For the last three years, I have written extensively on greed. Unadulterated, rampant greed. And yet to write about greed, and the elites that practice money worship and the hunger, seems almost un-American. The defenders of capitalism see greed as "normal." It is acceptable. And to utter a disparaging word on greed, draws the defenders out. Right wingers, employees of the elite, they come. They attack. But what they cannot do-is defend greed. And they don't because they can't. And so it is that they launch those attacks on behalf of their nanny and elite employers. Displaying their loyalty. Hoping for a bigger piece of that wealth themselves. Indeed, it is a sickness. And as I write this, I see that Manny Ramirez has re-signed for the 2010 season with the LA Dodgers. Twenty million for six months of play. I stumbled onto this piece. Written by an MIT graduate with a nice string of credentials. It focuses on greed with an out take our two on our systemic priorities an...

I got a kick out of this. Seems Bank of America was giving out credit cards to illegal aliens without social security numbers. Taxpayers gave 'em 35 billion. Courtesy of Frankenstein. How sweet of us to bail B of A out and supplant their astute business making decisions. Linkeration via Snopes that verified the allegation- http://www.snopes.com/politics/immigration/bankofamerica.asp This brings up a lot of questions for me...like those involving accounts and other taxpaying consequences but arrgghh...gonna leave it alone...

Got this in an email from an old friend. He is part of the lunatic fringe that we used to refer to as "patriots." Once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert. Congress said, "Someone may steal from it at night." So they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job. Then Congress said, "How does the watchman do his job without instruction?" So they created a planning department and hired two people, one person to write the instructions, and one person to do time studies. Then Congress said, "How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?" So they created a Quality Control department and hired two people, one to do the studies and one to write the reports. Then Congress said, "How are these people going to get paid?" So they created the following positions, a time keeper , and a ...

I don't know what the big deal is. A trillion here, a trillion there. You guys act like this is some big deal. The sky is falling, the sky is falling. Now our annual GDP, or the total cost of everything produced in the U.S., is only 14.4 trillion. The national deficit is currently only 12 trillion. See it here: http://www.usdebtclock.org/ Next year, annual GDP and our debt will match for the first time evah! In 2011, it will spill over. Every kid born now owes an immediate 39,000 bucks just for being born- and I think its high time they started paying the freight. This waiting until age 15 to tax them is bullshit. That's why we owe so damn much money in the first place. And while I'm at it, isn't a high school education a capital gain? Franky got a piece of my salary every time they paid me to go to some job related training-so what gives? Ok, maybe that's weak sauce...onto the point... I don't even think a trillion is accepted as a large number, but baby anyth...

Years ago, I had several gold crowns put on various molars. This happened back when gold traded at 300 bucks an ounce although undoubtedly, I paid something north of that. Yesterday, India was reported as buying 6.7 billion worth of gold. India chose to invest in gold rather than US securities. Interesting. They bought at 1040.00. Today gold is trading right at 1100. They have already made 4 or 5%. Try getting that rate of return anywhere. Because the dollar is so hideously weak, and oil is traded in dollars, the price of oil continues to trend up. That and China is signing contracts with anyone willing to sell. It's over 81 bucks a barrel. Now I watch CNBC Business News. Far more than I should. And because they are a network, and a news channel, they bring on these talking heads. Today they were talking about commodities "bubbles." Thinking that all of this pressure on commodities is about to burst and rapidly deflate just like the housing bubble. Not so. In fact, what m...

I want to talk about pop. Soda pop. I need a Frankenstein breather. For years, I have witnessed this phenom which I am about to describe. Yet I have never stopped to ponder it until last night. I pondered it because as I stood in the eternal line of 12 items or less at the grocery store, I began counting the shoppers ahead of me, many with 30 items or more. Rather than club them to death or say nasty things, I pondered. That's new for me. And as I pondered, I noticed at the checkout counter that they have those little bottles of Diet Pepsi in those little coolers-my drug of choice. There was a tag that said a twenty ounce bottle was only 1.39. Yet here I was in that glacial line, holding a giant 67 oz bottle of Diet Pepsi. It cost only 1.00. And for a moment, I felt like a criminal. How could this be? With my intensely mathematical mind, doing quick calculations (although I certainly didn't need to) I should have been paying something north of 4 bucks for this loot. Was this th...

Being a libertarian is hard and lonely work. Running around and chasing Franky through gothic landscape (while keeping my torch lit) is not for the faint of heart. Let's take a meandering and circuitous walk and try to make this fun. I didn't choose to be a libertarian. I became one by default. I had the two emotional precursors that all libertarian must have. I came to believe that crooked politicians enriching them selves and their elite friends was wrong. (Republicans) I believed as well that enriching yourselves, enriching your friends, and making it appear as though you were helping the poor and downtrodden was also wrong. (Democrats) In both instances, the minions get hosed. So it doesn't really matter whether you steal my money and give it to your friends, or give my money to the poor. Either way, you are stealing my money. It's like being captured by benevolent headhunters. Death by sodomy or death in scalding water. Then we eat you. But either way you will be e...

Here at Frankenstein Government, we (meaning my multi-personalities and corresponding voices) are committed to bringing you the latest version of Frankenstein's, "Healthcare Omnibus Spendulus Maximus" or HOS 'M bill whilst you are sleeping. Presumably, some of you still have jobs. You will need your rest so that you can go to work and pay for my health care costs while I spend hours retrieving this information for you. Obamas' original price tag on the HOSM was 900 billion. Other reliable sources are putting it closer to 1.3 trillion. But don't worry about that. Nancy Pelosi is quoted as saying that this bill will actually reduce the deficit. Kind of like government buying you a new car, and just because they love you, they pay all the rest of your bills for you. Like I said, you can't make this shit up. Click here to get it straight from the floor, yesterday.

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent. Thomas Jefferson Well in my little hometown last week, they "jerry rigged" a local school bond levy for 60 million. They did it one week prior to the towns regular elections. Why? Because they were trying to attract the least amount of participation as possible. That and the law that allows them to do that will likely vanish next year. My little area is heavily populated with second homes. Homes unoccupied by owners probably not even registered to vote locally. Ski season hasn't arrived yet. And so our school district exploited existing law, mounted the rallying cry, claimed it was GREAT for the local economy, and whipped up all of the support that they could. The majority went MIA. Apathetic and absentee homeowners. A whopping 27% turnout. Thus a super-minority was able to spend the dough of the majority. They claimed victory. Some of them even claimed patriot status for the act. (I ...

Hear Ye, Hear Ye old men. We may have missed our chance. The article states that streaking pumpkin heads may have been arrested and thus listed as sex offenders. Wow. Having harmless fun in frigid temperatures...well we can't be having any of that! E-mail this to a friend Printable version Police quash nude pumpkin run Many of this year's runners got cold feet over the threat of legal action A "zany" annual Halloween tradition has failed to materialise in Boulder, Colorado, with the threat of police action quashing the Nude Pumpkin Run. Each year, dozens have run down the city's streets wearing only shoe...

Now it's CIT's turn. Read the link and and just feel your backside get hot. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aGR8yTH2eLwY&pos=1 Early in the banking crisis, before we ever passed Hank's bailout bill, I wanted to see every one of those insolvent banks go broke. Into receivership. Yes and have the great depression that we all so richly deserved. Get it over with. In fact, that is the law. Government may have broken the law by passing TARP or so we'll find out. http://www.beachwoodreporter.com/politics/is_tarp_legal.php I remember this local brainiac telling me that the banks were going to pay back those loans. With interest. "We'll make money!" he said. Well, dude...it's like this. It's like loaning money to a soon to be dead guy. Dead guys don't earn money nor do they pay you back. Of the famous 4 "C"s of lending, the most important "C" is capacity. And broke banks, and dead guys, are fresh out of c...

I don't care much for lawyers as a whole. A few exceptions, the good ones. A few. Worse than simply being a lawyer, is being a self serving and greedy lawyer. (although some would make an argument (pun intended) that there is no other kind) This Ms. fits all that. I might never have heard her name but I dug it out. Another one of those privileged kids. Hey Harvard! Is this the best that you can do? A blurb about this criminal who was a Deputy AG and who of course while cooking the books, was never prosecuted. Next up is Jamie S. Gorelick , whose official résumé describes her as "one of the longest serving Deputy Attorneys General of the United States," a position she held during the Clinton administration. Although Gorelick had no background in finance, she joined Fannie Mae in 1997 as vice chair and departed in 2003. For her trouble, Gorelick collected a staggering $26.4 million in total compensation, including bonuses. Federal investigators (PDF) would later say that ...