POLITICS: Increase savings and decrease spending at home

Saturday, October 3, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/schiff/schiff49.1.html

The Price of Pretense in Pittsburgh by Peter Schiff

*** begin quote ***

Noting that a return to pre-crisis economics is impossible, the president assured the world that his administration will pursue policies to increase savings and decrease spending at home and challenged his Chinese counterparts to enact measures with the opposite effect in their own country.

While this is roughly what needs to happen, President Obama is actually doing everything in his power to prevent it. In point of fact, every policy move undertaken by his administration has exacerbated the very imbalances he supposedly wants to curtail. To so seamlessly profess one goal while simultaneously undermining it is an impressive piece of political theater. Unfortunately, this particular drama is likely to have an unhappy ending – and the ticket price will be staggering.

*** end quote ***

Upon reflection, when these very ugly chickens come home to roost, as also forecast by Reverend Wright, will there be any way to escape it?

It would seem that getting out of debt and getting very small in terms of exposures would be a good strategy.

Tactically, shift assets to durables, stockpile, and think defensively.

Argh!

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Posted by reinkefj

INTERESTING:Too many shots to the head!

Saturday, October 3, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/sports/football/30dementia.html?_r=1

N.F.L. Study Finds Link to Dementia
By ALAN SCHWARZ
  Published: September 29, 2009

*** begin quote ***

A study commissioned by the National Football League reports that Alzheimer’s disease or similar memory-related diseases appear to have been diagnosed in the league’s former players vastly more often than in the national population — including a rate of 19 times the normal rate for men ages 30 through 49.

*** end quote ***

It would seem that a whole bunch of sports have to reevaluate what is “safe”.

We can’t turn men into women or boys into girls. But, we can take “precautions”.

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: Mediasaurus

Friday, October 2, 2009

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.04/mediasaurus.html

Mediasaurus
Today’s mass media is tomorrow’s fossil fuel. Michael Crichton is mad as hell, and he’s not going to take it anymore.
By Michael Crichton

*** begin quote ***

The extreme positions of the Crossfire Syndrome require extreme simplification – framing the debate in terms that ignore the real issues. For example, when I watch Crossfire, or Nightline, or MacNeil-Lehrer, I often think, wait a minute. The real issue isn’t term limits; it’s campaign finance reform. The real issue isn’t whether a gasoline tax is regressive, it’s national security – whether we’d prefer to go back to war in the Gulf instead of reducing oil consumption by taxing it more heavily, as every other nation does. The real issue isn’t whether the United States should have an industrial policy, it is whether the one we have – no policy is a policy – serves us well. The issue isn’t whether Mickey Kantor is a protectionist, it’s how should the US respond to its foreign competitors.

*** end quote ***

He hits the nail on the head. The media is just SO biased that it distracts from the data, info, knowledge, and wisdom from the “story”.

It’s a long article but it does highlight how bias and technology are making the “media” obsolete.

Interesting?

How do we capitalize on the replacement?

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POLITICAL: Why can’t we buy and sell human organs?

Friday, October 2, 2009

http://lifesharers.blogspot.com/2009/09/opting-in-vs-opting-out.html

LifeSharers: Opting In vs. Opting Out

*** begin quote ***

The United Network for Organ Sharing, which runs the national organ allocation system, has the power to put registered organ donors first. Sadly, it has not chosen to make this common-sense change. Americans who want to donate their organs to other organ donors don’t have to wait for UNOS to act. They can join LifeSharers, a national non-profit network of organ donors who agree to offer their organs first to other organ donors when they die. Membership is free at http://www.lifesharers.org/ or by calling 1-888-ORGAN88. There is no age limit, parents can enroll their minor children, and no one is excluded due to any pre-existing medical condition.

*** end quote ***

Until we wise up and allow a marketplace in human organs, we will always have shortages. The lack of a marketplace hurts the poor the worst. The rich always seem to have “connections”. The poor don’t get a chance to sell what they no longer have a need for and help their families. May sound grusome, but it’s a tough life being poor. Why further complicate a poor family’s life? They should be allowed, no encouraged, to sell their deceased family member for parts. Instead they get their arm twisted to “donate” and a bill for the funeral. Why is it OK for doctors and hospitals to make a buck doing transplants, but not for the “donor” to get paid? I can envision that some unfortunate’s child gets to go to college on his dead relative’s kidney. What’s so terrible about that?

See its our own thinking that kills us by preventing us from seeing the solution. All because it doesn’t fit someone’s preconceived notions. Free markets always clear the supply and demand. Only when the gooferment gets involved to we have shortages, waste, death, injury, and destruction.

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: Protecting children on the internet

Thursday, October 1, 2009

If the Internet Service Providers had their heads screwed on straight, if the FCC or FTC was REALLY interested in protecting children, we could have rock solid “age” verification. No one can “prove” their age on the net now. But the ISPs could do it.

They “own” the customer relationship. They issue their paying customer a user id and password for their account. So immediately, we have a defined adult. (If a child steals their parent’s credit card to buy internet access, the parent will know it when the bills come in.) The ISPs are sure they are going to get paid.

They can then provide the mechanism for their Customer to define identiies for others. I’d suggest email addresses. If forced, and / or enabled by law, the ISPs could allow their Customer to define: Child, Tween, or Teen.

Then, a stylized form of communication between the Web Site Providers and the Internet Service Providers can occur.

The user, who may or may not be underage, registers at a website with their ISP email address. The WSP sends the request to the ISP. The ISP notifys the Credit Card Customer. Who agrees or disagrees. The ISP then communicates “Teen, Tween, or Child” to the ISP.

Problem solved!

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RANT: Ayers is closer to Obama then previously led to beleive

Thursday, October 1, 2009

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=110789

*** begin quote ***

Because, if it is true – and I believe it is – it confirms Obama lied boldly and blatantly about something so significant during the campaign. It would also confirm Obama as a close associate and trusted friend to one of the most despicable America haters on planet Earth.

You just don’t hire anyone to collaborate with you on your autobiography. You only choose someone you trust, someone who thinks like you, someone who really knows you and your innermost convictions and shares them.

The evidence is mounting that Obama selected Bill Ayers.

*** end quote ***   

The American People, in their rush to justly punish the R’s, has elected a “Manchurian candidate”. As we learn more, as the “legend” he’s created unravels, as he pursues hid true agenda, we are finding that we have really screwed up.

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MONEY: Insurance … the proper role

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2009/09/23/renters-insurance-peace-of-mind-for-ten-bucks-a-month/

Renters Insurance: Peace of Mind for Ten Bucks a Month Print
Wednesday, 23rd September 2009 (by April) This article is about House and Home, InsuranceThis post is from GRS staff writer April Dykman.

*** begin quote ***
“We lost everything,” he says. Later they’d find out that it was arson. A former employee of the apartment complex stole rent checks and set the office on fire. Frank was moving into a new apartment in ten days, and the new complex agreed to let them move in early. “We moved in with a plastic bag of groceries, paid for with a $50 food voucher from the Red Cross,” he says. The other 70 displaced tenants stayed in Red Cross shelters.

*** end quote ***
This story may be of interest to the “preparing community”.
(1) Notice the lack of a bug out bag in the apartment AS WELL AS the lack of a bug out bag in the car. To be TOTALLY wiped out by a fire? Unthinkable.
(2) Renter’s insurance, and most insurance is cheap. I’m always amazed at all the Wall Street folks who died in 9/11 that had ZERO life insurance. It tells me that people are not thinking rationally about their “risk profile”. Consumers buy “appliance insurance” on a sub 500$ thing; can people even spell “self insurance”.
(3) On the topic of insurance, politicians want to mandate insurance companies to cover “maintenance” items. Like the previous “appliance insurance” discussion, it’s stupid. Like insuring your car’s oil change. Say it’s 50$ twice a year. The insurance company has to administrate the claims and make a profit. 100$ of oil changes probably would cost a $1,000! Sheer stupidity. Insurance should be for catastrophic things.
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Posted by reinkefj

SERVICE: Google Alerts become more usable

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

By using Google search with the site option, you can get your “favorite author” feed from sites that don’t directly support it.

Steps:

  • Get your Google search string the way you need it. Example: “Stossel site:wnd.com”
  • Get over to Google Alerts and set one up for email.
  • Save it.
  • Change the alert from email to feed.
  • Subscribe to it in Google Reader.
  • Enjoy

Pretty neat.

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Posted by reinkefj

GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Terps get screwed!

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/09/militarys-forgotten-terps-get-some-love/

Military’s Forgotten ‘Terps’ Get Some Love
    * By Nathan Hodge Email Author
    * September 22, 2009

*** begin quote ***

Foust and Hsia aren’t the first ones to take up the cause of the interpreters. Many Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have tried to help their interpreters — many of whom face death threats — get special immigrant visas. Writing last year in the New York Post, Marine Corps vet Owen West expressed his frustration with the maddening bureaucratic process. “As a Marine, I was taught never to leave a comrade-in-arms behind on the battlefield,” he wrote. “But that’s exactly what the State Department is doing to men and women who’ve sacrificed everything to help our troops – our Iraqi interpreters.”

*** end quote ***

As usual, the gooferment figures out a way for is to screw some of our few friends.

I bet these “Terps” would be as good a citizen as any U of Maryland grad.

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Posted by reinkefj

MONEY: When the shoe drops

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rozeff/rozeff313.html
*** begin quote *** My bet is this. One fine day the bottom is going to drop out of the dollar. There will be a swift and sharp order of magnitude change. The recognition of the problems will reach a point at which it starts to go exponential, not just in terms of people being vaguely conscious that things are not right, but in terms of actually taking action to protect themselves. Foreign central banks may be reluctant to dump their dollar securities and think it better to liquidate them slowly so as not to drive prices down and break the market, but when they observe that others are running for the exits, they will run too.*** end quote ***
I agree that there will be a “run”. But it will look differently.
The Chinese are leading it NOW. The recent swap of Chinese held dollars for IMF gold, their “strategic reserve” acquisition program, and their stated “strategic rebalancing of their portfolio” is happening now.
Since there is nothing backing the US dollar, there is no “bank” to “run” on. So by definition, it will look differently than the Great Depression.
IMHO, (and I’m an injineer by education and know it all blogger by avocation), the “run” is happening now.
US borrowing is in trouble. I think we are seeing the FED quietly, carefully, and with malice aforethought manipulating with the assistance of the bailed out Wall Street firms manipulating the Treasury bond sales. They are selling debt at what appears to be record low levels. But by using shills, they are quietly buying it back from their accomplices on the street after the auction.
That’s why the FED coudn’t stand an audit as Ron Paul and others have asked for. It’s a Ponzi scheme.
So, what will the run look like?
Foreigners will exit the Treasury market. (Didn’t the Chinese students laugh at Geithner?) The dollar will tank against foreign currencies. Commodities rise in dollar terms, but not as much in other currencies. The world “readjusts” to a trading pattern that excludes or minimizes the US since everything will be much more expensive in dollars that no one wants.
Here at home, the fixed income people are screwed — the old, the retired, the elderly, the “savers”. The elite political class continues to spend other people’s money which is fast drying up. (Without access to foreign credit, all they can do is run the printing press.) Hyperinflation will destroy the dollar. As the welfare spending drops, there has to be riots in the inner cities. As the crisis expands, warfare spending has to drop. Eventually the government has to default on its debt. Unfunded liabilities like social security are defaulted on as well.
I hope that commodity money reemerges from the “return to barter” and the chaos of the “American default” like Zimbabwe. And, we can begin the long climb back up.
It’s going to be messy.fjohn

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