Over the weekend, I just happened to catch the "Bob Brinker" financial talk show (http://www.bobbrinker.com/). A caller stated that Hayek was right and Keynes was wrong.
Bob got very irate (he's a Keynesian after all). He told the caller that America is NOT practicing Keynesian economics because Keynes specifically called for balanced budgets during good times and only to deficit spend in bad times.
Bob Brinker COMPLETELY misses the point. John Maynard Keynes idea on economics is analogous to telling an alcoholic he is only allowed to drink during a wedding or funeral. Once the alcoholic gets drunk again, he will fall off the bandwagon.
Politicians are no different. Keynes economic model doesn't take into account politics - which DOOMS it to failure. Another analogy would be having a diet that only allows rice cakes and water. When the dieter fails to lose the desired weight, you could argue the dieter ate items that were not part of the diet. But the reality is that diet plan wouldn't work for any human being. The Keynesian argument is that if you DID follow the plan, you would have lost weight. It's a useless argument and the Keynes supporters know it.
Hayek, and others who advocate sound money, are right. The punch bowl needs to be taken away from the politicians. The Great Depression was caused by the Federal Reserves lax policy's with easy money and was extended for almost 15 years by Hoover and Roosevelt who spent like drunken sailors - never letting the economy truly recover from the hangover.
Keynes lack of political history and human nature, has doomed his economic model. The same can be said of Marx and Communism. If everyone just worked for the good of all, we'd all be living in Utopia. But that isn't reality nor is it realistic.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Keep America Safe
The group Keep America Safe, led by Liz Cheney has attacked the Obama administration for hiring nine lawyers who defended terrorist suspects.
To think that any lawyer would stoop to the level of our Second President and Founding Father - John Adams, and believe that all people deserve a fair trial and defend the rule of law. John Adams insistence on defending British soldiers after the Boston Massacre was not only sickening, but he actually got them acquitted. Without John Adams the court system of Massachusetts would have hung the lot of them. The citizens of Massachusetts were deprived a mass hanging of innocent men.
Are these nine lawyers insane! Terrorists don't need a defense, they need to be shot. Don't these nine lawyers know that over the last sixty years we've ignored nearly all tenants of the Constitution? We no longer declare wars, we assassinate U.S. citizens, ignore the Coinage Act and confiscate private land for developing strip malls (Kelo v. City of New London). Why in the world should we give the accused a fair trial?
Keep America Safe realizes we no longer live in an America governed by laws, rather we live in a country governed by who is best at manipulating the media. Laws be DAMNED - Keep America Safe at all costs.
You go Liz! Continue your fathers excellent work by ripping apart the Constitution piece by piece. After all, to the winner go the spoils, and Constitution is nothing more than a 200 year old document.
And please Liz - remember this Blog post. I don't want to be fingered by some witless bureaucrat and put in prison some time in the future without a lawyer to defend me. I'll help you make an America where everyone thinks like you and your father, that way we won't need any laws. That's the American way!
To think that any lawyer would stoop to the level of our Second President and Founding Father - John Adams, and believe that all people deserve a fair trial and defend the rule of law. John Adams insistence on defending British soldiers after the Boston Massacre was not only sickening, but he actually got them acquitted. Without John Adams the court system of Massachusetts would have hung the lot of them. The citizens of Massachusetts were deprived a mass hanging of innocent men.
Are these nine lawyers insane! Terrorists don't need a defense, they need to be shot. Don't these nine lawyers know that over the last sixty years we've ignored nearly all tenants of the Constitution? We no longer declare wars, we assassinate U.S. citizens, ignore the Coinage Act and confiscate private land for developing strip malls (Kelo v. City of New London). Why in the world should we give the accused a fair trial?
Keep America Safe realizes we no longer live in an America governed by laws, rather we live in a country governed by who is best at manipulating the media. Laws be DAMNED - Keep America Safe at all costs.
You go Liz! Continue your fathers excellent work by ripping apart the Constitution piece by piece. After all, to the winner go the spoils, and Constitution is nothing more than a 200 year old document.
And please Liz - remember this Blog post. I don't want to be fingered by some witless bureaucrat and put in prison some time in the future without a lawyer to defend me. I'll help you make an America where everyone thinks like you and your father, that way we won't need any laws. That's the American way!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
The trajectory of the economy is greatly improved!
Yes, you read the title correctly - GREATLY IMPROVED. But those aren't my words, they are the words of Christina Romer, who chairs the president's Council of Economic Advisers.
I beg to differ with Christina Romer. The trajectory of the economy is worsening - being propped up by a boom in equities brought on by almost free money being handed out by the FED. Inflation will soon win the day (less than 24 months) and the economy will go into a free fall of higher prices and higher unemployment.
OK - if I'm so smart, why isn't a genius like Ben Bernanke doing it? Let me give you an analogy - my Uncle Bill came over for a family dinner and I mentioned how NY State gov't was willfully killing a project that would eliminate 10 jobs and save them money. To me this is just ludicrous - no private business would pay 10 people to do something a computer can (and BTW, it's already paid for).
His shocking response - "During bad times, its good to give people something to do."
This is the mentality of Ben Bernanke, Obama, and yes many Republicans too! The Keynes formula is clear C + I + G + X − M = GDP Government (signified by G) is given EQUAL weight to Consumption and Investment. I don't care how many freakin' degrees you have, that formula is wrong. Seriously, if there was NO investment, NO consumption, but Government picked up the slack would GDP continue to rise? Only in a hyper-inflationary environment could you get GDP to rise in such a scenario - and that wouldn't be real GDP - based in a commodity like oil or gold the GDP would shrink faster than a cold male private part.
So why doesn't Ben Bernanke, Christina Romer, Obama, the Democrats and quite a few Republicans realize that we are heading off the cliff? Because they were taught the wrong economic theory. And who teaches that theory - government run schools. Worse yet, we are taught a socialist economic model while being told we live in a free market economy.
And that's not the WORST part. The worst is that I'm right and the future of the US economy is getting bleaker.
I beg to differ with Christina Romer. The trajectory of the economy is worsening - being propped up by a boom in equities brought on by almost free money being handed out by the FED. Inflation will soon win the day (less than 24 months) and the economy will go into a free fall of higher prices and higher unemployment.
OK - if I'm so smart, why isn't a genius like Ben Bernanke doing it? Let me give you an analogy - my Uncle Bill came over for a family dinner and I mentioned how NY State gov't was willfully killing a project that would eliminate 10 jobs and save them money. To me this is just ludicrous - no private business would pay 10 people to do something a computer can (and BTW, it's already paid for).
His shocking response - "During bad times, its good to give people something to do."
This is the mentality of Ben Bernanke, Obama, and yes many Republicans too! The Keynes formula is clear C + I + G + X − M = GDP Government (signified by G) is given EQUAL weight to Consumption and Investment. I don't care how many freakin' degrees you have, that formula is wrong. Seriously, if there was NO investment, NO consumption, but Government picked up the slack would GDP continue to rise? Only in a hyper-inflationary environment could you get GDP to rise in such a scenario - and that wouldn't be real GDP - based in a commodity like oil or gold the GDP would shrink faster than a cold male private part.
So why doesn't Ben Bernanke, Christina Romer, Obama, the Democrats and quite a few Republicans realize that we are heading off the cliff? Because they were taught the wrong economic theory. And who teaches that theory - government run schools. Worse yet, we are taught a socialist economic model while being told we live in a free market economy.
And that's not the WORST part. The worst is that I'm right and the future of the US economy is getting bleaker.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Don't Blame Bully's!
How many times have you watched a TV show, a movie, or maybe even lived the reality of watching a bully take some kids lunch money day after day. Even in the fantasy world of TV/Movies, it takes a long, long time before the kids are willing to stand up and stop the bully. Sadly they could have done it on day one, instead of day 942.
The theme running through all these accounts are that the bully has gone too far, but the kids still feel helpless.
Talking with numerous friends (liberal, conservative, libertarian, socialist, Democrat, Republican) the feeling amongst everyone is usually the same. Even the very excited Obama supporters are feeling the same way. And why not, the American people see no end in site for the wars in Iraq/Afghanistan/Terror. They see bankers getting bailed out by the billions and if they don't want to take a pay cut to $600,000, they walk away from their jobs with $20 million severance packages - all of which wouldn't be possible without taxpayer subsidy.
Unemployment remains above 10%, but we've been told since April about the economic recovery - and the stock market runs over 50% since it's lows in March.
But it's not the bully's of the world who are to blame, it's the people who are too lazy to get off their ass and do something about it.
For a "free country" the media seems to report every piece of financial news with a grain of optimism. The few dedicated financial outlets seem dedicated to cheer leading Wall Street - ignoring the fact that the ONLY true gauge of inflation (Gold) was up almost EXACTLY the same amount as the market in 2009.
You don't need a conspiracy to realize that most people will take the easy road to complete a job. The FED and Treasury put out pre-written statements explaining the latest numbers. Why should a journalist re-write when their work is done for them already. They become reliant on their political contacts who are spoon feeding them the stories they write.
Somehow the 10% unemployment rate is a "lagging" indicator, without realizing that unemployment is ONLY a lagging indicator during cyclical recessions - NOT recessions where consumer credit is being withdrawn.
Unfortunately their are many more people to blame than the "media". Too many people are willing to trade freedom for safety. Some people love laws that restrict freedoms of the 4th Amendment (e.g. Patriot Act), others support the taking of private land to give to a rich developer (Kelo vs. City of New London), and still others support the theft of other peoples wealth to pay for welfare, health care.
All of the above take away our freedoms, while the latter also hurts future economic development and growth. We continue to create a society dependent on the gov't, but it only creates the dilemma when the gov't can't take more wealth to pay for these programs, what does a power like the USA end up doing?
First we go to war to distract the people. (Vietnam)
Second, when that fails we start endless wars. (Terror)
Third, to remove the excess labor supply we will go to multiple wars and institute a draft. (Iran, North Korea to come)
Fourth, we will go to wars to confiscate others wealth.
There is hope! We must mobilize to throw out the politicians who support the Bush/Obama programs.
Hard to believe I'd be writing this but the Clinton years are looking better and better.
The theme running through all these accounts are that the bully has gone too far, but the kids still feel helpless.
Talking with numerous friends (liberal, conservative, libertarian, socialist, Democrat, Republican) the feeling amongst everyone is usually the same. Even the very excited Obama supporters are feeling the same way. And why not, the American people see no end in site for the wars in Iraq/Afghanistan/Terror. They see bankers getting bailed out by the billions and if they don't want to take a pay cut to $600,000, they walk away from their jobs with $20 million severance packages - all of which wouldn't be possible without taxpayer subsidy.
Unemployment remains above 10%, but we've been told since April about the economic recovery - and the stock market runs over 50% since it's lows in March.
But it's not the bully's of the world who are to blame, it's the people who are too lazy to get off their ass and do something about it.
For a "free country" the media seems to report every piece of financial news with a grain of optimism. The few dedicated financial outlets seem dedicated to cheer leading Wall Street - ignoring the fact that the ONLY true gauge of inflation (Gold) was up almost EXACTLY the same amount as the market in 2009.
You don't need a conspiracy to realize that most people will take the easy road to complete a job. The FED and Treasury put out pre-written statements explaining the latest numbers. Why should a journalist re-write when their work is done for them already. They become reliant on their political contacts who are spoon feeding them the stories they write.
Somehow the 10% unemployment rate is a "lagging" indicator, without realizing that unemployment is ONLY a lagging indicator during cyclical recessions - NOT recessions where consumer credit is being withdrawn.
Unfortunately their are many more people to blame than the "media". Too many people are willing to trade freedom for safety. Some people love laws that restrict freedoms of the 4th Amendment (e.g. Patriot Act), others support the taking of private land to give to a rich developer (Kelo vs. City of New London), and still others support the theft of other peoples wealth to pay for welfare, health care.
All of the above take away our freedoms, while the latter also hurts future economic development and growth. We continue to create a society dependent on the gov't, but it only creates the dilemma when the gov't can't take more wealth to pay for these programs, what does a power like the USA end up doing?
First we go to war to distract the people. (Vietnam)
Second, when that fails we start endless wars. (Terror)
Third, to remove the excess labor supply we will go to multiple wars and institute a draft. (Iran, North Korea to come)
Fourth, we will go to wars to confiscate others wealth.
There is hope! We must mobilize to throw out the politicians who support the Bush/Obama programs.
Hard to believe I'd be writing this but the Clinton years are looking better and better.
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