Food for an Increasingly Localized World

 In the last 35 years, our culture has exchanged an 18% per capita expenditure on food and 9% on health care to 18% on health care and 9% on food. And I would suggest that it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to think there might be a connection between the inversion of those two numbers.

The Shovel was Only "Ready" to Dig the Hole to Bury $535 Million and then File Bankruptcy

$535 Million of your money pumped in to stimulate a budding solar energy company that has filed for bankruptcy less than three years later.  Wonder what the shovel was really ready for?

President Obama visited Solyndra in May 2010, heralding the company as “leading the way toward a brighter and more prosperous future.” He also cited it as a success story from the government’s $787 billion economic stimulus package.

“Less than a year ago, we were standing on what was an empty lot.  But through the Recovery Act, this company received a loan to expand its operations,” Obama said at the time. “This new factory is the result of those loans.”

In 2009, the Obama administration fast-tracked Solyndra’s loan application, later awarding it $535 million in guarantees from the stimulus funds.

The deal later came under scrutiny from independent government watch dogs and members of Congress, which said the administration had bypassed key taxpayer protections in a rush to approve the funds — claims the administration has denied.

25 Reasons Why It May Be Time for the Financial World to Panic

Every now and then it is easy to forget that the one or two "better than expected" data points blasted by flashing headlines do nothing that merely mask what is an otherwise quite deplorable and deteriorating reality. For the disconnect between America and the rest of the world look no further than this chart showing the dramatic divergence between the DJIA, which has just gone positive for the year, and every other major global stock market. Yet for those who require a narrative to go with their numbers, here is The Economic Collapse with the latest of their traditionally comprehensive bulletins, this time summarizing the "25 signs that the financial world is about to hit the big red panic button."

From The Economic Collapse:

U.S. Government Merits a Junk Credit Rating

The real scandal here is that S&P knows that the Fed and ECB have been printing money like crazy to buy up debts, both private and public. It also knows that given long-term fiscal commitments and likely future economic conditions, these central banks will surely need to print vastly more money, which means bondholders will end up being paid back only partially or in debased currencies. And it should know that this implies one and only one rating: CCC.

The Big Yellow One, The Sun, Causes Climate Change (Who Knew?)

The science is now all-but-settled on global warming, convincing new evidence demonstrates, but Al Gore, the IPCC and other global warming doomsayers won’t be celebrating. The new findings point to cosmic rays and the sun — not human activities — as the dominant controller of climate on Earth.

The research, published with little fanfare this week in the prestigious journal Nature, comes from über-prestigious CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, one of the world’s largest centres for scientific research involving 60 countries and 8,000 scientists at more than 600 universities and national laboratories. CERN is the organization that invented the World Wide Web, that built the multi-billion dollar Large Hadron Collider, and that has now built a pristinely clean stainless steel chamber that precisely recreated the Earth’s atmosphere.

In this chamber, 63 CERN scientists from 17 European and American institutes have done what global warming doomsayers said could never be done — demonstrate that cosmic rays promote the formation of molecules that in Earth’s atmosphere can grow and seed clouds, the cloudier and thus cooler it will be. Because the sun’s magnetic field controls how many cosmic rays reach Earth’s atmosphere (the stronger the sun’s magnetic field, the more it shields Earth from incoming cosmic rays from space), the sun determines the temperature on Earth.

So if it’s so great, why aren’t we hearing more about it? Well, possibly because the Director General of CERN Rolf-Dieter Heuer would prefer it that way. Here’s how he poured cold water on the results in an interview with Die Welt Online:

I have asked the colleagues to present the results clearly, but not to interpret them. That would go immediately into the highly political arena of the climate change debate. One has to make clear that cosmic radiation is only one of many parameters.

No More $$ Bullets: From Paulson's Fannie-Freddie "Bazooka" to Bernanke's QE "Stink bombs"

Modern capitalism, at its core, relies on the public's trust of fiat money and the sanctity of contract. QE, a form of state-sponsored theft, makes a mockery of both those cardinal concepts.

Well worth the full read.

It's the Thought that Counts . . . (Or, is it?)

The republican controlled U.S. House will propose legislation to rescind onerous federal regulations on healthcare, energy production, where a company can do business, cap and trade regs, and mandatory withholdings for contracts with any government entity.

Problem is, such legislation is dead on arrival in the Senate.

Does the thought count for anything or is it time for the states "to erect barriers against the encroachments of the national authority"? (Hamilton)

We Know DC Can Tax, We Have Never Seen Them Cut . . .

The majority of economists surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics believe that the federal deficit should be reduced only or primarily through spending cuts.

The survey out Monday found that 56 percent of the NABE members surveyed felt that way, while 37 percent said they favor equal parts spending cuts and tax increases. The remaining 7 percent believe it should be done only or mostly through tax increases.

Utah Leads the Way: King World News Interviews Rep. Ken Ivory

Here is my interview with Eric King on King World News (www.kingworldnews.com) about our new Utah Legal Tender Act, my Federal Receipts Reporting Requirements (HB138) and Federal Law Evaluation Act (HB76) legislation, and the Where's the Line, America? efforts underway among states to restore the balance and maintain the line to the proper roles of the federal and state governments.

Truly, as state representatives who have sworn an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution under Article VI, as the critical external check and balance in our unprecedented system of government, we have a duty to protect the liberty of our citizens and businesses from an out-of-balance federal government.

Where there is no line,
There is no limit.
Where there is no limit,
Ultimately, there is no liberty.

Where's the Line, America?

Debt Collapse: The Case of $20,000/oz. Gold

This 90 minute video is well worth your time to understand why gold and silver are accelerating, and the dollar and public finances will likely continue to deteriorate and what to do about it.

Punish the Prudent (American Earners and Savers) to Reward the Reckless

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s unprecedented effort to keep the economy from plunging into depression included lending banks and other companies as much as $1.2 trillion of public money, about the same amount U.S. homeowners currently owe on 6.5 million delinquent and foreclosed mortgages. The largest borrower, Morgan Stanley (MS), got as much as $107.3 billion, while Citigroup took $99.5 billion and Bank of America $91.4 billion, according to a Bloomberg News compilation of data obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, months of litigation and an act of Congress.

“These are all whopping numbers,” said Robert Litan, a former Justice Department official.

Foreign Borrowers

It wasn’t just American finance. Almost half of the Fed’s top 30 borrowers, measured by peak balances, were European firms. They included Edinburgh-based Royal Bank of Scotland Plc, which took $84.5 billion, the most of any non-U.S. lender, and Zurich-based UBS AG (UBSN), which got $77.2 billion. Germany’s Hypo Real Estate Holding AG borrowed $28.7 billion, an average of $21 million for each of its 1,366 employees.

"Gold is Doing Nothing Wrong At This Point"

Gold is doing nothing wrong at this point in the market.  --  Ben Davies

This is a great interview.  Eric King also plugs at the end of this interview my interview with him about Utah's Legal Tender Act and our new Federal Receipts Reporting Requirements law that Moody's cited as one of the main reasons why they are not even going to review Utah for downgrade of our AAA bond rating stating that Utah is the only state making these types of preparations for "federal" fund to go away.

My interview should be posted at www.kingworldnews.com on Monday afternoon.

S&P on the Fed Govt Impact to the Economic and Credit Rating Horizon for State and Local Govts

From S&P on the economic state of the state and local government financial situation.


"In our opinion, the longer-term deficit reduction framework adopted as part of the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA) could undermine the already fragile economic recovery and complicate aspects of state and local government fiscal management." 

The Greatest Trade of All Time

From Sprott Asset Management, this is a must read if want some perspective on our present economic position and likely trajectory.

Stop and think for a moment about how many hours of labour, manufactured goods and non-renewable resources the United States has been able to acquire over 3.5 decades in exchange for paper promises that promise nothing but additional paper. It is truly remarkable.

“[US dollars] have value because everybody thinks they have value. Everybody thinks they have value because in everybody’s experience they have had value.” – Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman8

Exporting nations have willingly financed this $8 trillion trade deficit by accepting US dollar denominated paper promises in exchange for tangible goods sold. But perhaps most important of all, they’ve continued to hold and accumulate these paper promises rather than exchange them for real assets.

The Emperor and His Cronies Engaged in a Naked Cover Up?

Tens of Trillions of dollars (from our children's future since DC does not have that kind -- or any kind -- or walking around money) were lavished on the financial institutions that caused the financial meltdown in a "reward the reckless, punish the prudent" nightmare that is still playing out.

Why has no one gone to jail (except the colossally arrogant Bernie Maddoff) for the greatest scam by orders of magnitude in the history of the world?

Quite simply, the Emperor and his pals are engaged in a naked cover up.  I encourage you to read the full article and the articles linked in the article.

Prosecute Anyone Who Says the Emperor Has No Clothes . . .

The Justice Department is investigating whether the nation’s largest credit ratings agency, Standard & Poor’s, improperly rated dozens of mortgage securities in the years leading up to the financial crisis, according to two people interviewed by the government and another briefed on such interviews.

"It is unclear if the Justice Department investigation involves the other two ratings agencies, Moody’s and Fitch, or only S.& P."

Could the S&P Credit Rating Downgrade be a Blessing in Disguise?

Only if DC can take seriously the severity of the situation and use this moment to rally the American people to get real.  What are the odds?

This story of Australia's experience climbing back from credit downgrade is compelling.

Putting The Cart On Top Of The Horse

This from Zero Hedge: (I would encourage you to read the whole, short article)

"The ONLY way to increase the wealth of an individual or a nation of individuals is to produce MORE than is consumed. The difference - which is SAVINGS - can then be used to produce more real wealth with more efficient means and thus less real effort. This is the only way that an economy can genuinely “grow”. This is what transformed the US from an all but untouched potential into a continent-girdling economic powerhouse.It was not done by means of currency manipulation. It was not done by means of government borrowing. It was not done by all encompassing rules and regulations. It was done by means of political AND economic freedom.

It cannot be done in any other way. Increasing the units of the medium of exchange will NOT do it. Increasing the debt burden on generations to come will not do it. These things will do the opposite. They will and have inexorably led to capital consumption. The results of capital consumption are visible all over the world today - but in few places is the evidence more stark and obvious than it is in the US."

Americans Understand (and are not at all happy with) the Mess We Are In

The following are 16 statistics which prove that the American people are absolutely seething with anger right now....

#1 A new Washington Post poll has found that a whopping 78 percent of Americans are dissatisfied "with the way this country’s political system is working".

#2 That same poll found that only 26 percent of Americans believe that the federal government can solve the economic problems that we are now facing.

#3 Gallup says that Barack Obama's job approval rating has hit an all-time low of 39%.

#4 According to a recent CBS News/New York Times poll, Congress has a disapproval rating of 82%.

#5 A new Rasmussen survey has found that 85 percent of Americans believe that members of Congress "are more interested in helping their own careers than in helping other people."

#6 That same survey found that 46 percent of the American people believe that most members of Congress are corrupt.  That figure was a new all-time high.

#7 According to a different Rasmussen survey, only 17 percent of Americans now believe that the U.S. government has the consent of the governed.

#8 A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll discovered that 73 percent of the American people believe that the nation is "on the wrong track".

#9 A recent poll taken by Rasmussen found that 68 percent of Americans believe that we are actually in a recession right now.

#10 According to Gallup, the percentage of Americans that lack confidence in U.S. banks is now at an all-time high of 36%.

#11 U.S. consumer confidence is now at its lowest level in 30 years.

#12 According to a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll, 90 percent of Americans believe that the economy is performing poorly.

#13 That same poll found that approximately 80 percent of Americans believe that it is "difficult" to find a job these days.

#14 According to one recent poll, 39 percent of Americans believe that the U.S. economy has now entered a "permanent decline".

#15 Another recent survey found that 48 percent of Americans believe that it is likely that another great Depression will begin within the next 12 months.

#16 According to a brand new Rasmussen survey, 48% of Americans believe that reductions in government spending are "at least somewhat likely" to result in civil unrest inside the United States.

So why doesn't the government step in and spend a whole bunch of money and make everything all better?

Well, the problem is that we have done this time after time before and now we are broke.

We have been living way, way beyond our means for decades and now the bills are coming due.

David Walker, the former Comptroller General of the United States, has been warning about our debt problem for years.  Walker says that the United States is heading for a "sudden and very painful" economic collapse....

"Here’s the bottom line. If you take the total liabilities of the United States – public debt, unfunded pensions, retiree health care, under funding with regard to social security, with regard to medicare, a range of commitments and contingencies – as of September 30 2010 we would have had to have had $61.6 trillion dollars in the bank in order to be able to defease those obligations."

The cold, hard truth is that the U.S. national debt should have been addressed many years ago when it was still relatively small.

At this point, there is no solution to our national debt problem under our current financial system.

Today Is The 40th Anniversary Of Nixon Ending Gold Standard, Creating Modern Fiat Monetary System

As reported on Zero Hedge:

On this day, August 15th, 40 years ago, President Nixon announced the end of the Gold Standard and the end of the Bretton Woods international monetary system (see video of Nixon’s dramatic announcement here).

This was one of the most important decisions in modern financial, economic and monetary history and is a seminal moment in the creation of the global debt crisis confronting the U.S., Europe and the world today.

Bernanke Has Purposely Sacrificed the Savers and Seniors in this Country

The storyline being sold to you by Bernanke, his Wall Street masters, and their captured puppets in Washington DC is that deflation is the great bogeyman they must slay. They make these statements from their ivory jewel encrusted towers as the real people in the real world deal with reality. The reality since Ben Bernanke announced his QE2 policy in August 2010 is:

• Unleaded gas prices are up 45%.
• Heating oil prices are up 46%.
• Corn prices are up 71%.
• Soybean prices are up 26%.
• Rice prices are up 13%.
• Pork prices are up 31%.
• Beef prices are up 25%.
• Coffee prices are up 38%.
• Sugar prices are up 48%.
• Cotton prices are up 13%.
• Gold prices are up 42%.
• Silver prices are up 115%.
• Copper prices are up 23%.

These are the facts and they fly in the face of the lies being spouted by Bernanke and his Federal Reserve cronies. Words like transitory, quantitative easing, extended period, and liquidity are used by Professor Bernanke to obscure what he is doing to the average American. 

What Are We Teaching Our Children?

I have to imagine that any child watching the goings-on of American politics would conclude that:

- debt is wealth
- living beyond your means is completely sustainable
- if anyone tells you otherwise, denounce their mathematical errors
- if at first you don’t succeed, keep trying the same thing over and over
- working hard and saving money is bad
- spending money and not working is good
- if you have a problem, the government will bail you out
- people are entitled to things that they didn’t work for
- no one should be held accountable for the consequences of the risks they take
- it’s not illegal if the government does it
- despite what our eyes and ears tell us, inflation is not a concern
- everything is going to be OK simply because the government says so

A National Debt Of $14 Trillion? Try $211 Trillion

This from NPR: Economics professor Laurence J. Kotlikoff, who served as a senior economist on President Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers. He says the national debt, which the U.S. Treasury has accounted at about $14 trillion, is just the tip of the iceberg.

"We have all these unofficial debts that are massive compared to the official debt," Kotlikoff tells David Greene, guest host of weekends on All Things Considered. "We're focused just on the official debt, so we're trying to balance the wrong books."

Kotlikoff explains that America's "unofficial" payment obligations — like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits — jack up the debt figure substantially.

Courtesy of Boston University

Laurence J. Kotlikoff served as a senior economist on President Ronald Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers and is a professor of economics at Boston University.

"If you add up all the promises that have been made for spending obligations, including defense expenditures, and you subtract all the taxes that we expect to collect, the difference is $211 trillion. That's the fiscal gap," he says. "That's our true indebtedness."

US Borrowing Money from China to Give Foreign Aid to . . . China???

With America still drowning in debt, critics in and outside of Congress say it’s time to reassess U.S. foreign aid -- especially to China.

"We started looking at the contracts and it was rather amazing that the No. 1 recipient of these taxpayer dollars were Chinese-state owned corporations," said Sen. Jim Webb, D-Virginia, referring to $320 million dollars worth of U.S. government contracts let to China. "I think we can take a good hard look where we're giving foreign aid."

S&P Downgrades Fannie and Freddie. Are States and Municipals Next?

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services on Monday downgraded the credit ratings of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and other agencies linked to long-term U.S. debt. The agency also lowered the ratings for: farm lenders; long-term U.S. government-backed debt issued by 32 banks and credit unions; and three major clearinghouses, which are used to execute trades of stocks, bonds and options. Fannie and Freddie own or guarantee about half of all U.S. mortgages, or nearly 31 million home loans worth more than $5 trillion. As part of a nationalized system, they account for nearly all new mortgage loans. Their downgrade might force anyone looking to buy a home to pay higher mortgage rates. Officials at Standard & Poor's say they will also indicate shortly how local and state governments will be affected by their decision on Friday to lower the long-term U.S. debt from AAA to AA+.

S&P Warns of a Second Downgrade

"One day after lowering the nation’s platinum triple-A credit rating, Standard & Poor’s analysts warned Saturday that the U.S. government could face a second downgrade if the economy continues to struggle and the government fails to make the cuts outlined in the debt ceiling agreement."

"There will be hundreds and hundreds of municipal downgrades"

"Treasuries may be able to shake off a real impact from the downgrade. Munis I’m less sure about." 

Like People, Nations Go Broke Slowly, Then All At Once

Guan Jianzhong, chairman of Dagong Global Credit Rating, said the currency is “gradually discarded by the world,” and the “process will be irreversible.”

"The U.S. government has to come to terms with the painful fact that the good old days when it could just borrow its way out of messes of its own making are finally gone," China's official Xinhua news agency said in a commentary. 

"To cure its addiction to debts, the United States has to re-establish the common sense principle that one should live within its means,"

"the situation is ultimately unsustainable. The longer it continues, the more violent and destructive the final adjustment will be.

If there is any lesson China can draw from the US debt ceiling crisis, it is that it must stop policies that result in further accumulation of foreign exchange reserves. Given that many large developed countries are simply printing money (and the recent rumours are that the US might return to quantitative easing) China must realise that it can no longer invest in the paper assets of the developed world. The People’s Bank of China must stop buying US dollars and allow the renminbi exchange rate to be decided by market forces as soon as possible. China should have done so a long time ago. There should be no more hesitating and dithering. To float the renminbi is not costless. However, its benefits for the Chinese economy will vastly offset those costs, while being favourable to the global economy as well."

What Madness Hasn't this Administration Tried Only to Leave a Mountain of Debt?

Is there any kind of stimulus the US did not try in the last 10 years?

1. We had 1% interest rates from Greenspan fueling housing.
2. We had wars from Bush and Obama fueling defense industry employment.
3. We had two rounds of Quantitative easing from the Fed.
4. We had cash-for-clunkers.
5. We had two housing tax credit packages.
6. We had an $800 billion stimulus package from Congress for "shovel-ready" projects.
7. We had stimulus kickbacks to states.
8. We had HAMP (Home Affordable Mortgage Program).
9. We had bank bailouts out the wazoo to stimulate lending.
10. We had Small Business lending programs.
11. We had central bank liquidity swaps.
12. We had Maiden Lane, Maiden Lane II, and Maiden Lane III
13. We had Single Tranche Repurchase agreements
14. We had the Citi Asset Guarantee
15. We had TALF, TARP, TAF, CPFF, TSLF, MMIFF, TLGP, AMLF, PPIP, and PDCF
16. We had so many programs the Fed must have run out of letters because they were not given an acronym.

That is a partial list. Other than bailing out bondholders what exactly do we have to show for any of it? The one-word answer is "debt".

Entitlement Bread and DC Circuses . . .

From the Burning Platform Blog, this:

“Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses” - Juvenal – 100 A.D.

The Roman authorities provided free wheat to the peasants as a superficial means of appeasing the masses and distracting them from the fact that public policy and public service had failed, as corruption and decadence engulfed those in control of government. Free bread, chariot races, and feeding Christians to lions kept the small-minded peasants satiated and ignorant of their civic duty. Today, the authorities don’t hand out bread they hand out EBT cards to 45.5 million Americans, or 14.6% of the entire population.
There are almost 5 million Americans on welfare. There are 50 million Americans on Medicaid. There are 8 million Americans receiving unemployment compensation. There are 10.5 million Americans on Social Security disability. This is the symbolic bread being provided to the masses to keep them tranquilized, pliable, satisfied and ignorant of their civic duty. The government has renamed bread as “social benefits” and now distributes $2.3 trillion of bread per year to the ”needy”. This constitutes 15% of the country’s GDP and will continue to grow for decades or until the American Empire collapses.

Aldous Huxley in his 1958 assessment of his 1931 novel Brave New World - Brave New World Revisited said that “any bird that has learned how to grub up a good living without being compelled to use its wings will soon renounce the privilege of flight and remain forever grounded. If the bread is supplied regularly and copiously three times a day, many of them will be perfectly content to live by bread alone – or at least by bread and circuses alone. ‘In the end,’ says the Grand Inquisitor in Dostoevsky’s parable, ‘in the end they will lay their freedom at your feet and say to us, make us your slaves, but feed us.” Bread is not the opiate of the masses, it is the cyanide. Huxley saw the Welfare state arising before it really got kick started in the late 1960s. By trying to support the less fortunate by transferring trillions to them, with no strings attached, we have insured the ultimate bankruptcy of our country. Americans have willingly sacrificed liberty, freedom and civic responsibility for safety, security and bread.

Huxley hadn’t lost all hope. He seems to have foreseen the rise of the Tea Party and the coming revolution, led by the youth of this country who are being left with the bill for the bread and circuses promised by myopic politicians over the last four decades:

“When things go badly, and the rations are reduced, the grounded do-dos will clamor again for their wings… The young people who now think so poorly of democracy may grow up to be fighters for freedom. The cry of ‘Give me television and hamburgers, but don’t bother me with the responsibilities of liberty,’ may give place, under altered circumstances to the cry of Give me liberty or give me death.”

China to US: The Party is Over!

"Think what you do when you run in debt, you give another power over your liberty."  --  Benjamin Frankllin

The gloves are off!

This from China Xinhua News Service:

"China, the largest creditor of the world's sole superpower, has every right now to demand the United States to address its structural debt problems and ensure the safety of China's dollar assets.

To cure its addiction to debts, the United States has to reestablish the common sense principle that one should live within its means.

S&P has already indicated that more credit downgrades may still follow. Thus, if no substantial cuts were made to the U.S. gigantic military expenditure and bloated social welfare costs, the downgrade would prove to be only a prelude to more devastating credit rating cuts, which will further roil the global financial markets all along the way.

The U.S. government has to come to terms with the painful fact that the good old days when it could just borrow its way out of messes of its own making are finally gone.

It should also stop its old practice of letting its domestic electoral politics take the global economy hostage and rely on the deep pockets of major surplus countries to make up for its perennial deficits.

A little self-discipline would not be too uncomfortable for the United States, the world's largest economy and issuer of international reserve currency, to bear.

International supervision over the issue of U.S. dollars should be introduced and a new, stable and secured global reserve currency may also be an option to avert a catastrophe caused by any single country."

My Response to Congressman Chaffetz' Call for Firing Treas. Secretary Geithner

No, I'm quite sure that this time those who publicly can neither identify the problem, much less any solution (Geithner, Summers, Pres. Obama, Bernanke, et al.), will surely get it right now, unlike former Goldman Sachs president and Treasury Secretary (but I repeat myself) Hank Paulson, Pres. Bush, oh and Bernanke who didn't see the last one coming and had no clue how to fix that one. Here's a thought . . . maybe the federal government should make family farmers have to have CDLs to operate farm equipment, maybe the EPA could add another $180 Billion to the cost of producing energy to run the economy to produce jobs, maybe the EPA could declare any raindrop to be navigable waters (and not just 12-inch wide rivulets in the middle of the desert) to be navigable waters and regulate everything about every parcels of private property in America, maybe they can institute a complete federal zoning and planning regime an disallow any factories or employment in any red state like they are doing to South Carolina and Boeing, maybe they can give more automatic weapons to more unsavory types and put up a neon welcome sign at all ports of entry to the US as that might create some new law enforcement positions and more jobs for the company that makes the bean bag shooters that our border agents must use while they are getting killed by the very automatic weapons the federal government gave to the thugs, oh and lets do another "stimulus" program to pay for this next brilliant 6-foot deep shovel ready government experiment. Maybe DC can only pay for 37% of the metastasizing government instead of currently being so generous and prudent as to pay for a whole, whopping 57% of the government shadow it casts like a putrid pall over the nation so that our children can pay for 100% of their government plus 63% of the government we refuse to pay for, plus interest, now at a much higher rate, because they are obviously going to be so much smarter and so much more productive they we have been because they have been raised in federal government controlled schools where even the bake sales are controlled by DC. Maybe Washington can increase the cost for business to comply with its innumerable regulations, many of which carry criminal penalties with absolutely no intent element to the crime (Stalin: "show me the man and I'll show you the crime"), from a mere $1.752 Trillion in 2008 to $5 or $6, or $10 Trillion by 2014. 


That will certainly create regulatory jobs to kill and bury any American industry or initiative that might be left trying to labor out from under the tax, debt, deficit, regulatory and uncertainly rocks that DC has piled on already.  But, really, there no need to take the harsh step of firing Turbo Tax Tim Geithner and those he rode in on now.

Wouldn't You Like to Buy Gas for 20 Cents a Gallon?

Here's how.

Chime, the banker, downgrades US credit rating to . . . A (neg)

As was predicted last week, China's rating agency Dagong has come through on its threat to downgrade the US in the event a subpar debt ceiling deal was hammered out. As Xinhua reports, 'Dagong Global Credit Rating Co. said Wednesday it has cut the credit rating of the United States from A+ to A with a negative outlook after the U.S. federal government announced that the country's debt limit would be increased." Dagong's decision was spot on: "The decision to lift the debt ceiling will not change the fact that the U.S. national debt growth has outpaced that of its overall economy and fiscal revenue, which will lead to a decline in its debt-paying ability, said Dagong Global in a statement."

Huge jump to nearly 46 million on foodstamps

The trend is not your friend.

The Unspeakable End of Consumerism

An economy can only sustainably spend what it generates in surplus. The U.S. has been exchanging paper with funny green ink on it for real stuff, far in excess of the surplus generated by our own labor and production. That is our trade deficit. To extend "aggregate demand" to the moon, we borrow trillions of dollars via Federal deficits to fill the gap left by imploding consumer borrowing. This is not spending a surplus we have earned, it is borrowing against future surpluses, surpluses of national income which we are now committing to debt service.

Future generations won't get to spend their surplus; they will have to devote it to servicing the debts we have gaily borrowed and blown on digging holes and refilling them, part of our worship of the magical painted rocks of our false and hollow religion, Consumerism.

Our main creditor will continue to downgrade US debt

See this