Peter Schiff on why China is the center of the economic world: the Chinese save their money.
"While I attended an economic conference last week in Shanghai, I found it notable – but not surprising – that two former Secretaries of the Treasury, John Snow and Hank Paulson, as well as current Treasury Secretary Tim Geither, and former President George W. Bush were then in the country at the same time. The fact that so many key American power brokers (myself not included) were in China simultaneously is no coincidence. In an overly indebted world, the $2.5 trillion that China holds in foreign reserves is acting as a center of economic gravity, inexorably pulling all market participants into its orbit."The corollary to that is for America to regain its dominant economic position, Americans must save their money. The government must stop punishing savings with the income tax and the Fed must stop punishing savings with the inflation tax and holding interest rates artificially low. As for China's monetary policy:
"The effect of current Chinese currency policy (which, despite Beijing's protests to the contrary, is manipulation pure and simple) is to make the U.S. dollar more valuable and the yuan less valuable. As a result, the benefits of manipulation accrue to Americans, not the Chinese. We get pay raises; they get pay cuts. Americans use their stronger dollars to buy products they would otherwise not have been able to afford. On the flip side, the Chinese people do without products that they otherwise would have been able to afford had their government not transferred their purchasing power to us."China didn't put us over this barrel. We lifted it up, climbed under it and handed it to them:
"By the same token, if China were to stop manipulating the dollar higher, it would remove the props currently supporting our dysfunctional economy. American interest rates and consumer prices would soar, and our economy would collapse. Meanwhile, China would experience the opposite effect. Chinese consumer prices would fall, immediately raising living standards for average Chinese workers, whose higher real wages would finally allow them to fully enjoy the fruits of their labor."Here's the real scary part.
"Soon they will see the light, and when they do, it's lights out for American hegemony. If you think China is important today, just wait a few years. For example, while the Chinese automobile market is now the largest in the world, 90% of Chinese car buyers pay cash. In contrast, only 15% of American car buyers do so. In other words, Chinese consumers can actually afford their cars, while most Americans cannot. Without huge car payments, Chinese consumers are in much better shape not only to trade up to newer cars in the future, but to purchase other products as well. This suggests huge future growth, not only in automobiles but also in other consumer products as well."So as soon as China realizes its in its best interest to let its currency float, the US economy crash and China's economy explodes (like 10 percent growth every year isn't exploding enough). China would become the world's superpower virtually and the US would become a third world country overnight. It's good to be reminded that no matter how bad you think things are, they can always be worse. The solution to this problem is to quit printing money, let interest rates float, abolish the income and payroll taxes, and for Americans to save their money. That'll cause a short, sharp correction, then our economy will bounce back stronger than ever.
TAX AND SPEND:
Stimulus bills cannot create jobs because they take money out of the productive private sector, waste some of it on government, then inject less money back into the private sector in places with less value than where Americans would have put it. Stimulus boondoggles move jobs from productive, private economy jobs to unproductive, political economy jobs, making us all poorer.
Jeffrey Tucker wonders why Greece is so often at the forefront of international social crises. I think it's geography. Why did western civilization arise and flourish there? It's at the great crossroads from Africa and the Middle East to Europe. Why did it play such a great role in the great religions? It's been on the border of Christian Europe and the Muslim Middle East for 1300 years. More cultures intersect and overlap in Greece, Turkey and the Middle East than anywhere else in the world.
Let me get this straight - since Greece is drowning in debt from too much taxing and spending, the US should adopt a VAT just like Greece to avoid becoming like Greece. In what world does this make sense? Should we also adopt Greece's 14 month year to avoid being like Greece?
"The sensible real-world answer, many economists argue, is a value-added tax that would encourage saving at the same time it pays down the deficit to manageable levels."The only reason somebody would advocate following Greece down this path while pretending that it would take us in a different direction is because he or she is evil. All these VAT supporters are evil because the only reason to advocate the complex, expensive VAT over a simple sales tax is most of the VAT is hidden from the consumer. The VAT is inherently underhanded as opposed to a sales tax that is transparent. An often overlooked benefit of the FairTax is its transparency. Note these guys aren't advocating replacing the income tax, payroll taxes and other taxes with the VAT like the FairTax does. They're talking about piling it on top of all these existing taxes.
Nations are scapegoating financial firms, as the Goldman circus showed, to distract the people of the world from the real threat to civilization: government debt.
"As Jim Rogers points out, why are we focusing on banks rather than the practices of governments. The risk we face is with entire governments collapsing. A bank is almost nothing in comparison with that. How many banks after all are larger than Greece? And they're just a small fish in the pond. Wait till the other beggar nations come knocking on the European Union door. Then the clueless will begin to understand what it is we face, if they're willing to tear the mask off of it and call it like it is; especially the mainstream media, whose coverage is so slanted and clueless it can't be trusted in that regard."
Slanted and clueless is right.
"Rogers also continues to point out the days of the power of the huge financial institutions are over anyway, and as far as investing goes, we need to focus on those who produce real things, like raw materials and agricultural. That's where the economic power and investment opportunities are shifting, and as he always notes, those who make the money in the future will be the farmers.
Or I would add, those who invest in commodities and real stuff will be those who make the money."
Farms are looking pretty good right now.
Super-rich Russians to flee Britain because of oppressive taxes.
This headline misses the point. Our aristocrats are the ones without conscious. It's a job requirement. The way they tried to scapegoat Goldman is a perfect example. Grandstanding Senator Levin uses the s-word 11 times during the Goldman circus yesterday in hopes of winning some votes from his angry base. It's kind of funny to see Congress and Goldman go at it. It's like seeing a rich-bitch mom get in a hair-pulling fight with her spoiled brat daughter at the galleria. But don't bet on Congress to take away Goldman's allowance. This is all for show. Congress and Goldman are pushing financial reform that will make them both richer and more powerful and us poorer.
For the third day, Republicans and a couple Democrats blocked the financial oppression bill. Funny how the headlines never mention the Democrats splitting their own party. But they're caving. They're going to compromise with a few Republicans and pass a financial oppression-lite bill. Democrats finally compromised enough that Republicans allowed the bill to come to the Senate floor where they will try to ram it through without any of the changes they promised. Republicans will be very unhappy that Democrats shut them out of the looting just like they did with Obamacare.
Government finally gave permission (we shouldn't have to ask government for permission to do anything) for a wind farm blocked by Ted Kennedy and Walter Cronkite. Why we've empowered these freaks to make us ask permission from them to do things in our interest and the interest of others is insane.
FEDERAL RESERVE:
Report that the European central bank will monetize the debt of Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal, stealing money from European citizens and holders of the euro through the inflation tax and transferring it to to irresponsible governments and bankers who fund them. If this happens, governments will become even more fiscally irresponsible, setting Europe up for a far worse crash in the near future. Maybe this is a threat to prompt Germany to move forward, but it'll certainly make the irresponsible governments (all governments) even more irresponsible.
Fed to leave interest rates near zero for an extended period. Because it hasn't done enough damage already.
Mises scholars shows that fiat money does indeed have value when government forces people to use it to pay taxes - the value of avoiding being a victim of government violence.
EDUCATION:
Leading leftist school of teachers can't figure out what percentile means. No wonder our kids are failing.
HEALTH CARE:
More people want Obamacare repealed than ever.
"The percentage who support repeal efforts are up 3 percent from the week just after the bill passed, when President Obama made several campaign-style stops in support of the bill."The more people find out, the more they want it repealed. I also think this is becoming more about Obama personally. Americans are fed up with his policies, his lawlessness, his assault on freedom and individual rights, his divisiveness, his narcissism, and his sanctimonious, arrogant preaching on TV day after day, and they want to take him down. This question about being bad for the country is a meaningless, collectivist question. I know Obamacare is bad for the vast majority of Americans. It will make the price of health insurance and health care go up. I know it's better in a limited context for a small minority of Americans who might get coverage when they didn't have it before. As always, government has divided the country into winners and losers at the point of a gun. But overall, everybody looses because we're all poorer.
GLOBAL WARMING:
Like a spoiled brat who just had his candy taken away, climate fraud Michael Mann sues over "Hide the Decline" parody. This is a publicity stunt. It's going nowhere. Mann knows his analysis can't stand up to critical scrutiny. If he took this to trial, all the climate frauds would be exposed in open court. He doesn't want that. I hope prosecutors put him behind bars though.
"It's the use of his image that Mann is complaining about, arguing that the video supports "efforts to sell various products and merchandise."
"The guy is crazy to threaten legal action," said Jeff Davis, the President of No Cap and Trade, a large organization that includes the group Mann is threatening to sue, Minnesotans for Global Warming. "A lawsuit would give us full discovery -- and there's a lot to look at in his work.""Like I said. This is going nowhere. These climate frauds have gotten away with their crimes by hiding their data from all attempts by skeptics to see it. Every time their data gets publicized, they're fraud becomes apparent. Mann's been hiding his data and techniques for over a decade. He isn't going to let his data and analysis become public and prove he's a fraud because of this parody.
"When the letter first arrived, they quickly pulled the video from You Tube and their website because they couldn't afford to defend against a lawsuit. But, as word spread of the legal threat to the jokesters, a number of groups, including No Cap and Trade, rallied to their defense. They even backed a newer version of the video titled "Hide the Decline II" and re-posted on You Tube and the No Cap and Trade site."There you have it. Mann thought he could shut them down with a threat because they had no money and worked out of a trailer. He was wrong. This is going nowhere.
The majority of Americans aren't willing to pay a dime in taxes ostensibly to fight global warming.
Putting mug shots up on the sheriff's web site is an abhorrent policy. Some of these people will be found not-guilty, and nobody will know. Many of them are not guilty, but will be found guilty anyway. Where do you go to get your reputation back? I hope the people found not guilty sue and end up owning that sheriff's department. Of the course the government probably won't let them sue.
FBI agent in charge of raid on the Michigan yahoos they seduced into saying they wanted to blow up some police officers can't remember any details of the investigation as prosecution tries to hold the yahoos without bail. How convenient.
"An FBI agent who led the investigation of nine Michigan militia members charged with trying to launch war against the federal government couldn't recall many details of the two-year probe yesterday during questioning by defense lawyers.
Even the judge who must decide whether to release the nine until trial was puzzled.
"I share the frustrations of the defense team … that she doesn't know anything," U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts said after agent Leslie Larsen confessed she hadn't reviewed her notes recently and couldn't remember specific details of the case."This should be enough to make bail, but...
"But the judge said the agent's appearance was appropriate because the burden is on defense lawyers to show their clients won't be a threat to the public if released."So much for innocent until proven guilty. It should be up to the prosecution to show why the judge should withhold bail. The judge really wants to rule in favor of the prosecutors, but the defense is making them look stupid. Let's hope the judge does the right thing so these yahoos can be free to participate in their own defense.
Four federal agents and a Pennsylvania state trooper investigate Amish farmer for raw milk sales.
WAR:
The war in Afghanistan has turned Afghanistan and Pakistan into the terrorism capitals of the world. Who wouldn't want American troops dropping bombs on them and increased terrorist bombs killing the too.
POLITICS:
President Obama's personal attacks is another reason he's the most divisive president in our lives.
This answer to the question what made government so big misses the point: continually re-electing Democrats and Republicans year after year even though both expanded the size and scope of government made it this big. If you want to stop the growth in government, you have to vote out the people who grow it. That would be every Republican and Democrat other than Ron Paul.
I've often called Bush the Younger Bush the Democrat. He was a political clone of LBJ, imo. Now his disciple Charlie Christ is proving my point by leaving the Republican party, which is really the party of Democrat-lites, to run as an independent. His goal is to torpedo Republican Mario Rubio who kicked his butt in the primary. Because conservatives always vote Republican no matter what, Republicans are just like Democrats except barely less bad. Democrats always have a leftist fiscal agenda. The Republican fiscal agenda is always to be slightly less bad which means it's leftist too. If Democrats advocate an income tax rate of 50 percent, Republicans will advocate 48 percent. If Democrats advocate a $3.5 trillion budget, Republicans will advocate a $3.3 trillion budget. If Democrats want to spend $500 billion on welfare, Republicans will advocate spending $450 billion. When Democrats pushed Obamacare, the Republican alternative was Obamacare-lite. Democrats are pushing financial oppression, and Republicans are pushing financial oppression-lite. Yet conservatives vote for Republicans every time because Republicans throw them tyrannical social issue bones like welfare for churches, then conservatives have the audacity to claim they support small government.
Democrats have governed so destructively they may lose three symbolic senate seats in addition to losing Kennedy's lifetime seat.
"As things stand now, they are well within striking distance of winning President Obama's old seat in Illinois; Vice President Biden's former perch in Delaware, and toppling Majority Leader Harry M. Reidin Nevada.
"I call them the trophy seats," said Sen. John Cornyn(Tex.), who heads the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Winning all three would affirm a GOPresurgence, and announce -- as Scott Brown did, when he won a January special election for the late Edward M. Kennedy's Senate seat in Massachusetts -- that Democrats aren't safe anywhere anymore."As always, the accomplice press wants us to think of this as resurgence of one party, just like they claimed in 2006 and 2008, instead of what it really is: the American people punishing the party in power. It doesn't mean we like Republicans. Both parties suck, and when Republicans get back in power, they're going to harm our country just like they did between 2000 and 2008.
Reminding us what aristocrats think of us common people, UK PM Gordon Brown calls woman a bigot because she disagrees with him on immigration laws. He's mortified he got caught.
MISC:
Like so many explorers before them, Chinese explorers believe they have found the remains of Noah's arc on Mount Ararat. At least the wood has been dated as 4,800 years old.
Boortz finally admits what I've long suspected:
"No --- I'm not for unfettered free markets."His comment about fraud is a strawman. Fraud would be a crime in an unfettered free market. Fraud is stealing.
"When you make a misrepresentation of fact to some individual with a goal of causing that individual to act against their own self-interest, that would be fraud."That's what every politician does every day. We should punish fraud in the political economy the same as in the private economy.
Keynes the fascist.
Santa Clara County bans toys in fast food kid's meals.
"This ordinance prevents restaurants from preying on children's love of toys' to sell high-calorie, unhealthful food, said Supervisor Ken Yeager, who sponsored the measure."I don't advocate violence, but as a figure of speech, I would like to drag all our aristocrats into an ally and smack the piss out of them and tell them to leave us the hell alone.
The US Chamber of Commerce hates Ron Paul because it wants government to favor big businesses at the expense of everybody else. That's because it's funded by bigger businesses. Big businesses do not want to compete in a free market.
Antioxidant primer.
Garet Garrett shares my observation that the US isn't an empire - we're stupider than an empire.
"As Garet Garrett, the Jeremiah of the old “isolationist” right, put it: the American empire is unique in human history in that “everything goes out, and nothing comes in.”"Traditionally, the leaders of empires looted the foreign lands they conquered so they didn't have to loot their own people so much. America invades foreign countries then loots Americans and transfers the wealth to the foreign countries. We call that compassion when it should be considered stupidity at best and insanity at worst.
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