Things are not as bad as they seem . . . They are Worse, Much Worse

The Daily Reckoning, via 321 Gold ^ | January 16, 2003 | Richard Daughty (The Mogambo Guru)

[MonroeDNA]

Caught that did you? ;)

[BfloGuy]

When you've said everything, you've really said nothing.

[MonroeDNA]

Your opinion, please? It kind of makes sense...

BTW, isn't the price of gasoline NOT in the inflation index at all?

[Gritty]

I would normally say, "this ought to be required reading in High Scool Economics classes" except:

1. There is no such thing as a High School Economics class anymore...

2. You would find precious few teachers who could understand it, much less teach it...

3. You won't find many high schoolers that could comprehend the concepts given here, especially as it is devoid of such familiars as Self-Esteem, Sex Education, socialistic blabberings and multiple choice answers only... and

4. It's way toooo looOOoong to hold their attention, which is about five minutes on the best of subjects (except when discussing sex, of course)...

Perhaps Home Schoolers will read it? They are the ones that will probably end up saving the country anyway.

In any case, hold my place while I'm out. I'm heading to the coin shop to buy some Gold Eagles!

[ladysusan]

Lennie...Lennie.....


It's a real fave around here

[Cicero]

There are moves afoot in several parts of the world to get away from the dollar. Whether they take hold or not, I don't know. China certainly is moving into gold. They have a HUGE balance of payment surplus with the US, and they are still parking almost all of it in treasury paper, but they are starting to put some of it into gold as well.

The other initiative is the Indonesian-organized plan to develop a gold dinar for Muslim countries. Of these two, I think the Chinese move is a good deal more serious, because the Chinese understand money and trade.

[Cicero]

OK. Yes, it's over the top stylistically (which I rather enjoy), but in fact there's a lot of basic economic sense involved.

[MonroeDNA]

So they are putting hard currency into betting against the dollar?

I'm not sure I like the sound of this...

[MonroeDNA]

Stay Puffed!

[Trickyguy]

Any guy who talks about massive inflation of the money
supply during a recession is a Keynesian. Kudlow is just
too stupid to know what he is.

[Cicero]

I sincerely Keynes is in hell

When someone complained that Keynes's recommendations would lead to inflation in the long run, he famously replied, "In the long run, we are all dead."

He was right about that. By the time the chickens have finished coming home to roost, Keynes will have been dead quite a long time.

Behind Keynes's attitude as revealed in this comment is, as I once read in "Culture Wars," the fact that he was a homosexual. As such, he was chiefly interested in power and pleasure in his own lifetime, and had small concern for the future. He had no family, no children, and no particular interest in what might happen to other people's children when they grew up--or their children's children.

[Cicero]

For many years the media worried intensely about the balance of payments deficit, and then one day they stopped worrying. During clinton's eight years as president, with few exceptions, the deficit grew virtually every month he was in office.

People ceased to worry because where else could foreigners park their money but right back here in the U.S.A.?

But that is a situation that can't possibly last indefinitely. We've rediscovered homelessness and SUVs. I think we're about ready to rediscover the evil nature of the current accounts deficit, which is truly massive.

[Trickyguy]

Exactly right. Keynes was a self-professed immoralist and
a homosexual rapist of young boys. Even Hayek thought his
short-term view was due to his homsexuality. Everything he
wrote or believed is garbage and should be tossed in the
trash. And eternal shame on the economics "profession" for
teaching this crap instead of real, Austrian economics.

[ladysusan]

ROFL....

I tried to think of something that could never, ever, hurt anyone......

[jammer]

Well, I may agree with a lot he says. But it's a rather long rant to get through, and when he shows not the slightest understanding of his first point about what is counted in "savings", he lost me.

[forester]

QUOTE #1 One egregious result was that, inevitably, literally every thing either animal, vegetable, or mineral in the nation, was subjected to an incomprehensibly massive collection of ridiculous, even self-contradictory laws, the sheer mass of which is so voluminous that no single man can even lift it off of the ground.

QUOTE #2 There is no government regulation, no matter how plausible it initially appears, that will not eventually be applied by some bureaucrat in a way that defies common sense.

QUOTE #3 During the Second World War, raw materials soared 482%.

First of, thanks for posting this rant...there is a scary amount of truth in his musings. Now to the collection of quotes I have snipped out. As a veteran of the spotted owl wars, I currently serve as the prey base of numerous State and federal agencies. We are to the point here in California where the cost of acquiring and complying with timber harvest permits now equals or exceeds the value of the timber. This situation has all but collapsed California's timber industry, with many companies selling off their California lands and shifting their operations to more business friendly climates ... like New Zealand, Canada and Australia. So in my own limited experience in dealing with the one sixth of the work force that suckles at the government teat, I can tell you that regulating everything as stated in quote 1, inevitibly leads to the reality of quote 2.

My question to you Cicero (and others) is: given that excessive regulation has pushed commodity production off-shore, are we now in a situation in which we can't capitilize on increases in commodity prices? If regulation is preventing production, doesn't it stand to reason that reducing regulations is the only way out of the mess we are in? I find it odd that regulation ... especially environmental regulation... has become the third rail of american politics. To even question it is to invite criticism and personal attacks...and nobody wants to talk about it.

[SierraWasp]

"...and nobody wants to talk about it."

I'm worn right down to the nub from talkin about it! Nobody wants to HEAR it! We all have a right to speak freely, but nobody has to listen!!!

[Carry_Okie]

To even question it is to invite criticism and personal attacks...and nobody wants to talk about it.

I guess this confirms it; I must be a nobody.

[forester]

Sorry guys, I should have said that something along the lines that most folks don't seam to care about the situation...that is, until it affects them.

[Carry_Okie]

Now now, it was a joke; but I was poking at your pessimism that, while richly deserved, is probably destructive to its larger purpose. It's not up to us to "make it happen." All we can do is our best. The rest is up to you-know-Who.