Double Birds

Jack Balkin, A Yale law professor,  suggested that the Treasury mint two $1,000,000,000,000 coins , and toss those coins at the national debt to make it go away. Apparently you can believe  King Midas  exists and still teach at Yale. All of us want money, but most of us don't understand how it works. Money is basically an IOU.  It is evidence that you have done something for someone.  If you have it, it proves that you are a helpful member of society.  And you can pass it on to other people who do something for you. You can't give something you don't have. Most of us get money every two weeks in the form of a paycheck.  It is proof that we have worked forty hours a week for our employer.  It's a certificate of performance . How did your employer get that money?  The same way you did.  He traded goods or services with someone else, in exchange for these certificates of performance. If we keep tracing money to its source, we find a...

What an idiot, he thinks we live in a dictatorship.  Doesn't he know this is Amerka? Listen to him stutter , as he says: "The last nail is being driven into the coffin of the American Republic. Yet, Congress remains in total denial as our liberties are rapidly fading before our eyes." "Characteristic of this epic event is the casual acceptance by the people and political leaders of the unitary presidency, which is equivalent to granting dictatorial powers to the President. Our Presidents can now, on their own: 1. Order assassinations, including American citizens, 2. Operate secret military tribunals, 3. Engage in torture, 4. Enforce indefinite imprisonment without due process, 5. Order searches and seizures without proper warrants, gutting the 4th Amendment, 6. Ignore the 60 day rule for reporting to the Congress the nature of any military operations as required by the War Power Resolution, 7. Continue the Patriot Act abuses without oversight, 8. Wage war at will, 9....

People used to expect their rulers to make it rain. When the majority of people used to farm, crop failure meant economic devastation on top of starvation.  As Lord Raglan put it: " A good king is one whose subjects prosper, whether he himself is virtuous and kindly or not. This applies much more fully in the case of a king whose duties are purely ritual. Just as the good rain-maker is the one who induces good rain, so the good king is the king who induces good crops, good hunting, and so on ." Now that most of us do not farm, we want our rulers to “make it rain” economically. But the belief that  prosperity can be legislated is just as backward as believing a king can change the weather. Wealth is created through work and exchange. Government cannot create wealth . Whatever money it has, it has either borrowed, begged, or stolen. Forcible transfers of wealth from one person to another do not create more wealth. Fed Chairman Bernanke, just resting his head. Eve...

By Matt Taibbi A merica has two national budgets, one official, one unofficial. The official budget is public record and hotly debated: Money comes in as taxes and goes out as jet fighters, DEA agents, wheat subsidies and Medicare, plus pensions and bennies for that great untamed socialist menace called a unionized public-sector workforce that Republicans are always complaining about. According to popular legend, we're broke and in so much debt that 40 years from now our granddaughters will still be hooking on weekends to pay the medical bills of this year's retirees from the IRS, the SEC and the Department of Energy. Most Americans know about that budget. What they don't know is that there is another budget of roughly equal heft, traditionally maintained in complete secrecy . After the financial crash of 2008, it grew to monstrous dimensions, as the government attempted to unfreeze the credit markets by handing out trillions to banks and hedge funds. And thanks to a whole...

With headlines like " Obama knows political fortunes tied to gas prices " it's clear we're going to hear a lot of nasty things about oil speculators this political season. Politicians (known for their honesty and good character) blame speculators for the rise in gas prices.  This cringe-inducing lie is wrong for two reasons: 1. Speculators alleviate  gas crises. 2. It's the effin politicians who are responsible for rising gas problems, and ensuing gas shortages. Speculators Here's a chart of gas prices, to explain how speculators help us out at the pump: Chart (modified) from this excellent article . When prices are low, speculators buy, when prices rise, speculators sell.  This is how money is made on the stock market.  The overall effect is to even out turbulence in prices.  Selling when prices are high floods the market with oil, causing the price to fall.  If prices dip down, speculators buy up oil shares, limiting supply, which causes oil prices to...