Great actors often model their performances after public figures. It would have been difficult to miss William F. Buckley’s idiosyncrasies so well captured by Dustin Hoffman in his 1991 film portrayal of Captain Hook. For his role in Pirates of the Caribbean, Johnny Depp modeled Captain Jack Sparrow on the Rolling Stone’s Keith Richards. The characterization was so effective that Richards himself was cast as the pirate’s father in a sequel. We’ll have to wait for the March release of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland to see, but some modern-day pirates could have provided excellent models for Depp’s portrayal of The Mad Hatter.
If not mad, there was certainly something maddening in the doubletalk of former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan. In an era that needs nothing so much as clarity, Depp could have created an unforgettable anti-hero emulating Greenspan’s mumbled ambiguities. Another Fed alumnus provides equally rich material for characterization. Bewildered by TurboTax and befuddled by AIG, Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner’s earnest perplexity has enough madness to it that it provoked laughter among university students in Beijing.
But not every performance has to be over the top. In the hands of a skilled performer the understated mannerisms of Fed chairman Ben Bernanke could become the stuff of movie performance legend. Imagine a motion picture character who matches Bernanke’s record for getting everything – everything – wrong, coupled with resulting widespread destruction such as the economy has suffered. As chairman of Bush’s Council of Economic Advisors in October 2005, Bernanke told Congress that he wasn’t concerned about a housing bubble. A year and a half later, in March 2007, he testified as Federal Reserve Chairman that problems in the subprime market were "contained." But never mind the chairman’s inability to see the bubble as he helped froth it up. After the fact, there is something especially chilling in the chairman’s blank look of incomprehension about his role in the debacle. For when the deluge hit exactly as Congressman Ron Paul and others employing Austrian-school analysis had forewarned, the brazenness of Bernanke’s wide-eyed denial of Fed complicity in the real estate bubble was simply breathtaking.
After all, considering the scale of destruction on his watch, wouldn’t anyone with healthy human consciousness at a bare minimum seek out the views of those who had warned of the calamity? Doesn’t the magnitude of the losses cry out for examination without prejudice? Not by our role model. Bernanke has to exonerate the Fed, because acknowledging the role of interest rate manipulation in the housing bubble is also an indictment of current Fed policy and an advance admission of authorship for the dollar meltdown to come.
Even Bernanke’s desire to be reconfirmed for another four years testifies to the persistence of his failed Keynesian dogma and his cluelessness about his hand in the creation of the coming currency crisis. As the Fed persists in its folly and one Fed bubble begets another, the motion picture Groundhog Day comes to mind. But Bill Murray’s protagonist in that film was eventually able to show some growth. It was that growth that made him, in the end, sympathetic. It is only by the madness of clinging to failed dogma and persisting in error that one becomes a true and unforgettable anti-hero.
The monetary system will continue to bleed the U.S. economy dry even if the faces of the authorities change. Still, there must be accountability. Therefore, I invite you to join Mish, who wants to...
Dump Bernanke!
How You Can Help!
Opposition to the reappointment of Bernanke is mounting every day. Senator Barbara Boxer Senator (D- California) and Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) are is the latest to hop on the Dump Bernanke bandwagon.
How You Can Help!Here is the Online Directory For The 111th Congress .Whether they are in your state or not, please call all 5 undecided senators.Concentrate on the senate. The house has no say on this.
What To Say: Make it simple so as to not tie up the lines ... "I am opposed to the reappointment of Bernanke [give your personal reason] and I think we should start all over on health care [or whatever you think about that issue]."
Next call your senators with the same message.
Look up the phone numbers in the online directory.
Send A MessageRemember it takes 60 votes for confirmation. All it takes to send Bernanke flying is a change in a handful of undecided senators!
It began with a George W. Bush led government that decided that a few big stimulus packages, a war on Iraq and Afghanistan and a generally more gentle conservatism (meaning mega new safety nets like prescription drugs), not to mention a bailout of the financial industry, were must haves; and it was put into hyper-drive by an Obama administration and a supportive Congress that seem to think that every economic and social issue can be solved by the government.
Indeed, since 2000, government spending has been growing at an annual rate of about 8.5%, more than double the rate seen in the 1990s, and a trend that has taken government spending from about 18% of GDP in 2000 to today’s 26%, an increase of 44%.
L: Doug, I saw a Wall Street Journal headline a few days ago that boldly proclaimed, "Car Makers May Hire Soon." Be still, my trembling heart! It’s hard to believe the WSJ would stoop to such a meaningless headline, but I guess they are just trying to give their desperate customers what they want: some hope, whether valid or not. What do you make of the unemployment situation?
Doug: Well, they say that during the depression of the 1930s, unemployment went as high as 25%. That’s interesting, in that at the time, half the people in the country were still farmers. They knew how to make the things they used in daily life with their own hands, and how to grow their own food. There was less specialization in the economy, and people were more self-sufficient. That made them better able to cope with an economic depression.
So it seems to me that that depression wasn’t anywhere near as bad as this one is going to be. It was caused by the inflation of the currency in the 1920s, by the Federal Reserve, and was prolonged by the actions that Hoover took, which were in exactly the same vein as those Roosevelt took later. Hoover was quite a dirigiste – I mean, Roosevelt applauded all the things Hoover did, but Hoover didn’t have the panache and good PR that Roosevelt did. But everything these two did – and both were disasters, lengthening and deepening the depression – was trivial by comparison to what’s being done today.
The government today is making things far worse than in the 1920s and 1930s. Everything the government is doing is not just the wrong thing; it’s exactly the opposite of the right thing. But more importantly, as far as unemployment is concerned, this inflationary boom has gone on much longer than that of the ’20s. Not only does that call for a bigger correction, but unsustainable patterns of production and consumption have become far more ingrained... Read the rest... Doug Casey
The U.S. government has NO money. It takes money from Peter to spend it on Paul. It takes money from Peter, whether Peter likes it or not, whether Peter receives something of value from the exchange or not. It’s called a tax. And the simple fact is government spending ALWAYS means government taxes.
Tell me something I don’t know, you say. Well, yes and no, for here’s where it gets a bit tricky.
Besides the ever constant cry for more government spending in support of Paul, it’s the way in which the government taxes Peter that allows the government to spend so much on Paul. Lay the bill bare and its likely Peter throws a fit. But mask Paul’s true cost and maybe Peter will be, shall we say, more willing to support the government’s desire to spend money on Paul.
The U.S. government taxes Peter in 3 different ways:
- Tax Peter now - Tax Peter later - Tax Peter don’t tell him
The Financial Crisis Commission Didn't Call A Single Person Who Understood The Problem
Last week, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission kicked off their first round of hearings on the causes of the economic meltdown on Wall Street. Texas Straight Talk from Congressman Ron Paul:
"If this panel was serious about understanding the root of the problem, as they claim to be, they would have people testify who understand the crisis and saw it coming. To my knowledge, none of them have received a phone call. The problem is those people would say too many things the government panel would find inconvenient. They would point fingers at too many of the state’s anointed."
LAST CHANCE BOOK-SIGNING! And your free, customized likeness drawn by a world famous artist!
Charles Goyette will speak about the economy and developing currency crisis at Borders Bookstore in Phoenix, 24th and Camelback Road, Thursday evening, January 14th at 7:00 pm.
It's the last scheduled opportunity to get an autographed copy of The Dollar Meltdown in the Phoenix area. And as an added attraction, Pulitzer-prize winning editorial cartoonist Steve Benson from the Arizona Republic will be on hand to provide one of his famous customized carictures for everyone who buys a copy of the book at the event.
You'll profit from The Dollar Meltdown during the turbulent years ahead, and your family will treasure your personalized drawing, signed by Steve Benson, for years and years!
Fannie and Freddie are now full wards of the state, departments of the U.S. government.
And their obligations are now the obligations of the American taxpayer.
That’s right, Fannie and Freddie’s obligations are not just implicitly guaranteed by the U.S. Treasury, as they were before Fannie and Freddie were taken into conservatorship by the U.S. government in September of 2008, nor are they just temporarily guaranteed, with a $400 billion cap, as they were under conservatorship.
Now, Fannie and Freddie’s obligations are explicitly guaranteed, without limit by the U.S. Treasury for 3 years, and as needed thereafter.
Who made this decision? The Obama administration. When did it happen? Interestingly, on December 24th, after everyone had gone home for Christmas. Even more interestingly, by playing Santa before the New Years’ ball was dropped, the Obama administration dodged the need to bring the decision to Congress...
OBAMA SOLVES HEALTH CARE - AIRPORT SECURITY ISSUES!
Full Body Scans to Double as Annual Checkups!
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) - In what some in the White House are calling a "win/win" solution to the nation's airport security and health care reform problems, starting next month U.S. airports will begin conducting full body scans that will double as annual physical checkups.
President Obama announced the breakthrough solution, telling reporters, "With this all-purpose exam, we will be able to find everything from a hidden weapon to a spot on your lung." After scanning a passenger, Mr. Obama said, "We will either give you a clean bill of health or wrestle you to the ground."
The President added that instituting the body scan/checkup could ward off some terrorists right from the start, "because a lot of them will balk at the $25 co-pay."
But according to Davis Logsdon, who studies terrorism and health care reform at the University of Minnesota, the body scans may attract more terrorists than they deter: "If there's one complaint that terrorists have about al-Qaeda it's that they have lousy benefits."
Elsewhere, a new book claims that actor Warren Beatty slept with 13,000 women, making him the second-ranked golfer in the world.
It's the last scheduled opportunity to get a signed copy of The Dollar Meltdown!
Thursday, January 14, 2010, 7 pm at Borders bookstore, Biltmore Fashion Square, 24th Street and Camelback! Charles Goyette will speak about the coming currency crisis and sign copies of the New York Times bestseller The Dollar Meltdown: Surviving the Coming Currency Crisis with Gold, Oil, and Other Unconventional Investments.
Special Guest Steve Benson, the Pulitzer-prize winning editorial cartoonist for the Arizona Republic, will also be on hand, providing personalized and signed caricatures for everyone who buys a copy of The Dollar Meltdown at the booksigning event!
Bernanke Disclaims Responsibility for the Fed's Housing Bubble!
Mish doesn't think he shoud get away with it!
"Bernanke's hubris, inability to admit mistakes, and his blaming everyone but himself for his mistakes is increasingly starting to touch on nerves.On Tuesday, the New York Times asked the right question: If Fed Missed This Bubble, Will It See a New One? "
In 2005, Mr. Bernanke — then a Bush administration official — said a housing bubble was “a pretty unlikely possibility.” As late as May 2007, he said that Fed officials “do not expect significant spillovers from the subprime market to the rest of the economy.”
The fact that Mr. Bernanke and other regulators still have not explained why they failed to recognize the last bubble is the weakest link in the Fed’s push for more power. It raises the question: Why should Congress, or anyone else, have faith that future Fed officials will recognize the next bubble?
"Bernanke thinks the way to manage an economy is to bring it to the brink of disaster then bail out banks at the expense of taxpayers. I think Bernanke should be fired."
End the Fed–by Ron Paul (Grand Central Publishing, $21.99). When it comes to money, the mainstream media like to portray Congressman Ron Paul (R–Texas) as a gadfly. Let Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke enjoy his Time-ly accolades, because history will judge that Paul had it right when it came to the Fed and its often misbegotten monetary policies.
Paul has aroused the fear and ire of the Federal Reserve with his bill calling for the Government Accountability Office to audit the Fed. This tenacious Congressman makes the point that independence should not be confused with a lack of accountability. One doesn’t have to agree with Paul’s ultimate conclusion that the Fed should be done away with to realize that this powerful institution is a kingdom unto itself. The Fed can bring about depressions (many historians agree with Milton Friedman’s belief that the Fed was the chief cause of the Great Depression), horrific periods of inflation, as it caused in the 1970s, as well as the current economic crisis, which the Fed fueled with its excessive easing of monetary policy several years ago. Without the excess liquidity, the housing bubble could never have happened. Yet Congress exercises no oversight of the Fed. In fact, no one outside the Fed has the right to examine to whom it lends money or the agreements it makes with other central banks around the world.
Paul makes the argument that we don’t need the Fed at all, that particularly in this high-tech era we can allow–and efficiently function with–competing currencies. Strange? The U.S. did exactly that for most of its existence, up until the Fed was created in 1913. Needless to say, that part of Paul’s thesis is highly controversial. But what shouldn’t be controversial is his belief that gold should be the ultimate anchor for money. Politicians always end up trashing paper money. Paul correctly hammers home the point that the Federal Reserve’s repeated attempts to smooth business cycles and create perpetual prosperity have backfired badly and destructively. As for the Fed’s ability to manage money, Paul simply notes that since the Fed’s inception the dollar has lost more than 95% of its value.
Thanks to Fritz, and note, the rest of Steve’s column is 200-proof neocon.
