War, War, and More War a.k.a. A Crumbling America

As our recent and continuing “too big to fail” crisis continues, many in the financial industry are recording record profits while twenty-plus percent of Americans are out of work, and our infrastructure crumbles.

The American Society of Civil Engineers figures that about 1.6 Trillion dollars is needed to repair our long ignored bridges and roads. Without roads and bridges, our economy suffers.

Meanwhile our Men and Women of Power, the Republicrats in Washington DC, spend our blood and treasure on far shores, following “our interests” and “spreading democracy” to the tribal societies of Afghanistan.   Our “Defense Budget”  (read Offense Budget) is over one trillion dollars a year.  Our wars are both impoverishing us  and increasing the stranglehold of the Government/Big Business axis over our lives.

Come November, I would ask that all Americans follow the sage advice of the great American humorist, Will Rogers, and “Kick the bums out!

The U.S. Is Not Too Big To Fail

If you were to ask most any of the big government hacks (republicrats) in Washington the definition of “Fiscal Responsibility”, I am quite certain that all you would get would be a vacuous stare.  For decades, politicians have been assured by our central bank that it doesn’t matter how much money they spend, the bank can handle it…  Right…  They create paper to pay off the debts that they created with other paper, to pay off the debts that they created with other paper to pay off the debts…  ad infinitum.  This is a very sophisticated ponzi scheme that doesn’t even require other investors to pay off previous investors.  They just create more digital dollars…  a house of cards, and trust me folks, eventually it will fall.

The U.S. Is Not Too Big To Fail | The New Republic.

Danger in Numbers: The Decline of Paper Currency by Richard Daughty

Ahh, the Mogambu Guru!  No one says it with more panache tucked between the tongue and cheek.  As the European Central bank creates a trillion bucks out of thin air, and the Federal Reserve offers to back these notes…  Tell me is that not backing paper with paper?  Am I clueless here, or was this not sort of what happened when all those mortgage backed securities started toppling?  The government ponzi scheme goes on, and indeed I continue to see the end of the world as we know it.

Danger in Numbers: The Decline of Paper Currency by Richard Daughty.

What’s Wrong with a Free Lunch?

My father was one cranky old sob, but he certainly was no fool.  One thing he taught me was that “life ain’t fair and nothing in it is free.”

Apparently, the Greek government never met my father, or they would not be in the mess they are currently in.    The Greek Government thought that it could borrow to finance its own growth, and then borrow the money to pay that back.   The Greek government thought that it could finance its social welfare programs with borrowed money, and then borrow money to pay it back.   Sound familiar?

In 1920, an enterprising Italian immigrant by the name of Charles Ponzi (that’s him to the right.  Notice the numbers he’s holding up?) came up with an idea to put a few dollars in his pocket.   He would offer a high yielding investment (50% within 40 days, or 100% within 90 days).

I think the people who bought these “investments” never met my Father either, or they would have known that “If it sounds too good to be true… It probably is, but anyway,   people bought the product he offered, and as he brought in new investors, he would pay off the original investors with the new investors money.  Ponzi  took this idea and ran with it, and that’s why he has those numbers across his chest in the photo.  In the end, he bilked people out of over $2,000,000, and using the Coke Index (the price of a coke when I was a kid, versus the price of a coke today) that’s at least $40,000,000 in today’s dollars.   Ponzi is well remembered however…  they named a scheme after him.  Yep, you guessed it, “The Ponzi Scheme”.  He went to jail for it.

Well the Greeks are finding out that pyramid schemes, whether run by a little italian immigrant by the name of Ponzi, or a Government run amok,  are simply just that…  pyramid schemes.  Now,  just as my cranky old man told me, they’re about to find out that “life ain’t fair, and nothing in it is free.”  Just like in Hamelin, they are going to have to pay the piper, and they are angry, just as the burning policeman at the left suggests.

Livid pensioners,  wild haired socialists, students with a communist bent,  and government workers are very upset that the dole-ist policies of their government are going to have to be reined in.

Well, folks, it’s not just Greece that has involved itself in a Ponzi Scheme.   The federal government never spoke to my father either, and here at home, with our paternalistic government being all things to all people,  borrowing from Peter to pay Paul, one has to wonder what will happen here when the piper’s pay is due.

Americans  accustomed to the Free Lunch that is Our Government (FLTIOG) will certainly not behave like those nasty Greeks… right?….. Right.

The Democrats Rejoice

I don’t always agree with David Brooks,  and coming from a man with a viewpoint more liberal than mine,  this piece on the current health-care legislation is very insightful.

Op-Ed Columnist – The Democrats Rejoice – NYTimes.com.

Six Reasons Barack Obama is Still the Odds-on Favorite in 2012 — Politics Daily

Our nation has always been polarized… even in the era of “Good Feelings”, conflict over the institution of slavery was in its nascent beginnings, but times were good…  In good economic times, serious political issues can be swept under the rug…  I mean, everybody’s happy and well fed, right?

Today, the Tea Parties are the head of the boil that lies just under the surface of America’s skin.  The boil, I believe, is created by the proflgacies of the Republicrats in Washington, DC, by their inability to control the debt that has not only led to our current economic crisis, but threatens the the very economic, political, and social solvency of this nation

I don’t believe that President Obama is the man to lance that boil, yet neither do I see a republican contender with the hair or the principles to lance it either.

This article suggests that we may see Obama for another four years.  I hope not.

Six Reasons Barack Obama is Still the Odds-on Favorite in 2012 — Politics Daily.

True Fiscal Insanity: Creating Money to Buy Government Debt by Richard Daughty

I have been reading the Mogambu Guru on Lew Rockwell for several years now, yet have never posted any of his stuff.  He is a very funny guy.  Read this brief article… It will be good for a little education and a lot of laughs

True Fiscal Insanity: Creating Money to Buy Government Debt by Richard Daughty.

Peggy Noonan: Can Washington Meet the Demand to Cut Spending? – WSJ.com

Peggy Noonan is a shrewd woman whose views,  on the issue of government spending, are coincidental with mine.  Our current deficit, and national debt will not be “fixed” by increasing taxes… we must finally address the spending side of the equation.

Peggy Noonan: Can Washington Meet the Demand to Cut Spending? – WSJ.com.

2010

The holidays are upon us, and a new year approaches.  There are wars and rumors of wars and revolutions.   Politics in America are fractious and factioned.  The United States of America, and indeed the world entire is threatened with potential economic collapse, and yet I see room for hope.

America is unique in the history of the world.  We are a nation founded on a fundamental ideology of economic and personal liberty, and limited government as described in our Declaration of Independence  and put into practice by our Constitution.    Some might ask “Why limited government.”   The answer to this question is simple.  Economic and personal liberty can only be achieved and maintained by means of a limited central government.  Justice Louis Brandeis understood this and remarked on this understanding when he wrote:

“Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficial.  Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers.  The greater dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”

Justice Lous Brandeis

And this is how government grows and becomes more intrusive of our liberties.  That is through the  “insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.” That is men and women who would do good for others, and use the government to that end.

Wanting to do good for others is both commendable and laudable, but this is not natural or necessary, or in my view an acceptable role for the federal government.  This is a role for the states and the  communities within those states.  No government in Washington D.C. understands the  problems of the myriad of communities across this nation better than do the communities themselves.

Top down systems of government and economics simply do not work well.  Capitalism, as viewed by Adam Smith in his seminal work  Wealth of Nations, shows that an individual’s decisions based on his personal economic well being was led by “an invisible hand” to promote the well being of the greater community.  Well intentioned and intrusive governmental regulation often have consequences that are unintended by the lawamakers.  These consequences then require more regulation and intrusion and so on ad infinitum.

I smell a sea change, however.  America is disgruntled.  With near 20% of Americans un or under-employed, the realities of our government’s fiscal irresponsibility are beginning to be noticed and understood by a larger number of our citizenry.

Bills in congress and the senate to audit the federal reserve bank are but the first rumblings to bring under control a spending addicted government.  As our economic condition worsens, and  there are many  reasons to believe that it will, more and more of the people will begin to see that the statist road towards empire , along which both Republicans and Democrats  have been leading us for the last century, should be a road less traveled.

So, yes, there is hope for a brighter future, a new America, an America of principles,  freedom and liberty;  A nation where a free people can keep the fruits of their labor and involve themselves in community:  a country that serves as a beacon of liberty to the world while avoiding the hollow greatness of empire.

So, I wish you the best for the coming new year.  It promises to be a tumultuous one.  Guard your finances, your friends and family well, and above all, remain hopeful for the future.  We are a great people, a great nation, and we will, in the end, survive and I believe prosper.

Fat City by Patrick J. Buchanan

Government spending has run amok.  It simply cannot continue.  If it does, we are in for more and much harder times.

Fat City by Patrick J. Buchanan.