patrick.net

Federal Reserve System from Wikipedia

Roles and responsibilities
The main tasks of the Federal Reserve are to:

--Supervise and regulate banks
Not doing so well on that score lately from my POV.

--Implement monetary policy by open market operations, setting the discount rate, and setting the reserve ratio
Yes, they've done a "mah-velous" job of flooding capital markets with unlimited liquidity, blowing asset bubbles and destroying the value of the USD --kudos to them!

--Maintain a strong payments system
No argument here --creditors/lenders of all kinds have enjoyed limitless cash-flow under the Fed. Debtors on the other hand...

--Control the amount of currency that is made and destroyed on a day to day basis (in conjunction with the Mint and Bureau of Engraving and Printing)
Kind of depends on what you mean by "control", doesn't it? If you mean "set the money-creation spigot permanently to 'ON' and flood asset/capital markets until you have one speculative bubble after another", then they've done a bang-up job!

Sir Rick of Bulldust,

DAMN!

That is just nasty! Just plain nasty. I don't even know what to say to that. That is so freakin' nasty_______ I just don't know what to say to that. Damn, that IS nasty!

In short, I believe the Fed has failed miserably at serving the public's interests (assuming that it ever really had anything to do with this --I doubt it) and has only succeeded in making the business cycle even more volatile/extreme than it already was. Let's not forget that the 1930s Great Depression, 1970s Stagflation and several severe recessions occurred on the Fed's watch (founded in 1913), as has the consistent destruction of the purchasing power of the USD, in the interests of fake nominal "growth" through inflation.

The Treasury handles the production of paper money and coinage just fine. What exactly do we (the public) need a Federal Reserve System for?

So, how did this thread get turned off econ/RE onto discussing college sluts & post-feminist lesbianism?

Sir Rick of Bulldust,

O.K now that is getting real nasty.

It's curious to note that when Sex and the City started it was strictly on HBO or whatever and aired only late at night. What made the show "cute?" was that these were obviously disturbed and bored women. After all this is Manhattan! I don't think the characters were ever scripted to provide mainstream role models for young women? How is it then that their ahem, "activities" have gained such mainstream acceptance?

Yes, it’s all the woman’s fault. Moving on…….

Who gave the apple to the man? ;)

X,

Today's generation of permanently-11-year-old women is yet another masterpiece created by the Boomers. It seems like the ones around age 38+ didn't seem to get hit with this stick.

Living with women of today is very similar to what single mothers have to put up with. You get home from work to the cranky whining of an entitled brat who wants dinner, and you have pick up all the crap they've spread out all over the house and shuttle their dishes to the sink, then when dinner is ready you have to pry them away from the telephone, if you even give them a little task like "make sure the electric bill gets paid" you can be sure that it will get shut off at least once a year, and then as you try to sort out the mess, you find that their financial records are all shoved under a pile of magazines or a crumpled mess in one of their their handbags, then you find all the late notices and collections agency letters from their creditors that you DIDN'T know about, etc. etc. Ugh.

Then, as they hover over the traditional male AND female chores you've done, they're so quick to find the spot under the coffee table that you didn't vacuum, etc., and quick to pull all this "a real man would do X, Y, and Z" (without a whisper about the fact that "a real woman" these days apparently has no obligations whatsoever).

Is there anything that Boomers have touched that they haven't totally trashed?

Is there anything that Boomers have touched that they haven’t totally trashed?

Bill Gates is a boomer, no?

Peter P,

Bill Gates is a boomer, yes. That's why you have to reboot your PC twice a day and tolerate 25 different glitches and incompatibilities. If boomers had invented the car, no one would ever make it to work five days in a row, and when they did, half the time the car would be running in "Safe Mode" so it would get you from A to B but without A/C, music, or fifth gear.

Bill Gates is a boomer, yes. That’s why you have to reboot your PC twice a day and tolerate 25 different glitches and incompatibilities.

I don't know. My instinct tells me that Bill Gates is one of the greatest men alive.

Regarding all this trashing of 20-30 something women:

Is this because:

a) chasing them, don't like what you're catching
b) can't catch them, happily married, just making this stuff up
c) hey, I'm older, why aren't there more girls responsive to me
d) actually, these comments are from 20 something - thirty something guys, part of the same generation
e) hey, these 20 somethings are the same age as my daughter/grand-daughter, I should know 'cause I'm very concerned with the escapades and availability of her friends

just wondering why any of the commentees care, I mean, what interest do you guys have in these women/girl toys anyways?

Besides the obvious, non-relational, non-personality related interests, that is....

Oh yeah, they're corrupting your sons with their sluttee ways...

That must be it, right?

Anyone who looks beyond the goal of immediate wealth, and puts so much effort into humanitarian aid can’t be all bad, right?

I think so. He probably realized that he has great responsibility to the world.

As Peter Parker was told by his uncle just before he kicked it:

"With great power, comes great responsibility."

One of the great lines in comics/movie history.

Right on Bill and Warren.

Dude, if it's choice A, you've gotta adapt and change with the times...

"Please don't talk about sex in front of me miss, I'm a married man"*

*Peter Falk as Colombo

I thought the notion "they invented" or at least "re-invented" sex was a boomer notion. At least that's what boomers keep telling me. I'm very happy to be "out of touch" with "modern sexuality" thank you.

We try very hard to raise our kids to have good values, and I would be upset if my daughter acted the way these guys describe.

Show her the spiritual side. Expose her to some philosophy. Value judgement is not something easy to teach. One can only influence.

I notice that Rick admits he's foraging in the younger generation - dude, at some point you have to give up 'cause sooner or later you will be too old man...

Okay, last such post -- not to hammer an unpopular thread deviation any more than I already have, but it's interesting how none of the observations have been disputed.

I think, without ranting any more, the gist of it is that the ladies raised by the Boomers were taught "you can do anything", but actually taught to do nothing other than smugly repeat how they can "do anything", and as a result, ended up as a generation whose only household contribution is DELEGATING TASKS. In the end, they were done a huge disservice.

Even the scarce few stay-at-home moms I know have cleaning ladies and rely on takeout and microwave food. Also, next time you're in line at the grocery store, look around at who is doing the shopping these days. Look at the Foodnetwork cooking programs, and you can see they're CLEARLY marketed to men anymore. In an effort to homogenize gender roles, we've made a mess of things.

For those of you who mentioned raising daughters, don't sit around wringing your hands and fretting about how disgruntled young men might treat them when they come of age. Instead, focus your energy on teaching them to be well-rounded -- see that they can balance a checkbook, cook a few meals, and also be productive in the workforce. Then your daughter will be a "catch" and she can cherrypick among the highest quality men.

i just look with my eyes and I can see the destruction.

So what are you going to do about it? If we will not find a solution, we better not see the problem at all.

Rick -

you should have picked d) then.

Rick,

since you are only 20, and don't have the benefit of experience, I can confirm that young people in my university dorms were acting exactly the same way 25 years ago, back in the day.

In fact, without fear of AIDS, there was no reason not to....

Ok, so that's wrong, but that was the behavioural norm at the time.

Please note, I didn't go to some freaky college with some kind of weird chastity vow.

And the government can barely keep anything a secret. There is no cable of the elite running the world. You can take the tin-foil hats off anytime now.

If there is a big evil conspiracy out there, we would have known. Do not underestimate our instinct.

SQT, sounds like your intentions are good. but if your daughter is going to public school or any college in existence, if she doesnt act the way i describe she will be a social outcast. the only girls that dont act this way are religious. although you want to whitewash her life, really look at what she is doing. Ive seen denial take on epic proportions with ‘concerned parents’. the fact is that these boomers created this environment for thier kids. lots of material wealth, but no community. no ethics. and thier kids are insane.

Sir Rick,

I completely get the lack of Boomer child-rearing skills, rampant materialism & failure to instill morals/community values part. I see numerous real-life examples of this within my own family (didn't Surfer-X call them "spawn of Satan"?), but you are leaping to some very questionable conclusions here: "if she doesnt act the way i describe she will be a social outcast. the only girls that dont act this way are religious."

I have seen PLENTY of horrendously immoral and crazy behavior from so-called "Christians" (including most powerful high-profile televangelists/king-maker types), while I know quite a few "heathens" who manage to live extremely moral and "Christian" lives (in the traditional sense), based on giving a shit about their neighbors and what is happening to their communities.

To categorize, I belong to Gen-X, I'm not a boomer,

believe me, if you lived throught the crap economy of the recession filled mid 80s, which followed 20% interest rates as a young adult, you wouldn't think we had it so sweet.

I take no blame for the morals of today, I was just pointing out things haven't degenerated as far on that side as you might want to imagine...

So I take it none of you cheap bastards threw Patrick a bone?

Post the link here X. Lots of folks either have the blog page bookmarked directly, or (like me) they use a RSS aggregator and don't see anything but the blog entries.

But we all were tryiing to accomplish the common good. Just different ideas how to get there.

Very true.

Link to contribute a small amount to offset Patrick's costs.

It's only 10 bucks.

tinyurl.com/jg3nk

Bottom of page, right above the links portion, there is a "subscribe" button.

Thanks you all, it's been fun, but this has been taking me about 2 hours every night, so I can't justify taking the time anymore. If there are enough subscribers, I'll continue by sending subscribers links in email. If not, I'll refund your money. It's $5 for 25 days of news links, $10 for 50 days, etc. No charge on weekends or any other days when there is no news.

buff, fuck the zero point energy and water powered cars. lets start with baby steps here. how about using proven technology that reduces emmisions and drastically improves gas mileage. how about taxing SUVs to all high hell. if your brain cannot compute a world without gas lets start with the obvious.

Proven by what? Do not trust every so-called "scientific facts". There are environmental special interest groups out there that will stop at nothing to further their agenda, which may or may not work towards the common good.

Rick, you are delusional. Go back to your room and meditate. :)

Hoping to reassure him, I was able to do some research and found absolute, concrete evidence that much of what he thought was a conspiracy was really just random events he had strung together in way that made sense to him alone. But even with everything in black and white in front of him, he refused to believe it.

SQT, concrete evidence will just be seen as concrete deception. :)

It is better to light a candle and meditate about the metaphysical futility of uncovering "the conspiracy".

im going to outlaw the word ‘conspiracy theory’ and use ‘collusion theory’.

You mean "delusioned theory"? :)

Sir Surfer-X, Lord of Profanity Says:

"Remember these are the boomers kids and what do boomers enjoy most? Getting high and getting freaky."

"The doobie doesn’t fall far from the bong my friend."

_____

Ha, ha! Precious!

Surfer-X needs to write a book to pass down the wisdom of Gen-X to
Gen-Z. Just skip Gen-Y, the kids of the Boomers. They're too far gone!

What would be a good title for the book? How about: A FIRESIDE CHAT WITH SURFER-X: LIFE AFTER THE COLLAPSE OF BOOMER CIVILIZATION.

Chap. 1.

Your Parents the Boomer Whores: OK, They sold you a complete bill of shit and we all bought the line. What should you do now?

Chap. 1A. Practicum: Home Economics Revisited.

Chap. 2. The Greatest Sexually Transmitted Disease Vaccine Your Dissolute Boomer Parents Never Told You About: the zipper. Strategies to help keep yours shut in times of temptation, and ten strategies on how to keep your hands off your neighbor's zipper.

Chap 3. OK, So You Can't Afford a House, Condo, Apartment or Even a Chicken Coop: 15 real world strategies to help you survive the California Real Estate Castastrophe without having to live in your car!

Chap 3A. Practicum: OK, so your lazy Boomer mom never taught you to cook, but it's never too late to learn. 20 tasty recipes for eating under $3.99 a day that'll knock 'em dead and leave 'em wondering if the Frugal Gourmet was your dad. Also several tips on spicing up those 99-Cent Store ramen noodles to equal restaurant-quality soups, and which Togos large sammiches can be stretched to three meals a day for under $3.99.

Chap. 4. College Degrees and PhD's - BOHICA (Bend Over Here it Comes Again): 30 Helpful hints: Best positions for taking it without lube and still being able to make it to class on time for the next test; Knee pads? Hell no, this handy tip on how to utilize pillows will make getting that research grant for your PhD a cinch!

Chap 4. Practicum - Do Me Scooby Dooby, Scooby Dooby Do Me:
30 Illustrated positions sure to make your professor give you an A+, and CD ROM with real students gettin' busy and earning good grades.

Chap 5. My Parents Smoked My Inheritance: What you can do to try to make up for the fact that your Boomer parents spent YOUR inheritance on herbage, assorted paraphernalia, and that massive Led Zep record and Stones CD Collection.

Chap 6. The Man Lied to You: OK, so now you've got that BS, MS, MBA, or PhD: Sorry to break the news to you, but a college degree ain't what it used to be. How to work two service jobs at Hertz Rent-A-Car and McDonalds, pay your college loans off, and raise your girlfriend's kid.

Etc...

Surfer X,

So the deal is basically $5 a month? No big! Just go to the "subscribe" button?

Michael Holiday,

LOL! Good stuff, but not to far from the truth. Several posters here talked about trying to be normal in spite of their boomer parents. Could have potential!

Governor Conan Says:

> FAB, I am unfamiliar with BA. What’s Oakland Hills like?
> Isn’t Oakland a dump (compared with Atherton and
> Menlo Park)?

Oakland gets a bad rap (sure they deserve some of it for doing things like teaching "Ebonics" as a language in the schools), and has some nice parts of town (including the Oakland Hills with amazing SF views) with multi million dollar homes...

@DinOR So the deal is basically $5 a month?

Yup for the price of a cup O'starfucks you can watch the collapse in near realtime.

Surfahara X,

Cool, got it!