Mercenary Scribblings; Austrian School of Economics; Ludwig von Mises;

I just added a new link to my sidebar.

Check out Mercenary Scribblings for discussions of the "Austrian" school of economics. It has been so long since I seriously read Mises, Hayek, Hazlitt, Rothbard et. al, I feel like Rip Van Winkle trying to remember my own past as I read Mercenary's posts.

I have written sparingly of Mises, et al. here at this blog. Here is a short review of one of his books. Follow the links and "labels" for more of the same.

Quote of the day - Dana Milbank - planted questioners at "press" conference

The use of planted questioners is a no-no at presidential news conferences, because it sends a message to the world -- Iran included -- that the American press isn't as free as advertised. But yesterday wasn't so much a news conference as it was a taping of a new daytime drama, "The Obama Show."

Dana Milbank - Washington Post - 6-24-09

Tami Farrell; Miss California; nude photos; Playboy; scandal; DUI; crimes; sex

In April I posted an item about Carrie Prejean in which I lured google traffic to this site on the false promise of nude pics and scandal. That post was my biggest traffic draw since the inception of this blog. When the homosexual lobby (otherwise known as the MSM/DNC) found out that Prejean was against gay marriage, they responded not by engaging in rational debate, but by trying to dig up dirt against Prejean. Tens of thousands of "people" were simultaneously searching the internet for evidence that Prejean was once nude (or any other scandal that might exist). And I was the biggest beneficiary of that traffic.

Now that Prejean's replacement, Tami Farrell, has stated the same position on gay marriage as Prejean, she is undoubtedly under similar attack. If you came here looking for such scandal, get a life. You have been fooled again.

Tami Farrell


Tami Farrell



Tami Farrell

Quote of the day - Bloomberg News - Kevin Hassett

I’ve finally figured out the Obama economic strategy. President Barack Obama and his team have been having so much fun wielding dictatorial power while rescuing “failed” firms, that they have developed a scheme to gain the same power over every business. The plan is to enact policies that are so anticompetitive that every firm needs a bailout.

Once that happens, their new pay czar Kenneth Feinberg can set the wage for everybody and Rahm Emanuel can stack the boards of all of our companies with his political cronies.

Kevin Hassett - Bloomberg News - June 8, 2009

It takes Burger King to disprove a hoax.

Mother nature continued its assault on the hoax known as "global warming," as record cold has gripped parts of Wisconsin:

The high temperature for the day, reached at 9:50 a.m., was 52. That set a record for the lowest high temperature for June 6, according to the National Weather Service office in Ashwaubenon.

The old mark was 53, set in 1943.

Similar records were set across Wisconsin today. Manitowoc's high was 54, breaking the record of 56 set in 1935. In central Wisconsin, records were set in Stevens Point, Wisconsin Rapids, Marshfield and Merrill, all breaking marks set in 1935.

At the same time, western North Dakota saw snowfall in June for the first time in 60 years:

Snow has fallen in Dickinson in June, the first time in nearly 60 years the city has seen snow past May.

National Weather Service meteorologist Janine Vining in Bismarck says there were unofficial reports of a couple of inches of snow in Dickinson on Saturday.

Vining says snow in North Dakota in June is uncommon, though it's not unheard of. She says other parts of the state have seen June snow within the past 10 years.

H/T memphisflyer.com









previous: Winter of 2008

Winter of 2007

Winter of 1994

Storm of the Century

Government spending depresses housing market.

An AP story yesterday demonstrates why government interference in the economy will never "work" (assuming one's definition of "work" is to promote prosperity instead of to wreck the economy so as to pave the way for dictatorship)no matter what action the government takes:

The Federal Reserve announced a $1.2 trillion plan three months ago designed to push down mortgage rates and breathe life into the housing market.

But this and other big government spending programs are turning out to have the opposite effect. Rates for mortgages and U.S. Treasury debt are now marching higher as nervous bond investors fret about a resurgence of inflation.

That's the Catch-22 threatening to make an awful housing market potentially worse and keep the economy stuck in a funk. Kick-starting the economy requires higher spending, but rising rates mean fewer Americans will be able to refinance their home loans. And some potential buyers will be shut out of the market by higher monthly payments they won't be able to afford.

Every action the government will be defeated by some consequence about which the government and the MSM/DNC will not warn the public.

To understand how this is all connected, you have to think like a bond trader.

No, you need only think like someone whose livelihood does not depend on a government check.

Inflation is their enemy because it means the purchasing power of the dollars they receive when bonds eventually are paid off will be diminished. The only question is by how much.

That is only partially right. Inflation is everyone's enemy (except for those who want to wreck the economy to pave the way for dictatorship) because it will destroy savings and make it impossible for planning, economic calculations and hiring decisions. Without savings and long term planning, there will be no jobs and no production. If that thought has not sunk in, it will. Just wait until the stimulus money kicks in.

Quote of the day - Mogambo Guru

As an interesting aside, as in, "We're freaking doomed by a clot of corrupt government devils," Mr Willie says to "give credit to the US Govt stat rats in their busy laboratories. They decided to ramp up the Q2 Gross Domestic Product by including all US Govt rescue funds for the big banks, including the diverse funds from the many liquidity facilities. All those funds will go directly into the GDP for Q2 as a special line item. Expect a miraculous economic recovery in the second quarter, based on vapor."

Miraculous indeed! Hahaha! What a blatant governmental affront! What a colossal, transparent, low-IQ fraud!

Magambo Guru - June 6, 2009