scootie2008's Comments

Punishing the Savers in a Savings Poor Country

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:38:58 -0400

Who? The wealthy? what is the solution to dismantle the US government? This country of laws is the best tool we have, can't you see that? don't you vote? maybe you should run for office and put us back on track?

Pining for a gold standard or some Mises-ian ideal is not productive. the world has real inequalities and I am not talking about 'liberties' squashed by the government boot in the form of low yielding CDs.

On Apr 02 03:30 PM PainfullyAware wrote:

> You obviously have no understanding of what Government has become
> in America.
>
> I know of no one that feels represented by the Fools In DC. It Is
> Blatantly Obvious Whom They Serve.

Punishing the Savers in a Savings Poor Country

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 10:16:01 -0400

the people and the government ARE THE SAME THING.

It is YOUR boot

Punishing the Savers in a Savings Poor Country

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 09:40:47 -0400

living off the fat of the land is over.

boo hoo, rich people cannot live off their "savings" anymore.

inflation is caused by credit expansion that is fueled by "letting them use your money" to "seek alpha".

Geithner's bank detox plan will fail, Nassim Taleb says. "I want an overhaul... this is not it." Author of The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable says he's sick of subsidizing corporate failure: "Taxpayers take the downside and Wall Street as usual is going to take the upside..."

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 13:25:14 -0400

“Why don’t we allow people to mark their house at what they think the value of their house is?”

good analogy

The Great American Hole Gets Deeper by the Day

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 09:25:05 -0400

I'm saying Jim Rogers caused the economic collapse MORE than my 9 year old son or my future grandchildren, that's all.

On Mar 06 09:42 AM plumstupid wrote:

> What? Are you saying Jim Rogers caused the economic collapse?

>
> As for leaving and not having to pay: Why would someone have to pay?
> And, why be angry at Rogers for that. How about Aronson? You remember
> Aronson don't you?
>

The Great American Hole Gets Deeper by the Day

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 09:37:34 -0500

"And by “Washington,” I of course mean you, me, and most all our anticipated descendants."

can't we all just walk away like Jim Rogers? What is it to be American, if someone can just leave without having to pay for the sins of the past that created an environment where they prospered?

Sickness May Be the Cure for the U.S. Economy

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 08:43:51 -0500

"It is widely recognized that the basic cause of today's financial and economic crisis was pressure by politicians to 'encourage' banks to make oversized loans to under-qualified homebuyers."

bull$hit

Russia About to Default on Sovereign Debt (Again)

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 12:21:29 -0500

The third rule of sovereign debt is:

'If a sovereign says "stop" or goes limp, or is tapped out the borrowing is over.'

Russia About to Default on Sovereign Debt (Again)

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 09:32:57 -0500

the second rule of sovereign debt is:

"we do not default on sovereign debt"

The Shedlock-Schiff Affair: A Chronicle

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 09:12:43 -0500

Schiff called the collapse but what happens after is still open for debate. Even if he is proven right in the future if his timing is wrong he won't profit. "The Market Can Stay Irrational Longer Than You Can Stay Solvent"

Also in response to:

"Look at it this way.

Two businesses went out of business:

Asia (who has money in the bank, savings, burgeoning industry)

Western Civ (who has debt at every level, no savings, collapsed industry)
How does this end up?"

Look at it this way, we exported pieces of paper, and they exported pieces of plastic. Do you really think that excess TVs and Pokemon action figures or other lead painted toys constitute 'value'? The excess crap that the leveraged borrowers were buying was non essential and in a down time it will be worth less or worthless.

Let's Have Inflation

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 12:45:34 -0500

Fine critique BS Detector.

Long-Term Crisis Remains Strong

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 12:32:10 -0500

Your items 2 through 5 are the same issue from different angles; the US financial position.

Inflation and devaluing the dollar are the same. Manipulating the value of the money is not working. We have an unprecedented financial crisis and the “easiest” money ever. Money is being poured on every bank. Where is the inflation that everyone is so hyper about? Why is the dollar so strong?

The US owes a lot of money. The options are: pay it or default. Default = collapse of the world financial system.

Democracy is fine. Obama will be sworn in tomorrow.

Obama's 'Buy American' Plan May Meet China's Export-Led Growth in 2009

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 09:36:41 -0500

[Jonathan Christopher] good comment...... China is the biggest EXPORTER and our BANKER.

Housing Gets Even Worse

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 11:21:03 -0500

Some calculators also value [on the rent side] the saved down payment and saved excess monthly payments as invested with a 7% return over the life of the note.....that needs to be rethought as well.

It should be becoming clear that the government cannot put a floor under any of this. Sure we're doing all the stuff the FED did not do in 1929 but that does not mean it would have worked in 1929 or now.

The Deflation Scam

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 16:50:21 -0500

Iowa515:
So... B of A is the Illuminati? "They have had hundreds of years to perfect how to steal our money ". As far as I know, no one has lived for hundreds of years….
No offense [really, I appreciate the civil discourse of this blog] I don't buy the grand conspiracy theory. It would be great if it were so; then we would have proof that a determined set of powerful people could actually pull off something grand that they had planned. On the flip side, I do agree that certain moneyed interests are very powerful and do things we don’t know about and the government and others are always to some extent watching us [or some of us, like Mr. Blagojevich]. But to what end? So that finally they can hatch their evil plot of collapsing all the institutions that they supposedly control to hole up in Ayn Rand’s secret money-mountain-gated-r... [a la Atlas Shrugged?]?
Isn't it possible that over millennia we have created, by many hands [visible and otherwise] a human society that has moved forward in fits and starts but that has certainly moved forward?
The linguist Steven Pinker [www.ted.com/index.php/...] in arguing that we live in the LEAST violent time in our species history suggests that one reason that we may perceive that we are in the MOST violent time is that the change in our standards outpaces the change in our behavior so that [he argues] while violence has decreased our tolerance of violence has decreased at a faster rate and it appears that we are more violent. I think this is correct and the same is true with what is happening with our global economy. Notwithstanding the greed and malfeasance of many people in positions of trust, never before has the global economy been so just [even though it appears not fair as I argue above], so robust, so powerful, etc. We have done a good job in spite of many mistakes and although the future has great challenges, we are in the best position to meet them than we have ever been.

The Deflation Scam

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 15:30:00 -0500

It seems to me that the reason the system would ever collapse [heaven forbid] is because it is not fair. It is not fair to change the rules when it becomes clear you are going to lose. Hence the FED is

“…struggling with pace; too fast a reinflationary response will alert too many people to reality and cause a panic”.

The "smart money" that bet the farm and made all the ‘alpha’ they could during the boom is now manipulating the system to "get well". Why should bankers or others with instruments that no one wants to buy [price discovery = $0] get paid to take these assets off their hands and mitigate the total loss that they would suffer otherwise in a free market? Answer: because the banks are a vital part of a functioning capitalist economy and even though they took huge risks that still threatens everything, their failure would definitely wreck everything. The banks should have been fiduciaries, but they were not, If it is finally clear that the banks and others are gaming the system, then the cruel choice is to give in to the extortion and hope in the future they will not bet the farm again [our current plan, I hope it works] or live with the resulting chaos and collapse [the unthinkable, truly free market]. For the record I am for the first option because I think a capitalistic system in more or less our current form holds the only possibility for a ‘fair’ system.

How can people talk about $64K/yr 3rd grade teachers as if they are the problem in any way when the reduced pay to executives from disgraced, failed financial institutions would still be 100 times more? That is not fair. The USD is the world reserve currency which, like it or not, makes the FED the world lender of last resort. If they manipulate the currency to bail out indebted US interests only, that is not fair.

Nobody said it was supposed to be fair you say? Au contraire; that is the essence of the American Ideal that was sold to Americans and the world. How embarrassing for America if we cannot deliver…

An Economic Nightmare Before Christmas

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 08:44:59 -0500

Mr Schiff seems to imply that somehow the US is irresponsible and the rest of the world is more rational and conservative. I think this is the fundamental problem with the argument. If the US ship sinks, the global economy goes with it. The FED is the defacto world lender of last resort.

Defining Deflation

Sun, 07 Dec 2008 11:03:17 -0500

Thought experiment:

Assume the USD is "gold" and all other currencies are backed by it... Now look at the economic indicators and see how much sense they make.

D-Day: Does Deflation Draw Near?

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:46:40 -0500

Helicopter Ben sure thinks there is. I think the FED is scared sh*tless about deflation. Bernanke has almost gone through his 2002 D-fence playbook. Unfortunately I don't think the presses run fast enough to stop it. Deflation will be with us for a time - but when all that money finally hits the market, the hyperinflation will not materialize because either A- the whole USD system collapses or B- it will all be okay and we will move forward into broad sunlit uplands....it could happen..

Inflate, Deflate or Default

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:43:56 -0500

"It is hard to lay much blame at the feet of the investment bankers and traders. They are, after all, private market participants whose only objective should be to maximize their personal gain. "????

I'm not blaming them, but they should now experience the downside of their risk. That is what a "free" market demands.

So much capital has been wasted and credit destroyed, the fed cannot print that much money that fast. The hyperinflation that some are hyper about would essentially save all the indebted Americans since the value of the debt would evaporate in that scenario. America's creditors [the holders of cash] would not stand for that and the USD "system" would collapse before hyperinflation took hold.

It would be a shame for the US to destroy their 2 great gifts to the world [as described by James Grant] a robust financial system and a reserve currency.