25 March 2011

Medal of Honor Day

Swing on over to ITS Tactical, and check out their blurb on Medal of Honor Day.

To all Medal of Honor recipients, thank you.  And of course, that thanks is always extended to your brothers in arms as well. 

USA Screwed & FedGov Budget

Next time you debate someone on military spending versus entitlement programs and how the former instead of the latter is bankrupting us, make sure they see this chart.



Yep, that's right, 58% of all Tax Revenue AND federal borrowings go to fund social security, medicare/medicaid, and unemployment insurance / other entitlements.  Defense, a mere 20% of the total budget (or roughly $700 billion) amounts to only 32% of total tax revenues.  This shows that defense spending, though large and impressive and still as much or more than all other countries' combined spending, is NOT a large number when compared to social programs.  Defense budget moaners and code pink members please take note that building planes, manning ships, and fighting foreign wars of aggression would be fully funded and met without sending us further into debt all by itself.  Unfortunately propping up failing social programs that rely upon an ever growing society just can't make that argument.  Further, this graphic shows just how large and damaging Obama's budget deficits truly are.

Once the morons whom get this education via these pie charts, I urge them to take the full crash course found here (or here).

Last, just for the record to all those enviro-wackos out there...please realize that since you champion reduced populations the world over, you need to make a sacrifice of a reduction in people or a reduction in welfare.  Returning to a popular theme around the globe, It's ALL ABOUT Demo(graphic)s!  The USA currently produces about 2.1 children per adult, which is the bare minimum for population growth.  (Actually, it is the threshold for population maintenance / growth).  Since most of the social programs are funded via taking revenues from working and young people (those paying into the system), an aging and or stagnant population trend turns the traditional pyramid scheme upside down (since the tax base will be the same at best or declining at worst).  

Obama has gotten one thing of his presidency right, he has certainly brought us change.

Fed, FedGov Budget, Purchase Power of the Dollar: Three Things that Need Fixing

Yesterday I read this detailing two major things (discounting the The Mogambo Guru ranting style).  First, the value of the dollar today, is less than what a quarter dollar would purchase 40 years ago in 1971.  Second, the US government spent a cumulative $15 billion from 1789 until 1900 (not adjusting for inflation, but you see the idea).

Yikes!  Those are small numbers when compared to today's debt.  Running the numbers, you get roughly .11% of the current country debt, was accumulated in the first 100 years of the Republic.  YOWSA!

Which leads me to this posting over at BigGovernment.com, which details the history of money in the first of a several part series. 

Click through, watch the video, get educated, and I'll post up the next part of the series when I see it.

QOTD: Milton Friedman on Greed



Milton Friedman on greed, presented in it's raw and most powerful form.

Inflation; The Real Tail that Wags the Dog

While it is no shock that the news has been fairly down trodden this week, an excellent analogy from the guys over at the Daily Reckoning on how inflation is the "bad dog" on the street.

Unfortunately, inflation is the politically expedient way for the US government (and Federal Reserve) to reduce the burden of the budget and trade deficits.  In effect, monetary inflation to decrease debt burden in real terms is defacto debt default.

Keynesian (not) Top 10

Since we have seen some ludicrous statements by economists stating that Japan's GDP will recover as they rebuild, a (not) Top 10 of ideas that Keynesian money printers should think about employing to assist the US recover.

Obviously, bombing our own road ways to generate construction projects is contrary to any economic doctrine, but hey, if natural disasters are positive impacts upon the Jap's econ, why not just make some man made disasters here?

Got Broke?

Broke?  Nah, we aren't THAT broke!

We're only THIS broke!   And getting broker!  Errr, that's some good English, huh?