Pent up demand

John Hussman: Depression Fear Mongering 'Ridiculous'

"FDR also promised to keep us out of WWII."

I think you're confusing your populist demagogues. It was Wilson and WWI :)

New Game, New Rules

"These decisions have likely deflected the misery that Americans would be subjected to if the disruptive short selling (rape and pillage )continued. "

Oh, yes, by all means. We're Americans, we like our rape and pillage at the hands of duly elected officials.

Foreclosures Prove Loan Modification Isn't Working

Funny you bring up chicken, VoR. Because that is exactly the game the banks are playing. Can they pick up enough coins off the railroad track (raise capital) before the 5:09 comes through (and they have to write down their books).

Housing as an Inflation Hedge: It's Not Magic, It's Leverage

The capital cost for a home is subsidized by the federal government (mortgage interest deduction). So it ain't free, but it's cheaper than most other forms of borrowing.

Inflation? Sminflation!

DougM, your points are well made, but I don't think any of them make a pure fiat system preferable to a currency backed by hard assets. Yes, there were boom-bust cycles and bank panics when we were on the gold standard. But how is that worse than the current state of affairs in which the banks in league with Congress and the other central banks are pushing us toward a much harder "correction".

Inflation? Sminflation!

This is analysis? There a dozen good reasons for "why gold?" that can be discovered via ten minutes of Googling. Yes, the money supply can increase under a gold standard, but it increases as a result of people mining the earth, not as a result of Bernanke or Paulson saying "now we will have a term auction facility for banks, dig in boys!".

The statistics have been understating inflation for years: through hedonic adjustments; through the gaming of the housing component. They switched to owner's equivalent rent to keep the housing boom out of the inflation numbers. Now that housing is collapsing look for the statistics to revert back to the old methodology of housing price surveys. That will provide a nice smoke screen for the accelerating increase in the money supply.

Another Discouraging Inflation Report

"Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon." Who said that again?

I just hope they put Greenspan's face on the hundred when they issue the "strong" US dollar at 1,000:1 for today's greenbacks.