Zero Hedge Week in Review

Some interesting things from Zero Hedge that I think are worth reading. 

The Con of the Decade:  A guest post with a logical explanation for why inflation will not turn hyper-inflationary, based upon the "other side" of the trade.  Meaning, debt is an asset to those who hold it to earn the interest.

FBI Raids Chuck E. Cheese:  I thought I had blogged about this before, but perhaps not.  I suggest you read the back story from the Daily Reckoning first, before reading the satire of von NotHaus' conviction.  I mean, if someone wanted to giving a silver coin that is meant to represent a US Quarter Dollar (but is .999 pure silver and a metal content value of say, oh, like $15), wouldn't you accept that as payment on goods and services?  Read the satire, it is funny, in a somewhat scary way.

Misery Index All Time High:  This one is from 3/29.  Oops.  I told you dear reader I had a back log of posts.

$1,800 Gold By October: Ben?  Is that you!?!

TEOTWAWKI preps inflation, 47% in 6 months:  Enough said.

And...last one for the week, which is more survival / prep minded here: Keeping Capital in a Depression

Of course, you don't need me to read www.zerohedge.com.

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?

The Federal Reserve Board: Organizing for QEx Justification

Inflation is an evil thing, despite what any Central Banker will tell you.  Inflation will also eat at everything that people use to survive, not through a lack of supply but through a lack of ability to afford what you need.  Additionally, the tool of the monetarist and the friend of the politician, printing money (or in the modern parlance tacking on some zeros to the money supply) is the easiest way to decrease the debt burden, maintain Ponzi-schemes of social programs, stealthily steal wealth, and increase nominal tax receipts to the government. 

Yet, if you listen to those in charge of the money supply in this country (Federal Reserve Board), they think that technological progress will always outpace the price increases caused by monetary inflation.  Of course, as those who interacted with the encased and protected cartel leaders demonstrate, you simply can't "eat an iPad."  The citizens on Main Street (self included) realize that technical innovations are nice and nifty, but unless they put more money in our pockets to keep up with the ever increasing cost of gas, food and clothing, we have no hopes of purchasing the fun toys that are things like iPads (or preferably the ever increasing cost of things like ammo).

What is the Richmond Fed Bank's answer?  Oh, that's simple!  They have decided to create a "community council" to advise them on the "real impact upon the common men and women found in low to moderate income areas." 

Excuse me while I wail with laughter over in that -----> corner!  Men and women who dawn the Banker's uniform (read expensive suits) and control the knobs and levers that they think "improve" our economy and our standard of living want to interact directly with the people most affect by their misguided "solutions" to our recovery?  Here's a solution.  Be the independent voice that your charter was supposed to make you, and tell the politicians that we aren't bailing out the banking industry, the auto industry, or the Treasury market which allows the failed zombie institutions to remain that of the walking dead. 

Oh, that, and take your community council crap back to your marble buildings and compound money creating computers, and shove all your 75/25 cotton/linen material up your collective whoo-ha's! 

Helo Ben Says "Dollar System Flawed" = "Say Good Bye to Soverignty"

Even though Thanksgiving was last week, we find something to be thankful for every day of the week.  Today, I say that I am thankful for the internet (for as long as it remains free of FCC regulation, which is a story for another day).  It is not hard to find an absurd story (or ten) every day via my Google reader, and thus they turn into blog material for you, the dear reader.  So, yes, I am quite thankful for the internet as a facilitator to why we can better educate one another, chart history, and add in some common man's sense and perspective every now and then.  Ultimately, it means that we the people get our say in what is news and what is not news, instead of being spoon feed the garbage by the cable news networks or the lame stream media. 

As the headline of this post depicts, this is a story that almost no American media outlets reported.  While I've hinted at the US economic leadership engaging in trade wars in prior postings (mainly from Zero Hedge), this is one for the record books.  Helicopter Ben has basically said outright, expect tariffs, quantitative easing / dollar devaluation, and any other radical efforts to get trade to rebalanced through out the world.  If read correctly, and as Robert Morley pointed out, the meaning of Ben's speach is that is China to be blamed for all the trade problems in the entire world. 

Huh?  Did I just read that right?  Bernanke just blamed China for the irrational exuberance in the United States that has persisted for the better half of the last century?  Now, we want to pick a trade war with our largest non-Federal Reserve debt holder?  Seems like a wonderful way to achieve that trade re-balancing now doesn't it?  Of course, while the Fed's printing processors tack on more zeros by the millisecond to the green back's money supply, the Fed's chairman is out shouting from the roof tops that we need a new internationally run money scheme that will help solve the imbalance of trade.

“As currently constituted, the international monetary system has a structural flaw,” said America’s chief banker. The dollar system is broken. “It lacks a mechanism, market based or otherwise, to induce needed adjustments by surplus countries, which can result in persistent imbalances” (emphasis mine throughout).

So, we need a new system, one that would be run by the IMF or potentially the United Nations, which will effectively force United States citizens into the servitude of the international bankers and politicians?  Sorry, not on my watch.  Color me a bit of a gold bug, but isn't that exactly why the United States had the gold standard?  Money at a fixed rate that was mean to prevent the manipulation of the money supply that has led to these "persistent trade imbalances?"  I'll save you from looking if you didn't already know that the answer was yes. 


Look, the short answer to these problems is, start spending less, fix the structural problems in our own economy (over taxation, over regulation, and over indebtedness) and world trade will fix itself.  We are seeing an end to the great world experiment with socialism and welfare and perhaps even fiat money.  Personally, I say, GOOD RIDDANCE!  It's time that we found out what things are really worth, and how the individual can pay for the things he wants and needs.  If that's too hard on people, well, too damned bad. 

Oh, and Helo-Ben, why don't you stop trying to piss of the largest external bond holder in the world?  They can certainly fight this trade war better than you, and I wouldn't put it passed them to be ready to do exactly that! 

QOTD: Fed Res Virus Blocker

While reading about the increase in the 30 year mortgage rates on Zero Hedge today, I noticed that one reader/commenter posted a link to the NY Fed's statistics page.  Another, very humors and astute commenter had this reply:

Unfortunately, my virus scanner stops me from connecting to a Federal Reserve site. It claims the website is a known fraud.

Yep, I'm pretty sure that a lot of people are thinking exactly that.  So much so, that even yours truly has been tempted send the the NY Fed President's name and "about" page to their "report fraud" email address (found here). 

While the above quote and idea are rather true and humorous to us laymen, they would probably draw an eye of specter from those who control our money supply. 

Picture of the Day: Print & Spend

Thanks to the Daily Reckoning for this one, so be sure to stop over to their site and read all of their good financial insight and data. 

Super Rich & Art: Just Another Dollar Hedge

As Helicopter Ben start's his QE2 this week, we get a few nifty articles from across the pond that art sales are setting records in NYC.  

Just more evidence that those who can insulate themselves from a falling dollar, do!  Unfortunately, for those of us left stuck in the middle between those who received government handouts and the inflation shielded wealthy, we get the full brunt of a year over year 90% increase in cotton, 40% in wheat and corn, and a 15% increase in live cattle.  Truly a case of the haves versus the have nots (as much) and of course, those whom trade votes for payola.

Ain't America grand?

QOTD: Federal Reserve BBQ

From Andrew Breitbart's Big Government, we get a good reminder of the history that is the National Banks of the USA.

We also get this doosey of a quote:

The concept is that if Americans felt richer because their 401Ks went up in value there would be a “wealth effect” encouraging the public to spend more money and businesses to increase capital investments. Unfortunately, this is like starting a barbeque with a flamethrower. You will surely create a fire, but it will probably burn down the neighborhood.

As AK Fan and I discussed, what's the point in feeling richer when you have to pay the increased prices of eggs (up 87% in the last year), beef (35%), wheat (40%), and almost everything else up over 25%.  Most Americans don't need their retirement accounts to go up right now, they just need to be able to earn an honest living so they can feed their families, save, pay off their house, car, student loans, ect, and then save for retirement! 

What is it with Washington and Wall Street elitists that don't see things from the average American's perspective? 

QE 2 & Monetary Treason; A Tale of a Banking Coup

We find ourselves roughly 96 hours away from the close of the polls on potentially the biggest election of our lives.  Unfortunately, we also find ourselves roughly 110 hours away from the biggest announcement the Federal Reserve has ever made.  The perverse part is, the results of Tuesday will largely be outweighed by the actions that the Banking Cartel takes starting on Wednesday.  The Banking Coup of the United States that will start with the QE2 on Wednesday will make South American military coups look like bake sale fundraisers by comparison.  So continues the tail of our decline.  

If you’ve been reading and following along, we have been talking about a lot of financial items over the course of the last week.  Hopefully my readership has picked up on the feed burner known as Zero Hedge and has been reading their raw and unfiltered reality that is our crackerjack economy.  So it should come as no surprise that Helicopter Ben’s Federal Reserve has ceded all of its authority to the primary dealers of market securities.  Effectively, the Fed is dead, and Zero Hedge isn’t the only one to opine (though not so openly) as to the conclusion of these un-Constitutional facts.  

Are we in the early stages of a USA, Weimar Republic?  Considering Congress has failed to do its Constitutional duty for the last 80+ years and regulate monetary policy and our currency, the writing appears to be on the wall.  I am pretty sure that Thomas Jefferson warned us in the early years of our country that a Central Bank’s singular control of the money supply was more dangerous to freedom and our republic than any foreign enemy could ever become.  What would he have said about an all out banking coup?  The primary dealers telling the Fed, directly, how much money to print and pump is the kind of action that we would expect to see in Zimbabwe and other banana republics, not the United States! 

Is this the story of our demise?  Rich Wall Street shysters make their shills at the Federal Reserve print up worthless paper in an effort to absolutely destroy the democracy by entrenching the people in a perilous fight for bare necessities as they sky rocket in price and continue to pile up a mountain of sovereign debt?  If your eyes are shut, then the answer is no, but to those whose eyes are open, it isn’t hard to see why it is important to cast your ballot for freedom on Tuesday.  Is it our only shot at saving our way of life?  Potentially not, but it could be the last, so why take the chance?

So, this weekend, as we go from undecided to the polls, research, think, examine critically, and then swear to yourself, your family, your friends and most importantly, future generations, that we cannot maintain this course of print, pump, spend, and fail.  Promise to be ever vigilant, wherever and however in the education process of our youth, our spouses, our parents and others ignorant of history and the money meddlers.  It is a track that has been tried centuries over and is a failure that is timeless. 

QOTD: Putting and Monetary Policy, the Latest Econ Course Offered at Your Community College

Economic news lately is well, depressing a best.  If you follow what is the truth in the world, you find there is no news in the truth, just more doldrums.  If you are a Zero Hedge reader you might have seen this quote this morning:

Mr. Bernanke has used the analogy of a golfer with a new putter: Unsure how it will work, he finds best strategy is to tap lightly at first and keep tapping until the golfer figures out how best to use the putter.

The Fed has found themselves in a severe catch 22 (or liquidity trap), and now they are using golf as the fundamental "new tool" to bring us back to pre-crisis levels.  As Zero Hedge's articles and authors stated in the link, we're learning as we go?  This from the one organization that is supposed to remain politically and economically neutral?  Putting our way to prosperity will only further sink us into our own Japanese style lost decade, but the concerns of the public and certain Fed Governors are falling on deaf ears to Mr. Bernanke.

Perhaps I'm too negative, cynical, and pessimistic, but what we really should be doing right now is praying Nov. 2 goes the right way.