Sell your Wal-Mart stock

It's a good thing Trump is prioritizing our return to being a manufacturing nation, because the service industry we are now is about to be wholly owned by Amazon.

Zinnnnnnnnng!

Photo of the Day: Ben Bernanke As a Child         Carpe Diem via George Wesley

The Magnitude of the Mess We're In- and a solution

The Magnitude of the Mess We're In The next Treasury secretary will confront problems so daunting that even Alexander Hamilton would have trouble preserving the full faith and credit of the United States.           “ A Chip Shot for TRKOF? Indeed. But me, The Real King of France & Sweden, in the role of  benign dictator who doesn't suffer fools, could turn this nation around in a relative heart-beat.  So could some of you, just by using common sense and going back to American fundamentals.  It all begins with setting a positive tone.   So, Romney and the GOP had better assume that mantle before we get a not so benign ruler.  ”

Economic Bad News, Bad News, and Good News

The New "D" Word “ Henry Blodget may be a schmuck economist, but cuzzin ricky is the Barn Army's go-to master economy guru.  Here's his latest recommendation, and it's a story of bad news, bad news and good news.  Yes, the good news corresponds with my prescription for a cured economic situation: Laissez-faire MF!  Which means we must literally or figuratively- same good either way - kill the EPA and every root that feeds it.  Unleash the American entrepreneurial spirit or die. This is a last chance. Say Amen. ”

Can Liberals Leave Ever Leave an Econoy Alone?

WHAT GUMMINT DOES          TEXT “ Rick Santelli is always worth listening to.  Here he asks a question that any 7 year-old could answer, but evades all Liberals - "Is deficit spending stimulating (in the good way)?"  Still, yesterdays "Congress Couldn't Balance the Budget even if it Shut Down Government" video convinces me that further discussion is pointless.  c/r ”

More Obama Comedy

Blast From The Past Abbott and Costello explain Obama's bogus unemployment numbers

Pssst - Wanna feel good for a day?

Don't Be Fooled, The Obama Unemployment Rate Is 11%

“ Teh One's Magic- HOW IT'S DONE ( last June) In the latest, much celebrated, unemployment report, the labor force participation rate had plummeted to 63.7%, the most rapid decline in U.S. history.  That means that under President Obama nearly 5 million Americans have fled the workforce in hopeless despair. The trick is that when those 5 million are not counted as in the work force, they are not counted as unemployed either.  They may desperately need and want jobs.  They may be in poverty, as many undoubtedly are, with America suffering today more people in poverty than in the entire half century the Census Bureau has been counting poverty.  But they are not even counted in that 8.3% unemployment rate that Obama and his media cheerleaders were so tirelessly celebrating last week. [Forbes Report] Last week the media and their client Administration  went ga-ga over reports that Teh Ones's magic is working.  That it worked is evidenced by the surge in the stock markets. Gird your loins mates, Obamunists will live on ephemeral sound bytes until election day.  Because they can. To wit— Unemployment, economic picture revised, more positive USA TODAY - ‎Feb 9, 2012‎ "A light switch may be going on in corporate America," says Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi. "The unemployment rate could be headed for 8% or below by Election Day." First-time unemployment claims sink to early-recession levels By Don Lee, Los Angeles Times - February 10, 2012 "The decline in initial jobless claims reflects the slowdown in layoffs at companies as the economy has improved and employers have shown more willingness to keep their workers." Good News continues; People who eat breakast this morning can expect to be alive ”

Secret Weapon

WHAT GUMMINT DOES

“ In Secret Weapon you'll learn what our enemies know and what the Obama administration has chosen to ignore—that our financial system is profoundly vulnerable to financial terrorism - (we've  witnessed three stages; the fourth (coup de grâce) is next. -UPDATE> Federal taxes to jump 30% in 2 years! The premise of Kevin Freeman's book will not surprise anybody here.  In April of 2008 I read Who piloted 9-18 plane? on Free Republic, and have been expanding on it since.  What Secret Weapon can achieve  is serving to  alert to the majority.  People who cannot find it within them to think we can be had that easily.  Or, that our government are  spectacularly dysfunctional and inept, at best; or our deadly enemy.   Despite an avalanche of evidence, Americans still cannot wrap their minds around the possibility of government conspiracy, of which I believe Obama's presidency is the all time leader. A few weeks ago Ann Barnhardt reported that banks in California are refusing to let customers make cash withdrawals.  Preposterous? Yes.  Can they legally do that?  No. But they are.  Just recently I've heard a rumor (MoSup heard it on the radio, but can't source it) that Bank of America is planning to disallow home mortgage payoffs.  The only way you will be allowed out of the mortgage,  is to sell the property.  Can they do that?  Evidently they think they can.  But why would banks want to act this way?  This may be an answer. Robert H. Hem­phill: If all the bank loans were paid up, no one would have a bank depo­sit, and there would not be a dol­lar of cur­rency or coin in cir­cu­la­tion. This is a stag­ger­ing thought. We are com­pletely depen­dent on the com­mer­cial banks for our money. I may buy Freeman's book just to find out what he thinks government ought be doing.  I'll bet a dozen donuts it includes going way entrepreneurial again.  Drilling Alaska oil, and closing the EPA's doors for starters.  In the meanwhile, we are so far gone that my only short term solution is  the secession of at least one state.  A base for rebuilding a failed Republic, and keeping a bunch of us safe from the gummint gestapo that's about to ramp up. . ”

Limiting cash withdrawals

Chatter

“ 20120119 20:16 Anonymoose Dale: Of possible interest, Ann Barnhardt (second story) says that she has been getting calls and emails from people whose banks have been haggling over their cash withdrawals, not citing any laws or regulations, but wanting to limit withdrawals. "Limiting cash withdrawals is a sign of an insolvent or failing banking system. These sorts of limits are happening in Italy as we speak. It is very telling that banks in the U.S. are now lying and dissimulating in order to avoid and thwart cash withdrawals by their customers." ”

Who piloted the piloted 9-18 plane? That's right!

Then, There's this ...

“ “ OT here Boss, but since you were the first (practically only) source of info (Who piloted 9-18 plane? ) RE: the economic events of September 11, 2008 I wanted to make sure you saw this - http://tinyurl.com/3opafra Included is a link to this Document/report- http://tinyurl.com/4veqn8a Just started reading this so I don't know what all is in it yet. # posted by  Grumpyunk : 1/5/12 12:53 PM ” Grumpy links to  Everything Is Backwards Blog (Paper Blood – The Global Economic War Against the US.)  Mr. (Miss?)  Backward's odyssey begins with a March 2011 comment and link by Instapundent. While perusing the Interwebs this morning, I ran across a link at the Blogfather’s site, Instapundit.com. With his usual understatement, it goes like this: ECONOMIC WARFARE: Was the U.S. a victim of an economic 9/11 in 2008? Unclassified DoD report at the link. What I found at that link was cause for concern. Great concern. A lot of great concern. A metric shit-ton of it in fact. Here's another clip from that post The report points to the obvious enemies of radical Islam but also includes other well-known enemies who are working behind the scenes to topple our government, and with that, destroy our way of life. We’ll start with Osama bin Laden’s remarks in his 21 December 2001 message:     “… The economic bleeding is continuing to date, but it requires further strikes. The young people should make an effort to look for the key pillars of the US economy. The key pillars of the enemy should be struck, God willing... Thanks to Almighty God, those blessed attacks, as they themselves admitted, have inflicted on the New York and other markets more than a trillion dollars in losses. …hitting the economic structure…is basic for the military power... It is very important to concentrate on hitting the US economy through all possible means.” We’ve heard these statements before from him, what we haven’t heard is how he plans to carry out his goal of our economic destruction. It’s here that this report details the financial instruments through which our enemies can wage an economic war on American interests and institutions. And just so you know, it’s pretty much everybody: Iran, OPEC, Russia, North Korea, Hugo Chavez, and George Soros all have a hand in this. Interesting that there is a report. Interesting that it evidently collars the same people I did, although I do include Obama.  Prolly not as a key player; he hasn't the raw intelligence, but the person selected to run Amerika II in its infancy.  It's here that Obama has done an admirable job of keeping things destabilizied, wot.  Let's call it Obama Spring. ”

Hucksters

Pioneers

“ I clicked a link from the Washington Times: Dear Reader: Something very big will happen in America within the next 180 days. It will be more devastating than the credit crisis of 2008. For most people, it will hit them like a brick wall. It will touch Americans harder and deeper than anything else we've seen since the Great Depression. Michael Lombardi feels so strongly about this, he's decided to present his "Critical Warning Number Six" in a new video. Okay -  I clicked a link to the video and watched all of it - maybe 30 minutes long.  Here's why.  I am a sales and marketing guy;  I love marketing  innovators.  You remember your first kiss;  I remember the first infomercial I saw.  At first I thought it was a television news broadcast, because of the set. This is ca 1990.   One guy was interviewing another guy about his great invention- something called Blu-Blocker Sunglasses.  The tone and tenor of the interview suggested that here, surely, was the cure for blindness.   After 10 minutes or so I realized this was a commercial, and was pissed about being duped. Was this legal?   But I kept watching.  And walked away excited by the technique.  Joe Sugarman, the brains behind that spot, and many others, immediately joined Ron Popiel and Jerry Della Femina  on my list of  ... heroes?  Yeah, I guess heroes is right.     That's pretty much how I received Michael Lombardi's deal,  S-L-I-C-K!  Well done and captivating.  Yeah, after a few minutes it became obvious that he had something to sell, but he was informative and interesting.   His analysis of the recent economy, although more technical, is 'zactly what I envisioned way back on 9-11-2001—  when the stock market was attacked.  Here's the video, and I hope some of you will watch,  and maybe guess the identity of  his "secret"   ETF .  Or, you can read the spiel HERE, but then it becomes just another boring sales pitch.  [Here's the money shot I screen capped and condensed for them what can't wait (shhhh)]  Sorry for the intrusion, but I'm pumped up.   About something.  But forget what. ”

When Milton Speaks ...

It's so simple ...

“ Rodger, This video clip is perhaps the single most impactful explanation in support of the free market. Milton Friedman does more with a pencil than anyone I have ever known. Skoonj ”

Carter's Revenge?

I told you you'd pay!

Peanut shortage sends peanut butter prices soaring

I know what you were saying.  "No matter how bad things get, we can always live on peanut butter." My first thought was to blame Gore for enticing farmers to sell peanut oil as a fuel, but as it turns out, no.  Number one reason was cotton prices skyrocketed,  so farmers switched crops. Disease is playing a role too.  But look at this as an opportunity.  GOLD-No | PEANUT BUTTER-Si

Merkel Prepares To Get Greeked

Merkel: Greek default would destroy faith in Europe...

How They Think

Can the myth of “certainty” be far behind? HUH?

“ Can the myth of “certainty” be far behind? Employers don’t create jobs, customers do. This week, business owners themselves exploded the myth that they are the job creators. Previously we’d offered the argument that businesses don’t create jobs. “Customers are the engine of capitalism and of jobs,” we wrote. “Employees are hired when a willing buyer shows up at the door. Jobs are not created for any other reason.” Now business owners have weighed in to provide corroboration. Reporting this week in the New York Times, Mokoto Rich interviewed Jeffery Braverman, owner of Nutsonline, in Cranford, N.J.. Even a $4,000 tax cut would not cause him to hire anyone. “You still need to have the business need to hire,” says Braverman. “Business demand is what drives hiring.” [blah-blah-blah] ” The debunked myth (I stumbled upon), according to the Jimmy Zuma dude,  is that "Employers create jobs"  Zuma's actual goal here is to defend Obama's crappy Jobs Bill.  To buttress the Democrat's mythical claim  of being able to create jobs (by stealing money and giving it to Solyndra).   This government has certainly destroyed millions of jobs—   with walls of anti-business taxes and regulations, but it has never created a single sustainable  private sector job.  Just like the Soviet Union never did.  And oh!—   it's certainly true that in a land where nobody has any money, there are no customers,  but that's  a different problem; albeit  from the same source.  Any good entrepreneur will however get around that, and create new  wealth, but only if democrats stay the hell out of their way.  That's not a myth. THIS JUST IN OMFG!  We'll be rolling in money now!!

Repudiation ...

Repudiation ... OMFG

“ Most people, unfortunately, apply the same analysis to public debt as they do to private. If sanctity of contracts should rule in the world of private debt, shouldn't they be equally as sacrosanct in public debt? Shouldn't public debt be governed by the same principles as private? The answer is no, even though such an answer may shock the sensibilities of most people. ”  One of yesterday's links to people I link-to has resulted in a starburst of energetic discovery, and to some extent repudiation and validation of some of my own positions. This link. American Digest  Do Your Duty! You Have the Responsibility as an American to Make Obama Successful. Which also contained this post. “ Put Debt Repudiation On the Table I propose, then, a seemingly drastic but actually far less destructive way of paying off the public debt at a single blow: out-right debt repudiation. Consider this question: why should the poor, battered citizens of Russia or Poland or the other ex-Communist countries be bound by the debts contracted by their former Communist masters? ... Similarly, we the living did not contract for either the past or the present debts incurred by the politicians and bureaucrats in Washington. -- Repudiating the National Debt - Murray N. Rothbard - Mises Daily Posted by Vanderleun at 8:36 PM | Your Say (1) ” In the old days (1970s), when perhaps the nation's only broadly distributed conservative opinion came via the Wall Street Journal's Editorial pages, every Thursday contained what I called the " The Thursday Car-loon" column.  When I began reading it that column was written by Alexander Cockburn ( later by Al Hunt, who was as left-wing as Cockburn, but without the intelligence).  This is by way of saying that I think Cockburn is a first class A-hole.  Had I simply watched the video then, I would have left happy with the notion that Vanderleun was presenting an easy  target for disdain .  Advocating the repudiation of credit card debt is a distinctly Commie thing to do. A gentleman is honor bound to his debts, and must go to his grave having done everything possible to pay them.  Then, I clicked the link Repudiating the National Debt - Murray N. Rothbard - Mises Daily. To the extent that my leathery brain cells can expand to accept new and unwelcome formulations, they did. Bear in mind that I am quoting from the Ludwig von Mises Institute web page.   “ In the spring of 1981, conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives cried. They cried because, in the first flush of the Reagan Revolution that was supposed to bring drastic cuts in taxes and government spending, as well as a balanced budget, they were being asked by the White House and their own leadership to vote for an increase in the statutory limit on the federal public debt, which was then scraping the legal ceiling of one trillion dollars. They cried because all of their lives they had voted against an increase in public debt, and now they were being asked, by their own party and their own movement, to violate their lifelong principles. The White House and its leadership assured them that this breach in principle would be their last: that it was necessary for one last increase in the debt limit to give President Reagan a chance to bring about a balanced budget and to begin to reduce the debt. Many of these Republicans tearfully announced that they were taking this fateful step because they deeply trusted their President, who would not let them down. Famous last words. Any melding of public debt into a private transaction must rest on the common but absurd notion that taxation is really "voluntary," and that whenever the government does anything, "we" are willingly doing it. This convenient myth was wittily and trenchantly disposed of by the great economist Joseph Schumpeter: "The theory which construes taxes on the analogy of club dues or of the purchases of, say, a doctor only proves how far removed this part of the social sciences is from scientific habits of mind." Morality and economic utility generally go hand in hand. Contrary to Alexander Hamilton, who spoke for a small but powerful clique of New York and Philadelphia public creditors, the national debt is not a "national blessing." T ” I have to get ready for the Redskin game, here's the rest of it.  I'll get back to this.  I think.   For the record.  I want to talk about what Clint Eastwood said too.

Laffer

How to Fight Black | Unemployment                            all

“ Some people actually believe government can create jobs by taxing and borrowing from people with jobs and then giving that money to people without jobs. They call this demand stimulus. To make matters worse, other people think these demand-stimulus ideas warrant a serious response. Government taxes cigarettes to stop people from smoking, not to get them to smoke. Government fines speeders so they won't speed, not to encourage them to drive faster. And yet contrary to common sense, it seems perfectly natural to some people that government would tax people who work or companies that are successful only to give that money to people who don't work and to bail out losing companies. The thought never crosses their minds that these policies are the very reason why our economy is in such bad shape. I'm beginning to think that Irving Kristol was correct when he wrote,  "It takes a Ph.D. in economics not to be able to understand the obvious." [Arthur Laffer— How to Fight Black Unemployment ] ” Art Laffer is the undefeated champion of economic policy (supply side) that works, which is why he's wasting his time  trying to reason with Obamunists. How's that for cynical?

Defending the Undefendable

Barn Army Book Club Defending the Undefendable

“ THE FAT CAPITALIST-PIG EMPLOYER If not for the minimum wage law and other progressive  legislation, the employers, the fat-capitalist-pig exploiting employers, to be precise, would lower wages to whatever level they wanted. At best, we would be pushed back to the days of the sweatshop; at worst, to the days of the industrial revolution and before, when mankind waged an often losing battle with starvation. “ So goes the conventional wisdom on the merits of minimum wage legislation. It will be shown, however, that this conventional wisdom is wrong, tragically wrong. It assumes a villain where none exists. What does the law actually accomplish and what are its consequences? The minimum wage law is, on the face of it, not an employment law but an unemployment law. It does not force an employer to hire an employee at the minimum wage level ... .  [Defending the Undefendable, p. 223] Economist  Walter Block's book "Defending the Undefendable"  is in many ways a validation of what many of us suspect  is true, but find ourselves running instead with the herd.  Books that challenge your beliefs are a good thing.  It's my real and true experience that Democrats I know never explore themselves, at least outside of the bathroom. For instance I know for a fact that not one Liberal read  Arthur Herman's book about Joe McCarthy, but it did not stop them from paroxysmic attacks on Herman for deigning to write it.  So they continue to look and act silly. John Stossel introduced Block's book to me, and he cites David Boaz of the Cato Institute and Nick Gillespie of Reason. in support of Block's chapter on  THE EMPLOYER OF CHILD LABOR (p. 243). “ "If we say that the United States should abolish child labor in very poor countries," Boaz said, "then what will happen to these children? ... They're not suddenly going to go to the country day school. ... They may be out selling their bodies on the street. That is not an improvement over working in a t-shirt factory." ” Since this is about the joy and benefits of free markets, you'll be interested to know that you can buy Block's  book from Amazon for $15, or read it for free - HERE You're welcome.

The Atlantic - Print Mo Money!

MO MONEY MO MONEY

I thought this ATLANTIC article, with it's stack of 200 $trillion bills was a joke.  I mean authored by James Kwak?  Why not Tendai Biti Zimbabwe Finance Minister *snort* But no, Kwak is sincere; responding to Rick Perry's call for Bernanke's head  for treason if he prints more money.. “ But some Republicans are not content with preventing fiscal policy from reducing unemployment. They also want to intimidate the Federal Reserve--a historically independent agency--from using monetary policy to reduce unemployment. Yesterday presidential hopeful Texas Governor Rick Perry said that it would be "treasonous" for Ben Bernanke to "print money" to attempt to stimulate economic growth.     The Federal has a dual mandate to protect both employment and prices. They're doing abysmally at the first. In these economic circumstances, "printing money" is Ben Bernanke's job. The Federal Reserve has a famous dual mandate: maximum employment and stable prices. Right now, they're doing fine at one and abysmally at the other. ("Other?) [Full] ” Disclosure:  If a Federal Reserve truck pulled up to my house and left $200 billion on my porch, I'd spend it.  On gold.

Reactions to the Downgrade

Roundup of Reactions to the Downgrade of the World's Largest Debtor Nation