Health Care Horror

I haven't commented on the health care bill because it makes me too sick to do so. It is so obviously an epic bad faith catastrophe, that it's almost not worth commenting on. Suffice it to say that it represents something of a last straw for me. Mercifully, I am not alone.

Folks, you really do need to wake up, if you haven't already, and realize who the enemy really is and what you must do in response. It is time to defy, ignore, and where the opportunity exists, tear down the present system of governance. It is run by mountebank prostitutes in thrall to corporate interests that will leave you and I destitute if we do not respond with the necessary counter measures. Civil disobedience will be the way forward.

In the meantime, do not vote for anyone who expresses solidarity with Obamacare or Obama foreign policy which is no different than Bush's foreign policy. In fact, do not vote for anyone who describes themselves as a Republican or a Democrat. We can not begin to overcome the fetid swamp of national politics until we start to wound-on the way to killing-the two headed hyrdra that is The Democratic and Republican party. Do not align yourself with, or trust, any marches, protests, or other forms of dissent that are backed by entities connected to, however tenuously, either of the two monopoly political parties. Tea baggers and other such detritus will go nowhere. Do not align yourself with any movement that seeks to go back to some mythical old way of doing things vis a vis our economic system. The FIRE economy has always been a fraud, but we can't go back to that which existed before it, nor should we.

You will know if a new and seemingly progressive political movement has some hope of being on the right track only when both parties and the mainstream media viciously attack it. Any response that elicits less than full scale opprobrium from The Powers That Be will mean only one of two things, either the movement is too small to yet bother TPTB-which can be advantageous to a burgeoning progressive political movement- or that it is somehow already operating under the auspices of the TPTB and designated for co-optation from its stated purpose.

It's way past time for a radical departure from business as usual; work to make the new year new in more ways than one.

Well, well, well.

Less than twenty four hours after my post on the likelihood of the PTB maintaining and expanding Quantitative Easing, the U.S. Treasury makes an important announcement about further backstopping of Fannie and Freddie.

A Possible Scenario Regarding Our None Too Distant Future.

I think people need to realize, and perhaps they soon will, that the Powers That Be [ I won't use the term government in this piece, except, in quotes, because, in my view, too many otherwise intelligent folks completely misunderstand who and what the "government" are. Hint: An enabler and junior participant in the management of a kleptocracy] are engaged in a massive cover up/fraud, of which the stock market is but one component. Inter alia, I now have serious doubts the U.S. stock market will come close to revisiting the lows of March anytime soon, as the PTB engage in the process of turning the U.S. economy into something absolutely surreal.

Let me be less elliptical by saying that the economic and social deterioration that went into an accelerated phase as of late '07, is, for a variety or reasons, such as the impending collapse of commercial real estate, set to pick up its pace in '10. The PTB's response will be predictable; they will shower massive sums of dough wherever they deem it necessary to the maintenance of their dominant position. My view is that they will start to dispense large sums of money directly to the little people, not out of the goodness of their heart, of course, but simply as a prophylactic measure to forestall the presently somnambulant American public from waking up. Additionally, there is another, more immediate, reason that the "government" will shower we citizen consumers with money, and that simply has to do with the "velocity" of money, which I will get to shortly.

But first: How will government get money into our hands?

"Government" will achieve this goal simply by initiating yet more incentive laden programs and by creating new agencies for the purpose of providing the growing legion of unemployed Americans with jobs. Yes, more Americans will be, either literally, or de-facto, employed by "government" doing all sorts of things. What better way to control the restless and hungry then if you are their source of sustenance, sustenance being broadly defined. "Government" is, after all, the only sector of the economy that is actually growing, and the purpose of having the "government" grow even more, which seems suicidal given our fiscal and financial state, is to create a mechanism by which all the pending credit can be successfully funneled into what remains of the non"government"portion of the nation's economy.

The big robber baron banks simply will not lend, and the "government", acting as, to put it crudely, the big banks' bitch, can't make them. So, the "government", with the big banks' blessing, will begin to act as the direct dispenser of filthy lucre, putting cash directly into the hands of citizens, aka consumers, via the aforesaid mechanisms. Expect some sort of "New Deal II" plan to arrive next year as the double dip recession- more properly seen as a one off, long term, deep dip, Depression- reasserts itself. All this activity will finally begin to unleash the fearsome forces of hyper-inflation as massive numbers of people are literally induced into spending. There is, however, a fly in the ointment.

This last ditch effort to avert the massive force of the deflationary black hole sucking the life out of the U.S. economy will fail, because the bond market will smell a rat-it likely already has- and the subsequent panic out of sovereign credit instruments, and another nasty round in dollar selling, will cause the U.S. to have to monetize even more, if not all, of its debt.

The deflationist argument, or the strongest part of it, has, as near as I can tell, centered on the idea that all the credit creation will fail to make its way into the general economy. It's the old "pushing on a string" thesis. This has been true so far. The (velocity of money) problem that has neutralized, to date, all the massive credit creation, save for inconsequential stock trading and government bond parking-will be temporarily ameliorated by putting money directly into the hands of We The People. However, to repeat, the effect, but not the only effect, of that, will be a panic in the credit markets as those markets realizes that there is no practical limit or end to what is euphemistically referred to as Quantitative Easing.

As an added note, a less powerful-but not wholly errant-part of the deflationist argument has been that fostering hyper-inflation would destroy the credit markets. The implication is that the Powers That Be wouldn't take the hyper-inflationary course so as to avoid such an unthinkable outcome. This argument rests on several false premises, but I will focus only on one. Where the deflationists have it wrong, in my view, is that hyper-inflation is the result of the failure of credit markets to work properly, not the other way around. When the source of sovereign debt funding dries up in the face of the realization that tax receipts are collapsing to negligible sums with no end in sight to that condition, monetization, to a degree that causes a currency debacle, which is the proximate cause of the worst effects of hyper-inflation, becomes the inevitable outcome.

Time Is Not On His Side...

..even if Time Magazine is on the side of Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke. In fact, it's far more often than not a portent of doom to be selected to appear on the cover of Time Magazine. You may recall Time's cover in 1999 entitled, "The Committee To Save The World". On it were perhaps the greatest collection of financial criminals and bunglers of our (or any) time, Then Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan (now, Sir Alan) Greenspan, Clinton's then Secretary of The Treasury, Robert Rubin, and his successor, Larry Summers, who is now President Obama's economic guru (woe betide the nation since rarely has a more arrogant and over rated player shaken the corridors of D.C. money politics than rotund Larry) There are many more examples of Time Magazine's reverse prescience. From marking the top in residential real estate, to nailing a bottom in the dollar, to signaling the apex of Molly Ringwald's acting career, Time has jinxed far more characters and trends than it has assisted.

In the meantime, back to Ben Bernanke, who during his tenure as Fed Chief, has managed to serve his constituency very well. And just in case you are confused, his constituency is not "We The People". The Federal Reserve Bank, despite its bogus title, is hardly Federal, simply ubiquitous-and omnivorous-what with their stranglehold on U.S. banking in particular and the U.S. financial and economic system in general. Suffice it to say that Time Magazine's cover story of Ben Bernanke is, strange as it may seem, welcome news, and we can only hope that it is not just a harbinger of an impending fall from grace for The Federal Reserve bank head, but an omen of a precipitous collapse in fortune for the entire fiendish Federal Reserve banking cartel.

AMERICA: YOU HAVE BEEN HAD!

Obviously there's a lot one can say about this, but I'll limit myself to the following: if anyone thinks this unconscionable decision is intended strictly for, or even mostly for, so called "foreign combatants", they stand an excellent chance of experiencing a very rude awakening.

The Next Bigger Crisis is Upon Us.

Once again, the U.S. has reached the debt ceiling, and one wonders-really tries to even conceive- if Congress avoids caving. In truth, they already have, with rumblings about tacking on a measly one hundred and fifty billion dollars via accounting trickery in order to avoid a scenario where government obligations, such as social security, to name just one, are postponed, if not entirely reneged on.

We are setting up for a real donnybrook where all sorts of groups and entities have an absolute tizzy as some very messy merde hits the proverbial fan with the setting on high. Going forward, some small number of legislators will insist, as they contemplate such things as spiking bond prices and/or a collapsing currency, that the U.S. cease and desist from more debt ceiling height expansions which necessitate ever more unprecedented government reliance on borrowing at the perilously short end of the yield curve. Others, contemplating the anguished cries of constituents who rely on government largess to make ends meet, will insist that the debt ceiling be raised come hell or high water.

In the meantime, there are certain expenditures that are clearly so sacred, i.e. the euphemistically labeled defense spending, more properly seen these days as money spent in support of international drug racketeering, that they will not be touched until just about every other option is exploited, or if you prefer, thrown under the bus. And, of course, it goes without saying, that the U.S. economy is still in intensive care, and should the transfusions of Quantitative Easing be cut off for any extended period, it will be right back in critical care. Vegas should have odds on the outcome of this one, but the chequered gambling outfits in the city in the Nevada desert have little or no imagination where such epic happenings are concerned.

Everyone Back in The Water

The news came over the wire a few weeks ago that Bank of America was repaying their banker bailout money, aka TARP. Today, Citigroup has announced that they too will be repaying the TARP to the tune of $20 billion dollars. Now, before you get any ideas that these developments mean that the respective bank's health has improved, consider that there is no mark to market accounting with which to make an accurate assessment of the aforesaid bank's assets. In truth, the banking industry's accounting these days is pretty much whatever these institutions (and their ilk) decide they want it to be.

Repayment of the loans, then, is not a sign of health, merely the triumph of a grand lie as it manifests in fictitious bookkeeping. The upshot of all this business is that the banks who are making the repayments will be even freer to do what they please now that they have un-tethered themselves from The Lender of Last resort, which happens to be you and me. Put another way, "Extend and Pretend" will continue to be business as usual until another crisis inevitably erupts.

The Hits Just Keep On Coming

For this citizen, Tuesday the Eighth had to rate as one of the more surreal days of the last few months. On this day, two days before accepting his Noble Peace Prize, President Obama decreed that, in order to jolt Main Street back to life, more stimulus must be provided to the tune of an estimated one hundred and fifty billion dollars. "The U.S. must spend its ways out of a recession." Yes, Mr. President, and the drug addict must shoot his or her drug of choice into their veins so as to achieve good health.

And pardon me if I am bit confused, because, according to the government, the recession ended earlier this year. I mean, it's been in all the papers and on T.V. Why do we need more stimulus for an economy that is already, well, stimulated? A few questions pop out. Will the Obama Administration manage to send the bulk of the proposed one hundred and fifty billion dollars primarily to red states as was done with the original stimulus package? Equally, I wonder if Congress will pack the pending stimulus package with the same amount of pork as they did the last one? And perhaps, most importantly, I can't help asking if the next stimulus package will just simply flat out kill the patient?

I must admit that I have a somewhat different concern than Meredith Whitney, who believes that the government is out of bullets with which to address our rather appalling predicament. Or perhaps more precisely, I imagine a different outcome than Ms.Whitney does. Where she imagines no ammunition, I imagine projectiles that kill. But I digress from the discussion of surrealism as it pertains to today's announcement. Which brings me to: Gold.

Somehow the yellow dog managed to get flattened even in the face of more evidence that argues strongly that Uncle Sugar will continue to spend, in large amounts, money he doesn't have. Markets do move in ways that often defy reason, at least for a time- and occasionally for a very long time-but generally they sort out what is what. With that in mind, it is hard not to believe that investors will not be sorting out that owning coins and bullion fabricated from the barbarous relic will almost certainly be a better bet going forward than investing in a currency that is so absolutely mired in IOUs that a one way ticket to oblivion is more certain than January snow in The Rockies.

DO IT OR ELSE!!!

It seems quite fitting that on Pearl Harbor Day another event that will (or should) live in infamy is occurring. I am speaking, of course, of the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen, which starts exactly sixty eight years to the day after the Japanese attack on the U.S. Navy at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands.

Today's potentially infamous gathering will employ the time honored and ubiquitous mechanism of fear in order to force the nations of the world into compliance with the UN's onerous program. "Our last chance is upon us" -or words to that effect- have been uttered for the purpose of forcing us all to fall in line with the UN diktat. Should we fail to do so we will all suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous GLOBAL WARMING!

Fortunately, the UN hacks, who are proffering this message of doom, have been undermined by an intrepid hack on the personal e-mails of the scientists who have led the way in pushing the message that "mankind is primarily-if not solely- responsible for global warming." Thanks to the hackers, we now have the very strong suggestion, verging on proof, that the science behind the claims of "anthropogenic" global warming is utterly concocted from bogus data.

In the meantime, the UN, despite the shameful and damning recent revelations, appear to be going full steam ahead with their climate scam, and will attempt, at this convocation, to institute their destructive agenda. Should their plans come to fruition, they will be ruinous to the economies of the west who would be taxed into penury to pay for all manner of nonsensical "green" modifications. It will be up to all of us to insure that the outcome of this day (week, really) of infamy has the same ultimate outcome as the day of infamy that occurred over half a century ago today.

Still Plenty Of Dupes Out There.

If the Boston Globe can be believed, slightly more than half of those polled favor President Obama's decision to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. A quick perusal of the numbers will reveal a certain incoherence on the part of the public regarding the U.S. presence in the region. On the one hand, while most do not think the U.S. should pull out, many have reservations about the cost of adding troops. And almost no one agrees with the 2011 timetable for withdrawal. I'd like to assure those who harbor that specific concern that they need not worry, the 2011 timetable, which makes no sense on the face, given the U.S. pending troop surge, is merely another empty pledge that will bear no fruit.

And also, for those who have serious doubts about the utility, not to mention morality, of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan-far too few according to The Gallup Poll numbers provided by The Globe- there is none, save for tapping into enormous heroin profits, keeping the price of oil higher than it ought to be-which helps out almost no one in the U.S.- and last, but perhaps not least, justifying continued wasteful spending on the military. Oh, and I almost forgot, having a lot of military personnel and machinery on the ground in Eurasia is helpful at disrupting the plans of China and Russia, who, unlike The Taliban and Al Queada, actually pose a demonstrable genuine threat to U.S. global hegemony.

Cognitive Dissonance Version 8.3

You can be forgiven if you are feeling a certain confusion about the state of play in the economy. What I have in mind are ongoing and ubiquitous stories about the economy that sport the term "recovery". The word recovery denotes a condition where a prior state is regained. How, then, can there be a recovery when job losses not only have not leveled off but continue to mount? Well, there can't be, but, as we live in a land of make believe, this sort of fantasy is commonplace. And, after all, it is the "holiday season" which always involves a certain amount of magical thinking.

The Grand Wobble, Part 3.

From denials regarding the doctored science of climate change, to the fresh commitment of troops to Afghanistan, to delaying the release of documents pertaining to military operations, to a health care bill that few credible observers believe is anything but an ill conceived act of supplication to insurers, and last but not least, to the completely flaccid legislative and executive response to the predations of the banking system and financial industry, things really are going pear shaped in a hurry here in Freedom's Land.

And while I realize that, in this hectic holiday season, it is easy to be distracted from the aforesaid damnable developments by one's shopping requirements, and the travails of the Salahi couple, who, despite their vehement protestations to the contrary, appear to have rather audaciously crashed a White House soiree, one should not let quotidian demands and main stream media sideshows obfuscate the fact that our republic is being run into the ground, and the people's welfare trampled, by a corrupt political class operating on behalf of a very small group of excessively empowered corporations and elite individuals.

Here's Your Proof.

One of my pet contentions about those holding federally elected office is that they are only competent in the art of campaigning. Whether it is a cause or an effect-probably cause and effect runs both ways- too many politicians have little interest in or talent for governing. This has always been, to some degree, an endemic problem in our nominally representative form of government, but my view is that this omnipresent nagging problem has intensified to the point that we now have this:

It does not help that many West Wing aides seem to relish an image of themselves as shrewd, brass-knuckled political types. In a Washington Post story this month, White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina, referring to most of Obama’s team, said, “We are all campaign hacks.”

Indeed. The acquisition of massive amounts of funds is now de rigueur for anyone considering running for federal office as campaigns that once lasted some number of months now last for several years. In a sense, this condition constitutes the ultimate victory for the owners of government, namely, the corporations. The winning strategy, the master stroke, employed by the business oligopoly, whether done so deliberately or by accident, involves keeping the politicians tied up in what amounts to a constant state of war. Can it be an accident that both the military and political professions employ the term campaign to describe their key activities?

Truly, what better way to bend government to one's will then to keep politicians focused on holding office to the exclusion of doing the jobs they were elected to do. How marvelous it must be for the owners of government to stand in (in the shadows) for elected officialdom merely by employing hordes of lobbyists to help set the agenda and craft the legislation, because what self respecting politician has the time to sort it out for themselves.

On a somewhat different note, it strikes me as more than a little interesting, and perversely fitting, that our political class, like the nation as a whole, now finds itself in a perpetual state of "war."

THE LAST STINKING STRAW!

I don't know about you, but I have been opposed to the U.S. military misadventures in Afghanistan, Iraq, and various and sundry neighboring countries, from the word go. The ostensible raison d'etre for our seemingly endless military expeditions in the region is nothing less than the maniacally twisted "War on Terror", itself an obscene racket that, contrary to main stream media cant, is now, given the United States' desperate financial condition, likely little more than about procuring gargantuan profits from the enormous Afghan heroin trade.

Sorry if my calculus offends you, or if it's just too much to get your head around. Allow me to offer my apologies to any of you who subscribe to Hallmark card notions regarding the manner in which the United States, the world's only remaining military super power, operates on the world stage. U.S. soldiers aren't firing off their M-4s, and pilots aren't strafing the enemy from state of the art aircraft, for Democracy, baseball, motherhood, apple pie, or for any once glorious Detroit auto manufacturers now in receivership. We are doing it for purposes that have nothing to do with anything but the raw, naked, exercise of power, and our fear of losing it before sundown tomorrow.

The military con game is easily equivalent, if not greater in scope, than the scams enacted on behalf of AIG, the big banks, and one erstwhile investment bank in particular. If anything, U.S. war machine operations are worse, if for no other reason than they involve people dying horribly violent deaths on a regular basis. And where there isn't copious death, there is the only slightly less heart rending permanent maiming and wounding, physically and mentally, of young men and women in the full flush of youth. Bravo, America!

And now, as if this horrid state of affairs weren't enough, we have this to contend with. How dare you, you disgusting, pathetic, excuses for public servants, David Obey and Carl Levin, even suggest that we should pay to expand our ghastly, wrongheaded, monstrosity in Afghanistan. How dare you wrap yourself in sanctimonious appeals for sacrifice on behalf of this sham of a sham military operation. The logic from these cretinous mountebanks, "If we have to pay for the health care bill, we should pay for the war as well" is truly vomit inducing swill of the lowest order. Can anyone not see the problem, the lack of coherence- and that is being kind- in such a statement?

If not, let me help.

1.) BESIDES YOU, AND YOUR JACKDAW ILK, WHO ARE IMPOSING YOUR SCREWED UP "HEALTH CARE" SCHEME ON THE NATION, WHO SAID WE EVEN HAD TO HAVE THIS BILL, LET ALONE PAY FOR IT?

2.) DON'T YOU THINK THAT IT MIGHT MAKE A SMIDGEN MORE SENSE TO BRING OUR TROOPS HOME, THAN TO ADD SOME (PROSPECTIVELY FOUR OR FIVE DIGIT) NUMBER OF SOLDIERS-MANY OF WHOM WILL VERY LIKELY REQUIRE INORDINATE AMOUNTS OF CARE FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES- TO THE, AS YET CREATED, AND SURE TO BE OVER BURDENED, NEW HEALTH CARE SYSTEM?

WELL, DON'T YOU?

FOLKS, IT'S TIME TO RID OURSELVES OF THE FEDERAL LEGISLATURE BEFORE THEY DO US ALL IN! YES, I AM AFRAID IT HAS COME TO THAT! AND NO, I AM NOT JOKING!

Epic Global Warming Scandal!

It would be hard to overestimate the effects of this breaking story, which suggest an immediate unmitigated catastrophe for proponents of Global Warming. This is particularly the case for the Global Warming crowd's claims that man is primarily responsible for climate effects, since those effects are now revealed to have been concocted on the back of faked data.

Some of the profound ramifications of this major, breaking, brouhaha will undoubtedly be quite welcome, like the sundering of cap and trade legislation, a horridly corrupt scheme which should now be dead on arrival. Others, like the recrudescence of initiatives to build more nuclear power plants, will be, at least to my mind, less so. And then, of course, there will simply be scores of morons who will feel justified purchasing another (or new) Escalade or Hummer, convinced that endless happy motoring in a gas guzzling mini-tank is as harmless to the environment as expectorating onto the sidewalk. Two words for you folks, Peak Oil. The only data fudging there is coming from those who deny and obfuscate this inevitability.

Worse than the prospect of the monster SUV brigade's feeling that they now have a new lease on life will be the government's tendency, especially in our present economically enfeebled state, to offer them a tax break, thereby enabling super sized SUV yahoos to indulge themselves that much more easily. And all of what I have just mentioned will amount to just the tip of the (apparently melting far less dramatically than was heretofore claimed, and not due to anthropogenic causes in any event) iceberg.

To Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner

Dear Secretary Geithner,

Yesterday, or perhaps it was the day before yesterday, it really doesn't matter, you were under the harsh glare of some members of Congress who rather sternly, but less than ably, took you and The Obama Administration to task for your role in the nation's present economic woes. As is your wont, Mr. Geithner, you resorted to a defense that was a mixture of "we inherited this mess" and "things would be so much worse if we hadn't taken the steps we've taken to date."

Well, as Ross Perot used to say, with respect to your excuse that we inherited this mess, "That dog won't hunt". President Obama has held office for almost a year now, and in that time his administration has taken a number of actions that effectively leave you with ownership of the present situation. With that in mind, in a very real sense, with respect to banking reform, one of your biggest initiatives in the past year has been to take no new initiative at all. To wit: Your basic premise, encapsulated, Mr. Geithner, is the same as that of your predecessor, Hank Paulson. Namely, it is, had we not bailed out the banks, we would now be in far worse shape as a nation.

No. I am afraid that is a monstrous lie, and all the evidence points to a very different and inescapable truth, which is that firms such as Goldman Sachs, AIG, and JPM, are nothing but criminally disposed hoarders of capital, vampire firms that add nothing, nothing, to the general economy, but rather, as is the propensity of such malevolent creatures, suck the life from it. Goldman isn't even, upon cursory examination, a bank; it is a HEDGE FUND, bankrolled entirely by the U.S. Taxpayer. The nation not only can get along fine without this particularly vile neighborhood larcenist, it would almost certainly see its functioning vastly improve after a relatively short period of adjustment.

I could go on for hours, Mr. Giethner, providing reams of sordid evidence of such criminality that it would likely make Bernie Madoff blanche. Even better, were the regulatory framework of the government not totally compromised by these same vampire firms, I could display proof of the corruption I allude to. However, in the absence of such a condition where proof might be, with a herculean effort, attainable, let alone become available with simply a modest effort, I will end this discussion by asserting that you, personally, have done nothing but enabled a bloated, predatory, industry, one more akin to a Mafia operation than anything else, to thrive at the expense of the rest of the nation. You, sir, and such fellow travelers as Barney Frank, Mel Watt, and Christopher Dodd, to name a few, are, to my mind, nothing but the property of a coven of blood sucking, financial death merchants.

The Grand Wobble! Part 2.1

• It has occurred to me that putting my recent post on hyper-inflation in some sort of context would be useful. There is a method to all the madness of (what may be characterized in general terms as) "money destruction". Here is my brief, but I hope not overly reductive analysis of what is happening and why.

The Fed and Wall Street Banks, who are puppeteering D.C.'s sickening charade from behind what amounts to a sheer curtain, are engaged in a time honored practice known in military circles as "The Pincer Movement".

There are two sides to the pincer movement. In this appalling example, one side of the pincer involves the entire alphabet soup of banker bailout rip-off programs, while the other side of the pincer involves some modicum of stealth, and focuses on the debasement of the U.S. currency. Both sides of the pincer serve the banker's ends, which are to eradicate their indebtedness at our expense. Their success depends on the complicity of the political class, maintained through well documented carrot and stick actions, MSM misinformation and propaganda, and last, but certainly not least, (drum roll, please) ignorance and cowardice on the part of "We The People."

The already enacted side of the pincer (TARP, TALF, etc. etc.) amounts to a particularly thuggish robbery perpetrated on the public in broad daylight, while the other side of the pincer movement might be likened to the sort of villainy engaged in by a skimming criminal accountant/money manager against a too trusting client who wakes up one day, only to find that, where their assets are concerned, there is no there there.

Why are they doing this? Well, let's start with the most obvious answer-but not necessarily a wrong answer for being so obvious- "they" are sociopaths, all genuine gangsters-and if they are anything, Wall Street bank(st)ers are that-are sociopaths to a greater or lesser degree. And so, being without a sufficient helping of conscience or empathy, these public predators have no compunction about ruining tens of millions of lives. The second answer to the question posed, which follows on from the "sociopath thesis", is that they are doing it, because they can.

Sarah Palin: Whore of Babylon Watch.

Thank you, Newsweek, for forcing Americans to have to consider Sarah Palin, The Whore of Babylon, once more. Thank you, for giving the world's most abominable scarlet hussy a cover feature story, even if only to suggest that TWOB is biblically bad news. Most Americans already know this, and we can only hope that they don't somehow become terminally confused between now and the next Presidential election and engage in a reconsideration of their well justified distaste for you know who.

The Grand Wobble! Part 2

We are getting closer to the point when another Black Swan event, perhaps The Black Swan event in our ongoing period of extraordinary financial and economic distress, comes to the fore. Specifically, I have in mind a very large, flapping, black bird that stirs up a commotion so great as to cause a Weimar like currency cascade. The idea that such a collapse could occur at all, let alone imminently, is not exactly on the vast majority's radar. Would that it were, since the nation's GDP, its marginal capacity of debt, as well as the all important issue of confidence, at least where a fiat currency like the dollar is concerned, are in a most precarious position. Last but not least, the dollar's reserve currency status, perhaps the strongest force heretofore working against a currency collapse, is clearly being dislodged, and none too delicately or slowly, from its pride of place.

My how the times can change, and quickly too, as history shows.

The mendacious head of The Federal Reserve, in front of legislators for his regularly scheduled period of restrained questioning and (non) answering, has asserted that he supports a strong dollar policy. Unfortunately, no one in our august legislative body, including the well meaning but feckless Ron Paul, managed to take Mr. Bernanke to task for his brazen dishonesty. However, the market will not fail to call The Fed Chairman's bluff, even as lawmakers don't, and do not be surprised if the merciless and enormous forex market does so in a spectacularly swift and frightening fashion as befitting a Black Swan of Black Swans.

After all, what, besides paying lip service to a strong dollar, has Bernanke, or anyone else in a position to effect the situation, done? The silence from Helicopter Ben's quarter were he compelled to answer such a question, would, by necessity, be as deafening as it was revealing. In truth, Ben, and our Legislative and Executive branches, under both The Shrub and The Anointed One, have done absolutely nothing but sow the seeds for a total destruction in the purchasing power of the dollar. And, as we are getting perilously close to technical levels in the dollar that equate to a Do or Die situation for the greenback, one must be vigilant for the onslaught of a free fall that gathers steam as the realization that, not only is Quantitative Easing here to stay, but is apt to be expanded with gusto.

A Bit of Humor For You, Brothers and Sisters.

May your holiday season be one where that diabolical credit card stays in your wallet as much as is humanly possible. Hallelujah!

The Grand Wobble! Part 1.

Things are getting more and more bizarre here in Freedom's Land. In fact, I dare say that things are getting so bizarre that I fear the onset of another bout of unspecified collapse. I really don't know where to begin with the following survey of strangeness, so I will start with a discussion of a traditional icon of American life, the stock market. I would like to assert my view that the stock market, at least as many of us once knew it for many years, is dead.

If you are one of those who have always thought of the share market as nothing but a casino, I must offer to you that whatever casino like atmosphere existed before, oh, say, 2007, is as nothing compared to now. One reason for this is that the present stock market is the province of an even smaller coterie of powerful players than before, players who are being bankrolled almost exclusively by you and me. What's more, the house money that this group of players have been handed for free is being deployed into the stock market based on factors that have absolutely nothing to do with the real economy. Short to intermediate term ebbs and flows in the stock market have always been dictated, to a greater or lesser extent, by liquidity flows, but now, as the unofficial government policy towards the dollar is to manage it into a controlled oblivion, a gambit that I believe is destined to fail spectacularly, the stock market now functions as nothing more than a kind of inverse dollar commodity fund.

Who can be surprised as the U.S. economy is on government induced life support that is barely keeping the patient from experiencing a total collapse. As a result, despite the smoke and mirrors engaged in by cretinous Wall Street cheerleading oufits like CNBC, forward operating earnings, are a fiction, and will not come close to justifying present prices. Worse still, the appalling mark to market accounting fantasy that the banks, and many others, have availed themselves of, allows for ever more absurd acts of share levitation.

But those are but mere tactics, albeit obscene ones, employed by The Powers That Be for the purpose of obfuscation. The real reason that reality will not, at least for now, be allowed to intrude, is because the stock market is perhaps the key prop employed by The Powers That Be to bamboozle the American Public into thinking that the U.S. Economy has "recovered," and that all will be as it was before the annus horribilus of 2008 cut the value of most people's equity portfolios in half. Even as the PTB have set in motion forces that guarantee a future where our purchasing power erodes faster than a seawall in a Category 4 Hurricane, they will try, at least for a time, to make those with Roth IRAs and 401Ks feel better about their prospects. In the meantime, the stock market has become a kind capital market manic depressive, down approximately 66% percent from its all time (nominal) highs from October '07 to March '09, and up almost the same amount in percentage terms in the eight months from this year's late winter lows.

This is Your Government Part II

As a follow up to the first part of This is Your Government, I offer the following, which provides more insight into exactly who some of are culture's monsters are, where they come from, and more lurid details on what they've been up to. I present to you the goats that stare at men.

This Is Your Government!

You won't find this story discussed, let alone featured, in any main stream media outlet. However, if, by some miracle, you do, by all means let me know as I shall be surprised and somewhat chastened. Here is credible testimony asserting that U.S. Government "security agencies" have engaged in the most depraved and cruel acts imaginable. I have long felt that the so called "War on Terror," the ostensible raison d'etre behind the vile acts recounted by Mr. Murray, has been, and will always be, a monstrous fraud, and that those who give succor to it are either dupes and/or criminals.

Many years ago, while trying to make sense of the unfathomable monstrosities perpetrated by The Nazis during The Third Reich, Hannah Arendt made a key insight about the darker side of human nature that was encapsulated in the phrase, "The banality of evil." One wonders who, in our time, are the mediocre functionaries sanctioning and directing all the unspeakable acts referenced by Mr. Murray? Who are the individuals who most resemble, in some way, shape, or form, the infamous bureaucrat, Adolph Eichmann?

If we didn't already suspect their whereabouts, we now have excellent evidence to support the thesis that these sinister characters are in the employ of our equally nefarious defense and intelligence agencies. Some number of these, as yet unnamed, and probably never to be named, pallid monsters are in full possession of the most detailed information relating to each and every rape, burning, boiling, electrocution, dismemberment, shooting, hanging, water boarding, etc. etc. committed by U.S. forces, either in person or through factors.

On some level, ascertaining exactly who these shadowy characters are is beside the point, (that statement should not be construed by anyone as me advocating against the full weight of justice being served to the execrable perpetrators) because each and every one of us who call ourselves U.S. citizens are, to a greater or lesser extent, complicit in the myriad villainies described by the aforementioned British diplomat.

I now offer the caveat that what I am about to say may shock some readers and offend others. The United States is mired in wickedness, and steeped in evil to such a degree that we can barely detect how morally askew our behavior has become. And I will further offer that I believe the ghastly domestic events of yesterday and today have some deep connection, though I can not say with any certainty what the connection is, with the "atrocities of war" already described.

Given all that has come down the pike that we citizens must ultimately take, as they say, ownership of, it is well nigh impossible, at least from where I stand, to take the position that anything less than wholesale change, authentic change, is essential to restoring this nation to a country where Enlightenment ideals are not simply used as cover for profoundly venal acts, but truly inform who we are and how we live. It is often asserted that in order to maintain a society such as the one we aspire to, voting is the least citizens can or should do. I agree, but would add that Americans must realize that voting for either party is no longer the least we can do, it is the wrong thing to do.

Sarah Palin/ Whore of Babylon Watch.

She's at it again. The future's potentially most dangerous political actor- I use that term advisedly- is raising her visibility by becoming involved in this year's political silly season. The erstwhile Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, has, not so subtly, inserted herself into gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia, no doubt sucking some untold number of sleepwalking American voters into the bogus Democrat versus Republican swirling vortex. Why any fellow politician would want TWOB to weigh in on their side is beyond me. Equally, why any voter would listen to such an obviously phony, grifting, unintelligent sack of twaddle as The ImPalinator is unfathomable, but then, as the estimable H.L. Mencken pointed out many generations ago, this nation is full of nincompoops.

I don't know how to say this any other way. Sarah Palin must be stopped. But it may not be possible, especially when one considers that TWOB's numerous supremely embarrassing performances have not already driven the requisite large wooden stake through the black, beating heart of Palin's monstrous political career. Pray for a meteorite to hit at the proper time and place.

Thwarted Again!

“Gentleman, I have had men watching you for a long time, and I am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter, I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families and that will be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the eternal God, I will rout you out.”

-Andrew Jackson

Let's face it, you knew, by hook or by crook, that the move to audit The Federal Reserve Bank would founder, and lo and behold, it has. Ron Paul, an early proponent of the initiative, and perhaps its most dedicated and staunch defender, has announced that the legislation in question has been gutted. A quick review of the article at the link will confirm his assertion. I really don't know what is worse, the evisceration of the aforesaid legislation, or the inevitable prating twaddle one will have to endure from some number of elected officials and main stream media stooges that substantial progress has been achieved in the area of bank regulation and reigning in The Federal Reserve.

The sad truth is that the will of "We The People" has, once again, been treated with barely concealed disdain, all because the protection racket that consists of the Fed and its biggest member banks has perfected the art of legislative obedience via the time honored mechanisms of bribery and/or fear. Bravo!

Let's face it, The Federal Reserve cartel and the big banks have the U.S. Congress in much the same state as a cowed beast of burden. It's positively perverse, and this latest failure by The House of Representatives- with special thanks to Mel Watt, and, of course, Barney Frank- to forcefully assert its basic Constitutional right, reinforces my view that the only way forward for the American people, should we have the fortitude to take it, is one that involves "radical" measures. Change, let alone revolutionary change, will not come about without walking on the lawn my fellow citizens. If you need any guidance regarding direction, I refer you here, once more.

Government Fails Again!

The Volatility Blog is turning out to be a real find. Once again, it has exposed another fetid instance of government abdication of responsibility masquerading as worthy and effective legislative initiative. The action of The House Financial Services Committee, under the errant and feckless stewardship of Barney Frank, is precisely the sort of horrid performance that argues in favor of effecting a complete turnover of the Federal Legislature, arguably the most toxic public body operating in the United States today.

The purpose of government is to act as an ombudsman for the citizenry, a bulwark against the incessant predation by the private sector on the public. One almost imagines this latest example of our law makers in action as a textbook case of how a key government body (mal) functions inside a failed state as former Assistant Secretary of The Treasury, Paul Craig Roberts, asserts we are.

The Federal Reserve and Conspiracy.

Recently the financial blog Zero Hedge asserted that The Federal Reserve Bank has engaged in manipulation of the stock market. For some of us this is already accepted, and no great pains need be taken to prove the thesis. However, economist Edward Harrison of the financial blog nakedcapitalism took issue with Zero Hedge's claims as he felt the piece contained insufficient evidence and contained an unappealing tone of conspiracy. In fairness to Mr. Harrison, it must be said that the article had nothing in the way of hard evidence to support any specific, or for that matter, any general claim of market manipulation by The Federal Reserve. What was very clear in the comments section of Mr. Harrison's piece, and of perhaps the greatest interest in the entire discussion, was how strongly people feel about the idea of conspiracy. The following was my contribution to the main topics of debate:

Let’s cut to the chase. We know there is a PPT, more properly referred to as The Presidents Working Group on Financial Markets. At the same time, even though we are armed with that knowledge, the opaqueness of the institutions in question, and the timidity, if not cowardice, of those who might remove the veil of secrecy surrounding the workings of these institutions, make it well nigh impossible that manipulation of the kind under discussion will ever be traced to its source. Auditing the Fed will probably not uncover all that they have engaged in (good, bad, and illegal) to date, but it is a legislative initiative whose passage I believe is imperative.

As for conspiracy theories, one has two choices. One can subscribe to the sensible view, as many do, that some of the worst events in our recent (and not so recent) past are nothing more than the result of incompetent and bumbling officialdom, OR you can hew to the notion that powerful interests do not come by their power by chance-which is another way of saying they are competent- and are supremely interested in maintaining their advantage. And, perhaps, most importantly, not only do powerful interests not play by the rules, but generally they have contempt for them and act accordingly.

From such realities are “conspiracies” made. And once one has truly understood and accepted the immortal words of Frederick Douglass, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will” one realizes that conspiracies, while not necessarily the norm, whatever that is, are far more common than most would like to believe.

Hanging Too Good for this Lord.

Try not to choke on your breakfast, lunch, or dinner when you read the enclosed article. Goldman Sachs International's Vice Chairman, Lord Griffiths, has opined that the public must "tolerate the inequality of bonuses as a way to achieve greater prosperity for all." In a world where outrageous and indefensible rubbish is spewed daily by VIPs, this patent, steaming load of horse hockey stands out.

Goldman Sachs, aided and abetted by corrupt and/or cowardly appointed and elected officialdom, stole directly from we taxpayers the same funds that they have since handed out to their employees. Please, tell me, your Lordship, where's the general prosperity in that? All I see is specific prosperity for you and yours to the detriment of me and mine. This makes the putrid nonsense of Ronald Reagan's trickle down economics seem almost reasonable by comparison.