Wow. The parade of lies continues. I am in awe. So the question becomes...will people believe headlines like this: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/unemployment-rate-hits-8-3-133203262.html This morning the BLS reported it's gerrymandered numbers but failed to mention that a WHOPPING 1.2 million people dropped out of the labor force. An all time high for ONE month. Ignoring the 5 million people who have quit looking for jobs allows the BLS to state that the unemployment rate has dropped to 8.3%. Gold in a big sell off because happy days are here! Simply stated, if you have run out of unemployment benefits, or never qualified for them to begin with, you are simply not counted. Therefore, the higher the number of uncounted people is- the lower the drop in unemployment. Or will people believe this? http://www.zerohedge.com/news/implied-unemployment-rate-rises-115-spread-propaganda-number-surges-30-year-high Perception shapes opinion and reality. It doesn't have to be true- it...

I am not kidding. This economy is completely dead. There are no jobs. Artificially over-priced houses aren't selling because people can't qualify with their new reduced wages. Not to mention credit reports that are shot. Not in my life did I ever think we'd see 3% mortgages. I'm waiting for 2% and I am not kidding. Japan, here we come. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/rate-30-mortgage-falls-record-3-87-pct-150348197.html

There has been a tug of war since 2008. The bankers and the government have done everything universally possible to create the illusion of a banking world that is solvent. They have also rescued the stock market- truly making it the investment of last resort. If the stock market fails- America fails. I am not kidding, it is that serious. If the banking world gets exposed then all bets are off. Often, I will read the anti-gold class state something like gold "does not pay a dividend." The implication is that the stock market and the bond market offer better returns. Is this true? The answer is no given a negative interest rate environment like the one we have now. A negative interest rate environment occurs when inflation is outstripping yield or dividend returns. It works like this. Suppose you can make 3% yield on treasuries or a 4% dividend in equities. That rate of return looks ok when it is stacked up against a 1% inflation rate. You are still getting "plus m...

Yesterday I did a piece on the destruction of the United States debt Titanic. The ship where every tax payer has a seat. I questioned the numbers presented by a reporter who failed to cite his source. I assumed, most likely, that he acquired his numbers from the Congressional Budget Office. http://thecivillibertarian.blogspot.com/2012/01/maybe-media-is-just-as-baffled-as-rest.html In less than 24 hours, Zero Hedge was out with a great story on the missing credibility of the CBO.  http://www.zerohedge.com/news/cbo-merely-another-manipulated-front-wall-street-dictate-washington-policy I had to read that story three times. Why? Because it just smacks so true. It makes sense. If you look at the history of the CBO's "optimistic" projections (chart) you'll find a decade of deceit or at the very least, consistently minimized deficits. Is that coincidence? It's pretty difficult for me to escape the fact that the CBO appears to be nothing more than one more p...

This article from HuffPo pretty much sums up the wreckage of Lawrence Summers. Absolutely fascinating, the work of an ego. Here is the ego of a man who simply cannot accept that he and his shitty decisions are a big reason why the world is now getting a free ride on the debt Titanic. He of course, found a lifeboat. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-scheer/the-democrats-who-unleash_b_1249110.html

The stupid tax. I admit, I have played Powerball but only when the jackpot exceeds 80 million. Somehow that allows my ego and conscience enough dignity to play. The reality is- is that these types of lotteries are absolutely the worst gamble on the planet. It amounts to little more than surrendering your hard earned money. The only sure winner is the states' and the Federal government who without ever so much as purchasing one measly ticket- manage to steal half of every lottery winner's treasure. Small wonder that gambling and lotteries were illegal up to the point that government saw an opportunity to steal even more money from the citizenry. Suddenly, that horrible vice of gambling became palatable and acceptable to governments everywhere. They love the lottery. So last Saturday night, with the jackpot cracking 100 million, I bought a five dollar quick pick which in fact became a ten dollar quick pick- the cashier informed me. It seems that the Powerball people, not ...

It's absolutely fascinating- the quality of crap written by the mainstream media. Sometimes, I honestly don't think corporate writers have a brain in their head. Or at the very least, writers may simply be gullible since they are mostly statists and government worshippers to begin with. Quite often it appears that writers simply do not attempt to fact check anything our government excretes or at the very least- cite which massaging agency is the source of  the numbers they are using. They simply accept some BS number from some undisclosed agency and write a story. Remember, this is the government which delivers the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports each month. Some of the most superb science fiction since Jules Verne and Kurt Vonnegut first put ink on paper. This is an ABC news story I stumbled onto. I snipped the following quote directly from the article. "The US Treasury Department is seeking to borrow $444 billion in the current quarter. The latest estimate of bor...

Ever wonder why Congress and the President never change tax laws designed to enrich the elite at the expense of the middle class? This is why. If you want Super Pac support you better not screw with them. The millionaires and billionaires behind Obama, Romney, and Gingrich. http://news.yahoo.com/super-pacs-set-disclose-big-donors-tuesday-065005955.html It's a big club and you ain't in it.

The answer, circa 1974.

I love the Bard of Murdock. A must read for me every day. More funny stuff here: http://www.thebardofmurdock.com/ Stimulating Stocks Article link: Another Green Energy Stimulus Recipient Hits the Skids I like investment services And helping clients find Investments that will grow their wealth, And give them peace of mind. I analyze stock dividends And annual reports, To find the perfect companies To play with longs and shorts. I then review their P&Ls And comb their balance sheets, To find a magic formula Or pattern that repeats. I’ve found the perfect indicant That helps me to finesse The shares of stock to buy and sell With startling success. A wise investor finds returns By following the trail Of grants and loans by government: Those companies will fail. So leverage every cent at hand And short their common stock, For if they’ve taken stimulus Their failure is a lock.

Day after day, week after week, month after miserable month...it's the European Debt Crisis. It simply won't go away and the people involved with trying to save the euro simply cannot accept that killing the euro and putting it out of it's misery is the only thing that makes any kind of sense. Sometimes experiments just don't go well. Thomas Edison knew that. Thomas, like all great inventors, quit trying to force the things that did not work into working. Ultimately he tried new things until he either found something that worked- or he simply accepted that nothing would work. The problem went unsolved.   The Europeans don't think like that. They keep trying to make something that doesn't work- work. And of course, like some macabre play- it just keeps getting worse and worse. It would be isolated and infinitely more comical if the implications for the U.S. weren't so dire. People just don't realize it's one giant worldwide central banking schem...