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Curmudgeon's Commentary Archive
Twittering to
Death
Posterity's Debt To Me
Butchers, Bankers,
Cong.
The Battle for Honest
Money
Coping with
Deflation
From Riches to
Rags
Fiddler's Broken
Wrist
Jack-lantern
Wealth
Gold
Confiscation
Look Out
Below!
Voting for
Maggie
1932
Poobahs of Positivism
A Wistful
Vista
1948
An Unknown Road
Vern's Precipitation
IOU-nothing
Blood In the
Streets
How To Buy Gold
Natalie's Predicament
America Descending
Just Plain Stealing?
A thing to fear
Unstuffing a Lifetime
Heavenly
Sex
FDR
& History
Chicken Little Convention
Lead us not into
temptation
My
Obituary
Legislature and
Embryos
Ac-cent-tchu-ate
the Positive
What Fools,
We Mortals
Unvarnished
Truth
End-of-everything Blues
My Immigrant
Relative
The Eloquent
Pogo
Nesta's
Complaint
Unionize School
Children
Hucksterism
Gone Wild
Unmanageable
Religion
PUBLIC DEBT...2/02/12
$15,351,406,294,640.49
Web search:
© 2012-Wrisley.com
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"Neither a
borrower, nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, and
borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry." ~From Shakespeare's
"Hamlet."
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February
6, 2012
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Most Americans believe
"they" (the experts) will figure a way to get the economy
roaring again.
Don't bet on it. No mainstream experts are suggesting balanced budgets and debt payback.
Until they do we're
trapped on a downhill slide.
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"Debt is still rising. At some point, it has to stop. Then, the
feds go broke. Why?
"Because they are all living on borrowed time and borrowed
money, only paying current expenses — including the interest on
past borrowing — by borrowing more and more money. When the
borrowing stops, they will no longer be able to pay their bills.
And when that happens, their bonds will drop in value — fast.
Governments will go broke. So will all the people who depend on
the feds and their IOUs. Banks. Insurance companies. Retirees.
Investors. The defense industry. The education industry. The
healthcare industry..."more
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← We're not trying to
stir up needless worry - but there is no mistaking that a
severa economic correction has been trying to do its work for quite
some time, now. The trouble is politicians don't like market
corrections so they try to manage it . All they manage
to do is postpone it.
The piece at left
is by the veteran observer/publisher Bill Bonner who has been
reporting on economic cycles since 1979. His readers know he's
not a boy crying "Wolf!" He's an economist saying,
"Psst. Trouble ahead. Take care."
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Civilization's true first money crisis erupted
in Greece.
The great statesman Solon was elected in
594B.C. to straighten out the mess.
There is no Solon to be
found today. Greece is broke. Unemployment there is running
near 20 percent. It needs $171 billion right away if it is to avoid
bankruptcy, but to get the money it must tighten its fiscal belt a lot
more. If it doesn't get the new money the jig is up and Greece
defaults in March.
Greece is in recession and faces a huge
dilemma. The matter may come to a head today if it does not agree to
meet lenders' strict demands.
"Seisachtheia"
(The Shaking Off of Burdens") was a revolutionary decree issued by
Solon and it obliterated debts. This was a bad deal for lenders, of
course, but historian George Grote explains:
"The Seisachtheia of
Solon, unjust so far as it rescinded previous agreements, but highly
salutary in its consequences, is to be vindicated by showing that in
no other way could the bonds of government have been held together, or
the misery of the multitudes alleviated."
The idea of relieving
overburdened debtors has always had wide appeal. President Obama is
perhaps unwittingly borrowing from Solon with his insistence that people
who are underwater in their home mortgages be given relief.
"Relieving the misery of the multitude," as it were. But
if a debtor is given relief from his/her contractual obligation a lender
must stand the loss. If the lender presses for a bailout the
taxpayer must take the hit.
There is one
escape. A rip-roaring burst of money inflation. However, a
heavy flood of inflated money is particularly ruinous to lenders.
They are paid with money units that have only a fraction of the purchasing
power of the money that was loaned.
"Seisachtheia"
anyone?
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Update from Reuters
News Agency
Greece let yet another deadline slip on
Monday for responding to painful terms for a new EU/IMF bailout as
patience in Brussels wore thin over drawn-out negotiations among its
feuding political leaders. |
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Silver can kill some cancers as
effectively as chemotherapy and with potentially fewer side effects,
new research claims.
Scientists say that old wives tales about the
precious metal being a ‘silver bullet’ to beat the Big C could
be true.
The metal already has a wide range of medicinal
uses and is a common antiseptic, antibiotic and means of purifying
water in the third world. "Silver Bullet" |
← Silver's
purifying properties have been known for a long time. A
bag of junk-silver coins, for instance, can double as a water
purifying device. Let questionable water (from rain
collection, for instance) trickle through the coins and what comes
out the bottom is far more potable than untreated water.
The old
coins contain 90 percent pure silver.
Another reason to own some.
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Our favorite
Montana news editor checks in with some words for the GOP. . .
"Hey, Republicans, how does it feel to be taking your marching orders
from Big Media, Big Government, and Big Money? It turns out that your vote
doesn’t matter because those three “Bigs” have already decided that
Mitt Romney is the “inevitable” nominee of the Republican Party to
oppose President Obama in November. But if you believe that, you
have been scammed (I’m trying to use polite language). No one candidate
is anywhere near wrapping up the nomination. " Frank Miele
Mr. Miele says don’t let Big Media and Big Government tell you that
your vote is irrelevant. Don’t get stuck with the candidate they say you
want. Don’t be pulled along without at least fighting back.
Pretty sound advice, isn't it?
"ObamaCare" may be
aborted over this issue.
The
pro-choice vs. pro-life debate heats up. Kathleen Parker surveys the
battle.
"Catholic
institutions are under siege by the federal government vis-ŕ-vis the
Affordable Care Act, which requires nearly all employers to provide health
insurance that covers contraception, including in some cases abortifacient
drugs. The Obama administration insists these offerings are part of
women's health and should be made easily available; Catholics, both
liberal and conservative, feel these requirements are the edge of the
wedge.
"Essentially,
the new law forces them to either forfeit their most fundamental beliefs
or face prohibitive penalties -- or close hospitals, schools and other
charities, with catastrophic consequences for millions who depend on them.
For perspective, one in six patients in the U.S. is cared for in a
Catholic hospital." Religious Liberty
The
abortion debate could push itself into the political contests right up
there with the state of the economy. The pro-lifers would
like to stop abortion altogether. Many want to make
abortifacients illegal as well.
Women still call the shots on
this, ultimately, and always have. Banning the procedure
altogether would not stop it, although it would surely put the option
out of reach of low income women. Women of means would simply go
where the service is available.
Pro-choicers have a challenge,
too. Their idea of fairness is to make abortions available at
public expense. It's unconscionable to force people who are
opposed to it to pay for it, which is the consequence of giving tax
money to abortion providers.
As for stopping the use of
abortifacients - the "morning after pill" - that will
be as impossible as stopping the use of illicit drugs. Women for
ages have been terminating unwanted pregnancies with the use of
commonly available aids such as the seeds of Queen Anne's lace,
crushed and taken in water. Evening Primrose, Black Cohosh,
Pennyroyal, and many other herbs have been used since
antiquity.
We personally think abortion is
a terrible method of birth control. On the other hand, being a
mere male we don't propose to tell women how to manage their
fertility.
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