Jason Rines (iThinkBig)'s Comments

Hyperinflationary Depression Must Be Avoided

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:56:30 -0500

I am long the American people. I really appreciate the most wonderful commentary by you every day. I have learned a lot and each time the commentary is different even though not much may have changed from one day to the next. For what it's worth, here is my speculation:

*If gulag, the fatality sequence is 40 years
*If liberation, the USA defaults to foreign creditors and we pay the price in blood geopolitically.

We are in the nuclear age. I speculate the fatality sequence will be shortened to say, 2020-2021. May the Good Lord be with us on our journey back home to liberty. May truth, freedom and justice ring once more. Some global leadership has already made the mistake of underestimating the American people. I doubt the world will forgive those who unleashed this hell on earth.

On Nov 19 05:54 AM User 353732 wrote:

> The Middle Class is likely to find itself confronting simultaneous
> inflation in essential goods and services, stagnation(in real terms)
> in housing prices for several years and deflation in total after
> tax disposable income.
>
> Inflation because real assets will (and already are starting to )
> reset their exchange rate versus the fake dollar. The more the dollar
> is debased the more internationally traded real assets will rise
> in dollar denominated prices to maintain or enhance true intrinsic
> purchasing power. Initially, the proto currencies will "inflate"
> rapidly. These are gold, silver, platinum, rare earths and oil.
Next
> will come industrial ores and metals and aluminum, fibers, timber
> and food and the rest of the energy complex, including nuclear.
The
> less amenable to manipulation and corruption by the US Regime a real
> asset the first and fastest it will reset its exchange rate versus
> the dollar.
> Once all the foundational resources of the US economy(and the world
> economy) have inflated in dollar terms almost all essential goods
> and services in the US will experience inflation(or else entire industries
> will be bankrupted by a ferocious cost squeeze).
> US real estate will be the among the last asset classes to inflate
> because it is most subject to manipulation and price distortion by
> the US Regime.
>
> Transfer payments to the lower class will inflate to maintain money
> illusion ( while losing purchasing power but the lower class has
> never understood the concept of real purchasing power)so the Regime
> can maintain control. The Upper Class will prosper mightily as real
> assets inflate and the Regime gets even more gargantuan.
>
> It is the middle class that will suffer a very painful deflation
> in their purchasing power and a catastrophic erosion in their material
> and psychological quality of life.
>
> Either the Regime goes or the Middle Class vanishes in America as
> a significant political, social and moral presence.
>
> The Regime can be reformed by shame or purged by struggle.
> Shame is unlikely to be effective since the grossly indecent and
> pathologically self adoring are irredeemably shameless.
> Struggle is then the only effective alternative for purging and exiling
> the US Regime. In late 2009 it is an imponderable whether the Middle
> Class can prevail in what has to be a protracted struggle.
>
> However, should a net 7,000 jobs be lost every day for the next several
> months , small business failures continue at their current pace and
> middle class credit starvation remain high, then the struggle may
> well be initiated in mid to late 2010. If it is, then the next decade
> may be one of the most consequential in American history.
> At the end, we will once again be a free nation with a rising middle
> class and ascending liberty, prosperity, security and global stature......or
> a shabby,dark, cruel Gulag of America.

The Great Credit Crunch Is Deepening

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:39:10 -0500

Perfect analogy.

On Nov 19 09:29 AM User 353732 wrote:

> I suggest there are two parallel credit worlds.
>
> A world of credit feasts to which only the highly favored but monstrously
> corrupt few on Wall St are invited. There, they gorge themselves
> on limitless, free, credit and deploy the liquidity into investments
> with positive and low to almost no risk returns. The arbitrage is
> vast and pervasive and deliberately maintained by WashDC.
> The value destroyers are treated to a credit glut
>
> A world of credit famine for Main St, small and new businesses and
> aspiring start ups and many medium sized businesses. For them credit
> is rationed by both fiat and extortionate interest rates and penalties(
> some credit cards, including small business corporate cards, are
> reported to inflict interest rates in the high teens; even as high
> as 20%). Household and small business income is both suppressed and
> stolen by these predatory credit conditions.
>
> The value creators are subject to systematic credit starvation.
>
> This is the moral equivalent of Stalin's forced starvation of the
> anti-communist productive farmers and related communities in the
> Ukraine and elsewhere and their enslavement in the Siberian gulags.
>
> What food and land was in the Red Empire, credit is in the Soviet
> of America.

Our Steroid Pumped Economy

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:33:38 -0500

You got that right. Good seeing you around Yellow Hoard. I do need to call you in the near future.

The USA needs an economic model that evolves and finishes the Central Bank model. That evolution is called representation. The confidence will not return to the USA until it does.

On Nov 18 09:18 PM yellowhoard wrote:

> Big,
>
> State workers won't lose their jobs.
>
> Our president depends on them for reelection.
>
> State workers and federal workers will be the last to circle the
> drain.

The 10 Most Annoying Things About This Recession

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:11:37 -0500

Hope and Change. How about Truth, Freedom and Justice for awhile?

Marc Farber: Gold Will Never Fall Below $1,000 Again

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:27:52 -0500

Hear hear!

On Nov 18 09:45 AM Tony Petroski wrote:

> Mr. Mark:
>
> More Giselle, less Faber please.

Jobs and the Market Rally: The New, New Balancing Act

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:46:47 -0500

More like the same strategy since 1992, Washington has just accelerated the strategy now that it is becoming clear to the American people by making sure the connected individuals and companies in the market get value out of the currency before it plummets once again like a stone.

The American people are very forgiving. But if the jobs situation is not rectified, the American people will only have one job left and that will be to fix the massive structural imbalances themselves.

I do not believe such matters should be taken lightly by the political system. Of course, the disadvantage we have in that regards to Europe is that the money players had to learn the VERY hard way about the behaviors of not being able to afford to live in the 18th and 19th century. Whereas here in the USA the political class or elites or what have you, haven't had those sorts of learning lessons. That is why in Europe the social net is much bigger. I am not saying I endorse such a system I am merely pointing out the why they do and what lessons were the catalysts.

On Nov 18 02:40 PM fwi wrote:

> Personally, I find it grotesquely disingenuous for the President
> to speechify about his concern for the poor and disadvantaged, whilst
> giving the go ahead to Bernanke to pursue an inflation biased "recovery"plan.
> Whether food and energy are in the "core inflation" numbers or not,
> these 2 things have to be bought with dwindling resources. Maybe
> inflation makes the headline grabbing numbers look good to Mr. Market,
> but at some point the reality of people having to buy food and energy
> at higher prices will displace other purchases. Not everybody is
> "in the market". I think these policy makers are pursuing a chaotic
> and incoherent strategy.

Jobs and the Market Rally: The New, New Balancing Act

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:37:48 -0500

How about creating the monetary and political solutions for the West? Sure, Tahiti in a loin cloth sounds nice. But it sound outright dull compared to this historic period in time in either writing it, or watching it from the sidelines with a little pink umbrella in a drink. As for the rest of your comment, it has merit as for the growth status of the West as a whole.

On Nov 18 11:05 AM Mad Hedge Fund Trader wrote:

> bdc The US is turning into Europe. Think backbreaking taxes, chronic
> high unemployment, government involvement in everything, less innovation,
> and much lower growth, in exchange for a social safety net, more
> debt, and better coffee. That is the message the markets told us
> by retreating to the 6,000 handle in March, levels not seen since
> 1996, and down 54% from the 2007 peak. Equity prices have shrink
> to multiples, in line with permanently lower long term growth rates
> of maybe 1%-2%, a shadow of the 3% rate seen for much of this decade.
> Hint: that analysis gives you a stock market lower than here. Perhaps
> this is what aging sclerotic economies are supposed to look like.
> Once Ben Bernanke stops spiking the punch with ecstasy and Viagra
> by raising interest rates, this is where the resulting hangover could
> leave us. If someone is holding a gun to your head and you must buy
> American stocks, only select names that are really foreign stocks
> in disguise. Microsoft (MSFT), Intel (INTC), Oracle, (ORCL), Cisco
> (CSCO) all get 60%-80% of their profits from overseas, where up to
> 90% of the real economic growth will come from for the next decade.
> Commodity, agricultural, materials companies, and their ETF’s also
> fit this picture. As for me, I think I’ll move to Tahiti and live
> off of coconuts and freshly speared fish, wearing only a loin cloth.
> Anything is better than becoming French.

Give 'em enough rope and financial regulators will always do the wrong thing, writes Steve Randy Waldman. We need a structure where banks are universally small - not necessarily in balance sheets, but in exposure to the system.

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 15:45:33 -0500

Allow me to be blunt. The monetary model of Central Banking is completely non representative. Because of this hugely important point whether a country, bloc of nations or now world can be a democratic but the result will always rely on the character or morality of a any form of emporer and the chairman of a Central Bank. Pondering this fact leads one to conclude that human nature is cyclical. Therefore, how does the world move evolve past this model?

1) An evolutionary restoration of lending models that do not permit excess leverage.

2) Peer to Peer banking using the Internet and allowed by any individual whom wishes to lend to another. The market sets all interest rates. The model is made completely transparent and every person on earth can vote on the model itself and how it is regulated.

3) The concept of Justice must be explored once again, philosophically understood and translated into a new global Republic. Rigid anti trust laws must be established as part of a global Constitution. The majority on earth must be willing to run towards the solution. We are nowhere near this point so we had best get started as in yestererday.

World Trade Organization Warns, Gold Rises, IMF Talks, U.K. Loses Credibility

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:31:21 -0500

CDS 2.0 . Since it was so wonderful to 99% of the global population the first time.

The Weak Dollar and the Too-Big-to-Fails

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:21:52 -0500

Why no mention of a new monetary lending model based on other far more successful lending models in history and tied into modern innovation such as the Internet?

Ever hear of Peer-to-Peer lending? The Chinese have and are implementing it while their Chinese Central Bankers nod and smile at Geithner and Clinton and chuckle within. You cannot pour new wine into an old wineskin. The Chinese know this proverb well.

Washington, become Americans again and return to the concepts of truth and justice that made this country the best on earth .

You may find yourself on the very poor end of the trade participating in what your up to with your NYC business partners. The people have solutions and ways for less volatile retirement instead of far less palatable outcomes that will result from the current plan.

We're here to help but the final variables are now locking in place for only one outcome and it is extraordinarily negative, for all. Let's opt for a plan B. It is indeed a very small world these days.

JP Morgan Invents New U.S. Employment Numbers

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:59:48 -0500

Yeah same JPM playbook in general in geopolitics as that time frame as well. What was the name of that Republic again in Germany in 1921? Your point of the market skyrocketing to the moon has close correlation to that Republic. You are quite a piece of work. Repeating the same playbook until the entire world is under a feudal global government yields the same historic results as on the local or national level.

As for the same geopolitical playbook, what would have happened if that great old trade partner of JPM Adolph had gotten the bomb first? Containment and hubris in the nuclear age is dangerous folly friend. Global history is being rewritten by the facts on the ground and will turn away from usery lending models and little worth intermediaries. No revisionist history buddy. This time is not different, it is the same as all times in regards to Cause and Effect. JPM and the feudal empire has unleashed the variables to its own demise. The king is dead, long live the king! Watch the next Adolph betrayal from Russia this time and they will not mind how many die or WHO that individual is. What a twit you are.

On Nov 13 01:11 PM Angel Martin wrote:

> Imports are trending up, car loadings are trending up, commodity
> prices are up, the stock market is up, the yield curve is very steep.
>
>
> No birth/death adjustment, CPI quality changes, or JMP spin here.
> Same indicators investors used in 1921.

Capitalism Is for the Other Guy

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:39:08 -0500

I really enjoyed your description Michael of the roots of the word hubris. It is also why when I come by here to SA these days I make comments how the USA is becoming Communist to silence the economic rape victim.

History will always rhyme until mankind has perfected genetic engineering, something that will not occur in our lifetime. For now, this episode of history is easily predictable. Care for one another these next few years gentlemen. After the dark night always comes a new dawn. The next dawn is worth surviving for. This period is an end to an era and the start of a new one.

On Nov 13 07:13 AM Michael Clark wrote:

> As many have pointed out on this site, Japan's lost 18 years came
> when the rest of the world was firing mostly on all cylinders, when
> Americans and Europeans were saddling themselves gladly to the Debt
> Rack...Japan continued selling manufactured products during its deflation
> decline. But now no one is really buy on full cylinders, and I can't
> imagine anyone ever buying on the same full throttle program as 2007-8.
> People in the world took on debt like it was a religion, that debt
> slavery brought them closer to God.
>
> It will be a lot worse now for the entire world (Japan also) as exports
> are going to dry up and return to the seed: exports will be the size
> of the pit before they are the size of the watermelon again.

Market Destruction: Mass Media Finally Catching On?

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:19:23 -0500

I gave you a thumbs down for the foolish comment that this political economy and structure has nothing to do with shrewd investing.

Let me net out for other potential investors reading this: The USA is now a Banana Republic so trade accordingly.

You should start buying land with your carry trade profits and consider bloviating less. Do you have a self-esteem issue as to the reason for all of your vanity pontifications here at SA? Talk about wasting time.

But there was nothing wrong with your comments on Carry Trade in general although I may not completely agree with your investment strategy.

On Nov 13 03:28 PM Mark Anthony wrote:

> On Nov 13 03:04 PM Wildebeest wrote:

Market Destruction: Mass Media Finally Catching On?

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:06:34 -0500

I know Karl Denninger. I very much doubt he will provide people like Mark Anthony a defensible position. He does not require one.

On Nov 13 02:16 PM jambo wrote:

> Mark Anthony! How do you with a straight face manage to castigate
> other's viewpoint as being political while in essence you are doing
> exactly that yourself?
> You seem to think you can exist in some amoral zone that's all about
> "making money'". Are you the man who worked for Enron, Bernie Madoff,
> Hitler, etc.? Head down, pursuing your own narrow goal rather than
> looking at your own complicity in the destruction of others wealth
> and then hollering when someone calls bullshit.
>
> I quote you:
> "SeekingAlpha, after all, is not a platform for political debate.
> It is a platform for people to exchange thoughts and ideas on how
> to make money and how to avoid losses. Has any of your political
> rants helped any one make money? "
>
> I'm sure you'll agree MARK A, that this lofty stated goal of yours
> would be best served in a financially stable environment. The whole
> underlying point of Karl's piece was that this fiscal policy is absolutely
> (not politically) unsustainable. Do you not see that knowing this
> is at the very core of our investment strategy? Do you view it as
> political because it differs with what you think? Make your point
> and let us decide. You dont have to take Karl down to do that do
> you?

The FHA Is Broke

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:12:23 -0500

Excellent article John. I agree with Woolly about his sentiment of the situation.

Allow me to frame the macro situation with a quote from Thomas Jefferson:

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

I am long the American people.

The Global Oil Scam: 50 Times Bigger than Madoff

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:54:46 -0500

I would count on it occurring. I would also count on the historical response of the people when they are told to eat cake. A government is never bigger than the people, not even a global one. Either the citizens can afford to live and willingly insert themselves into the supply chain or they don't. It is going to get very bloody soon.

On Nov 11 04:23 PM john s. gordon wrote:

> after reading the above concerning secret round-trip trading in offshore
> exchanges to maximize revenue for those who control the futures markets,
> it is easy to see the potential for abuse if cap & trade (CO2)
> legislation ever becomes law. it will make the enron scam look like
> chump change.

The Global Oil Scam: 50 Times Bigger than Madoff

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:50:50 -0500

Democracy has been working out as expected after 200 years. Every government system has a fatality sequence. Ready for education?

Despotism = 20 Years
Communism = 40 Years
Democracy = 200 Years

Democracy always becomes either Despotism or Communism after the 200 years. The reason the fatality sequence is much shorter for Despotism or Communism is because of the rate of theft of the people's wealth. The USA is Fascist and sliding into Communism which means the rate of theft will accelerate. How wishes to disagree with me on the rate of theft to the population over the last decade? Anybody whom wants to can come to my site, I love a great contrarian debate. But bring facts, not propaganda and prepare for me to smack you upside the head with logic and quantified data.

Also, why we are at it, offer a better government type and we will all be listening! Until then, please stop the propaganda comrade.

I recommend we evolve from Capitalism to Open Office government types which would increase the representation of the USA from 500 little comrades to 5,000 representatives we are supposed to have with a population of 300 M.

The Founding Fathers set the USA up for such to occur. Now with the Internet, the cost of buildings and centralized bureaucracy could go down to next to nothing. Politicians might enjoy being closer to home instead of hiding from angry constituents.

Check out Jake Towne's Open Office plank at TowneforCongress.com . He built his plank off of a spec I built two years ago. Either evolve or get crushed by the coming wave. Communism isn't the future buddy, it's the past.

On Nov 11 03:28 PM stockferret wrote:

> According to Adam Smith, in a free market each participant will try
> to maximize self-interest, and the interaction of market participants,
> leading to exchange of goods and services, enables each participant
> to be better of than when simply producing for himself/herself. He
> further said that in a free market, no regulation of any type would
> be needed to ensure that the mutually beneficial exchange of goods
> and services took place, since this "invisible hand" would guide
> market participants to trade in the most mutually beneficial manner.
>
>
> How is that working out for ya?

WSJ.com Could Lose 25% of Its Traffic if Murdoch Blocks Google

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:28:44 -0500

It goes to show, authors of anything need to make a living. Google is a saavy intermediary but forgot to povide A living wage to content providers. Google just had a strong warning shot delivered across its bow.

On Financial Bloggers Meeting with Treasury Department

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:50:28 -0500

I see with the above spamming comment SA has not figured out how to block spammers. I offered, many times to help SA. I am done trying.

As for the bloggers, kudos to them for giving it the old college try. Let's see Treasury bring in a couple of other heavyweights, like Karl Denninger, John Lounsbury and Jim Quinn. There is no plan B, because these people will attempt to silence the rape victim now. History does rythme.

It is not they do not care per se, they just care more about themselves than the people that put them into power. So those who are last in the ivory towers to fall and come crashing down realize it is all now too late, that damn pride it always cometh before the fall.

Buffett's Big Rail Buy: What It Means for Berkshire Shareholders

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:15:11 -0500

The star power is not what many of us are analyzing here. Most of us seem to be taking a rational view of the USA's short and medium term future.

On Nov 04 02:36 PM bottoms-up wrote:

> I noticed that I got of thumbs down for coming down on the untouchable
> Sir Buffett of Omaha.
>
> I guess all of you can come down on rating agencies that may take
> his AAA rating away:
>
> www.bloomberg.com/apps...;sid=aTI6ak3w6s0Y
>
>
> Remember, sacred cows make the best burger, and I don't mean Omaha
> Steaks.. In business, if you follow anyone or anything as though
> they are a deity or rock star, you'll get what's coming to you.

Buffett's Big Rail Buy: What It Means for Berkshire Shareholders

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:45:42 -0500

Perhaps two can play the Ayn Rand game. Someone always needs to be John Gault. I don't think one could make up what is occurring in history right now. I am long America but short current US government. I do not believe WB would be in a position to state the same publically on the second line of that sentence but I would just be speculating.

On Nov 03 02:15 PM Socialism cannot compete! wrote:

> Only problem with this "energy play" -- the coal pipeline -- is that
> this Admarxistration does *not* like coal. Should be buying nuclear
> or something else instead. Unless...Buffett is doing this to create
> anti-Cap & Tax leverage against the neo-Coms??? Now *that* would
> be interesting!!! Last I checked, Warren was pretty liberal. Wonder
> if he's changing stripes...perhaps his capitalist self has woken
> to the realization that the liberals and their socialist policies
> are anti-freedom and anti-capitalism??? Things are getting very interesting
> indeed.

Buffett's Big Rail Buy: What It Means for Berkshire Shareholders

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:31:08 -0500

HA! You beat me to the punchline John. The dollar is being devalued. Imports like oil are going to become less economical. If the USA begins a real recovery, it is highly unlikely to be before 2013 and oil will continue to rise in-between meaning trickle down inflation into everything and making rail transport that much more important. Since early 2008 I keep referring to this year for myriads of reasons for the next sustainable bull, try a search here at SA under my screen name but the net out is a tepid but sustainable bull formation that year.

Let's say the bad becomes worse based on Washington policies. People will still need to eat meaning rail assets become extremely valuable.

WB loses if the US government decides to throw the industrialists to the wolves as other Fascist or Communist governments did in the past. In that extreme case, we ALL lose. But if I am WB I sleep well at night on this deal.

On Nov 03 01:27 PM John Lounsbury wrote:

> I think Buffet is making an energy play. He has been more and more
> an energy investor in recent years. Remember his 300% plus gain over
> a couple of years with Petro China? Utilities and pipelines are part
> of the energy investment picture. BNI is part of the same strategy,
> in this case he is buying a coal "pipeline".
>
> I bought BNI in early 2005 in the 40's and got stopped out within
> a few months for a gain of about 12%. This is one case where stop
> loss risk control proved counter productive.

America, The Nanny State

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:49:35 -0500

Surely, one of the oldest debates Socrates referenced is whom gets the right to control the fruits of anothers labor. Currently, one group is acting as a mob. If individuals being held up at the point of a gun (government) decide they won't participate the outcome is all but left to decide who dies in either confiscation of private property or defending it.

The State usually wins that fight at first but the outcome of the productive refusing to work for the non-productive is:

a) The State collapses and a new State is formed.
b) The State is overthrown in revolution, a new State is formed.
c) The State is conquered from without.
d) The State is conquered from within.

Choice D is what is occurring in my humble opinion. Government with Czars and nationalizing industries, giving one group with political connections the dwindling resources on the backs of other is know as FASCISM. Such a phase does not last long and becomes a final form of this particular form of oligarchy, probably Communism.

The shelf life of Communism is 40 years, the productive can only be forced through imprisonment or death to produce for so long.

As per speculation point D is happening, followed most likely by B and then the American public will have to directly deal with C.

On Nov 02 11:54 AM AxIt wrote:

> This short sentence says everything. Don't hide youself in lenghty
> explanations with numbers, statistics and supposedly clever interpretations
> of the US constitution. This is just a "take your hands off my money
> or l'll shoot you with my gun" debate. Nothing else. All the rest
> is philosophy.
>
> On Nov 02 09:24 AM James Quinn wrote:

Cap and Trade Would Sink the U.S. Economy

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:47:45 -0400

I really am liking your net-out commentary Leftfield.

On Oct 29 12:46 PM Leftfield wrote:

> Efficiency would be promoted with a simple tax on fuel. Of course,
> the actual idea is more government revenue and control. And, a simple
> tax would result in an enormous backlash. (It might be sellable
> by ELIMINATING another of our eggregious taxes).
> No, better to couch a complicated new burden in terms of saving the
> planet, reward Wall St. and cronies with a new trading vehicle and
> give Washington enormous new power and control.
> Nothing these people do is simple, straightforward or honest anymore.
> What are they hiding? Check out the idea of CO2 sequestration, an
> extra crackpot facet of their plan they dream of.

Consumer Confidence Is a Lagging Indicator: Expect Post-Recession Gloom Through 2010

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:12:02 -0400

Mark Perry, your economic reporting in 2008 was wrong. Your assessment that the depression is ending is wrong too. Commodities rose in 1935-1937 crushing the consumer further even while GDP appeared to rise. That is why there will be a double dip which search here reveals I had called for since fall of 2008 and REPEATEDLY. I care about the guy on the street Mark. You are an incompetent bufoon. I alone stopped in here to tell you that.

GDP Is 'Better'

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:16:23 -0400

No thanks, no more Czars. Sorry folks, we are a banana republic now. Our national interests are no longer determined by the American people.

On Oct 29 01:29 PM aldol wrote:

> Data from this blog are pretty compelling. This administration may
> end up contributing to a crisis of major proportions.
> I am hopeful that, in the final analysis, the result of the crisis
> will ultimately be the cleaning up of corruption within the political
> class and the re-dimensioning of the relative weights of the rent
> exacting sectors of the economy versus the sectors that add true
> value.
> Although cleaning up corruption seems to be a task of unimaginable
> complexity, it may be, in fact relatively easy.
> Perhaps simple solutions such as a corruption czar and a line item
> veto, can accomplish the unthinkable.
> Let's see what the Va and NJ races will tell us about voters sentiment
> .

World Recovery Is in the Hands of OPEC

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:44:35 -0400

That comment is like comparing coke and pepsi? Which one do you like better? The progression of US politics was socialism, now Fascism, soon to be Communism, Despotism and the cycle will end in Capitalism and a true new spirit of hope.

On Oct 25 07:21 PM The Geoffster wrote:

> Eliminate the leftists and you wouldn't have to steal anyone's oil
> fields. We have vast untapped oil reserves in the U.S. We have massive
> coal deposits. We could light the world with nuclear energy. All
> of this would provide cheap fuel while alternatives are developed
> but the left wants to cripple America as a world power.

We're Living Through the Best of Times

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:13:52 -0400

Oh I can't help it. 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.'

On Oct 25 05:51 PM Albertarocks wrote:

> On Oct 25 10:16 AM Dave Wrixon wrote:

We're Living Through the Best of Times

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:09:44 -0400

I voted up "for it is better to have it and not need it then need it and not have it" - Ben Franklin

The situation this man was kind enough to take his time and write, is reflective of the Ruble crashing in 1998. America will get through it but it is common for people to think such things could never happen to them. The odds are, they will happen to you and if not you then your kids.

On Oct 25 03:33 PM cdur wrote:

> sorry, but : "Stop smoking the carpet.... you're stone..!!"
>
> and read more about what will happens:
> www.silverbearcafe.com...
>
> best regards from France

We're Living Through the Best of Times

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:26:50 -0400

Very insightful Leftfield. The producers in the US market have been pretty much beat on for eight years with little or no reward. Slaves will work for a roof and food for a time, until they decide it isn't worth it and stop producing. IE: Soviet Union, Cuba etc. Each government type has it's own fatality sequence, Democracy being 200 years, Despotism 20 and Communism 40.

About the article. One observation I have noticed recently is a visible increase in near-retired individuals whom have parked some cash and have begun a bit of roving soul searching. Meaning your not alone John. Perhaps such sabbaticals will reveal some answers.

As to this being an adventure, money is not happiness but does provide this sort of freedom of mobility. The Gen X'ers and Millenials will not have this kind of mobility for soul searching, more like an adventure in austerity and fight for God given rights such as freedom of speech and to not be looted at will, hopefully not having to literally fight the enemy within but near certainly will be fighting the enemy without. No, I prefer to have started my career in the 1970s but a good argument can be made about refinement by fire or that which doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

As for being an eternal optimist and how great life will be in 20 years, I agree. But the long dark night WILL get longer. The reason is evolution and those who resist believing they will live forever vs. those who eventual evolve past them.

The book referenced as an important read sounds like a decent recommendation. For those who want the net-out, it is called a climactic end to current centralization, a big decentralization process. What emerges afterward is the era of holographic thinking vs. current 2D or 3D thinking. It will be the era of quantum computing, the ability to assign septillions of historic data points with real-time data points and forecast the weather 50 years out at 97% accuracy. Large human beaurocracies will not be needed nor appreciated as all people on earth will represent themselves individually and vote collectively. That would mean slower advances but far more stable advances. Oh how the current lords of the universe must hate that thought!

So, I am an eternal optimist, but a realist when it comes to the heavy lifting, blood, sweat and tears the next twelve years will bring. Unlike the guy in London staring at thralls of people whisking by, the probable outcome is a guy rebuilding a new city ten miles from London or any other capitol in the world. The former being leveled by a final destructive world war. Makes sense outside of fear mongering or data analytics of geopolitical scenerios. First there was villages, then city states, nations, blocs of nations now down to East and West. Nothing refined ever occurs in this universe without some form of violent collision. It is not some fanciful hope of anarchy, but realism that propels my thinking.

On Oct 25 01:07 PM Leftfield wrote:

> Dave Wrixon opined accurately in another comment today that the Americans
> of today aren't those who rose to past challenges. I will add that
> the government of today, voted in by these Americans, is an enormous
> threat also, far larger and more intrusive than in past challenging
> times.
> Since your first loss is your best loss, the refusal to face reality
> during the '08 meltdown, rather, to add public debt to cure the problems
> brought on by excessive debt and leverage, for favored recipients
> threatens to lock in rule by a small upper class.
> Freedom is precious and I wouldn't take what's left of it for granted
> nor assume benevolence by our leaders (trust them). Toiling as a
> slave for the plantation owner takes "the gumption to get on with
> it" without much reward in this life.