A Great Predictor
January 25, 2009
If you want to know what is coming, one of the best predictors out there is FOX News. Look for the guy they are all ganging up on and laughing at, telling him he is crazy; that man is right. The question is, why are FOX News reporters always wrong? If they were just dumb, they ought to be right nearly half the time, right? Who stood to profit by getting the gullible to buy into these institutions?
Deflation
January 25, 2009
I’ve been hearing the word deflation thrown around a lot lately. Nearly everyone is afraid of it, BUT, what is deflation? That depends a bit on how you view the concept of the velocity of money.
Deflation is defined as the contraction of the money supply. The way we have been printing money, this clearly isn’t occurring, but if you print money and no one is there to spend it, does it go ker-ching? The money that has been made available to the banks (not printed technically) is still with those banks. In a fiat system, we can speculate on how much potential currency is in the system, but since the whole system is made up as we go along, it is really more about perception than reality. In this case we could say that we are in deflation if (and because) we think we are in deflation. The good news is, it may be that as soon as we decide we aren’t, we won’t be, but it has to be a majority decision. Added to the mix is that we base the value of our money on its relation to the value of other currencies, so it could also be said that deflation is the expansion of foreign currencies.
Deflation manifests itself in the economy as decreasing prices and an increase in the value of currency, but this doesn’t mean that a decrease in prices and a strengthening dollar are deflation; those can also manifest because of a decrease in demand or employment. Complicating things still further is the concept of credit. This is virtual money that has the potential to exist, but does not. What caused our current appearance of deflation was in large part a reduction in the availability of credit. It doesn’t matter how low interest rates are if no one will lend you money.
What does this all mean today? We doubled our monetary base in 2008.
2009 is starting with the largest government stimulus in history. In a few months when that money makes it into the economy proper, deflation will be the least of our worries as government tries to figure out how to unprint money. Buy gold.
Hey Bush, Your Puppet Strings are Showing
January 17, 2009
Since Israel began its latest culling of Palestinian populations, Condi Rice has been trying to persuade the U.N Security Council to agree on a resolution for a cease fire. I haven’t been impressed with her efforts towards peace in the region, but I don’t think she wants history remembering these atrocities going on as she leaves as her legacy.
She had finally succeeded and was planning on leading the vote, well… I’ll let Ehud Olmert, the Prime Minister of Israel tell the story:
“In the night between Thursday and Friday, when the secretary of state wanted to lead the vote on a cease-fire at the Security Council, we did not want her to vote in favor.
“I said, ‘Get me President Bush on the phone.’ They said he was in the middle of giving a speech in Philadelphia. I said I didn’t care. ‘I need to talk to him now.’ He got off the podium and spoke to me.
“He (Bush) said: ‘Listen. I don’t know about it. I didn’t see it. I’m not familiar with the phrasing.”
“I told him the United States could not vote in favor. It cannot vote in favor of such a resolution. He immediately called the secretary of state and told her not to vote in favor. …
“He (Bush) gave an order to the secretary of state, and she did not vote in favor of it — a resolution she cooked up, phrased, organized and maneuvered for. She was left pretty shamed. …”
The white house claims there were “inaccuracies” in the story. That is one of the weakest denials I’ve heard. I’m not at all surprised to hear this kind of thing happens, but for the Prime Minister to come out and publicly gloat about it is not only in extremely poor taste, but I would be shocked if it didn’t blow up in his face. I imagine Bush is having some regrets about our ‘alliance’.
Unbelieveable! Pat Buchanan steps over the line in the sand!
January 17, 2009
Today, the post on the official Pat Buchanan website is entitled “Has Israel Become A Neo-Nazi Germany?”
Pat has done the unthinkable for a major political commentator, he has invoked Godwin’s law at the highest level, comparing the Jewish state to Nazi Germany.
James Carville once said about Hillary and Obama, “If she gave him one of her cojones, they’d both have two.”
I would say of Pat Buchanan that if he gave Bush one of his cajones, the man wouldn’t be able to lift it.
Keith Olbermann on Torture
January 17, 2009
I know, there is something wrong with posting Pat Buchanan and Keith Olbermann videos back to back, but as an extremophile, I find both of them more palatable than the center.
Olberman is speaking here about the exit of Bush and the confirmation hearings for Barack Obama’s choice to head the Justice Dept, Eric Holder. Holder is asked whether he believes waterboarding is torture.
I take the position that if we prosecuted the Japanese for waterboarding as a war crime, then we can’t just decide to do it ourselves as if it is ok, without any previous public discussion.
The whole Jack Bauer argument is ludicrous. If anyone were in such a position, they wouldn’t hold back over legalities, they would take whatever action was necessary and damn the consequences. If they prevented a major terrorist attack, they would be pardoned. Laws don’t prevent things from happening, they merely provide consequences.
Jonathan Turley also has a great quote in this: “There is a big difference between criminalizing policies, and a policy of crimes” Bush should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, not for the things he did, but for trying to destroy the evidence that he did them.