggle with that idea. I am not sure if he is just such a dedicated blind know-nothing leftist that he is pushing on no matter the consequences or as you state, purposely destroying the country. The new major increase in the minimum wage is evidence of the latter, I think. Obama has no economic reasoning whatsoever. 

In the end I have decided it really doesn't matter too much whether it is ignorance or purposeful malice. The end result is about the same.

[Freddie]

The public is easily manipulated with TV, Hollywood (both Operation Mockingbird - CIA), media, polls.  You have a totally corrupt Senate.  rigged elections 2008 and 2012 especially.   TV, Hollywood, most radio just lies 24x7 wwith total O love worst than the old USSR.

F TV and F Hollywood.  Turn it off or you support it.

[Phoenix_Rising]

BUT...But without TV who's going to educate those "low info voters" ?

http://youtu.be/qnrHd8jdtIw

You know, all those Obama voters/disciples

[FreedomGuy]

If you had to guess, would you say more people would be influenced by who Snookie voted for or by who Thomas Sowell vote for?

[Phoenix_Rising]

I give up hope a long time ago....

[Everybodys All ...]

You are absolutely right. Without advertising revenue maybe we would get their attention. As long as the eyeballs are watching this same race away from capitalism to a queer fascism continues. Obama is a Marxist just like his daddy and would like nothing more than to see our country go up in flames imo.

[Freddie]

They also control other businesses like Disney World, Universal, all the cruise ship lines like Carnival, Royal Caribbean.  Obummer's best pals the Pritzkers control Hyatt Hotels, Royal Carribean and other businesses.

[Everybodys All ...]

I'd love for someone to organize a capital day boycott. Name the day. April 15 would be great. Where nobody works and nobody spends a dime on anything. The goal would be to get rid of the crony corrupt Fed. I think the only way to get their attention short of war is to boycott the system that supports the evil bastards.

[ElvisDog]

FreedomGuy, I think the second possibility is the correct one - Obama really knows nothing about economics and gets bad advice from the likes of Krugman, et al.

[disabledvet]

"because the Banks are one step ahead of him" that's why. I mean "why pop a bubble"? So you can buy everything back at a song afterwards. The question isn't "how big was the 2008 bubble" though...but "how big is this one?" The...ahem..."good news"...in this regard is that "the economy stinks going into this one." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00VkP7v-VaM if that's what this is of course.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weight
there is the backdrop of War of course...ironically a War on Terror which one would assume means "not destroying the American economy in order to save it." While i can understand higher prices/wages "paying for the war" i'm at a loss as to how plunging prices and wages do that. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=19XJZ_bG9mg (from the other O. aka "the Voice.")

[AlaricBalth]

I would venture to say that he is not out to overtly destroy it but he is trying to have it attain a certain equilibrium with the rest of the world. The unintended consequence is a certain amount of destruction. By slowly eroding the standard of living here in the US, it allows the grand plan of globalization to come to fruition. Our loss occurs as the emerging economies gain. Obama's first priority is clearly not in line with the interests of the United States, but is a complete global realignment. He feels his legacy will be assured by helping the global elites attain their aims, which are counter to the benefit of the American people.

[francis_sawyer]

Forward!... [I'm seriously beginning to entertain the notion that the teleprompter is actually a holograph]...

[Yen Cross]

 And my {extra virgin} "Olive Oil"  is single pressed!

[orangegeek]

Typically at tops, the positive news is beyond euphoric. At or near bottoms, the news become suicidally doom and gloom.

This is doom and gloom news.  This implies we are heading higher in the markets.  As said before, Ben and Barry are doing whatever they can to manipulate markets higher.

Share buybacks to bump EPS, firings to boost profit, channel stuffing, daily juice from the Fed.  Whatever it takes - until the collapse takes over.

[OOONONO]

Market is so fucking rigged to always go higher that the day after the fucking sun goes nova will undoubtably be a +120 Dow day (on low volume, of course)

[disabledvet]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00VkP7v-VaM

[Cardinal Fang]

The Middle Class must be destroyed as they have the biggest stake in the status quo and will resist any attempt at change.

-Marxism 101

[q99x2]

The Impeach the Totus cover would have been better.

[A Lunatic]

Is it too late to fix this with a Willy Nelson Econ-Aid Concert??

[Chicago_cranium]

Related indirectly.  Here's how USPS is helping accelerate its own collapse.  I hope that Tyler is reading this to expand on it, you need a full article to handle it.

This year 2013, USPS increased its rates, and for some services upward of 60% in increase rate.  As a website owner, international orders used to make up about 50% of the total order volume, both on our direct website and ebay (or other channels.)  I have my metrics for over 5 years, by day, by month... in my own database.

The day after we updated the API to reflect the new prices of USPS, we saw our international business plummet on all channels by more than 70%, due in big part to the price increase.  

Great thinkers are at USPS, now they have a more expensive service and lesser volume of it.  It will take them one year, maybe 5, and 365 brainstorming sessions to figure out what happened to their overall business.

:(

[Conman]

Not suprising when government tries to get into a profit creating enterpise. The only needed to look towards another package shipping coompany for a model, AMZN. Low margins, high volume. Still money losing but at least lose less money than they are losing now.

[Freddie]

The problem is USPS is overstaffed with lazy govt unionized employees that cannot be fired.  About 60% of the people there work pretty hard and 40% are useless and do nothing.  Lots of Hope and Change there.