What Obama should have told the students . . .

B. Hussein Obama's defenders dismiss criticism of Obama's speech to school students yesterday on the grounds that such speech had been cleaned up to be innocuous. The education materials accompanying the speech were removed, leaving little for the President to say outside of telling the students to wash their hands and work hard.

This was all quite pointless to the point of hypocrisy. The President pretended to be the students' friends while failing to tell them what he did in February that destroyed their future. The President failed to mention yesterday that the students he addressed will have to work for the rest of their lives to pay off the stimulus bill. The President failed to mention that even if they work all of their lives, the stimulus bill will be left to his audience's children and grandchildren to pay. He also did not tell them that this point is probably moot, because by the time these students enter the workforce, so much new debt will have been piled on top of the stimulus debt, the economy and the currency will collapse under the weight of such debt.

Instead, he tried to take credit for building schools for the children and pressuring their parents into accepting "responsibility." He could have set a tremendous example of accepting responsibility by accepting responsibility for the stimulus bill and the horrible consequences that will follow for the children in those classrooms.

Maybe he should have told the children what it is like to live in a country where the currency has been destroyed, like Argentina or Zimbabwe. Maybe he should have told them what it is like to live in a country without a manufacturing base. At least that information would help them prepare for the future. Maybe he should have told them what it will be like to watch their parents and grandparents die from otherwise curable illnesses once we endure rationing under his health plan.

But those messes will be for others to endure and for others to explain to the children.

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 - [Richard Daughty]

And what is the problem with creating excess paper, fiat money? Well, ask the people of Zimbabwe, whose moronic government has been creating so much of it for almost 15 years that, towards the end, inflation in prices could only be poorly estimated, as prices soared more than a million percent, or a billion percent, or more. Nobody knows. A lot, though!

Richard Daughty [Mogambo Guru] - May 2009

Quote of the day - The Mogambo Guru - Inflation

. . . . inflation in prices is going to get a lot worse, as the loathsome and thoroughly despicable Federal Reserve is financing the absurd stimulus programs of Barack Obama so much that (audience shouts out, "How much, Marvelous Mogambo Master (MMM)?") on Wednesday, April 15, the national debt was $11,218.8 billion, while on April 8, One Freaking Week (OFW) earlier, the debt was $11,145.4 billion, which is not only $73.4 billion more, but is also a Hell Of A Lot Of Money (HOALOM) in OFW!

Mogambo Guru - Richard Daughty - 4-23-2009

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

If the United States government got out of the way, things might get worse before they get better. With the government in the way, we have only the certainty of worse. Washington is engaged in the doomed project of attempting to re-inflate a credit bubble. Can't be done. But, in attempting it, they're massively expanding government spending and further distorting the rules of the market in the same ways that worked out so well for American home owners.

Mark Steyn [emphasis added] March 2, 2009

Runaway inflation; Marc Faber; porkulus

Click on this CNBC item to see how the porkulus bill could trigger rampant inflation:

The US risks being hit by Zimbabwe-style hyperinflation and there are signs that the world's biggest economy risks turning into a banana republic, Marc Faber, author of the Gloom, Doom & Boom report, told CNBC's "Asia Squawk Box."

The risk of inflation is caused by Federal spending and the resulting squeeze on credit markets:

Asked whether the US risked being faced with 200 percent inflation, Faber answered: "Well, not yet. Not yet. But I think eventually. If I look at government debt in the US, and debt in general, I think the only way they will not default physically on their debt is to inflate."
The Federal Reserve's policy of printing money and the government's intervention in the economy might undermine the US's economic and political clout, Faber warned.
"Well, I wrote two years ago a report entitled 'Is America becoming a banana republic?' And there are some features that characterize banana republics- totalitarian states, very strong government intervention into the economy, and the polarization of wealth," he said.

The predictions I have repeated on this site have an unhappy habit of coming true, so it might be a good idea to do a little preparation.

See previous - April 2007 - the bubble is about to burst.
March 2007 - real estate bubble - equity.
May 2007 - Boomsday

Mark Steyn; How Barney Frank's gay lover caused the Fannie Mae collapse; Herb Moses

Mark Steyn comments on another aspect of the financial crisis for which taxpayers must now suffer:

Last week in this space, I made a jocular reference to a global economy "so
vulnerable that only the stalwart action of Barney Frank stands between it and
ten years of soup kitchens". I tittered too soon. It turns out the
entire planetary meltdown is due to Congressman Frank's sex life:

. . . . . . . .
Moses "helped develop many of Fannie Mae’s affordable housing and home
improvement lending programs."
Critics say such programs led to the mortgage
meltdown that prompted last month’s government takeover of Fannie Mae and its
financial cousin, Freddie Mac. The giant firms are blamed for spreading bad
mortgages throughout the private financial sector...
. . . . . . . . .

while the old Moses parted the red sea, the new Moses drowned us in one.

See also this.

So it appears that taxpayers will now pay $700,000,000,000 for Barney Frank's failed gay relationship. The Moses/Frank partnership will turn out to be the most expensive gay marriage in history.

- In the 1970's (and before), gay bathhouses were responsible for the spread of aids throughout the western world (although the left undoubtedly blames George W. Bush (and, by extension, John McCain (and Sarah Palin's downs syndrome baby))).

- In the 1990's, Fannie Mae became a financial gay bathhouse, spreading the financial equivalent of aids throughout the economy of the western world.

Fannie Mae


[See the analysis of how even this was made possible only by the Federal Reserve policy of credit expansion during the credit boom of the 1990's.]

Quote of the day - Spengler

Paulson's dreadful scheme will become law, because Americans love their bankers. The bankers enable their collective gambling habit. Think of America as a town with one casino, in which the only economic activity is gambling. Most people lose, but the casino keeps lending them more money to play. Eventually, of course, the casino must go bankrupt. At this point, the townspeople people vote to tax themselves in order to bail out the casino. Collectively, the gamblers cannot help but lose; individually they nonetheless hope to win their way out of the hole.

Spengler - 9-23-2008

The Boomsday/banking double-whammy

Sorry to be gloomy on Christmas, but the following articles caught my attention:

The first of the vast US baby boom generation goes into retirement in January, setting off a demographic tidal wave with wide-ranging economic, political and social implications.

H/T Breitbart

Here comes Boomsday - just in time for the mortgage/banking crisis.








Does anyone still think they have "too much equity?"

Jeremy Grantham; bubble time for the entire world.

Jeremy Grantham, chairman of a Boston investment firm, argues that the entire world is in a bubble that will collapse following additional gains, which collapse will affect all sectors:

From Indian antiquities to modern Chinese art," he wrote in a letter to clients this week following a six-week world tour, "from land in Panama to Mayfair; from forestry, infrastructure and the junkiest bonds to mundane blue chips; it's bubble time!

..................
Grantham

The bursting of [this] bubble will be across all countries and all assets, with the probable exception of high-grade bonds," Grantham warned. "Since no similar global event has occurred before, the stresses to the system are likely to be unexpected. All of this is likely to depress confidence and lower economic activity.

I have begun to warn about the effects of too little equity in the real estate market. The bubble may be most pronounced in real estate, where home prices have skyrocketed in recent years and homeowners have used equity as a source of spending money.

Take steps now to build savings and equity before it is too late.

Equity - end of the real estate bubble

One can tell that a "bubble" is coming to an end when those who profit from the hysteria make ridiculous statements. I recently received this flyer in the mail from a mortgage/real estate company.

too much equity?

The ad wants to know if you have "too much equity" in your home or investment property. Only today, when the real estate bubble has been expanded to the breaking point and when credit has become sweet poison could this question be seriously asked.

The day will come when homeowners can only wish they had equity. Homeowners facing foreclosure or bankruptcy will long for the days when they enjoyed equity in their homes. They will regret every decision they ever made to take equity out of their home. They will regret every line of credit or refinance that enabled them to walk away from the settlement table with cash. They will lose the homes for which they paid top dollar - and receive only some ridiculously low liquidation value that does not even cover their mortgages/lines of credit.

Ads like the one pictured here will seem someday like a cruel joke. They will evoke bitter memories like the ones we try to forget regarding the Clinton stock market bubble of the late 1990's. (It wasn't really Clinton's fault, but I need to counter the Clinton kool-aid drinkers who credit him with the stock market rise of the late 1990's while ignoring the crash that occurred in 2000 while Clinton was still in office.) (Nor do I blame the real estate/ mortgage companies. They are doing only what central banking policy has induced for the past century.)

For those whose only economics education came from a major university or from the folks on PBS, here is a quick lesson: You can NEVER have "too much equity" - especially now when the bubble is about to burst.

Quote of the day - Milton Friedman

Only government can take perfectly good paper, cover it with perfectly good ink and make the combination worthless.

Milton Friedman

Quote of the day - Milton Friedman

Inflation is the one form of taxation that can be imposed without legislation.

Milton Friedman

The penny, the nickel, copper and another sign of the debasement of our currency

We have become accustomed to hearing about the "consumer price index" as THE barometer of inflation. Because CPI has been tame since the Reagan administration, the American public has not been concerned. Meanwhile, the debasement of the United States dollar continues. The American voter and consumer, under the tutelage of the MSM/DNC, has misunderstood such warning signs as the stock market bubble of the late 1990's and the real estate bubble that now seems to be in the early stages of bursting.

Occasionally, we see the effects of the currency debasement in such stories as this one, which discusses the need to "rebase" the penny because the copper has become more valuable than the face amount of the coin itself:

Sharply rising prices of metals such as copper and nickel have meant the face value of pennies and nickels are worth less than the material that they are made of, increasing the risk that speculators could melt the coins and sell them for a profit.

Five year copper price - H/T Kitco.com





Metals prices rise for a number of reasons, including worldwide economic changes. But another important factor is the ongoing currency debasement that steadily percolates its way through the economy. These price increases are inevitable where the government pays its limitless bills by inflating the currency. Chicago Federal Reserve senior economist Francois Velde draws a historical parallel that would escape the attention of the general public because the events happen over the course of decades:

"These factors suggest that, sooner or later, the penny will join the farthing (one-quarter of a penny) and the hapenny (one-half of a penny) in coin museums."

The destruction of western currencies has been a long process. Except for the 1970's, it has gone on almost unnoticed. Government fine tuning of pennies (or elimination of the "hapenny") is only one signpost on the road to financial ruin.