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.