Showing posts with label Economy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Economy. Show all posts

Sunday, January 13, 2013

FRIGHTENINGLY UP-TO-DATE NEWS: For Regular Americans Only

Washington, DC - Citing a growing need for accurate news sources, spokesman Biff Spackle announced the addition of several channels to the BadBlue family of news sites.

"Regular Americans deserve better sources for timely and accurate news," Spackle said in a prepared statement, "And BadBlue's unique technology monitors social networks 24 hours a day, every day, to find out what's really happening, without the spin and bias that the alphabet channels promote."

In that vein, Spackle and a scantily clad spokes-model unveiled a new automotive channel (BadBlue.com/cars) as well as an entertainment channel (BadBlue.com/cars). The complete BadBlue lineup includes:






Check 'em out. If you have any complaints, feel free to call Spackle on his direct line: 1-800-555-1212.


Saturday, January 12, 2013

The Brewing Storm [Lee Cary]

Guest post by Lee Cary

Section 8 housing voucher distribution canceled after thousands waiting in line get out of control


WXYZ - A chaotic scene erupted at the Taylor Human Services Center when the crowd waiting for a Section 8 housing voucher distribution got out of control... Police say thousands of people from all over the area were at the center. Many were homeless, single moms, or disabled. They were hoping to get help paying for their housing from the government.

7 Action News is being told there were 1,000 vouchers available and 5,000 people showed up trying to get one. The crowd had grown overnight as more and more people arrived. Witnesses say the line stretched for a mile down Lange Road.

Police say, when the time came for the vouchers to be distributed, there was a mad rush for the door. Officers tried to control the crowd, but couldn't. Officers had to shut down several lanes of Eureka Road until the situation could be brought under control...

America's urban centers are powder kegs waiting to explode during some especially hot summer during the next few years.

Ironically, most of the people there, who wholeheartedly embraced the promises of both the 2008 and 2012 Obama campaigns, are the very ones most negatively impacted by economic policies that are moving the nation closer, daily, toward defaulting on the government’s ability to just service the mounting debt (pay the interest on the principal) - paying it off is virtually impossible. Their expectations were manipulated to an unrealistic level and cannot, and will not, be met. In short, their ignorance was used and abused to advance the progressive agenda.

Inflation (currency devaluation) is the only option in the short run to enable government spending to continue at its insane pace. It’s a trend that cannot continue indefinitely, and is only making the inevitable reckoning worse.

Meanwhile, as the old media pushes the myth that an economic recovery is underway, the plight of those in America’s inner cities worsens. Once the entitlement monies begin to taper off (just as Social Security checks are gradually shrinking as many of you know), there will be reactions more violent than just angry crowds. It will, sooner or later, spill over into more affluent, adjoining neighborhoods and communities when the true-believers in Obamanomics realize they've bought a lie. Sadly, people on all sides will suffer.

And the ruling elite in D.C. see this coming.


Thursday, January 10, 2013

GUN-GRABBER ANDREW CUOMO: Architect of Ruin

Andrew Cuomo, governor of the bankrupt state of New York, has been in the news of late. Among his many bizarre proclamations are assertions that he could "confiscate" firearms and enact other unconstitutional, anti-gun statutes.

But who is Andrew Cuomo? What you may not know about him is that he was one of key architects of the 2008 housing crisis.

Curiously, not only is this man not a laughingstock (or, better yet, serving in federal lockup), he's ostensibly a front-runner for the Democrat presidential nomination in 2016.

Flashback to 1997, when President Bill Clinton named Andrew Cuomo, a man without any significant real estate or financial experience, the youngest head of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in history.

...Read more...

Inflation Propaganda Exposed [Peter Schiff]

Guest post by Peter Schiff of Euro Pacific Capital:

Economists who hold the popular view that expanding the money supply will provide the best medicine for our ailing economy dismiss the inflationary concerns of monetary hawks, like me, by pointing to the supposedly low inflation that has occurred during the current period of rampant Fed activism. In a recent blog post aimed specifically at me, Paul Krugman noted that the sub 2.5% increases in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) over the past few years are all that is needed to prove me wrong. In fact, Krugman and others have even suggested that the CPI itself overstates inflation and that the Fed would be better able to help the economy if less strict methodologies were used. However, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that the CPI is essentially meaningless as it woefully under reports rising prices.

Magazines and newspapers provide a good case in point. The truth has not been exposed through the economic reporting that these outlets provide, but in the prices that are permanently fixed to their covers. For instance, from 1999 to 2002 the Bureau of Labor Statistic's (BLS) "Newspaper and Magazine Index" (a component of the CPI) increased by 37.1%. But a perusal of the cover prices of the 10 most popular newspapers and magazines (WSJ, Washington Post, Time, Sports Illustrated, U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, People, NY Times, USA Today, and the LA Times) over the same time frame showed an average cover price increase of 131.5% (3.5 times faster than the BLS' stats). This is not even in the same ballpark.

Some defenders of the BLS may conclude that prices were held down by the availability of free online news content or the convenience of digital delivery. But that is beside the point. Prior to the digital age, the BLS could have claimed that newspaper costs were held down by public libraries that provided free access. It's also true that online publications deliver less value on some fronts. Not only do many people enjoy the tactile process of reading physical newspapers or magazines, but they offer the secondary value in helping to kindle fires, housebreak puppies, pack dishes, and line birdcages.

LEGACY: The Zimbabwe-ization of America

Writing in today's Wall Street Journal, George Melloan offers us some of the ominous outcomes of Ben Bernanke's magical printing press, which continues to churn out dollars as fast as the government needs them.

...The Fed's worst fear is that despite its long-term commitment to buying up government debt, it will lose control of interest rates. That's why the early-January upward blip in bond yields was a yellow warning light. If Treasury bond prices decline significantly from the artificial levels that massive Fed purchases have supported, several things will happen, none of them good.

First of all, government borrowing costs will rise, making it even more difficult to control the deficit. Second, the value of the Fed's gargantuan and growing $2.6 trillion portfolio of Treasury and government-agency mortgage bonds will decline. It won't take much of a portfolio loss to wipe out the Fed's capital base. Without capital of its own, it would become a ward of the Treasury, costing the Fed what little independence it has left to defend the dollar...

...Inflation can ultimately destroy the bond market, as it did in 1960s Britain during the government of the socialist Labour Party. No one wants to commit to an investment that might be worthless in 10 years, never mind 30 years.

Throughout history, governments have inflated away their debts by cheapening the currency. That process is well under way through the Fed's abdication to irresponsible government. If Fed policies continue, another huge tax—inflation—will weigh down the American people. The politicians will try to escape public censure, as they always do, by blaming it all on "price gouging" by producers, retailers and landlords. A substantial cohort of the press will buy into that phony rationale and spread it as gospel.

You can almost hear Obama now, demonizing producers, wholesalers and retailers for raising prices and arguing for price controls. And when he says it, know that he is responsible for the catastrophic deficits, he is responsible for debt monetization, he is responsible for inflation, he is responsible for the destruction of the currency, and he is attempting to skirt culpability for his own irresponsible actions.

President Obama's true legacy will be this: the Zimbabwe-ization of America.



Sunday, January 06, 2013

NICE JOB, BLOOMBERG: NYC welfare funds being spent in strip clubs, porn joints, liquor stores...

...to name but a few. And I refer, of course, to the sanctimonious schmuck of a mayor and not the news service.

A database of 200 million Electronic Benefit Transfer records from January 2011 to July 2012, obtained by The Post through a Freedom of Information request, showed welfare recipients using their EBT cards to make dozens of cash withdrawals at ATMs inside Hank’s Saloon in Brooklyn; the Blue Door Video porn shop in the East Village; The Anchor, a sleek SoHo lounge; the Patriot Saloon in TriBeCa; and Drinks Galore, a liquor distributor in The Bronx...
...One EBT machine is stationed inside Club Eleven, an infamous Hunts Point jiggle joint known as much for its violent history as its girls in pink thongs.

...Club Heat, another Bronx strip club that dispenses EBT cash, is also no stranger to violence. A 33-year-old woman was fatally shot in the head outside the club in December 2011.

Critics blasted the government for turning a blind eye to welfare’s sleazy money.

Yes, Mayor Bloomberg wants to regulate the size of soda cups, the use of salt and -- of course -- the ability of law-abiding citizens to protect themselves by carrying concealed weapons.

In the mean time, his city and state treasuries -- not exactly overflowing with cash at the moment -- are being looted while Bloomberg dreams up more failed, totalitarian plans.


CROOKED FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES: The Top 10 Crony Tax Breaks in the "Fiscal Cliff" Deal

I know that regular readers require no additional proof that Washington is irreparably broken. But if you want to see just how filthy and disgusting the Beltway really is, just peel the onion on the "Fiscal Cliff" tax deal: doing so reveals roughly $40 billion in payoffs to every special interest with a connected lobbyist.

The top 10 crony tax breaks in the package:

10. “An accelerated tax write-off for owners of NASCAR tracks (cost: $78 million).”

9. “A tax credit for companies operating in American Samoa ($62 million), including a StarKist factory.”

8. “A $222 million rum tax rebate.”

7. For “businesses located on Indian reservations . . . $222 million in accelerated depreciation.”

6. A $12 billion “wind production tax credit.”

5. A $59 million “algae-based fuel” tax credit.

4. A $7 million “plug-in motorcycle” tax credit.

3. A $154 million tax credit for “builders of energy-efficient homes.”

2. A $650 million tax credit for "manufacturers of energy-efficient appliances."

And your winner is:

1. A $430 million giveaway to Hollywood and its “film and television producers"

As The Objective Standard observes.

Congress avoided the so-called “fiscal cliff” only by passing tax hikes and leaving out-of-control federal spending practically untouched. But, to those with friends in political places, Congress rewarded special tax breaks.

Disgraced ex-Senator Chris "Sweetheart Loan" Dodd, a man so crooked you can open wine bottles with him, deserves special dishonor: he was responsible for the payoffs to Hollywood.

We are headed for economic collapse and the politicians -- Democrats and establishment Republicans -- are more interested in preserving their power and doling out favors than saving the country.


Saturday, January 05, 2013

WE NEED MORE ROLL-FREE ZONES: GM Recalls More than 69,000 SUVs and Trucks Because They May Roll Away

A brake is a terrible thing to waste

General Motors... says more than 69,000 full-size pickup trucks and SUVs distributed globally may be affected by a problem that could cause them to roll away after being parked.

According to safety regulators, certain 2013 model Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC vehicles including the Escalade, Sierra and Silverado, may have been built with a cracked park lock cable or a malformed steering column lock actuator gear in the lock module assembly.


In this case, said vehicles may shift from Park with the ignition key removed or in the OFF position, as well as without the application of the brake pedal while the key is off... "Either of these scenarios may cause the vehicle to roll away after the driver has exited the vehicle, resulting in a possible vehicle crash and/or injury," GM said in a filing with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

In related good news, the U.S. taxpayer will get hosed for about $20 billion when it sells its GM stock, even though GM has reported roughly $16 billion in profits since President Obama "saved" the company -- using our money.


Hat tip: BadBlue Car News.

Friday, January 04, 2013

UNITED VAN LINES: Workers Fleeing Forced-Unionization States for Right-to-Work States

Dick Trumka hardest hit.

...According to an annual study conducted by the moving company United Van Lines, the top ten states that Americans are fleeing from continue to be those states that do not have Right-to-Work laws...
...In fact, according to UVL’s study, the Top Ten states with the highest outbound traffic are forced-unionism states:

MOVING OUT

The top-five outbound states for 2012 were:

  • New Jersey
  • Illinois
  • West Virginia
  • New York
  • New Mexico

New Jersey (62 percent) displaced the outbound leader from last year, Illinois (60 percent) reclaiming the top spot for high-outbound migration that it held in 2010.

The Northeast is the most well-represented region on the high-outbound traffic list. In addition to New Jersey, New York (58 percent), Maine (56 percent) and Connecticut (56 percent) are also included.

Michigan (58 percent) and Wisconsin (55 percent) along with Illinois represented the Great Lakes region. Michigan fell to the No. 6 from the No. 4 spot it held in 2011. Previously, it had claimed the top outbound spot every year from 2006-2009.

Kentucky (55 percent) joined West Virginia (58 percent) as the only Southern states to appear on the high outbound list. New Mexico (58 percent) was the only Western state to appear on the list. [Emphasis added.]


The fact that forced-union states have been losing taxpayers shouldn’t come as a surprise... where there are laws giving union bosses the power to force workers to pay unions or be fired, union bosses also have the power to get politicians elected that will raise taxes and enact legislation that make the state unattractive to running a business.

As a result, when businesses find a state hostile to business, they either close or move–leaving fewer jobs in the state.

All of this information will come as no surprise to real Americans, but will stun and shock the typical low-information Democrat voter.


Hat tip: Winterspirit.

HILARITY: Obama Voters Stunned to Find Their Paychecks Smaller

When it comes to the federal leviathan devouring larger and larger chunks of our economy, ignorance ain't bliss:

A friend forwarded this memo from his HR department:

Subject: 2013 Payroll Taxes
To: All Employees
Hello,

We have received a number of inquiries regarding changes to 2013 payroll taxes. As a company we must deduct payroll taxes as directed by the government. Our payroll provider has provided detailed information that you may use as you review your first paycheck of 2013. You can find this at the following link: http://www.adp.com/tools-and-resources/legislative-updates.aspx


Apparently a lot of people were complaining about their paychecks being unexpectedly smaller.

Here's the explanation from ADP:

The reduced 4.2% rate for employee Social Security taxes that was in effect for 2011 and 2012 has expired. The employee Social Security tax rate will return to 6.2% for 2013 wages up to the taxable wage limit of $113,700. Consequently, employees' net pay under the taxable wage limit will decrease accordingly. The maximum Social Security tax that an employee would pay will be $7,049.40 for 2013.


And as it turns out, workers making $30,000 will take a bigger hit on their pay than those earning $500,000!

But the funniest message of the day came from one of the kooks at Democratic Underground (since deleted from sheer embarrassment), to which Jim Treacher responded:


The term "useful idiots" was invented to describe these schmucks who continually vote for their own destruction.


WEALTHY, GREEDY CORPORATIONS POISED TO CURE CANCER: But Let's Tax the Hell Out of 'Em First

Oh, but that's right, progressives: corporations aren't people, so please don't use any of these innovations that will benefit all of humanity.

Merck & Co., Roche Holding Ltd. and Sanofi SA are working on cancer drugs that would enable a protein called p53 to perform its normal function -- causing badly damaged cells to self-destruct. Cancer cells disable p53, allowing them to multiply, but the drugs would reactivate the protein and kill cancer cells.

The companies’ research is being hailed by cancer specialists as a possible breakthrough because the resulting drugs could be used to treat many forms of the disease. Most cancer drugs on are effective against only certain types of cancer.

Merck, Roche and Sanofi are not yet testing their drugs in clinical trials against many kinds of cancer but Cellceutix, which was not mentioned in the Times article, said Monday it is already conducting such trials with a p53 drug called Kevetrin at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

The incessant class warfare waged by Obama and the Democrats is not only a tactic stolen straight from the Communist Manifesto, but it is also destructive of the civil society.

Class warfare dehumanizes the individual.

But we are all individuals. We are not segments, lumped together into random collections by income, race, gender or religion. We are individuals, each with our own unique characteristics, strengths and weaknesses.

Is the money that an investor could use to fund this cancer research better spent by government?

That's what the Alinsky-trained Democrats would tell us. And they are wrong.


Hat tip: Mark Levin.

Thursday, January 03, 2013

NEAT STOCK MARKET GRAPH: What goes around, comes around

That much is clear from this excellent chart spotted at Above The Market:

The largest contributing factor to equity returns is the P/E ratio. The expansion or contraction of the broad market P/E ratio creates secular bull and bear markets. The chart below from Crestmont Research breaks down the components of total return for the S&P 500 for ten-year rolling periods.


Yale Professor Robert Shiller’s 10-year Average Inflation-Adjusted PE Ratio, also known as CAPE, Shiller PE or PE10, provides the best longer-term market gauge available. PE10 is the stock index price divided by the average real earnings from the previous 10 years – the time period is designed to smooth out near-term noise in the data. The basis for this approach is the finding that earnings valuation ratios provide predictive power for long-term stock market returns.

It's science, dammit! Like global warming, only real!

YOU CAN THANK ME LATER: A very special, hand-picked gift for your new member of Congress

If you've been struggling to find that special gift for your new member of the 113th Congress, may I be so bold as to suggest the following?


Yes, it's an exclusive, pre-packaged tar-and-feathers kit hand-selected by Doctor Ross.

Which is the only fitting gift for the tools that operate like this.


Tuesday, January 01, 2013

CHART: Putting the Senate Cliff Deal In Perspective

Well, this certainly puts the Senate's tax hike in perspective, to wit:

"One of those occasions when one picture really does speak a thousand words."

With Obama's trillion-dollar deficits, year after year after year, I wonder what the over-under for economic collapse is in Democrat circles?


Hat tip: Allahpundit.

JUST LIKE LINCOLN: the most dignified, presidential and high-minded president of any president, ever

Like David Gregory, when I think of President Obama, I immediately think, "Lincoln!"

• This morning, without even waiting for a compromise deal to pass both the House and the Senate, President Obama was already ridiculing Republicans. Congratulating himself, he took credit for breaking the Republican Party's longstanding pledge to oppose tax increases: "[This is] one of the most consequential policy achievements of the last couple of decades."

• Yesterday, before the Senate had worked out its own deal early this morning, the president held what "had the feel of a campaign event" complete with cheering "middle class workers". During the event, Obama "took shots at Congress and Republicans" and issued "a stern warning to the GOP" that he would not tolerate any spending cuts.

• And before the deal was signed, Obama "gloated that if Republicans accepted this deal it would amount to a surrender on taxes" in a move that seemed "designed to sabotage a deal he allegedly wanted."

As Robert Samuelson wrote in today's Washington Post:

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office puts it this way: "...the United States cannot sustain the federal spending programs that are now in place with the federal taxes (as a share of GDP) that it has been accustomed to paying."

Until Obama conspicuously and consistently acknowledges these realities in straightforward and unmistakable language -- something he hasn't done and shows no signs of doing -- he cannot be said to be dealing honestly with the budget or with the American people. The main reason that we keep having these destructive and inconclusive budget confrontations is not simply that many Republicans have been intransigent on taxes. The larger cause is that Obama refuses to concede that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are driving future spending and deficits. So when Republicans make concessions on taxes (as they have), they get little in return. Naturally, this poisons the negotiating climate.

Obama wants the country to go over the fiscal cliff. He wants the deficit to reach 200 percent of GDP (the course it's on), which means a certain economic collapse.

He wants these things.

How else can he foment a crisis ("Never let a crisis go to waste", in the words of his former Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel) and "fundamentally transform America" (in his own words)?

I believe we have a very troubled individual running things. And what is even more troubling is the fact that about 50 percent of American voters have no earthly idea where's he's taking us. Nor do they care.


Monday, December 31, 2012

CHART: President Obama's "Balanced" Fiscal Cliff Proposal

This is what the President called a "balanced" approach.


If there was a single piece of evidence that additional "revenue" (Democrat code word for higher taxes) would be used to offset deficits, reasonable people might be able to support it.


Sunday, December 30, 2012

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S FISCAL CLIFF OLIVE BRANCH TO THE GOP: "You Get Nothing"

Let's recall a few immutable facts regarding the "Fiscal Cliff":

1. A week ago, according to Salon Magazine, the President told John Boehner during fiscal cliff negotiations, that "You get nothing."

2. The Bush Tax Cuts -- which Democrats have fought for a decade -- are suddenly critical to the survival of the Republic (hypocrisy much?).

3. Senate Democrats have refused to pass a budget for nearly four years, an act unprecedented in modern American history.

4. President Obama's budgets have failed to receive a single Democrat vote.

5. Republicans have passed four (4) budgets this year, all of which were defeated in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

6. The recommendations of the President's own bi-partisan deficit commission, which contained a mix of tax hikes and spending cuts, were -- in the words of Democrat commission member Erskine Bowles -- "scuttled" by Barack Obama.

This entire situation belongs in the lap of Barack Obama.

The world's dumbest blogger -- Ezra Klein -- hardest hit.


SHOCK: New York Corner Stores Appear to be Facilitating Rampant Abuse of EBT Welfare Benefits

But there's nothing to cut!

Most people run to the corner bodega for a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread, but some welfare recipients are plunking down $500 at a time in suspicious transactions... Welfare users are only allowed to use their Electronic Benefit Transfer cards to buy food, yet they are rung up like fat cats in tiny stores in The Bronx and Brooklyn where the priciest item is usually an $8 pound of ham.

Earlier this year, an owner and a cashier at Glenwood Food Corp. in Canarsie, Brooklyn, were arrested for ringing up bogus transactions... A federal sting found the bodega was recording phony purchases on EBT cards, handing customers about 70 percent of the amount in cash — and pocketing the rest. Goods were rarely exchanged in the scam, which defrauded taxpayers out of $985,000 in two years...


Sheridan Mini Mart in Morrisania, The Bronx, rang up single sales of $543.40 and $473.50 on June 4, 2012, alone. That’s a lot of bread for a store where the most expensive item is an $11.99 jug of cooking oil... At Tremont’s Palenque Supermarket Corp., ETB where the priciest product is an $18.99 gallon of olive oil, transactions reached as high as $400 last year... Desi Grocery, a tiny East New York store now known as Anchor Grocery, racked up a $585 sale and several $400 sales through June 2012...

Robert Rector of The Heritage Foundation called the USDA’s anti-fraud procedures “a joke... “There’s virtually no oversight or effort from the USDA to stop this at all,” Rector said. “A store gets disqualified from the program and miraculously it’s back in business in the next two weeks with a new name on the front door.”

How many hundreds of billions of dollars in our money are "redistributed" through fraudulent Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and food stamp transactions?

The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind. The answer is blowing in the wind.


Saturday, December 29, 2012

SHOULD THE U.S. DEFAULT NOW... OR LATER? The only question we should be asking about the debt ceiling

Here's something you probably didn't read in the funny papers: $2.1 trillion has been added to the national debt in the last 16 months alone.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has alerted Congress that the nation will once again hit the debt ceiling on Monday, but that his department can take “extraordinary measures” to keep paying the bills for another few months.

Incredibly, the debt ceiling was raised from $14.294 trillion in August 2011, to its current level of $16.394 trillion. Thus in the span of only sixteen months, the Obama administration has added a whopping $2.1 trillion to the national debt. [Source]

The entire hullabaloo about the "Fiscal Cliff" is a politico- and media-manufactured diversion.

The real discussion we need to have -- but won't -- concerns the "Fiscal Abyss" (in the words of former Comptroller General David Walker) facing our nation.

Raising taxes is like putting a Band-Aid on a severed femoral artery.

DON'T RAISE THE DEBT CEILING

I've thought long and hard about this issue -- and have arrived at what is probably a controversial opinion: Republicans should refuse to raise the debt ceiling without huge spending cuts and entitlement reforms.

Here's a news flash: President Obama wants the country to default. He has layered on so much debt, so fast, that the U.S. simply can't honor its obligations.

And the administration's cascade of regulations (like "Boiler MACT") are explicitly designed to prevent the economy from growing fast enough to help make up the difference.

DEFAULT NOW -- OR DEFAULT LATER?

The real question we should be asking is whether a default now is preferential to a default later.

I believe a default now is by far the best solution for the vast majority of Americans: when the default occurs, it will shock the financial system, rattle markets around the world, and -- in all likelihood -- herald the onset of another Great Depression.

A default several years down the road, however, will be far worse for America:

The crash will be much larger, and much more catastrophic for the citizenry -- and it will hit seniors and the poor much harder;

America's manufacturing sector will be less able to recover than it is today, having been downsized by this administration's regulatory onslaught;

And America's citizens will be even less self-reliant, whether it comes to EBT cards, firearms, family-owned farms, and every other measure of independence;

The military will be weaker, having been gutted by years of Obama's efforts to defund national defense;

The real question we must ask is this: do we want the economy to crash on Obama's timing -- or ours?

THE NEXT DEBT-CEILING DEBATE

I believe that the House of Representatives should refuse to raise the debt ceiling without immediate and immense cuts and entitlement reforms. Barring, say, a $900 billion reduction in annual spending (removing the Stimulus from the baseline budget, for example), the House should refuse to raise the debt ceiling.

Let the country default.

It is provably better to default now than later.


We know that President Obama wants the country to default. That much is clear with the accompanying chart, which comes to us directly from the White House. He just doesn't want the default to happen quite so soon, before he's had a chance to -- in his words -- "fundamentally transform" America.

So let's default now, before things get immeasurably worse.


Friday, December 28, 2012

THAT "COMING COLLAPSE" HAS BEEN COMING FOR DECADES: What does this gold ad from 1973 really tell us?

Considering that the CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of gold since 1973 is roughly 17.2%, who's to say this ad wasn't right?

An ad from a 1973 issue of Barron's provides clear proof that feverish concerns about imminent economic collapse and a concomitant enthusiasm for precious metals has long been a theme amongst modern investors.


With the race to devalue currencies around the world -- led by Ben Bernanke's magical printer -- and unsustainable sovereign debt, it's pretty clear that a collapse will come.

The only question is whether it's two years away -- or 10. History and arithmetic both tell us it won't be longer than that.


Hat tip: BadBlue Money News.