Believing Your Own Bullshit- The Sunday Collage*Updated

I've never played Tiger Woods. Truth is, I don't even know where that is.

I played a lot of golf this week. Two days in a row, I fired rounds of 76 back to back. On Wednesday, the 76 included a tap in for eagle at Jerome Country Club. On Thursday morning, I rolled a six footer in for par on the last hole to finish at 76 with my cousin in law, Jason. Because I was playing so badly, I decided not to play the back nine. What a difference a day makes.

All week long I have been reading and mulling over all of this spoon fed bullshit that the media continues to feed us. I actually think that most people believe we have some kind of rock solid economy chugging right along. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I've never seen anything like this. If some good piece of information comes about- it is trumpeted everywhere on virtually every network and on liberal social media. All of the crappy economic news, falling home sales, soaring part time jobs with no benefits, the crooked banks and their manipulated accounting, earnings misses everywhere, M2 money velocity falling off a cliff. None of that gets reported.

So I thought I might ask if this sounds familiar... Do you know people who only talk about the good things in their lives? They will tell you how happy they are, how special their kids are, never ever stating anything which might be construed as derogatory. Like they are living the dream and not susceptible to the same worries as the rest of us.  I know people like that- people who can't tell you the whole truth about themselves because they are scared shitless to reveal anything that might paint them as fallible, less than, or even God forbid- normal. They want you to believe they have these perfect lives- in essence, they want you to believe their own bullshit.

I have to be honest. Those people still piss me off a little. Mostly because they are dishonest and try to enlist me as a cheerleader. Yet... If I only had that observation to guide me- I'd know the liberals have captured this media. Because that's a modus operandi I recognize.

A couple of years ago, I listened to a man tell me this story which I believe is relatively accurate and very illustrative of what is taking place in those who can't get honest with themselves.

My friend said that his drinking had caused 3 or 4 divorces, three DUI's, and a domestic battery arrest. He had lost a couple of businesses, hundreds of thousands of dollars on attorneys, defense costs, fines and increased insurance premiums. Most of his children had quit talking to him. And even though he knew all of this had actually taken place- his brain some 20 years later- was telling him to forget these things. Focus on the fun you had drinking. His brain, he said, was trying to convince him that drinking was fun and that this time it would surely be different. His alcoholic brain wanted him to forget all of the misery drinking had brought about.

He looked me straight in the eye and said, "There's real danger when you start believing your own bullshit."

When I was a young man and rookie cop, I read a fantastic book called, "Telling Lies." It was written by a world renown interrogator and lie catcher. It is a very dry read and some 30 years later, the one thing I took away from that book, the one thing that sticks out in my mind and that I have always remembered, was how people rationalize and accept lies as reality because they feared facing the truth even more. They'd rather believe the lie. Thus the lie became their truth. They become self delusional because they can't handle the truth. It was actually quite common according to the author. So it might not be such a giant stretch to understand that a group of motivated bankers and politicians might escape criminal charges and job loss- if they managed to pretend as though nothing was wrong- and spread some of their bullshit over the American landscape.

To that end, the FED has been buying 1.1 trillion dollars worth of treasuries and mortgages every year or otherwise injecting stimulus into the economy for the past 4 years with money that never existed in the first place. It is sheer idiocy. The Fed's balance sheet is currently just short of 4 trillion. That 4 trillion went directly into the TBTF banks (primary dealers) which in turn, bought and manipulated bonds, commodities, and equities. It has inflated our stock market to such an extent- that I believe Americans actually think that we have a good economy.

That lie has been going on now for nearly 5 years. And I have to tell you, that so far- the lie is working.

It begs three questions.

(1) How long can they continue this charade?
(2) What happens when they stop QE and the markets collapse as everyone tries to cash out?
(3) Where is that excess liquidity going to go? How are they going to dry up the inflationary effects of 4 trillion dollars worth of excess money that was simply printed out of thin air?

Here's my answer. I don't know exactly- but I'm fairly sure it ain't going to be pretty. And I'll tell you this- it can't be far off. Many of us are sick of the lies, the manipulations, and an entire population of cowardly countrymen that can't swallow their medicine and rebuild this smoldering banker disaster. Instead we have to die the death of 1000 paper cuts because Chicken Little Hank Paulson convinced the sheople that we'd all go to hell in a handbasket if we didn't bail out his banking cronies.

I dream of the day when I cross paths with that asshole. It's high up on my bucket list. Come to Boise Hank, I'll buy dinner.

The problem with believing your own bullshit is that it is roughly the same as cheating your way through college. You never really learn the material and in the real working world, that translates to ineffectiveness. You might have a degree, but your peers who really do understand the material and who are effective workers- are going to find out quickly that you don't know what the hell you are doing. That's going to cause some ridicule, some discipline, and maybe disruption and job loss in your life.

I believe that the bankers, politicians, and the media have actually begun to believe their own bullshit. Why wouldn't they? They've been living this lie for 5 years and it's been working. I wonder what they are going to do when all of those lies get uncovered and the people of the US realize that we are even more broke and more in debt than we were prior to the '08 collapse?

Who would have believed that you cannot spend your way out of debt? The politicians, bankers, and media will probably act shocked when it happens. Like nobody could have possibly seen this coming. Like icebergs in the N. Atlantic in April.

*Update. Here is absolute proof of the greatest manufactured "recovery" of all time courtesy of ZeroHedge. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-08-13/us-treasury-finally-admits-truth-its-all-pomo-and-no-one-dares-fight-fed

In the 'merica of yesteryear, we used to be able to recognize a problem, identify the cause, and apply a workable solution like Glass Steagall. Today in 'merica, the bankers have captured the politicians and the media. They don't want you to discover the problem (they commit fraud) or identify the cause (fractional banking, and inflating the money supply) or apply a workable solution. They want people to continue on, getting deeper and deeper into debt, paying steeper taxes, and being kept in the dark by their media. They want us all to carry on as though nothing has happened and it will all work itself out.

Over the last 25 years, Japan has been just as broke as we are and getting worse every year. Today, it was disclosed that they have officially broken the 1 quadrillion yen debt barrier. That is a thousand trillion. You should know that Japan did the very same thing we did in real estate, did the very thing we did when we bailed out banks, and wouldn't you know it- they have gotten the very same results that we have. Strange, huh? Is there anyone in the known universe that thinks Japan is ever going to pay that one quadrillion off? I don't, but then again- they've only had 25 years to do so. Maybe we should give them another 25 years.

The problem with believing your own bullshit is that it always fails. It works until it doesn't. Doesn't is coming to a theater near all of us- very soon.

Let's all act surprised when it happens.

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A Moment of Pure Genius

I may have to end this blog right here because of something that happened to me this week.

I think most of us have a few moments in our lives- moments when we are completely baffled by a problem. Suddenly a moment of clarity or a solution appears and we are shocked by the obvious. We wonder why something so simple- took us years to figure out.

For just a brief moment in time, we feel the joy of having solved a giant problem or of discovering some concealed truth. It is an "aha!" moment. A moment when pure genius strikes us suddenly and then quickly leaves- hibernating until it re-appears at some future time. In my case, about once every ten years. If that often.

My ten years must have been up this week.

Earlier in the week, I had engaged in one of those flame wars with a liberal on Huffpo. I get so sick and tired of their partisan bullshit and hatred for conservatives- when I know their party is every bit as bad. The subject of our back and forth is not important. What is important is that I am completely baffled by this back and forth head bashing without end. What is the underlying problem? Why is everyone so entrenched in their faulty positions and politics? I began to mull this over and to look for the source, the underlying illness when it hit me.

In the early 1900's, a group of private, international bankers hatched and carried out a plan to form a central bank while secretly meeting on Jekyll Island, Georgia. Eventually their  measure passed both houses on Christmas Eve, 1913, when many members of Congress had left for the holiday. Woodrow Wilson signed the legislation and thus created the Federal Reserve Bank. Wilson called it the biggest mistake of his life. Wilson was right.

Now all of this information is pretty well documented and available even for the biggest skeptic- but the real question is- why is the Federal Reserve Bank necessary? Prior to 1913 we survived just fine, sans those banker created bank panics of the late 1800's spawned by the same men who carved out the Federal Reserve Bank Act on Jekyll Island.

The Federal Reserve Bank is necessary because Congress desperately needs an unlimited funding mechanism that bypasses voters.

What does Congress do? Congress creates and passes projects and laws. Somebody has to pay for that stuff. Now you can't keep coming to the American taxpayer year after year, begging for permission to subsidize things like the American Wool Growers Association. Americans won't pay for these minority concerns and pork barrel projects. Taxpayers would say no or maybe even throw the bums out. So Congress invented a way to bypass citizens.

They invented the Federal Reserve Bank. That way, Congress has an unlimited checking account and an unlimited line of credit. What they don't have to do- is ask American taxpayers for budgetary permission nor do they have to worry about American taxpayers getting angry and voting them out of office. Congress simply spends money they don't have, the Federal Reserve finances it by issuing treasury debt, and the American taxpayer gets stuck with the bill.

The Federal Reserve Bank was created so that politicians or government, could borrow as much money as they needed without EVER asking our taxpaying citizens for permission.

The Federal Reserve was born and sold to us a panacea to smooth out all those panics of the early 1900's. In 16 short years, the Fed gave us the Great Depression- an event far worse than any bank run.

We should have eliminated the Fed right then and there.

Without citizen stewardship or budgetary input or oversight, American citizens or taxpayers or voters were effectively marginalized. We were no longer in charge of our government. Government was no longer constrained by it's citizens. They could spend as much as they liked without repercussion. They were free to redistribute wealth anyway they saw fit by drawing on that unlimited line of credit and forcing you to pay for it. You could not vote them out of office and even if you did, the new ones were apt to be just as bad as the old ones. It's the system that is flawed- yet we argue about the symptoms.

The underlying problem has always been the Federal Reserve Bank.

That was my moment of clarity, of pure genius. That's why we fight. We think we hate the other guy's politics. We hate his spending. We blame him for all of that inflation, lost purchasing power, four dollar gas, crappy wages. We think we hate his social programs, his wars, his lies, and all of that debt. Trillions to bankers, sequester, debt ceiling hikes. All of that financial chaos is directly attributable to the unelected Federal Reserve which enables our unaccountable politicians to literally steal taxpayers blind. Yet, we ignore the real problem- the Federal Reserve- and instead fight some imagined enemy which is either the GOP or the Democrats.

I probably won't stop writing but I'll tell you this-

The Federal Reserve Bank and it's never ending debt creation is responsible for virtually all of our problems. God could not design a better distraction than partisan politics. Politics is simply one of the symptoms of this disease. Some day if we are to survive, real political reform and accountability in this country will come at the cost of eliminating the Federal Reserve Bank. That is job one. I am sure of it.