Ain’t got No Sugar.

(For David… regarding the idea that Socialism, referencing his question of my sanity on Trump’s China Tariffs, requires Capitalism to survive.  While the current topic involves raw materials the concept is the same.  Crappy Communist/Socialist countries require us, and our productivity, to exist.  They are parasitic.  This originally posted in Feb. 2012)

Given the latest comments by European Leaders at the G20 conference regarding their current difficulties having originated in the U.S. and President Obama’s granting amnesty to illegal aliens  with accolades from the Mexican President (because it is a huge subsidy to Mexico through the flow of US Dollars south), I thought it was worth revisiting.

It has been fascinating to watch as Europe melts down.

It illustrates a theory I’ve had for many years which is that socialists survive at the mercy of capitalists in the name of stability. I started thinking about this in the early nineties,  Clinton had just handed, yes handed, Mexico 5 billion dollars.  That was back when 5 billion could buy you something nice.  It was done under the auspices of fighting the war on drugs.  But what it really did was prop up a socialist state.  Who wants a revolution so close to home… right? I don’t mean to pick on Clinton because Reagan and Bush have done it too.

Reagan’s granting amnesty to 13 million illegal immigrants was another way of subsidizing Mexico as it kept the flow of U.S. Dollars heading south into their economy.  (We could see this again…)  George W. did it by making it illegal to purchase prescription medication from Canada.  If that had been made legal it would have been tantamount to declaring war on Canada because it would have destroyed their health system by preventing them from dictating prices they would pay to the drug companies.  To put it in the simplest terms, they get away with dictating prices because you pay more here and subsidize the cost for them.  Feel good about that? We have seen this type of socialist subsidizing for years across every administration.  It is primarily through our military… “You guys in trouble financially?”,  “Let’s have joint maneuvers, or how about we move some more troops in for training exercises…”.  All that means is U.S. Dollars going in to the their not-so-self-sufficient Socialist Paradise.

We have also seen this played out when military contracts are steered to foreign countries for no apparent benefit.  The product isn’t better, but darn it they need the help.  (Bare in mind, I am a capitalist… it is my duty to buy the best product for me at the lowest price.  I have no issue with overseas manufacturing.  Our lack of manufacturing says more about us than them.  That’s for another time.) Well, now things have changed…  we ain’t got no money.

Look at the panic and finger-pointing when the engine of Capitalism, slowly poisoned by Socialists, isn’t healthy enough to ride in and save the Socialist Dream.

If I sound merciless, it’s because I am.  As far as I’m concerned Socialism has been living on borrowed time.  (And it has been our own socialists lending it to them.)  To steal a quote; “The chickenssss have come hoooome to roooost!” Now big daddy ain’t got no sugar…. and you’re on your own.

(An aside:  When are we going to have emergency hearings on “home-grown Socialism”?  Does Homeland Security know about this?  Where’s the Socialist Watch List?  The Socialist No-Fly roster?  Can’t we profile these people?  The destruction to this country and its citizens is profound. Someone should alert the press.)

Advertisement

Democracy Kills.

Stop It! Stop It! Stop It!

Stop talking about “Democracy” as if it’s a good thing!

While this is a sin committed by seemingly everyone, it struck me after listening yet again to the President and the Secretary of State speak glowingly about Democracy being introduced to the Middle East (Which is melting down), and the resulting democratically elected leaders that we MUST deal with, it occurred to me that they were playing on the ignorance of the American people… yet again.

This is not splitting hairs… this matters and we all need to understand it.  Democracy is horrible.

Historically, when Democracy is present, populations (almost without fail) vote themselves into tyranny.  In other words they ask to be taken care of, and they get taken care of… just not the way they wanted.  Every Socialist Dictator claims to be, and most often has been, at some point “Democratically elected”…

Do you really want to help countries enjoy what we enjoy here is the United States?

Here are the ingredients, all of which are poisonous on their own;

A Judiciary, by itself is a collection of “priests” passing edicts upon the population by fiat.

A Congress, by itself is a tribal meeting of elites fighting for and protecting their personal interests.

An Executive, by himself is a dictator.

What is required to establish a Free Country is a mix of the above…

A recipe, or better yet, a Constitution specifically defining the checks and balances of each branch and limiting government to very specific responsibilities to protect the Individual and his property rights.  (Unenforced, is a “living, breathing” piece of paper and nothing more.)

Elections without ALL of the above, is Democracy.  Democracy, by itself is simply “legitimized” mob rule.  This is what is being promoted by the Progressive Left.

But combine the above with Free-Market Capitalism protected by Individual Property Rights and now you have a recipe for greatness.  You have what the United States should be…

However,

Democracy on its own… you have what is today the Middle East.  A region on Fire and Falling into Theocratic Oblivion.

The goal should never be “Democracy”.  And, contrary to what generations of poorly educated public school teachers think (and apparently the Obama Administration as well), we do not live in a Democracy.  The United states is the product of a finely tuned mixture of all the above.  We should know this, and understand it.  Democracy is only one part of a beautiful formula making our country unique from the rest of the world.  Now is the opportunity to contrast what we have, and why we have it, against a tapestry of violence and destruction.  If today’s examples are not good enough then let’s go back a little ways.  Lenin wrote profusely regarding “Democratic Socialism” and his wish for “Democracy” leading to the dictatorship by the Proletariat.  Mao added a class and proposed roughly the same thing.  The Socialists have always viewed direct “Democracy” as integral to their achieving their goals.  I could list a number of prominent Social Elitists who killed their own citizens in the name of Social Utopia, but for this post those two should suffice.

In case you didn’t know;

We proudly (most of us proudly…) live in a Democratic Republic… “if we can keep it.”

We work very hard at maintaining the integrity of our elections.  (Or at least we should.  The lack of prosecutions for election fraud is deplorable.  ref: Preserving My Right to Cheat.)  We also have checks and balances at every level of our local, state and Federal government with the hope we can keep it.

To make this simple, understand the words you use.  When you do, you’ll understand what others are saying to you.  And you’ll learn quickly that some things you think are “good” are actually “evil”.  (Like decaf coffee… who drinks this?  Do the same people drink non-alcoholic Beer?  What’s next, non-alcoholic Bourbon? Clearly there is evil in the world.)

Link: You can’t get here from there

(Originally posted 092112)

Why are we Staring over the Fiscal Cliff?

And why are we not backing up?

After a brief exchange last night with an associate, and a subsequent conversation with a reader, I thought it wise to review how we arrived at the fiscal cliff and this global economic meltdown.  The not backing up part I don’t have a good answer for…

This will be as simplistic as I can make it without sacrificing accuracy…

As always, you have to understand the difference between Capitalism and Socialism.  Capitalism is the absence of force applied to markets and individuals.  Socialism is force applied to markets and individuals.  And of course Fascism… which is a variant of Socialism.  Some are trying to call much of what happened “Crony Capitalism”, but it is plain old-fashioned Fascism through and through with nothing Capitalist about it.

So why is there a global economic melt down?

Because Bill Clinton, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd felt that everyone regardless of ability to pay should realize the dream of owning a home.  Sounds like a nice idea…

So how did they decide to do this?

With Bill Clinton in the White House (Executive) and Barney Frank in the House of Representatives in combination with Chris Dodd in the Senate (Legislative) the argument was offered that the banks were “discriminating against minorities” as demonstrated by lending percentages.  (It’s important to note that the metric is “lending percentages” not “ability to pay” which is how the banks determine whom to lend to historically.)  So now enter the lawsuits and investigations by the Justice Department (Judicial) into lending practices.

With all three of their bases covered this motely crew used discrimination claims to order the banks (through regulation, threat of lawsuits and fines) to make loans to people who otherwise could not qualify for them, let alone afford to pay them back.  In a normal, unmolested market the banks do not lend to individuals who can’t show they are able to repay the loan.  But suspend reason here.

Now enter Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac… the two largest lenders in the United States.  Both of them are government-owned.  (The Socializing of the banking system has a long sordid history best saved for another post.)  These two government banks, receiving their orders from Congress, began buying loans forced to be originated by lenders using the “NINJA” (No Income, No Job, no Assets) criteria.

The Banks (Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo, Met Life etc.) were given an offer they couldn’t refuse…  if they did refuse, they were going to be sued, fined, and investigated until finally someone goes to jail and or having their Federally Issued Licences revoked.  So, destroyed.

So they made the loans.  Lots of them, as that is what would have to happen to “square” this new metric being applied measuring their performance.  It was no longer about making rational business investments and assuming the risk associated with those decisions… it was now about being “fair“.

Of course I would argue that making rational business investments is inherently “fair“, but the above troika does not care about what people like me think.  Remember, this is about votes… and feeling good about doing something… results be damned.  And damning they would be.

So what about all this “greed” we hear about?

Greed came to dinner but Clinton, Dodd and Frank cooked it up and set the table.

There are plenty of Bad Actors to cast blame upon.  You have Loan Officers, and Mortgage Brokers.  You have Bankers and Nobel Prize winners (The Nobel Prize was given to the creators of derivatives.  The banks loved the idea too as it was the only way they had to choke down the crap sandwich they were being forced to eat.) not to mention International security brokers who sold derivatives into the global investment markets.  The world was eager to buy up American Debt because we ALWAYS pay our bills.  (Whoops….)

The subsequent market distortion and enormous burst of the Housing Bubble created by these best of intentions shot us into this global and domestic recession.  And Bill Clinton, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd should have known better.  They had plenty of people around them telling them it was a very Bad idea.

The only question left in my mind is “Was it intentional?”  As you learn more about these three people you might be finding yourself asking the same question.  None of them are ignorant… just very wrong about many things.

I promised to keep this as simple as possible so I have left out some of the additionally nasty scenarios which arose from this debacle, many of which we are still living through.

I also left out things like party affiliation, individual histories on the mentioned players and some additional names of Bad Actors such as Raines and Mozillo etc.  As always, I expect you to make an effort to research more on this if your intellectually curious.  If you’re not, I can’t help you.

So raise a glass to three men who successfully destroyed more global wealth than any world war.

George Soros must be envious.

If you seriously want to understand this, I recommend The Housing Boom and Bust by Thomas Sowell, Reckless Endangerment by Gretchen Morgenson and The Forgotten Man by Amity Schlaes.  All of which can be found on Amazon.  That should get you started…  once you begin your search you’ll find it’s all been in front you the entire time.