SWB: Alan B. Rowley II - Success Coach - ECoaching - Email Coaching

Christians Destroyed the Economy

I'm not jumping on the blame wagon.  If I did, it would be to point out something in an effort that we wouldn't repeat the mistake again. 

You would think that maybe, somewhere in this mess, there was a lesson or two that could be learned.  Maybe banks shouldn't loan money to people who can't pay them back.  Maybe artificially raising the prices of houses and then borrowing the fake equity was a bad move.  Maybe people shouldn't borrow money they can't pay back.  Maybe people shouldn't live paycheck to paycheck promising away all their money in the form of installment payments.  Maybe Wall Street shouldn't take these worthless debts and bundle them up to conceal their worthlessness and sell them off.  Maybe the Fed shouldn't bail out people who did all these unethical actions.

You know?  Somewhere in there, there must be a lesson. 

You know what though?  Knowing what we know now, would we do it again?  Hell, yeah, we would.  It would be a more pronounced spike but it would still happen.  People would get in on the game sooner and try to get out before everything fell apart.

Congressional Law versus Economic Law

Congress and democratic presidential candidates seem to be discussing a minimum gas mileage law quite a bit.  We need to conserve gas and cut down on global warming causing emissions. 

I know I'm more laid back than most but I don't see the need to pass such a law.  It has seemed to me to be quite obvious that the problem will solve itself.  Oil is on the decline which means prices are on an incline.  Americans have put themselves into debt to such a point that no matter how much money they make, they are living from paycheck to paycheck.

That means that when gas prices hit $4 a gallon, $5 a gallon, and on upward, people are going to start voluntarily ditching gas guzzling vehicles.  If Congress wants to speed up the process, don't tell people what kind of cars they are allowed to make or buy, just add a sin tax onto gas.  Raise the price of gas and you will see fuel economic car sales go through the roof.

I know, we want our cake, our frosting, a scoop of Neapolitan ice cream, on fine china, with a glass of milk, and be able to eat it too.  Like your mom always said though, if you keep touching it, you're going to go blind.  The more we try to make laws to force people to do what someone has deemed is "right" the more we have to make laws enforcement agencies and even more rules and regulations and in the end, the whole thing just backfires anyway.

Not that this is good for the employees but GM is laying off 3,500 people who were making trucks and SUVs.  Sales are decreasing as gas prices increase.  People are switching to cross-overs.  Maybe those people can get jobs building cool cross-overs or maybe they'll have to switch industries to what ever market will rise with the decline of car sales.

Walking shoes?

Unfortunately, our monkey-spanking government has created tax incentives for companies to move out of the country and preferred free trade agreements that benefit workers in foreign countries.

We could stop the whole thing if we would buy American but we want our companies to pay American taxes and high salaries to people so they can buy the cheapest crap on the planet that was built in Taiwan from Wal-Mart. 

To conserve gas and cut down on deadly emissions, we should pass a law that people aren't allowed to buy stuff that has to travel more than 1,000 miles to get to the retailer.

They Just Don't Get It

This news team is interviewing this guy because he's an expert.  He knows what he talking about.  They admit that he's been right in the past.  And yet . . .

Listen to them argue with him.  Smacktards.

No Worries. King George is all over it.

Nothing to worry about.  The good king has declared that he has everything under control.

"We saw this coming ... and so we took some action. And I do want to thank members of the Congress, members of the Chamber, for working on what I believe is going to be a very effective pro-growth stimulus package," Bush said.

Problem solve.

They saw this coming.  They didn't do anything about it at the time but they saw it coming.

"Dude, these people are going to be so screwed," Bush said.

"Yes, Mr. President, ha ha, they are," Cheney answered.

"Should we do something about it?" Bush asked.

"Like what?" Cheney asked.

"I don't know.  Don't I have advisors or sumpin' to deal with these things?" Bush asked.

"No, you don't.  Now, take your pills and go to your office.  We'll be there soon," Cheney said.

"What am I supposed to do?" Bush asked.

"We put a new game in the PS3 for you," Cheney said.

"Cool!"

So, it's all under control.  Continue on with your lives.  Nothing to see here.

Gas Prices Costing Us Indirectly

Between my little Saturn and my 3 mile commute, the gas prices aren't having much of a direct effect on me.  I drive to work.  I drive home.  Once a week, we go get groceries. 

That's where we are feeling it.  Not feeling it as in, how are we going to eat?  More of just an annoyance at this point although I'm not looking forward to seeing how high prices are going to go.

I recently read an article that stated that while healthy foods are rising in price, junk food is going down in price.  That's going to lead to more health problems for a lot of people, especially those that are already living paycheck to paycheck.

Exactly the same ones that can't afford health problems.

We are entering a new era which is frightening but at the same time exciting.  What is life going to be like when the violence subsides and the new system is in place?

Whose fault is it?

Our economy is coming to a dead end (Adam Kritzer sums it up HERE) and someone is going to have to be blamed.  It's the American way. 

Quick side note: I saw a headline that Virginia Tech paid victims and family for the shooting.  So I need to rephrase. 

Someone with money is going to have to be blamed.

Quite frankly, I think we should all sue the Federal Reserve.  Think about it.  The most important consideration when filing a lawsuit is finding the deep pockets.  Actual cause and effect, common sense, Darwinism, and warning labels are simple hurdles to overcome.  You have to find someone with money.

There are no deeper pockets than the Federal Reserve.  They can just print and print money.  You can sue them for a trillion dollars.  If you win, they'll just have to run the printing press until you get your money.  I think we should file a class action suit against the Federal Reserve.  Their negligence is leading to records in oil prices, gas prices, foreclosures, bankruptcies, unemployment, and unhappiness.

Any attorneys taking on this case?  I'd like my piece of the pie.

Two homeless countries for the price of one

The senate would like to help people keep their homes in some way or help people buy up the huge oversupply of houses on the market.  Have they thought about trying Overstock.com? 

King George has told them not to even bother trying to pass the bill on to him because it would be too expensive.  He just can't go along with that kind of spending.

In completely unrelated news, direct costs of the war have exceeded $500 billion and total economic impact is over $1.3 trillion.  Unmeasured is the moral cost the war has had on our country.

The United States spends about $100 billion a year destroying houses, schools, hospitals, museums, libraries, and anything else that can be bombed.  The only safe place to be in Iraq when the bombs are bursting is next to an oil well.

Every year that we continue to annihilate Iraq, the longer it will take for both countries to recover.  Maybe when our economy tanks, the tanks will stop running and Iraq can begin rebuilding and Americans can look around and wonder what the hell happened.

Gotta Love Debit Cards

The Fed is auctioning off more money and looking to lower the interest rate again.  This will of course devalue the dollar some more and cause inflation.  It will also cause investors to be real things like oil, gold, and silver.  This will drive those prices up and so oil, gas, plastic, food, and anything that is shipped will increase in cost.

The cool thing about debit cards is that you won't have to take a wheelbarrow full of money to the grocery to buy food for your family.  You can just take a little piece of plastic with you and empty your bank account electronically.

Handy.

King George didn't get the memo

Congress is trying to decide what to do next because almost everyone knows that the tax rebates aren't going to work. 

It's fiat money that only adds to the problem.

It's a drop in the bucket.

It's not going to help the people that need it the most.

Gas prices of $4.00 a gallon are going to wipe people out.

$5.00 a gallon diesel prices are going to cause price increases in everything.

Biofuels competing for corn are going to drive up grocery prices.

That 600 bucks just isn't going to go far but King George is telling Congress to wait and give the rebates a chance and he's sure that we're going to pull through this "rough time".

This begs the question, is King George:

• overly optimistic?
• lying through his teeth as ordered by the puppet masters?
• a complete tard?

Grandpa Greenspan upgrades recession chances

The Alzheimer's lifted briefly today and Grandpa Greenspan broke with his whole 25.56% chance of recession talk and said that there is better than a 50% chance of recession now.

I really think I could be an economist.  You just wait until the thing actually happens and then say that thing is likely to happen soon.

Can you just see the weatherman outside with his umbrella up so that he doesn't get wet telling us all that there is a better than 50% chance of rain.

Ya think?

"Put this one in the record books.  Rams 41.  Cowboys 27.  Madden, what did you think of the game?"

"I'd say there is a better than 50% chance that the Rams are going to win this thing."

Does anyone put any stock in what Uncle Ben or Grandpa Greenspan have to say?

Uncle Bernanke finally almost said it

We just might be heading for a recession. 

No, seriously.

It has to be true if Uncle Ben said so.

Things must be getting so bad that it's hard to skew the numbers enough to say that we aren't possibly heading for a recession. 

If Ben ever says that we are in a recession, it'll mean that we're actually in a depression.

Screw up, move up

The Federal Reserve helped create this huge financial mess that we have by lending money too cheaply and allowing the whole house-flipping game to be played.

How does our government plan on punishing them?

By giving them more control over financial regulation.

I am not kidding.

Paulson plans on giving the Fed more control over other banks and regulations.

At a time when we should be reducing the power of the Federal Reserve, King George is going to sell out.  People who see a recession coming will gladly jump on the bandwagon because they think *someone* should fix this mess.  Maybe Uncle Bernanke will promise that Santa will bring a big screen TV to everyone this Christmas.

This will bring about all kinds of changes to common sayings.  For instance, the dollar will now have the saying, "In Fed we trust."

Someone sneezes.  "Fed bless you."

Swearing in to testify in court.  ". . . and nothing but the truth, so help you Fed."

When King George signs this thing into law.  "Fed damn it!"

It was pointed out that I have missed 2 Sword Point Saturdays in a row now.  I'll make up one of them tomorrow.  I lose track of the days.

We'll have a good Christmas

"Scott Brown, chief economist with Raymond James & Associates in St. Petersburg, Fla., predicts that U.S. economic growth could be "close to zero, maybe negative" in the first half of the year but likely improve in the second half."

Things might go backwards for a couple of months.  Might.  It might just flat line for a bit but then everything is going to be okay.  Ben Bernanke is going to wave his wand and everyone's house value will return to its over-inflated price and people will be able to refinance to get out the equity and start spending gobs of money on poisonous crap from China again.

Okay, the article doesn't say that Bernanke will wave his magic wand.  It doesn't even say good ole Ben has a magic wand, to be honest.

The article also doesn't mention that the economy was being artificially fueled by skyrocketing illusionary home values and that many experts believe it will be at least 5 years before home prices return to those values.

I suppose the $600 checks we'll be getting are as good as 5% per year equity on a $417,000 home.  That and the ever lowering of the Feds interest rates. 

So, for those people who haven't lost their jobs, their houses, their health, their spouses, the value of their dollar, or their sanity - it's going to be great Christmas.

Glory and Hallelujah.

Good News from Kinplinger's - if you don't mind being lied to

I was reading April's Kinplinger's magazine yesterday and the first article was about the recession.  They assert that if the Federal Reserve continues to aggressively print and lend out fiat money and if Congress gets the fake money that it has requested out to the people in the form of rebate checks quick enough, a recession might be avoided or, at worst, be minor in severity and duration.

I've kind of skimmed the rest of the magazine because it's hard to take it serious after reading crap like that as the lead off article.

If you want to devalue the currency by 10% so that stocks continue to rise at .1%, just say so but don't say that losing 9.9% in purchasing power isn't a recession just because you managed to keep stocks from going down.

I didn't pay for the magazine and yet I still feel like I was gypped.

The Subprime Fiasco Explained Very Nicely

They also explain the war in Iraq beautifully.  Check it out if you have the time.

Speaking of time, for those of you waiting for a Chronicles post or email from me, I'll get to them today and explain the delay in today's Chronicle post.

5 Sword Points for PTE Rick for sending me the clip above.  Excellent stuff.

Stocks are tumbling but Paulson says dollar has strong fundamentals

What the hell does that mean?  The dollar has strong fundamentals? 

We are still pumping hundreds of billions of dollars of fiat money into the economy.  Iran is working on unhooking their market from the dollar.  Chavez wants to do that same thing.  February was the highest job loss in the US in 5 years.  Gas prices are crippling families that live paycheck to paycheck are going to continue to go up.  Food prices will go up right with gas prices.  The stock market is starting a plummet that even the plunge protection team will have a hard time stopping.  Housing still hasn't hit rock bottom yet and probably won't for quite some time.

The article I read doesn't point to anything specific that is good about the dollar.  Do you think he leaves the press room saying, "I hope they bought that crock of shit."?

Fed to Auction Off $100 Billion

The Federal Reserve is going to auction off $100 Billion to "help" the economy.  Yeah, we all know that this just damages the economy more but my question is this: how much would you pay for a 100 billion dollars?

102 Billion?

103 Billion?

Maybe the banks will get a deal and only have to pay $101 billion in order to get $100 billion.

Not only does injecting another 100 billion bucks devalue the dollar more (inflation) but we're talking about putting banks another 100 billion in debt (plus interest).  It's a double whammy for this terrible decision.

Job Posting

WANTED-MONEY MOTIVATED PEOPLE WHO DRINK
ENERGY DRINKS! We are looking for
energetic and aggressive sales people
to assist us in the branding of the
world's first healthy energy drink in
your community. weekly commissions,
bonuses, car allowance. Respond

You would think that if you gave your sales people free energy drinks, they would naturally become "energetic and aggressive".  They could hire Bruce Banner and stock the fridge of the sales room with free samples.

The world's first healthy energy drink?  These people will be selling tea? 

Dollar at Record Low vs. Monopoly Money

How long will it be before we see this headline?

I saw a headline today about the dollar being at a new low against the Euro.  Isn't that a weekly occurrence?  I'll bet it's easy to write the articles for that section of the paper.

Pull up last week's article, change the date, and submit the new article.

The Secret Service is going to have their hands full if they are going to assist the Federal Reserve in keeping people using Federal Reserve Notes as money.  People are going to switch to gold, silver, foreign currency, alcohol, and anything else they have or can get to use for barter.

I also saw that Bernanke was going to tell the Senate that the Fed is going to continue to cut the interest rate.  It won't be long before we are using gold foil covered chocolates to buy things.

Offsetting Taxes

The plan is to tax oil companies $18 billion and use that money for tax incentives for energy sources besides oil.

I love this line:

"The American taxpayer should not be subsidizing oil and gas companies during times of record profits and record prices at the pump," Rep. Charles Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said last week when he introduced the energy tax package.

Where does Rangel think that the oil companies are going to get the $18 billion.  Maybe by passing that cost on to "the American taxpayer" that shouldn't be subsidizing oil companies. 

Don't get me wrong.  I think it's a good idea.  Raising the price of gas and oil so that consumers become more aware and start helping in the look for alternatives is great.  Giving incentives for other energy sources is fine.  Just don't pretend that the tax payers aren't paying for it.

The bill would also give a $4,000 tax credit for buying a hybrid vehicle.  I like that because the next vehicle I buy will be a hybrid.  If I'm going to buy one, I might as well take any benefit that I can.

Bernanke and Paulson: No Recession

The economy is going to be "sluggish" for the first part of the year but it's going to recover by the end of the year and everything will be peachy-fine and we'll be back to our usual Wal-Mart selves.

"I believe our economy will continue to grow, although its pace in coming quarters will be slower than what we have seen in recent years," Paulson said.

By slower, does he mean, negative or will they just keep getting rid of the numbers they don't like to keep showing that the economy is okay?  "If you don't count house sales, car sales, gas sales, TV sales, and food purchases, you can see that the economy is clearly still moving up, although at a slow pace."

These guys are smacktards.

A Growing Trend

Around me lately I've seen quite a few people picking up side jobs or starting their own businesses in addition to their jobs.

As the value of the dollar continues to decline, we'll probably see more and more of this.  A declining dollar means that things will cost more or what many people call inflation.  The problem is that prices go up but salaries don't or don't keep pace. 

I read that the Federal Reserve just auctioned off something like $300 billion to banks at 3% interest.  Putting the printing presses up for bid.  How bizarre sounding.

Eventually the Federal Reserve will institute a BYOP program.  Bring Your Own Paper.  They'll print it and put the sacred "legal tender" stamp on it but the banks will have to provide the paper that it's printed on.  Instead of the fibrous paper that we have now, money will be printed on the cheapest paper China can make.  Instead of double-quilted Charmin pretend money, we'll have that cheap-ass waxy stuff you find in the bathrooms of government buildings.

There is some good news out there.  The Iranian Oil Bourse that was supposed to open on the 11th didn't open.  The grand opening has been pushed back to the 17th.  With any luck on their part, the secret anchor rebellion has been quelled.

The Shape of the Dollar

Businesses in New York are starting to accept the Euro as payment.  I'm sure the Fed won't be happy with this bit of news and neither will the IRS.  Not that I have any sympathy for either agency. 

You know that they will have to step in and put a stop to this sort of thing.  If it spreads, there could be problems for them.  They shut down Liberty Dollar for potentially operating a barter system outside of the Federal Reserve notes and they will probably have to make a few examples out of Euro accepting businesses.

Tourists like the deal because things seem so cheap in Euros and they don't have to pay to have the money exchanged.  It's great for them.

Some of the business owners don't exchange the money either.  They use it when they travel to Europe.  Wait until they start using Euros with other Euro accepting businesses here in America. 

Businesses on the Canadian and Mexican borders also take those currencies and I think that as the Fed and US government continue to destroy the dollar, we'll see even more people and businesses using foreign currency, gold, silver, and anything else of value to barter with. 

No one is going to want a worthless Fed note.

The True Nature of Iran's Internet Threat

Long time readers already know how devious gophers are and how quickly they can cut internet cables.  I went wihout internet access for a few days because the little bastards cut the line somewhere in the desert between me and home base, 120 miles away.  Finding the problem was probably a difficult task.  I can't imagine what it would be like to try to find out where gophers in wetsuits had cut an underwater line.

Why would they do it?  My guess is that they have become mercenaries like Blackwater.  Gopher terrorists sold to the highest bidder.  Team Texas Tea.

Their work may have delayed the Iranian Oil Bourse from going operational for a couple more weeks.  Supposedly it was supposed to open by the 11th but the gophers might have bought some extra time for people opposed to the bourse.

There is some controversy over whether or not the opening would actually affect the US dollar.  Some say no and many say yes.  I'm in the yes crowd and wouldn't be surprised to see the gophers hired to dress up like Iranians and make some overt threat against the United States in the near future.  Maybe drive speedboats mounted with machine guns out to threaten battleships.

If we go to war, it will likely mean more inflation.  If Iran gets the bourse operational, the yes crowd believes it will lead to more inflation.  It looks like we have put all our financial eggs in the oil basket. 

Looks Like We're Already At War With Iran

Not that anything has been officially declared . . . yet.  It probably won't be too long before Bush let's us know that terrorists in Iran are on the verge of attacking the United States and for our own protection, we need to turn their country into a crater. 

Iran has openly started their attack on the United States but not with terrorist attacks.  It's much worse than that. 

They aren't going to accept US dollars for oil any more.  They are going to switch to other currencies like the Euro and the Yen.  They are trying to go fully operational on the system by the 11th.  This might explain all the freak underwater cable cutting that's going on in the area.  Besides the sanctions, the US might already be on the attack, trying to disrupt Iran's communications.

Will the sanctions, cut cables, and threat of nuclear obliteration be enough to dissuade Iran from following through with their plan to destroy America?

So far, the answer looks like no but we'll see.  Saddam Hussein thought he could stop taking dollars for oil but we fixed that little problem.  In all probability, we are going to have to fix this problem as well.  It's more complicated with Iran though.

Our military is stretched and battered with men and equipment being run into the sand.  The French navy is moving into the area and has plans on building a base in the UAE.  The Russian navy is doing "training exercises" in the Mediterranean, which is handy since it's believed that Israel is going to be in on the attack of Iran.  The people of Israel are being told to prepare for a rain of missiles in return.

If Iran succeeds in switching from dollars to Euros and Yen, the United States world empire will fall.  I'm not concerned with dominating the entire planet but there will be some serious economic repercussions that come along with the crumbling empire.

I'll start into some of those tomorrow. 

Interesting Side Effect of the Plunge Protection Team

You can't fool Mother Nature and you can't fool Market Forces.  When the Plunge Protection Team tricks people into buying stocks, the investors are paying far more than market value for those shares.

As we have seen with every artificially created financial bubble, market forces will eventually prevail.  The bubble must burst and the true value must be revealed.  The deception can't be maintained indefinitely.

Ron Paul - Economist, John McCain - uhhh, not

Ron Paul has released his Comprehensive Economic Revitalization Plan.  This isn't a stimulus package like the others although it would stimulate the economy.  The difference is that this Plan is based on sound economic principles and would have a lasting effect.

If you look at this plan, you'll also see that it's a <sarcasm> tad </sarcasm> more detailed than other plans and includes the actual bills that could be passed to implement the plan.

The economy is the #1 issue among voters and that's going to be even more true in November.  It would probably be prudent to put someone into office that actually knows how our economy works.

This would not include McCain, obviously.

Mitt Romney: Economic Superhero

We are on the edge of recession or we're already in a recession or we are headed for a slowdown but will avoid a recession.  No matter who you want to believe, the economy is on the minds of a lot of people.

Luckily, the Old Media has a savior for us.  Mitt the Millionaire Mormon to the rescue.

You see, Mitt's worth about $250 million dollars.  This makes him an expert on the national economy.

Hell, why not?

Being a prisoner of war 40 years ago makes McCain the go-to guy on war strategy ("Don't get captured" would be high on my military strategy list).  Rudy happened to be mayor of New York on September 11th so he's an expert on terrorism (maybe the mob connections help in that area as well).  Huckabee is friends with Chuck Norris so that makes him a black belt in Tae Kwon Do (and maybe he can speak fluent Korean too).

Mitt is a successful business man so he must know everything about money.  Shall we examine this a little more closely or let the Old Media continue unchecked with their brainwashing?

Yeah, let's examine. 

The Federal Reserve Dropped the Interest Rate Again

Good news, right?

They dropped the interest rate a history making .75%.  Bush is trying to push his stimulus package through Congress in as little as 3 weeks to get money out to people as quickly as possible.  3 weeks is light speed for Congress.

All this to help foreign markets, according to Pelosi.  We are such good guys here in America that we can't bear to see foreign stock markets plummeting.  I feel warm and patriotic all over, don't you?

"The urgency that we feel at home is now even more urgent as we see the impact of our markets on others," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said after both Democratic and Republican lawmakers met with Bush at the White House.

We aren't doing it for us because, according to King George, the economy has a strong base.  Okay, he did admit that we are doing it for us but he really did say that the economy has a strong base or undercurrent or some such crap.

Is there anyone that doesn't believe this is all very desperate?