I recently read a Washington Post piece by our Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner. Tim tries to dispel the "myths" about T.A.R.P. You can read the article in it's entirety at http://www.realclearpolitics.com/ I very nearly entitled this blog, "Tim Blows Smoke Up Our Asses." The first rule of FED bankers is, Never Jeopardize the FED. You see, letting the FED's member banks fail was in fact the right thing to do. You see Tim, those are the same business rules that all of us peons have to play by. When we play fast and loose with the operating capital- leveraging non existent money and making loans to deadbeats- we generally fail. We don't give a shit whether the banks pay us back or not. That's not the point and you know it. Letting those banks fail and be put into receivership may have exposed the entire FED to scrutiny. The same scrutiny they try very hard to avoid. At that point, the American people may have asked some weird question like, "Jus...

I loved the operative scene in the movie, "As Good As It Gets." That's the one where Jack Nicholson, a neurotic and obsessive compulsive, steps out of his psychiatrist's office and into the waiting room. There in the waiting room are people waiting to see the shrink. It is as though Nicholson has just realized that he is never going to get well. As he looks around at the room full of mentally ill folks-he tells them this may be, "As good as it gets." He then departs. A few months back, I wrote a blog about why we can't afford a recovery. We are in the midst of a perfect storm. Any recovery will cause the FED ultimately to raise interest rates. Of the approximately 20 trillion (I do count Fannie and Freddie) we owe, all but 550 billion, must be refinanced within 10 years. Shorter term debt. Therefore we will be in the rather nasty position of having to refinance 19.5 trillion into higher and higher yields at greater interest. At about that same time all o...

On CNBC this morning, they asked viewers- if they thought banks were responsible for the depression we are all experiencing and whether or not banks were getting a bad rap. I want to explain something here for anyone who thinks banks are getting a bad rap. Joe and Mary Citizen are marks. They don't know it. They had no control over home prices. They had no control over hybrid mortgages which required essentially nothing down, they had no control over all the cheap money that flooded into the marketplace prior to 2007, they had no control over houses that appreciated 100% in two years. They had no control over loans that were made to people who mis-stated their income. They had no control over the QUANTITY of money (debt) available. It was the QUANTITY of our debt that fueled the feeding frenzy that enabled everything else to happen; and the fractional banking rules that allowed banks to lend 9 times what they actually had on deposit and thus leverage some leverage. Banks fueled and...

I like the part where he says, "Jump you fuckers."

One day a florist went to a barber for a haircut. After the cut, he asked about his bill, and the barber replied, 'I cannot accept money from you, I'm doing community service this week.' The florist was pleased and left the shop. When the barber went to open his shop the next morning, there was a 'thank you' card and a dozen roses waiting for him at his door. Later, a cop comes in for a haircut, and when he tries to pay his bill, the barber again replied, 'I cannot accept money from you , I'm doing community service this week.' The cop was happy and left the shop. The next morning when the barber went to open up, there was a 'thank you' card and a dozen donuts waiting for him at his door. Then a Congressman came in for a haircut, and when he went to pay his bill, the barber again replied, 'I can not accept money from you. I'm doing community service this week.' The Congressman was very happy and left the shop. The next mo...

...if they only threw one crook in jail. Hank Paulson.

So if the FED is as bad as we think that it is...what is the alternative, the solution? A fiat currency produced by the government, issued in ample amounts for commerce to take place. End the practice of fractional banking and leverage. Quit paying interest. Quite simply, get rid of the middleman banker who produces nothing, does nothing. Fiat currency works. You cannot "back" a currency such as ours with gold. Quite simply it's not possible. All of the gold known to be in existence today would only fill 3 Olympic size swimming pools. If every currency on earth were to be backed by gold, (they are all fiat- almost) gold would get priced in the stratosphere. In fact, countries on the gold standard have suffered mightily. The fall of the Roman empire occurred when Caesar switched to the gold standard. The same is true in the United States. The reason many people think the gold standard is effective is because it stops the people who control and increase the QUANTITY of mone...