This Blog? It is Done.

I've decided to shut this blog down. Any political content you want to find will be over at my new blog where I'll be posting my views on everything. And some of my stories.

The Rantin' Arkansan

You should follow it. Comment. It'll be fun time.

- Jake

The Federal Reserve is Inhibiting the Economy

I was watching Good Morning America this morning (blame the wife, I can't stand it), and I noticed they were talking about the fact that the Dow Jones Industrial was nearing 13,000 again while the NASDAQ was closing in on 3,000. It got me thinking about the current discussion about the inflation rates currently show through the CPI (sitting at 2.3% right now). Many of the mainstream economists (Krugman, Baker, Wiesenthal, etc) have touted the line that because of this ~2% inflation rate, inflation isn't happening, which is true in a sense. What they seem to fail to realize though, is that for all intents and purposes, the economy should be in a deflationary period, but isn't because of the massive amount of monetary expansion by the Federal Reserve.

The Federal Reserve is inhibiting the economy from washing away the enormous amount of bad money (debt) it has in its system by chasing it with more money. Almost every aspect of the market is inflated. It needs to go through deflationary measures to return to a sustainable rate. The DJI should not be making its way towards 13,000, and the NASDAQ should not be nearing 3,000. This is why so many among the Austrian School warn about inflation, even though we are currently in a stagnant period. If the economy recovers, despite the Fed Res trying hard to stop it, the monetary expansion is going to rear its ugly head and create a staggering amount of inflation, which will be nothing but disastrous for the average citizen.

It isn't really that hard to see once you take a look at the numbers and use a little common sense.

Media Ignoring Ron Paul

Ron Paul finished a close 2^nd in the Iowa Straw Poll on the 13^th, though it doesn't feel that way. You, see the good doctor, the only principled politician in Washington for 30 years, has been ignored by the media. I find this quite puzzling.

Reasons for this puzzlement are numerous, but I would like to focus on two for now. The first being the financial crisis, and Washington economics in general. The second being Washington's foreign policy.

What most people probably don't know is that Ron Paul explained how the housing bubble was going to burst in 2003, four full years before it happened. He did this by adhering to the principles of the Austrian Business Cycle, which offer a stark contrast to the Keynesian Cycle which led to the bubble, and subsequent crash, in th first place. 

Secondly, Ron Paul has been correct on foreign policy. It is wasteful, unconstitutional, and aggressive. In 1998, the day before Clinton's impeachment hearing, Dr. Paul warned that our bombings in Sudan and Iraq that killed many civilians would to back lash against the American people. Just three years later, 9/11 happened, with Osama bin Laden stating our aggressive foreign policy as catalyst for the attacks.

Ignore the good doctor at your peril.

Our Money is Worth What?

LRC

The U.S. Mint offers its newly minted dollar coins, featuring the Presidents of the United States. The US Mint has spent millions of dollars attempting to coax Americans to use these tinny coins in commerce, but nothing doing. If you've had one of these coins in your hand you would get the feeling it is counterfeit in some way. And that is because it is largely made of copper with some zinc, manganese and nickel thrown in. In other words, you are getting what a penny used to be made of in a coin that is represented as a dollar. The U.S. Coin Values Advisor reveals these "dollar" coins only cost the U.S. Mint about 10–15 cents. Buyers of these commemorative coins will essentially be donating 80–85 cents to the U.S. Treasury. Newly minted U.S. quarters with each State of the Union imprinted on them, only cost the U.S. Mint about 5 cents to produce. But you get the thrill or doing something patriotic by donating money back to the U.S. Treasury, that paragon of ethical banking and currency practices (I'm being facetious).

The U.S. Coin Value Advisor says it this way: "a fully circulating dollar coin would net perhaps as much as $500 million for the government annually, because for each presidential dollar coin distributed to the public, somewhere between $0.85 and $0.90 profit returns to the Treasury." That's a pretty good return on investment. The metal coins also don't have to be replaced as often as paper dollars.

And this is the complete and utter failure of fiat and monopolized currency.  Our coins are worth only a mere percentage of what are paid to put them into circulation.  We are being robbed blind by the same people we send to see after our interests.  A private mint would be run out of business for selling something that was only worth 10-15% of the asking price. 

This is why we need to replace the Federal Reserve with competing private mints.  We have absolutely zero say in how much our money is worth, who we get our money from, or how sound it is.  We are slaves to the banksters and politicians who created this despot organization in 1912.  End the Fed.

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.