Bernanke is Still Clueless

CNBC

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke went before Congress last week looking to emphasize the "unusual uncertainty" surrounding the US economy and wound up pledging, in no uncertain terms, that the Fed was prepared to take unusual steps to fire up growth.

"We are ready and will act if the economy does not continue to improve, if we don't see the kind of improvements in the labor market that we are hoping for and expecting," Bernanke told the House Financial Services Committee last Thursday, following a similar briefing to a key Senate panel Wednesday.

"Helicopter" Ben thinks he can inflate us out of this drepession by lowering interest rates to "stimulate" the economy.  He is apparently devoid of any economic knowledge, or he would recognize lowering interest rates under Greenspan was the cause of this current depression. 

Why do people view him as a competent economist?  Because we are being taught the wrong kind of economics.

Fed Gets More Power

Wall Street Journal

After fending off most challenges to its independence and winning new powers to oversee big financial firms, the Federal Reserve has emerged from a bruising debate on the overhaul of U.S. financial rules as perhaps the pre-eminent regulator in the sector. But that could only bring it added blame if things go wrong again.

Just a few months ago, amid populist anger at the Fed for failing to prevent the financial crisis of 2008 and bailing out Wall Street, Congress was talking of stripping the central bank of its supervisory oversight of banks or forcing it to submit to congressional audit of its interest-rate decisions.

Instead, the new law gives the Fed more power and a better tool box to help prevent financial crises. It will become the primary regulator for large, complex financial firms of all kinds, such as American International Group, the insurer which built a massive derivatives portfolio that regulators didn't see until it was too late.

After the Federal Reserve caused the 2008 crisis, a push was made by many in the liberty movement to have their power greatly reduced by revealing their true dealings.  Ron Paul introduced his legislation, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, was introduced in February of 2009.  It had over 300 co-sponsors.  Paul was getting interviews on national syndicated shows like Glenn Beck, and was appearing on every major new network.  The message that the Federal Reserve was a danger to the US economy was growing. 

Then, the Financial Regulations bill was introduced and debated.  The blame, some rightfully deserved, was placed upon Wall Street again.  The Senate passed the bill after completely watering it down.  The Fed has been given more arbitrary powers over the financial sector, being made the primary regulator for the Too Big To Fail banks.  The same banks that the Fed loaned artificially cheap money, enabling the fraud and leveraging Wall Street revelled in.  The Fed has been completely forgotten by the mainstream media, leaving the bill wide open to give more powers to the direct cause.  I urge everyone reading, however few that may be, to contact their state representatives and let them know that this cannot be tolerated, and it must be nullified immediately.  Let them know it would be good for the to do some light reading by suggesting Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse and End the Fed.

More Violence from the Failed Drug War

CNN

A car bomb killed at least four people in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, authorities said.

It was the first time a car bomb has been used to attack federal police, said the city's mayor, Jose Reyes Ferriz.

The incident happened about 8 p.m. Thursday in the city's most violent zone.

Juarez municipal police spokesman Jacinto Seguro said Friday that federal police were responding to a call that a police officer had been killed.

"When they went to check the car, there was a dead body in there, dressed up like a police officer, but it wasn't one of ours," Seguro said. "They put him in a civilian car but dressed him up in a municipal police uniform. That's when the bomb went off. It's like an act of terrorism."

Two police officers, a paramedic and a civilian were killed, federal police spokesman Ramon Salinas said.

Four more people have been killed because of the violence caused by the immoral War on Drugs.  This war is nothing but an repeat of the Prohibition era, which gave rise to the likes of Al Capone, Bugsy Siegel, and Charlie Luciano.  Now we have the meteoric rise of the Mexican cartels, who are responsible for more and more deaths each week.  Common sense tells us that if you make something voluntary illegal, people will break the law to get it.  Now if only government could realize that.

Tom Woods Press TV Interview on Nullification

Mass Forclosures Ahead

Fox News

More than 1 million American households are likely to lose their homes to foreclosure this year, as lenders work their way through a huge backlog of borrowers who have fallen behind on their loans.

Nearly 528,000 homes were taken over by lenders in the first six months of the year, a rate that is on track to eclipse the more than 900,000 homes repossessed in 2009, according to data released Thursday by RealtyTrac Inc., a foreclosure listing service.

This isn't going to be ending anytime soon.  We have a whole other set of subprime mortgages yet to reset at their higher interest rates and commercial real estate is soon to take its largest hit.  And yet the economy is "recovering".

Sarah Palin Loves the Warfare State

CNN

During a speech at an event called "Freedom Fest," former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin warned Tea Party activists that while government spending was a bad thing, conservatives should not go too far and start calling for reductions in the military budget.

While Palin told the crowd in Norfolk, Virginia, "Something has to be done urgently to stop the out-of-control Obama-Reid-Pelosi spending machine," she also told them, "We must make sure, however, that we do nothing to undermine the effectiveness of our military."

Sarah Palin thinks we shouldn't do anything to the ever exploding "defense" budget.  News for you Sarah, the military budget, all discretionary, is another huge chunk in our ever expanding deficit and govenment control.  We spend nearly as much on "defense" as the rest of the world combined.  I agree that our spending on the welfare state is egregiously too high.  But that doesn't mean her precious "defense" budget is off limits. The only true fiscal conservative in DC, Dr Ron Paul, completely disagrees with her. 

And as always, the other dangers of  the Military Industrial Complex: