patrick.net

Thedaytoday says

Here’s why:

...because ZIRP wouldn't be such a huge gift to Fed member banks if the Fed did its job and maintained a stable currency. Forcing inflation onto everyone else, while borrowing at ZIRP, is much more lucrative for the TBTF bankers than ZIRP alone would be.

In the 100 years since the Fed began, the currency has lost more than 95% of its value. That is unprecedented in the history of the republic. Meanwhile, unemployment has doubled.

So, the evidence is very clear. The Fed does not maintain a stable currency, and does not reduce unemployment. Instead, it entrenches its TBTF member banks, enriching their executives beyond all reason. It fails conspicuously in its stated purpose, but it continues because it's a smashing success from the POV of the executives who control the politicians who control policy.

Crony capitalism and lemon socialism build self-reinforcing patronage networks, of which the Fed is an example. ZIRP, QE, Operation Twisted, all serve the Fed patronage network at the expense of everyone else. To pretend that the policy is "helping homeowners" or "creating jobs" is incredibly naive.

The Federal Reserve should not exist.

The idea that we can trust a cabal of bankers to manipulate the currency in the public interest is laughable.

The Federal Reserve should not exist.

The idea that we can trust a cabal of bankers to manipulate the currency in the public interest is laughable.

Yep. I don't need no federal reserve to print myself to financial prosperity. I just need to get a petition passed that will make it legal for everyone.

mell says

Yep. I don't need no federal reserve to print myself to financial prosperity. I just need to get a petition passed that will make it legal for everyone.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/

If we're serious about this, how about we launch a campaign to get a million signatures to disband the Federal Reserve and return the power to create money to Congress, not that I like Congress, but it's better than the top five banks controlling our currency.

Such a petition should be well thought out first, and then written and debated here, and then advertised, and once we have a lot of support, finally submitted and signed in mass.

You have to get a lot of signatures in a very short period of time to get the attention. Too many tea-brains trying to impeach Obama for not being a US citizen ruined the We the People site. So organization is key.

Dan8267 says

If we're serious about this, how about we launch a campaign to get a million signatures to disband the Federal Reserve and return the power to create money to Congress, not that I like Congress, but it's better than the top five banks controlling our currency.

I'd support that. Maybe we could start drafting this here on patnet. What are the rules around citizenship regarding submitting or supporting (signing) a petition?

If the value of the dollar is declining, then it seems like a good idea to purchase real estate and lock in that purchasing power in 2012 because it will take 50 percent more money to buy that property in 2032.

That being said, I would support to give the power to create money / inject credit to congress rather than having the Fed and would hope that congress would use it judiciously. Maybe you could tie it to a 2/3 majority or something similar to make it a bit harder.

But if I had to print money for the "greater good" I would try and dispense all that money among the poor and maybe middle class, knowing some of it will trickle up when they buy stuff - this is inevitable. But I certainly would not give it to the richest and those who have first access to it like it has been done - criminal. The small amount that trickled down to the poor after the banks borrowed all that new money for zero is a drop in the bucket. The poor and middle class hardly had any access to it. Some who qualified - likely not poor but middle class - were able to get cheaper loans, but that is after the banks took their profit by borrowing for zero and lending for 3% - how is that helping anybody but the banks? Criminal.

Besides I don't want the government to decide who is special.

mell says

You have no idea how special I am in my plight of investing in small novel biotechs

You invest in small, novel biotech? Seriously, WHY?

MsBennet says

If the value of the dollar is declining, then it seems like a good idea to purchase real estate and lock in that purchasing power in 2012 because it will take 50 percent more money to buy that property in 2032.

Nah...they'll craft some means by which to get you into as much debt as you'd like in the future, too. Don't worry.

New Renter says

mell says

You have no idea how special I am in my plight of investing in small novel biotechs

You invest in small, novel biotech? Seriously, WHY?

Not exclusively, but mostly. I have studied a fair amount of medicine and medical research the most interesting things are happening in small biotechs (some scams too, but that happens in every sector) as big pharma is more focused on squeezing the last bit out of their expiring patents and then continue their M & A spree. Plus I like to gamble (no margin/debt though) ;)

mell says

New Renter says

mell says

You have no idea how special I am in my plight of investing in small novel biotechs

You invest in small, novel biotech? Seriously, WHY?

Not exclusively, but mostly. I have studied a fair amount of medicine and medical research the most interesting things are happening in small biotechs (some scams too, but that happens in every sector) as big pharma is more focused on squeezing the last bit out of their expiring patents and then continue their M & A spree. Plus I like to gamble (no margin/debt though) ;)

I've worked in a few of those SV biotechs. I'm STILL waiting for my stocks to be worth enough to buy something from the Taco Bell dollar menu...

mell says

the most interesting things are happening in small biotechs (some scams too, but that happens in every sector) as big pharma is more focused on....

DTC advertising and lobbying. Alas PhRMA scored a really big deal with ObamaCare, which will subsidize pills and increase taxes on vaccines and devices. Getting hundreds of billion$ in subsidies directly from government is impressive in itself, but bribing that same government into starving and taxing your competitors is priceless. At best, small biotechs can hope to be bought out by big PhRMA, but drug companies aren't interested in producing technologies that would reduce their own revenues. It's a terrible shame really, the gap between what could have been and what is; future generations may look back and wonder how we can have been so stupid.

Back to the original topic, good investments are difficult to identify because the whole economy is being reoriented around TBTF corporations that can buy politicians and change the rules to suit themselves. And, those same corporations are being looted by their own executives, who tip out to politicians' campaigns. Just as the best investment in Russia is proximity to Putin, the best investment in America is lobbying, and it's the biggest players who win that game. This applies in the medical sector as well as banking, where the big players get even bigger so they can secure their seats in the Capitol.

Thedaytoday says

it announced its goal to devalue the dollar by 33% over the next 20 years.

Haven't they been doing this, or more, every 20 years already?

Headset said: Worked for Zimbabwe
The irony is that Zimbabwe is on the mend now that they've settled on the US dollar as their currency.

uomo_senza_nome says

Deleveraging can get very disorderly if not managed properly

Yes, it gets messy because you have to use smoke and mirrors to keep brutally expensive things expensive. So the squeeze play is on, housing, rents, tuition, food, commodities, the actual cost of living for all the produces, MUST GO UP - to keep the banking class capitalized.

I've never seen the upper echelons of the upper middle class work so hard to protect massive wealth in the hands of the few.

And they do this claiming they are liberal in nature. Laughable.

Mick Russom says

My cost of living budget has double in the last 10 years. Easily.

Rent, tuition, commodities, cost of repairs, transportation, bridge toll, goods, services, everything. I can pull out budgets from 10 years ago and today and clearly show for the same situation costs have doubles.

My salaries have not. I've done well, but no way its keeping pace with inflation.

Yep - that's exactly the problem for the majority of people.

My "rent" has actually gone down. In 1989 I paid $2,000 a month in mortgage payment and now I pay $1450 a month. I think our interest rate was 10 percent back then.

Mick Russom says

Yes, it gets messy because you have to use smoke and mirrors to keep brutally expensive things expensive.

I don't think that is the causality. The causality is extreme wealth disparity, which will lead to social and civil unrest if nothing is done about it. By keeping it orderly - I meant we resolve this problem of wealth disparity without wrecking the whole economy.

uomo_senza_nome says

I meant we resolve this problem of wealth disparity without wrecking the whole economy.

This has all happened before. Nothing will happen until the empire is burnt to the ground. What is scary is the WW3 scenario includes genomes sequenced in computers, hand and eye scanners, a worldwide network that "knows" who you are by how you behave on it, and leadership which is an illusion to the masses that works for the very forces The People wish to overcome.

This time it will be different. And when the new system arises form the ashes, freedom, liberty, choice will be a dream.

Think about the ending of Colossus, The Forbin Project, but with a real bastard computer that is inhumane, has hubris and is full of avarice running the show.

Colossus The Forbin Project showed us that the logical dictator , an all powerful computer, is against our nature. Despite being controlled in every way with total fairness and complete logic, people wanted to resist.

Think of controlling The People with Stalin. Now think of a Stalinist System where there are a group of ultra wealthy in charge of it.

That is the nightmare you are all going to wake up to. And this time, the restart you think is going to right the wrongs will be used to permanently enslave humanity.

mell says

Yep - that's exactly the problem for the majority of people.

But a certain group of sociopaths who have been permitted by the banksters and banking cabal to borrow our money and rent our leveraged properties back to us at a huge premium think Im a liar. They think its all good. The reason: rentier income makes the lazy people wealthy. And the banksters let these Kapo exist, and these people ENFORCE onto us. They live in either party. Politics is an illusion. In the end, the banksters need to let people believe that some of The People can "win" too so they let a few rise and leverage and play games with other people lives so they can run around and espouse that living off the backs of others is great, and you can do it too!

yet if everyone was a landlord, no one would own land, so there is always a ratio, landed gentry, and the wage slaves. Ultimately, those who are leveraging to rent to use dont really own the property, and they dont produce anything, but they suck they economy dry. Most of these people are skinflints that dont do improvements, and squeeze the working middle class for every penny.

Read one of the rental contracts the rats use. They owe you nothing in the end. If you get sick from prop 65 materials, not their fault. In fact, they can do pretty much anything they want without consequence. And most of them, the Landlords, have borrowed money you capitalize with your taxes and they rent your leveraged property back to you.

Its a terrible situation. No real fix. Now that billions of ill gotten china-dollars are flooding in the next landlords will not be someone with any vested interest that this culture, this way of life goes on.

You are being assimilated. You are paying them to assimilate you.

Sorry.

mell says

and there is a good degree of overlap.

Total overlap. Big banks get bigger. Megacorps get larger. Liberty is decreased. Freedom is decreased. Executive rulings by fiat. Standard of living drops. Government corruption continues. Lobbying unabated. The national political dialogue is perverted to keep the banking cabal and the extra-sovereign interests in place.

Those making unearned and rentier income seem happy with the status quo.

Total overlap.

uomo_senza_nome says

The only way rent seeking can be avoided is through public policy.

The problem is the rent seeking is a behavior allowed by the banking cabal to make certain members of the upper middle class wealthy via unearned and rentier income.

These become the highest members of the outer party.

Mick Russom says

For a lib you are certainly into money and markets

Do you have the impression that liberals aren't into money or markets??

Mick Russom says

The problem is the rent seeking is a behavior allowed by the banking cabal to make certain members of the upper middle class wealthy via unearned and rentier income.

These become the highest members of the outer party.

Not everything is because of bankers. Finance is one form of rent seeking, but there are several other forms as well.

For a proper primer on rent seeking, consider this paper.

As for your accusation on upper middle class, here's the actual data regarding income redistribution. Most gains go to the top 1%.

tatupu70 says

Mick Russom says

For a lib you are certainly into money and markets

Do you have the impression that liberals aren't into money or markets??

This is not the issue - but it's the ridiculous notion that the current problems SOME face are due to certain party politics. Driving the deficit and inflation up has been practised under Obummer and Dubya. Nothing has changed here. So they are into money but not into free markets which have been abandoned long ago.

You all worship Paul Krugman's penis and have erotic dreams about Turbo Timmy, Helicopter Ben and the rest of the banking cabal, left and right. I have no problem with that reality, just admit it and don't pretend to be fighting for the "small guy", alright? ;)

Mick Russom says

And printing is causes a vile class of rentiers who buy up property using
leverage with printed money (drawn from the working folks) and selling via rent
these rotting houses with mold, asbestos, toxins back at a premium to
victims/renters.

Why aren't you aiming this type of diatribe at the local supermarket or grocer? Obviously, you have more potential landlords to choose from than local supermarkets and grocers. People stay in sub-par housing only because they are not able to find better housing (including location, a critical factor for the consumer of housing service) for less money. In a typical town, the only monopolistic landlord is actually the town, which collects tax at a rate that all landlords have to pay therefore able to pass the cost (of tax) to the renters. Everthing that the individual landlord has control over and deliver as service, the tenant can shop around.

Mick Russom says

yet if everyone was a landlord, no one would own land, so there is always a
ratio, landed gentry, and the wage slaves. Ultimately, those who are leveraging
to rent to use dont really own the property, and they dont produce anything, but
they suck they economy dry. Most of these people are skinflints that dont do
improvements, and squeeze the working middle class for every penny.

The idea that somehow houses can be run without repairs and maintenance is probably one of the big reasons why those helped by government sponsored near-zero down payment programs into homes end up losing homes.

Housing service providers provide a very valuable service: housing. The maintenance and repair work entails far more physically productive work than a grocer does for his stock of apples, or even the sandwich shop owner turning $1.50 of ingredients into a $5 sandwich. The consumer of housing service typically have far more service providers to choose from than when he is buying an apple or a sandwich in the same town.

Mick Russom says

I have no unearned income and a relative mountain of savings that you and the
deficiters and debters keep trying to erode through inflation

If you really have a mountain of savings, even at 0.25%, there has to be unearned income. There are other places where the return would be higher than 0.25%. Some entail relatively small risks, others bigger risks: bonds, stocks, direct ownership of businesses . . . including even what you hate, rental property ownership. All of them are forms of productive asset, yielding what is essentially a dividend, at varying degrees of risk to the capital itself. Usually for the same asset, the lower the acquisition cost the lower the risk.

The federal reserve notes are just chips at the casino. Not sure why you insists on parking your wealth in those chips.

Reality says

Housing service providers provide a very valuable service: housing

My experience is this: the landlords will let tenants stew in filth and only renovate on turnover to raise the rents and then let the new tenant rot.

This becomes far more of an issue when the landlord is a managment company.

I also think that handing out money capitalized by public means so that landlords can leverage that to provide "housing as a service" lol to make themselves rich and making housing further out of the reach of the middle class is counter productive.

But hey, the power brokers are the bankers and those who play bankers. Goes back to how the board game monopoly is played with the landed gentry bradishing a fat middle finger to the rest of the players.

Reality says

If you really have a mountain of savings, even at 0.25%, there has to be unearned income.

Yes, negative unearned income. If the saved money has erosion in purchasing power one should be able to claim a loss like the gamblers with stocks get to, not get taxed on interest as income.

Reality says

The federal reserve notes are just chips at the casino

Nobody would play with and for chips is they didnt reliably indicate an index of wealth.

People who have to protect the future due to having families and responsibility are risk averse, and would like to save up to elimiate the pressures of rents, and to try and anticipate unforseen issues.

If you cant see how killing people's savings through inflation hurts the average Joe then I dont know what to tell you. The idea is to get people to play at the casino, and if they use need government assistance.

Who is promoting save up, be self reliant, get and stay out of debt and eliminate all debts before "investng." Why invest if you have a negative net worth? its like using a credit card at the casino to gamble. Its a joke.

Some of these neg--net-worth people lease BMWs to look rich, its really quite laughable.

And they are borrowing this existence beyond their means and they kick the can down the road, the next generation will pick up the tab.

Lol. Lets see.

Reality says

The goods basket chosen for measuring price indices is far more subjective to the data collector's whim and far more complicated than money supply

Commodities price index. And they do things like re-base the currency year used. The government does things like change out steak for ground beef. Its usually a lot worse than indicated. Regular people with responsibility and budget know the cost of living is going up faster than pay.

uomo_senza_nome says

Most gains go to the top 1%.

More like the 0.01%.

The upper middle class is trying to get into that club. Even the upper classes. Its quite exclusive though. They do however admit new members here and there to keep the dream of being an oligarch alive.

Reality says

Why aren't you aiming this type of diatribe at the local supermarket or grocer?

I belong to several food co-ops and buy through local markets. The prison-planet-government is doing everything in its Monsanto-power to make sure your ONLY get your food from the local supermarket.

You best be checking who you Monsanto-Elect, even in "lib" california, before you complan to me oof the damage you are doing to the food supply.

tatupu70 says

Do you have the impression that liberals aren't into money or markets??

1960s version? More into freeedom, liberty, the open road, some free love and some drugs if need be. Throw in some SDS leftism. Never got the sense they like big government, monsanto, police state, rules and laws everywhere, etc.

The 2012 version? All they care about is money, but need to appear like they dont. They will vote for monsanto and a police state to protect their interests but try to appear as free wheelin.

I would say classical liberalism is dead, and the maoist version has taken over.

mell says

You all worship Paul Krugman's penis and have erotic dreams about Turbo Timmy, Helicopter Ben and the rest of the banking cabal, left and right. I have no problem with that reality, just admit it and don't pretend to be fighting for the "small guy", alright? ;)

Yep. They cant admit that though. It forces them to be honest with themselves.

Mick Russom says

1960s version? More into freeedom, liberty, the open road, some free love and
some drugs if need be. Throw in some SDS leftism. Never got the sense they like
big government, monsanto, police state, rules and laws everywhere, etc.

The 2012 version? All they care about is money, but need to appear like they
dont. They will vote for monsanto and a police state to protect their interests
but try to appear as free wheelin.

I would say classical liberalism is dead, and the maoist version has taken
over.

So are you saying having money and making smart investment decisions is maoist?