Free kibbles

ECONOMY:

Peter Schiff predicts gold will top $1,500 by the end of the year.

While I agree with the sentiment of this author, I don't have a lot of sympathy for the people who made the decision to be grocery clerks all their lives. The most devastating consequence of the welfare state is it has turned people into idiots.

TAX AND SPEND:

Consequences of the euro bailout:

"The Germans remember history and they did not disappoint. Just think about this fact. Muenze Oesterreich AG, the Austrian mint that makes the best-selling gold coin in Europe and Japan reported that buyers had purchased 243,500 ounces of gold since April 26, compared with 205,300 ounces in the entire first quarter!  Wow.  Make no mistake about it what has happened in Germany in the last week (the elections in North Rhine-Westphalia and the rush to convert colored pieces of paper to gold) is the financial equivalent of the shots at Lexington and Concord in 1775.  I give the German people a lot of credit for what they have done as this is not just a battle inside America.  This battle is global and the German people just launched an impressive counter-attack on the control freak bureaucrats."

Gold is still the thing to buy.

"At this point I would like to examine the quote at the top by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.  “In some ways it’s a battle of the politicians against the markets.  That’s how I do see it.  But I’m determined to win this battle.”  What an incredibly sad woman she is."

What's sad is Merkel was the biggest support of the markets of any major political leader in the world, which isn't saying much. On thing is certain - in a battle between markets and politicians, the markets will win. Politicians can't change the laws of nature.

"The larger point which I have mentioned repeatedly in these emails is that the market always wins.  The scary thing is that when the market does win within the context of a political class with excess power the political class turns on its people and attacks them, shuts down the market and then there is the potential for serious tyranny.  Every country in the OECD faces this now and we must be prepared financially and emotionally so that we do not allow the political class with their corporate oligarch allies to turn what’s left of the middle class (and a lot of what now can be considered the upper class) into a bunch of serfs in this nightmarish neo-feudalism we seem to be progressing toward.  The more gold, silver and platinum in the hands of the people when the house of cards comes down the better.  This way not everyone will be destitute and we can start over on our own without having more insane ideas shoved down our throats by our “kings and queens”."

I agree.

"Of course propaganda will be used all over the place from the emotionally captured mainstream media to the stock market, which as I have said for over a year now is largely used as a political weapon because the uneducated masses actually believe the stock market going up means things are getting better.  All we have to do is look at the stellar performance of the Zimbabwean stock market during the hyperinflation to know this is complete nonsense."

The inflationary monetary policy of the Fed and government regulations, two of the main ways the governments loots the people and transfers that wealth to the biggest corporations, artificially inflates the stock market at the expense of the economy as a whole.

"Ok, so one thing this monstrosity that the Europeans and IMF have unleashed upon us has done is increase the odds that Germany leaves the EU."

That would end the EU.


Here's the reason free market economists remain optimistic:

"[Governments will have to default eventually.] Entirely apart from the fact the nation-state is on its way out. Remember, defaults won't destroy what capital there is in the world. Technologies, factories, farms, mines, and such will still exist. They will just change hands. Hopefully, that will transfer a lot of capital out of public hands and into private hands, where it belongs."

But they're going to destroy a lot of capital before they default. Inflation leads to capital consumption by directing resources away from maintenance to malinvestment and consumption. Taxes transfer wealth from productive people and activities to unproductive people and activities.

"And what's been happening all over the world, and what's happening at an even faster pace as a result of the crisis, is that economic policy is dissipating capital, not encouraging its creation."

So he just shot holes in his own optimism. Capital destruction is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Sure, governments will eventually default, but they'll have dragged us quite a ways down before then and they'll have left 10s of millions of Americans or more destitute.

"And what's happening in Greece is just the opening round of a problem that's likely to spread to other countries. Including the U.S. and China."

Once again I have a hard time seeing how this promotes optimism.

Everywhere you turn, people are proclaiming the death of euro. That's true if nothing changes, but the ECU could kick the PIGS out of the organization and make the euro the most sought after currency in the world. If they had kicked out Greece in February and left it to deal with its self-inflicted debt problem, the world might have jumped on the path of healing. Instead, governments just keep doing more damage.

"Speaking in a Bloomberg interview in Singapore on Tuesday, Rogers said “I was stunned,” adding “This means that they’ve given up on the euro, they don’t particularly care if they have a sound currency, you have all these countries spending money they don’t have and it’s now going to continue.”"

You can't understate how bad a decision all of these bailouts have been, but bailing out the currency shows this crisis has moved to the next level. It's not a credit or economic crisis any more. It's a currency crisis. Those bring down governments.


This is a great question: will liberals learn from Greece? I've yet to see a liberal explain why the following the same liberal policies that Greece did won't produce the same consequences here. I've also yet to see a Republican explain why they followed a liberal economic agenda, No Child Left Behind, Medicare Part D, Schip, dramatically expanding regulations, the budget and the deficit - for eight years under Bush, so I wonder if Republicans have learned from Greece. I've yet to see a conservative explain why the support the liberal agenda when Republicans are in power but not when Democrats are in power, so I wonder if conservatives have learned from Greece.

As if in answer to my question, Paul Krugman tries to explain why the US won't have the same problems as Greece despite following the same policies.

"In short, we’re not Greece."

That wasn't very informative.

"Even more important, however, is the fact that we have a clear path to economic recovery, while Greece doesn’t.

The U.S. economy has been growing since last summer, thanks to fiscal stimulus and expansionary policies by the Federal Reserve."

In other words, because the government robbed us through the inflation tax and accumulated more debt we'll have to pay off in higher taxes, we're in a better position. It seems to be that being robbed and saddled with more debt would make our position worse, but who am I to argue with a Nobel Prize winner?

"It’s worth noting, by the way, that Britain — which is in worse fiscal shape than we are, but which, unlike Greece, hasn’t adopted the euro — remains able to borrow at fairly low interest rates. Having your own currency, it seems, makes a big difference."

There it is again. Having the privilege of being robbed through the inflation tax makes everything better. The poor people of Greece didn't have that luxury. They can't pretend their debt isn't a problem by inflating their currency, making the problem worse. So I guess Krugman was right at first: we're not Greece. We're in worse trouble than Greece because the Fed can hide our problems longer, making them worse.


John Stossel shows that Krugman isn't telling the real story about US debt in comparison. Even using this ridiculously optimistic numbers, Stossel shows our government is quickly heading to the same place Greece's is today.


One of the great things about Chris Christie is New Jersey will benefit from his spending cuts in time for the 2012 election, but only if he can get the legislature to back his agenda.

Excellent graph showing web of debt between European banks and PIIGS. This is from the New York Times. If the Times understands this, how come they advocate the US follow the same path?

HEALTH CARE:

For example, Greece has been told it must privatize health care to meet austerity measures, yet both Democrats and Republicans here supported more government control of health care, just to a different extent.

"The requirement, part of a deal arranged by the IMF, the European Union and the European Central bank, is a tacit admission that national health care programs are unsustainable. Along with transportation and energy, the bailout group, according to the New York Times, wants the Greek government to remove "the state from the marketplace in crucial sectors."

This is not some cranky or politically motivated demand. It is a condition based on the ugly reality of government medicine. The Times reports that economists - not right-wingers opposed to health care who want to blow up Times Square - say liberalizing "the health care industry would help bring down prices in these areas, which are among the highest in Europe."

Of course most of the media have been largely silent about the health care privatization measure for Greece, as it conflicts with their universal, single-payer health care narrative."

They're silent on it because it's indefensible. What I want to know is why hasn't somebody who isn't owned by the government asked Obama about this.

GLOBAL WARMING:

Global warming on the moon.

WAR ON DRUGS:

In response to the outrageous videoed assault to search warrant for marijuana, the police department involved changed who must OK the raids. That's it. Police all over the country think it's OK for heavily armed government agents to bust into houses and start shooting animals and people if they move the wrong way to serve a search warrant. It doesn't cross their mind that they could have a couple offers wait outside until the suspect comes out and serve the search warrant on him then without the extreme violence. The American people perverted our government into this with their votes. It's our fault. Remember that part about unwarranted searches and seizures? These tactics are unwarranted regardless of the warrant.

POLICE STATE:

I'm not the least bit surprised to see Republicans and Democrats agree on gutting Miranda.

WAR:

Mark Steyn lampoons A.G. Holder for not admitting that radical Islam is the connecting factor in the three terrorist attacks (though the Fort Hood attack was really an act of guerrilla warfare, not terrorism) we've suffered in the last year, but apparently Steyn can't see the link between our interference in the Middle East and those attacks so he's in a similar state of denial.

FOREIGN POLICY:

The US is claiming the power to approve member countries' budgets before the elected officials in those governments see them. Britons are not happy.

POLITICS:

Kagan criticized past Supreme Court nominees for stonewalling the Senate, but do you think she'll do any different? I think the Senate should put an end to this by refusing to confirm any candidate who stonewalls.

This guy gets it. The people didn't vote for Obama in 2008. They voted against Washington. They're still voting against Washington. We don't want Washington solutions. We want our freedom and our wealth back.

The bailouts did not work, and Republicans are in trouble for voting for TARP as well they should be.

Obama raises more cash from Wall Street fat cats he loves to bash. Don't you see? That's why he bashes them.

MISC:

To protect and subdue. You'll never hear government admit that.

Naturally there's a government connection to the bedbug outbreak problem - recent banning of a common, effective pesticide.

Naturally the news we've heard about the tremendous Gulf oil disaster has been greatly exaggerated as the oil is evaporating into the atmosphere or merging with sea sediment.

"Satellite images show most of an estimated 4.6 million gallons of oil has pooled in a floating, shape-shifting blob off the Louisiana coast. Some has reached shore as a thin sheen, and gooey bits have washed up as far away as Alabama. But the spill is 23 days old since the Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20 and killed 11 workers, and the thickest stuff hasn't shown up on the coast.

...

About 35 percent of a spill the size of the one in the Gulf, consisting of the same light Louisiana crude, released in weather conditions and water temperatures similar to those found in the Gulf now would simply evaporate, according to data that The Associated Press entered into the program.

The model also suggests that virtually all of the benzene - a highly toxic flammable organic chemical compound and one of the chief ingredients in oil - would be stripped off and quickly vaporize."

This is great news for everybody but the environmentalists, but because of the deep water nature of the leak, nobody knows for sure what the impact will be.


How to save money.

Among all the other things Obama has covered up, birthers have discovered that President Obama apparently used many different social security numbers throughout his life.

"In Obama’s home state, Illinois, Sankey tracked down 16 different addresses for a Barack Obama or a Barack H. Obama, of which all are addresses he was known to have lived at. Two Social Security numbers appear for these addresses, one beginning with 042 and one starting 364.

In California, where Obama attended Occidental College, there are six addresses listed for him, all within easy driving distance of the college. However, there are three Social Security numbers connected to these addresses, 537 and two others, each beginning with 999.

There are no addresses listed in New York where he attended Columbia University, but there is one listed for him in nearby Jackson, NJ, with a Social Security number beginning with 485."

Nobody knows what Obama is hiding, but he's hiding something that would destroy his presidency and his agenda. I would like to know what it is.

Catholic archbishop fears bankruptcy if law extending the statute of limitations for child sex abuse passes. Maybe he should have thought about that before allowing his priests to molest children. This is one of the few cases where the law isn't the problem. Child-abusing priests are the problem.

Pat Buchanan had been doing so well, then he screwed up by saying Jews are overly represented on the Supreme Court. That's like giving a liberal a stick and asking them to beat you.