Monday, December 29, 2008


Hysterical!

Thanks to Roy from Long Island!

Read this article from Sharon Astyk, "Ponzi Scheme as a way of Life".  Americans really don't understand just how much of a "Ponzi Scheme" the stock market, Social Security, Medicare, banking, money supply, etc... are.  It is true, our ENTIRE financial system is a Ponzi Scheme, and anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of mathematics knows what MUST occur at the terminal point in the scheme.

I am not saying that I have a better solution at the moment.  I don't.  Ending the societal Ponzi Scheme voluntarily or involuntarily will yield the same result.  It is like jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge.  It is a beautiful day, a beautiful view, you have the wind in your hair, perfect No Cal low humidity, and then SPLAT!!!!! You hit the water and your guts pop out your ass like a (never mind, you get the visual).

And like it or not, we have ALL contributed to the scheme, and it has served us well.  Until we hit the water, that is.  Our entire political and economic effort has rightly been directed at elongating the time between the jump and the sudden stop of the Gold Gate Canon Ball.

Are we there yet?  Who knows?  But Astyk's point is well made, and worth thinking about.


Crude trades over $100, with a high of $140, and a low of $75 (I had dinner last night with FireAngel of theoildrum.com fame and he felt $165 was very possible. His calls have been nothing short of prescient, so I moved my own projection up from $130. Brave of me, no?).
I was pretty close on the upper range... not so much on the lower range.  Still, I think I was pretty close considering it was kind of hard to factor in the collapse of the international banking and credit system.  Stay tuned for my best Nostradamus imitation for 2009. 

Good Luck!

Mentatt (at) yahoo (d0t) com




6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Everybody likes to vent all this hatred toward the baby boomers ie " the most spoiled generation" etc etc. Maybe that's true or not true from different perspectives.

However, it's the boomers that have paid the medicare and social security of the "greatest generation" or otherwise known as the generation of tripple-dippers as many collected social security, military pensions, and private pensions. Just the SS and medicare has probably cost each boomer around $150k in payroll deductions over a working life. PLUS the costs of raising generations X-Y-Z etc and sending them to college etc.

And here we are with the boomers facing retirement with a bankrupt system and likely getting nothing back for a lifetime of SS and medicare deductions from paychecks.

For those chuckling about this situation....maybe you should contemplate that now your elderly mom or dad will now be YOUR responsibility with no help from the system ie the $4500/month in drug bills, the $7500/month in nursing home bills. Maybe your 85yo mom will be living with you- so don't forget the costs of wheelchairs, in-home nursing help, etc. Those bills for adult pampers will probably run you about $500 a month. And no social security or medicare or medicaid reimbursement for a dime of it. Your elderly mom and dad are soon to be 100% on your personal charge account very soon.

Enjoy the laugh while you can. It's really pretty tragic.

A Quaker in a Strange Land said...

Bro:

You are preaching to the Choir. I am in my late 40's and have, for the most part, been self employed for the past 25 years. I have paid far more than 150k in FICA taxes to the the greatest thief generation.

And yes, it is true that far more Baby boomers paid for a college education than were on the receiving end, and in the end will be required to care for our aging parents. We have been pillaried from both sides.

But the boomers are the creators of the political Left, and it is the Left that has bankrupted the nation (with help from the Right and their unsustainable defense budget). Everything is relative, and when compared to the Religious Right wing of the conservative movement, the Left APPEARS attractive. Both sides appear to me to mirror images of the other - religious zealots out to control the rest of us.

bureaucrat said...

Oh, stop whining. The overwhelming majority of pre-1946 people (my parents) and the baby boomers will get back several multiples of the money you all paid into social security and medicare. You also borrowed like there was no tomorrow, cause you thought you could get away, and now the kids will have to pay for it. If you wanna feel sorry for someone, feel sorry for us Gen Xers (born 1964-76) who will have to support your aging collective asses while at the same time having to supervise your unsupervisable, smartmouth, know-it-all kids!! :)

A Quaker in a Strange Land said...

Bureaucrat:

Only if your compatriots in Federal Justice haven't put everyone in jail for 30 years for Jay-walking.

Anonymous said...

Heck a baby boomer bash session. I'm in on that.

Damn baby boomers racked up a federal deficit of $10 trillion? WorldCom, Tyco, Enron, CitiGroup, Lehmans, AIG, Freddie, Fannie. Weren't they ALL run by boomers?
Biggest criminal group in all of history.

We wont even get into their selfish social stances which basically destroyed the fabric of our society. And their viral like consumption of the planets natural resources.

I can't wait for them to be gone. Without medicare their over weight diabetes ridden bodies wont last long so we don't have to much longer to wait..

bureaucrat said...

Well, I wouldn't go that far. :)

Mr. Jeffers, how many people in 2008 were sentenced to 30 years for jaywalking? One? :) Wasn't it almost immediately successfully appealed? Why do we have to highlight extremes when the daily news is scary enough?

Happy New Year!