RANT: Using the wrong tactics

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/reed/reed167.html

Surprised by Disaster
by Fred Reed

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America’s problem is not that its generals prepare for the last war, but that they don’t prepare for it, and then fight it again the same way.

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Too true!

I happened to watch “Gods and Generals” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gods_and_Generals_%28film%29 And, like “The Patriot”, it demonstrates the stupidity of the leadership. The strategy and tactics developed for war in Europe made for needless casualties in the American Revolution and the Second War of Independence aka the War of Northern Aggression aka the “Civil War”.

How many casualties are we taking in Iraq and AfPak?

Argh!

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RANT: Just like our depression!

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=114878

What really caused the Great Depression
Posted: November 04, 2009
Walter E. Williams

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Professor Hanke says that the lesson to be drawn from business cycle history is that, if left to run their natural course, severe downturns are followed by rapid snapbacks. The 1921 recession is a good example where wholesale prices, industrial production and manufacturing employment fell by 30 percent or more and reached their low in mid-1921. There was little government intervention, at least by today’s standards, and the economy recovered naturally; and by early 1922, it had fully recovered and the nation was off to the Roaring Twenties.

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So what are the bozos in DC doing?

Yeah, raising taxes, spending us into debt, and making “rules”.

Argh!

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Posted by reinkefj

MONEY: Stats with a weak dollar?

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/your-take-are-we-out-of-the-recession.html/

Your Take: Are We Out Of The Recession?
by Jim Wang

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Yesterday, the Department of Commerce reported that the annualized GDP (gross domestic product) grew to 3.5% in third quarter. This is significant because, by definition, a recession is two straight quarters of shrinking GDP. A 3.5% increase in GDP would mean, at least technically, the recession was over. Four straight quarters of negative GDP growth, the worst of which was the first quarter of 2009 (-6.4%), has finally come to an end.

Hooray! Right?

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I’d point out that the weak dollar should influence our judgments. If the stock market goes up 50% but the dollar goes down 50% versus gold, the Euro, or some other “standard”, then did the market go up at all? Like fish in a tank, we can’t sense anything but water. Bad metaphor, can’t think of a good one. It’s like a football team gaining ground but the “year” gets redefined as the game proceeds. IT feels like we are losing ground on a “financial treadmill”. AND, give the gooferment’s tendency to make stuff up (i.e., jobs “saved” or “created”), especially if it’s a nebulously defined concept, I’m cynical about being “out of the recession”. The Titanic had its ice deliver but didn’t sink right away. Maybe we’re seeing the same thing. All that printing press money has to come home to roost.

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Posted by reinkefj