Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Abandon Hope

I believe I need to apologize. We’ve been a little too optimistic about the state of things lately and maybe projected too rosy an image onto the idle goo of your frontal lobes. We used that vile word ‘hope’ at least once, and suggested there was some kind of solution to the implacable and imminent wave of ruin that will soon engulf us all. I had a sinking feeling this was the case, but now I’m pretty certain.

This morning, I walked into a convenience store -– a bodega, if you like -– and there was a 20-something year old, neatly dressed white guy standing behind the counter. Not Pakistani, Arab, or Korean. White. I thought little of it, at first. After all, he could have been helping them cheat on their taxes or something. But when I walked up to the counter, he spoke: Can I help you, sir? This is a phrase that should never be heard in a convenience store. If you ever hear it, be very suspicious. I thought this was maybe some kind of secret government research program, so I went on and asked for the reputedly harmful product I am occasionally wont to purchase. When I asked him how much, he responded with the correct price. The correct price! Not the usual practice of adding 50 cents or a dollar to the price when a customer is stupid enough to ask how much something costs. If this was government research, it was a sloppy operation.

Could he have been a real employee? Is this a job he needed? Considering our erstwhile financial system has been revealed to be constructed entirely of burnt balsam wood and cleverly placed ribbons, I figured, as I feared, that this was altogether possible. This poor white guy had probably lost his executive position at a Federal Reserve Bank or was forced to relinquish ownership of the San Diego Padres. When he went to the unemployment office made especially for his people, the old boys at Skull & Bones said something like, ‘We’re really up against it this year, chum -- all we’ve got is this convenience gig. We’ll let you know when an ambassadorship comes up. Cheers.’

So it is that bad, after all. I apologize for any optimism I may have displayed in the past.
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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Angry Max rules!

Unknown said...

Sad is it not, when politeness is scary?

Doug Gryder said...

Incentives for INEFFICIENCY
The stimulus plan was supposed to kick start the economy and make more of our companies better investments. The only investment that I see this stimulus plan helping is gold. I had comments on my you tube video (where I referred to it as the stimulus/bailout/handout) saying that it (the stimulus package in the form that passed Congress yesterday) was an investment. IN WHAT? The infrastructure impact will be minimal and there is enough pork in the thing that the government should open a restaurant. It make me sick. We are destroying Capitalism. I have said it before and I will say it again. I have Bank of America in my 401k and if they don't operate well enough to stay solvent, I should lose my entire investment. I should not look to the government to bail me out. I took risk looking for reward AND FAILED. That is how capitalism is supposed to work. Next time I invest I will work a little harder to reduce the risk.

I am hearing now that a foreclosure moratorium is in effect until the government can unveil their mortgage rescue plan. REDEFINED: THE GOVERNMENT IS GOING TO BAIL OUT THOSE WHO LIVED ABOVE THEIR MEANS WITH TAX DOLLARS FROM THOSE WHO BOUGHT HOUSES THEY COULD AFFORD. We are destroying the very system that made our country great. How can we make the sacrifices necessary to return our economy to a sound base (by letting bankruptcies happen) when every out of touch politician wants to solidify his/her next election with some sort of rescue plan. Anybody hear politician Schumer make the statement that AMERICAN DON'T CARE when referring to all of the pork in this bill? That comment is dollar negative. The powers that be see no problem borrowing from our children and our grandchildren--and now probably a couple more generation to stay in their offices. For those of you in the deflation camp, if that doesn't tell you that we are going to spend, spend, spend until we light the inflation fire, you will never wake up. WE CAN'T PAY THIS MONEY BACK WITHOUT INFLATING OUR WAY OUT OF THE PROBLEM.

I have had guests on the show that have said we are going to have to monetize the debt and increase the Fed's balance sheet soon. I agree that it will be very soon. If monetization of the debt turns out to be deflationary I will have to do an episode called I WAS WRONG AND I APOLOGIZE. It won't happen. If for no other reason than we can't raise taxes without crushing the economy.

Part of the problem with our system is that we incentivize inefficiency. Lets take the so called mother of the octuplets. She willingly had those kids because she "loved kids" BullShit! She wanted more checks and a book deal. Did it take her very long to get her "donate to me" website up and running. She didn't have one by accident, she already had too many and was artificially inseminated to have all of them. THE TAXPAYERS WILL PAY FOR HER IGNORANCE. Don't send me emails about this paragraph---this is not a political viewpoint, it is simply an economic one. Ignorant decisions in business are inefficient and drag down a business. We can and should take care of those who CAN'T take care of themselves. The problem is we have used the words CAN'T AND WON'T synonymously for far too long.

Gerald Celente said in our interview with him that to recover from this economic crisis we must have a productive capacity. We must find alternative energy that will produce jobs in our country. A conversion to natural gas would get the consumer going in many areas as we would be paying American Consumers for automobile fuel rather than exporting our wealth to the Middle East. I own less stocks today than I have in years because the system is broken and I don't see any sign of recover on the horizon. I lost my butt last year thinking that I was being a great "value" investor until I figured out that stocks were getting cheaper and cheaper for a reason.

I am a commodity bull. China will turn around first and will need the commodities. Oil prices will reach $85 per barrel by the summer in my opinion. Natural Gas will move from its current level well below $5mcf to around $8mcf and gold will touch $1250.

YOU CAN'T MAKE YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD MORE BEAUTIFUL BY SNEAKING OVER TO YOUR NEIGHBORS HOUSE AND DIGGING UP ALL OF HIS GRASS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, THROWING HALF OF IT AWAY, THE PLANTING THE OTHER HALF IN YOUR YARD. THAT IS WHAT THIS STIMULUS PACKAGE DOES!!!!

BE CAUTIOUS

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