The Long Con

Some years ago, there was a classic movie with Paul Newman entitled "The Sting." It was the story about a master con man running what is known as the "long con", an elaborate scheme designed to relieve  suckers from their money. Well folks, we have just witnessed one of the great political cons in history, and the master con man, Barrack H. Obama II has just pulled it off. We are left with our mouths gaping open in amazement and grudging admiration. Take a step back for a minute and examine how this con worked.

Obama and his handlers were well aware of the fact that they could produce the long form birth certificate at any time of their choosing. The fact that for years they resisted all efforts by the "birthers" to produce the document can lead to only one conclusion: it was to their political advantage not to. It was like Perry Mason holding back the exculpatory bit of evidence until the very last minute, springing the evidence on the hapless numbnuts prosecutor and winning the case with a flourish. In Obama's case, he coyly played the birthers for all it was worth, even insinuating several times that the document may not exist at all. By his refusal to produce the document, fighting it tooth and nail through many court cases, he built up the appearance that he was hiding something, stoking even more crazy theories by the birthers, who by association were Tea Party crackpots cum Republican conservatives. So Obama and his handlers milked the con until Trump stirred up too much public doubt in Obama's birthright. Time to cash in. The long form certificate is produced, and the birthers/Tea Party/conservatives/Republicans/Trump are all left standing around with egg running down their collective faces. A masterful stroke. A masterful con.

Unless, of course, it took them that long to manufacture an acceptable forgery.

JP

Warning! Things Are Not Looking Good

They say that forewarned is to be forearmed. I should have written the following, but this guy nails it better than I could ever imagine If there is any doubt that the dollar is collapsing right before our very eyes, the following article dispels that notion. And, it gives us a dark look into what awaits us, and a lot sooner than you might think.

"Over the Abyss"  Click Here

JP

MSM Wakes Up

The Main Stream Media (MSM)  finally woke up to the fact that the United States is in deep economic trouble. When the alarms raised on the editorial pages begin to migrate to the reporting pages, there has been a major awakening to an emerging crisis. This morning’s Wall Street Journal of April 23 is a case in point. (Yes, the Wall Street Journal is a huge component of the  MSM as the most widely read newspaper in the U.S.).

The front page article titled “Dollar’s Decline Speeds Up, With Risks For U.S.” reports on the absolute decline of the dollar of over 40% of its value in the six year period before the crisis of 2008, and this week fell to its lowest level since August 2008. The lead paragraph in the article states: “The U.S. dollar’s downward slide is accelerating as low interest rates, inflation concerns and the massive federal budget  deficit undermine the currency. “ One of the conclusions drawn in the article is that “While the weaker currency is helping to drive the recovery, it has also contributed to palpable public worries about inflation and the diminished standing of the U.S. on a global stage.” The article ends by tying the dollar’s weakness to the rise of gold to over $1500 this past week. 

In the Business and Finance section of the paper, there is a page one article on the unbelievable rise in the price of silver, up over 160% in the past year.  Although the reporter’s main thrust of the article is the fact that silver investors may be in for a big fall, he acknowledges indirectly that there is a “panic” to buy the metal. What is left unsaid is the fact that the “panic” has been created by those loosing faith in our fiat dollar.

In the same section, on page B5 the article “Battered Dollar Gets A Holiday Reprieve” leads with: “After the dollar was caught in a downdraft most of this week on U.S. monetary and fiscal policy deficiencies, the maligned currency got a respite Friday and could gain from a market correction early next week.” Note the core reason cited for the dollar’s weakness was U.S. monetary and fiscal policy deficiencies.

Gold and silver achieved new highs in the past week. There is one simple reason for the rush to hard metals—a growing unease that the world’s financial system is failing, and in particular the inability or unwillingness of the U.S. to put its fiscal house in order. Our country has become so polarized that few believe that we can pull ourselves back from the brink of financial disaster. 

The MSM is always late to the party. The fact that they collectively have arrived at the point where the blogosphere was six months ago is moot. The MSM is good at reporting what happened yesterday, and when they start reporting that the sky is falling, it is too late. The sky has already fallen. 

JP

Kabuki Theater

Yesterday’s Kabuki Theater illustrates just how difficult it is going to be to change the dynamic in Washington from one of feckless spending to one that can pull us back from the brink of economic disaster. As long as the liberal Democrats control the Senate and the White House, a chance for real reform has a snowball’s chance in Hell. Examine closely how the high theater played out--when faced with a superior argument (we have to quit spending so much) the liberal Democrats resorted to lies, distortions, and demography. They always do, because for them ideology always trumps principle. If anyone thinks that Paul Ryan’s prescription for prosperity will find traction because it makes sense, think again. The howls of contrived anguish over a couple measly cuts in a trillion and a half dollar budget deficit should give you a clue as to how the un-principled, ideological-driven, yellow-bellied destroyers of our great country will react when real change is offered. The only way that dynamic will change is by retaking the Senate and the White House in 2012. By then it may be too late.

Yesterday oil settled at over $112 a barrel. Won’t be long until that translates into $4.00 a gallon at the pump. There are two factors that explain why oil is heading north, and both can be laid directly at the feet of the current administration. First, the ideologically driven Democrats fervently believe that higher prices at the pump will eventually cause the American public to give up their love for a nice ride and begin driving Smart Cars and bicycles to work. Thus, the deliberate efforts to throttle oil production here in the United States has the effect of increasing our dependence on foreign supplies. More importantly, the deliberate devaluation of the U.S. dollar by the current administration directly results in increasing oil prices. The dollar hit a new low the other day. At the same time, oil is spiking. The relationship is not symbolic. Know this--the price of oil reflects the value of the dollar. It is simple arithmetic, and has nothing to do with supply, demand, wars, uprisings and any number of mumbo-jumbo reasons for oil to spike. Oil is going up because the dollar is going down. And Bernake and Geitner and Obama are doing it on purpose, because the only way out of our massive debt is through devaluation. They call it “quantitative easing”.  I call it the road to disaster.

JP

The Writing is on the Wall

I often ask myself, is the fact that I believe a huge financial meltdown coming applies a filter to the news, in that I selectively cherry pick the news that supports my belief? There has to be a certain amount of that, but the recent news, from here and there, are clearly pointing to my worst fears. Forget opinion pieces, where there is always a certain amount of spin applied, based on the motives or ideological position of the writer. Just examine the facts. 1. Inflation is here, although the governments oddly skewed data says not so. But it is here. Anybody who buys groceries and gasoline is far ahead of the government wonks--inflation is here and it is increasing. 2. The dollar is losing value. The Fed just printed another one trillion so they could buy our own debt. Any idiot knows that you can't increase the supply of dollars without eventually paying the price in devaluation. 3. The price of gold and silver is soaring. The rich, and now the not so rich, are fleeing the dollar in droves as they seek the safety of real money, not the paper that is about to become next to worthless. 4. Washington is already in election mode, and the chance of the politicians actually doing something about the looming economic disaster has fallen from slim to none.

The day of reckoning is closer than you think.

For another view on this matter go  here.

JP