Free kibbles

REGULATION:

The big players in the thriving fashion industry are pushing for copyright-like protections to prevent cheap knockoffs. If enacted, this would reduce the fashion industry to a drab shell of it's current vibrancy dominated by lawyers instead of creativity.

FEDERAL RESERVE:

The online currency bitcoin created in 2009 reached parity with the dollar, if only temporarily.

More and more investors fear price inflation. As they move out of the dollar into commodities, we'll see more price inflation. As we see more price inflation, more investors will fear more price inflation. Repeat. This is downward spiral of inflation.

"It is true that Bernanke could reverse course before things are too late, as far as the purchasing power of the dollar is concerned. But this would entail devastating pain to the banking sector, since the Fed would have to reverse the policies that bailed out the overleveraged titans in the first place. If Bernanke has to choose between saving rich bankers or the dollar, I am confident he will choose the former."

Murphy is right not to trust Bernanke. They don't call him helicopter Ben for nothing. I didn't realize the Fed was the single biggest holder of federal debt. Isn't that the definition of monetizing the debt? From Murphy's linked article:

"Bond prices have fallen in six straight trading sessions, with the consensus view being that traders are reacting to inflation threats observed through the steady climb in commodities."

So it looks like the bond market bubble is slowly deflating. At some point, it will pop much like the housing bubble.

""If you look at the markets, commodity markets see inflation, bond markets see inflation, and obviously with equities growing, they're inflating," Keith McCullough, CEO of Hedgeye Risk Management, told CNBC. "So I don't see a lot of sustenance to suspending disbelief that Ben Bernanke says there's no inflation.""

Tell me about it.

""We think Mr. Bernanke is as determined as ever to create a 'wealth effect' by blowing up a stock market bubble," Trim Tabs research analysts wrote in their weekly market commentary. "Absent a spike in interest rates or a sharp decline in the dollar, we expect the Fed to announce QE3 by Labor Day. Will one of the big surprises of 2011 be how quickly inflation rises in America?""

Stagflation in the 1970s wiped out the last vestiges of the gold standard. This time it will probably destroy the dollar.

GLOBAL WARMING:

Coldest temperature in Oklahoma history set today: -31F. I bet they're wishing for a little global warming about now.

The EPA doesn't like Congress meddling in its destructive regulations. How dare Congress think that it writes laws instead of bureaucrats.

"Last year alone, EPA’s implementation of the Clean Air Act saved more than 160,000 American lives; avoided more than 100,000 hospital visits; prevented millions of cases of respiratory illness, including bronchitis and asthma; enhanced American productivity by preventing millions of lost workdays; and kept American kids healthy and in school."

I bet this weirdo really believes that too.

POLICE STATE:

Just look at the lengths people go to to avoid being prosecuted for made-up crimes like insider trading.

""F—in' pulled the external drives apart," Mr. Longueuil told Mr. Freeman during their meeting, according to the criminal complaint. "Put 'em into four separate little baggies, and then at 2 a.m. 2 a.m. on a Friday night, I put this stuff inside my black North Face jacket, and leave the apartment and I go on like a twenty block walk around the city and try to find a, a garbage truck and threw the s—t in the back of like random garbage trucks, different garbage trucks four different garbage trucks.""

This is another example of what government aggression does to people. And we wonder why there's so much stress in the modern world.

FOREIGN POLICY:

WikiLeaks publishes diplomatic cables that show the Israeli government and the US government long supported Suleiman to follow Mubarak. That's why Obama pressured Mubarak to name him VP before they called for Mubarak's resignation. WikiLeaks is the gift that keeps on giving. And sure enough, Mubarak resigns and Suleiman takes over. Meet the new tyrant. Same as the old tyrant. It looks like this might be a military coup, and Suleiman might be ousted too.

"The protesters lifted al-Roueini onto their shoulders and carried him around the square, shouting, "the army, the people one hand.""

That isn't a good sign.

"But protesters also chanted, "civilian not military," a signal they do not want military rule."

And the joisting for power intensifies.

Many libertarians, including me, have reporting that the CIA trained Egyptian torturers. This report claims it was the FBI.

POLITICS:

Neal Boortz reaps what he sowed, and then whines about it.

"Sorry, but thus far the new Republican-controlled House of Representatives has been anything but promising and stimulating. Okay, so they voted to repeal Obama care. Actually, that was an easy vote. They know it was going nowhere in the Senate, and it is said that happened the past that they knew that The Community Organizer would veto it, so let's just use the word "symbolic" and move on here. Then we have their attempt at cutting the budget. They announce a figure in the neighborhood of $75 billion. Then some reporters, including our own. Jamie Dupree, point out that the Republicans are using the old baseline budgeting trick. That is, they're announcing the budget cut not from present spending levels but from projected increased spending levels in future years. Now that's partially budget cut and partially reductions in future spending increases. This is not the sort of gamesmanship that the tea party voters signed up for last November. The real figure for Republican budget cut proposals? That would be somewhere in the $35 billion range; about one half of what they were trying to pass off to the voters as their grandiose attempt at cutting the federal budget."

I doubt he's shocked.