Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Trader Dan's Market Views: Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene
Trader Dan's Market Views: Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene: "In some private emails I have received some of the writers have expressed fears of a 2008 type meltdown in the precious metals whenever they..."
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
RealClearPolitics - True Job Creators Need a Voice
RealClearPolitics - True Job Creators Need a Voice
Excellent article explaining the pitfalls of government regulation on a new generation of entrepreneurs. The real engine to job recovery is not in Washington and it never has been.
Excellent article explaining the pitfalls of government regulation on a new generation of entrepreneurs. The real engine to job recovery is not in Washington and it never has been.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Effective GOP Video on State of the Economy
While I am becoming more Libertarian, this GOP video is pretty good. Bottom line, the GOP needs to do more than make commercials if they are going to take leadership on this issue.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
The Next Financial Crisis by Gary North
The Next Financial Crisis by Gary North
The mainstream financial media are running stories on the next financial crisis. This is unheard of two years into a so-called economic recovery. So weak is this recovery that the old pre-2008 confidence has not returned.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Obama gets an economic jolt - The Washington Post
Obama gets an economic jolt - The Washington Post
Obama made a stop in Ohio to focus on the importance of the "private sector" being the lead for starting the economic recovery. In a word, duh - but do not be fooled. Obama will probably use private sector rhetoric as the framework for promoting QE II and III since he believes only the government can light the spark necessary to begin growth. The only thing cheap money will spark is the firestorm of creditors divesting themselves of US bonds.
Obama made a stop in Ohio to focus on the importance of the "private sector" being the lead for starting the economic recovery. In a word, duh - but do not be fooled. Obama will probably use private sector rhetoric as the framework for promoting QE II and III since he believes only the government can light the spark necessary to begin growth. The only thing cheap money will spark is the firestorm of creditors divesting themselves of US bonds.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Diminishing Returns
Our nation was founded on the principle of preserving individual liberty and individual freedoms through a social contract. That vision is eroding. Americans today are being born, not into a social contract, but into social servitude enforced by the power of the Federal Government. Our incomes are routinely raided and private property and personal privacy are empty concepts thrown around in vain attempt to convince ourselves they still exist.
I began thinking about writing this post after seeing commercials aired by the Democratic National Committee in response to Congressman Paul Ryan’s legislation to reform healthcare. The commercials depict the elderly or the disabled being murdered by an unidentified white male. The voice-over in the commercial infers that the white male is a Republican, who identifies with Congressman Ryan’s plan, and therefore there is no moral difference between murder and Congressman Ryan’s proposed legislation. Personally, I found the commercials so juvenile that I thought they were part of a comedy sketch. When I discovered the commercials were serious attempt at political dialogue, I wondered why anyone would take anything so devoid of intellectual foundation seriously.
But people are taking the commercials seriously. Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Shultz is the head of the Democratic National Committee. Her rhetoric in policy discussions matches the commercials. In short, Ms. Wasserman-Shultz contends that Republicans, i.e. fiscal conservatives, are proposing that, as a nation, we murder the old, the disabled, the weak, and any others who can fit into her narrative of fear. She also has spent time on the road declaring that Republicans are anti-woman – whatever that means.
I remember walking to work one day and a mentally unstable individual was standing on a street corner announcing to the world that the US Government, lead by the CIA, was trying to kill him. In my opinion, Ms. Wasserman-Shultz’s rhetoric is the same thing; paranoid and unsubstantiated ramblings about a broadly defined, nefarious group bent on murder. In this case, she is referring to Americans who are advocating for fiscal conservatism and reform of the entitlement state. Her catch phrase is, “they want to end medicare as we know it.”
It’s too bad the America “as we knew it” is ending. As a society, we have now placed the State above the individual and have reinforced this ideology through the election of strong, statist advocates. Private property and personal privacy rights are quickly evaporating under the imperator of the “commonwealth” or national security. Kelo v. City of New London is a perfect example of private property being “taken” in the name social betterment. Kelo is an embarrassing extension of jurisprudential absurdity found in the New Deal era case, Wickard v. Filburn. In Wickard, perfectly legal behavior by a private citizen on his own land was supplanted because it ran contrary to the philosophy of the State.
It is Politicians like Obama and like Debbie Wasserman-Shultz who want Americans to rely on bloated, unaccountable, and poorly administrated government programs for their safety and security. They down play the role of the private sector and cast suspicion on for-profit entities. And anyone who wants to reform or trim entitlement programs is morally equivalent to a murderer.
At some point, by necessity or opportunity, American politicians are going to have to a serious debate on reforming run away spending and entitlements in this country. But don't hold your breath. The votes-for-handouts machine still has some life in it.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Calculated Risk: Lawler: Census 2010 Demographic Profile: Highlights, Excess Housing Supply Estimate, and Comparison to HVS
Calculated Risk: Lawler: Census 2010 Demographic Profile: Highlights, Excess Housing Supply Estimate, and Comparison to HVS
A hollow currency coupled with poor housing numbers is not a good combination.
A hollow currency coupled with poor housing numbers is not a good combination.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Trader Dan's Market Views: Investors looking to the Fed for stimulus again?
Trader Dan's Market Views: Investors looking to the Fed for stimulus again?: "It is perhaps a bit premature to jump to conclusions but today's price action in the overall commodity sector seems to be signaling that a s..."
Monday, May 23, 2011
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