Look what got cut in the budget deal - high speed rail. Notice military spending, which needs the same kind of cuts that entitlements do, was spared any cuts at all.
We are losing our collective freaking minds. Dear Tea Party: I thought y'all heard the voice of the people. Must a been something else.
BTW. I am flat Oil. I don't like when market's turn around after a rally this hard... especially with Japan declaring the nuclear situation to be far worse than previously believed. In the near future this will increase demand for fossil fuel... but not in the immediate future.
Wait until somebody does something dumb - then go long Oil (or at least that's the theory).
In fact... I think the markets are extremely dangerous at the moment.
Best to stay clear unless you are a remarkably disciplined and experienced trader.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
16 comments:
I think lack of trust is the major factor. Even if I am willing to make sacrifices, why should I voluntarily reduce my government paycheck, when I know the government will take any savings and give it to Wall Street or the Pentagon?
Da,
I think it is worse than that. Ever since FDR, the government has been fostering a sense of entitlement among the populace. People feel that it is their absolute right to get something for nothing and be insured against any eventuality. Now that there is nothing left to hand out, that bunch of pandering hacks has got a lot a 'splainin' to do. Their audience will not be friendly.
Regards,
Coal Guy
Greg,
I'm absolutely for cutting high speed rail and any other possible market-distorting crap out of the budget. I'd rather not see subsidies even when I absolutely agree with the intent. I'll admit that there is probably $2Trillion that should have gone first, but ANYTHING that comes out is a good thing. Electricity is already a lot cheaper than diesel fuel. The railroads will figure that out. I'd much rather pay for the real cost of converting to electric rail in shipping costs. If the government gets its finger in there, it will cost twice as much so that the special interests that sponsored the bill can be properly fattened.
As fuel costs go up, the railroads will become very profitable. Their fuel cost per ton-mile is only a tiny fraction of over-the-road shipment.
Regards,
Coal Guy
Coal Guy:
I am with on no subsidies... but it is telling what got cut and what didn't... and they were paltry cuts at that.
The T.P., with all its warts, was our last hope. They have shown they want to remain in office more than fix things....
Greg,
I'm 100% with you. No one has the guts. The bond market will eventually balk, and all heck will break loose. Too bad.
Regards,
Coal Guy
The news over here was that the US gov't cut by less than 1%. In UK the cuts are between 6 and 8% depending who you listen to.
Seems to me you guys are heading full speed for the buffers.
As for high speed rail, I'd have thought any investment should go into building normal rail service first (but there HAS to be investment). If planes and trucks are no longer economic, what happens to national trade? What happens to international trade for a country that imports just about everything?
Come to that, without cheap road transport and planes, what happens to national government??
Ya know I still do not claim to be a tea party affiliate but I do sometimes attend the TP rallies in Missouri and follow them closely. I don't think I have heard the tea party crowd rant about defense spending much if at all in the last few years. I believe they would like the waste and favoritism culled in it though. Let's face it defense spending is really the one area the Fed actually has a legitimate claim to.
I also have not heard them complaining over much about the lack luster cuts Boehner and company got this last time around. I believe they are gearing up for the ultimate budget showdown.
We will see.
Personally I doubt the Tea Party will get what they want anyway. The entitlement spending has gone too far and our cheap labor/large population growth government has let too many zombies get inside the wire and too many groups get used to their free ride. Eventually things will fragment into faction vs. faction.
I love the tea party because it has provided a venue for the shattered and divided American middle class to regroup for what is to come. But we will see.
Pioneer & Coal Guy:
ALL of those things.... the bond market punishment that's coming, the cut in entitlement benefits, the cuts in military spending... they are ALL coming. The question was this:
Were the cuts going to be rational and managed and sold? Or are they going to come haphazard and without cooperation? I think we have our answer... We've talked about this endlessly... I posted the moment I saw the T.P.'s idea of a budget several months ago that they were FOS... still, I had hoped.
Worse, they are playing their "Right to Life" card... the one that has failed to save the unborn, but has given the opposition a club with which to beat their brains in.
The T.P. is demonstrating, often, they are t.p. for the PTB.
Keep on farming Greg, the decline will not be fun.
Even people out here in rural Texas don't have a clue. Talk right to life and they get all excited, talk about the financial condition of the country and they yawn and find a reason to excuse themselves.
Greg
I have scratched my head a few times over what the so called Tea party politicians seem to find important.
I agree with your thoughts on the spending I just never had much real hope this new conservative movement (which includes the TP) would get anything done. In order to get real on the spending the diversity gloves are going to have to come off and the multi-cult won't let that happen. I am not even speaking about race here. Look at this latest fiasco it was all "Repubs killing women" or "Conservatives making children and old people starve".
Touch education and it will be "racist repubs"....same with welfare.
I'm with Joseph. Just keep farming. Keep doing the basic stuff. Stay as clear of the crazies as possible.
After about 10 years of following this stuff, it is now all coming to pass - the insolvency at all levels, but esp. in government, the energy shortage, etc.
I once had hope that my fellow citizenry would get it, at least some, enough to accumulate a critical mass for economic, energy, and social change, that would enable us to get to that more localized, sane way of living post Peak oil, post Peak Debt.
Now, however, I realize that socially, this country is indeed too far gone. Pioneer has it right. There are too many crazies already admitted to the camp. There are too many people who can't do anything for themselves, people that are too fat, too stupid, too dependent - too blind.
I've pulled way back on the advocacy work around me. Now I just DO. Anything else is useless. I've tried helping as much as possible and now I just have to stand out of the way and let the suffering begin. It's the only possibly effective lesson left for most people.
Oh, well.
Tea party only controls the house guys, the rupubs can’t even bring a bill to floor in the senate right now. I would not force the issue over this small of an amount anyways; it would have wasted their ammo. They were dealing with only 5 months of spending and no entitlements. I think you wait until debt ceiling or 2012 budget and purpose something like a trillion in cuts and negotiate down from a much larger starting point. The crazy thing is that SS, Medicare, Medicaid, debt payment and other mandatory programs gobble up 2.1+ trillion of the 2.2+ trillion in revenue. As peppy said the dept of defense is the only constitutionally mandated program/institution of all of these besides debt payments. I would not judge to harshly yet, you know we already have to starve children and old people to make these cuts :)
dextred
And this excerpt from a book Chelsea Green Publishing is pushing:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/48496912/Television-From-Get-Up-Stand-Up
Quickly turn to Page 2.....the section on the evils and dangers of television is a MUST read by any thinking person. I've read about the dangers of TV for years, but this read goes one level even better.
Now if only we could takeover the airwaves and endlessly repeat these 6 pages...!
I was thoroughly disgusted then we did the tarp bailout because it was obvious, to me anyway, that we lost our best opportunity stop the madness and hyperinflation was all but inevitable in the not too distant future. All we had to do was move far enough along the exponential curve and recovery is impossible; which at this point we have already done. However, once we reached the point of no return the logic changes.
At this point In time the sensible thing to do is keep the payments for social security, unemployment, etc., going for as long as possible. Then tell people to prepare, and fund things like wind, solar, high-speed rail. Etc. The paper may go to zero but the assets will remain and the holders of bad debt will at least get some equity in money generating assets for it; much better than equity in an exploded smart bomb, I think.
It seems to me we are doing this ass backwards. We ramp up spending like madmen when there is still time to avoid the abyss then turn around and start applying the brakes after it’s too late to do any good. I think all we are doing now is optimizing the misery, but what the hell do I know.
.
Best,
Dan
Stephen,
My theory for a while is that most people in the US are going crazy--just at different rates.
Develop your intangible wealth because all tangible wealth is unsafe.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/65-ways-that-everything-that-you-think-that-you-own-is-being-systematically-taken-away-from-you
Post a Comment