It's a Bumpy Road

How Employment and Economic Growth are Hindered by Politics

noreply@blogger.com (Bumpy Road) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:15:00 +0000

America, meanwhile, is settling down to a presidential election. On the one hand is a candidate who seems to have no firm convictions and no real ideas about how to move the country out of its post-crisis funk. On the other hand, is…well…the same thing.

As usual, the candidates are disappointing. But politics is a tawdry profession that invites hustlers and hollow men. No matter what kind of system you think you have, it is always the same. It is always dominated by the same fellow — grasping, status-hungry, ambitious… He is a world improver…a bully…a scold…a power-broker… He is a fixer…and a user. He uses the power of the government — that is, the power to force people to do what you want, at the point of a gun if necessary — to fix himself, his friends, and, he often believes, the entire world. At best, the politician is a conniving opportunist. At worst, he’s a madman or a mass-murderer.

Bill Bonner has some thoughts on the candidates, politics and the economy.

The Receding Tide

noreply@blogger.com (Bumpy Road) — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 13:19:00 +0000

The Soviet Union had an admirable constitution, and paid no attention to it. America heads rapidly in the same direction.

In America, the Constitution is largely and increasingly ignored by the government. Constitutionally the three branches of government are co-equal, but in practice the Supreme Court is of little consequence and Congress is the action arm of a corporate oligarchy. Constitutionally Congress must declare war, but now the president sends combat troops wherever he pleases and Congress reads about it in the Washington Post. The president can order citizens murdered, ignore habeas corpus, monitor and store email. The government can search you at will with no pretense of probable cause. Third World.

Fred Reed compares corruption in the US to Third World countries and notices more than a few alarming similarities - the US is just better at hiding it from the citizens.

noreply@blogger.com (Bumpy Road) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 22:22:00 +0000

...We had the pleasure yesterday of doing a gig with the remarkable Marshall Tucker, now in his 89th year. It was an ice cream "sociable" at a high rise senior residence in our town.

Marshall has been blind all his life but has never let it slow him down very much. If the name sounds familiar it's because a rock band some years ago came across his calling card on a piano he had just tuned in Spartanburg, SC. Thereupon they called themselves "The Marshall Tucker Band," and the rest - as they say - is history.

Using a little hand-held linear PCM device we recorded Marshal singing "Love is a Many Splendored Thing" to his own accompaniment. He later complained of having a raspy throat. . .but we thought he sounded fantastic. You can hear the recording here.

We have noticed a few loyal followers are still checking this pitifully maintained blog and we are preparing to resurface to vent our frustrations with the political establishment. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy this rendition of a very special recording brought to us by wrisley.com

Different or Same Old Same Old?

noreply@blogger.com (Bumpy Road) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:20:00 +0000

What if both parties just want power and are willing to have young people fight meaningless wars in order to enhance that power? What if both parties continue to fight the war on drugs just to give bureaucrats and cops bigger budgets and more jobs?

What if government policies didn't change when government's leaders did? What if no matter who won an election, government stayed the same? What if government was really a revolving door of political hacks, bent on exploiting the people while they're in charge?
What if both parties supported welfare, war, debt, bailouts and big government? What if the rhetoric that candidates displayed on the campaign trail was dumped after electoral victory?

Which of the Republican candidates will stand for freedom and oppose big government after the election? Who? If you did not not say Ron Paul, you should reconsider the questions posed by Andrew Napolitano.

Blame Tweedledee or blame Tweedledum

noreply@blogger.com (Bumpy Road) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 22:15:00 +0000

Call me a cynic or call me a skeptic; I do not believe the Dems are to blame and the Repubs are the answer. To wit;

Obama's plan to redistribute the wealth is meeting resistance from the filthy rich who are protecting their stash from his efforts to level the playing field by sinking all boats which have resolutely remained afloat despite his efforts to scuttle them.

His constant rants against the fat cat bankers and the evil capitalists who avoid the taxes they are supposed to pay and pass their fair share of the burdens to the least productive among us has caught the attention of those who are finding the American dream has passed them by, They are content to take their frustration out on the rich until the government finds a way to bail them out again.

Obama is the latest in a long line of presidents who believe the government should be the regulator of the economic endeavors of private citizens and is the least apologetic for his intentions to do so.

It is amazing that the entrepreneurial spirit still has any life at all but it cannot sustain the will to carry on forever against the unrelenting pressure of the state which has the power to regulate, tax and corrupt free enterprise beyond recognition.

Blame the Democrats or blame the Republicans. Blame Tweedledee or blame Tweedledum. Until real change is offered - and accepted - by the voters, they will continue to elect corrupt leaders who promise change but deliver more of the same until the facade of democracy is exposed as a dismal failure, gutted and cannibalized from within.

Justice Department Proposes Letting Government Deny Existence of Sensitive Documents

noreply@blogger.com (Bumpy Road) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:32:00 +0000

A longtime internal policy that allowed Justice Department officials to deny the existence of sensitive information could become the law of the land -- in effect a license to lie -- if a newly proposed rule becomes federal regulation in the coming weeks.

The proposed rule directs federal law enforcement agencies, after personnel have determined that documents are too delicate to be released, to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests "as if the excluded records did not exist."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10/26/justice-department-proposes-letting-government-deny-existence-sensitive/#ixzz1btz9HtSY

From the "Yes, they are actually going to do that" file: Yes, your government has been lying to you and they feel bad about it. now that they have been exposed. What to do? Pass a law making it legal for them to lie to you.

A Conspiracy of Counterfeiters

noreply@blogger.com (Bumpy Road) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 14:00:00 +0000

What should be done to high officials of the U.S. government who consciously set out to dilute and destroy the savings and income of working Americans? What should be done to those who have sworn an oath to defend the Constitution and then steal the wealth of citizens by secretly manipulating the value of the currency, the store of wealth upon which those people depend?

Is inducing inflation – debauching the currency, the systematic and secret theft of the savings of citizens – a legitimate policy option for the Federal Reserve? Has Congress authorized official thievery?

Who do these economists think they are?

The government is corrupt beyond the point of rehabilitation.

Simple Math

noreply@blogger.com (Bumpy Road) — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 13:15:00 +0000

.                Simple Math

U.S. income: $2,170,000,000,000
Federal budget: $3,820,000,000,000
New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
Recent budget cut: $ 38,500,000,000

                 Mind boggling numbers, to be sure.
        But remove eight zeros and look at them as
        a family budget.
Total annual income for the Jones family: $21,700
Amount of money the Jones family spent: $38,200
Amount of new debt added to the credit card: $16,500
Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
Amount cut from the budget: $385

A friend sent this clever illustration of nonsensical federal budgeting, but we don't know to whom to attribute it.

Spotted this on Wrisley.com today. Budget insanity explained in a nutshell.

You Fix the Budget

noreply@blogger.com (Bumpy Road) — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 22:38:00 +0000

Today, you’re in charge of the nation’s finances. Some of your options have more short-term savings and some have more long-term savings. When you have closed the budget gaps for both 2015 and 2030, you are done.

We saw this today on Glen Beck - I know, but occasionally he offers some good info. This time it's from the NY Times - I know, but this time it's a good graphic to show you what we're up against in cutting spending. Check it out.

We're Gonna Cut Spending...No, Really, We Are

noreply@blogger.com (Bumpy Road) — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 17:15:00 +0000

ITEM: The President ordered the cabinet to cut a whopping $100 million from the $3.5 trillion federal budget!

     EverBank's Chuck Butler responds: "I'm so impressed by this sacrifice that I have decided to do the same thing with my personal budget. I spend about $2000 a month on groceries, medicine, bills, etc, but it's time to get out the budget cutting ax, go line by line through my expenses, and go to work.

     "I'm going to cut my spending at exactly the same ratio -1/35,000 of my total budget. After doing the math, it looks like instead of spending $2000 a month; I'm going to have to cut that number by six cents!

     "Yes, I'm going to have to get by with $1999.94, but that's what sacrifice is all about. I'll just have to do without some things, that are, frankly, luxuries." Daily Pfennig

← Butler makes a good point. The talk of cutting the federal budget is a joke. It amounts to peanuts. Even Senator Rand Paul's $5 billion cut recommendation is a drop in the bucket, too.

John Wrisley points us to the lack of serious consideration of spending cuts by the administration and Congress.

Richard Daughty on the Fiscal and Monetary Insanity of the Whole Freakin' World

noreply@blogger.com (Bumpy Road) — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 12:00:00 +0000

So I wondered "How can I make a lot more money without, you know, working? For example, how did the guys who got in first, or got out first, know to get in, or know to get out? What, what, what did they know?"

Naturally, I turned to economics, and started with the usual college textbooks and bookstore offerings, all centered around that Keynes crap that they teach almost everywhere, which I found both logically incomprehensible and (my suspicions having been vindicated QED) a Big Stinking Load Of Crap (BSLOC)!

Then, one happy, lucky day, flailing around as I was, lost in the darkness of modern economic Keynesian econometric stupidity, I stumbled upon the Austrian Business Cycle Theory, I forget how or where, but probably Hazlitt's "Economics in One Easy Lesson," and then it was Rothbard, Hayek and Mises from then on!

An interview with the zany (but intriguing) Mogambo Guru.

Ike Warned Us

noreply@blogger.com (Bumpy Road) — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 23:46:00 +0000

50 Years Ago Today

Eisenhower warned in his Farewell Address in 1961 that the United States should not become a "garrison state," but 50 years later we have developed a garrison mentality with unprecedented military spending; continuous military deployments; exaggerated fears with regard to "Islamo-terrorism" and now cyberwars; and exaggerated aspirations with regard to counterinsurgency and nation-building. Eisenhower understood that the military-industrial complex fostered an inordinate belief in the omnipotence of American military power.

Hu Highlights Need for U.S.-China Cooperation, Questions Dollar

noreply@blogger.com (Bumpy Road) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 22:57:00 +0000

Some of Mr. Hu's most significant comments dealt with the future of the dollar and currency exchange rates.

"The current international currency system is the product of the past," he said, noting the primacy of the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency and its use in international trade and investment.

The comment is the latest sign that the dollar's future continues to concern the most senior levels of the Chinese government.

Uh oh. China has caught on the Federal Reserve's shenanigans and is calling for a change in it's monetary policies. The Fed has overseen the demise of the dollar since 1913. China owns a lot of them and is in position to dictate terms on future US monetary policy. Geithner and Bernanke should pay attention to Mr. Hu's words and not be fooled by his good manners and charms.

Darwin Was Right

noreply@blogger.com (Bumpy Road) — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 11:47:00 +0000

Note that China has that perfect government, an intelligent dictatorship concerned with advancing the country. The American government consists of self-interested lobbies and Wall Street looters. China is run by engineers, America by lawyers. Watch.

The US is midway through an inexorable suicide. If a country does not manufacture things, it does not have an economy, and manufacturing has fled American shores. Ship-building, steel, consumer electronics, railroads: gone.

"I'm angry. Waste always makes me angry and that's what this is, sheer waste!" ~ Rhett Butler

Fred watches America's decline from his aloof accommodations in Mexico.

10 Things That Would Be Different If The Federal Reserve Had Never Been Created

noreply@blogger.com (Bumpy Road) — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 12:34:00 +0000

So how would America be different if we could go back to 1913 and keep the Federal Reserve Act from ever being passed? Well, the following are 10 things that would be different if the Federal Reserve had never been created....
#1 If the U.S. government had been issuing debt-free money all this time, the U.S. government could conceivably have a national debt of zero dollars. Instead, we currently have a national debt that is over 14 trillion dollars.
#2...

What might have been had the Fed never existed....

New Congress, Same Old Leviathan

noreply@blogger.com (Bumpy Road) — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 12:08:00 +0000

We’ve all heard various political pledges to “cap” or “reduce” U.S. federal spending from many of the 64 new GOP Congressman and seven new GOP Senators elected last November, many of whom were bolstered in their campaigns (and rhetoric) by the “tea party” movement. But don’t expect such cuts to occur. U.S. federal spending will be greater in the coming year than it was in 2010 — and greater still in 2012 than it will be in 2011. Why? Not a single one of the principal programs or institutions of the current-day welfare-warfare state will have been altered in any material way, least of all by the Bush-like “compassionate conservatives” who continue to dominate GOP leadership.

Expect more of the same from the new Congress says Richard Salsman.

“Toning Down The Rhetoric” Means Obeying Big Government

noreply@blogger.com (Bumpy Road) — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:12:00 +0000

Despite the fact that Jared Lee Loughner was a psychotic loner with “left-wing” beliefs according to those who knew him, the establishment has hastily exploited yesterday’s tragic shooting in Tucson to demonize conservatives, libertarians and gun owners while ordering Americans to “tone down the rhetoric,” which is nothing more than a euphemism for stifling dissent and coercing people to roll over on Obamacare, bailouts and whatever big government is preparing to unleash next.

At the risk of being accused of aiding, abetting and condoning violence, we will maintain our defense of free speech, gun rights and Austrian economics in the wake of the tragic events in Tucson, AZ.

Sage advice

noreply@blogger.com (Bumpy Road) — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 23:05:00 +0000

A reminder from John at Wrisley.com

$14T and Counting

noreply@blogger.com (Bumpy Road) — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 10:44:00 +0000

Our National Debt Counter quietly sailed by the $14,000,000,000,000 mark recently. The debt will have to be repaid, either by the borrower or the lender.

Whose Tea Party?

noreply@blogger.com (Bumpy Road) — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 11:59:00 +0000

The words of Thoreau keep coming back to me as I watch the fallout, first from the TSA buffooneries, followed by the second feature: the arrest of Julian Assange for having dared to reveal the underbelly of the state’s dark side. Though I am close to illiterate when it comes to computers, even I could see how far out of touch the established order is from grasping what it is up against. Some have suggested that the Assange episode is the opening round in "Cyberwars," an assessment that only touches the surface in trying to understand the continuing metamorphosis. Unlike Thoreau, however, I am unable to engender any sense of pity for the state as it counts its silver spoons and plots to get more of your silver to redistribute to its corporate co-schemers.

Butler Shaffer divulges the reasons for state angst.

Awaiting the Storm

noreply@blogger.com (Bumpy Road) — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 16:00:00 +0000

The genius of American politics is to espouse democracy while keeping political power from the people. The trick is to have barely distinguishable candidates for the presidency who carefully avoid mention of substance—the wars, for example, or affirmative action, guns, abortion. These electioins, if so they be, allow people to wave placards, roar invective about throwing the rascals out and returning to traditional American etc. The dust settles and things remain as they were.

Governance does not rest with the people. Today, decree replaces legislation, and must, for our safety. If Homeland Security says you must go through a CAT scan, naked, and singing the Star Spangled Banner, then you have to do it. There is no recourse. You can unelect an elected official, but there is no way to get at a bureaucrat. If you do not submit, you go to jail.

Freedom or security? This is the choice our government offers but it is a false choice. They have already taken our freedom and nothing short of revolution will return it to us. Do you feel secure now?

Truth in Chains: Assange Arrest a Chilling Sign of Power’s “New Realities”

noreply@blogger.com (Bumpy Road) — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 11:34:00 +0000

Well, they got him at last. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the target of several of the world’s most powerful governments, turned himself into British authorities today and is now at the mercy of state authorities who have already shown their wolfish – and lawless – desire to destroy him and his organization.

It has been, by any standard, an extraordinary campaign of vilification and persecution, wholly comparable to the kind of treatment doled out to dissidents in China or Burma. Lest we forget, WikiLeaks is a journalistic outlet – just like The New York Times, the Guardian and Der Spiegel, all of whom are even now publishing the very same material – leaked classified documents -- available on WikiLeaks.

Julian Assange has stirred up the murky waters of international intrigue and exposed the surreptitious maneuverings of the previously clandestine members of the diplomatic machinery. The government presents a paternal face to the public but the dark side is supposed to be hidden from view at all costs.

Mary's Bar

noreply@blogger.com (Bumpy Road) — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 12:11:00 +0000

Mary is the proprietor of a bar in Dublin. She realizes that virtually all of her customers are unemployed alcoholics and, as such, can no longer afford to patronize her bar. To solve this problem, she comes up with a new marketing plan that allows her customers to drink now, but pay later. She keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers loans).

Word gets around about Mary's "drink now, pay later" marketing strategy and, as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Mary's bar. Soon she has the largest sales volume for any bar in Dublin.

John Wrisley directs us to this short essay. So you don't understand economics. This easy to understand piece can be considered as an Economics for Dummies introduction.

Focus on the policy, not Wikileaks

noreply@blogger.com (Bumpy Road) — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 11:42:00 +0000

When presented with embarrassing disclosures about U.S. spying and meddling, the policy that requires so much spying and meddling is not questioned. Instead, the media focus on how so much sensitive information could have been leaked, or how authorities might prosecute the publishers of such information.

No one questions the status quo or suggests a wholesale rethinking of our foreign policy. No one suggests that the White House or the State Department should be embarrassed that the U.S. engages in spying and meddling. The only embarrassment is that it was made public. This allows ordinary people to actually know and talk about what the government does. But state secrecy is anathema to a free society. Why exactly should Americans be prevented from knowing what their government is doing in their name?

Ron Paul on the outcry over the Wikileaks documents.

Inter-Galactic Bailout – The Fed extends the hand of debt beyond borders

noreply@blogger.com (Bumpy Road) — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 11:31:00 +0000

The European situation is more dangerous than most Americans realize.

It could still melt down. US authorities must know this. And they must know too that if Europe melts down, so will the USA.

So, the rumors will probably turn out to be true. The US will back the IMF. The IMF will back Europe. Europe will back Ireland. Ireland will back its banks. And the banks will back their lenders.

Meanwhile, the euro will be backed by the dollar, which will also back the US economy, US banks, the US government, and about half the households in Christendom…not to mention the others!

Who’s got the kind of money you need to do all this backing?

The Fed's strategy of "spreading the wealth" is making us poor says Bill Bonner.