1 That picture is sooo wrong.

2 There are too many damned bones in my sammiches lately.

3

Don't worry, folks.  Soon my investments in high speed rail and green energy will kick in, and doom will change to boom!

 

Now, hand me my seven iron.

4 Is anyone else mesmerized by Scandi cats oddly shaped testicles?

5
What do you need to know about California? 

After all the publicity about bankruptcy and boning, they elect the greatest threat to their future solvency......Moonbeam Brown. 

California deserves what it gets without help from other states to stave off collapse.  To put it nicely, fuck 'um.

6 Concerning Ireland, I read an article not too long ago about how they are beginning to experience another great exodus, however unlike the 1840s-1850s exodus, America is not allowing them in so they are going to Canada and Australia. We only accept Mexicans now.

7 Scandi Cat is an abomination! Kill it! Kill it with fire!

8 That picture is rough.

9
The cat has bigger balls than Obama.  And Michelle too!

10

We only accept Mexicans now.

 

And Somalis.  Don't forget the Somalis

11

Numbers released 8.8% unemployment.

Will have to read betweent he lines on how they finessed that number out.

12   6 Concerning Ireland, I read an article not too long ago about how they are beginning to experience another great exodus, however unlike the 1840s-1850s exodus, America is not allowing them in so they are going to Canada and Australia. We only accept Mexicans now.   the Mollys need to learn to cut lawns and run back-pack leaf blowers.

13
Numbers released 8.8% unemployment.

Posted by: Ben at April 01, 2011 08:33 AM (wuv1c)

In Obama speak, it's more relevant reversed, 8.8 +/- a few.

14
The unemployment numbers aren's bad, besides I have a job and that's what's important.

15

Well i do believe we are adding jobs.however how much of that is because the government is pumping dollars into the economy. And what happens when they turn off the spigot?

Is Obama going to have the Bernak continue to print money until October 2012 to keep up this charade so he can get elected again? I would think yes, but I would imagine inflation hits hard at that point. It's already starting to creep.

16 Monty, with the way you sneer at Teh Krugman, it almost like you don't respect the legitimacy of his Nobel Prize for Economics. I'm just sayin' - it LOOKS like disrespect.

17 Hold up...Bank of China is state-owned and state-guaranteed.  Why are they accessing the Fed?

18

If all of the young, hot women would just do some naked protesting to call attention to the problem, being boned would be a good thing.

19 While Krugman is most assuredly an everyday fool, today is his day to shine!

20 That WSJ Stephen Moore piece should be required reading for every Lib and union sympahizer out there. Don Wade just read it in its entirety over the air on WLS this morning in Chicago. We've got to right this ship!!

21 (referring to that final link - a Nation of Takers)

22

Monty cracketh the dawn with DOOM today.

Sheeeitt, that an ugly Tom.

23 So bailout money went all over the world. Not surprising. Fox put out the results of their FOIA request for money to banks that they had to sue the "most transparent" administration ever for.

It seems that the fed has given the banks, including GM and Harley Davidson, 3.3 trillion (that a trillian with a T). That isn't counting TARP I & II that was actually approved by legislation.

Oh, and to get prepared watch Encore at 12:30 today. Road Warrior in HD! Learn how to cop some gas after the collapse.

24 It also invokes the confidence fairy; that is, it suggests that cuts in public spending will stimulate private spending by raising consumer and business confidence, leading to economic expansion.

And the man who wrote this drivel has a Nobel Prize for Economics to his name?  Goes to show you that the decay in value of a Nobel goes beyond the Peace Prize... 

25 With USD/CAD pushing down through a 1-year low of .9699, it's almost like the market is ignoring all the green shoots. Green shoots! They're out there. Look at them! LOOK AT THEM!!!

26 17 Hold up...Bank of China is state-owned and state-guaranteed.  Why are they accessing the Fed?

Because China might be one of the last places with a more decayed banking system than our own? 

27

At least we on the right can take solice in the fact that though Barry lied through his fucking teeth to everyone, he lied worst to his lefty supporters...

and the continue to make excuses for him!  Which pretty much proves an avalanche of points we've all been making about the left (too numerous to mention - you know what they are.)

28 Krugman is right - the notion that we can cut spending and let the poor peasants keep more of their money is false.  However, I doubt he'd make this argument: We must slash the federal budget by over $1.645 trillion before we can even begin to talk about letting people keep their money.  Otherwise it's just creating more debt.

29 I was listening to Steyn subbing for Rush yesterday and I thought he made a good point:  a whole lot of people in this country think it's still 1955 and we can have high union pay and all of the goodies because everyone else is still climbing out of the rubble of WWII.  As long as a bunch of Americans think this way (unions and Michael Moore) we are DOOMED.

Also,  listening to Laura Ingraham last night after Trump and she said that there are a lot of people in this country who will respond to Trump's tough talk and populism,  because the rest of the field is mush-mouthed and not addressing the issues Americans are worried about.

Lots of wild card things in this election, and Trump is one.    And he said something that echoed with me:  "I can't do any worse."  THAT is why I voted for Ronald Reagan after becoming totally disgusted with Jimmy Carter.  I didn't care about anything except that Carter was SO BAD.  (I was a democrat at the time having grown up in a democrat family.)

So,  although Trump right now is taken as a publicity hound and not a serious candidate,  I think people need to realize that the NON-political people might just take a chance on him.  People are tired of struggling and being walked on by foreign powers.

30

Hold up...Bank of China is state-owned and state-guaranteed.  Why are they accessing the Fed?

RAAAACIIIISSSST.

31

"Non-citizen" voters in Colorado, "nearly 5,000 took part in the 2010 general election in which Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet narrowly defeated Republican John Buck." [geoff]

From the sidebar.

I'm still convinced that this entire vault into socialism is engineered. I'm over buying the bungleing excuse.  

32 Heh. I think the "rebels" set some kind of land speed record for retreat yesterday. Zero done fucked up again. He is batting 100%. There seems to be no limit to his incompetence. It is like space, endless. And all the Democratic mouthpieces are in full blown excuse mode. They sound like teenage boys.

33 Monty, with the way you sneer at Teh Krugman, it almost like you don't respect the legitimacy of his Nobel Prize for Economics.

If his Nobel Prize was big enough, I'd hammer it into a bowl and shit in it.

34

Well i do believe we are adding jobs.however how much of that is because the government is pumping dollars into the economy. And what happens when they turn off the spigot?

Posted by: Ben at April 01, 2011 08:38 AM (wuv1c)

If the private sector isn't willing or ready to take up the slack, it'll be bad.  Another spike in unemployment, and another deflationary slide.  This will be worsened by the growing world demand for food and oil we're already suffering from.  We'll have to hope that food and oil production have returned to normal by then.  If we have a bunch more crop failures this year it's going to suck, and more oil shocks will make that even worse. 

If we don't expand our access to food and energy it will be bad no matter what happens.

35 I am trying to breakdown the numbers on this 8.8% unemployment report. Some positive signs on non-farm and shift from Gov jobs to public.

What do you think Monty?

36 Non Farm Payroll numbers just in, says added 216K jobs, above estimates of 196K. The market will shrug, continue shorting the dollar, and your net worth continues circling the drain unabated. DOOM!

37 I do not believe we have added ANY new jobs (net). I don't believe a single number this pack of lying jackals puts out.

38

It also invokes the confidence fairy; that is, it suggests that cuts in public spending will stimulate private spending by raising consumer and business confidence, leading to economic expansion.

Things I also believe in:

The math gnome.

The we-have-enemies sprite.

The drill here smurf.

The Russians will cheat on everything orc.

The market solutions troll.

39

But...but...unemployment is down and employment went up. If you want a minimum wage probably part-time job in the service industry.

Employment in March was concentrated in the private services sector, which added 199,000 jobs. Payrolls in the goods-producing industries rose 31,000, but manufacturing employment growth slowed to 17,000 from 32,000 in February http://tinyurl.com/3wa6n7b

40 yeah, Scandi Cat is umm a little disgusting

41 "As per usual, when it's jobs day, we look at Calculated Risk's comparison of this jobs "recovery" to past ones. As you can see, we're still not even close to catching up with the pace of past recoveries."
for the visual learners..............

42 That quote from Teh Krugman is authentic frontier gibberish.

43 I am trying to breakdown the numbers on this 8.8% unemployment report. Some positive signs on non-farm and shift from Gov jobs to public.

It's the expected (slow) uptick in the business cycle. The job-gains are good, but they're barely keeping pace with population growth. Net, the job-growth rate is probably zero, or close to it -- that's why the unemployment rate has stagnated for so long. We're adding jobs, but they're either public-sector jobs that do not add to GDP (or actually decrease it), or they don't keep pace with population growth.

The unemployment rate these days means less to me than the workforce-participation rate, and that number is at a 25-year low.

Another concerning factor to me is how many of the new jobs are part-time or seasonal in nature. Few of them are "career" positions, which means that employers are still leery of taking on long-term employees (and their benefits).

44 Ted Krugman? >>Is anyone else mesmerized by Scandi cats oddly shaped testicles? No.

45 DOOM?  You're soaking in it!  _{^{ha ha}}

46 Andy the union guys was on CNBC and even the libs said "smug bastard" as they walked past.   It's always interesting when in talking about a state of the union, the union guy calls it a war.  lovely

47 Thankya, thankya very much.  Can I get a little DOOM! on that?

48 Come for the DOOM; stay for the boning!

Embrace the suck: Bony Maronie (The Who)

49 A nation of part timers making less.  The government isn't shedding jobs fast enough.  They front loaded them when everyone else was shedding.  Now they aren't getting rid of enough.  Maybe they will hear the tea party and really cut. 

50 50
Embrace the suck: Bony Moronie (The Who)
Posted by: ya2daup at April 01, 2011 09:13 AM (e5fJM)

Mea culpa. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa.

"Bone" and "moron" in the same title? Perfect!

51 A friend of my brother's on Facebook once sent me an email telling me that I should read Krugman, he is brilliant and he saved him a ton of money in the 2008 meltdown.  His occupation...EPA lawyer. 

It's dumbfucks like this jackwagon who write and enforce the enviro-shit laws that are helping to cripple our country.

52 Don't forget the employment hobbits - which are eating me out of house and home.

53

That's no kitteh. It's one of the aliens from "Independence Day", bringing forth doom to mankind.

54 The government isn't shedding jobs fast enough.  They front loaded them when everyone else was shedding.  Now they aren't getting rid of enough.  Maybe they will hear the tea party and really cut. 

Posted by: curious at April 01, 2011 09:14 AM (k1rwm)

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

The government shedding jobs?  That'll happen.

55

from Deanna's article:

The economy has recovered a fraction of the more than 8 million jobs lost in the recession. Economists say job growth of between 250,000 and 300,000 a month is needed to have a sizable impact on the pool of 13.5 million unemployed Americans.

so basically, since the jobs created numbered only 219,000, the true unemployment rate didn't change, if at all

56 "The current employment recession is by far the worst recession since WWII in percentage terms, and 2nd worst in terms of the unemployment rate (only the early '80s recession with a peak of 10.8 percent was worse)."

57 Speaking of the Leprechauns:

Standard and PoorÂ’s downgrades IrelandÂ’s credit rating

IRELAND’S CREDIT RATING has been downgraded by two notches to BBB+ by ratings agency Standard & Poor’s, with an outlook of ‘stable’

.According to S&P, the downgrade relfects (Ed: proofread fail) the possibility of debt restructuring being a pre-condition to Ireland borrowing money from the EU.

Watch how Standard & PoorÂ’s tries to polish this turd:

The outlook is now stable, reflecting our opinion that the assumptions underlying the stress testÂ…conducted by the Central Bank of Ireland -in conjunction with the IMF, European Central Bank, and European Commission – are robust and that the expected €18-€19 billion (11.5%-12.0% of GDP) net cost to the Irish state of additional recapitalization, plus the contingency buffer for the banking system, is within our range of expectations, albeit at the upper end.

My Earth Science teacher once told me about the perils of assuming - it makes an ass out of u and me. 

58 Monty, in observance of the day, maybe we need an April's Fool thread to pull us through the DOOM!

59 More DOOM! The labor participation rate is still at 62%, the lowest levels since the early 80's and the trend is downward. As much as this adds to the misleading unemployment statistics, the worse news is that there are even fewer people in the work force contributing to the ever expanding entitlements. Collapse is getting ever closer on the horizon. And still the assclowns in DC dither. http://tinyurl.com/3jz3gxy

60 10
And Somalis.  Don't forget the Somalis
Posted by: Nash Rambler at April 01, 2011 08:32 AM (LSnhP)

And the Labians are queuing up even as we dither here ...

61

Monty

The Libian rebels don't seem to have much in common with these guys.

62 I know that allot of people probably don't believe in evil.
But I got to say there is much evil at work throughout the world right now, we do not have to look much further then our own government to find it, in fact it may be originating from within it.
It hurts me to have to admit that to myself




 

63 rumor has it that this is a great read  Ugh

64 53
His occupation...EPA lawyer. 
It's dumbfucks like this jackwagon who write and enforce the enviro-shit laws that are helping to cripple our country.
Posted by: Hedgehog at April 01, 2011 09:15 AM (Rn2kl)

And right there is the conundrum of reducing gubmint employment rolls: what the hell can be done with the gobs of slugs whose non-valuing adding occupations will have no useful role in the economy?

For myself, I'd prefer an open hobo hunting season with no bag limit, but that might be a tad harsh ...

65

the expected €18-€19 billion (11.5%-12.0% of GDP) net cost to the Irish state of additional recapitalization, plus the contingency buffer for the banking system

So my question is:

Would the Nobel prize winning economist nitwit writer for the New YorkTimes recognize THIS as an example of wishful "fairy" thinking?

66

The labor participation rate is still at 62%, the lowest levels since the early 80's and the trend is downward.

I wonder if one big reason why it's going down is because of the large number of boomers who decided to collect SS early and/or collect SS "disability"

67 I saw the Labian "rebels" on TV yesterday and the visuals struck me: besides strapping explosives to themselves and blowing things up, is all that Arab assclowns can do is drive around firing their weapons in the air? I mean, have they given any thought to firing them at their opponents, or is that not celebratory enough for their machismo lifestyle?

68 I'm rootin for these guys!

69 And still the assclowns in DC dither.

Hey now we aren't dithering, we're fiddling with trains. And that is big fucking deal.

70 Headline at Drudge
FOREIGN BANKS TOOK MOST FROM FED; BERNANKE KEPT SECRET

71

"We're adding jobs, but they're either public-sector jobs that do not add to GDP (or actually decrease it), or they don't keep pace with population growth."

Actually, the public sector cut 15,000 jobs the past month, while private sector jobs grew by 240,000.  Population growth requires about 100,000 added jobs.

I'm not an economist, but I hope your other number crunching is better.

72 Posted by: notropis at April 01, 2011 09:29 AM (Ca1QE)

in a healthy economy we should be adding 300 to 350 thousand jobs

73 But...but...unemployment is down and employment went up. If you want a minimum wage probably part-time job in the service industry.

Nonetheless, it's better than the continued slide for which I give thanks.  If you trust the numbers.

74 ok.......this is funny......google "helvetica"

75 That's one crazy cat. We know for a fact that he's half nuts.

76 18

If all of the young, hot women would just do some naked protesting to call attention to the problem, being boned would be a good thing.

Posted by: Hussein the Plumber at April 01, 2011 08:39 AM (r1h5M)

Not if they're wearing broken glass and razor blade strap-ons. 

77 "Libya-Owned Arab Banking Corp. Drew at Least $5 Billion From Fed in Crisis"via here

78 6 Concerning Ireland, I read an article not too long ago about how they are beginning to experience another great exodus, however unlike the 1840s-1850s exodus, America is not allowing them in so they are going to Canada and Australia. We only accept Mexicans now.

Posted by: Ben at April 01, 2011 08:30 AM (wuv1c)

A while back, I was watching an Irish news show that mentioned this.  They also had a man on the street interview with a woman who was so distraught, not over her own precarious circumstances but over the loss of her country's sovereignty in the bailout.

Although I am mostly Irish, Ireland has never been high on my list of places to visit.  I'm thinking I will go now just to help the economy.  Heads up to my cousins in Ballydehob.

79

From the current Yahoo unemployment story:

One reason for the lower unemployment rate is that many people who stopped looking for a job during the recession still aren't looking for one. So they're not counted as unemployed. The proportion of people who either have a job or are looking for one is surprisingly low for this stage of the recovery.

At least they found another adjective (*ahem*, surprisingly is an adverb) to describe what the economists didn't expect rather than unexpectedly.  

Yahoo's honesty about the unemployment rate is refreshing; I'm surprised that this revelation wasn't buried at the end of the story. 

80

I am personally in favor of a letter writing campaign...

Dear Congress-critter;

To make our country more solvent I would like to abolish the entitlements our govenrment uses. Examples; no more plane trips of any kind, no more chauffers, no more free lunches, vacations, haircuts, suits and whatnot. no more deducting your offices, stay in your district and video conference...HOW GREEN IS THAT?!  Dissolve the IRS, no more business breaks or subsidies and everyone gets a FLAT TAX and NO REFUND.  Pay more than 50% into their own healthcare (since they recused themselves from Obamacare). Pay more into their pensions. No more stacking extra salary for extra committes ( my company calls that "expectation" so no extra pay).  You get my idea.....Close your own gaps before you touch mine!! oh and no more instant pension either....you have to be at least 5 yrs in a job in the private sector so same for YOU!  Oh, no more foreign lending either, just sayin.

Thank you,

mrs green beans

Doncha all think that'll work! heh.....

81 Posted by: toby928™ at April 01, 2011 09:33 AM (GTbGH)

i heard somewhere last night that they keep adjust the numbers after the fact and the person saying this was saying hire someone who knows numbers.

82

Good morning everyone,

     I found this on goldline dot com under the FAQ:

<quote>29. Do all bullion bars and coins require a SSN and other personal information such as date of birth when I sell?

Most, but not all, bullion bars and coins require the seller to provide a SSN and other personal information when you sell above certain minimums.*

*The new Health Care Act will require the disclosure of a SSN starting in 2012 for sales above a certain amount unless proposed legislation to repeal that portion of the Health Care law passes. There are a number of members of Congress and trade groups actively supporting repeal of this statute. </quote>

    And people think I'm paranoid. That Health Care Law Act was pretty far reaching.

     On Monday, several posts gave me the impression that the US government at one time seized gold from citizens. Is that true?

 

83 More DOOM?

Al Qaeda Magazine Praises Middle Eastern Revolutions - Warning to the West

84

Doncha all think that'll work! heh.....

Posted by: beany at April 01, 2011 09:37 AM (7MyjZ)

Of course it won't, but even if it did it wouldn't make one iota of difference in terms of the overall economic picture. 

85 I kept saying to my friends in the early days of this recession/depression that we're "lending" money to foreign entities.  And they were like "no we're not, what are you an idiot?"....

no I was just believing what I read and saw and they were and are in denial.

86

If we don't expand our access to food and energy it will be bad no matter what happens.

Posted by: Reactionary at April 01, 2011 08:58 AM (xUM1Q)

Yesterday, Ohio agriculture something or other announced that Ohio farmers will be planting more corn for ethanol this year meaning less soy beans and corn for food.

87 Looks like I picked the right day to start drinking Sterno.

88 corn for fuel is stupid....there i said it......

89 Posted by: momma at April 01, 2011 09:43 AM (penCf)

knowing the conditions in other countries, with natural disasters taking out their crops, that feels morally despicable

90  And a good morning out there to all the Moron members of the Loyal Order of the Terminally Boned.

(Love that Boney Moroni bit. Johnny Dangerously ref ftw! Especially because we're ruled by bastidges.)

91 84
On Monday, several posts gave me the impression that the US government at one time seized gold from citizens. Is that true?
Posted by: Canadian Infidel at April 01, 2011 09:38 AM (GKQDR)

Indeed it did, my friend. Indeed it did.

92

Posted by: Canadian Infidel at April 01, 2011 09:38 AM (GKQDR)

tinyurl.com/2bgn4z

It's why I have not stocked up on precious metals.  The crew in Washington now is even more grab-happy than FDR was.  A last-gasp gold seizure is guaranteed, in my view.

93 Posted by: KinleyArdal at April 01, 2011 09:46 AM (VMkqN)

hey what about us?

94 "On Monday, several posts gave me the impression that the US government at one time seized gold from citizens.  Is that true?"

Executive Order 6102

Executive Order 6102 required U.S. citizens to deliver on or before May 1, 1933, all but a small amount of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates owned by them to the Federal Reserve, in exchange for $20.67 per troy ounce. Under the Trading With the Enemy Act of October 6, 1917, as amended on March 9, 1933, violation of the order was punishable by fine up to $10,000 ($167,700 if adjusted for inflation as of 2010) or up to ten years in prison, or both. Most citizens who owned large amounts of gold had it transferred to countries such as Switzerland.

Americans were forced to sell their gold.
At a "fair price" set by the government.

95

Oh my God, the Krugman article.  And the comments!  The stupidity is making baby Jesus weep.

Occasionally, I'll see conservative arguments in the comments section, but rigorous self-selection has already taken place.  The conservatives are too flabbergasted to even touch this piece.

 

 

96

More video of Union Thugs at NH State House yesterday:

 

97

Posted by: IRA and 401K at April 01, 2011 09:47 AM (k1rwm)

*backs away slowly*

Nice to see ya how ya doin' *inches towards door*

98 @ Trump:

Fox News Announces ‘Mondays With Trump’ On Fox & Friends

99

Meanwhile in the virtual FOMC universe the fantasy inflation rate edging up to 2.4%, the chimeral U3 unemployment rate declining to 8.8%,  PMI numbers the best since LBJ all indicate--wait for it-

Ben can raise rates 0.75% and kick off QE3 by summer's end!

As USD on FX markets down 1% per month in 2011, Argentina and Zimbabwe will be safe havens by New Year's Day. 

100

87 I kept saying to my friends in the early days of this recession/depression that we're "lending" money to foreign entities.  And they were like "no we're not, what are you an idiot?"....

Yup that's how you can tell you are talking with a lefty.  They are self-righteously smug in their ignorance.

101 The unemployment rate these days means less to me than the workforce-participation rate, and that number is at a 25-year low.

Agreed. This following chart said it all for me. Until that participation rate starts to come up significantly the unemployment number is fairly meaningless.
 
http://tinyurl.com/3vtc8re

102 Can I at least have some gravy and mashed taters with my hot DOOM! sandwich...our would Mrs. Obama frown on that as unhealthful?

103 Monty,

Your analysis is interesting, but fatally flawed. You are ignoring the tremendous growth in one industry: government. Assuming standard productivity, our growth in government employees will drive America out of the recession and into significant economic growth, just as soon as the Republicans loosen the purse strings and allow more public sector hiring.

104 More DOOM:

EXCLUSIVE: Federal Agents Told to Reduce Border Arrests, Arizona Sheriff SaysWell, I read to the end thinking it would end with 'April Fools!' but it didn't.

105 And does this count as our official April Fool's thread?

106 I ordered the doom! sandwich, but where's my side of race war, you cracka ass mutha?

107 They are self-righteously smug in their ignorance.

Posted by: chemjeff at April 01, 2011 09:57 AM (x0nwN)

I would add "moral superiority," but I like the way you think.

My circle of liberal friends is shrinking, and not just because of their political stances. That ignorance bleeds into other, non-political facets of their lives. I find it irritating and boring.

108 And does this count as our official April Fool's thread?

No since an April fools thread from Monty would have been optimistic.

109 Hey maddogg, thats my kin - the third from the left.

110

111 Meh...at least its almost Miller time.  

112 A last-gasp gold seizure is guaranteed, in my view.

Posted by: KinleyArdal at April 01, 2011 09:46 AM (VMkqN)

It's undoubtedly more difficult to seize gold than to seize IRAs and 401(k)s. If you are really concerned, buy gold with cash and hide it.

113 Posted by: dananjcon at April 01, 2011 10:06 AM (pr+up)

What time is it in your part of the state?

114

My circle of liberal friends is shrinking, and not just because of their political stances. That ignorance bleeds into other, non-political facets of their lives. I find it irritating and boring.

 yup - it is a character trait.  I don't know of any studies but I'd be willing to guess there's a strong correlation between arrogance/humility and liberalism/conservatism (respectively)

115 RayJ - How, in 1917, did people get their gold out of Switzerland to the Federal Reserve?

116 41st vote:  Squishy on spending cuts.

Behold, the perils of supporting a candidate based on a single issue.  Someone remind me what we actually gained here, aside from a propaganda victory?

117 worst commenter well at the time we gained "hope" but we actually bought another boat of doom.....

118 115 Posted by: dananjcon at April 01, 2011 10:06 AM (pr+up)

What time is it in your part of the state?

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo (NJConservative) at April 01, 2011 10:07 AM (LH6ir)

...Miller time.

 

119 119:  In other words, we voted for 'hope', but there was no 'change'.

Funny how that works these days.

120 Washington (CNN) --
President Barack Obama today underwent testicular implantation surgery and is recovering in a Virginia hospital, said a statement issued by the White House on Friday.

During the operation  at the Inova Fairfax Testicle and Vascular Institute, doctors implanted a small set of artificial testicles that "improves penis function and will enable me to resume an active heterosexual life style. This will allow the President to show some balls in dealing with any crisis that may arise," the statement said.

121 IÂ’m really beginning to believe that the pro-Qaddafi folks are going to win this, which will make this something like VietNam (win all the battles but lose the war) but different (it wonÂ’t be CongressÂ’ fault).
Frankly, I think this has dawned on those on Capitol Hill, who intend to do their own form of triangulation.

122 111 Hey maddogg, thats my kin - the third from the left.

Posted by: Jean at April 01, 2011 10:03 AM (WkuV6)

Really? What was his name? Did he survive the war? Neat to have a relative in a historical painting.

123 Albany, NY.  Cuomo in the gov seat, sort of playing like Obama, well, not sort of, but like this.  He is actually leading, laying out the big picture of what needs to be cut, and has let the R-majority legislature (or is it just one house?) do the details.

They come up with great big slices to be taken out of education. 

Cuomo says to the state employees, you can either forego your step raises or I'll have to fire great big numbers of you.

So, the buses descend, or rather ascend, into Albany, with the intentions of those aboard to occupy the statehouse.  Chanting sounds like Madison, but there is a distinct diff in the crowd makeup.  There being no big libtard campus right down the sidewalk, the crowd is small, and there is no hippie content.

No "activists" allowed in the galleries.  Great big fight about "we want to have our pizzas delivered."  After only one day, and a few promising to stay overnight in the building, it is mostly over, because the buses have to load up and take the crowd back to NYC from whence they came.

Headline yesterday in the Albany Times-Union:  "Democracy in Action at Capital."

124

Yesterday, Ohio agriculture something or other announced that Ohio farmers will be planting more corn for ethanol this year meaning less soy beans and corn for food.

Posted by: momma at April 01, 2011 09:43 AM (penCf)

Ethanol is not optimal, but probably not a big concern overall.  After the starches are removed for alcohol creation all the corn mash left over is used for a variety of purposes, mainly for animal feed.  Even if we elminated the use of corn for ethanol I doubt that the net gain in food would be much improved.  We still have to feed those cows and such with corn to make them deliciously fatty.  The same is true in the 3rd world, where rice paddies and maize farms are being devoted to animal feed to produce meat. 

Lately the Russian wheat export ban, meat-production increase, and sundry floods and droughts have been the cause of food inflation.  Ethanol is not such a big deal.

125

Posted by: ya2daup at April 01, 2011 09:46 AM (e5fJM)

From your link: WOW!

Thus, early in his presidency, on April 5, 1933, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6102, which ordered people to turn in their gold to the government at payment of $20.67 per ounce. While there were some exceptions for dental use, jewelry, and artists and others who used gold in their jobs, most people were not covered. (Individuals could hold up to $100 in gold coins, but the government confiscated the rest.) Furthermore, the president’s order nullified all private contracts that called for payment in gold, something that led Sen. Carter Glass of Virginia to declare that the whole thing was “dishonor.”

Posted by: KinleyArdal at April 01, 2011 09:46 AM (VMkqN)

Guess I'm not so paranoid....

 

126 Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama today underwent testicular implantation surgery and is recovering in a Virginia hospital, said a statement issued by the White House on Friday.
That's gotta be an April Fools joke, Mike H. There's no way Obama has gotten a ball transplant.

127

Posted by: RayJ at April 01, 2011 09:50 AM (2oRAd)

I'd say unbelievable, but I've read enough DOOM threads....

I trust no government....

128

My circle of liberal friends is shrinking, and not just because of their political stances. That ignorance bleeds into other, non-political facets of their lives. I find it irritating and boring.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo (NJConservative) at April 01

 

Yeah, trust me, I know where you're coming from.  I almost got into blows trying to explain to an idiot (former?) friend of mine that a state with a debt burden like New York shouldn't be paying for advertising on the subway hectoring me not to buy vanilla coffee (please take note, first Bloomberg came for the soda, now he's moved on to lemonade, fruit punch, and lattes).  Then again, foolio has also told me that Obamacare is wonderful, and "There are no differences between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam," and he's done his research on that.

I'm also going to be spending a 5 hour car ride next month with two people who, as I recall, thought Cash for Clunkers was brilliant.  I plan on givin' them some edumacatin', if they're stupid enough to get into politics.  The car is mine, they can't escape.

129

Great bumper sticker idea-- if you live in a liberal area and want to rub it in:

"Barack Obama has launched more Tomahawk missiles than all other Nobel Peace Prize winners combined.”

130 A big part of retail food prices is the fuel to haul them.  As gas nears $4/gal - food goes up as well.  The winter produce prices have been inflated by all of the global warming covering the Mexican fields as well.

I had been reporting all of my food spending in QuickBooks as flat; I wondered about that and restructured the report to isolate grocery from dining spending and saw a steep rise in grocery spending over the last 18mon and a decrease in eat'n out.

131

Oh, and no one pointed it out.

 

The kitty is a warlock.

Channelling the WINNING!!

132 If his Nobel Prize was big enough, I'd hammer it into a bowl and shit in it.

There's a real joke here somewhere.  I'll finish my coffee, pass a Krugman and then look for it.  Meanwhile someone put some pants on teh nohareball kitteh or the blog will lose its NC-13 rating.

133 127:  The general rule, really, is that few conspiracy theories are so paranoid that they aren't based upon an actual precedent.  (Well, maybe the Hollow Earth Space Nazi Reptilian Alien Hybrids, but these days I'm starting to wonder...)

134

Guess I'm not so paranoid....

 Posted by: Canadian Infidel at April 01, 2011 10:20 AM (GKQDR)

Well, I can't imagine the government wasting time siezing gold directly unless it was already Mad Max time.  We're not going back to the gold standard, so there's no reason for the government to build up hoards of it. 

But even if it did, you'd have a lot of warning.  There should be plenty of time to either export, liquidate or hide your hoard.

I'm way more worried about the government restricting my access to guns and bullets. 

135 The other thing they might do, Canadian Infidel, is seize RRSPs and the like. (I guess they're IRAs in the States.) A country did it several months ago but I can't recall which one--maybe Ireland but they seem a bit major to have done it so that might be a faulty memory on my part.

136 An ominous sign?

Strong Quake Strikes Crete

137

Posted by: andycanuck at April 01, 2011 10:27 AM (/wCSE)

I remember that andycanuck- they were nationalising pensions.

I had interview one at the U.S. Embassy in Toronto this week to renounce my US citizenship, which really is, the only safe way to truly ‘Go Galt’. The lady was very nice and explained everything. I can visit the country, I can apply for Visa’s later on if I want to. No marks will be put against my name because I renounced citizenship.

She said she used to get about 1 or 2 enquiries a year and that has jumped to about 1 a month. Not a flood, but.

Again, my fear is that a broke US government will go after any and everyone, even Americans not in the country. And the US government may be the only government in the world with the power to potentially even get at the assets of Americans abroad. Walking into the Embassy, I always felt the same I always feel dealing with American authorities. IÂ’m very respectful but they also scare me. Border guards, police officers, the IRS versus Revenue Canada. I donÂ’t fear the Canadian government (or respect it) as much as the US.

I was surprised not to get an automatic ‘no’ to my question about whether I can get what I payed into Social Security back. She asked me to check into it further. I’d be shocked if I get anything of what I payed into it back upon receiving my final exit papers. I told her if I did get it back, there might be a small run of people renouncing citizenship before the inevitable crash. I'm still going to call though. Can't hurt.

138 A big part of retail food prices is the fuel to haul them.  As gas nears $4/gal - food goes up as well.  The winter produce prices have been inflated by all of the global warming covering the Mexican fields as well.

I had been reporting all of my food spending in QuickBooks as flat; I wondered about that and restructured the report to isolate grocery from dining spending and saw a steep rise in grocery spending over the last 18mon and a decrease in eat'n out.

Posted by: Jean at April 01, 2011 10:23 AM (WkuV6)

Good point about fuel.  There's a lot of energy expended to make food.  From fertilizer to fuels, oil all over the place.

As for food increases, I don't notice it much.  I eat a pretty simple diet, with major components being sale-price meat ($2 per pound and under), bananas, apples, cereals, pears, milk, and eggs.  I've seen little to no increase in those things over the last couple years.

139 And the US government may be the only government in the world with the power to potentially even get at the assets of Americans abroad.

Posted by: Canadian Infidel at April 01, 2011 10:30 AM (GKQDR)

It absolutely does.  You can not escape.  The US has too much control over global banking.  Unless you convert your assets to a mobile commodity of some kind, or have a foreign ID to transfer it to and then bury it someplace, they'll get it. 

Here's an added treat for you - the US does not have to recognize your citizenship renunciation.  If you have lots to take, don't be surprised if they decide to decline your offer.  Also, if you have enough money, there's a fairly large exit tax on your wealth over a certain amount (it's in the 7 figure range, though, as I recall).

140 103 The unemployment rate these days means less to me than the workforce-participation rate, and that number is at a 25-year low.

Agreed. This following chart said it all for me. Until that participation rate starts to come up significantly the unemployment number is fairly meaningless.


THIS

What happens when you only need 65% or the available workforce to create everything your country needs? What do you do with the superfluous workers - many of whom may be talented, and wiling to work, but just not needed, here or anywhere else on earth?

Right now, we're in this situation because workers elsewhere will work for less. So is working for Chinese or Indonesian or Korean wages the answer? Their wages sure aren't going to rise to our levels any time soon, if ever.

So what do we do with our excess workers? No new technology to change the world seems to be on the horizon. Do we invade Canada or Mexico for Lebensraum, and open up land for small farms, in a sort of modern-day Land Rush?Mass sterilization of non-workers? Every answer seems to smack of a bad science fiction novel or the rantings of a Hitler or Mussolini or Japanese expansionist.

So what's the answer?

141 whether I can get what I payed into Social Security back.

Hahaha ....  I hope you were kidding.

142 137:  Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Ireland, and France, according to CSM this past January.

143 Andycanuck, it was an eastern European country, maybe Hungary, or perhaps Bulgaria. Either way, it has been done and it is not beyond the realm of possibility.

144

I'm way more worried about the government restricting my access to guns and bullets. 

Posted by: Reactionary at April 01, 2011 10:26 AM (xUM1Q)

I would be too. It'd be nice if we had our Western rebellions before my second interview. Sadly, too many people are at the trough for a rebellion to take place.  Guess it's the inevitable train wreck and then DOOM, DOOOOM, DOOOOOOOM.

There was a story about Italy this week sending 6000Africans back home. They weren't there legally and were apparently running from a bad area. But the Italian island couldn't afford them. This supports my belief that Europe doesn't go Islamic in 20 years. After the crash, if you're being supported by the government in any way and you don't belong there, watch increasing pressure on the Muslims to get out.

The biggest favour we could do for Europe post-crash would be to make several videos of people burning Korans with various European flags in the background speaking the various languages. If the Muslims dare riot in DOOM world, they're toast. If you're an obvious foreigner in any country and you're not contributing, you're going to have a lot of pressure to leave. And on that note, I have to run and continue learning a particular skill which will greatly increase my value to my future homeland - South Korea.

Everyone have a great weekend.

sigh - I wish we had DOOM on the weekends...

145 Ah, DarkLord is faster than I am. Also, it's been snowing here in the northwest suburbs of Philly. God's April Fool's Day joke.

146 Ouch, that cats balls.

147 How about a Doom MANwich!

148 Dude.

149 Josef K - 1.) dramatic spending reductions, 2.) structural reforms in the big spenders (SS, Medicare, Medicaid) to stop accumulation of additional obligations, 3.) domestic energy exploitation to reduce outflow to buy foreign sourced energy, generate windfall taxes, and to shock the job market, and 4.) structural reforms in the US Government to stop run away spending in the future (Balanced Budget Amendment, end Withholding, repeal the 17th Amendment to stop unfunded mandates on States, ban public sector unions, repeal Davis-Bacon, etc.)

At a personal level, get as debt free and self-sustaining as possible. There is a significant chance of a train wreck coming, so prepare, and there is not obvious boom market to otherwise invest in, so no lost opportunity cost.  Don't confuse preparing for a multi-year economic problem with 72hr of stuff for an earthquake; two different concepts.

150 What happens when you only need 65% or the available workforce to create everything your country needs? What do you do with the superfluous workers - many of whom may be talented, and wiling to work, but just not needed, here or anywhere else on earth?

Posted by: Josef K. at April 01, 2011 10:35 AM (7+pP9)

You're spot on.  I've asked this question myself.  The only plausible answer that I've come across so far goes against the grain, and hard.  It's that we need some way for folks to obtain basic subsistence without working in the traditional way.  It might be that the only workable solution is for the government to become a minimum-wage employer of last resort.  (non-unionized, of course) 

There are always more things that can be done.  Junk clean up, ditch digging, fallen tree clean up, fire wood splitting, basic road work, companions for the elderly to read or clean gutters or whatever, etc.  I envision a town odd-job bank, much like the current situation at home improvement stores in some places - they have clusters of illegals there waiting for a truck to pull up.  Instead of having wetbacks to do the grunt work, have a pool of Americans who MUST work upon request in order to get their welfare.  The main risk would be displacing private enterprise work, so we'd need to focus them on stuff that nobody was really willing to pay money for, but should still get done. 

Of all the bad solutions, this might be the least bad.  Naturaly we'd need to discourage a lot of breeding in that population, otherwise it intensifies the problem.

151 143 whether I can get what I payed into Social Security back.

Hahaha ....  I hope you were kidding. Posted by: Jean at April 01, 2011 10:36 AM (WkuV6)   Yeah, I read DOOM enough to know it's long gone, but it didn't hurt to ask. I was surprised I didn't get my "NO!" right there but she gave me a number to call.      

Here's an added treat for you - the US does not have to recognize your citizenship renunciation.  If you have lots to take, don't be surprised if they decide to decline your offer.  Also, if you have enough money, there's a fairly large exit tax on your wealth over a certain amount (it's in the 7 figure range, though, as I recall).

Posted by: Reactionary at April 01, 2011 10:34 AM (xUM1Q)

I know. The paperwork for the US government takes up to a year and the final exit paper which used to be free is now $495.

Fortunately, (unfortunately) I'm at a stage of my life where I don't have many assets. I was starting over in South Korea when I injured myself. But it's all good. It gave me a chance to come back to Canada, be with my 74 and 85 year old parents, design a better plan, which includes the reality of DOOM world and go back to Korea in a way best for me. Since I don't have much now, the government has no interest in seeing me stay American. This is truly the BEST time for me to be doing this.

152 Kratos - I fear a decent volcano; a Mt. Pinatubo type cooling event would be very bad right now.  As NE prepares to get 2' of snow in April and I had to scrape ice off of my car windows this AM - in Virginia.

153 Let's not talk about snow in Nebraska.  it's supposed to be bloody spring here, and I have this sneaking feeling that Al Gore is hiding out in Omaha. -_-  It is the only logical explanation, the cold follows him.

154 What happens when you only need 65% or the available workforce to create everything your country needs? What do you do with the superfluous workers - many of whom may be talented, and wiling to work, but just not needed, here or anywhere else on earth?

Posted by: Josef K. at April 01, 2011 10:35 AM (7+pP9)

Traditional answer - ruinous wars of conquest, since that isn't on the table anymore: Mars?

155 For you morons wondering about the NFP numbers , here's an updated , detailed list of all the NFP reports that haven't been revised down at a later date in the last several years . You're welcome

156 Posted by: Jean at April 01, 2011 10:47 AM (WkuV6)- Good advice there.

157 hot DOOM! sammich or hot diggedy dog Weiner? I'll take mine with Crowder on it. For if I held an office like the Weiner, then the law would not apply to me. Gotta love it, "wheresMYwaiver.com"

158

Posted by: Jean at April 01, 2011 10:47 AM (WkuV6)

1 and 2 sound good, but if done too rapidly would cause a deflationary crash of the economy.  Care must be taken.  3 would go a long way to help.  4 would be good if it tied spending to a useful metric like inflation - high inflation thus mandating lower deficits to bring the money supply back in line.  However, a balanced budget amendment can't work at the federal level.  If government expenditures were exactly equal to tax receipts, there would be no extra money to provide for private demand for savings and the incidental destruction of money that naturally happens.  All savings would thus be deflationary and restrict the money supply further and further.  Some amount of deficit is necessary and non-harmful (and no - I'm not talking about the 1.5 trillion+ kind we have now).  Ending withholding would be nice, in that it would anger people when they paid their tax, helping to focus the government on only more necessary spending.  Public sector unions are, of course, an abomination that should be eliminated NOW.     

159 154 Kratos - I fear a decent volcano; a Mt. Pinatubo type cooling event would be very bad right now.  As NE prepares to get 2' of snow in April and I had to scrape ice off of my car windows this AM - in Virginia.

Posted by: Jean at April 01, 2011 10:50 AM (WkuV6)

Yoooooohoooooooo!

160 Posted by: Josef K. at April 01, 2011 10:35 AM (7+pP9)

The traditional response--conscription, aggression, revolution.

Only the names ever change.

161
  Someone please tell me why employment figures are calculated in the present manner. Just doesn't make any sense.

162 Traditional answer - ruinous wars of conquest, since that isn't on the table anymore: Mars?

Posted by: Jean at April 01, 2011 10:53 AM (WkuV6)

Given that the libtards don't get the kids vaccinated any more, maybe plague will take care of it for us...  Thanks to the Muz, polio and smallpox will soon be making a come back.  Those were never destroyed in the vile islamic backwaters.  Polio has already shown up in Australia.  Whooping Caugh is back in the US already. 

163

140 You haven't seen an increase in the price of milk and bread?  They have seemed to cap it off, but over a 10 year period I've noticed a huge leap in the price of everyday foodstuffs...and the bread has gotten the consistency of  an old lace doily.

 

164 The coming economic collapse is being caused by the clip art on Sara Palin's geeky web site.  

I know because I do and they know that I know. 

165 Ending withholding would be nice, in that it would anger people when they paid their tax,

I would propose that taxes be due, in certified funds, on election day at the polls - with photo ID.  No tax forms, no ballot.  Most of our problems would be solved within two election cycles, maybe three to get rid of the last few Senate committee chairman with fossil like seniority.

166 That small pouch is where a Scandi Cat stores its brain grub eggs, which are injected into victims through the ovipositor at the end of the tail-like structure. Anywhere from 2-6 eggs will be deposited into a sleeping human, and after a 1 month incubation, will hatch a 2 cm grub. The grubs consume brain tissue, which causes a euphoria-like condition in the host, however, telltale skin markings develop somewhere on the host's body - which make the condition easier to identify. Often, in a desperate bid to hide the condition (or due to an instinctive survival behavior caused by the developing grubs) tattoos are placed over the skin markings.

Eventually, the grubs consume enough brain tissue to cause truly bizarre behavior in the host replete with self-destructive behavior. The host to will also then engage in activities that are detrimental to the overall health and well-being of its native peer group. The eventual and inevitable death of the host is known to be extremely painful and dramatic.There is no known cure for an Scandi grub infestation, other than death.

167

Of all the bad solutions, this might be the least bad.  Naturaly we'd need to discourage a lot of breeding in that population, otherwise it intensifies the problem.

Posted by: Reactionary at April 01, 2011 10:48 AM (xUM1Q)

I think that you are right about the federal government being the employer of last resort. I also think some states might seriously consider opening up land to agriculture. The states would have to retain the land, making them landlords, and the farmers tenant farmers eking out a living, but a house, barn, shed and 5 to 10 acres might be better than a squalid life in a city apartment, waiting for a welfare check.

The states wouldn't make much money on this scheme, but it is really about providing employment, a livelihood and some pride. Any crops they actually bring to market would be a bonus.

Workers in small towns could always work on roads and so forth; and good managers could find lots of things like the ones you described. Frankly, being funemployed, I'd sign up today if such a program existed.

In the cities? You could keep everybody busy without even trying - assuming that the city government would let you.

I think the biggest problem in the next few years is going to be changing the way people look at things. Old habits are hard to change, and especially in times of stress, or crisis. If the S really does HTF, I see 15 - 25% of the population dieing off - maybe more - simply from an inability to adapt.

168

Are Germans finally getting fed up with bankrolling the Euro project? If they step away, can the currency survive?

Easily, Germany is the one half the reason for the Euro's problems.  Yes, they have done quite well from the Euro, but now it's time to pay for their meal and of course they don't want to.  The sooner Germany leaves the Euro the sooner the economic relationship between Germany and Club Med and return to some kind of equilibrium.

169 Reactionary - However, a balanced budget amendment can't work at the federal level.  If government expenditures were exactly equal to tax receipts, there would be no extra money to provide for private demand for savings and the incidental destruction of money that naturally happens.  All savings would thus be deflationary and restrict the money supply further and further.  Some amount of deficit is necessary and non-harmful

Why would the "savings" money have to be the same as the circulating reserve money?  What if the "savings" money were tied to gold (or some other standard) - redeemable at the floating rate.  Thus it wouldn't come out of future taxes.  Other concept; allow a debt ceiling for transactional purposes - at a limit agreed to by all 50 states or a congressional super majority.

170 And I'm WEST of Java, ashholes!

171 Posted by: Josef K. at April 01, 2011 11:06 AM (7+pP9)

I can see one glaring problem with that plan.

172 173 Posted by: Josef K. at April 01, 2011 11:06 AM (7+pP9)

I can see one glaring problem with that plan.

Posted by: DarkLord© staring at the fiscal abyss at April 01, 2011 11:10 AM (GBXon)

One? I see several: Big-city mayors who don't want anyone disturbing their fiefdoms, race-baiting "revruns" screaming about a slavery worse even then playing in the NFL, Unions going bonkers and screaming about how this plan would kill their members, or some such BS, politicians wanting to spend the funds on their pet projects and siphon funds to their cronies, etc...

So tell me, what was the most glaring problem, in your opinion?

173 So tell me, what was the most glaring problem, in your opinion?

All those aside, the fact that if the government is employing, the money has to come from somewhere...not that there IS any.

But yeah, I was just sort of glossing over the roughly 437 other dealkiller details.

174 I would propose that taxes be due, in certified funds, on election day at the polls - with photo ID.  No tax forms, no ballot.

I would propose that doing that would do very little because the people who vote these commies into power for the large part either don't pay any taxes or pay negative taxes.

The only thing that will stop it is to make voting a right for those paying taxes only.  But that is never going to happen, so be sure to watch The Road Warrior today at 12:30 EDT.

175

169 HAHAHHAAHHAHA!

You realize that's been tried before, don't you?  It didn't end well...every time it's been used.

Just embrace the fact that no matter what solution or what outcome...there will be the suck.  Just embrace the suck. (yeah, that includes people who think they can move away from it); just acknowledge it; that's the first step.

176 "The only thing that will stop it is to make voting a right for those paying taxes only." Even simpler would be to revoke franchise for anyone receiving federal assistance of any kind during any given two-year cycle for that cycle.

177 Posted by: unknown jane at April 01, 2011 11:27 AM (5/yRG)

Well, duh, I know it will suck, but that doesn't answer the question of what we do with our surplus work-capable population.

Let them starve? Watch them riot and say, "Oops, we didn't see that coming?"

No grand solution will work everywhere, and it may be that the best solutions are worked out at the county or municipal level. Or not. But I was raised to believe that Americans, after embracing the suck, should try to do something about it.

Gaullic shrugs aren't going to help.

178 About that "Government as employer of last resort" thing: it's a horrible idea, and it never works. Ever hear of the WPA? (The old-timers used to call WPA workers the "We Piddle Around" boys because they never seemed to be doing any actual real work.)

If you subsidize something, you get more of it. If the market have a demand for minimum-wage low-skilled people (which will be who the program mainly serves), and the government spends a lot of money subsidizing a bunch of activity the market doesn't need or want, how is this any different than just cutting a welfare check to the "workers" and do away with the bureaucratic overhead?

Giving someone unproductive "work" to do just to keep them from feeling bad about themselves is a horrible kind of malinvestment -- it not only prevents them from finding actual *productive* work, but diverts capital to a lot of pretty useless endeavors. And, since our government is flat busted broke, we don't even have the capital to squander -- we'd have to borrow more money to piss away.

179 If the market have a demand

If the market has no demand, I meant to say.

180 No grand solution will work everywhere,

So no one grand solution. Let the states come up with 50, or 500, or whatever best fits local needs. "Grand solutions" are what got us into this mess, and they will not get us out--only deeper in.

There is no soft landing.  None.  We have to leave it up to communities or other social groups--families, circles of friends, mutual assistance societies--you know, the ones that used to handle these issues before.  The ones who got gutted because Deified State will brook no rivals.

It will suck.  Trying to avoid that now is like trying to keep from going splat when you jumped off the top of the Empire State Building without a parachute and you're 15 feet from the ground--the time to avoid the suck was at the top of the frakking building.

181 Why would the "savings" money have to be the same as the circulating reserve money?  What if the "savings" money were tied to gold (or some other standard) - redeemable at the floating rate.  Thus it wouldn't come out of future taxes.  Other concept; allow a debt ceiling for transactional purposes - at a limit agreed to by all 50 states or a congressional super majority.

Posted by: Jean at April 01, 2011 11:09 AM (WkuV6)

Do you really want to have two monetary systems?  How could we manage interchange between the two?  But in any case, savings that can't be used to pay tax are a problem.  I need $ to pay tax with.  Savings in something the government won't accept don't have the same value to me as savings.

As for a debt ceiling, in the end it would be the same as a balanced budget - an arbitrary money supply cap.   I'd go for a deficit cap, though. 

182 "Well, duh, I know it will suck, but that doesn't answer the question of what we do with our surplus work-capable population." There really isn't a surplus work-capable population until we create one by erecting a social safety net out of employment regulations and transfer payments. I think you are looking at the problem from the wrong angle. I'm a computer consultant. I've done work for government at various levels, and I've done work for various private-sector companies. Outside of work I've done in support of DoD, everything I have done in my post-Army life has been for ultimately frivolous pursuits. In the strictest sense, I am a member of what I calculate to be 90% (your number was only 35%) of the workforce not strictly needed to keep things going. But I keep working, and I have been working for a paycheck since I was thirteen years old. I do it because I want to eat and feed mine. I do it because I want the better things in life. I do it so that I am not a burden on my family, friends, and more generally, my fellow citizens. We have created our "surplus workers" by removing all those motivators. People who can eat without working and live as though they are entitled to being a burden on others really are not people. Pretending that they are is what gets us into the mess we are in.

183 About that "Government as employer of last resort" thing: it's a horrible idea, and it never works. Ever hear of the WPA? How is this any different than just cutting a welfare check to the "workers" and do away with the bureaucratic overhead?

Giving someone unproductive "work" to do just to keep them from feeling bad about themselves is a horrible kind of malinvestment -- it not only prevents them from finding actual *productive* work, but diverts capital to a lot of pretty useless endeavors. And, since our government is flat busted broke, we don't even have the capital to squander -- we'd have to borrow more money to piss away.

Posted by: Monty at April 01, 2011 11:40 AM (FC+dS)

It is different in that the unemployed will have the opportunity to maintain work habits.  Currently many US employers are posting job ads that specifically state that they will not hire the unemployed.  That is because work habits and attitudes degrade with time.  People become physically and mentally indolent.  It is necessary to keep people in a work mentality.  It isn't about self esteem, though that is a side benefit.

Further, there is a great abundance of work that would be beneficial, but that the market has not prioritized.  There are limited resources in the market - we can't have all we want, so we pay for what we must have.  That doesn't mean that all work that isn't being done has no inherent value.  How many old folks have homes that are decaying because they can neither do the maintenance themselves nor afford to hire it done?  Plenty, I assure you.  That one thing, alone, would employ many thousands across the nation, and the nation would be a better place for no greater cost than having to pay for welfare, which we already do, and will certainly continue to do.  The nation would be little or no poorer, and the idle would have something productive to do to provide some compensation to the nation for the subsistence they will be given.  And that subsistence WILL be given.  That bridge has been crossed and burned.

Of those currently involuntarily unemployed, how many do you think will be content to dig ditches at minimum wage all their lives?  Do you really think everybody in a low wage job with no nice benefits will just sit there contentedly and never try to improve their lot?  It's absurd.  Nearly every person who is forced to work for his bread tries to make the most of his labor time. 

Also, the government isn't broke (revenue constrained).  It doesn't have to borrow a dime.  It has as much money as it needs at any moment, since it is the monopoly issuer of dollars that you and I need to pay our taxes (otherwise men with guns come and put us in jail).  I assure you - there are very few people in the US who will refuse to offer goods and services to the government in return for dollars.  The only question is how many it will take.  There can come a breaking point, when the state eats up too much, but we're not there yet.  The private economy has receeded too much, leaving considerable open capacity.

184 Naturaly we'd need to discourage a lot of breeding in that population, otherwise it intensifies the problem.

Attn:  Any time you start to sound like Margaret Sanger you've Godwined yourself. 

185 We have created our "surplus workers" by removing all those motivators. People who can eat without working and live as though they are entitled to being a burden on others really are not people. Pretending that they are is what gets us into the mess we are in.

Posted by: FRONT TOWARD LEFT at April 01, 2011 11:48 AM (Pzf4N)

I agree with part of what you're asserting here, but the idea that there is adequate employment opportunity if everyone would just go look for it is not true.  Unemployment is not some kind of disease that converts working people instantly into layabout for as long as the bennies last.  Sure - a percentage milk the bennies.  But most folks want to get back to earning something like they had before.  We're blaming the government (rightly) for failure to help get employment up, but their extension of unemployment bennies isn't the only thing in play here. 

186 "Further, there is a great abundance of work that would be beneficial, but that the market has not prioritized." It wasn't the market that failed to prioritize these kinds of work. Our employment laws have broken the market by raising the cost of doing this work well beyond the consumer's perceived benefit.

187 Attn:  Any time you start to sound like Margaret Sanger you've Godwined yourself. 

Posted by: Dave at April 01, 2011 12:08 PM (FQACB)

There's a HUGE difference between subsidizing breeding among the welfare rats, which we are doing today, and telling them they have to pay for their babies themselves regardless of the suffering required.  There are a hell of a lot of kids in the US today who exist only because they represent additional income necessary to buy a nicer TV.  If you think we can have unlimited reproduction among the least successful part of the population, in a time when we already have more people than are necessary to run everything, and when food demand is already going up and up, then you're living in a fantasy land.

I swear, the simpering do-gooders infesting the Right are as bad as our enemies on the Left.  An unwillingness to subsidize the reproductive proclivities of the underclass is not the same as advocating coercive popuation control and forced abortions. 

188 Cool. A Nazi.

189 It wasn't the market that failed to prioritize these kinds of work. Our employment laws have broken the market by raising the cost of doing this work well beyond the consumer's perceived benefit.

Posted by: FRONT TOWARD LEFT at April 01, 2011 12:09 PM (Pzf4N)

A valid point.  All I'm saying is that there are plenty of forms of work that are not useless and stupid, yet people can't get done.  People on fixed income are an example of a market that lacks resources to pay for what it wants (beyond necessities) at almost any price.  If we need things for people to do because there is a low point in demand for labor, it is better to use those excess workers for something than to let them sit idle.  We can meet two social needs at once - help for those who can't afford it, and labor to keep those without regular jobs doing something productive.

 

190 "Unemployment is not some kind of disease that converts working people instantly into layabout for as long as the bennies last." I was addressing the idea that we have surplus workers for whom we have no jobs. I don't buy it. The lack of jobs right now is because of positive shit that the government does that distorts the markets. Unemployment insurance is a tiny part of that. Before considering any ideas to create jobs, we should first be addressing all the things that destroy jobs.

191 "There's a HUGE difference between subsidizing breeding among the welfare rats, which we are doing today, and telling them they have to pay for their babies themselves regardless of the suffering required." In spite of my wiseass wording, I swear this is not intended as a flame: There's a HUGE difference between advocating "discourage a lot of breeding" and condemning the stupidity of programs that incentivize the wrong behavior.

192 Naturaly we'd need to discourage a lot of breeding in that population,

There's a HUGE difference between subsidizing breeding among the welfare rats, which we are doing today,

There's a HUGE difference between your quote and stopping disincentives to work and incentives for unsupported children.  If you don't get that your jackboots are too tight.

Saying "discourage breeding" <> "stop encouraging breeding" and political policies towards "that population" or calling people rats have just been a joy in every direction since we came out of the trees.

"simpering do-gooders infesting the Right a"
I haven't simpered in a long time, time to go infest the Giant for lunch.

See, funny, Right and neither racist, rabble-rousing or portrayable as such.

193 The best way to stimulate work on the low end is to abolish the minimum wage. Let the market decide what a job pays, not the government. There are plenty of jobs that aren't work eight bucks an hour, but *are* worth (say) four bucks an hour.

And that "the government isn't broke" line is pure Keynesian, monetarist horse-shit. Money is not a bunch of magical tickets, you know. Debasement and inflation will kill the currency as dead as dogshit (if it hasn't already). I can take a piece of paper and write "$1 HOJILLION MONTYBUX!!!" on it; that doesn't make me rich. People only accept Uncle Sam's paper because of that "full faith and credit" thing. There are signs right now that the "full faith and credit"  may be about used up.

I have never undrestood this ridiculous belief among many that you can do whatever you want with a fiat currency with no real reckoning. Specie currency has faults, but it has the saving grace of having an upper-limit to how much it can be abused before it collapses. With fiat money, you have necromancers who insist that you can go on forever. Well, you can't.

194 The best way to stimulate work is to get back to the government we had in 1800 when the Constitution had been recently ratified before SCOTUS started ripping it apart.

You know, back when we were an actual capitalist country.

195 195  But then you also have to make sure that the cost of living is low enough that you don't cause other problems -- getting rid of minimum wage certainly helps businesses to hire new people, but it doesn't really do much for the overall situation if the cost of living is too high.  Unless you like the idea of the 90 day wonder worker and a large permanent welfare class.

196

The best way to stimulate work on the low end is to abolish the minimum wage. Let the market decide what a job pays, not the government. There are plenty of jobs that aren't work eight bucks an hour, but *are* worth (say) four bucks an hour.

Agreed, but I contend that it will increase employment among youth - not much among adults.  Even fast food chains, at least in my area, pay above the current minimum wage.  If a job is worth $4 per hour, you might get somebody who needs a little pin money for comic books, but you can't sustain life (food, shelter, basic transport) at that level of income unless you live in a cheap efficiency apartment within walking distance of your employer.  You have to be ready to force people off welfare if you expect them, as adults, to take that job.  Are we ready?  I am.  But what about America as a whole?

I have never undrestood this ridiculous belief among many that you can do whatever you want with a fiat currency with no real reckoning.

Posted by: Monty at April 01, 2011 12:54 PM (FC+dS)

Nobody is making that assertion.  Inflation the the thing to watch.  If there is no inflation, or very low inflation, spending is not yet too high.  Once the government consumes too much of the available productive capacity, inflation will set in. 

197 But then you also have to make sure that the cost of living is low enough that you don't cause other problems

All the studies I have seen of the minimum wage show that the only impact it has is on entry level people, mostly youths in first time or part time summer jobs.

People who actually are permanently employed rarely work for minimum wage. Raising the minimum wage only makes employers slower to hire youths and makes their unemployment higher.

198 But then you also have to make sure that the cost of living is low enough that you don't cause other problems

That's a fallacy. Trying to move levers and gears to "control" the economy is what got us into this mess in the first place -- price-controls (like rent control) have been around forever, and they've been failing forever.

Let's say I want to hire a kid to mow my lawn -- I could do itmyself, but there's a baseball game on, and it's worth twenty bucks to me to have the kid mow my lawn so I can watch the game. But what if Uncle Sam mandates that all lawn-mowing jobs must henceforth be paid at fifty dollars per lawn? Junior has to make a profit!, says Uncle Sam. Well, my answer is: screw it, I'll mow my own lawn. The opportunity cost of the "mow lawn vs watch game" was acceptable at twenty dollars; at fifty bucks, no sale. So now instead of having twenty bucks, Junior has *no* bucks. Making the "minimum wage" fifty bucks didn't put fifty dollars into his pocket; it just removed the job from the marketplace.

*I* determine what my lawn-mowing job is worth, not Uncle Sam.

199 There's a HUGE difference between advocating "discourage a lot of breeding" and condemning the stupidity of programs that incentivize the wrong behavior.

Posted by: FRONT TOWARD LEFT at April 01, 2011 12:27 PM (Pzf4N)

I'll conceed the point regarding the unsavory semantics.  No doubt my tone is colored by my disgust for the situation.  But I have found that unless things are confronted with blunt language we fall into the usual Republican trap of softening every statement to look "nice."  Impact is eliminated.  We sound like cold blooded clinicians, with all the passion of a gelding.  I'm not running for elected office here, nor is that likey to happen.  Nobody's going to be digging up my blog posts at some point to discredit my views.

When it comes to the multi-generation welfare slums, I'm not going to pretend that we're dealing with noble, long suffering individuals yearning for a higher existence.  They're rabble, and they'd prey upon us if they could.  They become more predatory with each generation.  So far our response has been to look away, hoping it doesn't all blow up in our day.

 

200 That's the single nastiest cat pic ever.  It's like senior cat porn.

201 I realized on my drive that I'd actually Godwined you.  I apologize.

202 multi-generation welfare slums, ... They're rabble our fellow citizens, and they'd prey upon us each other already if they could.

I know calling Americans rabble won't get more votes than it loses.

203 "I'll conceed the point regarding the unsavory semantics." It's deeper than just the semantics. Removing a twisted incentive restricts government. Trying to influence behavior ("discourage") empowers government. "They're rabble, and they'd prey upon us if they could. They become more predatory with each generation." I would argue that it's much worse than your estimation. Every time a ward of the state enters a voting booth and pulls the lever for a democrat, he is preying on you.

204 There will be hell to pay when cutting the employees of government.  The NAACP will be out in force calling everyone "racists" as the federal government jobs are the new welfare for affirmative action employees.  Our government is full of duplication, triple duplication employees doing nothing but screwing the works up and drawing a big wage and benefits and a big retirement just for being a minority...

Just saying.....get prepared cause we need to cut the employees.

205 the confidence fairy In the real world, confidence, and predictions of future confidence, drive the market. In Krugman's wacademia, confidence is a "fairy". Get that man another Nobel Easter Egg, and maybe another Nobel Pot o' Gold for The One at the end of the Libyan rainbow while we're at it.

206 ref comment #32 by dagny
"... I'm still convinced that this entire vault into socialism is engineered. I'm over buying the bungleing excuse."

=================

Heartily agreed. 

If it's bungling/ vicissitudes of fortune/ the result of inexperience/ any other rational excuse, at least SOME of the time something would "go right".  No matter what our Current Clowns do, it all tends toward the same Evil Ends.  Therefore: Deliberate. 

207 Hey Monty,

Maybe in some future post you could touch on what happened to Ireland?  They were the hot new country to move your business to because they had super-low corporate taxes.  Then, next thing I know, they put the "I" in "PIGS."

208 Monty, I don't know if you monitor threads, but I'm hoping you could hook me up with a special ¡BONED! mention for us Arizonans. Our brilliant legislators are planning to raise booze taxes from $3/gallon to $15.80/gallon.

New Alcohol Taxes Just Kick the Can Down the Road

(Interestingly enough, the stooges at the Arizona Republic haven't even mentioned this. I only happened to hear about it from the afternoon talk radio show.)

My dad used to take liquor orders from our Massachusetts neighbors when he'd take business trips to N.H.  So, I might just become the next generation of bootleggers in my family if these idiots manage to pull off this stunt.

Well, I'm gonna go pour me a tall glass of Val-U-Rite and grapefruit while I can still afford it. Anyway, thanks for considering it!

209 I have come here to chew bubblegum and burn Korans... and I am all out of bubblegum.Äþ²¨Ã×ÄÈ»éÉ´£¬Äþ²¨»éÉ´£¬Äþ²¨»éÉ´³ö×⣬Äþ²¨»éÉ´¶¨ÖÆ