When Will They Figure It Out? by Butler Shaffer
A Shooting in Tucson. Rampant corruption in the financial markets. The underwear bomber. Ruby Ridge. What do these all have in common? Simple - a government that's incompetent, and a citizenry unwilling to hold it to account. If you want the solution to problems you first must identify what they are, and then call out those who caused the problems you face. Passing laws is immaterial if the existing laws aren't enforced.
The
response of political figures and members of the mainstream media to the killing and wounding of a number of people in Tucson, was not surprising. Had the victims been "ordinary" people alone, the event would have been quickly noted as but another symptom of a conflict-ridden society. There would have been no daily hospital press conferences to update their conditions. But this shooting resulted in the killing of a federal judge, and the grave wounding of a member of congress: now we’re talking "serious" offenses !!
All we've got so far is Congresspeople threatening to introduce more laws that won't be enforced, just like the laws that weren't enforced this time !
Shortly after the shootings occurred, local and national politicians issued press releases that focused on government officials being the targets of such violence. To the politically-minded, the "ordinaries" (or "mundanes") who were killed or wounded were what they have come to regard as "collateral damage." !
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
The Student Loan Debt Bubble by Alan Nasser
The Student Loan Debt Bubble by Alan Nasser
It was announced last summer that total student loan debt, at $830 billion, now exceeds total US credit card debt, itself bloated to the bubble level of $827 billion. And student loan debt is growing at the rate of $90 billion a year.
There are far fewer students than there are credit card holders. Could there be a student debt bubble at a time when college graduates’ jobs and earnings prospects are as gloomy as they have been at any time since the Great Depression?
It was announced last summer that total student loan debt, at $830 billion, now exceeds total US credit card debt, itself bloated to the bubble level of $827 billion. And student loan debt is growing at the rate of $90 billion a year.
There are far fewer students than there are credit card holders. Could there be a student debt bubble at a time when college graduates’ jobs and earnings prospects are as gloomy as they have been at any time since the Great Depression?
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Necessity of the Plutocracy?
Necessity of the Plutocracy?
" We would argue this conclusion is wrong on almost every count. The banking community no matter how wealthy does not constitute the "super rich." The banking community SERVES the power elite – which really is phenomenally wealthy. Additionally, America does NOT need its plutocrats. It needs to get rid of the central banking system that creates and endlessly distorts and centralizes the larger economy. The author tries to make the case that modern bankers deserve their millions annually because they are "hard working." But plenty of people are hard-working. Bankers get what they do because the elites have created a perverse system of monetary stimulation that prints money-from-nothing and bankers occupy the pitiless heart of it. "
" We would argue this conclusion is wrong on almost every count. The banking community no matter how wealthy does not constitute the "super rich." The banking community SERVES the power elite – which really is phenomenally wealthy. Additionally, America does NOT need its plutocrats. It needs to get rid of the central banking system that creates and endlessly distorts and centralizes the larger economy. The author tries to make the case that modern bankers deserve their millions annually because they are "hard working." But plenty of people are hard-working. Bankers get what they do because the elites have created a perverse system of monetary stimulation that prints money-from-nothing and bankers occupy the pitiless heart of it. "
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Free the Clogged-Nose 25! - Jeffrey A. Tucker - Mises Daily
Free the Clogged-Nose 25! - Jeffrey A. Tucker - Mises Daily
" Ever since George Bush nearly banned the stuff in 2005, the manufacturers have been packing the shelves with a pseudo-pseudoephedrine that might as well be a placebo. The new stuff doesn't work and everyone knows it.Before 2005, you could buy as many Sudafed packages as you did Big Mac sandwiches, and the police didn't care. Now, your 30-day allotment is nine grams. So this seems like it would be enough, but what if you are buying for two people or an entire family, or lose some, or give them away to a friend, or they fall to the back of the cabinet, or you're out of town? And how can you possibly track precisely how much you have purchased? "
Ottavio Paz won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1990 for his book The Labyrinth of Solitude. After 20 years of being in print, current editions have several epilogues, the last of which is The Philanthropic Ogre. Here he says:
“The twentieth-century state has proved itself a force more powerful than the ancient empires and a master more terrible than the old tyrants and despots: a faceless, inhuman master who functions not like a demon but like a machine. Civil Society has almost completely disappeared: nothing and no person exists outside the state. It is a surprising inversion of values that would have made Nietzsche himself shudder: the state is Being and exception; irregularity and even simple individualism are forms of evil, that is, of nothingness.”
And he continues…
“The state is neither a factory nor a business. The logic of history is not quantitative. Economic rationality depends on the relationship between expenditure and production, investment and earnings, work and savings. The rationale of the state is not utility nor profit but power — gaining it, conserving it and extending it. The archetype of power does not lie in economics but in war, not in the polemic relationship of capital to work but in the hierarchical relationship of commander to soldier.”
" Ever since George Bush nearly banned the stuff in 2005, the manufacturers have been packing the shelves with a pseudo-pseudoephedrine that might as well be a placebo. The new stuff doesn't work and everyone knows it.Before 2005, you could buy as many Sudafed packages as you did Big Mac sandwiches, and the police didn't care. Now, your 30-day allotment is nine grams. So this seems like it would be enough, but what if you are buying for two people or an entire family, or lose some, or give them away to a friend, or they fall to the back of the cabinet, or you're out of town? And how can you possibly track precisely how much you have purchased? "
Ottavio Paz won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1990 for his book The Labyrinth of Solitude. After 20 years of being in print, current editions have several epilogues, the last of which is The Philanthropic Ogre. Here he says:
“The twentieth-century state has proved itself a force more powerful than the ancient empires and a master more terrible than the old tyrants and despots: a faceless, inhuman master who functions not like a demon but like a machine. Civil Society has almost completely disappeared: nothing and no person exists outside the state. It is a surprising inversion of values that would have made Nietzsche himself shudder: the state is Being and exception; irregularity and even simple individualism are forms of evil, that is, of nothingness.”
And he continues…
“The state is neither a factory nor a business. The logic of history is not quantitative. Economic rationality depends on the relationship between expenditure and production, investment and earnings, work and savings. The rationale of the state is not utility nor profit but power — gaining it, conserving it and extending it. The archetype of power does not lie in economics but in war, not in the polemic relationship of capital to work but in the hierarchical relationship of commander to soldier.”
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Desperation of US Government Workers
Desperation of US Government Workers
Certainly, it is the toxic combination of public unions and municipal government that has turned hitherto mundane occupations into professions that allow people to retire with impressive pay packages after 20 or 25 years. The early-to-mid 2000s were probably the high-water mark for these services and now the contracts and retirements packages are proving overwhelmingly expensive for the cities and states that approved them.
Nonetheless, such pay packages and perks will not be willingly surrendered. As we can see from the article excerpted above, governments will do almost anything to keep funds flowing. In the end, however, it will not do much to correct economics that have been distorted by decades of collective bargaining and political acquiescence for vote-gathering purposes. The cash flows of the present will not support the expensive contracts of the past.
The cult of the municipal service worker has been relentlessly expanded in the US despite some level of cultural resistance. This divide has been growing for a while but as the second decade of the 2000s looms it is safe to say that it will be continually aggravated. The result will be further discord between those serve and those who are "served."
Begin with the police. What has also grown in the past decades is the idea of "law enforcement" as a career. The problem is not with the career itself but the collateral damage that stems from having so many men (and women) devoted to enforcing law and order. As the number of civil authorities has climbed throughout the West, so has the pressure to utilize the services of these individuals. The result: "broken homes, welfare payments, divorces, fines, jail terms and shattered lives, all resulting from the law enforcement growth industry."
Certainly, it is the toxic combination of public unions and municipal government that has turned hitherto mundane occupations into professions that allow people to retire with impressive pay packages after 20 or 25 years. The early-to-mid 2000s were probably the high-water mark for these services and now the contracts and retirements packages are proving overwhelmingly expensive for the cities and states that approved them.
Nonetheless, such pay packages and perks will not be willingly surrendered. As we can see from the article excerpted above, governments will do almost anything to keep funds flowing. In the end, however, it will not do much to correct economics that have been distorted by decades of collective bargaining and political acquiescence for vote-gathering purposes. The cash flows of the present will not support the expensive contracts of the past.
The cult of the municipal service worker has been relentlessly expanded in the US despite some level of cultural resistance. This divide has been growing for a while but as the second decade of the 2000s looms it is safe to say that it will be continually aggravated. The result will be further discord between those serve and those who are "served."
Begin with the police. What has also grown in the past decades is the idea of "law enforcement" as a career. The problem is not with the career itself but the collateral damage that stems from having so many men (and women) devoted to enforcing law and order. As the number of civil authorities has climbed throughout the West, so has the pressure to utilize the services of these individuals. The result: "broken homes, welfare payments, divorces, fines, jail terms and shattered lives, all resulting from the law enforcement growth industry."
Elite on a Tightrope
Elite on a Tightrope
" The Soros interview is further evidence that the elite is confronting a troublesome period. It is not only the decline of the United States that needs to be managed – but the decline of Europe, the rise of austerity and the level of cooperation that can be extracted from China. Ordinarily, none of this would be discussed by blogs; but in this day and age the Internet is acting as virtual adjunct to the power elite. Conversations that used to take place once a year at Bilderburg are taking place minute-to-minute on the Web. The power elite in our view misjudged the severity of the downturn of the world's economy and also the truth-telling of the Internet and the degree to which it would be used by every-day people once they started losing their jobs and pensions.
We would go further and suggest that it is the arrogance of the elites generally – especially after the triumphs of the 20th century – that led them to this place. They were surely blindsided by the Internet and even now with their maneuvering exposed they forge ahead as if nothing has happened. There are perhaps many reasons for this behavior but one of them surely is that after so many years of ruling the world behind the scenes they cannot fathom that their power is less than unbrookable or that their plans are less than absolute."
" The Soros interview is further evidence that the elite is confronting a troublesome period. It is not only the decline of the United States that needs to be managed – but the decline of Europe, the rise of austerity and the level of cooperation that can be extracted from China. Ordinarily, none of this would be discussed by blogs; but in this day and age the Internet is acting as virtual adjunct to the power elite. Conversations that used to take place once a year at Bilderburg are taking place minute-to-minute on the Web. The power elite in our view misjudged the severity of the downturn of the world's economy and also the truth-telling of the Internet and the degree to which it would be used by every-day people once they started losing their jobs and pensions.
We would go further and suggest that it is the arrogance of the elites generally – especially after the triumphs of the 20th century – that led them to this place. They were surely blindsided by the Internet and even now with their maneuvering exposed they forge ahead as if nothing has happened. There are perhaps many reasons for this behavior but one of them surely is that after so many years of ruling the world behind the scenes they cannot fathom that their power is less than unbrookable or that their plans are less than absolute."
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Is a Bond Crisis Inevitable? by Patrick J. Buchanan
Is a Bond Crisis Inevitable? by Patrick J. Buchanan
" Fitch and Moody's have just downgraded the debt of Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Hungary. In Budapest, the politicians talk of default. Spain has been warned its debt and banks could be downgraded.
The European Central Bank is buying up this paper to prevent panic selling by investors. There is talk of forcing bondholders to take a haircut. They would trade their suspect bonds for new euro bonds whose face value would be appreciably less.
In the Latin American debt crisis, the United States bailed out its banks holding the bad paper by giving them U.S.-backed bonds, while forcing them to take a loss on their Latin bonds. Courtesy of Uncle Sam, Latin America walked away from a huge slice of its debt.
The Japanese national debt is slated to pass 200 percent of gross domestic product this year, highest of any major economy on earth. Half of Japan's spending is now financed by bonds. Tax revenues do not even cover 50 percent."
" Fitch and Moody's have just downgraded the debt of Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Hungary. In Budapest, the politicians talk of default. Spain has been warned its debt and banks could be downgraded.
The European Central Bank is buying up this paper to prevent panic selling by investors. There is talk of forcing bondholders to take a haircut. They would trade their suspect bonds for new euro bonds whose face value would be appreciably less.
In the Latin American debt crisis, the United States bailed out its banks holding the bad paper by giving them U.S.-backed bonds, while forcing them to take a loss on their Latin bonds. Courtesy of Uncle Sam, Latin America walked away from a huge slice of its debt.
The Japanese national debt is slated to pass 200 percent of gross domestic product this year, highest of any major economy on earth. Half of Japan's spending is now financed by bonds. Tax revenues do not even cover 50 percent."
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