Free kibbles

FEDERAL RESERVE:

The Fed has finally release records showing how it printed $1.2 trillion in one day to prop up failing banks which turned those loans into $13 billion in profit.

"The Federal Reserve and the big banks fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret. Now, the rest of the world can see what it was missing.The Fed didn’t tell anyone which banks were in trouble so deep they required a combined $1.2 trillion on Dec. 5, 2008, their single neediest day. Bankers didn’t mention that they took tens of billions of dollars in emergency loans at the same time they were assuring investors their firms were healthy. And no one calculated until now that banks reaped an estimated $13 billion of income by taking advantage of the Fed’s below-market rates, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its January issue."

If the Fed loaned you or me $1.2 trillion at 0% interest, we could make billions in profits too, but we aren't special. Those kinds of opportunities are reserved for the ruling class.

"The amount of money the central bank parceled out was surprising even to Gary H. Stern, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis from 1985 to 2009, who says he “wasn’t aware of the magnitude.” It dwarfed the Treasury Department’s better-known $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. Add up guarantees and lending limits, and the Fed had committed $7.77 trillion as of March 2009 to rescuing the financial system, more than half the value of everything produced in the U.S. that year."

Of course we're all poorer because this is just a transfer of wealth from the people to the banks through the inflation tax. We've reached the end of this looting. The dollar is dead. Most people just don't know it yet, and it's going to be terribly painful when everybody realizes it.

REGULATION::

I don't understand why people are so surprised by this Carrier-IQ data collection. When you use a phone, you're providing the phone call information to the company which provides the service. That information is valuable. As a Mises scholar explains:

"The Carrier IQ software is installed on phones by cell phone carriers to report diagnostic information. While the potential scope of the software is troubling, it is only capable of recording the information that cell phone providers install on it. It seems to be that at worst, Carrier IQ can be blamed from providing the munitions – but it is the cell phone companies who pull the trigger."

Of course it is. The cell phone company is the one who has the info logged. Somebody will collect it. If you don't want them to, don't buy a phone. If we had a free market in technology like phones, some company could differentiate itself by offering not to collect that information, and it would probably charge a premium since it would be reducing its sources of revenues. And I agree that there are bigger threats to privacy than this. But the solution is always the same: a free market. Here's some of the consequences of our lack of a free market:

"First, there are only a few carriers in the United States, who have much more control over devices and service contracts than most other countries. In Europe and Asia, for example, consumers pay full price for generic cell phones and pay relatively low fees for phone service. For example, in China (where I happen to live), one can buy an anonymous throw away phone number, a cheap cell phone and hundreds of minutes of talk time for about $30. By contrast, a typical Verizon or AT&T cell phone, comes with a two year contract and is heavily customized and locked down by the carrier. It is perhaps not surprising that people are who feel stuck with their carrier cry to the government for help.Second, there is the widespread perception that telecommunications in the U.S. are closely monitored by a junta of corporations and government agencies, who spy on individuals secretly and with little or no constitutional protections. (This perception happens to be true.)"

So much for the land of the free. This is another example of how the Chinese are freer than we are. Here's the real threat to our privacy we should be concerned about:

"Actually, the government does pay billions to corporations to spy on you, both for monitoring technologies and wiretap fees. So maybe the fears are not entirely unfounded. But surely people should recognize that without politicians to fund a huge government-industrial anti terrorist/IP pirate complex, and without highly-regulated government-granted monopolies of telecom services, spying on your customers would not be a huge profit center."

The government.

HEALTH CARE:

Another establishment gimmick to promote the failed policy of calorie counting.

GLOBAL WARMING AND ENERGY:

Leftists claim there's no such thing as clean coal, but a NASA satellite confirms a sharp decline in pollution from US coal plants.

WAR ON DRUGS:

Mexican government shuts down sophisticated communications network of major drug cartel.

"The military confiscated more than 1,400 radios, 2,600 cell phones and computer equipment during the operation, as well as power supplies including solar panels, according the Defense Department."

Naturally this is being painted as a victory for the government over the drug cartels, but they can only paint it that way because they never publicize the far more frequent victories of the cartels. For example, they didn't tell us the drug cartels had been using this sophisticated network for some time. This the drug cartels are advancing in technology and sophistication at an astounding rate. For every battle the government wins, the cartels win a dozen. Don't believe the hype about government victories in the war in drugs.

POLICE STATE:

TSA claims strip searching 85 year old women is an act of dignity, respect and courtesy.

American suffer too much at the hands of US government agents as it is, but a new treaty empowers Canadian agents to assault Americans too.

POLITICS:

Herman Cain drops out of race. According to a Cain family insider:

"Sources close to the campaign say Gloria Cain wants her husband to leave the race and has no desire to do additional interviews about their marriage or the constant accusations. They describe a woman angry that her life has been turned upside down by her husband’s need for attention and power by any means. … [A campaign worker says,] ‘She doesn’t want to be forced to do [interviews defending the louse] again because she knows he’s had girlfriends for many years. She just looked the other way.’"

Typical politician.

LOCAL:

Beavercreek school board politicians are trying to fool voters into raising their taxes by pretending the tax will go away in five years. Don't fall for it. Taxes never go away.