Week In Review
Quote of the week
“I am ashamed to have laughed at such incompetence and government bungling that is destroying America and, putting a serious look on my face, I say that the lesson to be learned here is that we have been betrayed by Congress, again and again, as it screws up everything it touches, which is what government routinely does, which is why it is obvious that the Constitution never meant for them to be doing this.” - The Mogambo Guru
I.O.U.S.A Screening August 21st
I.O.U.S.A. boldly examines the rapidly growing national debt and its consequences for the United States and its citizens. As the Baby Boomer generation prepares to retire, will there even be any Social Security benefits left to collect? Burdened with an ever-expanding government and military, increased international competition, overextended entitlement programs, and debts to foreign countries that are becoming impossible to honor, America must mend its spendthrift ways or face an economic disaster of epic proportions. more…
McMansion Ghost Towns
“Since real-estate tanked, many new planned communities across the country are half-empty, with for-sale signs outnumbering residents by a large margin. Daily life in these developments seems a bit post-cataclysmic. Children play on elaborate but empty playgrounds. They walk their dogs past rows of shiny houses that have never been lived in. Voices echo up and down the block. Unfinished houses and vacant lots strewn with construction debris clutter the horizon.” more…
The Market Process in Action
“‘The market’ is not an outcome, nor is it an end unto itself. Rather, the market is a process by which people discover effective (and not so effective) ways to satisfy our needs and wants. Entrepreneurship is essential; this consists of appraising the factors of production in the market and undertaking new production plans based on the expectation that such an endeavor will be profitable. Those who choose wisely are rewarded with profits. Those who choose poorly are punished with losses.” more…
IBM, Canonical/Ubuntu, Novell, Red Hat to Deliver Microsoft-Free Desktops Worldwide
For the first time, IBM and leading Linux distributors Canonical/Ubuntu, Novell and Red Hat will join forces globally with their hardware partners to deliver Microsoft-free personal computing choices with Lotus Notes and Lotus Symphony in the one billion-unit desktop market worldwide by 2009. more…
Law Professor: Counter Terrorism Czar Told Me There Is Going To Be An i-9/11 And An i-Patriot Act
Amazing revelations have emerged concerning already existing government plans to overhaul the way the internet functions in order to apply much greater restrictions and control over the web. more…
And now the numbers
Which I do not have this week, and what’s more it’s almost next week, which because of my move is surely going to be a little light. We’ll see… I get internet at home on Thursday. If I can catch up with my reading I will. Otherwise it will be “just the numbers”. Sorry for the delay in getting this out. No time on Sunday or Monday. No internet Friday or Saturday.
The drive to Ann Arbor was good, no surprises. Our stuff is unloaded, but still needs arranging. The dogs are settling in. The neighborhood is great. The couple across the street baked us a pumpkin spice cake! There’s this little orange and white cat Sammy that likes to visit everyone on the block and come in their houses. I hope my dogs don’t eat him.
Until next time, have a great week!
Week In Review
Quote of the week
“We’re happy to see the federal government taking some dramatic action. It reaffirms our faith in our fellow man - he’s an idiot; as we knew all along. And it confirms our opinion of the political class - they’re grifters, chiselers and opportunists.” - Bill Bonner, The Daily Reckoning
The Geopolitics of Iran
“To understand Iran, you must begin by understanding how large it is. Iran is the 17th largest country in world. It measures 1,684,000 square kilometers. That means that its territory is larger than the combined territories of France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Portugal - Western Europe. Iran is the 16th most populous country in the world, with about 70 million people. Its population is larger than the populations of either France or the United Kingdom.” more…
Bailout cure worse than disease
“The grim reality is that trillions of dollars were borrowed and spent that will never be repaid. No government program can alter that fact. Someone is going to have to pay the piper for all those granite counter tops and plasma TVs. The price tag is staggering and for all the bailouts and stimulus packages, all the government can do is exacerbate the losses and shift the burden through inflation. Nor can the government resurrect bubble home prices and the fantasy of real estate riches that went along with them. One way or another, rational home prices will be restored and the myths of our asset-based, consumption-dependent economy will be finally discredited.” more…
Ron Paul followers pose danger for McCain in West
“‘The notion is, let’s just break the GOP because the people who are running and holding office in it aren’t respecting what the constituents want,’ said Jay Weeldreyer, a Paul field director in Renton, Wash. ‘So, if we can just let them suffer a massive loss, then maybe that will get through to them.’” more…
The Maestro Won’t Face the Music
“The housing bubble was Greenspan’s doing pure and simple. He gave birth to it, nurtured it, protected it, and guided it during every stage of its development. In fact, if there was a deck of playing cards featuring the key players in this debacle, Alan Greenspan would be the ace of spades. The fact that the media still holds this joker in such high esteem is a testament to just how clueless they are. Rather than fawning over his every word, journalists should be grilling him like a CIA interrogator.” more…
And now the numbers
DOW Jones Industrials - 11,326.32 (-44.37)
Wilshire 5000 - 12,888.21 (+51.11)
CSI 300 (China) - 2,840.79 (-98.41)
BSE 500 (India) - 5,642.57 (+134.32)
MICEX (Russia) - 1,492.55 (+ 5.45)
BOVESPA (Brazil) - 57,630.35 (+431.21)
Gold/oz - 917.50 (-19.40)
Silver/oz - 17.52 (+0.145)
Copper/lb - 3.5785 (-0.0265)
Oil/bbl (Brent) - 124.18 (- 0.34)
Wheat/bu (CBT) - 7.94 (- 0.17)
Corn/bu - 5.85 (-0.115)
Rough Rice - 16.36 (- 0.36)
Dollar/Euro - 1.557 (-0.0145)
Yuan/Dollar - 6.838 (+0.023)
Yen/Dollar - 107.685 (-0.185)
Dollar/Real - 0.6431 (+0.0056)
3 Month Treasury - 1.66 (- 0.07)
2 Year Treasury - 2.49 (- 0.21)
10 Year Treasury - 3.93 (- 0.17)
30 Year Treasury - 4.56 (- 0.13)
Fed Target Rate - 2.00 (UNCHG)
U.S. Public Debt - 9,585,479,639,200.33 (+45318528183.31)
Volatility ruled the week, but in the US stocks finished almost exactly where they started the week. Bond rates are still substantially below the stated rate of inflation, much less the real non-politically manipulated rate of inflation as measured by Shadow Stats. It’s a bit laughable actually…
Anyway, my last day at the office in Albuquerque was today. We had a great lunch, shrimp scampi cooked on-site by our system’s administrator cum chef. Next week my wonderful wife and I pack up for Ann Arbor. We head out bright and early on Friday. I’m not sure what that means for the newsletter. Most likely I’ll get it sent out on Sunday evening when we get to Ann Arbor. It may come on Thursday evening. Not sure, but the show must go on!
Have a fabulous weekend!
Week In Review
Quote of the Week
“All loans, in the eyes of honest borrowers, must eventually be repaid. All credit is debt. Proposals for an increased volume of credit, therefore, are merely another name for proposals for an increased burden of debt. They would seem considerably less inviting if they were habitually referred to by the second name instead of by the first.” - Henry Hazlitt, Economics in One Lesson
ACLU Of Nevada Declares Support For Individual’s Right To Keep And Bear Arms
“In a surprising break from the national office of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Nevada state office recently declared its support for an individual’s Right to Keep and Bear Arms, apparently making it the first state affiliate to break with the national ACLU’s position on the Second Amendment.” more…
American Fascism in the Ascendant
“The only way out of this trap is not to attempt the impossible, not to grant government such powers, not to ask it to solve our problems, and instead to assume the responsibility for solving our own problems. The stark choice is between slavery and freedom. And fascism means slavery. The present course is slavery and will bring more slavery, without satisfactory solutions to any of our problems. And the amazing thing is that the moment we abandon fascism and powerful government, we will discover that the problems that government is now exacerbating and making worse will suddenly become tractable and manageable.” more…
Economy Forces Strippers to Jockey for Pole Position
“So how high can gold go? My usual answer is to first demand an estimate of, ‘How low can the dollar can go?’, which is the same as asking ‘How low WILL the dollar go?’, which is the easiest question on the whole mid-term exam; the answer is that it can, and will, go to zero.”
“How do I know that the dollar will go to zero value? Because it is a fiat currency, and all of the other thousands of fiat currencies tried by different countries over the millennia have ALL gone to zero! All!” more…
Packers have contacted multiple teams about Favre
“An idea once even more unthinkable than a Brett Favre comeback is now under consideration.”
“The Green Bay Packers have spoken to multiple teams to see what they would be willing to offer for Favre.” more…
Honorable Exit From Empire
“The raison d’être for NATO was the Red Army on the Elbe. It disappeared two decades ago. The Chinese army left North Korea 50 years ago. Yet NATO endures and the U.S. Army stands on the DMZ. Why?”
“Because, if all U.S. troops were brought home from Europe and Korea, 10,000 rice bowls would be broken. They are the rice bowls of politicians, diplomats, generals, journalists and think tanks who would all have to find another line of work.”
“And that is why the Empire will endure until disaster befalls it, as it did all the others.” more…
And now the numbers
DOW Jones Industrials - 11,370.69 (-125.88 )
Wilshire 5000 - 12,837.10 (- 6.41)
CSI 300 (China) - 2,939.20 (+123.74)
BSE 500 (India) - 5,508.25 (+304.27)
MICEX (Russia) - 1,487.10 (-135.99)
BOVESPA (Brazil) - 57,199.14 (-2,788.96)
Gold/oz - 936.90 (-21.10)
Silver/oz - 17.375 (-0.825)
Copper/lb - 3.605 (-0.064)
Oil/bbl (Brent) - 124.52 (- 5.67)
Wheat/bu (CBT) - 8.11 (+ 0.07)
Corn/bu - 5.965 (- 0.32)
Rough Rice - 16.72 (- 1.08 )
Dollar/Euro - 1.5715 (-0.0129)
Yuan/Dollar - 6.815 (+0.0031)
Yen/Dollar - 107.87 (+0.905)
Dollar/Real - 0.6375 (+0.0066)
3 Month Treasury - 1.73 (+ 0.26)
2 Year Treasury - 2.70 (+ 0.06)
10 Year Treasury - 4.10 (+ 0.02)
30 Year Treasury - 4.69 (+ 0.04)
Fed Target Rate - 2.00 (UNCHG)
U.S. Public Debt - 9,540,161,111,017.01 (+22,209,828,267.69)
Week In Review
Quote of the Week
“The central bank is an institution of the most deadly hostility existing against the Principles and form of our Constitution. I am an Enemy to all banks discounting bills or notes for anything but Coin. If the American People allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the People of all their Property until their Children will wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered.” - Thomas Jefferson
Event Horizon
“This process is really out of control now. The bottom line is the comprehensive bankruptcy of the United States. The Republican Party under George Bush will be known as the party that wrecked America (release 2.0). Painful as it is, Americans had better get a new ‘Dream’ and fast. It better be a dream based on the way the universe actually works, which is to say an operating procedure run on earnest effort and truthfulness rather than merely trying to get something for nothing and wishing on stars. We might begin symbolically by evacuating Las Vegas and calling in an air strike on the loathsome place - to register our new reality-based attitude adjustment.” more…
How things get too big to fail
“Things become too big to fail because the federal government makes them that way. Failures follow naturally from the concentration of decision making. Government bailouts immunize these ‘too big’ institutions from the consequences of their decisions, thereby encouraging risky behavior. There’s even a name for this phenomenon — ‘moral hazard.’ Big mistakes with big consequences become very likely.” more…
Bunning Statement To The Senate Banking Committee On The Federal Reserve Monetary Policy Report
“[T]he Fed is asking for more power. But the Fed has proven they can not be trusted with the power they have. They get it wrong, do not use it, or stretch it further than it was ever supposed to go. As I said a moment ago, their monetary policy is a leading cause of the mess we are in. As regulators, it took them until yesterday to use power we gave them in 1994 to regulate all mortgage lenders. And they stretched their authority to buy 29 billion dollars of Bear Stearns assets so J.P. Morgan could buy Bear at a steep discount.”
“Now the Fed wants to be the systemic risk regulator. But the Fed is the systemic risk. Giving the Fed more power is like giving the neighborhood kid who broke your window playing baseball in the street a bigger bat and thinking that will fix the problem. I am not going to go along with that and will use all my powers as a Senator to stop any new powers going to the Fed. Instead, we should give them less to do so they can do it right, either by taking away their monetary policy responsibility or by requiring them to focus only on inflation.” more…
And Now the Numbers
DOW Jones Industrials - 11,496.57 (+396.03)
Wilshire 5000 - 12,843.51 (+208.08 )
CSI 300 (China) - 2,815.46 (-138.04)
BSE 500 (India) - 5,203.98 (-22.87)
MICEX (Russia) - 1,623.09 (+ 1.08 )
BOVESPA (Brazil) - 59,988.10 (-160.16)
Gold/oz - 958.00 (- 2.60)
Silver/oz - 18.20 (- 0.62)
Copper/lb - 3.669 (-0.071)
Oil/bbl (Brent) - 130.19 (-14.30)
Wheat/bu (CBT) - 8.04 (-0.2675)
Corn/bu - 6.285 (-0.8075)
Rough Rice - 17.80 (- 2.00)
Dollar/Euro - 1.5844 (-0.0101)
Yuan/Dollar - 6.8119 (-0.0174)
Yen/Dollar - 106.965 (+ 0.73)
Dollar/Real - 0.6309 (+0.0045)
3 Month Treasury - 1.47 (- 0.10)
2 Year Treasury - 2.64 (+ 0.04)
10 Year Treasury - 4.08 (+ 0.12)
30 Year Treasury - 4.65 (+ 0.11)
Fed Target Rate - 2.00 (UNCHG)
U.S. Public Debt - 9,517,951,282,749.33 (+15,293,889,833.25)
I disavow the word ‘liberal’
What we call ‘liberal’ in American politics is but a shell of what liberal used to mean. From a 19th century perspective and still in the United Kingdom liberals espoused individual rights, economic freedom (the fact that individual rights does not automatically imply economic freedom is a travesty), and a minimal state based on a fundamental distrust of government whose sole purpose was to safeguard individual rights. These liberals were the heirs of John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, and to some extent John Stuart Mill. I am myself ‘liberal’ in this sense of the word, but to call myself a ‘liberal’ in the United States would be to label myself as standing in opposition to most of what I really believe.
Though it is not my purpose here to figure out when or how this word was bastardized it is certainly interesting how the meanings of words change or become corrupted.
What I bemoan here is that a perfectly good word with a perfectly good meaning was hijacked to describe a diametrically opposed political philosophy.
Liberals in the United States do not possess a fundamental distrust of government.
Let’s just take one example, that of universal healthcare, which whatever you may think about the issue, it can not be disputed that American liberals, by advocating universal healthcare, implicitly trust the government to administer it in some way, shape, or form. Now remember, this is the same government that can not balance its budget, monitors our private communications, and starts illegal and immoral wars. Why anyone would trust the government with his own or anyone else’s health is far beyond my ability to comprehend.
In addition, the modern American liberal purports to stand for individual liberty, but supports programs like affirmative action and equal opportunity employment. These programs outlaw discrimination for the purposes of employment and other activities, and perhaps they do help some to obtain various positions. But what about an employer’s self-determination? What about his individual freedom? Though racial discrimination is certainly immoral, how is it consistent with individual rights to outlaw the practice? This is social engineering and abuse of the state to control individual behavior. That this policy is called ‘liberal’, simply represents a further bastardization of that word.
Now, I only mention all of this to gripe about how the meaning of the word ‘liberal’ has become corrupted. Where it used to mean individual freedom and limited government it now means limited freedom and virtually unlimited government.
Therefore I am dropping the word ‘liberal’ from my vocabulary. What the rest of the United States knows as ‘liberal’ I will call ’socialist’, or if I am feeling particularly surly ‘communist’ - though those words have no real difference in meaning. Individuals who espouse totalitarian ideologies, even of the creeping sort, should not be allowed to usurp the word ‘liberal’ for their dubious ends.
Week In Review
Quote of the week
“The mistakes made with excessive credit at artificially low rates are huge, and the market is demanding a correction. This involves excessive debt, misdirected investments, over-investments, and all the other problems caused by the government when spending the money they should never have had. Foreign militarism, welfare handouts and $80 trillion entitlement promises are all coming to an end. We don’t have the money or the wealth-creating capacity to catch up and care for all the needs that now exist because we rejected the market economy, sound money, self reliance and the principles of liberty.” - Ron Paul
Heller Decision Ramps Up Media’s Anti-Gun Hysteria
“For years, anti-gunners have claimed that there’s a gun-related epidemic in our country, and for once, they’re right. It’s not gun-related crime though. An epidemic is something that is common and spreading rapidly; gun-related crime has been diminishing for 15 years.”
“What is common and spreading now is a condition one could call ‘anti-gun anxiety,’ or AGA. Apparently, it has been brought on by the U. S. Supreme Court ruling in Heller that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear handguns and other arms, and that the right existed before the Constitution was written and is not conditioned on a person’s relationship to a militia.” more…
Chess boxers slug it out
“A chess boxing match consists of six rounds of chess and five in the ring but it can also end suddenly in knockout or checkmate.” more… Also see The World Chess Boxing Organization. Yes, this is actually real.
It’s all about the numbers
“Economist Walter ” John” Williams has been following economic reports for more than 25 years. He knows how they are calculated and has seen changes in the government’s methodology for calculating them over the years. Most of these changes were made for the express purpose of presenting a more positive economic outlook, but Williams has maintained these economic reports with the original methodologies and presents them in his electronic newsletter ‘Shadow Government Statistics’ and on his Web site Shadowstats.com. He even keeps up the broad M3 money supply figure, which the Fed stopped reporting in 2006.”
“He knows where inflation, unemployment and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) really are and what the government is trying hard not to report. It is not a pretty sight but it is something all traders should know. In our conversation, Williams talks about how those reports have been altered, the real shape of our economy and why he thinks we are headed into a hyper-inflationary depression.” more…
Want some torture with your peanuts?
“A senior government official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has expressed great interest in a so-called safety bracelet that would serve as a stun device, similar to that of a police Taser®. According to this promotional video found at the Lamperd Less Lethal website, the bracelet would be worn by all airline passengers.”
“This bracelet would:
• take the place of an airline boarding pass
• contain personal information about the traveler
• be able to monitor the whereabouts of each passenger and his/her luggage
• shock the wearer on command, completely immobilizing him/her for several minutes”
Who Killed the Constitution?
“Today is the official release date for Who Killed the Constitution? The Fate of American Liberty from World War I to George W. Bush (Random House/Crown Forum), the book I wrote with Kevin Gutzman, the New York Times bestselling author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution.”
“In a sense, our book states the obvious: the United States government today is restrained not by the Constitution but simply by a sense of what it can get away with.” more…
Green fuel, made at home
“In an economy held hostage by oil prices rapidly approaching the stratosphere, this Baytown-based alternate energy company has found a way to make substantial amounts of crude oil from farm waste.” more…
And now the numbers
DOW Jones Industrials - 11,100.54 (-188.00)
Wilshire 5000 - 12,635.43 (-180.04)
CSI 300 (China) - 2,953.50 (+211.65)
BSE 500 (India) - 5,226.85 (+64.92)
MICEX (Russia) - 1,622.01 (-44.74)
BOVESPA (Brazil) - 60,148.26 (+870.96)
Gold/oz - 960.60 (+26.80)
Silver/oz - 18.82 (+ 0.66)
Copper/lb - 3.74 (-0.121)
Oil/bbl (Brent) - 144.49 (- 0.04)
Wheat/bu (CBT) - 8.3075 (-0.5675)
Corn/bu - 7.0925 (-0.6775)
Rough Rice - 19.80 (- 1.00)
Dollar/Euro - 1.5945 (+0.0238 )
Yuan/Dollar - 6.8293 (-0.0249)
Yen/Dollar - 106.235 (- 0.50)
Dollar/Real - 0.6264 (+0.0026)
3 Month Treasury - 1.57 (- 0.26)
2 Year Treasury - 2.60 (+ 0.07)
10 Year Treasury - 3.96 (- 0.02)
30 Year Treasury - 4.54 (UNCHG)
Fed Target Rate - 2.00 (UNCHG)
U.S. Public Debt - 9,502,657,392,916.08 (+29594920718.93)
Have a great weekend!
Vote Insolvency in 2008
Obama and McCain are both are big-government socialist hacks. What’s more, there are only trivial differences between the Democratic and Republican Parties. And both of them will lead us off the edge of a cliff. Consider we have:
* Almost a $10 trillion dollar public debt. (that’s 12 zeroes)
* A nearly $50 trillion dollar medicare/social security liability. (The government does not use the same accounting rules that it imposes upon public companies. To the extent that if any public company used the government’s method of accounting the officers of that company would be in prison!)
* Assets valued at around $60 trillion.
We are technically bankrupt and what do the politicians have to say about that? Nothing!
Plus:
* Our money is devaluing against most world currencies worth mentioning.
* We are running a $500 billion dollar deficit, which is about $1.3 billion/day. (Note that the war is an off budget item so that’s not even included.)
* Our failed foreign policy costs us well over $500 billion a year. (Pentagon, foreign aid, etc…)
And what do they have to say about any of that? More wars? More deficit spending? Free health care? Give me a break.
We are in serious financial trouble and the only thing these socialist hacks can do is promise us more guns, more bread, and more circuses. They will lead all of the lemmings straight off the cliff.
If we want our problems solved we must solve them ourselves. The notion that we ever put any faith in the government to do anything for us is a ridiculous one, and it should be rejected out of hand. As a free people we have a responsibility to solve our own problems ourselves and then to directly help our neighbors to solve theirs. There is no other way.
The welfare/warfare state is a failure.
And make no mistake, we have a ticking time bomb. The only question is when it explodes.
Week In Review
Quote of the Week
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. - That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, - That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
Please consider reading the entire Declaration of Independence this and every Independence Day.
Something Big is Going On
“If more hear the message of liberty, more will join in this effort. The failure of our foreign policy, welfare system, and monetary policies and virtually all government solutions are so readily apparent, it doesn’t take that much convincing. But the positive message of how freedom works and why it’s possible is what is urgently needed.” more…
Zinc Finger Proteins Put Personalized HIV Therapy Within Reach
PHILADELPHIA -PHILADELPHIA - “Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and collaborators are using minute, naturally occurring proteins called zinc fingers to engineer T cells to one day treat AIDS in humans.” more…
Rogue Nation
“One gets the impression that there are some people in Washington who believe that Israel or the U.S. can bomb Iran’s nuclear reactors, fly home, and it will be mission complete.” more…
Government “Strike Teams” Invade Homes, Harass Flood Victims
“Shocking footage out of Cedar Rapids Iowa shows cops and government employee ’strike teams’ breaking into houses of flood victims and threatening anyone who questions their actions in complete violation of the 4th amendment right that protects against unlawful search and seizure.” more…
The Non-Issue that Should Be an Issue
“Republicans used to talk about reducing the welfare state. I remember when candidate Ronald Reagan in 1980 promised to end the Energy and Education departments. Some Republicans, who themselves have caught the entitlement-spending/social-engineering bug, now propose the creation of a federal department of families. Indeed many Republicans, who once said they were against the welfare state, now brag they are better at running the welfare state than the Democrats.” more…
And now the numbers
DOW Jones Industrials - 11,288.54 (-57.97)
Wilshire 5000 - 12,815.47 (-265.55)
CSI 300 (China) - 2,741.85 (-74.17)
BSE 500 (India) - 5,161.93 (-205.26)
MICEX (Russia) - 1,666.75 (-99.16)
BOVESPA (Brazil) - 59,277.30 (-5043.81)
Gold/oz - 933.80 (+ 7.00)
Silver/oz - 18.16 (+ 0.68 )
Copper/lb - 3.861 (-0.079)
Oil/bbl (Brent) - 144.53 (+ 4.22)
Wheat/bu (CBT) - 8.875 (-0.245)
Corn/bu - 7.77 (- 0.10)
Rough Rice - 20.80 (+ 2.11)
Dollar/Euro - 1.5707 (-0.0092)
Yuan/Dollar - 6.8542 (-0.0028 )
Yen/Dollar - 106.735 (+0.605)
Dollar/Real - 0.6238 (-0.0014)
3 Month Treasury - 1.83 (+ 0.18 )
2 Year Treasury - 2.53 (- 0.10)
10 Year Treasury - 3.98 (+ 0.01)
30 Year Treasury - 4.54 (+ 0.02)
Prime Rate - 5.00 (UNCHG)
Fed Target Rate - 2.00 (UNCHG)
U.S. Public Debt - 9,473,062,472,197.15 (NEW)
Federal Reserve Education
I went down to Blake’s LotaBurger for lunch today and ordered my usual, a LotaCombo with cheese and green chile. It came to $6.89, which was a $0.37 increase over the price I had been paying just two weeks ago.
Puzzled, I asked the cashier, “did prices go up?”
He replied in a gloomy voice, “Yeah, but I don’t know why.”
And there was the opportunity to educate him about how the Federal Reserve is destroying our currency. It was a short rather simplistic lesson, but he was attentive. The Federal Reserve creates money out of thin air, and every dollar they create makes each and every other dollar in circulation worth a little less. The process is actually a little bit more complicated, but those are the salient aspects of it.
After I told him this he seemed happy and genuinely surprised to hear that information.
Of course his surprise is not so surprising considering how the Federal Reserve gets a free pass in the main stream press. We talk about what they do and the ostensible reasons for their doing it, but the foundations of that system are poorly understood by the general public and are seldom criticized publicly by anyone. Do the government schools even teach the children about it? Mine did not.
In the coming months and years we will have a significant opportunity to educate our friends and daily acquaintances about the role of the Federal Reserve, which is a banking cartel that fixes the price of money below market rates, and in doing so produces the economic bubbles that lead to our slow but steady impoverishment. At least it has generally been slow. It seems to be accelerating.
I believe a receptive, if not a friendly audience is awaiting someone to expose this racket to them.
A good summary of why the Fed and fiat money in general is a travesity can be found here.
Week In Review
Quote of the week
“The founders of the United States of America distrusted democracy so much they designed a whole government to prevent it. Not once does the word ‘democracy’ appear in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, or the Bill of Rights. The Constitution is basically an elaborate restriction on what the voters can do. There are different branches of the federal government, expected to offset each other’s power. And there’s the Bill of Rights itself, limiting the power of the central government - no matter how many people vote.” -Bill Bonner, The Daily Reckoning
The United States Fiat Money & the Federal Reserve System
“Wealth, e.g. money, is power in a stored state. Unleashed, wealth is capable of doing its possessors’ bidding for better or worse. Wealth can exacerbate suffering or alleviate it and its power to do both - usually the former - has been coveted by governments since governments existed.”
“While productivity is doing more with less, fiat money allows governments to do more with nothing. Fiat currencies are a way for governments to spend what they don’t have; and while counterfeiting by individuals is a crime, passing government coupons off as money is legal because governments make the laws.” more…
Activists turn to Blackwater over Darfur
“Mia Farrow, the actress and activist, has asked Blackwater, the US private security company active in Iraq, for help in Darfur after becoming frustrated by the stalled deployment of a United Nations peacekeeping force.” more…
The Oil Follies
“Anyone familiar with modern politics knows that Republicans and Democrats regularly vie with each other to see who can be more economically illiterate. But it seems that with some newly proposed legislation, Democrats are determined to take the lead and cripple the US oil industry permanently.” more…
Perot Charts Go Live
“Ross Perot, business leader and former presidential candidate, announced today the launch of ‘PerotCharts.com,’ a public information website that contains objective, factual information about the current economic crisis in America. The site is being launched as an alert and appeal for American citizens to inform themselves about federal government spending. Perot said, ‘The U.S. national debt reached $9.4 TRILLION on April 30, and it is increasing by more than $1 billion every day. We are leaving our children and grandchildren with debt they cannot possibly pay.’” more…
Gun Owners of America on the Heller Decision
“Gun Owners Foundation wants to lay the groundwork for the next battle in the Second Amendment war between those of us who love liberty and those who would allow the government to disarm us as the first step to our own enslavement.” more…
Udall Wavers on Handgun Ruling
“Is Rep. Tom Udall sticking to his guns when it comes to ownership of firearms in the District of Columbia?”
“Udall, a Democrat, praised the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down a 32-year-old gun ban in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, but congressional records show he earlier voted three times to uphold the ban.” more…
And Now The Numbers
New features this week:
- U.S. Treasury rates.
- Change from the previous week on all (non-new) measures.
- Quote of the week, which I hope will become a regular feature.
Stocks got spanked this week, big time… The dollar is not getting any love, and the shiny yellow stuff is rallying. Meanwhile the Fed, by maintaining an interest rate below the so-called rate of price-inflation, (the CPI numbers are garbage, see Shadow Stats), continues to inflate the currency which will ultimately result in higher commodity prices and serve to make each and every one of us poorer in the long run. Know that every new dollar they put in circulation makes each of the existing ones worth just a little bit less.
DOW Jones Industrials - 11346.51 (-496.18 )
Wilshire 5000 - 13081.02 (-433.87)
CSI 300 (China) - 2816.02 (-33.65)
BSE 500 (India) - 5367.19 (-380.44)
MICEX (Russia) - 1765.91 (-63.31)
BOVESPA (Brazil) - 64321.11 (-292.68 )
Gold/oz - 926.80 (+25.50)
Silver/oz - 17.48 (+0.16)
Copper/lb - 3.94 (+0.0435)
Oil/bbl (Brent) - 140.31 (+ 5.45)
Wheat/bu (CBT) - 9.12 (+0.2775)
Corn/bu - 7.87 (+0.315)
Rough Rice - 18.69 (-1.34)
Dollar/Euro - 1.5799 (+0.0192)
Yuan/Dollar - 6.857 (-0.0186)
Yen/Dollar - 106.13 (-1.145)
Dollar/Real - 0.6252 (+0.001)
3 Month Treasury - 1.65 (NEW)
2 Year Treasury - 2.63 (NEW)
10 Year Treasury - 3.97 (NEW)
30 Year Treasury - 4.52 (NEW)
Prime Rate - 5.00 (UNCHG)
Fed Target Rate - 2.00 (UNCHG)
About
So far this blog is just a place to aggregate and share the stories I find most interesting throughout the course of a week as well as to record various economic indicators for the week. It may morph into something more full fledged if I find the time and motivation to start writing. Thanks for reading.
-Craig.
