Inflation Hell (Latewire)

Latest News From the Gov't War on The Economy

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:35:35 GMT

SEC Says New FinReg Law Exempts It From Public DisclosureThe law, signed last week by President Obama, exempts the SEC from disclosing records or information derived from "surveillance, risk assessments, or other regulatory and oversight activities." Given that the SEC is a regulatory body, the provision covers almost every action by the agency, lawyers say. Congress and federal agencies can request information, but the public cannot.CBO: Deficits will cause debt to rise to unsupportable levelsIn related news, 2+2=4, up is up, down is down, and you can't spend yourself into prosperity--no ...

"When Ideas Have Sex" And ReasonTV Interview (Video)

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 19:39:47 GMT

"When Ideas Have Sex" with Matt Ridley (TED conference)
This is a great talk about the evolution of technology in civilization.

This interview was with Reason Magazine:
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VID: Andrew Napolitano Gives Rousing Speech on Law & Liberty

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:56:03 GMT

(Ignore Glenn Beck at the beginning if you need to)
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Simple Explanation of US Healthcare (Video / Basic Econ)

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 17:48:15 GMT

This is basically what I said in my healthcare article--not a new argument, but new to most people for some reason.

In fact, Milton Friedman described the problem the same way. {HTML REDACTED FROM RSS FEED}

/b/ Explains Greek Fiscal Problem (?)

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 14:37:37 GMT

Moment of Zen

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 23:26:44 GMT

Speaker Pelosi weighs in on economic policy. In short unemployment checks create jobs, fast.

By that reasoning, why shouldn't every worker quit their job and take unemployment? It would supercharge the economy. {HTML REDACTED FROM RSS FEED}

Greenspan Starts Making Sense - Emphasizes Fiscal Restraint

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 18:29:26 GMT

Now that Greenspan is no longer working for the government, he's once again turned into a capitalist.In a rant he recently wrote for the WSJ, he said “The United States, and most of the rest of the developed world, is in need of a tectonic shift in fiscal policy ... Incremental change will not be adequate.”He went on to say that “Perceptions of a large U.S. borrowing capacity are misleading,” and current long-term bond yields are masking America’s debt problem. “Long-term rate increases can emerge with unexpected suddenness,” such as the 4 percentage point surge over four ...

Bernanke Confused As People Ignore His Phony CPI Numbers

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 03:31:34 GMT

Bernanke Puzzled by Gold Rally (wsj) Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says he’s a bit puzzled by surging gold prices. The 30% rally from a year ago, on top of gains in previous years, ... Gold is seen by many investors as a hedge against inflation risk.Mr. Bernanke notes that the inflation signal isn’t confirmed by movements in other asset classes.That's because the CPI is complete BS, and everyone knows it (with the possible exception of Bernanke). Of course he's also leaving out such asset classes as "Food" and "Energy" (apart from Oil). Plus his whole "reflation" strategy is ...

Let The Games Begin: Austerity World Tour

Sun, 06 Jun 2010 02:08:53 GMT

Markets are panicking, Greeks are rioting, Hungarians are having conniptions, and the rest of the over-leveraged world is finally asking the question: when is it going to be my turn?Meanwhile, the economics enthusiasts here at Latewire/InflationHell, as well as some of the actual experts have been notably silent. You may be wondering why that is (or you may be wondering how water-activated growable sponge animals work, but we're not going there so shut up). I think even some of the more famous soothsayers (who we plagiarize unabashedly) have been a little quiet lately on the bad reports ...

2010 Elections

Fri, 21 May 2010 22:36:21 GMT

Just to get this out of the way, I propose getting rid of voting and instead elect John Madden, President for Life.

Does John Stossel Drink Dewars' Scotch??

Sat, 15 May 2010 18:01:37 GMT

In possibly the biggest revelation in history: Could my favorite talking head (actually, the only one I can stand) also be a fellow fan of Dewars' White Label? For those not in the know, Dewars is the best scotch under $100/fifth (at least from what I've found). It's also my liver's arch nemesis as they have done battle on many, many occasions.In his latest installment of his show "Stossel" (his show on gambling), John throws in clips of him and others playing Texas Hold 'Em with a fifth of Dewars' White Label sitting right in front of him. Is that his beverage or is that a prop? This question ...

Libertarian View Of The Tea Parties [picture]

Sat, 01 May 2010 20:20:18 GMT

The Fundamentals Are Not Sound (humor)

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 22:09:09 GMT

Choking on The Reality Stick - G. Sachs "Prosecution"

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 23:46:28 GMT

The epitome of the Fat-cat is back, and his name rhymes with "sacks." This is appropriate, considering that not since Lincoln's prostitution to the Railroad companies have we seen such shameless and unapologetic chrome-plated balls in our corporate governance.I'm not talking about the fact that most of the commissars and stooges in our government's interventionary nightmare have either worked for Goldman Sachs [2], worked under former Sachs employees, or would later be associated with the big Sachs after retiring from their job. I'm talking about the fact that now even civil prosecution of ...

Quick Note About The Health Care Bill

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 03:21:16 GMT

Someone pointed this out to me earlier and it seems pretty obvious: 1) The goal of every elected official is to get reelected above all else2) The Republicans probably could have blocked or stalled the bill if they'd really, really wanted to3) It helps Republicans get elected a lot more if they run against a hated opponent rather than running on the "I stopped the healthcare bill"4) People will hate Republicans regardless, but if they hate the Democrats more for a brief stint, they can win back congress5) Given all this, do you really think they put forth their best effort to block the ...

Why Economic Stimulus Doesn't Work (Latewire Original Video)

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 02:46:57 GMT

I'm ill as hell today. Still managed to finish it though!Rough Transcript:Remember the movie back to the future 2? The villain uses a time machine to go back 30 years and change the timeline.In the alternate timeline, the good guys are either dead or subjugated by the villain, who is so powerful he can essentially do whatever he wants.The people of the alternate timeline are oblivious to how they ended up in that mess and just assume it's the way things are meant to be.This is kind of the same thing we see with government stimulus. Essentially, our future could go one of two ways: with ...

Why did trained, bald economists destroy th' US currency?

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 07:55:46 GMT

Dr Roe has explained the dire state of the economy so fluently that I've been putting off publishing anything on the subject. But since we're getting near th' end zone in our collective run for a doomsday touchdown, I might as well just drop a note to explain why it is that some of the most educated economists and business experts in th' US made decisions that are, on their face, bound to destroy the value of the US dollar. Currency values, even those of modern fiat currency, are pretty simple. They're really controlled by just two fundamental factors. The first, confidence in the ...

Obama Lies About Not Enforcing Federal Medical Marijuana Ban

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 14:05:58 GMT

In a completely unexpected turn of events, the 'yes we can have hope and change' president has vetoed hope and issued an executive order against change. Obama has apparently lied about not enforcing the federal ban on marijuana in otherwise legal situations. As Obama pays populist lip-service to medical marijuana, his minions at the DEA are continuing to raid medical marijuana growers. Some of them may never live outside of a prison cell again. If this were done on a lower level, the claim that he would not enforce certain laws and giving the go-ahead to violate them may be considered ...

In One Paragraph: Why Mainstream Economics is Wrong

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 01:06:39 GMT

"The scope of the controversy changed when the new science of economics entered the scene. Political parties which passionately rejected all the practical conclusions to which the results of economic thought inevitably lead, but were unable to raise any tenable objections against their truth and correctness, shifted the argument to the fields of epistemology and methodology. They proclaimed the experimental methods of the natural sciences to be the only adequate mode of research, and induction from sensory experience the only legitimate mode of scientific reasoning. They behaved as if they had ...

Insane But True History of The Federal Reserve (Video)

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 18:54:43 GMT

The Creature From Jekyll Island
A Second Look at the Federal Reserve
by G. Edward Griffin
1994 {HTML REDACTED FROM RSS FEED}

Government Prints Trillions, Nets Billions, Impresses No One

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 18:47:08 GMT

After bailouts and printed money equivalent to double-digits of the GDP have been injected into the economy, the government managed to boost the GDP figure by 5.7%.That's like burning your neighbor's house down because you ran out of wood for your fireplace. What's odd is how unimpressed the Keynesians are with this result:Paul "Love Thy Government" Krugman:As expected, a big GDP number, signifying nothing much. It’s an inventory blip: topline growth at 5.7 percent, but only 2.2 of that is final demand....And I find myself wondering why I even bother reading the actual numbers; the Goldman ...

Presidential State of the Union and Rebuttal

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:46:30 GMT

The State of the Union Address and Rebuttal are political pageant, where the President delivers a long winded speech in which they give an optimistic (read:warped) view of the country policy they have no chance of enacting, and the opposition delivers an equally insubstantial rebuttal. As such should a listener have no better use for their time, it is best the read the transcript instead of listening or watching so that they pick the kernels of content from the stinking mass instead of having it shoved in their eyes and ears. Alternatively you could get roughly the same effect as taking the ...

Hayek v. Kaynes Rap Battle

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:34:53 GMT

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Greenspan Endorsed Gold Standard... Before it Was Abolished

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 03:26:36 GMT

The following is an excerpt from this article written by Alan Greenspan in 1967--four years before the end of the gold standard (by Richard Nixon).Recently, Greenspan told Ron Paul he still stands by every word of this.A fully free banking system and fully consistent gold standard have not as yet been achieved. But prior to World War I, the banking system in the United States (and in most of the world) was based on gold and even though governments intervened occasionally, banking was more free than controlled. Periodically, as a result of overly rapid credit expansion, banks became loaned up ...

Propaganda, Conspiracy, & The False-Dichotomy of Left/Right

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:48:12 GMT

For those of you who don't know, Glenn Beck is a "conservative" commentator who has apparently recently discovered libertarianism. He gets on the air 5 days a week on Fox News and rants about the 'classical liberals' who we call the founding fathers. Whenever I see his show (not often), I think that it's too bad he wasn't ham-fistedly proselytizing about these things when Bush was in office, he might have actually earned himself some credibility. Beck is well-known for finding and airing buried footage of people in the administration and upper echelon of the democratic party making communist ...

Geithner & NY Fed Broke Federal Law to Enrich Goldman Sachs?

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 13:49:20 GMT

This may be black and white enough to actually convict the bastard. We'll see how ballsy the Obama administration is and if they'll refuse to convict their lapdog or if they'll be forced to capitulate to what's bound to be a public outcry.Apparently Geithner and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York knew about and possibly coerced AIG into illegally omitting some of the items on their balance sheet, particularly those belonging to [you guessed it!] GOLDMAN SACHS.UPDATE (1/24/10): Feds wanted "national security status" granted for the details of the AIG deal. Well that's interesting... {HTML ...

New Study Finds ARMs Were/Are Foreclosing, Not Sub-Primes

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 02:14:59 GMT

It would seem that now Obama can stop blaming poor people for the housing bubble collapsing. There is not now nor has there ever been a "Sub-prime Mortgage Crisis." It was an "ARM Mortgage Crisis."New data suggests that adjustable rate mortgages are foreclosing for both prime and sub-prime at the same rate.Naturally it spun a better tale to say that the deadbeats who were too poor or too drug-addled or too jailed to be recipients of the "prime" moniker were the bastards responsible for our recession. Unfortunately for us, the problem is not that simple/ridiculous.It wasn't just that "poor ...

Happy Holidays from your pals at Latewire

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 04:33:58 GMT

(this holiday stuff doesn't mean that you should stop, you know, worrying)

Old Comic: "The King Can Do No Wrong"

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 01:10:43 GMT

This Christmas, be thankful: Things could be worse.

Happy Holidays,
-D. Roe

The Healthcare Disaster and Why Obamacare Will Make It Worse

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:11:43 GMT

As I've stated before, I'm a libertarian and a medical student currently seeing patients in the field. As such, I'm uniquely annoyed by all the goings-on in DC lately. I'm sure most people reading this think it's all over--that the socialists/corporatists in power have "won" and that there's no use even talking about it anymore. Of course if we've learned anything from these systems of central planning, we know that eventually, they all fall down. If the current health bill passes, it's likely to actually make our unsustainable system even worse for all the same reasons it's currently ...

How to Fix Healthcare in 4 Steps

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:56:54 GMT

This article has been revised and moved here

Does Bernanke Have An Exit Strategy?

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:46:06 GMT

I normally shy away from talking about monetary policy. To me it's self-explanatory that falling/rising prices are either caused naturally and innocuously by the market or forced up/down by the government's intentional/unintentional detrimental manipulation of the market.To me, that's where the subject ends. Obviously, most economists these days have a different view. Modern economic theory states that prices fall during recessions and thinks therefore falling prices cause recessions. It's akin to saying people with the flu have fever, therefore the fever must cause the flu. Fever can cause ...

The New Deal Fascism - Random Quote

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:45:20 GMT

We are trying out the economics of fascism without having suffered all the social and political ravages.
- George Soule (famous writer for The New Republic) on the New Deal

George Soule was an influential writer in the early 20th century progressive movement and proponent of the New Deal.

Monetarism, Great Depression, and a Correction

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 18:46:29 GMT

I recently completed Bob Murphy's Politically Incorrect Guide to The New Deal. Subsequently, I found out that the advocates for monetary intervention (eg Krugman, Bernanke, and yes, Milton Friedman) have twisted history and that I had been unwittingly duped by it. They would have you believe that The Fed did essentially nothing to correct the massive monetary contraction at the beginning of the Great Depression. In fact, the Fed of 1929 and the 1930's expanded the money supply more than any American central bank ever (until Greenspan/Bernanke). Krugman, Bernanke, and Friedman basically ...

Tom Woods Tackles Myths of Capitalism and American History

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:08:22 GMT

Dr. Thomas E Woods covers a random bunch of topics in this fascinating talk.

Why child labor isn't so bad
Why the monocle-wearing robber-barons were American Heroes
Why the Native Americans were the scourge of the environment... until they adopted capitalism
Why poverty is not the fault of low-paying employers
Why the government can't create, but can only destroy
Why even the poor are getting richer
Why the Wild West was actually fairly mundane

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Paul Krugman Flat-Out Endorses Irresponsible Vote-Buying

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:14:44 GMT

Krugman: "...if I were a politician, I’d focus on providing real improvements in peoples’ lives, rather than seeking deficit reductions the public won’t even hear about."SourceGood thinking. I'm glad there's a nobel-prize winning economist that has the guts to defy reality, history, and common sense, and proclaim that there are no real downside to deficits. Courage in the face of overwhelming fact and moral bankruptcy is admirable! ... Or is it despicable... ?What happens when half the budget goes to paying interest payments alone? I guess those "real improvements in people's lives ...

American Liberty Imperiled (Cato Institute Video)

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:49:36 GMT

This is one I uploaded in 2004. I'd forgotten how excellent it was. BOOK FORUM Tuesday, December 14, 2004 12:00 PM (Luncheon to Follow) Featuring Judge Andrew P. Napolitano, Senior Judicial Analyst, Fox News, and Author, Constitutional Chaos: What Happens When the Government Breaks Its Own Laws (Nelson Books, 2004); Gene Healy, Senior Editor, Cato Institute, and Editor, Go Directly to Jail: The Criminalization of Almost Everything (Cato Institute, 2004); and moderated by Tim Lynch, Director, Cato's Project on Criminal Justice The Cato InstituteIn Constitutional Chaos, Judge Andrew Napolitano ...

Video: Interest Rates, The Fed, and History Repeating

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 06:26:39 GMT

Rough Transcript:[slide 1]Spending, Printing, and Debt are all interrelated. As I illustrated in part one, poor fiscal policy can lead to a inflation and even hyperinflation. I will briefly review this again.[slide 2] Everybody knows that the more our government spends, the more indebted it becomes. This is because tax revenue doesn't come close to our spending. [slide 3] What most people don't know however, is that some of the fiscal shortfall is paid for by printing money. The government does not do this directly, as I will explain later, [slide 4]however the net effect is identical, and ...

Didn't Work Then, Why Would It Work Now?

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 04:22:38 GMT

We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong . . . somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises. . . . I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started. ...And an enormous debt to boot.- Henry Morgenthau, Jr. (1939)Secretary of The Treasury for FDRSpeaking to the Ways and Means CommitteeMore on the Great ...

EuroPacific Capital-A Trip to Pete Schiffs Chocolate Factory

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 00:17:59 GMT

About 6 months ago, while watching every video on the Ludwig Von Mises youtube channel, I stumbled across a meandering, rambling, unscripted, incendiary, merciless rant by some dude named Peter Schiff.For those not 'in the know': Schiff is a stock broker who, with reasonable accuracy, predicted the causality, time, and extent of the recent economic troubles. He did this through, among other media, Crash Proof: How to Profit From the Coming Economic Collapse (2007) He is the CEO of Euro-Pacific Capital which, as the name suggests, makes investments anywhere but the USA (heavily in Canada ...

If We Had a Free Market, This Never Would've Happened

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 14:36:56 GMT

There are a lot of theories about what caused the current recession. The prevailing theory, unfortunately, is that the sole cause of the recession is that businesses were deregulated, left to their own devices, and ended up destroying themselves.

This is wrong.

This video explains why the housing bubble would not have happened if it weren't for the Federal Reserve.

This lecture is presented by Tom Woods, author of the NYT Bestseller "Meltdown." He does a really good job of making it fun and understandable for people who aren't familiar with economic terminology.

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Why The Government Wont Rescue The Dollar

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 01:07:46 GMT

This is more of a political take on why we're on the path towards a collapse in the dollar.UPDATE: More technical data available here... looks like this video is going to need updating pretty soon.Rough Transcript:[cycle through lbt faces]In my last video, I outlined why it is that so many libertarian-minded people believe the dollar is headed towards collapse.If you're new to this subject, it's natural to assume that we're all exaggerating, and are probably overstating the problem in order to scare people for our own personal gain--whether it be for votes [rp], money [ps], or youtube ...

How the US Government Is Destroying the Dollar -Latewire Vid

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:10:50 GMT

I don't start my next rotation until tomorrow, so I decided to do another one:Rough Transcript:[slide 1] This box right here represents the yearly federal budget.We're going to divide it up into 2 parts: [slide2] the part paid for by tax dollars, [slide3] and the part paid for by everything else. For the purposes of this video, we'll say about [slide 4] 2/3 of the budget is paid for with tax dollars, but you should know that in this year, 2009, taxes account for much less.[slide 5]Now we're going to divide this up further and look at just the portion paid for by using money outside of taxes ...

The Gold Standard In 90 Seconds -Latewire Video!

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 06:22:42 GMT

I was testing out my new condenser mic setup and got carried away. Sorry about the volume level, I'm still figuring it out. Logo at the end by DeadcowX.Transcript (roughly):People like Ron Paul are constantly lamenting the good ol' days when America was on the gold standard. The reason for this is not that gold is pretty or magical or any better than counterfeit-resistant pieces of paper; the reason is simply that no matter how much they may want to, government cannot create any more gold to pay its bills.Of course, if we could trust our government not to abuse the privilege, there would be no ...

The Gold Standard in 30 Seconds

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 15:57:25 GMT

You hear people like Ron Paul constantly moaning about the good ol' days when we had a gold standard. The reason for this is not that gold is pretty or magical or any better than counterfeit-resistant pieces of paper; the reason is simply that no matter how much they may want to, government cannot create any more gold.Of course, if we could trust our government, there would be no need to rely on the finite nature of atoms to keep the purchasing power of our currency constant.Though the United States had been shying away from the gold standard since the early 1900's, it wasn't until 1971 that ...

The Second Coming of the HMO

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 02:04:22 GMT

This is a draft I posted to reddit that seemed to go over pretty well, so I decided to post it here. -----------------------I am a 3rd year medical student seeing patients about 50 hours a week. I am also a libertarian. The news these days, as you can imagine, has been a bit of a distraction.Back to RealityWith health care, the first thing you have to accept is that there is literally not enough wealth on the planet to give everyone the best and most convenient healthcare possible. There is medical technology out there so advanced and on the bleeding edge it makes NASA look like a 7th grade ...

Jon Stewart & Peter Schiff Decry The Bailouts

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:54:52 GMT

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Bailouts Making Things Worse; Stymies Hairless Policy-Makers

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 01:11:05 GMT

What it needs is more chunk in the budonkadunk!Why must I fail at everything I do?!In a totally unlikely and unforseen turn of events, markets are not responding favorably to government bailouts and inflation.NEW YORK (AP) - The Federal Reserve announced a $1.2 trillion plan three months ago designed to push down mortgage rates and breathe life into the housing market.But this and other big government spending programs are turning out to have the opposite effect. Rates for mortgages and U.S. Treasury debt are now marching higher as nervous bond investors fret about a resurgence of ...

Why Bailouts Are Stupid (Illustrated Version)

Sat, 02 May 2009 04:25:13 GMT

I had about 30 minutes and wanted to write an article about why government bailouts are inherently stupid, but I didn't have time to write it in language for people who didn't already know economics to understand. Instead, with the aid of Google Image Search™, I came up with this series of incoherent drawings which I've now wasted too much time on to throw away. Enjoy!

BOOM PERIOD

RECESSION
(Under Normal Circumstances)

RECOVERY
(Under Normal Circumstances)

Contrast that with this:

RECESSION W/ GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION

RECOVERY (AFTER GOVERNMENT)

80 Years Later: Parallels Between 1929 and 2009

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 04:43:52 GMT

This video was probably better presented. They're both from the Mises Institute though. {HTML REDACTED FROM RSS FEED}